Topic Discussion: Heart Failure-LVAD and CardioMEMS

Pre-Reflection:

I will be leading a topic discussion on two devices that I believe students should be aware exist.
During my heart failure experience, I discovered the existence of CardioMEMS and wanted to learn
more. In regard to LVADs, I have hands-on experience maintaining and assessing the devices as a former
cardiovascular intensive care nurse. I do not know who will be attending this meeting but I have
designed my questions and handout for about 8 pharmacy students. I ensured to make my handout
visually appealing with images and organized font and text sizes. I will incorporate active learning
through asking the group open-ended questions in order to stimulate their own thinking. I have
descriptive pictures strategically placed for visual learners and I have “fill in the blanks” on my handout
for tactile learners. I hope to have participation in this and my goal is to teach them something new that
they may encounter one day. At the end, I will ask that they write down and share one “take away”
point that they learned and feel is meaningful to remember.

Post-Reflection:

The majority of students and the four pharmacists seemed to enjoy this topic. I received good
feedback on my handouts and most thought it was interactive. I did leave my notes and answer key in a
different office which made me appear unprepared as I used my computer handout for reference. I
retained most of the knowledge I wanted to portray that was on my handwritten notes regardless. I
asked the audience more questions than in prior presentations and tried to pause to stimulate thinking.
I spoke slow but would have liked to have a more energetic communication style. In the future, I will try
harder to gain projector access for images that I want to describe. It is difficult to guide the audience
exactly where to look when explaining a picture on separate handouts. Lastly, I am disappointed that I
didn’t get to wrap up my presentation with my “take away” exercise. I omitted this by mistake without
my notes.