Learning in Health and Social Care最新文献

A university speech and language therapy clinical learning experience was evaluated. A group of postgraduate pre-registration speech and language therapy students were placed with a group of adults with severe acquired dysarthria for a period of 10 once-weekly sessions with a lecturer-therapist in charge. In order to examine the student perspective, a focus group was held before the commencement of the placement and a second group held at the end of the placement. The evaluation of the data from the focus groups demonstrated that it was possible to identify a range of factors which influenced learning in this context.

Narrowing the theory–practice gap through clinical education of pre-registration nurses is of international importance. Difficulties arising from supervising students in clinical education have been reported in Nepal, Hong Kong and Turkey and different countries also make various provisions for pre-registration clinical experience. In the UK, pre-registration nursing education standards and course content equip nurses to practice safely and are defined in statute. Students spend 50% of the course in clinical practice where they apply theoretical concepts under the guidance of a mentor, lecturer practitioner (LP) and link tutor.

This paper presents the results of the first phase of a three-phase study, which sought to explore differences between mentors, LPs and link tutors and how they work together to enable pre-registration nursing students to integrate theory and practice. The aim of this phase of the study was to explore how LP roles were implemented across the study area and how they worked with mentors and link tutors to enable students to integrate theory and practice.

Eleven semistructured interviews of LPs were conducted. The constant comparison method was used to analyse the data. Three themes emerged from the data — participants’ perceptions of their role and how they relate to others (a foot in both camps); participants’ concern to fit students for practice (look at it the right way); participants’ perceptions of how their work could be enhanced (making the job better). This paper discusses these three themes in relation to how the LP role differs from that of mentors and link tutors and how they work together to facilitate theory/practice integration in pre-registration nursing students.

Interdisciplinary group work, as a method of learning, has become an essential component of most interprofessional undergraduate curricula in health and social care. Research into the effectiveness of these groups has concentrated on the dynamics of interaction between students from the different professions and focused largely on stereotyping and power. However, within small groups, social and psychological pressures are likely to influence participants’ behaviours and have a dramatic impact on overall effectiveness. Using qualitative data from an evaluative research study of a pre-qualifying interprofessional undergraduate curriculum, the experience of students engaged in face-to-face group learning was examined. Data were collected from 15 groups of health and social care students across two sites of a university in the UK. Age, gender, experience and the demographic composition of the group affected individuals’ levels of participation. Analysis of group observations, student interviews and focus groups revealed a range of influences on group interaction. These include participation, group roles, tasks and cohesion and a tendency to avoid conflict.

Changes to the education and training for social workers in England, UK since 2003 have increased the number and widened the pool of students encouraged to enter the profession via higher education. Social work education is very much linked to increasing diversity in work-force development where an agenda to build a well-motivated and skilled work-force can in turn provide good quality services and interventions reflecting the diverse needs of service users and carers. This paper reports on a small-scale study which explored factors affecting the potential success of students following a vocational education programme leading to the degree in social work. Using in-depth face-to-face interviews with a sample of seven students and a focus group with eight social work tutors, within a qualitative framework, the experiences of learning and teaching were explored from the participants’ subjective viewpoints. The study highlighted several factors found to potentially impact on student success in social work education and compared these with the published literature relating to both widening participation and diversity in learning. Factors impacting were student organization and time-management skills; access to study skill support; their relationships with tutors and peers; and the impact of affective factors on the learning process. This study forms a useful basis for determining areas for intervention to improve the potential of success on the degree and the challenges anticipated in implementing these for students from diverse and non-traditional backgrounds. Although this study related specifically to social work education, the findings may be transferable to other vocational education professions in the health and social care sector.

