WRITING ACROSS THE CURRICULUM FORMAL ASSIGNMENT

SALISBURY UNIVERSITY MEDICAL LABORATORY SCIENCE PROGRAM

MDTC 101 and BIOL 115

SAFETY IN BIOLOGICAL, CHEMICAL AND CLINICAL LABORATORIES

DISCUSSION/WRITING ASSIGNMENT

Course Description:

Review of laboratory safety. Summary of government laws and regulatory bodies and their effect on lab policy, illustrations of proper procedures for laboratory hazards. Topics include chemicals, infectious microbes, animals, fire, electrical equipment, radiation, glassware and compressed gases. Training in the use of safety equipment and protective clothing and general first aid. Students may not receive credit for both BIOL 115 and MDTC 101.

Formal/Discussion Assignment:

Purpose and Knowledge:

In order to gain a better understanding of the importance of safety in the laboratory setting and to analyze and incorporate the topics that you have learned about in the course, you will be presented with safety-related scenarios for evaluation. These scenarios are designed so that you must incorporate the subjects you have learned and you must use that information to evaluate the situation and answer questions that are presented.

Audience:

You will be divided into online discussion groups and your group must evaluate and discuss the scenario. Your instructor will also participate in the discussion. Additional questions will be presented by the instructor during the available discussion period for you to consider and answer.

Length and Format:

· In order to participate in the discussion, and receive full credit, you must first compose your own evaluation of the scenario that is being presented. You will be provided with a prompt for this part of the assignment.

· This evaluation should be between 200-300 words.

· Please pay attention to grammar, usage, spelling, and sentence structure. Slang and/or text shorthand are not acceptable. I will NOT grade discussions that are not in proper form and the author will receive a grade of zero for such posts. You must submit this discussion before you will be able to see your classmates’ responses.

· Once you submit your analysis, you should respond to at least two of your classmates. These responses should be thoughtful.

o If you agree with your classmate, please describe why you agree. If you disagree, indicate why.

o You are welcome and encouraged to respond to comments on your own thread. This is a discussion, after all.

· Additional questions related to the scenario will be presented throughout the designated discussion period.

o Questions must be answered for full credit.

o You should comment on at least one response given by a classmate to receive full credit on the assignment.

· This discussion should be in your own words.

o If you wish to refer to material, such as the text, be sure to include proper quotation marks and indicate (in parentheses) where it came from using the author, year of publication, and page number, if applicable. A formal bibliography is not necessary for this assignment. Failure to properly cite your source will earn a grade of “0” for the assignment. Your Instructor designates the right to submit any serious infraction to the Academic Policies Committee, as well.

Evaluation Criteria:

1. Is the discussion at least 200-300 words? (10%)

2. Are responses well organized, original, and use good grammar, punctuation, and spelling? (30%)

3. Has the student demonstrated an understanding about the material that has been presented in the lecture and effectively utilized the information to analyze the scenario? (20%)

4. Has the student responded to two initial responses? (10%)

5. Have the additional questions been answered? (20%)

6. Have students responded to at least one of their classmates’ or the instructor’s responses for the additional questions? (10%)

***

SCENARIO #1:

A hospital laboratory established a policy that all instruments have to be operated by staff wearing a full length lab coats with long sleeves, closed toed shoes and gloves. Only one person works on the overnight shift, so there is little direct oversight of policy compliance on that shift.

Bernard finds lab coats and gloves uncomfortable, and when he is alone he operates the instruments without wearing either. One night a tube of blood with a crack in it fell apart in his hand, splattering his hand and street clothes with blood. Fortunately, he was not cut by the glass, but he had to remove his clothes, wash off in the safety shower and wear a lab coat with nothing under it until he could obtain scrubs from another department.

Bernard decided that he couldn’t hide the incident, so he submitted an incident report to the laboratory manager. The laboratory safety committee reviewed the report and had to decide how to act.

QUESTIONS:

Initial question/prompt:

Explain in detail what you think, based on the information that you have learned, the lab manager and safety committee should do to address this incident.

Follow up questions:

Did Bernard break the law? Did the hospital? Explain your answer.

Explain in detail what the lab manager and safety committee should do to prevent this from happening again.

