course guidance

We are passionate about education. We try to make your learning as meaningful as possible and want to make our teaching modern adn relevant to the 21st century. We hope you enjoy our courses as much as we do.

The Critical Care course is part of series of modules taought at the Department of Anaesthesia and Intensive Care spread over three years. It is the continuation of the Trauma module taught in 4th year and is followed by a clinical placement in 6th year.

The overarching aims of our courses are 1) to understand the priorities of our daily jobs as intensivists (incl. the possibilities and limitations of intensive care) and anaesthetists (incl. perioperative care, risks and how to minimise those risks). The objectives do not include specific or advanced concepts that would only be relevant to the students pursuing a career in anaesthesia and intensive care.

The intended learning outcomes are as follows:

While designing this course, we aligned outcomes to the format of teaching. We use student-centred, interactive learning tools, and most units are delivered in small groups. Some of the learning tools we use include simulation learning, hands-on workshops, serious games, case-based learning or group projects.

In order to make the time spent at school as relevant and effective as possible, we use a flipped classroom model of learning. In this model, students are expected to be acquainted with all of the easily accessible information that would have been taught in a lecture in a classic classroom approach. This enables contact hours to be highly active, interactive and student-centred. Your time in class is better spent doing and thinking than recieveing information that you could read at home in your own time. We have to emphasise that for this model to work, your preparation in advance for the course is absolutely key. You will be provided with study materials (articles, textbook chapters, videos...) in advance. You can find all preparatory material under "Contact Days > Preparatory Materials". After reading/watching the preparatory materials, please sill a short knowledge test. The result is not relevant to your final grade, but you need to take it before coming to contact days.

Every contact day will be ended with a short personal reflection. Reflection is an effective learning tool that will enable you to crystalise ideas, fine-tune mental models and close the loop of learning. You will create a reflection diary that you will be able to come back to (before the exam, for example). Writing this reflection should not take you more than 5-10 minutes and will be visible only to you and your teachers. It will not be graded. You will find practical instructions under "Contact Days > Reflection Diary". There is no right or wrong way to reflect, the only right way is the one that is the one you find works for you. We believe in reflection so much that it is compulsory for all students after all teaching days.

You will be able to chose one out of three advanced workshops (ventilation, emergency ultrasound, advanced cannulation) in respect to your own interest. The workshops are practical, and you will have the opportunity to try out techniques used in intensive care. The content of these workshops will not be assessed. You will be able to let us your preferences known via a form that will be sent out by email.

Most of the learning will be done in small groups. You will be divided in four groups (A-D) at the beginning of the course according to your prefered workshop. Unfortunately, due to the complicated nature of the organisation of this course, you will not be able to chose your group or take individual units with a different group. It is possible, under specific circumstances, to exchange groups with another student including their advanced workshop. Please let us know these changes by email before the beginning of the course.

If you know that you will not be able to attend (illness, quarantine), let us know as soon as possible, we will try to find a solution.

The final examination will be conductes as a 4 station OSCE (Objective Structured Clinical Examination) (see "Course > Guide to OSCE"). Examination only takes place during the examination period. All dates for the academic year will be pinned in SIS at the beginning of the year. We are usually not able to add any more dates after this.