uhs-curriculum-of-behavioral-sciences

1. UHS Curriculum of Behavioral
Sciences
Presented by
Dr M Mujtaba
Assistant Professor of Psychiatry
At the AEME conference on 7th March 2015

2. Outline
• Textbook of Behavioral Sciences by Mansoor & Rana
• Taught throughout the first three years
• By the end of third year there is a 200 marks professional exam

3. Textbook
• Divided into 5 sections
• Introduction to Behavioral Sciences
• Medical Ethics, Professionalism & Doctor Patient Relationship
• Use of Principles of Psychology in Medical Practice
• Sociology & Anthropology In Health & Disease
• Psychosocial Aspects of Health & Disease

4. Areas of Learning & Assessment
• Introduction to Behavioral Sciences & Its importance in Health
• Bio-Psychosocial Model
• Importance of BS (why & when, understanding, correlation of mind and body)
• Role of Doctor (Desirable Attitudes and practices)
• Understanding Behavior
• Sensation & Sensory Organs (description, working and understanding)
• Perception (definition, factors affecting, types)
• Attention & Concentration (Definition, Factors affecting)
• Memory (Definition, stages, types, methods to improve)
• Thinking (Thinking, cognition, levels of cognition, problem solving & decision making)
• Communication (Types, modes, factor affecting, characteristics of good comm.)

5. Areas of Learning & Assessment
• Individual Differences
• Personality (definitions, theories, stages of growth, factors affecting, assessment)
• Intelligence (IQ & EQ, Methods of Enhancing EQ, factors affecting, assessment)
• Stress & Stressors
• Definition, Classification & Relationship of stress and illness
• Stress Management
• Anxiety, coping skills, defense Mechanisms, treatment compliance
• Conflict management, adjustment & Maladjustments, pain perception, hypnosis
• Interviewing & Psychosocial History Taking
• Assessing Psychosocial factors in different disciplines of medicine and surgery
• Definitions, types, skills of interview and listening

6. Areas of Learning & Assessment
• Doctor/Dentist Patient Relationship
• Types, Models, Boundaries, psychological reactions
• Medical Ethics
• Intro, Hippocratic Oath, Pillars, Dos & Don’ts, responsibilities, core values
• Interactions with pts., families, pharmaceuticals, teachers & professionals, ethical
dilemmas, advertisements & publicity
• Rights of patients & Doctors, informed consent, confidentiality capacity assessment
• Pain, Sleep & Consciousness
• Pain (Concept, Physiology, psychosocial aspects, management of chronic/intractable)
• Sleep (Stages, physiology, changes & altered consciousness, sleep induction techniques)
• Application in special population
• Physically/Mentally Handicapped, chronically ill, homebound, medically compromised

7. Areas of Learning & Assessment
• Skills
• Communication (Principals, art of questioning & listening, good and bad listener)
• Counselling (Scope, indication, contraindication, steps)
• Crisis Intervention (Mass disasters management, individual life crisis, conflict resolution)
• Informational Care (to patient about disease, drugs, prognosis etc.)
• Social & Community Perspective
• Health delivery Inequalities, and experience of health & Illness in social classes
• Illness & disease association with ethnicity, culture, gender and race
• Health beliefs, illness perception, illness behavior & Sick role
• Health Psychology
• Psychological considerations in clinical management of Patients
• Human Development Throughout the life cycle
• Impact of illness on psychological wellbeing and vice-versa

8. Psychomotor & Affective Skills
• Counselling the patient
• Empathy building
• Demonstrating various Interviewing Skills
• Breaking bad news
• Information care session
• Taking Informed consent
• Demonstrating Sleep Hygiene Techniques
• Progressive muscular relaxation exercise
• Psychosocial assessment of the patient
• Demonstrating expertise in handling
ethical issues
• Mini Mental State Examination
• Breathing exercises
• Imagery relaxation technique
• Identification of stressors in patients life
• Conflict resolution
• Dealing with aggressive Patient
• Dealing with non-cooperative patient
• Dealing with a patient in distress (Child,
female)
• Dealing with High Expressed Emotions in
The Family Members
• How to approach a patient when you
suspect abuse
• Assessing the capacity to make decisions
• Dealing with transference and counter-
transference mechanisms

9. Teaching Modes
• Cognitive Domain
• Lectures
• Tutorials
• Presentations by students
• Psychomotor & Affective Domains
• 3 weeks rotation in almost all associated medical colleges in 3rd year
• Patient interaction in simulated & real settings
• Demonstrations
• Hands on experience

10. Final Assessment
• By the end of third year there is a 200 marks professional exam which is
divided into
• Written (90 Marks)
• 45 Multiple Choice Questions (45 Marks)
• 5 Short Essay Questions (9x5 Marks)
• Orals/Clinicals
• Psychosocial Assessment of 15-20 minutes (45 Marks)
• 5 OSPE Stations of 5 minutes each (9x5 Marks)
• 20 Marks for internal assessment based on
• Attendance in lectures & Rotation
• Class Tests
• Ward Test or performances
• Any presentations/demonstrations

11. Current Issues with Implementation
• Lack of personnel trained in BS
• Gaps created in teaching by psychiatrists Vs psychologists
• Lack of involvement by clinicians from other disciplines
• Lack of standardization in teaching across medical colleges
• Textbook needs revisiting and revision
• Logistic and feasibility issues associated especially with orals/clinicals
• Standardization has become an issue in the recent exam as well
• Lack of ownership and interest in BS
• Lack of interest in assessment of BS Written exam
• Reliability of assessment process

12. CONTENTS C1 C2 C3 P A %age
Biopsychosocial Model: application of Behavioral Sciences in
Medical/Dental Practice
1 1 1 2 5
Psychological Growth and Development of Personality, Functions of
Learning, Perception, Memory, Thinking, Emotions
1 1 3 5
Communication Skills 3 1 1 5
Counseling: Breaking Bad News, Dealing with Death and Dying in Clinical
Setting, Crisis Intervention/Conflict Resolution
1 3 1 5
Provision of Informational Care and Improving Compliance 2 2 1 5
Psychological Reactions in Health Settings 1 2 2 5
Role of Psychosocial Factors in Health Care 1 1 3 5
How to Make Psychosocial Assessment 2 1 2 5
Effects of Psychosocial Factors and Stress while dealing with common
Health Conditions, Chronic Pain
2 3 15 5 25
Stress, Coping Techniques 2 3 5
Ethics and Character Building 1 5 9 15
Role of Mental Health and Medical and Dental Practice 1 1 3 5
Enhancing Learning Skills 5 2 3 10
Total 100%