Undergraduate
We contribute to teaching in each year of the undergraduate Medicine degree. In addition to our core modules on mental disorders, we provide students with an understanding of human development, neuroscience, the psychological impact of physical disease and in communication skills.
The course is run in co-operation with the Departments of Community Health and General Practice and Paediatrics. The Behavioural Science element is aimed to introduce students to concepts of psychological and personality development within the family and wider society. The experiences of families living with handicap, and other group experiences are explored. The family case study is an important base for learning.
This course has been developed in collaboration with the Departments of Anatomy, Biochemistry, Pharmacology and Physiology. We introduce basic ideas in Neuropsychology, including cognition, memory, mood, attention and perception. Sleep and Pain are further topics, while joint symposia examine selected clinical conditions from the different viewpoints. The aim is to introduce students to the psychology and neurobiology of normal brain functions that underpin clinical psychiatry.
This course is run as part of the clinical skills training programme run over the course of the year. The aim of the course is to provide students with basics skills required for effective communication with patients and staff. Skills taught are based on the Calgary Cambridge approach to communication in medicine and delivered via small group teaching using role play and video feedback.
This course is designed to introduce students to psychological aspects of health related behavior, and provide an orientation to identifying and assessing mental health difficulties as they present in a general health setting. The course is comprised of a series of didactic lectures, small group reflective practice tutorials, communication workshops facilitating by professional actors, and a multidisciplinary led workshop on breaking bad news.
Clinical and theoretical aspects of psychiatry are covered during the two-month attachment. Students are attached to multidisciplinary teams involved in the day-to-day work of AMNCH, SPH, and SJH interviewing patients and presenting their findings to members of their clinical teams. In company with team members, students visit the psychiatric and general wards, the out-patients' department, Accident and Emergency department, day centres and, when possible their patients' own homes. Small groups of students work up and present selected clinical topics to their peers, and interviewing skills are developed through the use of video technology. Specialist attachments are made to Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Mental Handicap and Forensic Psychiatry facilities. A range of student selected activities are available. Progressive assessments and an end of block examination contribute 50% of the marks towards the psychiatry component of the final examination in Medicine/Psychiatry.
Further clinical opportunities and teaching are provided to small groups of students. Revision tutorials are arranged and a series of revision lectures provided.