Faculty of Medicine

The Faculty of Medicine operates three campuses. The “Old site” is located next to the Regional Referral hospital, opposite the Central Police Station. It was the original campus that started in 2004, training the first admitted students. This campus currently houses basic sciences laboratories i.e Anatomy dissection lab, Physiology lab, Histopathology lab and Biochemistry lab. There is also a state-of-the-art Simulation laboratory that is specialized to offer skills training for both students and in-service health workers in the region.

The “New site” is another campus found in the forest ward in Laroo Division. It houses the administrative units of the faculty, lecture rooms, computer lab and the medical library. The administrative offices found at the new site include the Dean’s office, Deputy Dean’s office, Faculty Administrator’s office, Staff Room, Board Room, Assistant Registrars’ office, Accounts Assistant’s office and the Gulu University Research and Ethics Committee (GUREC) office.

The “Lacor campus” is found at St. Mary’s Hospital, Lacor premises. This campus has lecture rooms, offices, a library and the Medical Microbiology research lab.

The clinical training of medical students is done at both the Gulu Regional Referral Hospital (GRRH) and St. Mary’s Hospital Lacor under a Memorandum of Understanding. Clinical teachings and mentorship are supported by the senior medical staff of these hospitals.

Faculty Vision:

To become the center of excellence in the provision of high-quality health services, medical education, research, and promotion of public health.

Faculty Mission:

To contribute to community transformation through medical education, research, provision of quality health care and promotion of public health.

Core Values:
i. Accountability: Being answerable to self, the institution, the community and to the nation.
ii. Professionalism: Being competent, efficient, effective and ethically responsible.
iii. Transparency: being clear, open and simple.
iv. Trust: Being confident, truthful, reliable and responsible
v. Universality: Having global outlook, equality, justice and participation.

Training approach:

Our training is student centered and focuses on aligning the education goals, instruction and outcomes in order to produce graduates who can meet the population needs, empower the communities and enhance wellbeing. As such, our graduates are expected to demonstrate the following competencies; Medical knowledge, Clinical skills and patient care, Critical inquiry and scientific methods, Professionalism and ethical practice, Interpersonal and communication skills, Leadership and management skills, Population health, Continuous improvement of care through reflective practice, and Health systems management. The programmes are organized in courses that are designed to enable the students acquire the necessary knowledge, skills and attitude to function as a health care providers nationally and internationally.
The training has a very strong focus on community engagement where our students spend a portion of their time in health facilities in the community experiencing the day-to-day health care provisions and challenges, and later write reports on ways to improve on the health service gaps that they have identified in those facilities. Students of the various programmes offered at the faculty work together as health care teams within those communities to enhance inter-disciplinary cohesion and team work for better health care outcomes.

Research:

Faculty are actively engaged in research especially in the areas of disease surveillance and outcomes, patient care, communicable and non-communicable diseases, epidemics, refugee health, health management and public health. Several grants and collaborations have supported these research initiatives and all these are aligned to the faculty research agenda.

Partnerships:

The faculty is currently engaged with several partners locally, regionally and internationally. These collaborations have supported the faculty to enhance staff capacity in training, research and community outreach programs. The core strengths in these partnerships are the multidisciplinary approaches and teamwork to achieve the desired goals. The faculty shall continue to engage more partners to realize these goals and more.