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University of Malta | |||
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| Faculty of Medicine & Surgery | ||||
| Department of Anatomy & Cell Biology | ||||
| Anatomy Student Guidelines |
Welcome to the Department of Anatomy, and to the first year of what will be a life-long learning experience in Medicine. The following is a study guide for you to derive maximum benefit from participation in the Anatomy course. It is expected that students entering the Medical course will develop a mature approach to learning and education. A distinction is to be made between teaching and learning. Teaching usually implies the transmission of information from the lecturer to the students. It is a common misconception to assume that teaching is followed by learning. Listening to lectures is a passive process from which the student derives a certain amount of factual information, which is found in textbooks, but gains very little in the way of practical and intellectual skills and experiences. Learning is an active process and can be obtained only through participation in the activities that are specially designed to be learning experiences. Students will be expected to assume responsibility for their own learning. They should actively seek information from textbooks prior to attending lectures and course activities. They should learn various practical and intellectual skills of examination of the human body, identification of its component parts and interpretation of findings. They should learn to communicate clearly and effectively and to collaborate in all activities. They should learn to evaluate their own progress, take remedial action where required, adapt to living in the world beyond the classroom, and thus to prepare themselves for life long learning, which is essential in the rapidly evolving field of medicine. Course activities will be designed to help you achieve these aims by providing appropriate learning situations and experiences. MISSION STATEMENT To provide an academic environment for the promotion of learning anatomy so as to ensure quality, effectiveness and compliance in medical education. To accomplish these goals we developed learning opportunities that lead to the following educational objectives. BROAD OBJECTIVES The broad objectives, which are applicable to each topic individually, are : 1. The attainment of factual knowledge 2. The development of practical and intellectual skills 3. The application of anatomical knowledge to practical situations SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES. By the end of the pre-clinical years students should be able to:
Attendance Policy Professionalism is a major component of our medical curriculum. Students should conduct themselves appropriately by coming to educational activities prepared and on-time, and not disrupting the class if late. Being on time is defined as being ready to start at the assigned time. Students are expected to attend all sessions, as all of them are relevant and necessary for the attainment of the stated objectives. Repeated failure to attend educational activities will be considered as a serious breach of professionalism and may result in the student not being allowed to take the final exam The department will also endeavour to adhere to the scheduled time table provide a course schedule with clearly explained policies and syllabus. Any changes in the schedule will be brought immediately to the notice of students. ANATOMY DISSECTION A significant portion of the course will be devoted to dissecting room sessions. Student in groups will study prosections of human cadaver, and cross-sections of anatomical regions of the entire body. The understanding of anatomical relationships will be reinforced with the concomitant use of radiographic, sectional and digital imaging. There will be two types of dissecting room sessions. One is a structured session lasting 90 minutes in which small groups of 3-5 students will rotate through a number of learning stations, examining the provided dissections, and following the provided worksheets. It is imperative that all students come to the sessions prepared to learn. Although worksheets are provided for guidance, students should direct their own learning, ensuring that they have examined the specimens thoroughly, identified all structures and answered any questions in the worksheets. Before coming to the sessions students should familiarise themselves with the worksheet and and read through the relevant anatomical texts and atlas. Students in the group are encouraged to work together, to discuss and share their learning with others in the group. A tutor will be present during the dissection sessions to help students with any problems they might encounter. Tutors will also encourage, stimulate and challenge students to learn independently and may prompt students to discuss specific questions or clinical applications related to the region of the body being studied. Students should certainly not make themselves dependent on the presence of a tutor to proceed with the session. The one hour dissecting room sessions will be led by the tutor, but are not pre-structured. They should involving student interaction, and give the opportunity for students to select the topics they wish to be discussed. LIVING ANATOMY This is an essential aspect of anatomy as it concerns the living body. It is aimed at developing skills of clinical examination and interpretation of clinical images. This is the aspect of anatomy you will use most in everyday clinical practice. Students will work in groups of three or four and will be required to examine one other to identify landmarks, map internal organs and examine movements. At first students may feel somewhat embarrassed by the idea of students examining one another. However, it is important to realise that the main ‘textbook ‘ of human anatomy is to be found in the living body and no medical students is adequately prepared unless he has studied