What should happen to Bernard?

***

SCENARIO #2:

You are the safety officer for a large laboratory operation, and you have been called in to evaluate a situation by Employee Health. A worker has complained of shortness of breath and wheezing every time she comes to work. She feels lightheaded for her entire work shift and has difficulty breathing. She has some eye irritation but is otherwise healthy. She says that she always feels better once she leaves work and breathes fresh air.

You go to the laboratory section where this employee works to observe procedures. Staff appear to be wearing lab coats and gloves appropriately. There is no respiratory protection in use. Chemicals are stored properly and a chemical fume hood is available. You notice that the hood has not been serviced for 11 months and that there is no daily record of hood air flow being kept. When you entered the lab, you could detect a faint scent like formaldehyde, but no one working in the laboratory says they can smell it. This section does use formaldehyde, but only in the chemical fume hood. You were unaware that they had begun using formaldehyde, so you have done nothing related to complying with regulations for this chemical.

QUESTIONS:

Initial question/prompt:

Are the employee’s symptoms consistent with formaldehyde sensitivity? Explain why or why not.

Follow up questions:

Explain in detail what you need to do now to comply with OSHA regulations, enhance the safety of this area and determine if this employee’s problems are workplace induced.

Is it acceptable that the safety officer does not know that formaldehyde is being used in the facility? What should be done about that?

***

SCENARIO #3:

You are the supervisor in a biosafety level 2 microbiology laboratory and have had many students in your laboratory over the years. This year, two of five students in your laboratory became ill with an organism named Salmonella typhi. All five students had received specimens as unknowns containing this organism to verify their competence at the end of their practicum.

QUESTIONS:

Initial prompt/questions:

Where do you look to find out about this organism? What biosafety level is it? Is the infectious dose low enough that it can be acquired in the laboratory? What handling errors are likely to have contributed to the students acquiring this organism?

Follow up questions:

What are you going to do as supervisor? Are there any policies that need to be changed? Is there any risk to your staff or other occupants of the facility because of this transmission?

What should happen to the students who got sick? Should they fail their practical because they made an error or is the process in the laboratory to blame?

***

Response Plan:

1. Students are given all assignments at the beginning of the semester. There are three assignments to choose from – so each discussion group might be given a different assignment.

2. Students must submit an initial response to the scenario before they will be able to observe their classmates’ responses.

3. Classmates and the Instructor will respond to the evaluations. Additional thoughts and ideas will be shared. Each student must respond to two classmates in the initial response.

4. The Instructor will provide additional questions that should be answered by each student before they can see their classmates’ responses. Students should respond to one of their classmates’ answers as well.

5. Additional commentary on their own thread comments is encouraged.

Rubric:

	A (90-100)	B (80-89)	C (70-79)	D/F Below 70
Does the initial evaluation meet the designated word length (200-300 words)? (10%)	Meets	Between 175-199 words	Between 150-174 words	Does not meet <150 words
Is the response organized, original (or properly cited), and does it have acceptable grammar, punctuation, and spelling? (30%)	Very organized, easy to follow. All material is original or properly cited. Grammar, punctuation, and spelling problems are minor or not present.	Content is organized. All material is original or properly cited. Some issues with grammar, punctuation, and spelling may be present.	Somewhat organized but disjointed content. All material is original or properly cited. Grammar, punctuation, and spelling problems are consistent throughout response.	Very disorganized. Plagiarized material. Slang or text speak is used in writing. Or no response at all.
Has the student demonstrated an understanding about the material that has been presented in the lecture and effectively utilized the information to analyze the scenario? (20%)	The student has thoroughly covered all aspects of the scenario.	The student has covered some of the major aspects of the scenario, but has not grasped some of the other concepts	The student has covered only a few of the major aspects of the scenario, but does not have a good overall understanding of the situation.	The student does not understand the scenario.
Has the student responded to two of their classmates’ initial responses? (10%)	Yes	Yes or No (only responded to one)	No (only responded to one)	Did not respond to any
Has the student responded to the additional questions that have been asked? (20%)	Yes and the student has thoroughly covered all aspects of the scenario.	Yes and the student has covered some of the major aspects of the scenario, but has not grasped some of the other concepts	Yes and the student has covered only a few of the major aspects of the scenario, but does not have a good overall understanding of the situation.	Yes but the student does not understand the scenario OR the student has not responded to the additional questions.
Has the student commented on one of their classmates’ responses to the additional questions? (10%)	Yes	Yes	Yes	No

