Oscilometría: de la teoría a la práctica / Oscillometry: from theory to practice

La oscilometría es una herramienta que, poco a poco, se está abriendo paso en las consultas de neumología y alergología. Se trata de una técnica sencilla de realizar para el paciente, que, además, aporta información adicional a las pruebas de función respiratoria clásicas. No solamente nos indica la alteración que existe en la vía aérea, sino que localiza a qué altura se produce (central o periférica). El objetivo es acercar esta técnica al personal sanitario y hacer más sencilla su interpretación. (AU)

Oscillometry is a tool that is gradually making its way into the daily routine of pneumology and allergology. It is a simple technique for the patient, which also provides additional information to the classic respiratory function tests. It not only indicates if there is an alteration in the airway, but also locates where it occurs (central or peripheral). The aim is to bring this technique closer to healthcare professionals and facilitate its interpretation. (AU)

Diabetes and obesity pathophysiology as a teaching tool to emphasize physiology core concepts.

Diabetes mellitus and obesity are major public health issues that significantly impact the health care system. The next generation of health care providers will need a deep understanding of the pathophysiology of these diseases if we are to prevent, treat, and eventually cure these diseases and ease the burden on patients and the health care system. Physiology core concepts are a set of core principles, or "big ideas," identified by physiology educators that are thought to promote long-term retention, create a deeper understanding, and help with formation of critical thinking skills. Here we describe our scaffolded teaching approach in an upper year undergraduate pathophysiology course to educate students about these two diseases and discuss how learning about the basis of these highly integrative diseases from the biochemical to whole body level is a meaningful tool in the physiology educator toolbox to reinforce physiology core concepts. This teaching strategy is designed to engage students in the scientific process and hone their problem-solving skills such that they are hopefully equipped to treat and eventually cure these diseases as they move forward in their careers.NEW & NOTEWORTHY Students often struggle with integration of physiological systems. Type 2 diabetes mellitus and obesity are two related diseases that are useful to explore the interdependence of physiological systems and multiple physiology core concepts. Deep learning about these diseases has the potential to dramatically improve the health care system of the future.

Diseño curricular de un diplomado en enseñanza de fisiología / Curricular design of a physiology training diploma course

Introducción: Los conceptos fundamentales de la fisiología representan un avance significativo en la pedagogía de esta disciplina, y proporcionan una base sólida para la enseñanza y el aprendizaje. Estos conceptos enfatizan los principios metodológicos y disciplinarios necesarios para que los estudiantes comprendan la fisiología de manera efectiva. Además, guían tanto a estudiantes como a profesores, e influyen en el diseño de programas académicos de pregrado y posgrado. Materiales y métodos: Diseño curricular basado en las necesidades formativas de docentes de la carrera de médico cirujano de México. El análisis de necesidades formativas se desarrolló según el perfil de egreso de médicos mexicanos. Resultados: Como resultado primario, se obtuvo el programa académico de posgrado llamado ‘Diplomado en enseñanza de fisiología’, con un enfoque constructivista y que utiliza los conceptos fundamentales de la fisiología como su piedra angular. Este programa ha estado en funcionamiento durante cuatro años y ha capacitado a 35 profesores de más de 10 universidades en México. Está estructurado en cinco etapas de formación, que abarcan desde la ciencia del aprendizaje hasta la planificación de sesiones teóricas y prácticas, y en cada etapa se explora y se reflexiona sobre los conceptos fundamentales de la fisiología. Conclusiones: Los académicos valoran positivamente la inclusión de los conceptos fundamentales de la fisiología como ejes de enseñanza y aprendizaje trasversales.(AU)

