Medical education in Italy: Challenges and opportunities

Abstract

Italy is a country of 60 million citizens with a high life expectancy, an increasing prevalence of chronic multi-morbidity and a public healthcare system. There are 61 medical schools and more than one thousand postgraduate programs for 50 different specialisations. In this article, we describe the Italian medical educational system and its most recent evolution towards a process of internationalization, alongside pedagogical and cultural changes. The main challenges are in the process of students' selection, which is still only based on the assessment of basic knowledge, and in the reform of the post-graduate education, which lacks an official, formal definition of the learning outcomes and the aligned methods of assessment. The opportunities come from the increasing awareness of the importance of faculty development programs. The pandemic itself acted as a catalyst of innovation, pushing toward more student-centered teaching-learning activities. Finally, an increase in international collaborations in medical education research could be effective to foster the development of medical education in the country.

Flourishing or Languishing? Predictors of Positive Mental Health in Medical Students during the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…The Italian standard medical curriculum is compliant with the European rules of the medical degree. It might be considered as a student-centered and competency-based model of learning with basic sciences in early years and practical and clinically oriented training in later years [ 12 ].…”

“…The COVID-19 pandemic has greatly affected medical student education [ 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 ]. The unprecedentedly stringent precaution measures adopted by the Italian government remarkably changed students’ academic lives.…”

Students’ and Teachers’ Perspective on the Implementation of Online Medical Education in China: A Qualitative Study

“…17 In developed countries such as Italy, teachers' limited skills to use technology were one of the major weaknesses of online medical education. 18 China was no exception. Numerous teachers in China still could not utilize different kinds of online education tools proficiently.…”

Analysis of the social interaction of perceived problem‐based learning performance in internship courses

“…Group‐based PBL activities can improve both students' learning and instructors' teaching designs and methods, such as by using inquiry, praise, learning‐by‐doing, and student‐centered teaching strategies to support the group‐based PBL process (e.g. Consorti et al, 2021; Jørgensen & Hadders, 2015; Oyelana et al, 2022).…”

“…Student‐centered pedagogy has sparked interest among instructors (Liu et al, 2019; Oyelana et al, 2022). As the group‐based PBL approach originated in medical or nursing education, it emphasizes active observation by the bedside of patients or learning‐by‐doing (Consorti et al, 2021; Jørgensen & Hadders, 2015; Lee & Chang, 2022). Such a case encourages students to learn in an in‐depth way and motivates them to share their ideas via collaborative learning to solve patients' problems while improving health care service quality.…”