Opening Class Activities Brooks (2023) suggests a learning strategy to engage students as a class in medical terminology or in a course where applying medical terminology is prominent. As students enter the classroom, the faculty should write a list of terms built from word segments students are studying. As students take their seats, assign individual students or a group to analyze and define a term. Follow this five-minute activity with students sharing their analyses and definitions in small groups or with the entire class. Flash Cards Flash Cards with prefixes and suffixes or medical abbreviations or terms are a tried-and-true method to support memorization. Individual students may use these cards (either purchased from a publisher, homemade, or accessed via phones, tablets, and laptops from internet sources) to check their own memory. Flash Cards of various types may also be used in small group activities. Brooks (2023) suggests dividing students into small groups (three or four) and giving them 5-15 minutes. One member of the group holds up a card, allowing another member to pronounce the word and another to provide the definition. At the end of this short session, students might also be asked to categorize the cards by the information the word conveys, such as anatomic structures, pathology, surgery, diagnostics, specialty provider, and so forth. Having students determine the categories can add a twist to this exercise by building more context into this memory work. Medical Terminology Bingo Medical Terminology bingo can also be a fun way to review definitions of various terms. Although there are commercial medical terminology bingo games available, these can also be homemade to represent medical terms faculty want to emphasize, for example, terms in a particular unit the students have recently studied. While this can be an interesting class activity (especially, if there are prizes), a group of students can also use bingo as a review mechanism without an instructor present. Emphasizing Correct Pronunciation The correct pronunciation of medical terms is often difficult for students to achieve. Requiring students to read various written patient scenarios aloud in class can be an adjunct to a Medical Language Lab. (Even if students are working independently, reading aloud in an effort to smoothly pronounce difficult words in the context of a patient scenario can be helpful.) Throughout the health professions student’s educational experience, they will likely be required to make presentations about clinical situations in class or other venues. Even students in an online course may make video presentations in order for faculty and/or classmates to grade their presentation skills. To incentivize students to use appropriate medical terms in their presentation, faculty might consider including a criterion in the presentation grading rubric, such as “Uses medical terminology appropriately, including proper pronunciation.” One Last Thought 5. Learning a new language, including Medical Terminology, is an important skill requiring student engagement, application, repetition, and faculty/peer feedback . Regardless of whether medical terminology is learned in an independent course or integrated into courses within the total curriculum, faculty must provide opportunities for each of these components to be in place, so that students can truly be fluent in medical terminology by their graduation. Denise DeAntonio suggests a simple framework to guide the teaching of medical terminology: “Keep it fun! Keep it real!” Six words that provide a perfect framework to learn medical terminology.
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