CASE BASED LIFE COURSE MEDICINE 3 - 2022/3

Module code: PASM003

Module Overview

Students will be working through Cases 9 -13 of the 18 Case sequence that makes up Year 1, covering common gastroenterology, urology, gynaecology and neurology, presentations of illness (dyspepsia, abdominal pain, urinary tract infections, abnormal vaginal bleeding, and epilepsy).

Module provider

School of Health Sciences

Module Leader

DOULTON Jia (Health Sci.)

Number of Credits: 15

ECTS Credits: 7.5

Framework: FHEQ Level 7

Module cap (Maximum number of students): N/A

Overall student workload

Lecture Hours: 400

Module Availability

Semester 2

Prerequisites / Co-requisites

A student has to complete module 3 before being able to sit the relevant section of the SBA paper at the end of the year.

Module content

Indicative content includes:



  • Cases 9-13 of the sequence of 18 cases in Year 1.


  • Students will learn:

    Professional Values

    Public Health and Epidemiology

    Ethical and legal issues

    Basic sciences relating to the cases in the module. Communication and development of interpersonal skills

    The Clinical Method – taking focussed histories and performing clinical examinations in the systems identified by the cases in the module

    The Lifecourse Case-Based learning

    Pharmacology and Therapeutics

    The core procedural skills listed above


Assessment pattern

Assessment type Unit of assessment Weighting
Examination SBA Examination 75
Coursework Reflective Essay 2000 words 25
Coursework PBCP Portfolio Pass/Fail

Alternative Assessment

N/A

Assessment Strategy

The assessment strategy is designed to provide students with the opportunity to demonstrate progression in their learning in three domains of learning:



  • Knowledge and Applied Knowledge of Clinical Medicine and the Basic Biosciences that underpin Clinical Medicine


  • Clinical Skills, in both core procedural skills, and consulting with patients


  • Professional Behaviour

    Because this is an integrated course, many of the learning outcomes listed above are tested by more than one type of assessment method.

    Knowledge and applied knowledge will be tested mainly by the SBA paper, Clinical skills by the Clinical Skills log, the eportfolio and the end of year OSCE examination, and Professional

    Behaviour by the SBA paper, the eportfolio and the OSCE examination.



Students will receive frequent formative assessment, with rapid feedback and remediation as needed. This will take place at the end of each section of the module, ie induction, and the end of each Case. At the end of the module, students will need to show that they have attained the learning outcomes for Module 3.

The summative assessment for this module consists of:



  1. 50 questions from a 100 question Single Best Answer (SBA3) paper at the end of Year 1 (2 hour paper, 120 minutes). In order to pass Module 3, students will need to show a mark of 50% or more in the 50 questions relating to Module 3 content. This examination comprises 75% of the overall mark for Module 3.


  2. Pass in Professional Behaviour and Clinical Practice (PBCP) eportfolio work to from beginning of Case 9 – end of Case 13 (to include Tutor Report, Clinical Skills log, Team Assessment of Behaviour, Coursework). (This is a Pass/ Fail assessment and needs to be passed in order to pass the module, but does not contribute to the module mark).


  3. The Reflective Essay assignment will be a 2000 word reflective essay that analyses the students’ learning journey and development towards the end of the first year, by drawing on extracts from his/her own reflective journal. This examination comprises 25% of the overall mark for Module 3.



Formative assessment

Quizzes at the end of each Virtual Case

Coursework as determined by module content (case studies, short essays on topical related issues in health etc)

Clinical Skills log (formative section with feedback)

Reflective diaries and short essays based on clinical placements Patient feedback (simulated and real patients)

Feedback

Students will receive rapid feedback from their frequent formative tests, and from the eportfolio marking.

Module aims

  • Give students a basic introduction to clinical medicine as applied to the gastro-intestinal, renal, gynaecological and nervous systems.
  • Common patient presentations in these systems will be learnt, with students learning how to perform focussed histories and focussed clinical examinations.
  • Basic investigations, differential diagnoses and initial clinical management (including therapeutics) of patients presenting with symptoms in these systems will be taught.
  • Core clinical procedures allied to these systems will be taught and practised
  • Students will be able to meet real patients with conditions related to these clinical systems and reflect on what they have learnt.

