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Placement in Hospital Services Departments I

Code: 106724
Credits: 3
2026/2027
Degree programme Type Course
Medicine OP 3

Contact lecturer

Name :
Hector Corominas Macias
Email :
hector.corominas@uab.cat

Teaching staff

Eloy Espin Basany
Javier Serra Aracil
David Parés Martínez

Group languages

You can consult this information at the end of the document.

Prerequisites

Basic skills in Cell Biology, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Anatomy and Physiology is recommended. A sufficient knowledge of the psychological basis of health and disease states is desirable, as well as an adequate  knowledge in interpersonal communication.

 

Objectives

This is an optional subject that can be taken from the second year and whose general objective is for the student to become familiar with professional practice in a real context, incorporated into the activities of a hospital service, or a laboratory care or research team, performing their own tasks under supervision. The internships must be carried out in the area of the Teaching Unit where the student is enrolled.

The entire subject must follow and is organized from a gender perspective and using correct and non-sexist language.

Learning outcomes

  1. Explain the role of the healthcare professional as a critical and empathetic agent of social change, working for the health of the community.
  2. Recognize the humanitarian aspect of activity in the service of health based on the doctor-patient relationship, both in care and in teaching and research.
  3. Distinguish between the paternalistic conception of the doctor–patient relationship, deriving from the Hippocratic tradition, and the modern, more egalitarian approach which gives all protagonism to the patient.
  4. Describe the person as a multidimensional being in which the interplay of biological, psychological, social, environmental and ethical factors determines and alters the states of health and disease and their manifestations.
  5. Assess, ethically and legally, the impact of nosocomial infections.
  6. Analyse the importance of nosocomial infections on health outcomes for hospitalised patients.
  7. Interact with other specialists in treating patients with a complex or multiorganic pathology.
  8. Identify the different professionals in the healthcare team, together with their profiles, functions and how they work together.
  9. Identify the relationships between primary healthcare and the rest of the community health system.
  10. Recognize one's own limitations and welcome help from colleagues in taking decisions on patient care.
  11. Develop teamwork skills.
  12. Be self-critical and reflect on one's own learning.
  13. Adopt values of solidarity and service to others, both when dealing with patients and with the general public.
  14. Acquire the principles and values of good medical practice, both in health and in illness.
  15. Respect patients' religious, ideological and cultural convictions, unless these conflict with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and prevent one's own convictions from impinging on patients' decision-making capacity.
  16. Assess the health needs of the population.
  17. Identify the main activities of health promotion and disease prevention.
  18. Identify the radiological and anatomopathological alterations of the commonest diseases in the different body systems, at different stages in life and in both sexes.
  19. Understand the manifestations of the main pathologies on the structure and function of the human body.
  20. Identify the biochemical, cytogenetic and molecular biology markers applied to clinical diagnosis of importance in diagnostic imaging: radiological-anatomopathological.
  21. Explain the mechanisms of ageing, geriatric syndromes and the general assessment of the geriatric patient.
  22. Describe the general and local factors that affect the development of diseases.
  23. Describe the basic radiological and anatomopathological characteristics of infections and the factors that favour their development.
  24. Identify the various medical systems, including alternative medicine, and identify their founding principles.
  25. Assess the need, indications, contraindications, chronology, risk, benefits and costs of each examination.
  26. Critically assess the results of complementary examinations, taking their limitations into account.
  27. Categorise emergency situations in accordance with the available indices of seriousness.
  28. Establish a diagnostic and therapeutic approach in emergencies.
  29. Identify the cardiovascular risk factors and perform the actions of primary and secondary prevention.
  30. Describe how health is not merely the absence of disease but also all physical, psychological and social conditions that allow maximum plenitude and autonomy of the person.
  31. Describe the communication process and its effect on the professional caregiver–patient relationship.
  32. Detect how verbal and non-verbal behaviour can be linked in a context of patient-health professional relationship.
  33. Identify patients' social and health needs.
  34. Communicate appropriately with patients and their family-members.
  35. Demonstrate, in professional activity, a perspective that is critical, creative and research-oriented.
  36. Communicate clearly, orally and in writing, with other professionals and the media.
  37. Use information and communication technologies in professional practice.
  38. Apply medication orally, percutaneously, by inhalation, nasally, and by the otic and ocular routes.
  39. Define the motivational interview in the medical context.
  40. Contextualise the responsibilities and tasks of healthcare professionals within the framework of public health (public administration, private sector, academic sector).
  41. Apply the principles of equity in all areas of application of public health.
  42. Apply the epidemiological method to clinical and management decision-making, taking into account the principles of evidence-based medicine and cost-effectiveness.
  43. Describe the main communicative skills for a clinical interview.
  44. Convey medical information appropriately.