it. Apart from the learning aspect, students also experience the role of being a patient and realize the importance of good professional conduct, of due respect for the person being examined while respecting their privacy. Dummy models are available for practicing certain clinical procedures such as pelvic examination, mammary gland examination and venepuncture. Radiographs, CT-scans, MRI scans and ultrasound images will also be available and are considered to be an integral part of living anatomy as they allow visualization of internal structures in the living. During the sessions some relevant clinical applications are also highlighted. . RADIOLOGY & CROSS-SECTIONAL IMAGING The objective of this component of the course is not to train radiologists but rather to develop an understanding of the relationships of three dimensional anatomy to basic normal findings in radiology imaging. These sessions are presented by a practicing radiologist. Radiology imaging related to the anatomical area being studied may also be made available for self study. Attached guidelines will help students to determine the level of anatomical detail required in the interpretation of images. The “Imaging Atlas of Human Anatomy” by Weir & Abrahams is recommended for identification of structures in radiological and other images. CRITICAL THINKING The objectives of these sessions are to: 1. Promote independent, self directed learning 2. Motivate students to think about the relevance and applications of anatomy 3. Stimulate students to analyse problems and present possible solutions 4. Encourage active student participation in group discussions 5. Provide immediate feedback Students are presented with clinical problems and a set of related questions in advance of the scheduled session. Students should study the problems and look up any required information. in their own time During the session all students will be required to present their answers to the problems, criticise, discuss and improve upon the answers provided by their colleagues. So, they require students to be well prepared. These highly interactive, small group activities designed to stimulate thinking and to broaden students' approach to study (implying that there is more to learning anatomy than passing an exam). By presenting students with problems that do not have straight forward answers, we are stimulating students to search for relevant information and the thought that accompanies it. The underlying problems may be clinical or non-clinical, but most problems are presented in a clinical setting. Questions are meant to be provocative and broad to allow room for divergences of approach, opinion and concepts. These sessions will encourage students to develop communication and organizational skills and to assume leadership roles. Critical thinking is a rather 'new' concept in teaching but is being introduced at all levels of education. It is even more important at University level. It is a challenge for both students and tutors. Students and tutors must work together to derive maximum benefit from this approach to learning. Procedure to be followed: 1. The problem sheet is handed out to the students in advance of the scheduled session. 2. Students will study and think about the problems in their own time. They may also discuss them among themselves. 3. The actual session is a discussion of the problems presented. Students should prepare themselves for the sessions because they will all have to give their input. 4. The tutor will guide the discussion to ensure that all participate and to keep the discussions on track. However, the tutor will not take a direct leading role. The tutor may “appoint” a student as chairperson to formally lead the discussion, and another as rapporteur to summarise the conclusions. All students should have the opportunity to undertake these leadership roles. 5. The sessions will have an in-built self-evaluation, so that the students themselves could propose adjustments for future sessions. LECTURES Lectures will be offered weekly to the entire course. In general, lecturers will focus on major anatomical concepts and introduce clinical relationships. Lectures are not intended to present all information the student are expected to know, and which may be obtained from the prescribed textbooks and reading material. It is a well know fact that only a small proportion of new material can be absorbed by students during lectures. If the lecture is the first exposure of a student to a particular topic, very little of it can be absorbed, and is often difficult for students to follow. Conversely, the student who already has some knowledge of the topic will be able to understand and absorb much more of the material being presented. Lectures are to be supplemented by reading. The prescribed textbooks usually provide the benchmark for the level of detail required, and that which will be examined upon.. HISTOLOGY Histology provides the foundations of clinical microanatomy and cell function. It emphasizes the relation between cell and tissue structure to their functions. Histology is a requisite for subsequent learning of histopathology, pathophysiology and the related clinical problems. All major tissues and organs will be included in the module. In general there will be one lecture a week and one practical session for each group of students. The lectures are meant to introduce major concepts and relate them to clinical applications. During the practical sessions individual students will be assigned a set of teaching slides to be studied individually on the microscopes provided. The sessions also include demonstrations on a teaching microscope connected by a closed circuit television system and to a number of monitors. Students will be responsible for reading the text and reviewing the atlas ahead of each teaching session. CELL BIOLOGY This module provides the basis for understanding the molecular mechanisms of cellular functions, and for correlation of ultrastructure to molecular events. Molecular