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The Chemical Educator
ISSN: 1430-4171 (electronic version)
Abstract Volume 26
(2021) pp 1-4
An Exercise in General, Organic and Biochemistry to Stress the Importance of Math Mindfulness and Critical Thinking to Nursing Students
Anne P. Vonderheide
University of Cincinnati, College of Arts and Sciences, Department of Chemistry, Cincinnati, Ohio 45221, anne.vonderheide@uc.edu
Received June 15, 2020. Accepted November 19, 2020.
Published: 27 January 2020
Abstract. In
recent times, many nursing colleges across the U.S. have made the transition to
a one semester General, Organic & Biochemistry (GOB) course as opposed to
the historical two semester class. This has led to a rather fast-paced course
in which nursing students must learn a great deal of relevant material in these
three fields of chemistry. The rapid pace of the course may sometimes not allow
for the extra emphasis of various crucial subjects. In addition, some students may not clearly see the relevance of
topics covered as well as the importance of critical thinking. In this paper, a
short assignment for freshman nursing students with the goal to stress the
importance of these is discussed alongside student submissions. Summarily,
students were asked to go to the public literature and find a report in which
critical thinking played an important role in a real-life situation. The
majority of students investigated the medical field, but a few chose other
areas. Each student was asked to write a report, summarizing the events that
transpired; within the same assignment, students then were asked to decipher
what went wrong and how that related to the importance of critical thinking for
the nursing student. Collectively, the student submissions were excellent and
their subsequent reflections, in many cases, worthy of publication. This short
assignment may therefore prove valuable to nursing students at other
institutions to stress the critical nature of their GOB chemistry course and
the knowledge gained there within.
Key Words: In the Classroom; general chemistry; organic chemistry; biochemistry; GOB; nursing student; undergraduate chemistry curriculum; math skills; critical thinking
(*) Corresponding author. (E-mail: anne.vonderheide@uc.edu)
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