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Nqobile Tshili, [email protected]

ZIMBABWE is expanding its critical skills base through the introduction of a Biomedical Science Degree as a prerequisite for those who aspire to become medical doctors, as they would graduate with another degree programme before they pursue medicine.

In the past, students would be enrolled in the School of Medicine upon completing Advanced Level.

Now, as part of the Government review of the qualification framework in line with international standards, Advanced Level is no longer an automatic entry for those who wish to become doctors.

Through this move, the country is expected to produce anatomists, physiologists, biochemists, and pharmacists among other medical scientists, who were not being trained under the medicine degree.

In an interview yesterday, Higher and Tertiary Education, Innovation, Science and Technology Development Minister, Professor Amon Murwira, said this is part of the measures that have been adopted to ensure that the country has more professionals in the medical sciences, while also helping in identifying doctors. 

“We started this when we were reviewing the Zimbabwe Qualification Framework and for medical degrees. The position is that students should start with a Biomedical Science Degree before they study Bachelor of Medicine Degree,” he said. 

“All students who are doing a medical degree programme will start with that. There is no automatic entry into the Bachelor of Medicine programme from A-level,” said Prof Murwira.

He said the new programme is an advantage for students as they no longer have to rely on their Advanced Level results to determine if they are doctors.

Prof Murwira said it is not enough for a student to obtain 15 points and enrol to become doctors, as some of their attitudes are not for doctors.

“It is the normal practice of a strong degree. We might not be able to know when you are coming from A-Level that you should be a doctor. Medicine is not just about 15 points, medicine is from the heart,” he said.

“A doctor is your heart, its attitude, it takes time to assess those things. In medicine we started by introducing interviews, it was to try and see whether we would get people who would become doctors. 

“But after that, we introduced the Biomedical Science Degree, it is not the Government but the universities,” said Prof Murwira.

He said after branching upon completing the degree in biomedical sciences, some of the students can become biomedical engineers, laboratory technicians among others while some will eventually train to become doctors.

Prof Murwira said the programme is also a relief for some of the students who were struggling to complete the medical degree programme.

“But the most important thing also is that if you would have failed your medical degree in the fourth year, you were going to waste. It would mean when you have failed, you have failed. 

“But what we are saying now is that you might have failed the medical degree programme but you will have the Biomedical Science Degree. The system is no longer wasteful,” said Prof Murwira.

He said the country is complying with international standards where before one trains to be a doctor, they obtain a degree in the biomedical sciences. Prof Murwira said the country is also improving the quality of doctors it is producing. 

“This is what they do in America, and what they do in Canada. If you do research, you will see that it is only very few countries like us who are taking people from A-level to do medicine.”

The National University of Science and Technology (Nust) recently started teaching the Biomedical Sciences Degree programme in line with the national thrust.

Nust Faculty of Medicine Dean, Prof Elopy Sibanda, last Friday said the biomedical degree programme expands the career path for students.

“This is a departure from what was happening in the past where we would recruit students from A-Level into the Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery. Now we are mandated to start with biomedical sciences as a foundation medical degree,” he said. 

“That gives students some grounding in biomedical sciences and gives them some options to be able to branch into different studies in the subsequent career paths,” said Prof Sibanda.

He said for instance, Nust has 60 slots for medical students but enrolled 70 students for biomedical degree, meaning upon completing their first degree they will not automatically be drafted into the medicine degree.

 “They can go into dentistry, they can go into pharmacy, or these medical type degrees, which they are being prepared for. The direction that the Government has taken is that they want people to be grounded in science and escalate upwards so that the options of moving from left to right would be available,” said Prof Sibanda. 

“It is a way by the Government of trying to increase the science base and also competencies in the country rather than have students narrowed down into one corridor of medicine.”

Prof Sibanda said the country has increased the pool of doctors but some disciplines remained limited.

Nust Faculty of Medicine Deputy Dean, Dr Wedu Ndebele, said it will take the students seven years to complete the medicine degree but they will already be considered professionals in one of the medical science programmes. 

He said the country has a limited number of anatomists, physiologists, biochemists among other professionals within the medical field as individuals were being trained to be doctors.

He said with the new programme the country can even start manufacturing drugs as it will competencies in the field of drug manufacturing.

“In pharmacy, they can even branch into manufacturing, I think that is the other thrust, which the Government is hoping that they can branch into pharmaceuticals specifically not just to be pharmacists but go into the manufacturing of drugs so that we as a country can start manufacturing our own drugs,” said Dr Ndebele.

He said under the programme, those who aspire to be doctors will then finish their studies in six years to seven years depending on whether one studies an honours degree in biomedical science or not. — @nqotshili