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Course profile

Surgery (MEDI7311)

Study period
Sem 2 2024
Location
Herston
Attendance mode
In Person

Course overview

Study period
Semester 2, 2024 (17/06/2024 - 16/11/2024)
Study level
Postgraduate Coursework
Location
Herston
Attendance mode
In Person
Units
3
Administrative campus
Herston
Coordinating unit
UQ Medical School

The Year 3 Surgery course is devoted to general surgery (breast / endocrine, upper gastrointestinal, hepato-pancreatobiliary, colorectal, trauma and acute surgery) and some subspecialties including burns and plastic surgery, urology, vascular, neurosurgery, cardiothoracic surgery and ear/nose/throat surgery. The aim of this course is to familiarise you with common, serious and life threatening surgical diseases and for you to develop an understanding of how they present clinically; how to systematically evaluate these conditions; how they are investigated; principles of management; how to assess priorities for treatment; and when and how to initiate referral. The course is not intended to train you as technical surgeons but to develop you to be 'intern ready' so you can function as part of a surgical team. During the work-integrated learning component of this course, you will be allocated to surgical units to participate in the daily activities of those units, and to participate in all that happens during your patients' episode of care. In addition, you should attend outpatients, ward rounds, operating theatre, and other unit meetings. You will participate in a tutorial program at each individual clinical teaching unit.

Hospital Practice (HP) Semester refers to all students completing the 9-week Surgery and Medicine Blocks.

Hospital Practice Plus (HP+) Semester refers to all students completing the 6-week Surgery, Medicine and Rural (Surgery-Medicine) Blocks. There are three (3) sequences of HP+:

  • Medicine > Rural > Surgery (MRS)
  • Surgery > Medicine > Rural (SMR)
  • Rural > Surgery > Medicine (RSM)

Please be aware that the shorthand noted above will be referenced in relation to assessment due dates later in the Course Profile. (E.g., HP or HP+ (SMR))

The Surgery clinical placement block includes General Surgery (Upper Gastrointestinal, Colorectal, Hepatopancreaticobiliary, Breast and Endocrine), Ear/Nose/Throat, Burns and Plastics, Urology, Vascular, Cardiothoracic and Neurosurgery. Clinical exposure to some of the subspecialties may be limited in some centres. However the curriculum outlines where the knowledge is important and there are tutorialᅠseries and on-line lecturesᅠthat will cover the essentialsᅠof these specialties.ᅠ

The aim of the Year 3 Surgery course is to familiarise you with common, serious and life threatening surgical diseases, how they present clinically, how they are investigated and principles of management. The course is not intended to train you as technical surgeons, but to develop you to become 'intern ready'. During the course you should develop knowledge, clinical skills and professional attributes appropriate to enable you to recognise, evaluate, formulate a differential diagnosis and prepare and initiate management plans for patients with common, serious and life-threatening surgical conditions. You should become proficient in clinical history taking and physical examination of the surgical patient, investigation of the surgical patient, the principles of operative management and perioperative care and follow-up.

During clinical placement, you will be attached to surgical units where you will have the opportunity to be involved in patient management. The course is supported by learning resources and a tutorial program that is delivered at the individual hospitals.

Course requirements

Assumed background

This course builds on the knowledge gained during Clinical Science and Clinical Practice courses offered during Years 1 and 2 of the MD Program. The knowledge we expect you to have gained from these courses includes but is not limited to teaching and learning in human structure and function, disease processes and pathophysiology, and approaches to clinical assessment. You are urged to review notes and learning materials from earlier courses in the program as appropriate during this course.

Prerequisites

You'll need to complete the following courses before enrolling in this one:

MEDI7212, MEDI7222 and MEDI7232

Incompatible

You can't enrol in this course if you've already completed the following:

MEDI7301

Restrictions

MD & MD (Ochsner) students only

Course contact

Timetable

Additional timetable information

Clinical unit specific timetables are available on Learn.UQ (Blackboard).

Participation

You should be aware of the Medicine Program Participation Requirements. Non-compliance may result in failure in this course.