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Responsible for coordinating the Applicant's Day for the second consecutive year, Professor Madalena Patrício tries to put herself in the students' shoes, in order to anticipate what may interest them during their visit to the FMUL.

She is very methodical and active, holds several positions and attends many conferences and events around the world. With a great sense of responsibility, she likes to delegate and motivate her team members and praises and rewards, without exception, those who make the impossible feasible.

She has an untiring energy, thus motivating her entire team for this great challenge.

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Is the Applicant's Day still seen as an important day for the Faculty?

Prof. Madalena Patrício: I think it is very important for two reasons: firstly, because we promote the Faculty's image, by sharing with potential applicants what we are, not only our vision and mission, but also the practical aspects of FMUL's routine. This is how we project our image.

Apart from that, we allow the applicants to make a more informed decision. They are the ones that will make a choice, that will decide what to choose, so the Faculty should value its strengths and provide as positive a vision as possible, in order to attract more students. We are already providing a first service to these potential students; we will be providing them with more information, so that they can assess the Faculty based on facts and not just on they have heard, read, etc.

Last year, when I read the answers to the survey we ask them to fill in at the end of the visit, I was surprised to read that "it was exhausting to listen to all the compliments to teaching at FMUL for the whole day." I thought a lot about it, but that is something we must do, as, during the day, there are many speakers that come to talk about the strengths of our Faculty and they are expected to talk about their own experiences and convey a message.

While further analysing the surveys, we also realised that when they were asked about what Medicine meant to them, their answer were "passion, dedication, life, future, discovery," which makes me believe that we are on the right path.

I hope some of them will be able to study at FMUL and I believe that the Applicant's Day is an initiative that should be carried forward.

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Is there a specific profile among the students that reach out to us?

Prof. Madalena Patrício: Most students come from the city of Lisbon and from Setúbal. Then, there are others from other parts of the country, some from the north, but these are less. The ones from Lisbon and Setúbal will surely attend the Applicant's Day of Nova University, and that's why it is very important to provide information on FMUL, because they will inevitably establish a comparison between both Faculties, as the Nova University is our main competitor in geographical terms. It should be mentioned that the students' choice is not entirely based on the quality we advertise, because there are more important factors than that one, namely having to leave their families and any support they may receive in their new area of residence. About a month ago, I read a report that stated that studying in Lisbon would cost something like 700€ per month, if we consider food and housing in a room with no special conditions. If they choose to study in Coimbra, the amount is half that. As the costs for studying here in Lisbon are too high, those who stay either have some kind of support in the city or may not be able to pay this amount, regardless of our Faculty's reputation.

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If I asked you to highlight what distinguishes us from Nova University, what elements would you highlight?

Prof. Madalena Patrício: I'd rather not make that comparison, because I would like us to be able to cooperate more, particularly in such a small country like ours is. Even though there are cooperation areas and the RIEM (Rede de Investigação em Educação Médica - Medical Education Research Network) is a good example of it, with common projects and publications. In general, Universities do not work together and they do not share their resources. That is already happening in other countries, namely in Spain, where, for example, the Centro de Simulación Médica Avanzada de IAVANTE, in Granada, opens its doors to other Faculties in the field of Health, as well as to other professionals from other areas, namely firefighters and the police, among others. Portugal is lacking this kind of cooperation. We should further develop the cooperation without worrying so much about the competition and allow students and public to weigh their arguments. Regarding your question, our Faculty has many strengths and on Applicant's Day, Professor Fausto Pinto and Professor Joaquim Ferreira reinforced the value of CAML, the triangle Faculty, Hospital and Research, which is unique when compared to other Faculties. Throughout the day, they have also approached other aspects that make a difference, in particular the role of the GAPIC, the internships in Tropical Medicine in Africa, the Erasmus programme, the curricular quality of the MIM and the role of AEFML (Students Association of the Faculty of Medicine of Lisbon).

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During his intervention, on that day, he tried to convey the message of the sense of humanity that a future doctor should possess and the opportunity to change the course of the society in which we live. Do you think they understood his message?

Prof. Madalena Patrício: Maybe not completely. I talked about Christa Mcauliffe, the teacher who died in the U.S. space shuttle Challenger, 75 seconds after lift-off, when the spaceship exploded, in January 1986. When I talked about her, I mentioned what she answered when someone asked her what she did before this mission, "I touch the future, I teach." I've also talked about the vision, to which we have been alerted by the Lancet Report in 2010, and which mentions the three levels of teaching. In the first one, the experts reach for the tools (knowledge and skills) in order to be ready to perform their tasks; then, at a second level, it tells us about the socialisation focused on values, which has been the driving force in medical education over the last ten years; and lastly, it refers to the society's changing dimension as the last level. Within the context of Module III-I, Clinical Medicine, the Doctor, the Person and the Patient (introduction to Medicine) we defend these values and try to raise the students' awareness to the importance of changing the society in which we live for the better, especially when they practice for the prestige, status and social capability they will achieve as doctors. Students need to feel this social responsibility. They need to be leaders, agents of transformation and our role, as teachers, consists of making them aware, because then they will follow their own paths. I think that this message hasn't probably been well conveyed.

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But doesn't that have to do with an age limitation?

Profª Madalena Patrício: I don't think it is solely related to age. They are so focused on other aspects, that age is not the main reason. At the age of 18, you are already supposed to be mature enough to assess these issues. The problem is that these young adults have spent their time studying, and have disregarded sports, dating and other interests in order to be able to get the chance to study Medicine. The selection system is based on a memory exercise and they know that it not through social responsibility that they will have access to higher education in the field of Medicine.

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Would you like to continue to be responsible for this project next year?

Prof. Madalena Patrício: I'll be 70 in August, so the question here is not if I want to, but if I will be able to. I have reached an age when I have to stop.

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Quer se queira ou não?

Whether you want to or not?

Prof. Madalena Patrício: Whether I want to or not, and I would like it to be different...

Before we finish, I would like to congratulate the amazing team that organised this event. Thank you to all of you.

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Joana Sousa

Editorial Team