Introduction: The core concepts of physiology represent a significant advancement in the pedagogy of this discipline, providing a solid foundation for teaching and learning. These concepts emphasize the methodological and disciplinary principles necessary for students to effectively understand physiology. Moreover, they guide both students and teachers, influencing the design of undergraduate and postgraduate academic programs.Materials and methods: Curricular design based on the training needs of professors in the medical career in Mexico; the analysis of training needs was developed according to the profile of graduating Mexican doctors. Results: The primary outcome was the academic program for the postgraduate program called ‘Certificate in Physiology Teaching’, with a constructivist approach that uses the core concepts of physiology as its cornerstone. This program has been in operation for four years and has trained 35 professors from more than ten universities in Mexico. It is structured in five training stages that range from the science of learning to the planning of theoretical and practical sessions, and in each stage, the core concepts of physiology are explored and reflected upon. Conclusions: Academics positively value the inclusion of the core concepts of physiology as cross-cutting teaching andlearning axes.(AU)

The pulmonary physiology of exercise.

The pulmonary system is the first and last "line of defense" in terms of maintaining blood gas homeostasis during exercise. Our review provides the reader with an overview of how the pulmonary system responds to acute exercise. We undertook this endeavor to provide a companion article to "Cardiovascular Response to Exercise," which was published in Advances in Physiological Education. Together, these articles provide the readers with a solid foundation of the cardiopulmonary response to acute exercise in healthy individuals. The intended audience of this review is level undergraduate or graduate students and/or instructors for such classes. By intention, we intend this to be used as an educational resource and seek to provide illustrative examples to reinforce topics as well as highlight uncertainty to encourage the reader to think "beyond the textbook." Our treatment of the topic presents "classic" concepts along with new information on the pulmonary physiology of healthy aging.NEW & NOTEWORTHY Our narrative review is written with the student of the pulmonary physiology of exercise in mind, be it a senior undergraduate or graduate student or those simply refreshing their knowledge. We also aim to provide examples where the reader can incorporate real scenarios.

Content Coverage as a Persistent Exclusionary Practice: Investigating Perspectives of Health Professionals on the Influence of Undergraduate Coursework.

STEM undergraduates navigate lengthy sequences of prerequisite courses covering volumes of science content. Given that these courses may contribute to attrition and equity gaps in STEM, research is needed to test the assumption that prerequisite content benefits students in their future studies and careers. We investigated the relevance of prerequisite course content for students' careers through semistructured interviews with practicing nurses regarding their undergraduate anatomy and physiology (A&P) courses. Nurses reported that A&P content does not align with the skills and knowledge needed in the nursing profession. Interviewees averaged 39% on a brief A&P assessment, suggesting A&P prerequisites failed to impart a high degree of long-term A&P knowledge among nurses. Further, practicing nurses perceived overcommitment to A&P content coverage as an exclusionary practice that eliminates capable individuals from the prenursing pathway. These findings challenge assumptions surrounding the justification for prerequisite course content and raise questions of whether content expectations actively exclude individuals from STEM or healthcare careers. We aspire for this study to stimulate conversation and research about the goals of prerequisite content, who is best positioned to articulate prerequisite content objectives, and the influence of content coverage on equity and justice in undergraduate STEM education.

Undergraduate students' perception of cardiorespiratory physiology during exercise: teleological vs. mechanistic thinking.

BACKGROUND: Physiology is widely recognized as a difficult course, which can potentially increase students' withdrawal and failures rates. Several factors are likely contributing to the difficulties in learning physiology, including inherent features of the discipline as well as aspects related to instructions and/or students' perception. With regards to the later, it is currently unknown how students of exercise physiology think and explain physiology in terms of its cause or consequence (i.e., teleological or mechanistic thinking). Therefore, the aims of the present study were to determine 1) whether undergraduate students' perception of cardiorespiratory physiology during exercise follows a predominant teleological or mechanistic thinking, and 2) whether prior enrollment in physiology courses can influence the predominance of teleological vs. mechanistic thinking. METHODS: The test instrument was an online questionnaire about exercise physiology consisting of nine incomplete sentences about exercise physiology where students had to choose between a teleological or a mechanistic complement. The questionnaire was administered to undergraduate students in the following areas: 1) Movement Sciences (n = 152), 2) Health-related (n = 81) and, 3) Health-unrelated programs (n = 64). Students in Movement Sciences and Health-related programs were also analyzed separately in the following categories: 1) students who previously undertook physiology courses, and 2) students who did not take physiology courses. RESULTS: Overall, all groups presented a percentage of teleological thinking above 58%, which is considerably high. Teleological thinking was significantly higher in health-unrelated programs than health-related and movement sciences programs (76 ± 16% vs. 58 ± 26% vs. 61 ± 25%; P < 0.01). Further, students with prior enrollment in physiology classes presented a significantly lower percentage of teleological thinking than students without physiology classes (59 ± 25% vs. 72 ± 22%, respectively; P < 0.01), but the overall teleological reasoning remained predominant. CONCLUSIONS: These results confirm the hypothesis that undergraduate students tend to present teleological as opposed to mechanistic thinking in exercise physiology. Furthermore, although undergraduate students with prior enrollment in physiology classes presented significantly lower teleological thinking, it remained highly predominant suggesting that teleological thinking is partially independent of the degree of familiarity with this discipline.