biology provides the key to understanding the basis of life, and has become an important aspect of medicine. It provides a basic understanding of normal and disease processes from normal controlled cell division to the uncontrolled growth and deranged functioning of cancer cells. It provides an understanding of the mechanisms of the action of certain drugs on diseased cells. It also provides an understanding of some embryological processes and of many genetic disorders The cell biology module consists of a number of presentations that are intended to replace formal lectures and to provide the material that students are expected to know. The scheduled ‘lectures’ will be highly interactive and will highlight the major aspects of the subject. A concise text including the essential material that students are expected d to know are available on the Anatomy web site. EMBRYOLOGY Embryonic and fetal development form the beginnings of human life, which are not only of fundamental biological importance but also have highly topical, ethical and moral implications. The process of development also explains several aspects of adult human anatomy. As in cell biology, this module consists of a number of presentations that are intended to replace formal lectures and to provide the material that students are expected to know. The scheduled ‘lectures’ will be highly interactive and will highlight the major aspects of the subject. A concise text including the essential material that students are expected to know are available on the Anatomy web site. SUPERVISED CLINICAL EXPERIENCE Students will be assigned to one-hour clinical learning sessions on a rotational basis. The clinical tutor will present the patient and his or her case history, demonstrate anatomically relevant points and clinical examination. These are intended to give the student the opportunity to encounter patients and actual clinical situations. Of course students attending different sessions will be exposed to different cases. Each student is expected to keep a record of the clinical condition of the patients seen and of the anatomical lessons learnt from each case SELF-STUDY Blocks of time are unscheduled and are intended for independent, self-directed use of departmental resources, educational materials such as interactive software, the Internet, and text books. Each student is required to perform a small practical project. It may deal with any aspect of anatomy including gross anatomy, histology or embryology. It may take a variety of forms including the production of a dissection, a small research project, a three-dimensional model, a video, CD-ROM or a library–based research. . The objectives of the Anatomy Project are to demonstrate students’ abilities to:
Students should discuss the project and the availability of required materials with their designated supervisors before embarking on the project. Originality and creativity are encouraged. Further guidelines regarding the project may be found here . On joining the first year of medical school, students have entered the medical profession and are expected to abide by the norms of professional behaviour, which is binding also on qualified doctors and academic staff at all stages of the profession. The rules of professional behaviour can be summarized into the following principles:
Personal and academic integrity This includes honesty, sincerity, punctuality and appropriate clothing. Academic integrity acknowledges sources of information, avoids infringement of copyright and guards against plagiarism. Respect for the dignity, individuality, rights and property of others Students should treat one another equally irrespective of country, race, religion or gender. In particular students should guard against using a language that others cannot understand, thus excluding them from participating. Students should be prepared to listen to others, accept other people’s points of view, and be generally courteous to others. A point that is often overlooked is holding informal discussions, passing comments and jokes in the presence of patients. Patients who are not part of the discussion may feel that these refer to them. The same applies during living anatomy sessions where a colleague assumes the role of a patient Responsibility for your own personal and academic commitments Each student should complete his or her assigned tasks, duties, and share of the work, and not try to leave it to others. Included under this heading is professional communication, where students should explain themselves clearly, and provide full information when required to do so. .During the clinical years it is important to communicate effectively with patients. One of the forms of communication is obviously in writing, which should be clear and legible. This applies during examinations, entering notes in patients’ histories and writing prescriptions. Commitment to cooperative and honest teamwork and the maintenance of high professional standards Learning during formal sessions is a collaborative activity. Students learn from one another as well as from their tutors. Students should participate actively in all organized teaching activities. They should be prepared to share information and knowledge with others for mutual learning. Their efforts in studying are rewarding not only to themselves but also the advancement of the department. Commitment beyond yourself This is the ultimate achievement in professional behaviour. It is realised when doctors put the patients under their care before personal interests, and ensure that they have up to date medical knowledge to apply the best possible medical care to their patients. At the pre-clinical level, students realise a similar commitment when they go out of their way to help their colleagues, and ensure they have learnt thoroughly the procedures for emergency treatment and thus be prepared to apply them if required. Conduct in the dissecting room
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| Email us at: anatomy@um.edu.mt |