Physician Assistant Program Happenings
RRCC PA Students Visit Medical Clinic with Governor
PA Instructor Awarded Instructor of the Year by Student Voice
Congratulations to Dr. John Witwer who was honored as part-time RRCC Instructor of the Year by the Student Voice.
Rio Grand Hospital
Second year PA student, Mary Dragoo, experiences rural Colorado
with a cattle drive in front of the Rio Grande Hospital where she is
doing a clinical rotation.
Faculty Receives Service to Mankind Award
Faculty member, Stephanie Bacon, PA-C, received the Service to Mankind Award by the Sertoma Club. The name SERTOMA is derived from the organization’s mission statement, SERvice TO MANkind. Its dedication to community service has motivated the membership since the founding of the organization in 1912. She was honored for her 400 volunteer hours at Doctor’s Care, seeing pediatric patients one day per week. She says this helps to keep her skills current. She really enjoys being with the kids and says it’s her “play day.”
Congratulations Stephanie!
The Digital PA: Red Rocks' iPad Initiative
In mid-summer there was an air of anticipation as the Red Rocks PA Program awaited the arrival of 67 iPads from the Apple manufacturing facility in China. All PA students and fulltime program faculty members have now received an iPad. The distribution of Apple’s latest multimedia device is part of a pilot project Red Rocks is sponsoring to look at how these devices can be used in PA education.
RRCC PA Program Director, Debra Nickell explained, “We started out with three separate challenges for which we thought there would be three separate solutions. It now looks like the iPad may be a solution to all three and will give us a lot more in the bargain.” Red Rocks was looking for better ways to deliver high definition diagnostic images during lectures in the classroom. Second, the program wanted to provide textbooks electronically. The primary intent was to cut the cost of texts for the students, but also to get rid of what many PA students on clinical rotations experience: a car trunk full of reference books that they haul all over the state. The third challenge the program faced was that preceptors who were converting to EMR/EHR were beginning to decline student placements. Dr. Nickell continued, “They couldn’t afford the cost of a tablet or terminal dedicated for student use and we couldn’t incur the cost of supplying a device to every clinical site. It looks like the iPad will be able to emulate or access each site’s EMR/EHR and the device goes with the student. In initial contacts, preceptors have accepted this as a possible solution to the EMR/EHR challenge.”
Clinical year students on their very first rotation, and within days of receiving the iPad, have already been using the device to enter patients into the program’s internet-based patient logging system, doing online assignments, completing internet-based learning modules, checking email, and doing research for presentations to their preceptors.
Heather Lee, a clinical year student said, “I use it daily in the clinic. The first week I waited until the evening to enter patients into [the patient logging system] and it would take about 45 minutes. Now I use the iPad to enter patients as I see them and I spend less time in the evening and provide more detail because I remember more. Having the iPad allows me to always have access to medical info without having to wait on a computer to be free in the clinic.”
One of Heather’s classemates, Amanda Raube, commented, “I don’t have a laptop so the iPad has come in very handy and saved me money too.”
Another student, Don Winder, added, “Having a library the size of a small notepad constantly with me has helped to quickly access and more easily retain the information I need while my mind has that question still fresh. PDAs are great, however, with the iPad I can bring up better images for patients, there are many more practical applications, and I can actually read the information more easily. I see so much potential for greater learning for students and for the patients with the help of the iPad.”
Faculty member, Jeanne Bird, has used the iPad for researching questions on the Pathway II recertification exam and for conducting the women’s health course she teaches, “The clarity of the pictures that was lost using the old projection method will come through nicely on the iPad.”
Joseph Sanchez, Director of Library and Learning Services at Red Rocks, provides context for this project within the larger educational environment, “While the ebook world is in a constant state of flux and change, one thing is very clear: all the various constituents involved in publishing see the ebook as the future. Ebooks have finally come into their own, and will be replacing the physical book in the very near future as the standard form of content management. Five hundred years of human history is about to change forever, as Gutenberg’s famous innovation is finally replaced.”
For this pilot project, the Red Rocks PA Program has not discouraged personal use of the iPADS or the downloading of applications designed solely for entertainment or personal use. Dr. Nickell clarifies, “We now have a cohort of 67 users who are out there scouring the environment for apps and uses. It’s all good right now. It will make us better users of the device in both educational and clinical environments. In just one 24 hour period, I used my iPad to conduct a lecture in the classroom, pull a video from the internet for a future lecture, create a slide presentation, check email, do a literature search, perform a medication interaction check on a complex patient in clinic, play a game with my grandson, watch a movie, and download several free novels. ”
Christa Dobbs, a faculty member who is researching ways to incorporate physical activity into the curriculum added, “The iPad gives me the flexibility to take my classes outside or change locations easily while the students are able to have the presentation notes right in front of them. The iPad has been a great portable tool for taking notes and developing presentations and lectures anytime, anywhere.”
Ms. Dobb’s comments ended with the phrase now ubiquitous in the RRCC PA Program, “Sent from my iPad!”
An iPad teaching session with faculty member Christa Dobbs and two didactic year students.
