REFLECTION ON MY BLOGGING SKILLS

It is with a bit of a disappointment that I have to admit that I need more experience in blogging. My blogs do not appear professional to me - the format shifts in a way I do not want them to shift. And the computer jargon get me under!

One of my aspirations for next year is to request a refresher in Blackboard and blogging. This last module of the MPhil course had me very frustrated because I believed I am technologically too stupid to cope, but then I think why can I manage an ICU monitor - surely I can learn!! Whallah!! 

I want to thank the presenter of this module for not spoonfeeding - it was a good experience.
Debbie 

E-LEARNING MODULE

COMPREHENSIVE HISTORY TAKING IN SERVICE LEARNING for MBChB IV

Welcome to Blackboard and the on-line section for history taking in the Service Learning (SL) block.

In the last 3 years you have been taught the principles of taking a history from a patient as the introductory steps to the Consultation of a patient. In your 3^rd year you had 3 sessions where you practiced the history taking skills at the different community clinics you were assigned to.

In your journey as medical student you have now reached your 4^th year of training. Congratulations! You can be proud of yourself! But there is still a bit of a way to go.

Your SL module in your 4^th year is a capstone module, where you have to apply these principles during interaction with a real patient in the community during your community visits for SL.

At the end of this module, you need to be able to:

• Conduct a consultation with a patient in the community/clinic/private practice following the first steps of  the model of a the three-stage assessment and management plan
• Take a comprehensive history from a patient from in a community/clinic/private practice including illness and psycho-social history
• Observe and pick up cues (verbal and non-verbal) during the consultation and respond to them appropriately

You will consult 4 patients in the community under guidance and supervision of your SL facilitator. The first patient will not be marked as it is your chance to practice the principle that you were taught. You will be allocated marks for your 2^nd, 3^rd and 4^th patient. You have to have a minimum of 50% for each patient to pass the SL block.

These marks will be added together and the average, together with the marks of the MCQ test that you will write at end of block, will be your year mark for SL.

As quite a bit of time has passed since you last learnt of history taking. A video and the a power point presentation of history taking is posted on this board for you. You need to revise the steps of history taking in order to be able to perform them efficiently in the community.

You have 6 weeks to peruse the material. The contents must be studied in conjunction with your class notes and prescribed sources on history taking. It is supplementary information to help you gather the required knowledge to effectively complete the procedure of history taking.

1. History Taking (1 of 3) - Clinical Skills 101 - YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZ34QYhtBcY

2. History Taking (2 of 3) - Clinical Skills 101 - YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2jNxBYJR6o

 3. History Taking (3 of 3) - Clinical Skills 101 - YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bTzNlrgebo

 4. Clinical History Taking – Slide Share

www.slideshare.net/CCpractitioner/clinical-history-taking

Should you have any problems getting access to the referred sources, please contact the Blackboard manager Mr. Ithu Maboya (http://ithute.smu.ac.za) and inform t me with an e-mail so I can do a follow-up. You may also inform the Administrative Coordinator MBChB IV (POME office) Mrs. Motepe of your problem of access (lesego.motepe@smu.ac.za) Tel No: 012 - 521 3291.

Alternatively you can contact your community facilitator using the contact details in your study guides, and she will inform me of your problem.

Debbie Barnard

Service Learning Coordinator and Lecturer, POME

Debbie.Barnard@smu.ac.za

Tel No: 012-521 4416

Not a good day .........

I am stuck between design and development. I think I need to change my modus operandi and discuss and plan my presentation under one heading because I seem to be repeating myself.

Discouragement is also the order of the day. Permission to post the Power Point on History taking as presented to our SMU students is not granted to me - I may not post it on my blog.

 I have thus decided to use a power point that is presently available on line, and will develop my own in 2017 for the Service Learning facilitators and students to use.

Debbie - the disease is becoming painful.

REFLECTION ON E-LEARNING

I found that I have a problem in thinking and beginning small.

I want to do something that I can at present use with the students as support for time and information lost during the strike. It would be a very good learning experience.

My problem is that I get so enthusiastic that my brain is running miles ahead of me! 

As I read in what was written in the articles, and what Lianne said -  I need to sit down and plan round my planning!!! Sounds strange, I know, but I need to calm down and keep it small!

 

MBChB IV students doing history taking and health screening in the community.

