Verso una laurea professionalizzante. 1°. Acquisizione delle competenze professionali.

At present, becoming a practitioner in Italy implies taking a graduation in ‘Medicine and Surgery’ in one of the Italian Universities and passing a state qualifying examination, managed by the Ministry of Health. In order to avoid duplications and to shorten the long training period spent by future doctors, the National Conference of Undergraduate Curricula Presidents has proposed to the Ministries of Education and of Health to unify the procedures and create a qualifying medical degree. Such a new examination will necessarily imply the check of practical abilities and this stresses the importance of teaching both practical skills and professional competencies. In this setting, the Educational Innovation Committee of the National Conference organized a workshop, open to all the Undergraduate Curricula Presidents, on the topic of teaching professional competencies in the undergraduate curricula. The workshop was held in Milan (State University) on the 21st February 2014. The workshop was subdivided into four contemporary working groups. Each class was lead by an expert in medical education, introduced by a demonstration by a medical student, and guided by a chairperson, and worked separately on a different topic. At the end of the team work, a plenary debriefing allowed all participants to share the conclusions of the different groups. The topics addressed in the single groups were: 1: the skill lab; 2: the simulated patient; 3: the technology-enhanced learning, and 4: the peer-clinical examination.