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Spring
2004 Editor Dennis R. Wissing, PhD, RRT LSU Health Sciences Center Dept. of Clinical Sciences School of Allied Health Professions PO Box 33932 Shreveport, LA 71130 (318) 675-6814 dwissi@lsuhsc.edu Chair |
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Notes from the Editor: No Units No Credit!by Dennis R. Wissing, PhD, RRT I have a hard and fast rule when it comes to exams in my courses. It is very simple: if the student uses a numerical number to respond to a question, it must be followed with a unit of measurement (e.g., torr, mg, L). If the student fails to include a unit of measurement, the entire answer is wrong. Generally, a semester passes before all students are in the habit of including units of measurement in their test responses. Despite awareness of this rule, students are often frustrated when points are deducted for not following it. I explain to my students that units of measurement tell me a lot about how well they understand the concept being tested. For example, if a student uses incorrect units of measurement in test responses it alerts me to concepts that are poorly understood or content that needs remediation. Although the use of inappropriate units of measurement
is widespread across the three levels of RC education provided at our
university, I will use one of my current classes and the concept of
stroke volume to illustrate my point. My students take three sequential
courses covering cardiac output and stroke volume: human physiology,
cardiopulmonary physiology, and critical care concepts. In each of these
courses, stroke volume is discussed, problems are worked, and the concept
tested.
Out of 15 students, seven responded with the correct answer of 50 mL/beat. The other eight responded:
These incorrect units illustrate students’ misunderstanding of stroke volume. It is obvious from these incorrect units of measurement that the students do not have a good reference point for what normal stroke volume should be, much less what it actually is. This list of erroneous units reveals gaps in their understanding of stroke volume and perhaps related concepts (e.g., cardiac flows, volumes, and pressures). I am considering that this may be one of those concepts best learned at the bedside with a patient with a PA catheter, where you can work with the student one-on-one to master this and related concepts. Students were also required to hand calculate the stroke volume problem on my exam. This brings up an issue of performing math using paper and pencil, which, for many college students, is a challenge. Several students worked the problem correctly but put the decimal in the wrong place and recorded the incorrect answer. These students did not seem to recognize that their incorrect unit of measurement was not plausible. By holding students accountable to reporting correct units of measurement, respiratory care faculty can assess their understanding of a variety of concepts.
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Notes from the Chairby Thomas V. Hill, PhD, RRT As section chair, the majority of my recent activity has been working with the Section Program Committee on the program for the Summer Forum and International Respiratory Congress. We forwarded a comprehensive list of program proposals to the AARC Program Committee, based primarily upon the topics identified in the questionnaire many of you completed last year. Bill Galvin, our liaison to the AARC Program Committee, has done a wonderful job of promoting our needs to the Committee, and I take this opportunity to thank him for all his efforts. The Summer Forum Program contains a wealth of information pertinent to educators, and I think you will be pleased with the quality, value and variety of the presentations. I hope to see many of you in Vail, CO, in June. I recently received the 2004 Charges to the Education Section. They include developing a review course to assist graduates in their preparation for the advanced practitioner (RRT) exams and proposing strategies to encourage graduates to participate in the advanced practitioner exams. I have been soliciting your thoughts and suggestions on these two charges via the Education Section e-mail list, and we will discuss our next steps at the section meeting in Vail. If you have not yet shared your ideas, please take a few moments to do so, either via the e-mail list or by sending me your comments directly at: thill@athenstech.edu. Our section web site on AARC Online has been updated recently, thanks to the AARC staff. Be sure to review the site and forward your comments and suggestions to me at: thill@athenstech.edu. Our e-mail list has provided wonderful opportunities for sharing information recently, and I am proud to see how quickly requests for assistance or information receive helpful responses. Please continue to utilize this valuable communication tool. Your participation in section activities is encouraged
and appreciated. Please let us know how we can continue to serve you. |
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Minutes of the Education Section Business Meeting, December 9, 2004, Las Vegas, NVThomas V. Hill, PhD, RRT-NPS Section Chair Sue Pilbeam called the meeting to order at 11:20
a.m.
Sue Pilbeam introduced Tom Hill, who was taking over as section chair. Tom thanked Sue for all her hard work and accomplishments on behalf of the Education Section and her guidance and advice. Old Business: None New Business:
The meeting was adjourned at 12:00 p.m. The next meeting of the Education Section will be at the Summer Forum in Vail, CO, in June. |
Reflections on a New Career in RC Educationby Wendy W. Ayscue, BS, RRT, Director of Clinical Education, Respiratory
Therapy, Becoming an educator after working in the clinical setting as a respiratory therapist for about seven years was a tremendous change. Fortunately, as director of clinical education, I am still able to be in the clinical area a great deal of the time. But as I made the transition, I was still very nervous about how I would handle the change from peer to instructor. While the transition has been smooth, I have found myself not wanting to be as stringent with my second year students as I am with the first year students. I suppose this is because I was only a clinician when I first became acquainted with this set of students; now I am their instructor. Changing careers, in a manner of speaking, has been a wonderful lifestyle change. Although my patients varied daily when I worked as a clinician, the job itself had become monotonous. I did not feel as if I was being challenged as much as I had been when I was a new graduate. That is not to say I was never challenged, it was just not as often. Now that I am teaching, I am challenged everyday by students asking questions I have not thought about for years. I find myself doing more research now than when I was a student. Because of these questions I strive to relearn things I've forgotten while acquiring new information. My goal as an instructor is to always keep the students well informed of new therapies, procedures, and other changes in the field of respiratory care. As for myself, continuing my education is also at the forefront. If I do not continue my education, then I will not have fulfilled my potential to be an excellent instructor. I want my students to strive for excellence, and I must set the standard. Would I recommend this line of work to other clinicians?
