Your final year will help you develop research skills. You will design, plan and execute your own research project, supported by expert academics from our research groups.
Research Design, Research Methods and Statistics
In this module you will learn specific methods for carrying out your own research in the medical and biomedical sciences. It will prepare you for research project work in a variety of settings covering topics such as literature searching, compiling bibliographies, advanced medical statistics, scientific writing, evidence-based health and clinical trial and design among others. You will study via lectures and workshops.
Personal and Professional Development
This compulsory module has two main aims: to help you to develop ‘employability’ skills and skills for lifelong learning such as reflective practice. The module is delivered by academic staff in the school, with the help of advisers from the University’s Careers Service, external speakers and Nottingham alumni. Speakers come from a range of disciplines, including laboratory research, clinical research, physiological measurement commercial/government organisations as well as medical school graduates talking about their careers. By the end of the module, you will have learned about your strengths and weaknesses and reflected on these in a meaningful way, preparing you for life after graduation.
Research Project and Audit
This module will fully immerse you in the research environment providing you with direct experience of contemporary research in the biomedical and clinical sciences. This enables the development of the practical and organisational skills needed for a career in scientific or clinical research. You will undertake a project that reflects the research activities of the School of Medicine by designing, planning and carrying out a research project under the guidance of an academic supervisor. The form of the research project will vary and can include laboratory-based work and/or clinical, patient-based studies.
Rehabilitation and Long Term Conditions
This module will introduce you to some of the evidence which currently underpins rehabilitation and the management of long term conditions. Rather than discussing a variety of diagnoses, you will focus on a neurological condition which affects young adults and use this from which the group can discuss common clinical problems and the contribution of different rehabilitation services. Initially, lectures will provide you with an overview of the condition and the underlying pathology. This will enable a review of knowledge of neuroanatomy and physiology and allow you to consider the action of different prescription drugs. Through a combination of lectures, small group discussions and workshops, you will gain an overview of the challenges which patients, relatives and members of the multi-disciplinary team experience when treating or living with a long term condition which has a marked impact on mobility and other activities. You will obtain an understanding of the secondary consequences and risks of a long term condition and the variables which can impede or facilitate rehabilitation.
The Cellular Basis of Disease
This module will introduce students to core concepts related to aberrant cellular signalling and diseases. The content will focus on several diseases, such as cancer, dysfunctions of the CNS, cardiovascular disease etc., and consider the symptoms, basis of the pathophysiology, and therapeutic treatments. Practical methods used to investigate the diseases will also be taught, and combined with complementary laboratory practical classes and tutorials.
Ageing Systems Physiology
This module aims to equip students with a strong foundation in ageing physiology, coupled to a solid understanding of how research has informed this knowledge base. Uniquely, this module will provide clinical and societal context for students to understand the implications of age-associated changes in physiology across multiple body systems, with a number of sessions exploring how this has influenced recommendations (medical and lifestyle-based) for an ageing population.
Students are also expected to develop a number of transferrable skills such as written and oral presentation skills, in addition to key academic skills of contextualising and linking knowledge. By the end of the module students should be able to describe, in detail, the major age-associated changes in physiology across a number of body systems, and explain the impact of these changes in a number of spheres.
This module deals with the major physiological changes that occur with advancing age across a number of body systems, and relate these changes the both clinical and lifestyle considerations for an ageing population. Content will include:
- The societal effects of an ageing population
- Cellular ageing
- Ageing body systems
- Clinical considerations relating to ageing
- Lifestyle considerations relating to ageing
Clinical Toxicology
This module will cover the basic principles of toxicology, molecular mechanisms and specific organ toxicities. These principles will be reinforced by a number of clinical cases based in important xenobiotics, toxic mechanism, target organ and toxic outcome.
Tropical Medicine and Beyond
This module introduces health affiliated students to diseases and treatment commonly found in tropical regions and is of concern and focus of the WHO. It also aims at increasing awareness of alternative and complementary treatment practiced in this region. An understanding of neglected tropical diseases will take students beyond looking at disease and medicine but at factors like education which can alleviate health issues amongst underprivileged populations.
There are 20 places available on the module.
Topics include malaria, dengue, leprosy, water-borne cholera and re-emerging tuberculosis (TB), most of which have been identified by UN as epidemics which need to be ended by 2030, under the health and well-being goal in UN’s global goals for a sustainable development agenda. Lectures will be supplemented by onsite visits to a successful dengue ward and one of the remaining leprosy centres.
Lectures will also look at alternative and supplementary treatment from the tropics for non-infectious diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and common cancers.
The above is a sample of the typical modules we offer but is not intended to be construed and/or relied upon as a definitive list of the modules that will be available in any given year. Modules may change or be updated over the duration of the course due to a number of reasons such as curriculum developments or staffing changes. Please refer to the
module catalogue for the latest information on available modules.