Content of Attachment
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Seminar programme:
Seminars are organised on the first Wednesday day of the attachment and for the two subsequent Wednesdays. They are held at the Wolfson Medical School Building. Their aim is to give an introduction to the range of topics you are expected to study during the attachment. They cannot be completely comprehensive and need to be supplemented by personal study and clinically based teaching. It is essential that you have available a good text and a suggested list is given on Page 6.
Student case conferences:
Your Undergraduate Tutor should organise weekly case conferences where you will take it in turns to present a case to colleagues and discuss issues of formulation, diagnosis and management.
Clinical attachment:
Most attachments consist of 4 weeks general adult psychiatry and a one week placement in a specialist area. Specialties available will vary from hospital to hospital. In some attachments exposure to a sub-specialty may be integrated throughout the 5 weeks. Your attachment will include a significant amount of community work. Psychiatry is practised in multidisciplinary settings and you should ensure that you understand the role of other disciplines, including community psychiatric nurses, psychologists, occupational therapists and social workers, in addition to that of the doctors in the team. In the first week you may wish to spend time talking with patients and getting comfortable with the presentations particular to psychiatry. After that however, it is important to hone your skills in history taking, mental state examination, diagnosis and management planning by seeing patients regularly and presenting cases to your Educational Supervisor, other doctors on the team and your fellow students.
Assessments:
Formative: a clinical examination will take place around the fourth week of the attachment. While it will be taken into account in your end of block assessment, its main aim is to give you the opportunity to assess your progress and identify areas for improvement. You should receive feedback from the examination on the day.
Summative: this consists of the “grid” assessment given to you by your Educational Supervisor at the end of your attachment and written/clinical assessments at the end of 5th year. Remember, it is your responsibility to ensure your Educational Supervisor completes the “grid” with you. The “grid” should then be returned to your Hospital Tutor who will forward the forms to Dr Cogan.