WRITING ACROSS THE CURRICULUM

SALISBURY UNIVERSITY MEDICAL LABORATORY SCIENCE PROGRAM

FORMAL CASE STUDY CRITERIA

CLINICAL ROTATIONS

Course Description:

This depends on the clinical rotation that the student is in, but may fall into one of the following topics: Hematology, automated or special chemistry, microbiology, transfusion medicine, diagnostic immunology, point-of-care, phlebotomy, or urinalysis and body fluids.

Assignment Sheet:

Purpose:

Case studies are a useful informational tool in the clinical setting and are often used in medical journals to report a unique case or for continuing education. The cases you write will inform the Clinical Coordinator about a specific case that you have encountered during your clinical rotation. The case should pertain to the particular department in the laboratory where you are rotating, but should also take into account other areas within the laboratory if results from those departments are relevant to the case (e.g. the patient was anemic – as determined by hematology - and required a blood transfusion – completed by transfusion services, etc.). These cases may be presented to your classmates as well.

Knowledge:

In deciding what case to pursue, you may want to discuss the information with the medical laboratory scientists and department managers that you are working with. You should obtain a case history and you must make sure that all identifying information has been removed. You may use any reference material, manuals, and your textbooks. Be sure to use proper quotations and citations, if those are necessary.

Audience:

The Clinical Coordinator will be reviewing these cases. You must submit at least ONE case for each clinical rotation. You may submit a second case if you wish to have additional points.

Length and Format:

Case studies should be at least two pages in length and will include the case history information, attached at the end. Please Note: If the identifying information has not been removed from the case history information, you will lose significant points. Please use Times New Roman or Arial set to 12-point font with one inch margins. Paragraphs should be single-spaced, with an extra return in between each paragraph. The case study should include the following:

Patient History or Overview of the Case

Laboratory Data

Conclusion

References

Please pay attention to grammar, usage, spelling, and sentence structure. Slang and/or text shorthand are not acceptable. Cases will NOT be graded if they are not in proper form and the author will receive a grade of zero for the case study. Cases should be in your own words. You will receive feedback from the Clinical Coordinator to improve the case study.

Evaluation Criteria:

1. Content and organization (40%)

2. Grammar and Mechanics (10%)

3. Conclusions of case – Does it make sense? (30%)

4. Submission of case history information with appropriate de-identification (20%)

Response Plan:

1. Assignment is given at the beginning of Clinical Rotations (Winter Term). This applies to ALL rotations, unless otherwise specified.

2. Student submits a topic for their case study for approval during the rotation in the clinical department.

3. Student sends their draft for their case study to the Clinical Coordinator for evaluation. The Clinical Coordinator will evaluate the draft for content and clarity and return to the student for continued work.

4. The Writing Center might be employed here – although students are off-campus during this time (sometimes across the Bridge) and might not be able to come back to campus to use the Writing Center).

5. Case studies are submitted at the end of the clinical rotation (or they might be submitted during “exam weeks” offered periodically throughout the Spring semester).

Rubric:

	A (90-100)	B (80-89)	C (70-79)	D/F Below 70
Content and Organization (40%)	Case is well laid out and flows logically. All aspects and related departments are considered in the diagnosis	Case is understandable and logical. Some relevant results from other departments may be mentioned.	Case is somewhat logical. No other departments are mentioned in the case, even though additional data would be important.	Case is not logical and disjointed. Results are spotty and unclear.
Grammar and mechanics (10%)	No errors	Few errors	Some errors	Many errors
Conclusions of case – Does it make sense? (30%)	Conclusion is very logical and complete.	Conclusion makes some sense, but needs more clarification	Conclusion is somewhat vague and difficult to interpret.	Conclusion does not make sense – data do not support the student’s conclusion.
Submission of case history information with appropriate de-identification (20%)	Case history present and properly de-identified	Case history present and properly de-identified	Case history present and properly de-identified	Case history was not properly de-identified.