Multidimensional aspects of well-being in healthcare - Practising the person-centred approach [BIP]

Course description

The programme offers an overview and practical applications of a person-centred approach in healthcare supporting the ultimate goal of enhancing healthcare treatment and thus promoting population health in a comprehensive understanding that focuses on well-being of all involved in the patients’ sphere.

Students will learn about, experience and test the person-centred approach in healthcare promoting well-being and quality of life/death in its multifaceted characteristics. As well-being is an inherently subjective and multifaceted concept with different meanings in different cultures and contexts, the programme entails a multicultural learning experience with participants coming from various professional as well as national and cultural backgrounds.

The programme supports a shift away from biomedical model of illness, focusing on single diseases, to a comprehensive approach understanding the complex interplay of determinants which affect an individual’s well-being, i.e. health in the WHO sense of “a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity”.

The cornerstone of the programme is the biopsychosocial model of disease (Engel 1977) which provides orientation for students in reviewing determinants of well-being along biomedical, psychological and social aspects of well-being and healthcare.

The learning experience of students will be characterised by

• interdisciplinary exchange of students and teachers
• international learning environment
• collaboration with external partners
• best practice examples at University of Cologne and its local partners