Penang-dublin connection
tors that patients go to for treatment. “This is why it is important to combine psychiatry and family medicine so that when these students graduate, they are able to identify mental illness and help the patient,” he said.
PMC partners with the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI) and University College Dublin (UCD) to offer its students a medical degree twinning programme.
For the first two-and-a-half years of the programme, students will get to undergo their pre-clinical studies in RCSI or UCD in Dublin, Ireland.
RCSI has over 200 years of experience as a medical education and training college when it was founded in 1784 to train surgeons.
Meanwhile, UCD has 150 years of tradition as one of the finest universities in Ireland.
After completing the Dublin stint, students return to Penang to follow a single clinical curriculum for another two-and-a-half years.
Back here, the students will undertake clinical training that is fairly different from other colleges.
Using Penang Hospital, Bukit Mertajam Hospital, Seberang Jaya Hospital and Taiping Hospital as training grounds, these students will need to spend time at the hospital for long stretches of time with direct exposure to actual patients and cases.
Another world-renowned professor is the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology head Prof Dr JW Knox Ritchie, who will ensure students undergo the most stringent of training to prepare them for the outside world when they undergo their housemanship.
“The students are well-prepared to handle any situation when they undergo clinical training for their final year in PMC,” he said.
He said the students even get the chance to go into the delivery suite for a hands-on approach in that field.
The PMC campus in Penang is centrally located on two sites near George Town and just a five-minute walk to the Penang Hospital, where most of the clinical teaching takes place.
The campuses boast top-of-the- line facilities such as a 200-seat lecture theatre, seminar rooms, examination hall, multimedia room with Internet access, video conferencing facilities, research laboratory, student study areas, library, clinical skills laboratory, canteen, recreation rooms, student centre, cafeteria and a surau.
Upon graduation, PMC students will be conferred the MB BCh BAO degrees of the National University of Ireland (NUI) as well as the Licentiates of the RCSI and Royal College of Physicians of Ireland.
The MB BCh BAO degrees are recognised by the Irish Medical Council, Malaysian Medical Council, Sri Lankan Medical Council and other regulatory bodies throughout the world.
The degree also allows the holder to pursue postgraduate training worldwide.
Visit www.pmc.edu.my for further details about the college’s medical programmes.