6/25/2016 What is Medical Laboratory Science? • Baccalaureate health care degree • Prepares students to perform medical laboratory testing DEVELOPMENT OF A STRATEGIC WRITING – Diagnostic Microbiology PLAN FOR MULTILINGUAL AND NATIVE – Hematology and Hemostasis ENGLISH SPEAKING STUDENTS IN A – Clinical Chemistry – Transfusion Medicine MEDICAL LABORATORY CURRICULUM – Molecular Diagnostics DONNA SPANNAUS ‐ MARTIN, PhD, MLS • 70% of medical diagnoses and treatment plans are based on laboratory test results JANICE CONWAY ‐ KLAASSEN, PhD, MT, SM CHARLOTTE ROMAIN, MS, MLS • Very detail ‐ oriented LORNA RUSKIN, EdD, MT • A profession of introverts MLS Program University Of Minnesota’s MLS Program • Approximately 90 ‐ 95 students (Juniors + • Joined WEC Program in 2012 Seniors) • All MLS courses taken in senior year (2 • Approximately 45 ‐ 50% non ‐ native English semesters plus summer) speakers, primarily transfer students • One writing intensive course at the very end • Represented approximately 12 different of the program languages – Very little writing or writing instruction in – Amharic, Vietnamese, Cambodian, Russian, other courses Somali, Korean, Arabic, Oromo, Chinese, Akan, Cantonese, Kiisi/Swahili MLS Faculty Views WEC Survey • Not happy with student writing • Survey of writing in the profession • As seniors in college, students should already – Two ‐ thirds of practitioners viewed writing as know how to write extremely important in the profession, compared to fifty percent of faculty and only 21% of • Teaching writing is more work, barely enough students time to teach technical aspects of MLS – 91% of clinical practitioners expected new • Writing takes too much time to grade employees to demonstrate proficiency in the use • Most MLS professionals don’t have to write of correct grammar, spelling, and mechanics of much (a view shared by MLS students) writing 1
6/25/2016 Genres of Writing in the Profession Pilot Study on Student Writing • E ‐ mails • Types of writing errors made by native and • Standard Operating Procedures non ‐ native English speaking MLS students • Reports to Administrators – Global errors (understanding) – Justifications for new equipment • No significant difference in number of • Personnel Issues errors – Performance reviews – Local errors (sentence ‐ level) – Job Descriptions • Same types of errors made, but greater in • Business Letters number in non ‐ native English speakers Changes in MLS Curriculum Goals • Transition from traditional to hybrid courses, • Students with more flipped classroom – See the importance of writing in the profession – More recorded lectures with transcripts available – Make students responsible for their own – More in ‐ class time for writing instruction writing • Transition from one year of courses to two – Improve student writing skills year program • Faculty – More time to help students develop as writers – View writing in the profession and in the • Addition of a second writing intensive course classroom differently early in the curriculum – Scaffold writing assignments to build on student skills Research Questions Junior Year – Professional Issues Course • A writing intensive course in the junior year • What writing tools will be most effective in • Make students aware early why writing is important helping students improve their writing? • “Low stakes” writing • Introduce formatting, plagiarism concepts, • What strategies are particularly useful with importance/purpose of writing in the profession multilingual students? • Reflective writing – More room for “writing with an accent” • Drafts and feedback • Error logs – Making students responsible for their own error correction 2
6/25/2016 Student Error Logs Student Error Logs • Types of errors included (22 total): • Students were given reflection paper – Subject / verb agreement assignments responding to questions posed by the instructor – Missing apostrophe – Article missing or incorrect • First drafts submitted in Turnit ‐ It allowed – Comma splice students to track errors by type and make – Missing word corrections based on feedback from Turnit ‐ In – Run ‐ on sentence and the instructor – Spelling errors • Students kept error logs of the number and – Wrong word types of errors for each assignment Error Log Results Junior Year – Biomedical Laboratory Techniques course • Significant correlation between language and number of errors for • Required getting faculty to look at writing and writing instruction differently – Run ‐ on sentences – Sentence structure – Lab reports, graphs, figures and figure legends ARE writing within the discipline – Word choice • Multilingual students showed more • When can errors be tolerated and when can improvement than native English speakers they not be tolerated • Exception: multilingual students continued to make more article errors WAC vs. MLS Writing in the Discipline • Accuracy in writing is sometimes necessary • Scholarly Inquiry course – Case Study group project, peer review – Example: the plural of “test” is not “testes” – Literature review ‐ Scientific writing, writing for – John Anderson & John Andersen learning • Timing limits in writing assignments is • Diagnostic Microbiology sometimes necessary – Lab reports, formatting – “Writing to learn” vs. “Writing to – Descriptive writing communicate” • “Writing with an accent” ‐ information must be clear 3
6/25/2016 Writing in the Discipline Writing in the Discipline • Body Fluid Analysis • Transfusion Medicine – Writing Standard Operating Procedures extremely – Importance of accuracy in communication important • Clinical Chemistry – Previously, students wrote one procedure in last – Writing to different audiences – E ‐ mails to semester patients explaining results – Now, write components first before putting the pieces together. – Students understand why this writing is critical to the profession Last Semester – Management Course Last Semester – Management Course and Clinical Experiences and Clinical Experiences • Laboratory Management is an online writing • Great way to get them to understand intensive course taken while students are on importance of writing their clinical experience – Talk to laboratory managers about writing in the profession • Utilize student observations as much as – More about genres – proposals, business letters, possible e ‐ mails, shift notes, laboratory results, medical – Reflective writing (formatting not important) records & the legal issues involved with – Budget proposals (formatting important) professional writing (96% of communications were – Comparison of processes at different hospitals e ‐ mails or short, concise electronic correspondence related to patient care) MLS Writing Discussion Board Lessons Learned • Step 1 ‐ Convincing faculty to include writing “I discovered that there is a great deal of writing didn’t have to be painful that goes into the job. ……it is extremely – Adding writing didn’t necessarily mean “term important to communicate clearly. This is papers” something that could affect patient results and – Writing could be threaded throughout the existing ultimately treatment. Therefore communication course designs in short, concise assignments and procedures must be written in an easy to (Example: serum vs. plasma) understand format so that no matter who is – Short writing assignments make it easier to take timely corrective action collecting a sample or performing the test, – “Larger writing projects may in fact be things are done correctly.” inappropriate for the subject matter” 4
6/25/2016 Lessons Learned Lessons Learned • When grading, faculty do not need to correct • More assignments with feedback on drafts everything (nor should they) – Students rarely read comments made on papers that do not need to be corrected and turned in – Getting students to find their own mistakes again – Concentrate on one or two concepts at a time • Faculty realized not all assignments require – Look at the purpose of the assignment (Is it for assessment of local errors (E.g. test questions) grammar and formatting, or is it for content? What is the importance of each for each – Time constraints on exam place multilingual assignment? Is the meaning understandable?) students at a disadvantage Lessons Learned Lessons Learned for WAC • Importance of providing clear instructions, • Importance of technical factors of writing in and examples of effective and ineffective health care writing – Even small technical errors that might not directly impede final understanding may cause a significant delay in interpretation by the receiving medical practitioner, which could have grave consequences for the quality of patient care “This study taught me several things about how WAC scholars need to challenge their own assumptions QUESTIONS? about writing in the disciplines” Donna Spannaus ‐ Martin spann003@umn.edu ‐ Multilingual Writing Specialist Janice Conway ‐ Klaassen jconwayk@umn.edu 5
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