Review and evaluation of teaching and assessment of anatomy, physiology and pathophysiology in the Postgraduate pre-registration curriculum John Mears, Senior Lecturer: john.mears@uwl.ac.uk

Incarnations of the module Applied Physiology: assessment and management of acute care conditions: Sept 2010 – Feb 2013 Biomedical sciences applied to nursing practice: Sep 2013 - present

Context of the current module The module sits in stage 2 of the programme (approx months 8 -15) Runs concurrently with ‘Enhancing adult and mental health practice through decision making’

Context of the current module -2 The Biomedical Science module content is structured to match the content of the Decision Making module bringing the pathophysiology into context particularly for adult health

Student numbers September every year 50+ students taught as 2 groups ~25 mental health London based ~20 adult health/~5 mental health Reading based taught as a single group February – depends on contract, if running adult only at Reading

Context (module) problems Structure of the course: There is no earlier anatomy and physiology module Need to include anatomy and physiology in the module Time constraints/limited study days Limited clinical experience prior to the module Mix of mental health and adult health students at Reading and mental health in London

Student problems Significant numbers of students have extremely limited experience with biology or any other science. In the last cohort of the students at Reading over one third had not studied any science since GCSE or ‘O’’ level Very wide range of subjects studied for first degree. Many with no connection to science

Developing Solutions - Structure Revalidation changed the emphasis of the module leaving out management and focusing on assessment using altered physiology Retained related pharmacology as there is no dedicated module for this Focus on a limited number of specific conditions to illustrate some of the key aspects of pathophysiology the majority of which may be found in adult and mental health contexts

Developing solutions - Resources The usual PowerPoint and word resources on Blackboard, YouTube videos. WileyPlus online anatomy and physiology was used as a pilot which was well received but wasn’t perceived as meeting the need of the students Now using Primal online with tutor resources available to download to Blackboard. This is well received by students and we are currently evaluating this.

Developing solutions – Resources 2 Because of a number of technical issues we have not to date used the on-line resources early in the course. This semester the September 2015 students will receive guidance and access near the beginning of the course. This is in response to student evaluations.

Developing Solutions -Assessment Originally 3 hour exam using questions related to a scenario. With revalidation 3 hour exam with multiple choice and short answer questions Now 30 minute OSCE and viva voce

OSCE/Viva voce process Students given 4 possible scenarios one of which they will undertake Formative table top version to practice in class A brief assessment of simulated patient to show structure and to gain information relating to the patient. Viva using a semi-structured approach based on A&P and pathophysiology Probing to allow and encourage students to give relevant information

Rationale for OSCE/Viva voce External examiner felt that we could be over assessing the students Poor pass rate at first attempt Relates directly to practice Video the procedure for review and moderation Examiners can probe to enable students to find answers