FEEDBACK FROM VIDEO POSTED ON HISTORY TAKING

I have received back 27 questionnaires given to the 4^th year students regarding the video they had to watch at home in preparation for the SL block during the catch up phase of the student strikes.

Overall the results are very positive, students enjoyed watching the presentation, and it revived existing knowledge gained in the previous years, especially the 3^rd year. They reported that watching a video is preferable to reading all the text in the notes previously provided, and proved to be more motivational. Some students reported to doing additional reading on some of the statements made by the presenter, which is good! The request was made that more time be given for review of the content (2 weeks were given)

9 of the students said they did not have access to internet during the strike.  I know that internet was active the week that classes were resumed. Unfortunately tracking could not take place of activities by the students on the site – it will have to be set by the support staff for use in 2017.

Feedback from the facilitators received was also positive. Students were more organized in the history taking, and they were able to ask sign and symptom related questions easier to formulate differential diagnosis. The average of the marks were 5.6% higher compared to the 4^th year students that completed SL assessments earlier in the year.

Not one of the students failed the test written on history taking before going to the community sites.

MY EXPECTATIONS OF THE E-LEARNING MODULE
There are so many stakeholders in digital technology in Higher Education that have high and advanced expectations of e-learning courses, that I am hesitant to verbalise my own.
First of all I would like to become skilled in the on-line use of educational material, whether it is of my own design or any one of the existent programs available on You Tube and e-Health. I do not like asking other people to do my work for me (I am a bad manager and delegator regarding that - I know what I want and sometimes feel other people do not do it “my way”).
Well with e-learning there is NO MY WAY – I feel I do not know what I am doing. If I look at the wonderful videos on line, I realize I have a very long way still to go. But like Lianne said – the module inspired her, and look where she is now! Good for you, Lianne!
I would like to use an existing video that is on You Tube regarding History Taking that I found very interesting and educational. It is not a boring presentation and recaps basic principles. I used it with the 4th year MBChB students as preparation for the catch-up sessions of the students strikes for the Service Learning block, and the results were much better than the previous sessions. Feedback was good as well!
Together with it the students will write an on-line test on blackboard on the day that they go out to the community for the first time in their second year to assess if they have met the objectives regarding the theory.
The skill will be tested in the community while they are doing screening under the supervision and assessment of facilitator, from SMU.
I would have liked to have more time to embark on this journey that is talked about and see where it will lead me. Service Learning is a course that has integration from many disciplines in the MBChB curriculum that has to be taken into account as academic rivalry can be a barrier to successful teaching.
I am definitely going to implement digital media in the 4th year SL curriculum, as it seems to have met with great satisfaction from the majority of students.

REFLECTION ON E-LEARNING ASSIGNMENT

I was in turmoil in deciding upon the topic for my e-learning assignments. There is such a wide scope of topics that was applicable. I wanted to choose a topic that could be to the advantage of my own department, students and facilitators. My teaching domain is Service Learning (SL). I realized that I had to keep the project small and simple, and every topic I chose turned out to be a major project!

Then came the student strikes!. The one contingency plan after the other was made at the University and we were swamped with work to try and catch up classes and assessments. Important classes were missed, one of them being a class for recapping history taking in patients for the 4^th year MBChB students.

Our students follow a longitudinal SL course, and in their 4^th year there is a capstone SL module where the students have to fully screen patients for health care problems, make a differential diagnosis and refer them for management. To be able to do that they had to be able to take a comprehensive history from a patient. In the past this has been a big problem for us because the students battled with the skill. They had learnt history taking for 3 years prior to this block, but they could not meet the expected objectives. Even though revision material and instructions were given on blackboard as pre-requisite to the clinical training in the community, the students still came unprepared to the clinical sites for screening.

I implemented an additional facilitation session in class before going to the service learning block. The standard of history taking became better, but still some students did not know their theory, a great embarrassment in front of the patients!  Attendance of the classes was also not satisfactory.

In my search for topics for my assignment I came upon a video that presented history taking for medical students that I found very good. The presenter had an informal attitude and made looking at the video a pleasure. I posted the 3 videos on blackboard and what a great response! Students said they were tired of reading the information, and by looking and listening they found much more to learn.

It shows that it was never necessary for me to re-invent the wheel – I just had to go and search on the internet

Duh Debbie!

MPhil Diseased Debbie