Complexity and Chronicity [MED220H]

Course Director: Dr. Jordan Goodridge
Course Duration: Weeks 62 through 72

CNC takes place during the last 11 weeks of the 72-week Foundations Curriculum. CNC is the sixth course and integrates teaching around the care of complex and/or vulnerable patient populations while reinforcing and building upon challenging topics that have been previously covered in the curriculum. Important topics including the approach to surgical patients, trauma, pain management and infectious disease outbreak are also addressed.

A particular focus in this course will be on the care of individuals with multiple medical and non-medical issues, and is intended to reflect the increasingly complex real-world patient populations in clinical practice. Complexity case weeks will encourage students to think critically about approaches to complex patient presentations, preparing them for similar real-life cases during third and fourth year.

Overall, CNC provides students with:

  1. Review, consolidation and integration of content from previous Foundations courses to date

  2. An introduction to patient complexity and patients with multisystem concerns that cross multiple domains (physical, mental health, psychosocial or health systems challenges)

  3. Skills and knowledge to prepare them for entry into clerkship and further encounters with real-world patients

Patient-centred clinical cases are used to bring together foundational disciplines relevant to the study and practice of medicine, in a manner that promotes their cognitive integration by students. Each course week has its own objectives and assessments that contribute to the overall course objectives and final assessment, as well as to student achievement of the MD program’s key and enabling competencies.