Contents

The student can choose which service or laboratory to join based on availability. Three contexts are considered:


Clinical AREA (MEDICINE & SURGERY)


Internships in any of the hospital clinical services


During the practice the student will observe: - General aspects of the clinical relationship and the concepts of health and disease. - Care methodology. - Etiology, pathophysiology, semiology and clinical propaedeutics, major syndromes and manifestations of diseases, - Diagnostic and therapeutic procedures for the most frequent diseases - Functional exploration of the different devices and systems. - Use of the Center or Service's own techniques - Surgical act. Control of the consequences of surgery. - Medical and surgical syndromes.


The clinical experience can be completed by attending clinical care sessions, case closing sessions, case registration, mortality, clinical-pathological, bibliographic, specific continuing education sessions, or others that the service has scheduled



Laboratory area and other Central Services


Internships in clinical laboratory service (biochemistry, hematology, immunology, microbiology, pathological anatomy or pharmacology) or radiodiagnosis or nuclear medicine. In the case of clinical laboratories, the student will rotate through the different laboratories and sections with the aim of knowing: which are the biomarkers most used in clinical diagnosis and in which pathologies or


situations are useful, the particularities of the rapid response areas and, finally, the criteria for interpreting the analytical results to certify their validity. During the stay, the student will attend the scientific sessions of the service in which he is integrated.

Learning activities and methodology

Title Hours ECTS Learning outcomes
PERSONAL STUDY / READING ARTICLES / REPORTS OF INTEREST / REVIEWS AND SUMMARY OF CLINICAL CASES 59 2.36 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44
ASISTENCIAL CLINICAL PRACTICES (PCAh) 15 0.6 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44

Teaching method: asistencial clinical practices

The student joins the activities of a service or laboratory for one week (5 days), 3 hours a day, to observe and/or carry out assistance, training or research tasks in a supervised manner. During the stay, the activity carried out will be recorded in order to complete the port folio summary of the stay. This summary, together with the opinion of the tutor of the scheduled stay, will be the basis of the evaluation

This Guide describes the framework, contents, methodology and general rules of the subject, in accordance with the current study plan. The final organization of the subject in terms of the number and size of groups, distribution in the calendar and exam dates, specific evaluation criteria and exam review, will be specified in each of the UDH Hospital Teaching Units , who will make it clear through their web pages, on a scheduled day or on the first day of class for each subject, through the professors responsible for the subject at the UDHs.

Responsible department(s): Multidepartmental (clinical departments)

Morphological Sciences; Surgery; Therapeutic Pharmacology and Toxicology; Medicine; Rheumatology, Paediatrics, Obstetrics, Gynecology and Preventive Medicine and Public Health; Psychiatry and Legal Medicine; Cell Biology, Physiology and Immunology; Biochemistry and Molecular Biology; Genetics and Microbiology

The professors designated as responsible for the subject at the Faculty of Medicine level and at each of the UDH the coordinator of the corresponding 4th year. For the current year, the following teachers are:

Professor responsible of the Faculty:

Hèctor Corominas hcorominas@santpau.cat

Eloy Espin Eloy.Espin@uab.cat

Professor responsible from otherteaching Units

UD Sant Pau: Hèctor Corominas. hcorominas@santpau.cat

UD Vall d’Hebron: Eloy Espin Eloy.Espin@uab.cat

UD Germans Trias i Pujol: David Parès. dapares@gmail.com

UD Taulí: Xavier Serra Aracil . jserraa@tauli.cat; xserraa@gmail.com

Pathway of operation

For students of Hospital Teaching Units (3rd year or higher):

1. The interested student will be assigned to a tutor (must be a UAB professor) and a service of the medical, surgical or laboratory hospital where to develop the activity, which must have a duration minimum of 15 hours, be outside school hours and be different from the practices carried out in the subjects of the study plan.