This study outlines the development of a conceptual framework to guide the evaluation of the impact of the pedagogy employed in continuing professional development for professionals in education, health and social care. The work is developed as part of the Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning: Interprofessional Learning across the Public Sector (CETL: IPPS) at the University of Southampton. The study briefly outlines the field for pedagogic research and comments on the underpinning theories that have so far been used to guide research into interprofessional learning (IPL). It maps out the development of interprofessional continuing professional development (CPD) in its specific context as part of the CETL: IPPS with its links to a local authority undergoing service reorganization and the role of the CPD in effecting change. It then brings together a theoretical framework with the potential to explore, explain and evaluate the essential features of the model of pedagogy used in interprofessional CPD, in which professionals from education have for the first time been included alongside those from health and social care. The framework draws upon elements of situated learning theory, activity theory and Dreier's work (2002, 1999) on trajectories of participation, particularly personal action potency. By combining the resulting analytic framework with an adapted version of an established evaluation model, a theoretically driven, practicable evaluation matrix is developed. The matrix has potential use in evaluating the impact of pedagogic input on practice change. The study models a process for developing a conceptual framework to steer pedagogic evaluation. Such a process and the resulting matrix may be of use to other researchers who are similarly developing pedagogic evaluation.

A small empirical study was funded by the Australian Government's Regional Health Service Program, with the aim of delivering and evaluating a series of six interactive mental health information sessions to health workers, consumers, carers and community members in small rural towns using distance education technologies (e.g. videoconferencing, telephone conferencing and the Internet). Over 250 people participated in the series involving 89 rural towns in New South Wales, Australia; 47% of these towns had a population of less than 5000. The evaluation consisted of 222 returned participant evaluation questionnaires which showed that 39% of respondents appreciated having access to mental health information, 27% valued having access to it locally, and 14% appreciated not having to travel to obtain it. The greatest percentage of problems (62%) was related to the reliability and use of the technology.

The information series provided participants with an opportunity to network and learn together locally, to communicate more extensively with experts in the mental health field, and to develop greater confidence in the use of distance education technologies. Delivery by videoconference was found to be efficient in enabling a number of individuals to participate at a local site eliminating the costs associated with travel. The challenges of the initiative have been how to effectively engage rural community participation in an unfamiliar distance-learning mode (videoconferencing and web forums), developing a supporting protocol and network that ensures a successful learning event, and understanding current capabilities of the technology in rural areas.

This small and specific study offers evidence of ways in which a carefully developed initiative can improve isolated community mental health literacy and suggests some benefits and challenges of community engagement and technology use which will be of interest to professionals facilitating learning in rural and remote contexts.

This study explores error situations and learning activities of nurses after the experience of an error episode. We assume that errors – although undesirable events – are a natural part of work processes and can lead to individual learning and organizational change. The importance of dealing with errors in an open and learning orientated way has been emphasized in applied works on quality and safety management. Furthermore, research on work-place learning and professional development has indicated that learning from errors is an important way of developing professional competence. Until now, little is known about how and under which conditions individual learning from errors takes place at work. For the purpose of empirical investigation, a process model was developed which conceptualizes learning from errors in terms of the engagement in self-regulated learning activities after the experience of an error episode. This model was further developed in an exploratory interview study with 10 experts in the field of hospital nursing. We found that especially non-formal learning activities that incorporate social exchange were considered to be important. The results of the study guide the further development of research instruments and studies aiming to investigate learning from errors.

This paper reports on the findings of a phenomenological study of nursing students studying abroad. The literature shows that study abroad has long been part of liberal educational approaches dating back to medieval times. Yet it is only recently that undergraduate nursing students have been allowed to study abroad as part of their formal programme. The research conducted was informed by the philosophical hermeneutic phenomenology of Martin Heidegger and was designed to answer the question: ‘How is study abroad manifest in the experience of nursing students?’ Data were collected through the use of unstructured diaries of 26 nursing students studying at two universities in the United Kingdom. Analysis uncovered six structures or ‘ways for study abroad to be’: leaving behind, escape, foreigner, learning, self-discovery and risk. The main focus of this paper is ‘leaving behind’; the selection of this structure reflects its general interest and predominance in data analysis. Interpretation of the structure suggests that study abroad might offer an opportunity to militate against the limiting effects of personal and professional socialization processes. Here, socialization is viewed as a state of becoming and study abroad for some nursing students is a facet of this state of becoming. Finally, it is argued that study abroad is deserving of much greater attention in nurse education and beyond. For example, the concepts of global communities and a global economy necessitate the need for employees in the future to have wider experiences and understanding of different cultures and understanding the experience of study abroad is one possible contribution to this. Thus, it is believed that this study makes a valuable contribution to teaching and learning discourses, specifically nurse education and also in wider educational arenas.