The Educational Process at the Department
The Department organizes teaching on the discipline «Topographical Anatomy and Operative Surgery» for 3rd and 4th-year students studying for degrees in «General Medicine» and «Pediatrics» in Russian and English.
Teachers of the department supervise the Practice «Nursing with manipulative techniques» of 3rd-year students from the Faculty of General Medicine and the Faculty of Preventive Medicine.
The organization and planning of the educational process are carried out in accordance with the educational standards for the degree programmes, the curricula, and the syllabuses for the academic subjects across all degree programmes.
The educational programmes for the academic disciplines are developed by the department’s teaching staff and are reviewed annually and updated with the latest information of the operative surgery and topographical anatomy.
The main forms of organization of the educational process within the department are lectures, practical classes and supervised independent study by students.
The academic discipline is based on a motivated, practice-oriented approach to teaching, focusing on the development of the necessary skills in students. A range of teaching methods are employed in the educational process.
Practical Сlasses:
When studying new material, teaching aids are used: cadaveric material, diagrams, tables, slides, models, educational boards, museum specimens, simulators and educational videos. The classrooms are equipped with televisions for showing slides and educational films.
The department’s main focus is on practical training. Great attention is paid to developing practical skills while training future doctors. In every class, students hone their skills on training equipment, glove simulators and wet specimens (animal organs and organ complexes), using abdominal cavity simulators and laparoscopic training equipment.
The department has fully equipped operating rooms where surgical procedures can be carried out under intravenous anaesthesia. The equipment is on a modern level, which helps students totally get to grips in practice. Everything here is as strict as in a real operating room: sterility is maintained using sterilisers, and students learn to observe surgical hand hygiene and to put on gloves and gowns correctly, and so on. Classes in the operating rooms give students the opportunity not only to deepen their theoretical knowledge, but also to acquire practical skills that will be useful to them in their future profession. Students learn the basics of surgical procedures, practice using surgical instruments and familiarize themselves with the techniques used during operations.
During practical classes particular attention is paid to the use of modern imaging technologies (CT, MRI, Ultrasound), which enable the study of human anatomy throughout life. The department has an ultrasound diagnostics room, where students learn to use the machines and practise basic skills in examining the abdominal organs and diagnosing various conditions.
To provide a clinical focus to their teaching the department’s lecturers regularly hold training masterclasses. This is excellent opportunity to learn clinical skills in a real operating room. The main aim of such masterclasses is not simply to teach technical skills, but to develop students’ surgical thinking and their ability to work as part of a team. The university’s technical facilities enable anyone to watch the live stream from the operating rooms and listen to the speakers’ comments from the fully equipped press center. WetLab is an innovative teaching format that enables students to work with biological material in conditions that are as close as possible to real-life situations.
During each semester students study at clinical bases, where they learn to deal with real patients.
The teaching and learning resources, didactic, informational and illustrative materials produced by the department form the basis of the Educational and Methodological Complex. This approach is in line with the requirements of modern higher education and complies with the educational standards on which a comprehensive approach to the training of specialists is based.
Interim assessment of students in this discipline is conducted in the form of a credit (at the end of the 6th semester) and an exam (at the end of the 7th semester). The exam is based on questions from an exam card and takes the form of an oral answer with a demonstration of practical skills. Students’ knowledge is assessed during the final classes and the exam on a ten-point scale in accordance with the regulations «Criteria for Assessing Students’ Knowledge in the Discipline of «Topographic Anatomy and Operative Surgery».
The department’s activities are carried out in accordance with:
- Legislation and regulatory legal acts of the Republic of Belarus;
- Regulatory documents and guidance materials issued by the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Belarus and the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Belarus;
- The University’s Statutes;
- The Committee on Biomedical Ethics;
- The Mission, Vision, Policy and Objectives in the field of quality;
- Documents necessary for the functioning of the quality management system;
- The University’s internal rules of work;
- Orders and directives of the University Rector;
- The Regulations on the Department of Operative Surgery and Topographical Anatomy.