in the initial, you know, basic course. But in addition to the traditional way that physiology is being taught, we’ d really like to limit if not completely take away formal lectures delivered in person, and really use more of a flipped classroom strategy which has become increasingly popular today. Because in a lecture, students really stop absorbing information after about 20 minutes.
So many people believe that a more effective way is to look at education not from the perspective of the sage on the stage, so to speak, talking for an hour, but having that expert be a guide and mentor to students working out problems themselves. Looking at this strategy, the students would on their own look at some sort of lecture. We’ re looking at products that might be available that have animated lectures, rather than just videotaping a person in front of a monitor. We’ re looking at how creatively we can represent the scientific facts that they need. And then when they’ re in the classroom, apply some of those facts to solve a problem or explain an issue.
So, for example in the cardiovascular section, I’ ve looked at how we can talk about the effect of atmosphere on breathing. Another example is this one section is called the sporting life physiology in action. And in that section, the students are going to have to work with a small group with a, you know, with a with an expert facilitator to look at what happens to the cardio-respiratory system when you’ re climbing Mount Everest. That is going to be different from breathing at sea level.
And then by contrast, if you’ re going to go diving on the Barrier Reef, you’ re now in the opposite situation where you’ re at deep in the water, so that barometric pressure is going to be very different from what it is when you climb Mount Everest. We’ d like to put some things in perspective that makes the question relevant to life, rather than just being an isolated scientific fact.
And then the other area about the sporting life is that I’ m sure most students have heard of athletes that have died a sudden death, playing basketball or other sports. Sudden Death is another issue around an abnormal cardiac condition. We want to try to bring in these problems with real ideas of how it has true relevance to taking care of people, and what goes on when people are do have these problems.
Another important factor that really aligns with some of the mission associated with Drew is how to think about lifestyle, environment and social factors affecting disease. So one important example is blood pressure, where you can really affect your blood pressure, by your lifestyle, to some extent. Even doing all the best things with lifestyle, you might still have high blood pressure, but you can certainly help to control it. One of the things that we want to do is to have the students go on a shopping trip with a with a certain amount of money in hand, a budget of $ 50 to feed you and your husband for this next week. How are you going to make choices. And I think that one of the things that physicians don’ t talk about enough and understand enough is around nutrition and how to help patients read labels and make good choices.
And another important area for social justice and environmental justice is air pollution. And how many of us understand conditions in underserved lower income areas where people have built landfills or have factories that can infect affect your environment? We also want to teach those kinds of effects by really talking about Mr. Jones, you know, who’ s been working in a chemical factory for 20 years and lives near a landfill. How is that potentially affecting his respiratory health, and what are those changes? I
It’ s really looking at physiology in action, not just physiology in a textbook. We also want to make sure that we’ re integrating all different types of imaging CT scans, echoes, and ultrasounds into how we teach because today, there’ s so much dependence on these kinds of imaging and ultrasound that we want to introduce these early and not wait until the clinical clerkships. Let them understand how the these images can reflect the different types of problems that come along with the cardiovascular system.
What do you envision being the intended outcomes of your particular section?
Well, I think that they would get an interesting introduction to cardiovascular and respiratory physiology that would be the basis on which they can begin to learn about disease processes in the later years. It’ s really important to understand human anatomy, and they’ ll be able recognize when diseases, or trauma, or illnesses come about; what parts of the body are affected, and how they’ re affected.
CDU College of Medicine | PG. 18