Welcome May 2013 Class

Welcome everyone to Ross University School of Medicine!  First semester is tough, but hopefully this blog will help you begin to put the pieces of the human body together and understand physiology.  After each lecture I will be posting here to include a list of the questions you have asked via email pertaining to the previous lecture and my responses.  The goal of this is to provide a common-location for you to go to with your physiology questions to obtain answers.  Please feel free to comment on the post and ask more questions.  If you have answers to previous questions, please additionally feel free to provide answers.  I hope that this can become a place for each of us to help each other learn physiology and all else that first-semester medicine proves difficult! 

Tips and Resources to Study Physiology:

According to The Free Dictionary (http://www.thefreedictionary.com), physiology is:

1. The biological study of the functions of living organisms and their parts.

2. All the functions of a living organism or any of its parts.

For our purposes at Ross University School of Medicine (RUSM), it is essentially the study of HOW the human body works.  This subject is quite difficult to memorize as it is constantly changing under a variety of conditions.  A conceptual understanding of physiology is, therefore, a much better approach to learning the subject.  I wish to provide you with a few helpful hints to studying physiology and the resources that are available for you here at RUSM.

Hints:

1.  Do not try to memorize physiological concepts.  They are built upon an understanding of the concepts and if you begin to look at them as such you will begin to understand the information and it will give you much less to remember. 

2.  Build all additional information you learn upon that which you already know.  Ask questions when being exposed to the information initially regarding where it will appear again and why it will be important (example: Membrane Transport Mechanisms).  Then when you see something again (example: Membrane Potentials utilize voltage-gated ion channels learned in Membrane Transport Mechanisms) build upon what you have already learned.  This, again, will cut down on what you need to remember.

3.  ASK questions.  Ask questions to yourself, your classmates, and your instructors to fully understand what is being presented to you.  If you are a person who learns a lot better if the information is clinical, challenge yourself and those who are helping in your education to help you understand WHY this basic science is important clinically.  This is professional education, you are being trained to be a doctor and ultimately this is YOUR education.  The work you put into it will reflect what you get out of your own education.  Materials and information will not simply be fed to you, so ask lots of questions to understand fully all of the materials that are being presented.

Resources you can utilize at RUSM:

1. Supplemental readings:  Each Physiology lecture will contain learning objectives and supplemental readings that will help you understand the information being presented.  Feel free to explore those readings.  If you are looking for a particular textbook, first check the library and then feel free to come see me to borrow my copy.

2.  Supplemental AV materials:  There is A LOT of information that will be presented in a short amount of time.  Utilizing 'cliff notes' or 'short cuts' to understand the information you are presented with will help you save time.  I have included youtube links that I think may be helpful within my lecture notes.  These are videos that I think are helpful.  They are certainly not the only videos available and I would love feedback you may have regarding the video links you like and do not like, but consider it a place to start to peek your understanding of the given topic.

3.  This blog:  As I stated above, I will post here after EVERY lecture all of the questions that I have received from you thus-far and my 'answers' to those questions.  Please feel free to utilize this as a discussion-board to continue the discussion to clear up anything that remains unclear.  Just post within the ‘comments’ section below (click on 'no comments' to bring up the ability to post a comment) any follow-up questions you may have and we can communicate with each other in that manor or always feel free to email me directly

4.  Articulate:  Articulate is program that allows you to take quizzes (both the thought problems and study quizzes are presented in this format, see info below).  They are available on the G-drive.  Regarding these quizzes the following are the 'directions':  

In the past, students have experienced problems when they try to run the Articulate quizzes from the “Students G-drive Online” connection, so please ONLY use the “Ross Net Drive [G drive]” available on campus.  In actuality, you do not need to run this quiz file from the G drive at all, and I recommend that you copy the entire folder onto your desktop or a USB drive and then run the quiz from any common browser (IE, Chrome, Firefox & Safari).  Note:  If you copy the folder off the G drive, be sure to copy the entire folder and not just the quiz – if you don’t have the contents of the entire folder (some application files are hidden) the quiz will not run.  Please email me if you experience any difficulties.  
In essence, go to the folder on the G-drive for the lecture (example: G:\Semester 1\Block 1. Fundamentals 1\Fundamentals.part 1\Membrane Transport Mechanisms Dr. Johannessen(PHYSIO)) and copy the folder within for either the thought questions or practice question onto your desktop or a USB drive (again, copy the ENTIRE folder as there are contents in the folder unseen that MUST BE present to operate the quiz), then open the quiz within a web browser by dragging the quiz file to an open web browser on your computer and the quiz itself should open automatically.  Either of the visible files within the folder should work within a web browser in this manner.  This needs to be taken from the G-drive ON CAMPUS (not the ‘online’ G-drive, but the actual drive on campus). You can do this on your personal computer while on campus or from a public campus computer. 

5.  Thought problems and Study Quizzes:  Practice questions are aimed to help you determine your understanding of the material presented.  Some of the practice questions given to you will be more difficult than those you will find on exams some will be less difficult.  These questions are always within the notes-section of the last two slides of each Powerpoint for my lectures and they are also available on the G-drive in the Articulate format (the exact same questions are therefore presented to you in 2 ways).  I encourage you to utilize Articulate if possible as they contain additional feedback that is not contained within the Powerpoint version.

6.  Center for Teaching and Learning:  The Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) at RUSM is dedicated to your academic success.  Faculty within that department focus SOLELY on your success and are there to help you.  Cognitive Skills MCQ sessions allow for discussion amongst students with the guidance of a facilitator (I myself work as a facilitator there).  Additionally, the CTL offers one-on-one meetings, study-skills workshops, and any additional help that you and they can identify together that you may need.

7.  Hands-on experiences:  We do not have an extensive Physiology lab at RUSM, but some topics are better understood within that environment.  Therefore, I have access to a few computer-based laboratory exercises and would be happy to work through those with you as you see a need.

8.  Your Classmates:  There are almost 300 of you in your class and only about 50-75 faculty members who will be lecturing to you during this semester.  Therefore, your best resources are each other.  Please talk to each other and get to know each other.  Each of you came to RUSM with a variety of experiences and knowledge; therefore harvest each other’s knowledge to help you in your current learning.  You are all future colleagues and working with each other to all learn the material will only help you.

Hopefully these hints and resources will prove helpful.  This is your education and your future.  You are here at RUSM to train to be a professional, a medical professional.  It is our job as your educators to help you on that pathway and to provide guidance, but ultimately the hard work will need to be completed by you.  GOOD LUCK!