Longitudinal / Skillslab

Skills training is organised parallel with the theoretical curriculum.

Because of the strong dependence on the acquisition of knowledge, early integration between theory and skills can only be realised in a skills teaching programme that takes place parallel with the ‘cognitive’ curriculum. Skills training takes place continuously. Thus, complex skills can be unravelled into smaller -and less complex - elements. Beginning off with basic principles of the examination (for instance: using the stethoscope) the students soon move on to applying these techniques under more complex circumstances (listening to each other’s heart sounds). Eventually, they are able to perform auscultation of the thorax of a patient and to interpret the findings to reach a conclusion from that examination.

By practising in many separate, and in many different situations, the students acquire a certain agility and flexibility. Their skills performance becomes more stable, reliable and generalised across many different situations.

From the first day of their study until the last, the students can train at the Skillslab. A specified programme is offered in each block, according to a well balanced blueprint that is agreed by all stakeholders in the curriculum.

At the end of the ‘skills-curriculum’ the students are able to perform an average doctor-patient encounter in a systematic, and technically correct manner.