I have practiced clinical skills and on-the job setting with my students by having one student be the medical professional and the other student act as the "patient". I have encouraged the "patient" student to "put on a good act" for the other student, posing as a difficult patient, sad patient , confused patient, etc. This has allowed the students to be prepared for situations that arise in the clinical or on-the-job-setting and feel confident ahead of time that they may "handle the situation" properly because they have already "experienced" it.
Joel, seeing the value of marrying a fun activity to a learning experience makes you a great instructor!
Carol, I hope you try the non-verbal gestures with your students. It makes them aware that non-verbal communication between and among staff is an important part of being a team on the job.
I call it "Do you see what I see?". As many people tell you what symptoms they currently have and that is great feed back. But too often people take their time in getting help (Dr. PT ...) allowing for dysfunctional compensation patterns to develop. In my profession if we can't get to the source of the problem which is usually hidden in these compensation patterns we are essentially puting a bandaid over the issue. By teaching students to not only gain valuable information through what they hear, seeing the story that the body offers is priceless. So in this game you look at a person anteriorly, rt. lateral, posteriorly, and lt. lateral from head to toe evaluating muscle inbalances. From what they see I may ask review question of muscles or what plan they have to relieve the imbalances. Overall this activity takes their clinical applications to a whole new level as they actually see information from books in real practice (technique application, physiological effects.......) I love that they learn in the activity instead of trying to memorize everything. It goes along way for the student preparing for state boards.
Kimberly, thank you for sharing such a wonderful teaching idea! We can all benefit from this idea.
I do the same kind of idea, although I will take index cards and depending on how many students are in the class and how many instruments, I will write three to five different instruments and then they have to go up and find them. We will do this for a few times and then I will ask a student to go up to the table and pick up three cutting and dissecting or grasping and holding instruments. If they are one of the last ones to go and there are not enough of that type of instrument on the table or if someone has picked up an incorrect instrument the students can go around to the other students and take which instrument they think is the correct one. The students then go through and they receive points they can use for quizzes or tests.
One thing that I do is place a number of instruments in a mayo stand cover, I teach Surgical Technology, and then the student reaches in and pulls out an instrument and they have 5 seconds to name the instrument. If they do, they receive a roll of Smarties candy and the instrument is removed from the cover(it looks like a big blue pillowcase). If the student does not know the name I give out a dum-dum sucker and it goes back in the mayo stand cover and I move on to the next student. It doesn't take long for all the students to get the Smarties!
Lise, this is a marvelous activity and I appreciate you sharing it with us.
I like that you are asking them to find instruments that are categorized by use.
I give students scenarios to enhance their critical thinking in classroom or in clinicals.
Scenarios can serve a variety of purposes.
I am not really teaching in either of those settings but the bingo game is one that I have adapted in my English course to teach grammar and punctuation.
Using bingo in English class is a great suggestion.
A good creative teaching strategy I've used that has helped reinforce contents and skills would be the gestures/signs strategy.
I'm glad you have had success with this, also.
In my hands-on massage classes, the students exchange massages with each other on a regular basis. After each massage, I encourage the students to verbalize a version of "Roses and Thorns" by sharing 3 things about the massage that felt GREAT, and 3 things that could be improved.
I will try this idea this week. Thanks!
I enjoy using the event cards, it gives the students some independance and well the responsibility and accountability for getting their tasks done on their own
Accountability is a critical skill in the careers we teach.
I am constantly using event cards to check critical thinking skills. These allow students to realize they know more than they think they do! When they hear a case study based on covered information, they immediately say "I dont know that", but after a little prodding, they surprose themselves!
