You will use available resources to research a patient’s case, then use that information to answer the stated questions in detail.   PBL allows you to learn how the normal physiology we discuss in class is related to disease and pathophysiology.  In other words: in order to be a great health care provider, you need to fundamentally understand what happens to the body when things go wrong.  And to understand that, you have to fundamentally understand what happens to the body when things are normal!

What are the resources?  First, use the free internet to research the signs, symptoms, and test results. spend your first week doing this. You’ll start to see the same diseases showing up. But the end of week 1 has a list of possible diseases.  Spend week 2 researching these diseases by, again, using the free internet. By the middle of week 2, you should have narrowed your list down to one disease that makes sense.  Now, use the library databases (peer reviewed scholarly articles) to research that one disease and the answers to the questions. You need to find sources in these databases that you can cite.  You can also visit the Library and ask the Librarians for assistance in researching these databases.   Spend the beginning of week 3 writing your responses to the stated questions. No need for a complete essay, but answer each question separately.  You do need to use complete arguments with substantiating information and cite each question with an appropriate resource. Lastly, utilize the Writing Center and feel free to show me a rough draft. While I cannot tell you if you are right or wrong, I will review the draft and let you know if you have enough supporting information.   peer-reviewed