Wow! The last few days of Anatomy class have flown by. I hope you had the opportunity to see all of the wonderful anatomy pictures taken by Josh Raymer on July 9th. We had a photographer accompany us on our Wednesday morning visit to WKU’s new school of nursing at the Medical Center. During our visit, students had an opportunity to interact with the simulated patients in a variety of ways. Looking at the photos from the 9th, you will see some students holding a device that looks like a small tablet attached to their “patient”. They were able to use these tablets to manipulate the blood pressure, heart rate, lung sounds, and stomach sounds of their patient and were even able to make their patient talk. Students learned how to take blood pressure readings and check vital signs, and they practiced on their patients and each other. The staff at the school of nursing also showed our students how to use an otoscope and demonstrated hand washing techniques by placing a lotion on their hands that glowed under a black light. One of the students’ favorite activites was using the virtual IV simulator to start an IV. We learned that starting an IV was harder than it looked! We ended our trip by watching SimMom give birth and seeing a demonstration of how the baby has to be turned as it moves through the pelvis. I think everyone now has a greater appreciation for their mom!
On Wednesday afternoon, we learned to calculate resting heart rate and cardiac output and compared these resting rates to cardiac output rates after three minutes of running stairs. We ended the day learning about the Mammalian Dive Reflex. Students took turns monitoring each other’s resting heart rate and “diving” heart rate, obtained by their partner placing their face in a bucket of ice water for 30 seconds. There are some funny “diving” pictures you can find by looking at Josh’s post from the 9th.
Thursday and Friday were spent dissecting fetal pigs.
I have included some pictures below.
We have really enjoyed working with these talented students. VAMPY 2014 has been a great experience!