This study aims to provide insights for bridging gaps between theory and practice in higher education and medical curricula specifically. Located in the context of Cyprus, and based on an analysis of medical practitioners’ perceptions, it advocates that doctors need to receive training beyond the biomedical sciences and clinical skills, in order to be able to cope with the needs of the profession, influenced by the new challenges emerging from technological advancements (Bullock, 2014), the diversity of the patients and the introduction of the new national health care system, known as General Healthcare System (GHS). The GHS strives for a people-centred health service underpinned by universal coverage of the population, equal treatment of beneficiaries and freedom of choice (GHS, 2025). The population in the area controlled by the Cyprus Government was estimated at 966,4 thousand in 2023 with long-term immigrants estimated at 40.7 thousand (CyStat, 2025).

Earlier research argues for the need to incorporate interprofessional education and advance leadership and the ability to care for diverse communities (Bai, 2020). Although most universities apply the use of problem-based learning in medical curricula (Hung et al., 2008), which develops the ability to transfer knowledge in new contexts including workplace, by focusing at ill-defined problems and their solutions via decision making processes often within collaborative settings, there are still desired professional competences which remain under-developed.

We focus on competences which reflect an occupation role of medical practitioners and we view higher education as relevant to adding value to services. A key competence refers to readiness to work with culturally diverse communities, as a result of immigration and in line with the European Agenda for Culture and its aims to respect its rich cultural and linguistic diversity (Sasse,  2024). Equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) frameworks appear to become more formalised at the workplace and in higher education through the implementation of policies. At the same time, comprehensive understandings of the diversity related competences and relevant skills to cope with managing diverse groups of patients need to be developed. Diversity awareness and equality of opportunity in receiving care and treatment are not to be taken lightly and includes fairness regardless one’s age, gender, ethnicity, physical impairment, sexual orientation and religion (Ludwig et al., 2020).

Our framework in understanding competences includes a consideration of skills and their appropriateness for higher education so that they allow for complexity through enabling reflecting skills and critical thinking. The development of skills is supported by the development of underpinning knowledge. Examples of such knowledge include understanding of legislation, ethics, diversity, communication protocols and value commitments.

Our study aims to adress the following research questions:

What are medical practitioners’ perceptions on:

a) the competences, knowledge and skills needed in practising the medical profession?

b)their own preparedness in relation to the competences, knowledge and skills needed?

c)the training they received during their undergraduate programme in relation to those competences, knowledge and skills.

Our research study objectives are the foloowing:

-refine the notion of competence in the form of knowledge and skills in meeting the needs of the changing medical profession

-enhance the concept of preparedness in meeting the needs of the modern medical profession

-develop a theoretical basis for understanding interprofessional experiences that enhance professional practice

-refine the role that transformative learning approaches can play developing leadership and interprofessional education

-understand the links between two communities, academic and professional through an analysis of issues of transfer of knowledge in real situations at the workplace.

A mixed method strategy is adopted based on a pragmatic real world research approach (Robson, 2016), which is applied in education and health related fields aiming to examine experiences rooted in complex social settings. Oriented towards solving real problems, it allows for the combination of quantitative and qualitative aspects that complement each other and endorse practical theory that informs effective practice in supporting the health needs of communities. Our methodology is congruent with methodological eclecticism views (Ilic, 2023; Hammersley, 1996) that challenge the paradigm view division, which we regard as unhelpful in understanding social phenomena, and we favour flexible and adaptable designs. The challenges of mixing qualitative and quantitative approaches have been addressed through considering the timing of the data collection and the way in which separate data are embedded in the procedure and informed each other (Creswell and Plano Clark, 2018). Data collection is organised around two phases. Phase 1 includes six in-depth qualitative interviews with medical practitioners based in Cyprus, with experience in teaching medical students. The analysis of the data includes a taxonomy of competences and the refinement of the questionnaire which will be administered in the second phase. Phase 2 includes quantitative data collection, using a web-based survey targeted towards 100 medical practitioners and analysis of data through SPSS.

Early results indicate that doctors practising in Cyprus under the GHS, face challenges with regard to the changes of relevant policies in the health system, the proliferation of technologies in health care as well as the diversity in patient population. We suggest that medical practitioners need to acquire a repertoire of leadership and communication practices as well as competences that enable them to cope with diverse communities of patients. Such competences need to be developed collaboratively in training intervention programmes at university level and also during professional development initiatives. The role of interprofessional dialogue and research is vital in developing the competences, knowledge and skills along with the processes and values of universities. The study impacts on the increase of the quality of workplace learning at hospitals among medical professionals and thus having a broader impact on the quality of health care provision in Cyprus.

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