001It was kind of a shock. Like it's so cool to see like something so real. It >> was beating one sack and next thing you know it's not moving. When they cut open the paricardal sack and we saw the heart for the first time like that was like a aha moment for me. >> The more we learned about like the heart unit and everything I was like this is more intriguing than scary. Life in the heart is a realtime live surgical procedure. The students get to witness uh remotely from the uh pack at Samberg. They are seeing a surgical team from Christ Advocate Hospital, perform an open heart surgery on a patient. You ask them about what happens inside an operating room and they're probably going to be able to think of a house episode
002or they watch Grey's Anatomy. So for them to be able to see what actually goes on inside an operating room, they get to speak with the medical professionals that are working in there. I just think the live interaction between the doctor, profusionist, PA, nurses are all interactive with our students and explaining what's going on. I always try to plan our units right around live from the heart. I want to make sure I got my cardiovascular unit in first. >> We did a dissection of the heart as well, cutting it open, uh looking at what structures are there in the heart as well as a conduction system. Then we do cardioysiology. Um so kids learn about blood vessels, blood pressure. Um and then we do focus on disorders and diseases >> and um we learned about
003different conditions that we may see in in the surgery. >> We talk about coronary artery disease um and the physiology behind that, the risk factors. So, um, at the beginning of this field trip, usually that's the first thing that they're going through is what are the risk factors that the patient had that led them to be on the table. >> So, it's one thing for students to learn about the the anatomy of the structures, all the vocabulary, and to see a preserved specimen and to handle those. But to see a a person who is on the operating table, who's undergoing a needed surgery, um whose life is in the hands of a surgical team in front of them, um it really brings alive the uh significance and the practicality and the reality of what they're
004learning in the classroom. >> It's cool to see how like how calm they are and like being able to like stay super calm. >> I think the most interesting part was when they were cutting all the fat off of the vein. You know, I thought the vein would be like, you know, a lot lot smaller, but it was it was pretty long. >> Biggest thing that surprised me is probably when they had to reduce the body temperatures and put them in almost hypothermia as a way to reduce the amount of blood flow in the heart. >> I think it does, it really opens up their mind to other jobs in the healthc care field. I think sometimes they really generalize like, oh, I want to be a nurse or I want to be a doctor,
005but they start looking at the actual specialists here in the operating room. And this gives them a chance to see like it's not just the actual surgeon that's there. We have different nursing staff. There's people who are going to run some of the heart and lung machines. Um we've got the anesthesiologist is present, physicians assistants. So they actually get to see what some of those roles look like live and in person. >> Probably 8 n years ago when we were doing the surgery, the the the the physician's assistant like, "Mr. K, is that you?" So one of my students in my class was actually the physician's assistant. So it was like full circle. It's just such a real life experience. Like we can talk all we want in the classroom about certain positions and certain
006careers, but to actually talk to somebody in that career on the spot while they're performing in the operating room is amazing. And they can talk about their education. Um they can get an idea about pay range. >> I didn't know what some of those job positions even were before. And so getting to hear from everyone was really cool and like opened my eyes to new careers that I didn't know about. >> Yeah, I was really happy cuz I want to go into medicine and then this is obviously like a big step in that direction. I mean, I was hoping when I got here and then watching it that I wasn't like super nervous. I stayed calm as well. So, obviously nursing is my fit. >> Um, throughout this class and like learning more about like
007the body, it's kind of like solidified my decision on going premed and possibly the surgery route. >> I do want to pursue an MD or do degree in the future. Um, especially in internal medicine. We're focusing on authentic learning experiences for our students who get to see, you know, professionals who are in the act of doing their day-to-day job using the knowledge that students are also learning about in their classrooms.