Solicitations...

So I finally remembered to ask some of the first years if anyone would be willing to write up a short blog entry about what their classes are like this year compared to ours last year. I know changes have been made, so we'll see if one of them has some spare time to jot their thoughts down.

Also, for people who have been going through interviews, if anyone would like to share their interview experiences at any of the PA programs I'd love to post them!

In other news, so sorry for the silence. I have a list of things I've jotted down that I want to blog so I won't forget them. My laptop has been having issues so as a result I've just avoided being online much lately. I've taken it to the med education IT help desk a couple times, but so far no improvements. It has meant things like missing out on emails reminding us that our autopsy conference is one place instead of the normal place (that was a bad morning!) and such things.

Speaking of autopsy, I'm back on autopsy after a three week stint at Duke North. It was a good rotation, lots of different complex specimens, and I had a practical exam. It is harder grossing with a staff PA over your shoulder watching you with a critical eye, but it went well. I got an A so I'm not complaining in the least and it was great getting that feedback.

Next week is spring break and I'm going to spend mine going back to South Carolina to do home improvements because I love painting, but until then I'd like to have a busy rotation this time around. Brain cutting today was really busy with med students and first year PA students, but we had some very interesting cases so it was good that everyone got to see those. There was a great moment when the neuropathologist was quizzing the students on neuroanatomy and the first year PA students were getting all of the answers right, so she had to tell them that they weren't allowed to answer any more questions. They did an awesome job and all PA students can name the locus coeruleus thanks to one of our staff PAs!

TBL Website, Video, and personal explanation

For people who are still unsure what the TBL format is like, there is a helpful website with a lot of information that should answer all of your questions. Team-based Learning Collaborative.

A video from the Duke-NUS campus is here:

Update: After talking to my husband I realized that other people still really don't understand what the TBL format is like so here is an example:

During a TBL session the students are in groups of 4-6 students. We are given a sheet with a patient's pertinent medical history (age, chronic conditions) and the symptoms for the current illness. The groups talk and list out their top possible diagnoses, which are turned in to the proctors who hand out part two. In the second part the groups are asked what tests they would perform and why. In part three they suggest their top five treatment steps. In part four they might get blood work results, an EKG or be told newly developed symptoms and have to explain what that indicates. In part five they might have to alter their diagnosis based on changing symptoms/test results/response to treatment.

Then the entire class goes over the various groups' answers and groups might be asked why they choose a certain test given the symptoms, etc. Sometimes we find out what the actual diagnosis is, but other times the case is based on a recent patient and tests are still pending.

Team Based Learning (TBLs) and blood serum levels

Yesterday we had our first Team Based Learning (TBL) session yesterday. The med students are broken up into groups of six students, but last year the PA students found that having all eight of them together made the group too large. Our class was split into two groups of four. The format is that we have an individual quiz, then do the same questions within our group and then we have an open book/open note/open internet group activity. There are some pretty strict guidelines about what I can and can't share from the TBL lessons, so to be safe I'm going to avoid mentioning content all together.

I was pretty proud of our team, we finished the team quiz before anyone else and got all the questions right. And we knew why the right answers were the right answers and why the wrong ones were wrong, so go us! I missed one question on my individual quiz that was just stupid, as in during the team assessment when we were answering the question I answered it correctly and was surprised when reviewing my personal quiz that I'd put what I put as my answer. All in all, not bad.

The team activity was a bit strange since it was geared towards future medical practitioners, but kind of interesting. We got it all done within the time limit and received full marks for it, so I assume we put enough actual information down that our answers were decent.

The activity does couch questions more in terms of clinical applications, so TBLs allow us to have an idea of real world implications of the information we are currently studying. Although, being honest at this particular point in the course the scenarios that could be given to us would be more suited to the Md/PhD future research scientists track because we're still pretty mired deep in biochem/cell biology.

Also, while going back and looking over the material from last week in preparation of our tutoring session on Thursday (have I mentioned this? I don't think I have...) I remembered that one of our lecturers wants us to memorize the levels of normal blood serum components so that we can better serve our patients in the future. I will do it, because it might be on the test, but I will be grumpy about it. I am pretty sure if you are a physician whose specialty requires you to regularly base clinical decisions on your patient's blood serum levels then you memorize it soon enough through use, and if you're in any other specialty (and I can think of several off the top of my head) that doesn't require you to habitually exam your patient's blood serum levels then you could look up the information if you need it.

But that is just my opinion and I am probably just irritated about it because I'm afraid memorizing that table will take up precious space in my head potentially driving out some other more important information. :-)

So tutoring session on Thursday... because this is our first test and we don't really know what to expect and because they want us to pass and do well, we have a mandatory group tutoring session. It lets us meet one of the tutors and makes us aware of the resources available to us, etc. I'm interested to see how it goes. I know she will be asking us some questions on the material and it will be good to have something to use to gauge my understanding.