2. The student will give the tutor an activity proposal (use the specific sheet) where the content of the same will be stated and his/her approval. The completed application must be delivered to the Academic Management and information point so that the head of the subject in the Teaching Unit can approve the activity.


3. Once authorized, the Academic Management will send you the authorization and the summary sheet of the activity and qualification.


4. At the end of the period of stay, the student will obtain a grade for the activity he has carried out, signed by the teacher in charge.


5. The student must take the document (proposal, summary and rating) to the Academic Management and information point to request the recognition of the credits according to the usual procedure.

Exceptionally, and according to the criteria of the responsibleteaching staff, the available resources andthe current health situation in the different Teaching Units, part of the content corresponding to thetheoretical lessons, practicals and seminars may be taught face-to-face or virtually.

Annotation: within the schedule set by the centre or degree programme, 15 minutes of one class will be reserved for students to evaluate their lecturers and their courses or modules through questionnaires.

Assessment

Continuous assessment activities

Title Weight Hours ECTS Learning outcomes
Attendance and active participation 50% 0.5 0.02 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44
Writing an activity report 50% 0.5 0.02 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44

During the scheduled period, the student will record the most significant clinical experiences and summarize the content of the sessions in which he has participated. This documentation will be given to the student's tutor at the end of the stay and will form the basis of their evaluation. Students will be informed at the beginning of the course of the procedure they must follow to deliver the documentation. The record of activities includes the summary of the clinical experience, of all the tasks that have been carried out and of the sessions in which they have participated. The tutor responsible for the student will monitor the fulfillment of the programmed objectives on a daily basis.


The student will be able to carry out a review work, clinical commentary or any activity agreed upon with their tutor.


To pass the subject, the student must have attended at least 80% of the scheduled activities, have a positive assessment from the tutor and have passed the assessment of the activity registration document in the case of hospital services.


Students who do not complete the evaluation tests will be considered as Not evaluated, exhausting the rights to the registration of the subject.


This subject does not provide the single assessment system.


In exceptional cases, the coordinator may request that students with the highest score issued by the tutors present their work orally to determine the maximum grade for the subject (MH).

Bibliography

Paulman P, Taylor RBBB, Paulman AA, Nasir LS, eds. Family Medicine, Principles and Practice. New York: Springer; 2017.

Chi J, Hosamani P. Is it Time to Re-Examine the Physical Exam? J Hosp Med. 2018 Jun;13(6):433-434. doi: 10.12788/jhm.2991.

Hirschtick RE. The Quick Physical Exam. JAMA. 2016 Oct 4;316(13):1363-1364. doi: 10.1001/jama.2016.8182.

Artandi M, Norcini J, Garibaldi B, Thadaney Israni S, Kugler J, Kumar A, Russell S. Improving the physical exam: a new assessment and evaluation tool for physical examination skills. Diagnosis (Berl). 2022 Mar 17;9(3):393-397. doi: 10.1515/dx-2022-0014.

Littlewood S, Ypinazar V, Margolis SA, Scherpbier A, Spencer J, Dornan T. Early practical experience and the social responsiveness of clinical education: systematic review. BMJ. 2005;331:387-91.

Schrager, S. (2020). Managing a telephone encounter: Five tips for effective communication. Family Practice Management, 27(3), 1.

Silverman, J., Kurtz, S., & Draper, J. (2013). Skills for communicating with patients (3 ed.). Radcliffe Publishing.

Lu AD, Veet CA, Aljundi O, Whitaker E, Smith WB 2nd, Smith JE. A Systematic Review of Physical Examination Components Adapted for Telemedicine. Telemed J E Health. 2022 Dec;28(12):1764-1785.

Seki SM, DeGeorge KC, Plews-Ogan ML, Parsons AS. Physical exam: where's the evidence? A medical student's experience. Fam Med Community Health. 2020 Mar 10;8(1):e000284.

Software

No specific software recommended

 

Course groups and languages

The information provided is provisional until November 30. After this date, you will be able to consult the language of each group through this link. To access the information, you will need to enter the course CODE