Yes, there is always room for growth.
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The High Price We Pay for Low Health Literacyby Donna Timm, MLS, Head, User Education, In September 2003, the Louisiana State University Health
Sciences Center in Shreveport (LSUHSC-S) library hosted a Medical
Library Association (MLA) teleconference, “Reading Between the
Lines: Focusing on Health Information Literacy.” The target
audience for the MLA teleconference was librarians, but since this
issue also affects those in the health professions, the library marketed
the teleconference to the staff, students, and faculty on the LSUHSC-S
campus and at Northwestern State University (NSU) in Shreveport. One
NSU professor asked clinical students to participate in this event
so they could become familiar with how low health literacy could adversely
affect the quality of patient care. These issues were addressed during
the teleconference. Terry C. Davis, PhD, a professor in the department of medicine at LSUHSC-S who has conducted extensive research on the impact of low health literacy, notes, “literacy is related to multiple aspects of health, including health knowledge, health status, and the use of health services.”(4) Davis goes on to point out that patients may experience
difficulties reading the educational brochures that are supposed to
prepare them for various procedures or the consent forms they must
sign prior to undergoing surgical procedures. Studies have shown that
approximately 20% of Americans -- about 40 million people —
read below a fifth-grade level, (5) with these rates doubling for
people over age 65 and those living in poverty. (6)
Public libraries already play a significant role in adult literacy
education in many communities, and they are now expanding this role
by helping librarians understand the implications of low health literacy.
In a number of public libraries, the librarians attend workshops on
how to design and choose easy-to-read materials for library users,
as well as how to design web sites that lead the users to reliable
consumer-health information.
After studying these issues, the task force will report
to the legislature, making recommendations on strategies for improving
the health literacy of the residents of Louisiana. The task force will
also be expected to make funding recommendations to provide programs
and resources to increase health literacy in the state.
Conclusion Many studies have been conducted to raise awareness of the problems associated with low health literacy, but there is much to be done in terms of identifying and implementing strategies that solve those problems. Simplifying reading materials alone is not the answer. Funding will be necessary to conduct further research and to initiate demonstration projects that identify strategies that work. Through its Interagency Task Force on Health Literacy, the state of Louisiana hopes to lead the way in identifying workable solutions to: (1) reduce the financial burden of low health literacy in the state of Louisiana, (2) improve patients' access to health care, and (3) enhance the quality of that care. References Healthy People 2010. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion.
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Making
the Most of PowerPoint:
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Resource Review: ‘WinSim’by Susan P. Pilbeam, MS, RRT, FAARC Most of us in teaching are well aware of the books and software materials available from publishers, but we often miss good resources created by our own peers. The purpose of this column will be to review available instructional materials you won't see reviewed in Respiratory Care or Chest, but may find worth looking at for your program. To get things started, let’s review a software program titled, “WinSim: A Computer-Based Clinical Simulation Authoring and Testing System,” created by Louis Sinopoli, EdD, RRT. WinSim is a computer program for Windows systems that lets the user create tests for any topic area or cognitive skill. It allows the instructor to create custom tests to match specific course content. Students can take the tests at any time and in any location. Tests created in WinSim can be simple true and false,
multiple choice, or complex branching-logic clinical simulations.
You can paste in x-rays, ventilator control panels, waveforms, lab
results, close-ups of real equipment, and any drawings or illustrations
you would like to include in an exam question. We are all aware that one of the major stumbling blocks for graduates is passing the NBRC advanced practitioner clinical simulation exam. Having a tool that allows you to start small and simple and progressively build to a more advanced level of case difficulty is a handy tool to have, and one reason why you might find WinSim beneficial to your students and your program. The WinSim software also allows the author to create a branch to remedial content areas or easier content, based on the student’s previous selection or choice. It is a method instructors can use to create immediate remedial feedback to the student based on the selections they make. Of course, like any paper and pencil test, the test is still only as good as the author’s ability to create it, so WinSim will not make a good test writer out of a bad one. It does, however, make the process of creating an operational computer version of a test easier than I expected. I’m only familiar with one other test-authoring program, although I’m sure there are many. So, I’m not an expert in this area. However, I did find WinSim easy to use in creating a clinical simulation question. Most of us have adopted PowerPoint and are producing instructional resources using it or something similar. Some of us have even ventured into using the web to teach respiratory care courses. A part of this continuum is, I believe, building evaluation into the process. WinSim's format seems to lend itself to online courses, although I haven’t personally tried it for that purpose. In addition to the authoring version of WinSim, there is another version students can use that allows testing, but not authoring or editing. Installation uses Microsoft’s Windows Wizard, so it is basically self-installing, with no complicated settings, drivers, or special commands required. Those of you who were fortunate enough to hear Dr. Sinopoli’s presentation about WinSim at a recent Summer Forum (2002, 2003) probably received a free copy of the program, as I did. Here are a few illustrations showing what the program looks like. The student is presented with a sign-in screen that requires minimal computer skills. Then the test screen is presented: The author screen looks like this and demonstrates how you would fill in the blanks. The Student Score Report The time you, as the author, put into test development with WinSim comes back to you semester after semester. Your current exams can, of course, be computerized by entering them into the WinSim program. You do not have to retype them, if they are already in digital form, such as a Word document. You can receive a limited-use demo version of the WinSim authoring system by contacting Dr. Sinopoli. WinSim is one example of some of the resources available to us from our peers. If you have experience using WinSim, we would appreciate your comments. Perhaps faculty may wish to share clinical simulation questions they have created with this software. If you would like to share information, please post your comments on the section e-mail list. In future editions of “Resource Review” we hope to provide you with a summary of a polysomnography technician training program notebook and a software program (DataArc) for tracking student progress in the clinical setting. If you know of similar resources, please contact section chair, Tom Hill. |