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DEGREE REGULATIONS & PROGRAMMES OF STUDY 2019/2020

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DRPS : Course Catalogue : Deanery of Clinical Sciences : Internal Medicine

Postgraduate Course: Acute Medicine and Clinical Decision Making (IMED11005)

Course Outline
SchoolDeanery of Clinical Sciences CollegeCollege of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine
Credit level (Normal year taken)SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate)
Course typeOnline Distance Learning AvailabilityNot available to visiting students
SCQF Credits10 ECTS Credits5
SummaryThis 10-credit course aims to ensure that the student understands how to manage the majority of common emergency medical admissions and will be taught using clinical case scenarios. It will also look at clinical decision making in the acute medical context.
Course description Clinical decision-making is an important but often neglected part of health care provision today. Psychologists have studied the process of decision making for over half a century and identified a number of theoretical frameworks that could explain the behaviours employed by physicians in everyday real life situations that affects the level of patient care. This course will explore the underlying theories and put them in to real clinical situations.

Through a series of online activities, students will cover the recognition, assessment and management of acutely ill patients, focussing on respiratory, cardiovascular, and neurological clinical presentations and how to manage them. At the same time, the important clinical non-technical skills will be explored which, as clinicians, students need to develop and apply in order to achieve optimal outcomes for their patients.
Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
Pre-requisites Co-requisites
Prohibited Combinations Other requirements None
Course Delivery Information
Academic year 2019/20, Not available to visiting students (SS1) Quota:  None
Course Start Semester 1
Timetable Timetable
Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) Total Hours: 100 ( Seminar/Tutorial Hours 5, Online Activities 20, Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 2, Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours 73 )
Assessment (Further Info) Written Exam 0 %, Coursework 100 %, Practical Exam 0 %
Additional Information (Assessment) Coursework 100%
The assessment is coursework: written assignment and online asynchronous discussion boards.
Feedback Not entered
No Exam Information
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
  1. Critically review, consolidate and extend knowledge, skills practices and thinking in the approach to illness severity assessment and its role in the escalation of patient treatment
  2. Recognise the need for teamwork while demonstrating leadership and/or initiative in relation to diagnosis and treatment of common emergency medical presentations
  3. Evaluate the theory behind basic and advanced life support and formulate a plan and instigate early and effective treatment of the critically ill patient
  4. Appraise the main theoretical models of decision making, deal with complex issues and make informed judgements in situations in the absence of complete or consistent data/information
  5. Reflect how patient safety may be compromised by poor decision making and ineffective healthcare environments and create strategies to overcome these
Reading List
Key articles will be referred to at relevant points during the course.
Additional Information
Graduate Attributes and Skills Within the work to be undertaken this course will provide participants with the opportunity to develop or further develop key graduate attributes:
1. In-depth knowledge of specialist discipline
2. Develop new understanding by exercising critical judgement and challenging knowledge
3. Be a self-directed learner
4. Solve problems effectively taking ethical, professional and environmental issues into account
5. Use information responsibly in a range of contexts
6. Collaborate with others, capitalising on their different thinking, experience and skills
7. Communicate (oral, written, online) effectively, respectful of social and cultural diversity
8. Application of numeracy
9. Application of IT
KeywordsAcute medicine,clinical decision making
Contacts
Course organiserDr Frances Parry
Tel: (0131 5)37 1822
Email: F.Parry@ed.ac.uk
Course secretaryMr Brian Burgon
Tel: 0131537 2506
Email: Brian.Burgon@ed.ac.uk
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