Kayla Combs stands at the head of the Anatomy Lab table surrounded by medical students examining their patient鈥檚 musculoskeletal system. 鈥淚f you pull on this tendon here, it will cause the fingers to move,鈥� Combs demonstrates.
But the teacher isn鈥檛 a med school faculty member. She鈥檚 a doctoral candidate in 麻豆原创鈥檚 physical therapy program participating in an interdisciplinary session designed to better educate future doctors on human anatomy. She is one of three PT graduate students serving as teaching assistants during this year鈥檚 Anatomy Lab module.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a win-win situation,鈥� says Daniel Topping, who directs the College of Medicine鈥檚 Anatomy Lab and began the physical-therapists-as-educators program. 鈥淧hysical therapy students get more intensive anatomy training than our medical students because their profession is very anatomy dependent. They are so knowledgeable and great with the med students that it鈥檚 just like having another faculty member. It was an experiment that I think is going really well.鈥�
The College of Medicine鈥檚 Anatomy Lab module is unique nationally. Cadavers are considered a student鈥檚 first patient. First-year medical students don鈥檛 just memorize organs and body systems 鈥� they become forensic detectives trying to determine their patient鈥檚 cause of death. PT students provide additional expertise, Topping says, because they have spent seven months studying in a cadaver lab compared with 17 weeks for med students.
The PT students 鈥� Combs, Akash Bali and Kelly LaMaster 鈥� were chosen based on their expertise and teaching experience. They come in every Friday for the four-hour lab, and teach under the supervision of Topping and other core and volunteer faculty.
“We get to open their eyes to what we do and offer them a different perspective on anatomy.鈥� 鈥� Kayla Combs, physical therapy doctoral candidate
鈥淲hat鈥檚 really good as physical therapy students, is that we get to open their eyes to what we do and offer them a different perspective on anatomy,鈥� Combs says, 鈥渓ike having them pull on tendons to see what the muscle actually does, actually seeing that it flexes the finger or flexes the toe.鈥�
鈥淎nd in teaching them, we鈥檙e also teaching ourselves,鈥� Combs says. 鈥淥ur PT labs are purely about identification. For the med students, their lab is much more about investigating and asking questions, as they have to determine the cause of death of their 鈥榩atient鈥�. So it鈥檚 been fun to see them question things, whether or not an organ looks normal or not and I learned a lot too from that process.鈥�
The PT students say the collaboration has been an opportunity to 鈥済et inside the mind of med students鈥� which will give them a better understanding of the physician鈥檚 perspective as far as pathologies, clinical diagnoses and treatment.
鈥淚n the future when we need to talk to a physician about a patient we will know where the physicians mind is at or why they made the referral or recommendation,鈥� LaMaster says. 鈥淲hen everyone is on the same page, the better the outcomes are going to be for the patient.鈥�
Medical students enjoy the casual peer-to-peer interaction, which they say helps them learn better.
鈥淏eing students themselves, they understand what it is like to learn anatomy for the first time,鈥� says medical student Kevin Boyd. 鈥淎nd so they鈥檙e able to sort of communicate a little differently than faculty, and we felt more comfortable asking them questions that we would probably be intimidated to ask faculty.鈥�
鈥淚 think interprofessional collaborations such as these will provide a more well-rounded healthcare provider both for physical therapists and medical doctors.” 鈥� Patrick Pabian, program director for the Doctor of Physical Therapy program
With the development of 麻豆原创鈥檚 new Academic Health Science Center (AHSC), which will ultimately bring many 麻豆原创 health programs to Lake Nona, Topping says such collaborations are only the beginning of an exciting future for healthcare education.
鈥淎natomy is a discipline that鈥檚 so fundamental to all healthcare professions, speech therapy, physical therapy, nursing, anyone involved in direct patient care, and we have such a great facility here, so it鈥檚 just a great place for us to collaborate and to begin partnerships.鈥�
He and other AHSC faculty hope to make such educational partnerships a staple for the new 麻豆原创 health sciences center. 鈥淚t was a very easy decision to make when Dr. Topping approached us with this idea,鈥� says Patrick Pabian, program director for the Doctor of Physical Therapy program. 鈥淚 think interprofessional collaborations such as these will provide a more well-rounded healthcare provider both for physical therapists and medical doctors. Getting our students working together and becoming familiar with each other as much as possible is paramount because it鈥檚 really going to benefit patients in the future.鈥�
