Entry requirements
Open for MSc Psychology students. For students from other specializations than the master’s specialization Clinical Neuropsychology, prior knowledge from an advanced bachelor course in clinical neuropsychology is strongly recommended.
Description
Patients with neurological disorders usually have several clinicians being involved in their care (e.g., neurologist, neuropsychologist, pathologist, rehabilitation specialist, occupational therapist, etc.). These clinicians are all experts within their own discipline and via communication with experts from other fields (multidisciplinary consultations) additional insights can be obtained in order to select the best treatment or support for the patient. How regularly multidisciplinary consultations take place, depends on the discipline and the complexity of the case. In scientific research the connection with clinical practice is often insufficient, leading to a mismatch between the research question on the one hand and the needs and wishes of patients and clinicians on the other. Therefore, professionals who can integrate preclinical and clinical information from different expert viewpoints are essential to the advancement of the field of clinical neuroscience. We need scholars that can build bridges between clinical practice and scientific research and that can connect understanding neurobiological mechanisms with quality of life. In this course we aim to broaden the scope on how to look at neurological disorders. By integration, enriched viewpoints are created, which will lead to novel groundbreaking scientific ideas that align with the wishes and needs of stakeholders involved (e.g., patients, proxies, employers, clinicians, scientists).
Interactive lectures will be given using a college tour format. This means that during the lectures experts from the field (e.g., patients, patients’ partners, neurologists, insurance physicians, nurses, philosophers, etc.) will join. These experts will be interviewed by the students under the supervision of a moderator (course coordinator). Learning how to integrate information from different perspectives and how to apply these novel insights to advance clinical neuroscience and patient care, is the primary goal of the course. In this course, two neurological disorders will be used as a proof of concept, for example multiple sclerosis (MS) and epilepsy.
Course objectives
Upon completion of the course, students will be able to:
1) Describe the most important hallmarks of the neurological disorders discussed in the course including clinical and pathological characteristics, epidemiology, psychosocial consequences;
2) Identify the main stakeholders and their perspectives involved in clinical and research practices involving the neurological disorders discussed in this course;
3) Integrate information from these different perspectives and explain how different perspectives can translate into new insights/recommendations for clinical practice and research;
4) Ask critical and in-depth questions to obtain all relevant information from stakeholders from different disciplines.
Time Table
For timetables of your lectures and exams, please select your study program in Psychology timetables.
Course registration
Students need to enroll for lectures.
Examination
Students are not automatically enrolled for the examination. They can register via uSis from 100 to 10 calendar days before the exam date. Students who are not registered will not be permitted to take the examination.
Mode of instruction
8 interactive work group sessions with discussions (2 hours each). Attendance is mandatory. One work group session can be missed with a valid reason (determined by the course coordinators). If a second work group session will be missed the student needs to make a replacement assignment. With more than two missed work group sessions, the course cannot be passed.
Assessment method
50% Exam – 4 open questions (course objective: 1 - 3) based on the literature and the lectures.
40% Group assignment (course objective: 2, 3, 4) in which the students will select a research question related to the neurological disorders discussed in this course (provided by course coordinator). This research question needs to be analyzed from different stakeholders perspectives. After the integration of the different perspectives, the students will provide a recommendation/ future perspective that relate to the initial research question. The assignment will be presented in a recorded presentation/movie.
10% Lecture preparation (course objective: 4) since the content of the lectures is dynamic and dependent on the (quality of the) questions that will be asked. Therefore, every lecture will be prepared by an assigned group of students. They will formulate relevant questions and send these questions in the day before the lecture itself. During the lecture, the group will make a tribute as interviewers. In addition, students that are not part of the assigned group will also have room to ask questions.
Students will have to receive a passing grade (grade: 5.5 or higher) for all three elements combined. The exam grade should be 5.0 or higher for each individual element.
Reading list
No book. Reading material will consist of state-of-the-art scientific articles (1-2 per lecture).
Examples:
JW Krakauer et al., Neuroscience Needs Behavior: Correcting a Reductionist Bias. Neuron. 2017; 93(3):480-490.
L Lakin et al., Comprehensive Approach to Management of Multiple Sclerosis: Addressing Invisible Symptoms-A Narrative Review. Neurol Ther. 2021;10(1):75-98.
Contact information
Prof. Hanneke Hulst h.e.hulst@fsw.leidenuniv.nl
Dr. Liesbeth van Vliet l.m.van.vliet@fsw.leidenuniv.nl