Convenors: Mr Jason Marcus & Dr Anne Horak

Administrator: Mrs Linda Arendse

Obstetrics runs within an eight-week block using a blended learning approach. It builds on the introduction provided in the third-year programme and forms part of a progressive spiral curriculum that runs through to the final year. During this time, students acquire the knowledge, skills and professional conduct required for medical practice. Teaching takes place within the Maternal and Neonatal Service: Metro West, which exposes students to primary (or community-based) and secondary (hospital-based) levels of care. Practical experience for Obstetrics is recorded in a logbook and includes at least 10 deliveries under supervision and caring for at least eight women in the first stage of labour. Further details are specified in the logbook. Students are encouraged to develop professional behaviour, as well as to develop empathic and caring attitudes through compassion tutorials. The programme is supplemented by a series of online lectures, virtual and in vivo tutorials and skills training sessions that cover topics within the discipline, as well as contributions from other disciplines, in order to provide an integrated, multidisciplinary approach to common perinatal problems. The knowledge and skills acquired during the 4th year programme form the foundation of Obstetric and Neonatal medicine. Students are assessed with and end-of-course Objective Structured Clinical Exam.