Faculty from the Medical Laboratory Science and the Diagnostic Cytology programs teamed up for a study under a grant from the UNMC Interprofessional Academy of Educators.
Linsey Donner, PhD, Maheswari Mukherjee, PhD, Ashley Eichelberg, Marnie Imhoff, Kevin McGuire, C.J. Woslager, DC, received an IAE Education Research Grant titled, “Color Deficiency Survey: A Review of Medical Laboratory and Cytology Health Education Programs Screening Practices and Learning Interventions Research.”
Color vision deficiency (CVD) could be a potential barrier to student learning and performance in health profession programs and may ultimately result in medical errors from future practitioners with CVD.
Screening for CVD is not a common practice. If screening is performed, there are often no teaching interventions provided for instructors. The team discovered that research on the teaching and learning of medical laboratory and cytology students with CVD is limited. Given the lack of published investigations, this pilot study involves a national survey of medical laboratory and cytology health programs to determine if they currently screen for CVD and how they teach those students with CVD.
The results from this survey study could provide a unique perspective to health educators on how to effectively adapt their teaching with the use of digital tools, imagery, and pedagogical materials.