POM5102 - Acute perioperative care - 2019

The focus of this unit is for the participant to obtain the necessary knowledge and skills in managing the trauma patient in the acute setting, as well as the chronic patient with an acute exacerbation of their disease.

It will focus on strategies to improve the outcome for these patients. Participants will gain practical knowledge.

Upon successful completion of the unit, students will be able to:

1. Explain the process of perioperative risk stratification and the place of intervention in the perioperative setting.
2. Critically evaluate the pathophysiological processes that occur in a patient in the setting of acute trauma.
3. Correlate the pathophysiological mechanisms in acute trauma with the patient's clinical signs and symptoms.
4. Develop a comprehensive plan for managing perioperative anaemia.
5. Justify the rationale for using various fluids (including blood products) to maintain circulatory and nutritional support.
6. Identify commonly used anticoagulant and antiplatelet agents, understand their pharmacology and justify their use in the perioperative period.
7. Justify the use of thromboprophylaxis during the perioperative period.
8. Recognise the patient with acute pain and correlate their condition to the underlying pathophysiology.
9. With appropriate collaboration formulate a defensible/appropriate management plan for an acutely unwell perioperative patient.

• Short Essay (1500 words) (20%)
• Individual iSAP (20%)
• Group iSAP (30%) (Hurdle)
• Long Essay (3000 words) (30%) (Hurdle)

This unit will be on-line only. The workload requirement will be 20-24 hours per week (on average).

Weekly workload consists of reading the course content notes for each module, watching associated videos or listening to podcasts, reading a selection of extended reading articles provided with each module, and preparation of assignment tasks.

See also Unit timetable information

Preoperative medicine