Abstract:

According to the guidelines of European and National Qualification Frameworks and the Polish reform of the higher education system resulting from these guidelines, university-level schools gained greater autonomy with respect to creating new majors and developing curricula.
The aim of the study was to present the evaluation of the outcomes-based curricula for medical rescue students in Poland on the example of an education programme used at Warsaw Medical University.

In the European Union, medical rescue is not a regulated major; therefore, in accordance with the guidelines of European and National Qualification Frameworks, each university-level school offering a course for medical rescue workers has the autonomy to develop their own outcomes-based curricula.

The course in Medical Rescue at the Faculty of Health Science, Warsaw Medical University, is a Bachelor's degree programme (vocational course) that lasts 3 years, i.e. 6 semesters and students participate in a minimum of 3800 class hours, including a minimum of 320 hours of professional training.

Appendix no. 4 to Resolution no. 77/2012 of the Warsaw Medical University Senate of September, 24th, 2012 regulates the outcomes of education in the major of Medical Rescue at WMU. In accordance with the guidelines, these effects relate to the following three areas: knowledge, skills, and social competence.

A general education programme for medical rescue workers comprises the areas of medical science, health science, and science of physical culture and maintains its highly practical profile. Education aims to train specialists ready to initiate their own activities that shall keep them healthy and protect against illness. Warsaw Medical University implemented the curricula, providing a full integration of knowledge comprising biological, technological, social, and organisational and legal conditioning so that the competence of graduates allowed for comprehensive cooperation at every level of the healthcare system in Poland. University education involves both laboratory classes and learning classes as well as classes conducted in simulation laboratories equipped with specialist devices for practical classes on medical emergency treatment and a large block of classes on physical culture. A special emphasis is put on an ability to comprehensively integrate knowledge and skills in order to make the most accurate diagnosis or find the best way to solve health problems of a particular person or larger populations as well as to solve healthcare management problems.

Due to the fact that outcomes-based curricula for medical rescue students were introduced at Warsaw Medical University only in the academic year 2012/2013, the quality of teaching in this major according to new education programmes needs to be constantly monitored.

Keywords:

Medical rescue, quality of teaching, knowledge, skills, social competence.