The new medical curriculum in Trondheim. Organization and planning of a new curriculum

: In autumn 1993, the Faculty of Medicine in Trondheim will be able to offer complete undergraduate medical education to 60 students per year, after 18 years of 3 1/2 years' education, based only on the clinical part of undergraduate medical school. The entire new curriculum is based on problem-based learning with the preclinical and the clinical part of the study totally integrated for 5 1/2 years. Throughout the curriculum any health care problem will be analyzed in terms of three perspectives: the biological, the environmental and the behavioural. The new medical curriculum was planned as a project during which both teachers and students took part in planning groups organized on several levels. Through clinical demonstrations and a course on the doctor-patient-relationship, the 60 students will meet patients as a natural part of their study from day one. In the Family Practice and in the Skills Lab they will acquire clinical skills during the first two years. In the fourth and fifth years the students spend two 8-week clerkship periods in community hospitals and community health practices.