Ever since attending an Open Educational Resources (OER) workshop in 2019, I (Andrea) have always wanted to make an OER medical terminology book. I have been searching for years for the right OER book and, finally in Spring of 2021, my co-author (Katherine) found Building a Medical Terminology Foundation by Kimberlee Carter and Marie Rutherford. Their book was just what we had been searching for. We are so grateful for all of their hard work on creating such a wonderful book. By chance in the Fall of 2021 our university signed a contract with Pressbooks and the Health Sciences librarian, Cindy Gruwell, was experienced with the process. While the book provided us with an excellent foundation, Katherine and I worked very hard to create a text that would best serve future healthcare students. We are so happy that the creation of this book will save our students here, and elsewhere, on textbook costs while also allowing them to have continued access to this book after their course ends.

Andrea M. Nelson, PT, DPT, GCS, CLT, University of West Florida

Katherine Greene, MPH, University of West Florida

Thanks and Gratitude

We give the biggest thanks and appreciation to Kimberlee Carter, of Conestoga College ITAL, and Marie Rutherford, of Georgian College CAAT, for creating the OER book, Building a Medical Terminology Foundation, from which our book was based.

We wish to thank Stephanie Clark, Dean of Libraries at the University of West Florida, for encouraging faculty to create and use OER materials in their courses and for establishing a relationship with Pressbooks.

We extend our gratitude to Cindy Gruwell, Asst. Librarian/Coordinator of Scholarly Communication and Health Sciences Librarian at the University of West Florida, for all of her support, assistance, and guidance through the process of revising, updating, and publishing our OER book.

We appreciate the support of Angela Hahn, Chair of the Health Sciences and Administration Department at the University of West Florida, in taking on this project to lessen textbook costs for students across campus taking our Medical Terminology course.

We would also like to thank Karen Valaitis, Clinical Assistant Professor in the Health Sciences and Administration Department at the University of West Florida, for her continued advocacy and push in our department for adopting OER materials for our students.

We also extend thanks to Kylie Pugh, Instructional Designer at the University of West Florida’s Center for Teaching Learning and Technology, for her design and editing help.

Lastly, we would like to acknowledge Denise Seabert, Dean of the College of Health and Human Services at Fresno State University. Without her encouragement, we would not have been brought together. We truly appreciate all that you have done for both of us.