“I’ve been teaching pathophysiology for 25 years and I’ve used a lot of different books. I finally found the right book for my students 10 years ago when I was introduced to the F.A. Davis pathophysiology book by Capriotti.” Denyce Watties-Daniels Associate Professor of Nursing and Director of SimCenter Coppin State University Baltimore, MD
Dr. Denyce Watties-Daniels teaches Pathophysiology and Pharmacology, as well as serving as Director of SimCenter, in the Bachelor of Science in Nursing program at Coppin State University. The program admits between 60-100 students annually, mostly from the Baltimore metropolitan and District of Columbia areas. Similar to most nursing programs, students range in age from 18 to mid-40s, with many older students looking to make a career change to nursing. Pathophysiology is a 3-credit, 15-week course that meets once per week, in person, for 3 hours. Dr. Watties-Daniels has been teaching pathophysiology for over 25 years. The challenge: Finding a pathophysiology book at the right level for her students “Finding the right pathophysiology book was difficult,” says Dr. Watties-Daniels. “Most of them are extremely technical for beginning nursing students and include information that the beginning nurse just doesn’t need. Trying to find something that my students could understand was a huge challenge.” Dr. Watties-Daniel notes that before she started using Capriotti, students would buy the book, but they wouldn’t use it because it was too much. “They would come to class with their book, and I could tell that they hadn’t even opened it. It was just too hard to read.” The solution: Davis Advantage for Pathophysiology Dr. Watties-Daniels has been using Theresa Capriotti’s text since the first edition. “My F.A. Davis sales representative showed me the book and I really liked it. It has a much better reading level. The language is much easier to understand than other books I’ve used in the past.” Before she started using the book in class, Dr. Watties-Daniels gave the book to a student to use along with the book they were currently using. She asked the student to look at it before their next exam. “He came back to me and said ‘oh, yes, this is a great book. Can I keep it?’” “That’s when I knew. I had a few other students look at it and they all gave me positive reviews.” Prior to the first day of class, Dr. Watties-Daniels posts all of the course readings to the school’s learning management system. “It’s unrealistic to expect that the students will read the entire chapter prior to class. One of the things that I love about the Capriotti book is that they have a great summary at the end of every chapter. At minimum, I tell them to read the chapter summary and compare it with their syllabus, so they know what we’re going to talk about in class.” Dr. Watties-Daniels uses the F.A. Davis-provided PowerPoints as a basis for her lectures and adds links, pictures, and interactive questions. “I use those slides to make sure I’m covering the information in the book since that’s what the students will see on their exams.” Dr. Watties-Daniels also directs her students to the Davis Advantage online course that she has made available to them. She encourages them to use the videos, pre-tests, and post-tests to support their learning. “I think these online modules are great for the students. The students who access this material really like it and tell their classmates about it.”
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