This is the English version of the article. The German version can be found here.

commentary

medicine

[Comment from the public Medical Universities in Austria on the proposed catalogue of criteria]

Wolfgang M. Prodinger ¹
Angelika Hofhansl ²

¹ Medical University of Innsbruck, Division of Hygiene and Medical Microbiology, Innsbruck, Austria
² Medical University of Vienna, Curriculum coordination offices, Vienna, Austria

Commentary

With the academic year 2014/15, all public Medical Universities (MedUnis) in Austria have introduced an internship (“Klinisch-praktisches Jahr”; KPJ) in the last study year which is comparable with the final study year in Germany (“Praktisches Jahr”; PJ) and Switzerland (“Wahlstudienjahr”; WSJ). The MedUnis have volunteered for a consensus process to define this internship and its criteria. There is no regulation by law, neither by law regulating the public universities (“Universitätsgesetz”) nor by law regulating the medical profession (“Ärztegesetz”). According to federal university law, it is the sovereign right of the universities to define their curricula. In contrast to Germany, there is no regulation equivalent to the “Approbationsordnung”.

The recommendations of the GMA refer to the German “Approbationsordnung”. The process of quality management in the GMA catalogue, however, goes beyond the needs of the “Approbationsordnung”. The GMA recommendations can be helpful in the European and international exchange of medical students.

The MedUnis in Austria have defined the process of accreditation of academic teaching hospitals. These criteria are similar to the ones of the recommendations of the GMA, but there are some additional thoughts. In the following, we illustrate only those standpoints where accordance among the MedUnis has been reached.

In the GMA proposal, the size of a teaching unit in an academic hospital is defined by the number of beds. From our point of view this can be limiting, because the hospital´s business activities and quality management criteria are becoming more and more important regarding authorization for postgraduate training. The Austrian way was to relate the number of intern positions to the number of specialists in the unit, an approach common for postgraduate education. For the internship as a part of Austrian undergraduate training, the qualifications of teachers in clinical specialties to foster work-based learning are pivotal.

The Austrian MedUnis have defined the learning outcomes due to the Austrian catalogue of competencies for clinical skills. Academic teaching hospitals have to commit themselves to fulfill the curricular requirements, to guarantee theoretical instructions and to perform MiniCEX or DOPS every two weeks. Logbooks and portfolio are in use for documentation. All documents are available in German and English. Teaching hospital staff entrusted with a certain role in instruction of interns (e.g., coordinators of teaching in integrated modules or in a specialty program; study coordinator; student mentor) undergoes comprehensive human resources development training.

A hospital (unit) can be accredited as an academic teaching hospital (unit), if the following requirements are met, in addition to the ones mentioned above:

authorization as a postgraduate training institution according to the regulations of the Austrian Physicians´ Chamber,
provision of adequate resources and infrastructure for interns (e.g., service clothing, IT access to the hospital information system, rooms for self-study),
cooperation regarding evaluation, quality management (human resources development, site visits), administration and placement management for interns.

The knowledge and experience of the peers in the respective specialty are much appreciated, when the above criteria are reviewed. Thus, the self-evaluation report of a candidate hospital unit may be reviewed by the chair of the respective discipline at the university; otherwise audits may take place which allow longer review intervals, unless substantial changes in the teaching hospital unit occur, e.g., a change in the leading position or in the unit´s business activities. To us, intervals of five to seven years appear as appropriate and feasible.