Small Group Teachings

Hypertension/Hyperlipidemia Topic Discussion

  • Number of learners: 5
  • Experience of learners: P4 students on their 3rd rotation of their school year
  • Date/setting/length: August 8, 2017; Setting was at CAVHS in a conference room and over VANTS; Length was 1 hour
  • Preparation time involved: I spent a few weeks developing student cases, handouts, and instructor guide leading up to the activity for the HPLD portion. A few nights before the discussion, I spent a couple hours looking over the material and coming up with additional questions for students.
  • Participants comfort level in leading the activity: This was my first topic discussion to lead with P4 students. I was comfortable speaking and teaching in front of the group, but was nervous about getting the group to participate in discussion. The students ended up participating with minimal prompting.
  • Teaching/assessment materials used: Handouts and interactive cases
  • Methods for assessing learners understanding: Students responses to questions throughout the discussion; students had the opportunity to ask questions throughout and at the end of the discussion
  • Teaching goal/s addressed: 2 and 3
  • Reflection of teaching experience: This topic discussion was the first one that I led during my residency. There was a total of five students and I was nervous as to how to the topic discussion would go. The discussion included both hypertension and hyperlipidemia. I made the hyperlipidemia handout and case, so that part of the discussion was more familiar to me. During the session, the students bounced ideas and answers of each other which worked really well. This also allowed for new questions to be brought up during the discussion. I found through this teaching experience that it was hard to dictate how students answered questions so that all students had an equal chance to answer. I made a plan to call on students to answer specific questions in future topic discussions.
  • Hyperlipidemia Student Cases
  • Hyperlipidemia Student Handout

Brodalumab Drug Monograph Presentation

  • Number of learners: 15-17 learners
  • Experience of learners: Included pharmacists, PGY1 residents, and PGY2 residents
  • Date/setting/length: July 19, 2017; Location was at CAVHS in a conference room and over VANTS; Length was 12-15 minutes
  • Preparation time involved: ~3 weeks preparing the presentation and analyzing articles
  • Participants comfort level in leading the activity: This was my first presentation of the residency year. I felt comfortable giving this presentation as I had given many throughout pharmacy school. However, with it being the first one of the year, I was more nervous than with other presentations given throughout my residency year.
  • Teaching/assessment materials used: PowerPoint presentation, handout of PowerPoint slides, written monograph
  • Methods for assessing learners understanding: Audience had the opportunity to ask questions at the end of the presentation
  • Teaching goal/s addressed: 2 and 3
  • Reflection of teaching experience: This Brodalumab monograph presentation was the first presentation that I gave during the residency year and with that I was extremely nervous. I did not know the audience very well at that point and was unsure of how much criticism/feedback I would recieve. This was also the first experience I had in constructing a drug monograph. Overall, the feedback I received over my presentation style was positive and I carried and built upon that feedback in future presentations.
  • Brodalumab Monograph
  • Brodalumab Presentation

Anticoagulation Topic Discussion

  • Number of learners: 4 (in person and over VANTS line)
  • Experience of learners: P4 students
  • Date/setting/length: October 20, 2017; Setting was at CAVHS in a conference room; Length was 45 minutes
  • Preparation time involved: 2 hours
  • Participants comfort level in leading the activity: This was my third topic discussion to led with P4 students, so I was very comfortable in leading this activity.
  • Teaching/assessment materials used: Interactive patient cases
  • Methods for assessing learners understanding: Students filled out an evaluation regarding the topic discussion and had the opportunity to ask questions throughout and at the end of the discussion
  • Teaching goal/s addressed: 1, 2, and 3
  • Reflection of teaching experience: At this point, I was more familiar with how topic discussion worked since it was my not my first time leading one. I called individual names when asking for answers to questions to encourage more participation during the discussion as this was something I wanted to improve on (as mentioned in the hypertension/hyperlipidemia topic discussion reflection). I also made the environment as inviting for students as I could and gave them evaluations to provide me with feedback. Looking back on this discussion, I would have liked to incorporate some other type of learning activity besides a patient case.

Post Operative Atrial Fibrillation In Service

  • Number of learners: ~10
  • Experience of learners: Included pharmacists, PGY1 residents, and PGY2 residents
  • Date/setting/length: October 25, 2017; Setting was at CAVHS in a conference room; Length was ~30 minutes
  • Preparation time involved: 4-5 hours
  • Participants comfort level in leading the activity: As with other small group teachings, I was comfortable in leading this in service since I knew the audience well and it was in familiar setting. I did realize that maybe was too laid back in giving this presentation since I knew the audience so well.
  • Teaching/assessment materials used: Handout
  • Methods for assessing learners understanding: Listeners filled out an evaluation regarding my presentation and they had the opportunity to ask questions at the end of the presentation
  • Teaching goal/s addressed: 3
  • Reflection of teaching experience: For this in-service, I made a handout (see below). I think the presentation would have been more effective if I made a shorter handout or made a PowerPoint presentation. I also think the use of a patient case that I had seen that month in the surgical ICU would have been useful to make the presentation more engaging and keep the audience interested. I was asked questions at the end of the presentation and for the questions I did not know I followed up later with that person and provided them with an answer, which I believe is something important to do after each presentation
  • Post Operative Atrial Fibrillation In-Service Handout

Pain and Palliative Topic Discussions (Pain Management, Nausea/Vomiting, Agitation/Delirium, & Palliative Sedation)

