Veidlapa Nr. M-3 (8)

Course Description Status: Approved

Course Description Version: 25/26.R.1.00

Description Period: 2025./26 academic year rudens semestris

Study Course Accepted: -

Study Course Description

Introduction to Clinical Medicine

Main Study Course Information

Course Code
ISK_199
Branch of Science
Clinical medicine; Internal medicine
ECTS
3.00
Target Audience
Medicine
LQF
Level 7
Study Type And Form
Full-Time

Study Course Implementer

Course Supervisor
Valdis Ģībietis
Structure Unit Manager
Jūlija Voicehovska
Structural Unit
Department of Internal Diseases
Contacts

Riga, 2 Hipokrata Street, isk@rsu.lv, +371 67042338

About Study Course

Objective

Introduction to Clinical Medicine:

  1. Instruct students on medical history documentation – chief complaint, history of present illness, past medical history.
  2. Develop bedside physical examination skills according to the clinical case – the interview, inspection, palpation, percussion, auscultation.
  3. Teach the ways of combining patient subjective experience in an illness with the data from physical examination and come to a possible diagnosis.

Hematology:

  1. Learn about hematological patients examination methods. Learn to recognise and define changes in red blood cells, white blood cells and platelets.
  2. Learn to define anemia, recognise symptoms and signs of anemia. Learn laboratory diagnostic of anemia, laboratory classification of anemia.
  3. Learn types of bleeding disorders, symptoms and signs, laboratory diagnostic methods.

Preliminary Knowledge

Student has attended at least 5 Medical Communication classes before starting the current course. Normal anatomy, histology, normal physiology, biochemistry and principles of medical physics, biology and basics of genetics. Normal hematopoesis. Normal blood counts. Normal blood coagulation/hemostasis.

Learning Outcomes

Knowledge

1.On course completion, the students will know how to: • structurally interview and record patient medical history; • perform clinical examination according to presented disease/condition; • objectivize pacient's subjective experience with a condition; • explain terminology used in the clinical setting.

Skills

1.Upon successful completion of the course, students will be able to: • communicate with patients, their relatives, colleagues, other persons involved in the process of health care; • specify the complaints, medical history, structurally interviewing and recording history data; • perform components of physical examination – inspection, palpation, percussion, auscultation; • interpret lung functional testing – spirometry.

Competences

1.1. Evaluate symptoms, reveal interconnections between pathologies. 2. Analyse situations, substantiate, logically formulate and explain their opinion. 3. Evaluate lung functional examination data, relate it to the certain clinical case. 4. Evaluate blood test results, recognise main hematology disorders, attribute to a specific clinical case and general examination data.

Assessment

Individual work

Title
% from total grade
Grade
1.

Individual work
-
-
Students independently familiarize themselves with the requirements in each lesson and learn clinical manipulations from a source understandable to the student (at their own discretion). Students individually search for and learn the most up-to-date information about the methods of physical examination of patients from materials recommended by the department or other sources. In order to evaluate the quality of the study course as a whole, the student must fill out the study course evaluation questionnaire on the Student Portal.

Examination

Title
% from total grade
Grade
1.

Examination
100.00% from total grade
10 points

Cumulative mean assessment is based on the results obtained from the tests for each lesson. Each test must be passed successfully to pass the course. The final lesson of the Introduction to Clinical Medicine module consists of two tests - a demonstration of compulsory physical examination skills and a theoretical clinical case task.

Passing the hematology tests requires at least 75% correct answers. The minimum passing score for the "Introduction to Clinical Medicine" module tests is 40%.

Study Course Theme Plan

FULL-TIME
Part 1

  1. Class/Seminar

Modality
Location
Contact hours
On site
Specialized room
3

Topics

Extremities: peripheral vascular system and lymph nodes.

  1. Class/Seminar

Modality
Location
Contact hours
On site
Specialized room
3

Topics

Symptoms and signs of hematological diseases. Examination methods of hematological patients. Changes in blood counts.

