Advice from Allied Health Faculty to Chemistry Faculty David F. Dever Macon College, Macon, GA 31297 A285-item questionnaire was sent t o t h e teaching faculty of the American Society o f Allied H e a l t h Professionals (ASAHPI. It covered 23 disciplines w i t h a 45% r e t u r n (domestic and international) w i t h regard to institution, for a total o f 100 responses. Detailed queries were made t o determine t h e level a t which more than 20 basic chemistry subjects (General/Organie/Biochemistry)(GOB)plus l a b experiments a n d techniques could be taught. L a b experiments and techniques were also treated. Results b y department, program, a n d topic are discussed. The comments s h o u l d i n t e r e s t anyone l e c t u r i n g , w r i t i n g texts, o r designing labs in t h i s field. This article follows a paper read a t a symposium entitled "What t h e Allied H e a l t h Student Needs a n d Wants from Chemistry" a t the 1990 ACS meeting in Washington, D.C. I t seeks t o a i d t h e improvement in allied health education t h a t has been sought for several years.' Paper #187, Symposium on What the Allied Health Student Needs and Wants from Chemistrv; 200th ACS Meeting, Washington, D.C., AU USt 2M1,1990. ?~aly,J. M.; Sarquis, J. L. J. Chem. Educ. 1987, 64, 699. Deavor, J. P. J Chem. Educ. 1988, 65, 622. Genyea. J.; Collewaert, D. J. Chem. Educ. 1985, 62, 272. Schum, M. J. Chem. Educ. 1985, 62, 272.Trebiow, M.; Daly, J. M.; Sarquis, J. L. J. Chem. Educ. 1984, 61, 620. Williams, D. H. J. Chem. Educ 1987, 64, 707. Feigl, D. M.; HIII, J. W. General, OrganicandBloiogicaiChemistry, 2nd ed.; Burgess: Edina, MN, 1986. Holum, J. R. Fundamentals of General, OrganicandBiochemistry,3rd ed.; Wiiey: New York, 1987. Oullene. R. J. Introductionto General, OrganicandBiochemistrx 2nd ed.; Macmillan: New York, 1986. Sackheim, G. J.; Lehman, D. D. Chemistry for the Health Sciences, 5th ed.; Macmillan: New York, 1985.
Table 1. GOB Questionnaire Category Choices Alkanals
Measurements1 Calculations
Ketones Amines Acids Esters Amides Aromatics Heterocyclics Carbohydrates Lipids Proteins Enzymes Vitamins Nucleic Acids lntermed Metab Lab Techniques Lab Experiments
Atomic Theory Radioactivity Energy Bonding Inorganic Equations Gas Laws Solutions Equilibrium Acid-Base Kinetics Alkanes Alkenes Alkynes Halides Alcohols
The questionnaire briefly explained the goals of the sym~osium a n d cave instructions for r e s ~ o n d i wTable . 1lists i 4 categoriesof interest in GOB studies cull;d from perusin four oooular texts2 Tabla 2 lists 23 i n ~ c h a o w outlines r pGfessions whose members were polled because of their possible need for chemistry. The acronyms in the table are used in t h i s article.
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Number 9
September 1991
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Table 2. Disciplines Polled by Questionnaire Nursing(Nurs) LPN Dental Hygeine(Denhyg) Dental Assistant(DentAs) Nutritional Technician(NutrT) Medical Technician(MedTk) Radiology Technician(RadT) Nuclear Medicine Tech(NucT) Physical Therapist(Phy5Th) Occupational Therapy Tech(0ccTh) Respiratory Therapy TechpespTh)
Anatomy B Physiology(A&P) Physician'sAssistant(PhysAs) Medical Illustrator Medical Records(MedRec) Emergency Med Technician(EMT) EKG Technician(EKGTk) Industrial Hygeine Tech(lngHyg) Speech Therapy Tech(SpchTk) Perfusion Technician(PerfTk) Mortuary Science Tech(MortSc)
RadTech geneticl~omatic effects medical applications
NucTech dplyradiation nuclear equations stability zone geneticlsomaticeffects half-life medical applications nat'liartificial radioactivity nuclear transformations properties of emanations radiation units
Veterinary Science Tech(VetTk)
The categories were broken into areas. "Bonding" thus included "inert-gas configuration", "ionic", 'covalent", and others. Questions on lipids included questions on their classification, fatty acids, and ketone bodies. A space next to each area on the form was used to indicate M (teach more), S (teach the same), or L (teach less). The questionnaire also asked whether a two-year program was being discussed and how many terms of chemistry the program required. The data were loaded into a dBase 111 utility structured by Pilot, and 3.9M was used, supported by DOS 3.1. The data were compiled to make several options available to the user through a menu. Examples are given. 1. Select a discipline and a specific area, such as "Nutritional Technology"and 'Vitamins". 2. Select a discipline and the whole category, such as 'RespTh" and "Bonding". 3. Select a discipline and all categories.
