On April 1, 2022, Rocky Mountain University of Health Professions (RMUoHP) hosted its annual Teaching and Learning Summit. The summit focused on a variety of topics designed to assist instructors and educators about ways to create an inclusive learning environment.
Keynote speaker, Paul Geisler, EdD, ATC, the Associate Dean for the College of Natural, Behavioral, and Health Sciences at Simmons University, outlined the focus of the Summit:education, capability and expertise, and program assessment.
When talking about education, Geisler discussed the importance of time as an educational tool.
“Those who aren’t athletic trainers don’t know that a lot of our students’ clinical education is time. Waiting for things to happen or preventing things from happening. I’m an athletic trainer but these apply to everybody in every profession,” explained Geisler.
He added, “Many students new to the healthcare profession aren’t actually prepared for clinical practice. There’s a gap between what we do in time spent in the real world and in education. Students can perform at the level they are supposed to perform at for the OSCE (Objective Structured Clinical Examination) but struggle in the profession.”
Geisler explained the ways in which time relates to competency and capability.
“Think about everything we do in our life that’s based on time: K-12, undergrad, accreditation. Look at your programs. Look at your models. Think about how often we use time as a measure of something,” said Geisler.
“In competency based education, it’s the opposite. We know that people progress at different rates but are limited by time. People that are on the higher end of time are held back and people who are slower we feel a need to help them graduate on time. Competency is in the eye of the beholder,” he said.
In regard to assessment, Geisler explained that “we need to create curricula and systems of assessment that basically allow us to produce students who know when to be efficient and when to be innovative.”
Geisler emphasized the importance of teaching that is more programmatic—less grade focused and more skills based. He advised teachers to ask themselves one simple question before sending their students out into the world.
“In your current cohort, what percentage of them would you let treat your kids, your parents, your grandparents without supervision?”
Geisler explained, “This question was asked of a bunch of anesthesiologists. 40% of these anesthesiologists would not let their trainees put the mask on,” emphasizing the importance of focus on skills competency, especially for healthcare students.
Geisler ended the keynote discussing the importance of change,specifically why and how change should happen in the practice of education.
“People like change if the right approach is taken—if you avoid coming in and saying x, y, and z. Spend more time on the why. I think of the three P’s: we have a professional responsibility, we have a responsibility to the public, and the pair, parents and students, are coming to us to get competency, not just a degree. 80 cents of every dollar we spend comes from a parent or student. Are we really delivering on what we’re advertising?” said Geisler.
Following the keynote, topic-based sessions were available to attendees, such as “Use of Varied Digital Tools Promotes Accessibility for All Learners,” “Engaging activities in Anatomy and Physiology: The “Preview – View – Review” Method,” “Teaching Online: The Keys to Success,” and many more.
After the various sessions ended, RMUoHP’s Learning Engineer and Learning Experience Director, Chris Blakesley, PhD, reflected on the Summit. “One thing that emerged for me during this summit was the role of cognition in healthcare,” said Blakesley. “That reminded me of a quote I heard by nobel laureate Herbert A. Simon. He said, ‘Improved learning in secondary education will require changing from a solo sport to a group activity’”
For more information on the Teaching & Learning Summit and other continuing education offerings, visit learn.rm.edu.
cover image courtesy of J. Kelly Brito (Unsplash)
