gms | German Medical Science

Paediatric curriculum for undergraduate medical students

The paediatric course starts in the third year of studies and lasts up to the sixth year of the studies. In each year, the course lasts four weeks and is carried out exclusively in the clinical centres; in every week of the course, the students have lectures and classes with the patients. In the sixth year, the students take the examination, which consists of three parts: test, patient’s examination and an oral interview, discussion.

Postgraduate paediatric course for general practitioners

The general practionioner’s course lasts 48 months and the paediatric course takes 6 months. During this time the doctors study neonatal pathology, normal psychomotor development, genetic and metabolic congenital disorders, the most common neurological, respiratory, gastrointestinal, endocrinological, circulatory and haematopoetic system disorders, skin and infectious diseases, childhood neoplasms. The whole course ends with a test.

Postgraduate paediatric speciality

The general course lasts 60 months and again is carried out only in clinical paediatric centres. The course is divided into the following parts: infants’ department ( 15 months), older children department (14 months), neonatology, cardiology, pulmonology, nephrology, gastroenterology, neurology, intensive care, oncology units (2 months each), allergology, endocrinology, ENT, surgery, infectious diseases, rheumatology, ophthalmology, dermatology departments (1 month each). The course is finished with an examination that consists of a test, patient’s examination and a case discussion / interview.

Paediatic subspecialities

There are four paediatric subspecialties in Poland: neurology, oncology and haematology, neonatology, and cardiology. The paediatric neurology course lasts 42 months, cardiology- 36 months, oncology and haematology- 36 months, neonatology- 24 months. There also exist other paediatric specialties, paediatric surgery, ENT and psychiatry, which may be started just after the medical study course. The courses may be only taken in the clinical centres.

The paediatric curriculum and all the specialty programs are created by the Ministery of Health.