Many answers would come a s no surprise to anyone m rcgulnr contact with faculty in the allled health field. 1.Without exception, every discipline feels that chemists spend too much time on organic chemistry. They wanted less. The questionnaire asked for responses to nomenclature, structure, synthesis, and reactions with regard to alkanes, alkenes, alkynes, halides, alcohols, alkanals, ketones, amines, acids, esters, amides, aromatics, and heterocyclics. Overall, esters seemed tobe the least unwanted. 2. With exception, wcspend tuu much timpon inbtcchniquer rM = 14% S = 53'7, L = RR5 nnd lab experiments I Y = I.IC; S = 6 W i , L = 2631,l'lw exceotmn w l s the attitude of .MedTk farultv wth regard to lab te~hni'~ues who in general felt we are doing a proper job (M = 19%, S = 6596, L = 16%). 3.Within lab techniques,the MedTk faculty wanted much more time spent on all types of chromatography and solid density measurements. 4. RespTh faculty want more gas law instruction (M = 83%, S r 14%. L = 3%). 5.The P e r m faculty want more emphasis on the Krebs cycle, gluconeogenesis,glycolysis,glycogenolysis,organic structure, respiration in intermediary metabolism, and solutions (including colloids;hypo-, iso-, and hypertonic solutions;osmolarity;osmosis; and unsaturated, saturated, and supersaturated solutions). ~~~
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Table 3. Increased Needs: Radiology Technicians vs Nuclear Medicine Technicians
Journal of Chemical Education
There were some surprises, however. For instance, one mistake was to lump RadT and NucT disciplines. ("After all, their stuff comes in the same chapter on radioactivity, doesn't it?") Both disciplines indicated increased needs. However, the distribution of M responses from the RadT faculty and NucT faculty are quite different. Table 3 shows the listing of those subjects in the Radioactivity category alone where the M requests were 150% greater than the sum of S and L. This should help emphasize the repeated admonition made during the symposium that ch&nists should talk more with ihc! faculty members who rely on us to eive their students firm back&ounds in our disci~lineso lab th& can develop their own sGbjects soundly. exercises.. techniaues.. and urocedures seem to be of little importance to the (;OH fadu~tieiwerall: Benedict36sulution. Rial's test. biuret. Fehiine's reaaent. Mohsch's test for cardohydrates,'~eliwa~off's test, a n z ~ o l l e nreagent; s PKU tests.. enzvme assavs. " ..DK. - titrations and titrations in eeneral, and procedures for the determination of iodine number, saponification number, and sterols. These data should give one pause: These topics are still given wide prominence in many current GOB lab manuals. I n the discussion period a t the end of the symposium, several GOB faculty pointed out that MedTk practitioners were now using automated equipment almost exclusively. Thus, more was needed in their curricula. As mentioned above, no discipline collectively wanted more organic, but more biochemistry was requested by almost everyone. Typical of the respondents calling for more biochemistry and intermediary metabolism were A&P (M = 19%, S = 69%, L = 12) and RespTh (M = 33%, S = 66%. L = 1%). This put chemists attendim the svmposium we, for example, kcludk thee-&in a q;andary mensional structure of organic molecules but later adequately present enzyme/s~bstratefit? I was not alone in realizina I couldnot accede to these requests and also fulfill my prof;lssional responsibilities to my students. This remains a concern. Several ASAHP disciplines seem to require no chemistry: Respondents in LPN, Dent&, OccTh, MedI11, EMT, and SpchTk reported no need. ~~
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Acknowledgment Special thanks are due to Bobbie and Ruth Dever for loadine data and to Skip Fields for the dBase 111nroeram. .4nyon; interested in acopy of the questionnaire'or of the reports section of the data base should write to the author.
