Undergraduate

Human Development, Behavioural Sciences and Ethics: 1st and 2nd Year Medical and Dental

The course is run in co-operation with the Departments of Community Health and General Practice and Paediatrics. The Behavioural Science element aims to enable students to; 1) Describe the basic determinants of psychological development from childhood through adolescence to adulthood and old age; 2) Demonstrate an awareness of how adversity impacts on psychological development; 3) Describe the factors that predict the influence of family and peer groups on individual attitudes and health behaviours; 4) Demonstrate how cognitive and social psychology help us understand how people behave; and 5) Apply the cognitive model to mental health problems. The course is taught through a didactic lecture series and small-group problem-based learning tutorials.

Neurosciences: 2rd Year Medical

This course has been developed in collaboration with the Departments of Anatomy, Biochemistry, Pharmacology and Physiology. We introduce basic ideas in Neuropsychology, including cognition, memory, mood, attention and perception. Sleep and Pain are further topics, while joint symposia examine selected clinical conditions from the different viewpoints. The aim is to introduce students to the psychology and neurobiology of normal brain functions that underpin clinical psychiatry.

Communication Skills: 2nd Year Medical

This course is run as part of the clinical skills training programme run over the course of the year. The aim of the course is to provide students with basics skills required for effective communication with patients and staff. Skills taught are based on the Calgary Cambridge approach to communication in medicine and delivered via small group teaching using role play and video feedback.

Psychology and Psychiatry Applied to Medicine: 3rd Year Medical

This course is designed to help students to; 1) understand how psychiatrists function in the contemporary health service (history, self-care, clinical skills); 2) be able to describe and apply the key principles of health behaviour change; and 3) to be able to describe some common mental health problems as they present in the general clinic. The course is comprised of a series of didactic lectures, small group teaching, online learning facilitated by the HSE, and peer- and self-directed learning.

Clinical Psychiatry: 4th Year Medical

Clinical and theoretical aspects of psychiatry are covered during the two-month attachment. Students are attached to multidisciplinary teams involved in the day-to-day work of AMNCH, SPH, and SJH interviewing patients and presenting their findings to members of their clinical teams. In company with team members, students visit the psychiatric and general wards, the out-patients' department, Accident and Emergency department, day centres and, when possible their patients' own homes. Small groups of students work up and present selected clinical topics to their peers, and interviewing skills are developed through the use of video technology. Specialist attachments are made to Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Mental Handicap and Forensic Psychiatry facilities. A range of student selected activities are available. Progressive assessments and an end of block examination contribute 50% of the marks towards the psychiatry component of the final examination in Medicine/Psychiatry.

Clinical Psychiatry: 5th Year Medical

Further clinical opportunities and teaching are provided to small groups of students. Revision tutorials are arranged and a series of revision lectures provided.