MD Discovery 4: Clinical Scholar (MEDS90042)

This subject is the final in a series of four MD Discovery subjects embedded within the Doctor of Medicine course for students following the Clinical Scholar pathway. Students will engage in a total of 87.5 credit points of discovery-based learning in areas of interest across their course. Discovery learning allows medical students to engage in flexible, personalised and increasingly complex situational learning as they progress, providing opportunities to reflect on the professional practice of medicine in a variety of contexts and settings. 

In the final two years of Discovery students will choose to extend their knowledge and skills in one of two pathways based on their learning needs and interests: the clinical scholar or research scholar pathway.  

In Discovery 4: Clinical Scholar students will immerse themselves in an area of study with a focus on leadership and advocacy and develop scholarly work (output) that makes a novel contribution to the field, such as producing an evidence-based educational resource, completing a research project such as a literature review, developing a community information program, or implementing a new quality improvement process in the clinical setting.

Each of the learning options available within this subject is designed to enhance the student’s personal and professional growth and students are encouraged to choose options that broaden and deepen their learning.  Students will preference an area of focus that may be informed by previous learning gained.

Students will have three 4-week terms in the first semester of the year which will be curated by focus.  Placement settings of these terms may include but are not limited to community (including general practice) and hospital environments. All placement settings will have the capacity (including supervisory capacity) to facilitate students in taking a deeper dive and applying the principles of their focus area to that environment.  The scholarly output and workplace-based assessments will also relate to the focus. In addition, students will be allocated 5 scholarly intensive weeks to concentrate on their scholarly output requirements without concurrent placement requirements.