The article aims at evaluating the effectiveness of the Speaking Club in learning English for professional purposes at medical universities. The Speaking Club is presented as an integral part of the foreign language studies that, being a student-driven activity, promotes motivation as well as develops interaction and communication skills of its members. The authors define the concept of the Speaking Club based on the literature review and personal experience, find out effective ways of the Speaking Club organisation as well as describe its structure, roles and responsibilities of the participants. With regard to the management of the Speaking Club sessions, some important principles are defined in the present study. They deal with the interaction and communication style, moral beliefs and values, duration of the sessions and their planning, a topic choice and a format of the event. In the article, the emphasis is made on the main didactic principles applied to the preparation, organisation and hosting of the meetings and include visualisation, accessibility, active participation, systematisation and continuity. The authors carried out a five-year experiment to assess the effectiveness of the Speaking Club in terms of the language proficiency level of the participants and their social activity engagement. The study enrolled 140 students of the National Medical University named after O. O. Bohomolets and included 4 stages that lasted from 2012 to 2017. The research work delivers evidence of overall improvement of the four basic language skills (reading, writing, listening and speaking) and, therefore, a general increase in the English language proficiency level of the Speaking Club participants. According to the general conclusions drawn from the findings obtained before and after the experiment, the Speaking Club proves to be an effective extracurricular activity in learning English for professional purposes at medical universities.

This article highlights the main problems in the national healthcare system of Ukraine that have an impact on its higher pharmaceutical education as well as examines the challenges the system of professional pharmaceutical training faces today. This paper deals with the didactical aspects of professional training of future Masters of Pharmacy students that ensure acquisition of professional competencies in the context of the course of pharmaceutical chemistry. The study delivers evidence that the outlined didactical aspects realized through the modern teaching technologies and proper forms of the learning process organization improve the academic performance of future Masters of Pharmacy students and contribute to an increase in their general motivation to study professionally-oriented disciplines. UDC Classification: 371.134:91,

The article focuses on the professional and scientific path of Professor Ivan Mykolayovych Ishchenko. He was a leading Ukrainian surgeon, a renowned scientist, an accomplished teacher, and a great humanist who formed the ideology of surgical science. Professor Ishchenko defined and developed promising directions for scientific research in the fields of military field surgery, urology, traumatology, neuro‑ and thoracic surgery, and tissue transplantation. His scientific interests included the surgical treatment of diseases of the biliary tract, liver, and stomach as well as theoretical and practical issues of anesthesia administration.