Posts tagged Feedback

Feedback Received and Understood

0
917 days
by in Editorial, Phase 2

After a short delay, we have now received the feedback from the phase 2 students for the respiratory block. 69 of the second year responded, which is a little disappointing, but the comments have proved to be very valuable, both negative and positive.

A more comprehensive response will follow, but for now, the main issues raised by the students are.

1. The order of the lectures is not always helpful.
2. The ward based teaching is too variable, with some students getting a lot out of it, and some not.
3. The students like the study guide (which I had thought you all wouldn’t, TBH), and want paper copies of it earlier.

We will be focussing on these issues primarily for next year, so thank you for the feedback. I was particularly encouraged that there were no complaints about lack of formative assessment in the block, in stark contrast to last year!!!

Positives were numerous, but the top 3

1. The ABG tutorial went down a storm, and Dr Stretton’s delivery particularly. In my defence, I did *write* the tutorial…. ;-)
2. The MDT was well liked, but I totally accept that the roles should be rotated for each case
3. Changing private study into small group sessions was universally liked, with no-one asking for more private teaching time.

DundeeChest was well liked, and most of you preferred it to BB, apart from one person who prefers the BB discussion forums.

Feedback Session Tomorrow

2
953 days
by in Phase 2

The chest block endeth. It’s gone well, from my end at least.

Tomorrow is the end of block feedback session. I strongly encourage you to come along, press some buttons, and let us know your unabashed feedback on the block. We’ll ask you to answer some questions, then we’ll open the floor for you to ask us some questions.

The other thing to mention is for group B2 – I am supposed to be teaching you on the wards at 2. Unfortunately I have to meet a family of a patient at 4, so can we bring the teaching forward to 1? It also means that you’ll get away early, it is POETS day, after all.

TCF

Reflecting on Revision Lecture

5
1121 days
by in blogging, Medical Education

Thanks to everyone who made the effort to come along to the revision lecture on Wednesday – I appreciate that the week before the exams is a precious time, and two hours of me waving my arms about at the front of the class, being grumpy about hypoxic drive might not be your first choice of entertainment for Wednesday.

I have been told I was a little bit *too* grumpy, which is probably a fair piece of feedback – I was disappointed that the issues of Respiratory Failure, CO2 retention, and oxygen therapy remain the biggest stumbling blocks for you all, despite me having put in a lot of personal effort to explain these concepts to you all during the respiratory block.

After the lecture I taught a small group of 4th years on arterial blood gas analysis and respiratory failure. A small number of 2nd years tagged along (This is hugely rewarding for me, that 2nd years want to join in with 4th year teaching, so thanks) and it was during this session that I think I’m expecting too much regarding the respiratory failure, hypoxic drive issues: the 4th years have no more grasp of the concepts than the 2nd years. These *are* difficult concepts, and it is likely that the lack of understanding is due to poor teaching, rather than a global misunderstanding on the students part.

This has made me think about how I have been teaching these concepts. i have posted on DC1 and DC3.0 the definitions and explanations of the concepts of both CO2 retention in hypoventilatory states, the concepts of V/Q mismatch, and respiratory failure a couple of times, and each time I’ve tried to make them more understandable, and more straightfoward. I have had little feedback from the students regarding these posts. The videos are helpful, I’m sure, but the students are not getting it.

We have opportunities for students to do fellowships, SSCs, 4th year projects, and extra curricular work developing new learning materials, if anyone is interested.

So the revision lecture on Wednesday? My initial thoughts were of disappointment, and a small amount of despair. When I heard the feedback from a student that I was grumpy during the session, it has made me think more about not just the lecture, but how we teach these difficult concepts. Now? I’m hopeful that someone out there is encouraged enough to come to see me with an idea for a way to teach these topics in a more engaging way.

And I’m allowed to be grumpy occasionally – 365 days a year of manic enthusiasm takes it out on a person, even me!

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