  • Number of learners: 3
  • Experience of learners: Included a pharmacist, PGY2 resident, P4 pharmacy student
  • Date/setting/length: November 8, 15, 22, & 29, 2017; Setting was at CAVHS in a pharmacist's office; Length was ~30 minutes to 2 hours depending on topic discussed
  • Preparation time involved: 5 to 8 hours for each topic discussion
  • Participants comfort level in leading the activity: I was comfortable in leading these topic discussions since I knew the audience, it was a small group, and in an informal setting. However, I wasn’t as familiar with the material beforehand since pain and palliative is such a specialty area, so I had to teach myself more to be prepared.
  • Teaching/assessment materials used: Handouts, journal articles
  • Methods for assessing learners understanding: Learners had the opportunity to ask questions throughout and at the end of the topic discussions
  • Teaching goal/s addressed: 2 and 3
  • Reflection of teaching experience: I was very comfortable in leading these topic discussions as the audience was a group of three people that I had been with all month. I made very succinct handouts that summarized main points for the discussion. Looking back on these discussions, I would have liked to focus more on medication side effects and “clinical pearls.”
  • Agitation and Delirium Topic Discussion Handout
  • Nausea and Vomiting Topic Discussion Handout
  • Pain Management Topic Discussion Handout
  • Palliative Sedation Topic Discussion Handout

Treatment of Abdominal Pain In-Service

  • Number of learners: ~15 listeners
  • Experience of learners: Included pharmacists, medical students, P4 pharmacy student, chaplain, pain/palliative fellows, attendings, social worker, and nurses
  • Date/setting/length: November 29, 2017; Setting was at CAVHS on the palliative floor conference room; Length was ~15 minutes
  • Preparation time involved: 4 hours (this in-service went along with DI question for the month that I had already prepared)
  • Participants comfort level in leading the activity: I was comfortable in leading in service as I had given many presentations by this point in my residency. I knew some of the audience, but not all of them. It was a fairly small group in a laid back setting. I was most nervous about presenting the topic to the pain/palliative attendings.
  • Teaching/assessment materials used: Handout
  • Methods for assessing learners understanding: Audience had the opportunity to ask questions throughout and at the end of the in-service
  • Teaching goal/s addressed: 3
  • Reflection of teaching experience: As seen above, I presented this in-service to a wide variety of learners, some of those including palliative attendings. For me, this made the presentation more "high-stakes" as I was presenting it to multiple attendings. I liked that this presentation was given in a very informal setting in a conference room right after the team was finished with sit-down rounds. I made a very brief one page handout and was able to fit the most important information onto that one page. I wanted to make a handout that the audience could easily refer to in the future, which I believe I accomplished. The presentation was less than ten minutes, which was helpful for keeping the audience engaged. At the end of the presentation though, I wish that I had better anticipated questions that would be asked. Anticipating questions is something that I really began thinking about beforehand in future presentations.
  • Treatment of Abdominal Pain In Service Handout

Diabetes Mellitus Topic Discussion

  • Number of learners: 4
  • Experience of learners: P4 students
  • Date/setting/length: January 12, 2018; Setting was over VANTS; Length was ~35 minutes
  • Preparation time involved: ~2 hours
  • Participants comfort level in leading the activity: This was my fourth topic discussion to teach, but I was nervous to teach with all students over VANTS line. I incorporated a more interactive teaching activity/worksheet, however, it didn’t go well over VANTS and the students didn't participate as anticipated.
  • Teaching/assessment materials used: Interactive patient cases with questions, Diabetes Mellitus medication worksheet
  • Methods for assessing learners understanding: Diabetes Mellitus medication worksheet, learners had the opportunity to ask questions throughout the discussion
  • Teaching goal/s addressed: 2 and 3
  • Reflection of teaching experience: For this topic discussion, all of the students were participating over the VANTS line (over the phone) and I was leading from a different location. With this, it was extremely difficult to encourage participation. Going into this discussion I was excited to use the handout I made for students (see below) to fill in about diabetes mellitus medications and side effects. However, using the worksheet did not go well over the phone, again, as there was little participation. To combat this I called on students, but they were unwilling to participate. Overall, I thought this discussion would go better than it did as I had gained experience in leading topic discussions throughout the year.
  • Diabetes Mellitus Worksheet for Students
  • Diabetes Mellitus Worksheet with Answers

Fall Therapeutics II Recitation

  • Number of learners: 14
  • Experience of learners: P3 students in their second recitation course
  • Date/setting/length: Took place on most Thursday afternoons from August - November 2017; Setting was in a classroom at UAMS; Length of each class was about 2 hours
  • Preparation time involved: ~2-3 hours each week looking over and preparing questions to cases
  • Participants comfort level in leading the activity: I felt comfortable going into recitation as I had experienced it as a student at UAMS and had also previously taught Therapeutics SI during pharmacy school.
  • Teaching/assessment materials used: Patient cases, SOAP notes
  • Methods for assessing learners understanding: Students had the opportunity to ask questions each week, students growth based on feedback given each week, evaluations for the students at the end of the course
  • Teaching goal/s addressed: 1, 2, and 3
  • Reflection of teaching experience: I taught Therapeutics SI in pharmacy school, so I felt somewhat comfortable with leading recitation. Teaching recitation really helped strengthen my ability to give feedback and individualize it. I was also able to build relationships with the students and make them feel like it was okay to make mistakes and learn from them. The biggest challenge faced was giving students feedback when they didn't agree with the feedback given. If I was able to teach recitation again, I would make extra handouts with clinical pearls and counseling points of drug and also the highlight of the topic for the students to have on future clinical rotations and when studying for the NAPLEX.
  • Recitation Student Evaluations Summary
  • Evaluation of Instructor by Faculty Member