Minor Comprehensive care and anatomy

Course Objective

1. To make students aware of the multidisciplinary approach to perioperative patient care and the complexity and interactions of physiological processes to surgical trauma
2. To deepen integrated clinical and anatomical knowledge by means of surgical anatomical landmarks and dissection room experience and the appreciation of human anatomy as seen through various imaging modalities
3. To understand and be able to describe insights into clinical practice of treatment decisions from the perspective of the doctor and the patient
4. To understand and be able to describe the concepts of shared decision making, advance care planning, and palliative care
5. Understand the most common physical, psychosocial and spiritual symptoms / problems encountered in palliative care, how to assess them and how to treat them.

Course Content

More than 1.2 million patients undergo anesthesia and surgery in the Netherlands. This minor offers students an integrated perspective on the multidisciplinary perioperative care and management of surgical patients.
On the one hand there will be a an emphasis in this minor on the technical side, in which:

• Students will learn how to integrate their knowledge of human anatomy with surgical anatomy in the theatre and radiological anatomy through a number of imaging modalities.
• Training is done in a high tech simulation facility with specific perioperative procedures.
• The anatomy of the human body will be studied on cadavers.

On the other hand there will be an emphasis on the care for patients in light of their phase in the illness trajectory. How are decisions made on whether to perform surgery or not? This decision might be straightforward for a healthy young adult who had an accident, but less straightforward for a frail older person who broke a hip. Do the advantages of surgery weigh up to the disadvantages? And might advance care planning, timely talking about wishes for care and treatment in the last phase of life, have helped in the decision-making? And when after a surgery it turns out that the disease remains life-limiting, palliative care is important in order to treat symptoms, maintain a good quality of life and provide appropriate care according to the wishes of the
patient.

Main goal of this unique comprehensive minor is to introduce the bachelor students in the multidisciplinary field of perioperative medicine.

Additional Information Teaching Methods

Method of Assessment

Writing assignment, research proposal writing, oral presentation, debate, two central exams.

Additional Information Target Audience

Bachelor’s students of Faculty of Medicine and external (and international) students with a (bio)medical background.

Explanation Canvas

This minor is supported by a corresponding CANVAS course, which contains all of the required information of this minor including an overview of the required articles and assignments. The CANVAS course will also be used to post announcements relevant to the minor. You will automatically have access to the CANVAS course.

Recommended background knowledge

Knowledge of basic medical science comparable to the end level of the second year of the Bachelor’s program is recommended.