Advances in Physiology Education, Vol 267, Issue 6 37-S53, Copyright © 1994 by American Physiological Society
An educational tool for understanding the cardiopulmonary changes associated with heart failure
Y. Chen and S. E. DiCarlo
Department of Physiology, Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine, Rootstown 44272.
We wanted a new and innovative method of engaging students in interactive
learning. To this end, we developed an educational tool that compares and
contracts the cardiopulmonary responses to exercise in an individual with
heart failure with an individual with normal cardiac function. This
exercise provides a unique opportunity to analyze, integrate, and interpret
the changes associated with heart failure because more is learned about how
a system operates when it is forced to perform than when it is idle. In
this laboratory, basic anatomical and physiological data about heart
failure are provided. Subsequently, figures are presented that illustrate
the response of specific cardiopulmonary variables during exercise (e.g.,
heart rate, cardiac output, blood pressure), and the students are
challenged to analyze and assimilate information from figures, answer
questions, make calculations, and plot graphs. The answers to the questions
are provided. The students reported that this tool was an interesting and
thoughtful approach to learning cardiopulmonary physiology. We conclude
that this method is pedagogically sound inasmuch as students are forced to
draw conclusions with directed exercises and questions.
