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Armstrong Atlantic State University
College of Health Professions
‘Put Your Hands On Your Heart' brings Respiratory Therapy, Cardiovascular Interventional Science students together in collaborative learning laboratory at Armstrong Atlantic State University (AASU) in Savannah, GA.
Armstrong Atlantic State University (AASU) College of Health Professions (COHP) students were involved in an ‘ice breaker' collaborative laboratory that allowed cardiovascular interventional science and respiratory therapy students to get to know what other allied health practitioners do in their daily practice. The goal was to prepare the students to talk to and listen to each other in the small team collaborations and patient simulations planned in the near future for the COHP.
‘Put Your Hands On Your Heart' was a learning laboratory designed to get the students at AASU excited about the heart in a non-threatening laboratory experience. This experience allowed the Respiratory Therapy and Cardiovascular Interventional Sciences students to work side-by-side in dissecting pig hearts and to share their knowledge about the heart and it's structures. The lab was organized by Esma G. Campbell, M.P.H., R.T. (R), Coordinator of the Cardiovascular Interventional Sciences Program, working with Dr. Elwin Tilson, R.T. (R), Director of the Department of Radiologic Sciences at Armstrong Atlantic State University. Ms. Campbell obtained porcine hearts for all of the lab participants and a large bovine heart to use as a visual teaching model.
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The dissections were led by the expert hand of Dr. Linda Wright, PT, PhD, an anatomist who will be leading the cadaveric lab experience for the respiratory therapy students later this semester, and Christine Moore, MS, RRT-NPS, CPFT, faculty member in respiratory therapy. Dr. Doug Masini, RRT, AE-C, FAARC, director of the respiratory therapy program at AASU, noted that “Respiratory Therapy students need to know that in a code in the cath lab, listening to other allied health experts is important. The Respiratory Therapy students learned this very quickly as the CVIS students spend almost all of their time on the heart, and really knew the structure and function of this organ inside and out.”
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The Respiratory Therapy students worked with the CVIS students in dissection, naming the valves, structures, and vasculature of the heart. Students responded positively to the experience, praising the knowledge of Dr. Wright and Ms. Campbell, and recognizing what they knew from their previous lab experience and also things they had yet to learn. The collaboration between students in a learning laboratory may foster better communications between practitioners in the human simulations experiences, and eventually, at the bedside. |
Future editions of ‘Put Your Hands On Your Heart' may be structured to have quantitative or qualitative components that could be measured to see if the experience better prepares students for life as collaborative team members both in the Human Simulation Laboratory and in patient care.
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