Congratulations to Dr. Trisha Branan, CAP assistant professor, who is the recipient of one of UGA’s Creative Teaching Awards. The Creative Teaching Awards recognize UGA faculty for excellence in developing and implementing creative teaching methods to improve student learning.
Dr. Branan’s award was based on her transformation of the Critical Care Pharmacy course PHRM 5370. Branan worked with course co-coordinator Anthony Hawkins and instructional designer Russ Palmer to create a virtual intensive care unit patient room that allowed students to interact with various healthcare disciplines and patient families. She used pre-formed dialogue, replicated vital sign monitors, and access to laboratory data to mimic clinical practice. Her innovative efforts provided a set of immersive and interactive learning tools that allowed students to think critically and communicate effectively to make clinical decisions in scenarios that are reflective of real-world critical care pharmacy problems.
“In hospital acute care units, the healthcare team has to quickly interpret a great deal of patient data and communicate effectively, often to keep patients alive,” said Dr. Brad Phillips, director of the college’s CAP department and the Millikan-Reeve professor. “This course is vitally important as it develops the knowledge and critical skills our students will need to help optimize patient care and outcomes in this setting. I commend Dr. Branan on this well-deserved teaching award.”
A UGA College of Pharmacy alumna (’06), Dr. Branan’s research interests are in critical care pharmacy, innovative teaching methods and interprofessional education.
The Creative Teaching Awards are presented annually on behalf of the Office of Instruction, the Center for Teaching and Learning, and the Office of the Provost to faculty who have demonstrated either the use of innovative technology or pedagogy that extends learning beyond the traditional classroom, or creative implementation of subject matter that has significantly improved student learning outcomes.