  1. Class/Seminar

Modality
Location
Contact hours
On site
Specialized room
3

Topics

General abdominal examination.

  1. Class/Seminar

Modality
Location
Contact hours
On site
Specialized room
3

Topics

Assessment of the patient. Physical examination manipulations test.

  1. Video Lecture

Modality
Location
Contact hours
Off site
E-Studies platform
2

Topics

Introduction to Clinical Medicine. General principles. Clinical thinking and decision-making.
Description

Video lecture

  1. Class/Seminar

Modality
Location
Contact hours
On site
Specialized room
3

Topics

Clinical reasoning and instrumental examination.

  1. Class/Seminar

Modality
Location
Contact hours
On site
Specialized room
3

Topics

Types of bleeding disorders. Symptoms and signs of bleeding disorders. Laboratory analyses for bleeding disorders.

  1. Class/Seminar

Modality
Location
Contact hours
On site
Specialized room
3

Topics

General medical examination. Basic clinical skills.

  1. Class/Seminar

Modality
Location
Contact hours
On site
Specialized room
3

Topics

Thorax and the lungs. Hands-on examination.

  1. Class/Seminar

Modality
Location
Contact hours
On site
Specialized room
3

Topics

Symptoms and signs of anemia. Laboratory diagnostic and laboratory clasification of anemia.

  1. Class/Seminar

Modality
Location
Contact hours
On site
Specialized room
3

Topics

Clinical cases with pulmonary function tests.
Total ECTS (Creditpoints):
3.00
Contact hours:
32 Academic Hours
Final Examination:
Exam

Bibliography

Required Reading

1.

Bates’ guide to physical examination and history taking / Lynn S. Bickley, Peter G. Szilagyi. 2017Suitable for English stream

2.

The Merck Manual of Patient Symptoms: A Concise, Practical Guide to Etiology, Evaluation, and Treatment 1st edition. 2008. (akceptējams izdevums)Suitable for English stream

3.

Hutchison’s clinical methods: an integrated approach to clinical practice. 2017.Suitable for English stream

4.

Macleod’s clinical examination / edited by Graham Douglas, Fiona Nicol, Colin Robertson ; illustrated by Robert Britton, Ethan Danielson. 2018.Suitable for English stream

5.

Klīniskā hematoloģija / Sandra Lejniece. 2020

Additional Reading

1.

Propedeitika. G.Orļikova un Pičkura redakcijā. RSU, 2014.

2.

Oxford Handbook of Clinical Haematology. Oxford University Press, 2015.Suitable for English stream

3.

Wintrobe’s Atlas of Clinical Hematology. Douglas C. Tkachuk, Jan Hirschmann. Lippincott Williams& Wilkins, 2017.Suitable for English stream

4.

Disorders of Iron Homeostasis, Erythrocytes, Erythropoiesis. Handbook. European School of Haematology, 2006.Suitable for English stream

5.

Scott H. Goodnight, William E. Hathaway. Disorders of Hemostasis and Thrombosis. A Clinical Guide. The McGraw-Hill Companies, 2001, p.1-314.Suitable for English stream

6.

Williams Manual of Hematology. 6th edition, McGraw-Hill Medical Publishing Division, 2003.Suitable for English stream

7.

Bleeding Disorders by D.Green, C.A.Ludlam. Health Press, 2006Suitable for English stream

8.

Marshall A.Lichtman, Ernest Beutler, Thomas J.Kipps, Uri Seligsohn, Kenneth Kaushansky, Josef T. Prchal. Williams Hematology. 7th edition. 2021.Suitable for English stream

9.

S.M. Lewis, B.J. Bain, I. Bates. Dacie and Lewis Practical Haematology. Churchill Livingstone, 2017Suitable for English stream

10.

Hoffman A.V., Moss P.A.H. Essential Haematology. 6th edition. Wuiley- Blackwell, 2020.Suitable for English stream