Learning outcomes

Attributes Developed
1 Describe the functional anatomy and physiology of the gastrointestinal, renal, gynaecology and nervous systems, and the pathophysiology and risk factors of common conditions affecting these systems. K
2 Demonstrate basic ability to use clinical information to put together a likely differential diagnosis, and be able to justify it for altered bowel habit and PR bleeding, C
3 Common urinary symptoms such as frequency, dysuria and haematuria, abnormal
4 Vaginal bleeding, and the differential diagnosis of a ‘collapse'. This will be primarily in the ‘virtual cases’ but increasingly with real patients seen in Primary Care.
5 Describe common imaging techniques and their appropriate use in diagnosing disease. K
6 Describe and demonstrate ability to take a patient-centred, focussed gastro- intestinal, renal, gynaecological, and neurological histories from a patient P
7 Understand why good clinician-patient relationships foster informed patient choice and help negotiating care decisions C
8 Identify and understand ethical and legal issues, in particular maintaining patient confidentiality, and obtaining informed consent P
9 Show an understanding of the issues facing patients with a disability in accessing high quality health care, relating these to the Equality Act (2010). P
10 Identify relevant psychological and social factors, integrating these perspectives with the biomedical evidence to elucidate current problems T
11 Perform focussed gastro-intestinal system, renal, gynaecological and neurological examinations, tailored to the needs of the patient. P
12 Describe how to perform intimate examinations – in particular the per rectum examination, including explanation, informed consent and use of a chaperone. K
13 Demonstrate in simulation how to discuss intimate and personal medical details in a professional manner with patients. P
14 Describe common sexually acquired infections, how they are diagnosed and treated, and principles of screening and contact tracing for STIs K
15 Describe common infections of the GI, renal, gynaecological and nervous systems, and how they are diagnosed and treated. K
16 Demonstrate appropriate use of initial and follow- up investigations K
17 Communicate effectively and appropriately with patients and carers T
18 Discuss common drugs used in common GI, renal, gynaecological and neurological conditions, their mechanisms of action and their side-effects/ interactions K
19 Demonstrate how to perform a repeat prescription review with a patient with multi- morbidity T
20 Discuss how the physician-patient relationship and good communication can influence compliance with medication and lifestyle changes. T
21 Discuss principles promoting health and preventing disease, in particular healthy lifestyle issues such as smoking, alcohol consumption and diet. K
22 Show knowledge of the British National Formulary and how to use it when deciding how to treat the above clinical systems. K
23 Maintain an awareness of national and local guidelines K
24 Demonstrate understanding of safety issues in patients with an episode of loss of consciousness, including when legal requirements to break patient confidentiality may become paramount. Compare and contrast this with giving information with relation to Child Protection legal requirements. P
25 Describe techniques that assess community needs in relation to how services are provided K
26 Discuss public health issues related to the cases studied in Module 3. K
27 Show ability to use reflective thinking and writing to critically evaluate own practice to identify learning/ developmental needs and identify and utilise learning opportunities C
28 Understand and value roles of other members of the health and social care team, with particular reference to the professional teams contributing to diabetes care and epilepsy care. P
29 Show knowledge of other presentations from Section A1 of the matrix specification, allied to the cases in this module, and their investigation and management (Appendix 1). K
30 Be able to insert a naso-gastric tube in simulation
31 Perform a urine dipstick test
32 Take a venous blood sample, using appropriate tubes for required tests
33 Learn how to perform PV examinations and how to take a cervical smear and swabs on a model
34 Undertake male and female urinary catheterisation in simulation

Attributes Developed

C - Cognitive/analytical

K - Subject knowledge

T - Transferable skills

P - Professional/Practical skills

Methods of Teaching / Learning

The learning and teaching strategy:

The building of knowledge and understanding will be achieved by an integrated learning strategy in Year 1, centred around small group Case Based Learning, following a sequence of 18 virtual cases, that between them deliver the ‘life course’ from cradle to grave. Concurrently, they will spend one day/ week on clinical placement in a carefully selected GP surgery, learning in the workplace and meeting patients who illustrate and add to their learning from the virtual cases.

In Year 2 a spiral curriculum design will ensure that learning from the cases and 1 day clinical placements in Year 1 is consolidated through a range of longer clinical placements in both Primary and Secondary Care, to include: Paediatrics, Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Acute Medicine, Surgery, Care of the Elderly, Psychiatry and General Practice.

The learning and teaching methods include:



  • Small group case based learning in Year 1 – each case lasts for 2 weeks. (4.5 hours/ week x 7 week)


  • Lectures (3-4 hours/ week x 10 weeks)


  • Practicals in Year 1, to revise and refresh biosciences learning in physiology (1.5 hours/ week x 10 weeks)


  • Clinical anatomy teaching based on models, clinical demonstrations, imaging and e learning. (1.5 hours/ week x 10 weeks)


  • Clinical Skills sessions in the Simulations Suite, to learn consultation skills as well as core procedural skills (3 hours/ week x 36 weeks)


  • Clinical Placements – in Year 1, these will be 1 day/ week in GP surgeries selected by HEKSS following GMC guidelines, where students will meet a variety of patients, including patients similar to their ‘virtual’ cases. (8 hours/ week x 7 weeks)



Independent study, guided by the small group case based learning (9 hours/ week x 10 weeks)

Indicated Lecture Hours (which may also include seminars, tutorials, workshops and other contact time) are approximate and may include in-class tests where one or more of these are an assessment on the module. In-class tests are scheduled/organised separately to taught content and will be published on to student personal timetables, where they apply to taken modules, as soon as they are finalised by central administration. This will usually be after the initial publication of the teaching timetable for the relevant semester.

Reading list

https://readinglists.surrey.ac.uk
Upon accessing the reading list, please search for the module using the module code: PASM003

Other information

This module is only available for students undertaking the Physician Associate programme.

Programmes this module appears in

Programme Semester Classification Qualifying conditions
Physician Associate Studies PGDip 2 Core Each unit of assessment must be passed at 50% to pass the module

Please note that the information detailed within this record is accurate at the time of publishing and may be subject to change. This record contains information for the most up to date version of the programme / module for the 2022/3 academic year.