Diploma in Clinical Medicine & Surgery

Course Rationale
Needs assessment / market survey / situation analysis
Present figures shows that the Clinical Officer-to-potential patients ratio is still very low in the Eastern Africa region. Kenya is a country with a population of about 40 million people of which about 85% live in the rural areas and about 15% in the urban settings. The available health services in the country are predominantly curative in nature and most are situate in the Urban and semi-urban areas are not easily accessible to the rural community. According to the 2009 Burden of diseases study in Uganda, Kenya’s neighboring country 75% of life years lost to premature death are due“10” preventable diseases. Up to early 1900s there are too long term Natural Health Policies, Strategies and plans for Kenya. Therefore, there is a need to train more and more clinical officers to complement the other health care providers. However, the more important question to be answered from a need assessment regards the types of training such clinical officers require to make them functionally suitable to face the challenges of the 21st century. The current trend in medical practice is Primary Health Care (PHC) which emphasizes primary prevention. The Clinical Officer being the practitioner in the frontline needs to be trained adequately in the area of PHC including research. Moreover, the Diploma enables the clinical officer to grow academically through Degree, masters‟ degrees and doctorate degrees.

The programme has been designed to recognize that its graduands will have a strong clinical and community health knowledge in order to provide health care that will integrate curative and preventive health care.

Why Study the Programme

To equip the students with the knowledge, skills and attitude to harness and implement clinical skills, conduct research and be able to advance academically in order to provide and improve the health delivery from the rural health facilities all the way to the National and International level

Target Groups
There is a large number of Clinical Officers who would wish to advance themselves but lack enough opportunities available locally to enable them advance academically and professionally therefore forcing some to seek for further training abroad leading to loss of the country’s much needed foreign exchange. Training Clinical Officers at a higher level is one way of raising the standards of health care delivery to Kenyans since they are the ones who provide more than 80% of health services especially in the rural areas.

It is envisaged that the Diploma graduate Clinician will apply critical thinking in the process and come up with practical solutions to solve the various patient’s/client’s health problems and needs. The improvement in the services will be achieved through incorporation of the knowledge and experience acquired from clinical medicine and community health. The programme has been designed to recognise that its graduands will have a strong clinical and community health knowledge in order to provide health care that will integrate curative and preventive health care. The professional practice of Clinical officers is controlled by the Act of parliament (cap.260 of the laws of Kenya). This ensures that high standards are maintained during training and practice while observing professional ethics of conduct. These officers are only registered and allowed to practice medicine after the successful completion of their internship.

Programme Objectives
By the end of the programme, the learners will have acquired the necessary knowledge and skills that will enable the learners to:-

1. To equip students with analytical critical thinking and problem solving skills in clinical practice
2. To equip students with both theoretical and practical knowledge and skills pertaining to clinical practice
3. To produce graduates who can apply effectively and efficiently the acquired knowledge, skills and abilities for the benefit of humanity
4. To prepare students for progression to higher level of studies in their fields of specialization

Entry Requirements

a)    Mean grade of at least C at Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (K.C.S.E) level or its equivalent.

b)    Mandatory subjects
Cluster A                    or           Cluster B
1) English     C (plain)                 English         C (plain)
2) Biology     C(plain)                  Biological Sciences     C (plain)
3) Chemistry C(plain)                  Physical Sciences     C (plain)

c)    Optional subjects (anyone of the following)
1) Physics         C-minus
2) Mathematics     C-minus
3) Homescience     C-minus
    
Programme Duration and Fees

Nine (9) Trimesters

Download the most recent fee structure here

Application form

Applications can be downloded here , you can also submit your application online here

Programme Start Dates
Every January, May and Sept