Project 2 - Final Draft

According to the Association of American Medical Colleges, over 50,000 [B1] students will compile nearly 750,000 applications and send them off to schools across the country looking to be accepted into medical school. Medical school is the stepping stone that all doctors must take in order to achieve a career in the medical field. From a first year medical student learning about the basic human anatomy to a 4th year student doing clinical rotations, the community of medical students is diverse (Walden). Out of these thousands of applications, only 110 will be able to enroll at Florida State University’s College of Medicine (AAMC). These students will be challenged to learn all the information human kind has been able to gather about the human body throughout history. Medical students use several genres of communication to effectively retain this information and be able to pass it on. These genres include videography, lecture, and test taking. They are all designed to ensure that the students are able to grasp the information that they are expected to know as a M.D. These methods are employed throughout the schooling of the students at Florida State’s College of Medicine and help students accurately measure their progress. Jason Walden, a second year medical student at Florida State University, has faced all of these communication methods extensively, which helped him to discover his strengths and weaknesses.

To better understand the community of medical students at Florida State University, look no further than their track records as incoming freshmen in the College of Medicine. On average, admitted applicants to the Florida State University College of Medicine have a GPA of 3.71 and an MCAT score of 30 (AAMC). To put it in perspective of other medical schools, Florida State’s incoming medical school class averages are well above the national averages of a 3.59 GPA and a 28 MCAT score (AAMC). This implies that current medical school students are successful academically, which requires intelligence as well as discipline. Although these medical students are pulled from a group of students with very high academic standing and test scores, there are many other aspects of the application that set them apart. From volunteer [B2] work to independent research opportunities, these applicants have found a way to balance a rigorous pre-medical course load with many additional activities. These activities range from dancing to volunteering at hospitals. For example, Jason Walden managed to participate in an acapella group during his undergraduate years as well as staying on top of his medical school preparation. According to a study done by Keith Steele, medical school is becoming more selective every single year. On average, MCAT scores, GPA, and class rank are all increasing and a lower percentage of applicants are accepted each year within the United States (Steele). Within the past decade, the average GPA of accepted applicants has risen ten percent and MCAT scores have increased by five percent (AAMC). Not to mention, the applicants that are accepted recorded higher amounts of extracurricular involvement then ever before to go along with this increasing academic standing. These individuals are able to find a way to keep up with their responsibilities as a students as well as an active member of society. According to an interview with second year medical student Jason Walden, the work does not stop when you enter medical school. He says, “ The hardest part of medical school is finding time to get everything done. It is very time consuming.” This implies that the work that had to be done to get into medical school carries over into these students life as medical students. It reveals how hard these students have to work as medical students to stay on top of their responsibilities as adults and as future doctors. As the interview and data implies, medical students are extremely busy. However, they balance a lot of schoolwork along with other duties. This led me to the conclusion that most medical students are exceptional at time management as well as very calm when put under a lot of pressure[B3] . Constantly under the pressure of time constraints medical students utilize methods that are efficient and can condense large amount of information into a simplified version.

Medicine seems simple when it is performed on popular medical dramas like Grey’s Anatomy or Scrubs. However, even the most basic medical procedures have small margins of error that can be the difference between life and death. As medical students transition into their third year of schooling, they are allowed to do clinical rotations with doctors in a hospital setting (McManus). Although they are not directly in charge of the treatment or diagnosis of patients, the students learn from trained physicians how to perform procedures they will do in their residency (West). Videography is a genre of communication that is used by professors to illustrate the proper way to perform [B4] many medical procedures and explain difficult concepts. These include procedures such as drawing blood or intubating a patient that can’t breath on their own. Access Surgery is a library with hundreds of videos specifically assembled for medical students to explain these procedures and concepts. All Florida State College of Medicine students have access to this library through the Florida State College of Medicine database. A sample video displayed an Emergency room physician demonstrating how to properly perform a tracheal intubation. Dr. Smith, the attending physician[B5] , explained why a patient would need this procedure, conducted a hands on demonstration, and warned of all the possible mistakes that could be made (Access Surgery). Reading about these procedures in textbooks help medical students grasp the reasoning and basic concepts behind them. A video gives the student a visual representation that will help guide them through the first time they perform the procedure themselves. The video is very beneficial because it is not overwhelmingly long, effectively explains a step-by-step procedure, and helps reinforce what not to do. For example, the physician explained how important it is to hold the patients head at an angle that allows you to get the scope down their trachea. The inability to do so would result in a blocked field of vision and likely lead to an unsuccessful intubation (Access Surgery). [B6]

Videography is also a useful tool for students to gain a better understanding of a concept they have read about or been taught in class. As described by a Florida State medical student, “Some of the professors have supplemental videos that [B7] they either find or create for our tests. In anatomy, the professor got the graphic design school to help create hand drawn videos” (Walden). This goes to show that medical students utilize videography to gain a better understanding of anatomical concepts as well as procedures. There are extensive libraries of videos that simplified the inner workings of the human body and make it more understandable that are easily accessible through Access Medicine. However, it lacks the ability to present the student with what the situation looks like and the proper course of action. As Jason said, he rarely uses textbooks to study for tests or learn more about a concept (Walden). Videos do lack the ability for the student to actually feel what it is like to perform the procedure first hand. Medical students benefit from these videos because they can watch them as many times as they like and pause in between steps to make sure they are aware of what the instructor is doing through each step of the process.

