Teaching in Spanish medical schools

The study reported here assessed the current situation of the teaching of medicine, the healthcare facilities available and the teaching staff employed at Spanish medical schools, on the basis of a national survey devised by the Conferencia Nacional de Decanos de Facultades de Medicina. There was a 100% response rate from the 27 medical schools. Twenty-three of these schools introduced new study plans between 1993 and 2000. In all cases these plans are basically discipline oriented, with different levels of integration between the subjects offered. The study also analysed teaching in bioethics, healthcare management, experience in primary care and alternative or complementary medicine. In the 2000-01 academic year there were 4471 first-year students; as for the healthcare facilities available, there were 67,331 hospital beds in 112 hospitals and 234 Primary Care Centres. There was an average of 4.49 teaching beds per student. There were 3081 full and associate professors, roughly half of whom were teaching in the preclinical cycle and roughly half in the clinical cycle, and 4492 clinical assistant professors. The average student-professor ratio at Spanish medical schools is currently 3.02: 1.0, with variations of between 6.22 and 1.04.