Profile of the Programme

Today’s healthcare challenges, whether strengthening health systems, improving the quality of our patient care, or enhancing access to healthcare, require strong primary care.

Strong primary care in turn requires competent family doctors who are forward-thinking and keen to develop new relationships with patients and other health professionals in primary and secondary care.

To address these global population health challenges, the University of Nicosia Medical School offers an MSc in Family Medicine delivered online.

It is a structured continuing professional development programme for physicians working as Family Doctors or in the community with a specialist role in internal medicine, paediatrics, or gynaecology.

The minimum full-time duration of the MSc programme in Family Medicine is 18 months (three semesters), with a flexible part-time option of up to four academic years. The first two semesters consist of eight core clinically focused modules. Semester three offers two pathways, one that is primarily research-oriented, offering an opportunity for students to develop their research skills, and one that allows students to select modules from a range of electives.

The programme is completed online through an electronic platform. This platform enables access to video-recorded presentations, written material and lecture notes whilst allowing for active learning through interactive seminars, case-based discussions in forums, online quizzes, and workshops.

Programme Aims

The main aims of the programme are to enable students to:

• Enhance their knowledge, advance their clinical skills and develop their professional behaviour and attitudes towards the management of patients in primary care.
• Develop a comprehensive, holistic and evidence based approach to medical practice.
• Apply the principles of patient-centred care and problem solving skills in the context of general practice.
• Develop their skills in designing, conducting and disseminating research outcomes and activities.

Specifically, the programme will:

• Train clinicians and postgraduate students of medicine in a wide range of knowledge, skills and attitudes appropriate to the practice of Family Medicine in the community.
• Impart and enhance knowledge in the personal, family and social aspects of health, illness and disease.
• Enhance professional competence, values and behaviours that are inherent to the discipline of Family Medicine.
• Promote skills in effective, continuing medical education, to revise past knowledge, and to keep abreast of advances in medical science and technology appropriate to primary care.
• Enhance knowledge and skills in health promotion, disease prevention and risk management.
• Develop participants’ abilities to critically appraise the literature, in order to improve their professional performance.
• Provide participants with training in research methods, with an appreciation of the existing body of research findings, so that they can undertake their own research independently.

At the end of the programme, graduates should have developed the competencies required for independent practice in primary care and the necessary skills in conducting research or taking on diverse roles in the field.

Programme Outcomes

Graduates of the MSc in Family Medicine programme will:

• Provide an evidence-based approach to health care practice.
• Understand the basic principles of research methodology and apply their research skills in the context of Family Medicine.
• Manage and communicate effectively in multi-disciplinary teams.
• Demonstrate their problem-solving, patient-centred and holistic care skills in their practice of Family Medicine.
• Demonstrate their primary care disease management skills in Acute and Chronic disease care.
• Demonstrate skills to appraise research findings critically and apply findings from research, national guidelines and audit in the context of clinical management of patients.
• Manage change and provide leadership in healthcare management.
• Be able to teach and learn from other members of their team.