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!