Interactive audio human organ model combined with team-based learning improves the motivation and performance of nursing students in learning anatomy and physiology.

Among the basic medical sciences, anatomy and physiology (anatomy & physiology) is a fundamental subject for students majoring in nursing. Due to its diversity and difficulty, nursing students experience stress when studying it. Previous graduates generally presented lower achievements in anatomy & physiology than in other nursing-related subjects in the National Council Licensure Examination-Registered Nurse, indicating that anatomy & physiology education requires improvement. Accordingly, we examined the impact of innovative teaching on students' motivation and performance when learning anatomy & physiology through a quasi-experimental pre-/post-test design. For innovative teaching, we used the novel interactive audio human organ model, followed by team-based learning. The participants were 200 lower-grade students in the nursing department of a junior college in Taiwan, divided into two groups receiving innovative teaching (experimental group) or traditional teaching (control group). Questionnaire surveys were administered, and the collected data were statistically analyzed. The innovative teaching in anatomy & physiology improved learning motivation, especially in terms of affect, executive volition, and learning performance. The essential components of learning motivation, such as value, expectation, affect, and executive volition, were positively correlated with the reaction levels of learning performance. Regarding the improvement in academic performance, the experimental group performed significantly better than the control group. The use of innovative teaching in class enhances students' learning motivation and learning performance when studying anatomy & physiology. Interactive teaching aids enhance the enjoyment of learning anatomy & physiology while facilitating in-depth exploration of the human organs and systems.

Creating the HAPS Physiology Learning Outcomes: terminology, eponyms, inclusive language, core concepts, and skills.

Learning outcomes are an essential element in curriculum development because they describe what students should be able to do by the end of a course or program and they provide a roadmap for designing assessments. This article describes the development of competency-based learning outcomes for a one-semester undergraduate introductory human physiology course. Key elements in the development process included decisions about terminology, eponyms, use of the word "normal," and similar considerations for inclusivity. The outcomes are keyed to related physiology core concepts and to process skills that can be taught along with the content. The learning outcomes have been published under a Creative Commons license by the Human Anatomy and Physiology Society (HAPS) and are available free of charge on the HAPS website.NEW & NOTEWORTHY This article describes the development of competency-based learning outcomes for introductory undergraduate human physiology courses that were published and made available free of charge by the Human Anatomy and Physiology Society (HAPS). These learning outcomes can be edited and are keyed to physiology core concepts and to process skills that can be taught along with the content.

Physiology quiz competition: the game of education or entertainment?

