Respiratory Module from USA Health System on Vimeo.
In the fall of 2012, the University of South Alabama College of Medicine launched a curriculum structure designed to facilitate communication between teachers and students, enhance student engagement and collaboration, as well as incorporate appropriate teaching technology. This new structure resulted in the establishment of the Active Learning Center (ALC), which neighbors the Biomedical Library on USA’s main campus.
The space accommodates 11 teams of seven students so that every station faces a 42” touch screen monitor. Each table is strategically located near electrical outlets in order to optimize the advantage of the supplied technologies.
There are several courses held in this area for medical students throughout their education.
In the ALC, first-year medical students have the opportunity to study under Dr. Brian Fouty, associate professor of internal medicine and pharmacology at USA College of Medicine, who brings in a patient with a different respiratory disease each week during a six-week block. “It’s unscripted,” Dr. Fouty said. “We don’t know the answers, and they don’t know the answers.”
“They need to know what questions to ask to get the right information,” said Dr. Fouty. “That will allow them to discriminate cases that are similar and to draw the appropriate conclusions.”
First-year medical student William Harvey had the opportunity to participate in a recent patient session. “Getting to talk with the patient really helps us, especially in our first year,” he said. “It is really a treat to be able to see what it looks like to have a real patient in front of you and how their illness affects their life.”
One of the greatest benefits of the curriculum change is the student’s early interaction with patients. “When the third and fourth year of medical school come around this is definitely going to give us a leg up,” said Harvey. “We’re already comfortable interacting with patients so we’ll be able to focus on treating them as best as we can.”
This team-based learning approach allows the group members to work together by bringing their various expertise and using their collective knowledge to integrate and analyze the data. “We give the students guidelines, but the end result is their interpretation,” said Dr. Fouty. “As professors, we learn a lot about how we’re teaching by what they give back to us.”
The USA College of Medicine will be initiating a similar team-based learning facility in the USA Medical Center Mastin Building beginning this summer.
