An educational tool for understanding the cardiopulmonary changes associated with heart failure

We wanted a new and innovative method of engaging students in interactive learning. To this end, we developed an educational tool that compares and contracts the cardiopulmonary responses to exercise in an individual with heart failure with an individual with normal cardiac function. This exercise provides a unique opportunity to analyze, integrate, and interpret the changes associated with heart failure because more is learned about how a system operates when it is forced to perform than when it is idle. In this laboratory, basic anatomical and physiological data about heart failure are provided. Subsequently, figures are presented that illustrate the response of specific cardiopulmonary variables during exercise (e.g., heart rate, cardiac output, blood pressure), and the students are challenged to analyze and assimilate information from figures, answer questions, make calculations, and plot graphs. The answers to the questions are provided. The students reported that this tool was an interesting and thoughtful approach to learning cardiopulmonary physiology. We conclude that this method is pedagogically sound inasmuch as students are forced to draw conclusions with directed exercises and questions.