​INTRODUCING PROLONGED DISORDERS OF CONSCIOUSNESS

 

Materials available til April 30th (or a little longer if special arrangements made with your organisation).

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How to purchase
  • Individuals: use the ‘buy now’ button above & set up your student account (The ‘username’ you choose will display in learner chat) Note: If your organisation has given you a coupon code this is how you use that.
  • Organisations buying 20+ places, if you wish to be invoiced instead of staff making individual purchases then email: KitzingerJ@cardiff.ac.uk
  • Students on placement – scroll down for how to apply for a free place

Course details

What are Prolonged Disorders of Consciousness [PDoC]? What causes conditions such as the vegetative and minimally conscious state? How do these patients present? How many patients survive – and what might their future hold? This short course is recommended for anyone working in units which care for PDoC patients. The course provides key information about this patient group and helps you reflect on your own feelings and work experience and provide clear and consistent information to families. It supports everyone involved to work as a team with the patient at the centre. It includes the opportunity for more ‘advanced’ learning: to ask questions about the role of modern medicine, debate different ways of labelling patients and address questions about the ways in which we think about PDoC itself.

Start date: 18th February 2022 (Full course materials released by 7am that Friday)

Delivery: entirely online

Course design: All our courses have interactive elements (eg polls & quizzes) & are multi-media (including film clips from our interviews with frontline staff).

Interactivity: Each time we run a scheduled course there is a cohort of CPD students learning alongside one another who interact via the discussion board, exchange ideas about best practice and pose questions of each other and of the tutor.

Duration: Students are encouraged to complete the course within 2 weeks of release to maximise the benefits of being part of a student cohort all doing the course around the same time.

 

Study time: minimum of 3 hours study time (or much more with optional activities)

Time management: Learners engage with the materials at their own pace and at a time that suits them (and have access to the materials for 4 weeks from the course start date).

Lead tutor/course author: Professor Jenny Kitzinger & Dr Julie Latchem-Hastings, Cardiff University

Online seminar opportunity: We hope to organise  an online discussion seminar alongside the scheduled course – but this will depend on when the tutors have time. You will be emailed if this is on offer after the course has started.

Assessment: Self-assessment quizzes & reflection. Certification of participation on completion

Cost: £10

Centres taking on courses:  we can make special arrangements for centre managers/teams who wish to enrol 30+ staff. This can include being invoiced instead of staff paying individually. We can also organise bespoke courses for centres with the possibility of an in-person seminar discussion – contact us for details, costings & to discuss requirements.

Students on placement & support workers: With each scheduled run of this course we offer some free enrolments for placement students & support workers. Email your request to Professor Jenny Kitzinger (KitzingerJ@Cardiff.ac.uk). Please provide a 3 or 4 lines about yourself and why you’d like to join the course, and where you are (are going) on placement.

Example of course contents

  1. Introduction: Course Welcome; Connecting Learners
  2. Core Facts: Mechanisms of injury, What is PDoC, Test your knowledge
  3. Language and Labels: “Vegetative”, “Minimally Conscious”, “Permanent”
  4. Daily Observations: Interpreting behaviours, Predicting futures, Images of PDoC, Describing patients
  5. Broader Context:  History of PDoC; Comparison between Countries; Demographics
  6. Diagnosis and Guidelines: Diagnosis and Prognosis; Sociology of Diagnosis
  7. Reflections and Feedback: Poem for reflection; Professional Guidelines; Summary & CPD certificate.

Note: You’ll need a computer & internet access to do the course – with a microphone to listen to audio & the usual software for playing youtube clips etc. If organising this course from a workplace please check the technology and that there is no firewall block before booking.

Note: The fees for our course are currently set simply to cover the software licences, website hosting and education technologist input. All receipts/invoices should go to our educational technologist: Liz Fahy at GeckoSurfing. Please let us know if you are a centre wishing to buy 30+ places on the course and an invoice can be sent if you prefer this way of paying.

You can preview the first unit of the course here: https://cdoctraining.org.uk/module-1/course-welcome-4/