SETON HILL UNIVERSITY, DIVISION OF NATURAL & HEALTH SCIENCES

BL-141: Medical Terminology, 1 Credit

Instructor: Dr. Steven G. Bassett

            Office: Maura 120, Phone: from on-campus – 4266, from off-campus – 724-830-1029

            PO Box: 494F, email: bassett@setonhill.edu

Time: To be arranged

Text: Smith, Davis, Dennerll, Medical Terminology, 9^th ed. (do not use earlier editions)

            Catalog Description: An introductory study of medical terminology presented as background for work in health professions. Course format involves programmed self-instruction.

Disability Statement: If you have a disability that may require consideration by the instructor, you should contact the Coordinator of Disabled Student Services at 724-838-4295. It is recommended that this be accomplished by the second week of class. If you need accommodations for successful participation in class activities prior to your appointment with the Disabled Student Services Office, you should provide the instructor with written information that includes suggestions for assistance with participating in and completing class assignments. It is not necessary to disclose the nature of your disability.

                Academic Honesty Statement: Seton Hill University expects that all its students will practice academic honesty and ethical conduct. The University regards plagiarism, cheating on examinations, falsification of papers, non-sanctioned collaboration, and misuse or illegal use of library material, computer material, or any other material, published or unpublished, as violations of academic honesty.

            FORMAT: This is a self-taught course. Students use a “programmed-learning” textbook to teach themselves to read and understand medical terminology. The text is designed to facilitate step-by-step memorization of terms and their definitions, and to learn the correct way to build new words.

            GOALS: Students will acquire a working vocabulary of medical terms. This means that they will learn to:

            *Use word-roots, prefixes, and suffixes to build medical terms and phrases.

            *Translate medical terms into common English.

                        *Spell medical terms correctly.

            HOW TO STUDY: This course, similar to beginning language courses, involves one basic intellectual skill: memorization. It requires concentrated mental effort, time, and patience. There is no quick and easy way to learn all of the prefixes, suffixes, word-roots, and word-building rules in the text.

            Use as many different learning techniques as you can devise:

*READ the words and their definitions.

*SAY the words and their definitions.

            *WRITE the words and their definitions.

            *USE the words in meaningful sentences.

            *QUIZ yourself with flash cards.

            *STUDY with a friend.

            *PRACTICE building new words from word parts.

Again, just as in a beginning language course, this subject cannot be learned overnight. Work on the material every day, so that by one week before the scheduled exam you have covered all of the assigned pages. Use the last week for reviewing.

EXAMS: We will meet at one of four scheduled times for each exam (see table below). Each exam is worth 100 points. On these exams, students will:

*Give common English words for medical roots and vice versa.

            *Build new medical terms for common English phrases from combinations of medical roots, suffixes, and prefixes.

            SPELLING COUNTS!!                        CORRECT CONSTRUCTION COUNTS!!

            The exams are not strictly cumulative. As in all languages, however, medical vocabulary builds upon itself. To use the language correctly, one cannot forget the terms learned earlier in the semester.

            Exams will not be returned. Students will be notified of their grades by e-mail. Exams will be available in Dr. Bassett’s office for students to examine and learn where mistakes were made.

            GRADING: Grades are based on the percentage of total points accumulated (maximum possible = 400) from the four exams:

A = 93% or above of total, A- = 90% to 92%

B+ = 87% to 89%, B = 83% to 86%, B- = 80% to 82%

C+ = 77% to 79%, C = 73% to 76%, C- = 70% to 72%

D+ = 67% to 69%, D = 63% to 66%, D- = 60% to 62%

F = 59% or below

SCHEDULE: Exams will be administered in Maura 111 at the times and dates listed below. Students take an average of 30 to 40 minutes to complete an exam. Make every effort to take each exam at one of the three scheduled times. You will not be allowed to make up an exam if you simply have not shown up by Friday at 11:00 AM of an exam week. If you must miss a scheduled sitting of the exam, then you will need to make arrangements ahead of time to take the exam at another time that week. This policy is suspended only in the case of severe extenuating circumstances. Note that it is not necessary to make an appointment if you are taking an exam at one of the scheduled times; just show up.