Gallery of Student Work

Client communication skills and showing empathy are just two very important soft skills my students must have. I begin teaching my students about the importance of basic communication and how to build strong relationships and rapport with clients. I then transition into the topic of the human animal bond and the grieving process. This topic can be hard, especially when children are involved with the loss of a pet. My students create a child grievance prototype This assignment helps to brainstorm how members of a medical team might provide this needed support and education to such an age group. This coping tool/resource/aid should be something they could utilize in a medical environment to help children and families. Pictured above is one student's prototype, supplying children with a small rock and supplies for creating a gratitude rock or memorial rock. Other examples have included memory boxes, a glass ornament and supplies for decorating,  shadow boxes, and journals. This assignment gives students an opportunity to use their own creativity to make a tangible resource.

Veterinary nursing students develop a vast array of technical skills during their time in our program. One specific skill is the ability to perform effective cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). This can be a difficult skill to perfect. The environment will likely be stressful and chaotic. Students should be able to think on their feet and act quickly. Effective CPR is achieved with strong chest compressions given at a rate different than the rate at which respirations are given. To help deliver this information, in a method that it will stick when they are in the heat of the moment, our students practice this skill with CPR demo stuffed dogs. While doing so, songs are played to the beat of compressions (about 100 beats/min) while instructors add a level of stressfulness and speediness to their performance. This is also a skill our students can perform alone. During COVID19 my students were tasked with the same assignment but had to complete this at home, picking their own CPR song to demo to. This assignment is just one that highlights the importance of hands-on learning inside a classroom or outside the classroom using recording software and applications. 

Students learn about the importance of medical records in my course. This content be dry and confusing. Medical records can be written in many ways, using different formats, and using different electronic medical record databases. But no matter how different medical records might look from one animal clinic to the next, detailed thorough notes must always be included. To start off with this basic understanding, and to introduce students to necessary topic, my students decorate cookies. The task is simple, follow the set of cookie decorating instructions they are given. In the end, all the cookies look different. Why? Because different instruction sets include different directions. Some sets are missing important pieces of information, others include irrelevant information. The purpose of this assignment is to understand why detailed and thorough medical notes are imperative to a patient's care and treatment. This assignment is a reminder that learning can also be fun and concepts can be taught through unique teaching methods. 

Most of my students perceive failure is being negative. Most of my students have also never performed many of the skills they are asked to learn, and perfect, while in our program. So why do so many of my students feel like they've failed if they are learning something new, for often the very first time. To help illustrate that failure is okay, and a necessary process to learning, students revisit a self-reflection failure document several times throughout their semester. Through this document students see their transformation as they become more confident in several skills such as phlebotomy. This document serves as a place where they can self-reflect and process the journey they've been on throughout their semester, and to hopefully see that failure really isn't always a negative process.

Throughout the unit of communication my students learn about the basics of communication, client specific communication, and crucial conversations. Over the years I've created a working communications journal using a Google Doc. Each student has their own working journal, that they revisit weekly to complete tasks relating to the material. Many of these tasks require students to reflect on personal examples (conversations or interactions) that they've had. This assignment works well for this unit, as they can revisit the questions, relate much of the material to them on a personal level, and revisit the same document over several weeks. This assignment also allows for me to give individual feedback and comments on their weekly responses. Providing timely feedback is very important, especially if I can encourage deep thinking with my responses. 

Like many instructors, my colleagues and I had to make some changes to our teaching and learning during the pandemic as courses went to a completely virtual format. At first, I panicked as many of my courses require hands-on learning. I had to process how I might provide these required learning experiences outside of a classroom setting. As a resolution, I created specific course "toolkit". Students picked up their cardboard box toolkit filled with the required supplies at the start of the semester. Students were then tasked to utilize the supplies throughout the semester. They were encouraged to use the supplies over and over, to build muscle memory and confidence. These supplies included needles and syringes, IV catheters and bandage tape, blood collection tubes, and a fake diaper leg for poking. I've found that these toolkits can be catered to other courses as well. This semester long "assignment" is one that I found to be beneficial during a pandemic but one I can certainly use in the future as well.