Introduction to my course(s)

Originally created as a high school kinesiology course by retired teacher, track coach and good friend Craig Nishiyama, our two courses here at Hatboro-Horsham High School have morphed into medical anatomy and physiology courses.  The overarching goals of these courses are to:

1. give students a taste of the A&P necessary for the following fields:
1. nursing school
2. medical school
3. physician assistant
4. athletic training
5. physical therapy
6. occupational therapy
7. medical illustration
2. prepare students for college-level A&P

Both courses are electives (not required for graduation) and have been traditionally quite popular.  Our basic (College Prep, or CP) course starts with an introduction to human anatomy and physiology, then skeletal A&P, joint A&P then muscle A&P.  The advanced course (Honors, or H) additionally examines various tissues and the integumentary system in particular.

In addition, the Honors course also examines a "case study", a fictional multi-systems trauma patient that permeates throughout the semester.  Through discussions and small group work, students learn how to:

1. evaluate mechanism of injury
2. develop index of suspicion
3. assess level of consciousness
4. evaluate and treat CAB's (basic and advanced)
5. determine chief complaint
6. obtain vital signs
7. obtain history and physical
8. correlate VS with anatomical and physiological findings
9. use MOI, IOS, CC, VS & H&Ps to develop differential diagnoses
10. develop clinical impression
11. develop treatment plan
12. treat various traumatic injuries

Both courses also dissect the white rat and fetal pig.  Rats are for practice (to hone their dissection skills) and serve as an introduction to anatomical spacial relationships.  The pigs are for more independent dissections with less assistance from me; students rely on each others experience.  For both dissections, students are placed into heterogeneous lab groups according to their interests, experiences and results of a personality/leadership propensity survey.  Students learn about the roles, responsibilities and expectations of Attending, Chief Resident, Intern and Medical Student.  On the first day of dissection in the semester, one student is picked as Attending and in then task with assigning staff roles.  Those roles are:

1. Attending - oversees dissection group and helps prn
2. Chief resident - sets-up, functions as lead dissector, cleans-up
3. Intern - responsible for recording dissection through pictures and videos and posting on our classroom Google Site (under reconstruction as of 6/5/15)
4. Medical Student - researches assigned related topic using either textbook or Visible Body anatomical software (at lab bench on desktop)

Students rotate roles every day.