Handbook 1996 : Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences (Volume 4 page 136)
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Year 3 Medicine.
Contact: Four lectures a week in Semester 1. Fourteen lectures and twenty hours of tutorials in Semester 2.
This subject comprises two components: Public Health and Community Medicine.
Objectives:
- Public Health
- On completion of this integrated series of lectures students should: understand the principles of epidemiology and examples of its application to clinical medicine and population health including that of the workforce; the relevance of statistical principles to the understanding of disease at the population level and to the practice of clinical medicine; the contribution of lifestyle and behaviour including nutrition and environmental health to morbidity and mortality in the Australian community and the wider world.
- Community Medicine
- On completion of this integrated series of tutorials students should: understand the significance of effective communication in medical care; aquire basic talking and listening skills; take a social and sexual history; develop strategies to cope with a range of communication issues relevant to medical practice; assess the strengths and weaknesses of communication skills; appreciate how different sexual meanings and values are ascribed in particular stages of sexual development in able-bodied and disabled persons.
Content:
- Public Health
- Epidemiology and Biostatistics: Nature and role of epidemiology in preventive and clinical medicine. Morbidity and mortality as measures of 'health' in communities. Risk and cause: cause-effect relationships; confounding and modification; quantification of risk. Diagnostic tests; specificity and sensitivity. Epidemiological designs such as case-control studies, cohort studies, longitudinal studies and randomised controlled clinical trials; birth and exposure cohorts and their interpretation; sources of bias. Critical appraisal of scientific evidence. Health Promotion: Life style including nutrition and health. Mechanisms by which health related behaviour is established and maintained. Analysis of health promotion campaigns carried out in Australia in terms of aims, target populations and methods. Consideration of the need for evaluation of health promotion; methodology of such evaluations. Occupational Medicine and Environmental Health: Principles and Practice. History of Public Health.
- Community Medicine
- talking and listening skills; barriers to communication; bad news and empathic responses; communication specifically with regards to disadvantaged and special groups i. e. communicating with people from non-English speaking backgrounds; cross age communication; terminally ill and dying; dealing with discomforts and anxiety about sexual health; sexual meanings in different stages of sexual development; taking a sexual history; different beliefs and values promoting sexual health; sexuality and ageing. Demonstration and video-modelling of skills; social history interviews and practice of skills.
Assessment:
A 2-hour written examination at the end of the first semester (75 per cent) and a 1 hour written examination at the end of the second semester (25 per cent). The practice of communication skills is assessed at a pass/fail level and the assessment has two components. In the first component student performance is based on continuous formative appraisal including active participation in tutorials and completion of exercises described in the student handbook for the subject. Satisfactory attendance at all communication skills tutorials is required and a pass in this component of the assessment is a pre-requisite for sitting the second component. In the second component of the assessment students are required to videotape an interview with a simulated patient and demonstrate a pass level of competence in basic communication skills. Students who fail the second component will be permitted to proceed with the medical course but will be required to undertake further assessment in fourth year and, if necessary, fifth year.
Prescribed texts:
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Handbook 1996 : Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences (Volume 4 page 136)
Status: Official 1996 Date created: Oct 9 1995 Last modified: Oct 9 1995 Authorised by: Academic Registrar Email enquiries: Course_Information@registrar.unimelb.edu.au
Maintained by: Dept. of Public Health & Community Med, Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences.
Copyright © University of Melbourne 1995,1996.