Questioning is an important activity in teaching. In medical colleges, on-stage quiz competitions are appreciated by students as well as faculty as they are an engaging way to connect with the discipline. We organized the Physiology Quiz Competition to assess the concepts of functional mechanisms of various organ systems. It was an academic tool for teaching and learning for 200 first-year Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) course students. It was conducted in four rounds: multiple choice question-based round 1 (R1), explanatory-type round 2 (R2), rapid-fire round 3 (R3), and image-based round 4 (R4). The postquiz feedback questionnaire included 23 total questions; 10 questions used a 5-point Likert scale, another 10 questions had dichotomous options, and the remaining 3 questions were used to collect general information about all rounds. Data were collected and analyzed. The outcome of academic learning was reported by 26% of students regarding R1, 30.5% regarding R2, 18.5% regarding R3, and 25% regarding R4 round. R4 and R3 were reported by 44.5% and 23% of students and R2 and R1 by 16% of students as a source of entertainment. A total of 67% of students found the quiz to be an excellent teaching and learning method. All students endorsed the quiz as innovative and interesting. In conclusion, the Physiology Quiz Competition can be used for edutainment as an innovative teaching and learning method, especially for first-year medical students.NEW & NOTEWORTHY The Physiology Quiz Competition is a method of teaching and learning that provides education with entertainment in a medical college. It increases students' interest in the subject of Physiology and helps them to understand and learn the subject effectively.

Scientific writing in physiology: confused/misused terms and phrases.

One aspect of effective scientific writing in physiology is the ability to select the correct words or short phrases to use when developing your narratives. This task is made difficult because many commonly used terms have seemingly viable alternatives, leading to confusion, uncertainty, and possible misuse of those words and phrases. In this perspective, we attempt to provide general guidance when selecting between or among options for commonly confused and misused terms in scientific writing. We have organized inaccurate, confusing, commonly misused, and misleading words and phrases into separate tables categorized as general language, demographic descriptors, general science, physiological sciences, and exercise physiology. Our modest hope is that the current perspective facilitates effective writing and encourages discussion regarding the importance of clarity in writing.

La autoevaluación basada en criterios como elemento de evaluación en asignaturas de carga cognitiva elevada / Self-assessment based on criteria as an evaluation element in subjects with a high cognitive load

Introducción: La autoevaluación se ha definido como el proceso mediante el cual los alumnos deciden si han alcanzado o no los estándares definidos. La autoevaluación es una herramienta valiosa para identificar debilidades y fortalezas en los estudiantes de Medicina. Objetivo: Comparar los resultados de una prueba de autoevaluación basada en criterios con los resultados de un examen estandarizado para evaluar conocimientos disciplinares en Fisiología. Sujetos y métodos: En este trabajo desarrollamos y aplicamos una herramienta de autoevaluación a estudiantes de segundo año de la carrera de Medicina en la asignatura de Fisiología de la Facultad de Medicina de la Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. Luego recopilamos comentarios y los dividimos en calificaciones clasificadas como ‘calificaciones altas’ y ‘calificaciones bajas’. Finalmente, comparamos los resultados de la autoevaluación con los de una prueba objetiva (prueba estandarizada) que evalúa los conocimientos disciplinares de fisiología. Resultados: Los alumnos que consideran que han realizado un esfuerzo y trabajo constante durante el curso se valoran mejor que los alumnos que no lo hacen. Por otro lado, encontramos diferencias significativas entre la prueba objetiva y la autoevaluación. Conclusiones: La autoevaluación basada en criterios puede ayudar a evaluar cualidades más allá del conocimiento disciplinario.(AU)

Introduction: Self-assessment has been defined as the process by which students decide whether or not they haveachieved the defined standards. Self-assessment is a valuable tool to identify weaknesses and strengths in medical students. Objective: To compare the results of a self-assessment test based on criteria with the results of a standardized exam to assess disciplinary knowledge in physiology. Subjects and methods. In this work we developed and applied a self-assessment tool to second-year medical students in the physiology course of the Faculty of Medicine of the National Autonomous University of Mexico. We then collected feedback and divided it into ratings categorized as: ‘high scores’ and ‘low scores.’ Finally, we compared the results of the self-assessment with those of an objective test (standardized test) that assesses disciplinary knowledge of physiology. Result: Students who consider that they have made a constant effort and work during the course value themselves better than students who do not. On the other hand, we found significant differences between the objective test and the selfassessment. Conclusions: Criteria-based self-assessment can help assess qualities beyond disciplinary knowledge.(AU)