University home
>
Unit and programme catalogues in 2014/15
>
Unit catalogue
>
Faculty of Health Sciences
>
Health Sciences Faculty Office
>
Human Basis of Medicine
Unit information: Human Basis of Medicine in 2014/15
Please note: you are viewing unit and programme information
for a past academic year. Please see the current academic year for up to date information.
Unit name |
Human Basis of Medicine |
Unit code |
MEDI11110 |
Credit points |
0 |
Level of study |
C/4
|
Teaching block(s) |
Teaching Block 4 (weeks 1-24)
|
Unit director |
Professor. Ruud ter Meulen |
Open unit status |
Not open |
Pre-requisites |
Must be on the MB ChB Programme.
|
Co-requisites |
None
|
School/department |
Health Sciences Faculty Office |
Faculty |
Faculty of Health Sciences |
Description including Unit Aims
Open to MB ChB students only.
First part of intended learning outcomes:
- Observe clinical phenomena & critical analysis of clinical data.
- Understand the levels of Health & Illness & the scales at which problems can be viewed.
- Appreciate links between emotions & bodily health.
- Understand self-healing & how to trigger it.
- Understand the adjustments that occur following life changes such as bereavement.
- Comprehend what being a doctor within the NHS entails.
- Understand that health is a moral category. Explain the concept of stigma & the related notions of normality, disease & illness, private & public accounts of sickness.
- Outline the concept of risk.
- Explain the concept of the illness iceberg. Discuss how lay people diagnose & respond to symptoms of illness. Describe factors that can influence decisions to seek health care, including lay epidemiology, barriers to help-seeking & the lay referral network.
- Describe health inequalities in Britain in terms of social class, ethnicity & gender. Discuss material, lifestyle & psychosocial explanations for these patterns. Define agency & structural constraint, & explain how these terms relate to health inequities.
- Understand how patients’ experiences of healthcare are affected by doctor-patient relationships and how these may differ. Understand how the placebo response relates to doctor-patient relationships.
- Explain the concepts of shared decision-making, compliance & concordance.
- Recognise & describe study design & statistical analyses used by clinical epidemiologists, medical sociologists and anthropologists.
- Interpret appropriate statistical analyses to test hypotheses.
- Undertake basic qualitative analysis.
- Critically appraise & interpret research findings; interpret appropriate statistical analyses to test hypotheses.
- Describe the ethical dimensions of RCTs: clinical equipoise, informed consent.
Intended Learning Outcomes
Learning outcomes cont'd from above:
- Conduct an interview with a patient during a home visit. Reflect on the patient's illness narrative & experience of health care. Understand the assessment of holism.
- Observe & consider skills that contribute to good verbal & non verbal communication skills.
- Explain the concept of medical pluralism & describe its key features. Describe a non-biomedical framework for understanding health care systems.
- Understand other perspectives when treating patients. Consider how far different types of health care (both biomedical & non-biomedical) are available to people & the reasons why patients may pursue non-biomedical treatment options. Understand why it is important for doctors to be aware of the existence of other types of health care.
- Discuss ethical principles surrounding professional behaviour. Understand the moral basis of confidentiality; law & guidelines; patients’ expectations of confidentiality and circumstances that could lead to it being breached. Demonstrate maintaining confidentiality & gain consent to use patient narratives in assignments.
- Understand the contribution of ethics to medical practice: Explain the importance of values in medical practice; present different moral traditions; understand the limits of autonomy.
- Understand theories that inform ethical analysis. Engage in critical reflection about these & their applications.
- Understand the relationship between ethics & the law & how the law is applied in medicine.
- Discuss the importance & challenges surrounding collaboration between health & social care professionals & those receiving care & their carers.
- Identify the implications for doctors of current community care arrangements.
- Understand the importance of team-working.
- Understand how social & technological changes are challenging the dominance of medicine in healthcare delivery & changing the role of doctors in society. Consider how the role of the medical profession may develop in the future.
- Recognise own personal health needs, consult & follow the advice of a suitably qualified professional, & protect patients from any risk posed by own health.
Teaching Information
Teaching is provided by the School of Social and Community Medicine and comprises a mixture of: Lectures Small group tutorials Visits to primary care Follow-up presentations of experiences of meeting patients Clinical demonstrations Library-based project work.
Assessment Information
- Best of 5 Single Best Answer
- Tutorial or Practical Formative Performance
- Short notes and essay paper
Reading and References
Library link
https://www.ole.bris.ac.uk/webapps/cmsmain/webui/_xy-136348_5-t_hYyAB8mF