Lecturing is another genre of communication that is utilized by the community of medical students at the Florida State University. As Jason Walden says, “I usually take notes while watching the lectures provided by my professors.” This demonstrates the presence of live lectures in the medical school curriculum. This is a direct way in which professors can interact with these students to assist them in the understanding of the subject matter. These professors must communicate to their students’ information that is important for them to know as they transition into a career in medicine. Unfortunately, these classes are very detailed and extensively cover the underlying concepts that are behind the systems of the human body (Walden). Walden describes how difficult his respiratory class was because of the immense amount of information that is known about the human respiratory system and how it interacts with other parts of the body. In terms of basics, the professors’ talk to the students in a traditional lecture form, but this is not the sole method that is used within lecture.

Professors incorporate PowerPoint, puzzles, and models to help the students gain a better understanding of the information (Walden). PowerPoint is a useful tool within a lecture setting that gives the students a visual aid while the professor is speaking to them. It can be used to display diagrams, statistics, or even highlight something the teacher believes is something the students need to understand from the lecture. Not to mention, PowerPoint provides those who are not auditory learners with a tool they can look back upon later to refresh their minds on the information taught in class. Walden mentioned that puzzles were used in many of his classes, “We have also done interactive activities like puzzles where you have to go through each room to get to the next piece of the puzzle.” This tool is utilized within lecture to promote critical thinking among the students and help them develop their own method of problem solving. Medicine is essentially a collaborative effort to solve the problems of patients who are in need of medical treatment. The use of puzzles within lectures provides students with an opportunity to think outside of the box and apply what they have learned rather than repeat it back to the professor. A study conducted Colin West MD, showed that medical students had a significant increase in their ability to analyze evidence-based medicine as they progressed through medical school (West).

Lastly, models are a communication tool that allows students to see difficult phenomena in three dimensions. For example, the human spine is a complex network of nerves, bones, tendons, and muscles that are the literal backbone of the central nervous system. It connects the most powerful computer, the human brain, to the rest of the body and allows us to have the dexterity that no other species possess. However, it is hard to grasp the concept of how the spine is supported, and models are an essential genre of communication to display its function. The models of the spine that were discovered in my research provided an enlarged model that showed how the disk were separated by spinal fluid and nerves ran up and down the vertebrae (Lane Medical Library). Without this model, students would have only two-dimensional pictures to depict this part of the human body. Models are effective because they provide students the ability to physically interact with a concept rather than just look at it on a piece of paper. Walden revealed that models were used extensively during his first year when he took human anatomy, as all first-year medical students are required to do. Collectively, these lecture tools create a genre of communication that provides medical students with the information they need to know in each course.

Testing is a genre of communication that serves the professors as well as the students with the community of medical school students. As important as learning the information is to this community, the students must be able to demonstrate that they can use what they have learned and perform on tests. First year anatomy students at FSU College of Medicine are given models of the human body and asked to label various parts of them as a test grade (Walden). This method of testing checks the medical students ability to identify what parts of the human body look like and where they are located. It corresponds with the required gross anatomy course that all first year medical students are required to take (Chavez). However, most of the other tests consist of multiple choice questions that are taken online that test what is covered in the lectures as well as the assigned reading for the students (Walden). Testing gives feedback to the students on the areas where they need improvement and where they are strongest. As stated previously, the information learned throughout medical school is designed to prepare the students for a career as a physician. Therefore, every subject they are taught has a important place within the medical field, and students must be able to know their strengths and weaknesses. When asked, Jason Walden was able to identify that he was weak in the subject of the respiratory system and struggled with that class. On the other hand, he identified that renal was a subject area he excelled in and enjoyed learning about. These forms of testing provide instant feedback that tell an aspiring doctor what they need to study in order to have a complete knowledge of the human body and its functions. In addition, these testing results help professors who are in charge of the education of the future M.D.s learn what students are struggling with. Using this information, a professor can revisit a concept or adjust their teaching methods to help students gain a clearer understanding. Also, the online aspect of the tests allow for quicker turn around time on grades. This is beneficial because students can view results quickly and uncover the areas they need to work on almost immediately. With constant time constraints, as stated by Jason Walden, it is important that feedback is not delayed for medical students.

Overall, the community of medical students is required to gain a profound understanding of the human body in only four short years. This expectation is not impossible, but it requires students to utilize many genres of communication to understand the material and be able to pass it on. Through the use of lectures, videography, and extensive testing, these men and women are able to learn the skills and information necessary to call themselves an M.D. These genres of communication condense the limitless pile of information known as the human body into a manageable form that helps students learn effectively.

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