I have officially reached an exciting milestone for my Interventions in Biomedical Sciences Class by completing my outreach presentation. I decided to focus on a subspecialty of Emergency Medicine, Sports Medicine. As such, I completed my outreach project with our Biomed Sports Medicine course.
I decided to focus my presentation on the evaluation and treatment of fractures in the Emergency Department, particularly with sport-related injuries. This topic is so important because, as according to statistics published by Johns Hopkins, 20.6% of sport-related injuries in the Emergency Department are fractures. We discussed the role that the Emergency Department plays in treating these fractures such as immediate evaluation, infection prevention (for open fractures), stabilization, and pain management. Next we talked about the instances in which a fracture should be treated in the Emergency Department. These instances include open fractures, displaced fractures, or fractures of the lone bone or joints. I also made a point to highlight the large number of fractures sustained per year, noting any one individual as over an 80% chance of breaking a bone in their life time, with athletes having a disproportionate risk. Lastly, we discussed treatment options such as casting, bracing, splinting, and surgery and when to use these. This would led us into the topic of our activity.
For the activity, we discussed plaster casting and I allowed each of them to come up and help saw a cast open using a cast saw. We discussed how a cast saw works differently from a wood saw, vibrating back and forth rather than rotating, thus reducing the risk of harming a patient with it. Between both classes, I had over thirty students representing each of the four highschool grades. I noticed the project was best received from the younger students rather than the seniors, with the juniors being the most receptive. My first class was reluctant to participate in my activity, but in my second class, every student was eager. I definitely learned from my first class to my second class.
Before I left I talked to all the classes about the benefits of the Interventions course. A lot of students were shying away in fear of the infamous 25-page paper and other daunting course work. I did my best to indicate to them that we have ample amount of time to complete all assignments, and that everything we do will be very beneficial to our futures. I hope most of them choose to take this class!
I had a great time completing my outreach project, despite any bumps in the road I experienced at first with my lab (I am very grateful to Mrs McCleery for helping me with that). I hope all of the students learned something from my presentation, and I was very pleased that Mr. Bentley asked for my slides so that he could discuss the same topic with next year's class!
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