Celebration of Faculty Scholarship 2020

It’s All Relative! Engaging Nursing and Exercise Science Students in Chemical Education Using Medical Case Studies

Angela L. Mahaffey

Chemical education for health profession curricula has the rigorous task of balancing chemical concepts in relation to healthcare and concepts presented on health profession graduate school admissions and/or licensing exams (such as NCLEX, nursing licensure; and MCAT, medical school admissions), often within a limited time frame. In an attempt to achieve this measure, an engaging learning activity was designed to help nursing (and a number of exercise sciences) students identify chemical education topics in published medical case studies. Student perception of the significance and practicality of this activity was examined. Three groups of students (Ntotal = 167) were provided with a number of published medical case studies and instructed to employ concept mapping techniques to “map out” how examples of four chemical education topics (analytical, biological, general, and organic) were identified in these clinical cases. The overall goal of this project is to allow students to (1) identify, (2) categorize and conceptualize, and (3) apply chemical knowledge in their present studies and overall future healthcare professions. As a result, a marked decline in course fail/pass ratios was observed. Additionally, over 80% of the students who completed the concept map activity voluntary survey highlighted their ability to identify chemistry in healthcare settings after completing the assignment. Student polling also highlighted recommendations for chemistry education in undergraduate health profession curricula, following this activity.

2019

Journal of Chemical Education

ACS Publications

DOI 10.1021/acs.jchemed.9b00329

"It’s All Relative! Engaging Nursing and Exercise Science Students in Chemical Education Using Medical Case Studies". Angela L. Mahaffey. Journal of Chemical Education, 2019, 96 (10), 2253-2260