Journal of Allied Health最新文献

Instructional technology has offered faculty new and innovative ways in which to prepare and deliver learning materials to students online. Although online learning has been a part of the higher education landscape, it has not been traditionally utilized by health science faculty to its fullest capacity.

Purpose: The purpose of this pilot study was to examine health science faculty perceptions regarding their readiness to teach online.

Methods: This study employed a mixed method design using a sequential explanatory framework. Faculty readiness was identified by their attitude regarding competencies and ability perceptions using the Faculty Readiness to Teach Online (FRTO) instrument.

Results: Health science faculty have limited training in teaching online, and there is a significant difference in perceptions and attitudes towards which competencies in remote instruction are critical to focus on.

Outcomes: Findings confirm the online instruction training needs of health science faculty that will support engagement of health science students as adult learners both meaningfully and effectively now and in the future.

Introduction: Several universities modified interprofessional education (IPE) to a virtual format, showing similar outcomes as IPE delivered through an in-person format. This study aimed to describe perceptions of 106 students from programs in occupational therapy, dietetics, nursing, athletic training, and speech-language pathology (SLP) following an established IPE activity in a virtual format. This information will add to previous literature through inclusion of 5 healthcare programs as well as identifying attitudes from each discipline. both of which will enhance future IPE curriculum development.

Methods: Following the IPE event with a case study, participants wrote reflective essays describing their perceptions of the virtual IPE experience. Four researchers analyzed the reflective essays using thematic analysis.

Results: Findings revealed four themes: beneficial learning experience, roles, the more the merrier, and logistics. Participants felt overall that the virtual IPE experience was beneficial, but the logistical issues of the online format as well as students' amount of participation created negative perceptions. Participants from dietetics expressed the most positive comments (70%), followed by occupational therapy (69%), athletic training (67%), speech-language pathology (54%) and nursing (48%). Undergraduate students (dietetics and nursing) made 4% more positive comments than graduate students (SLP, athletic training, occupational therapy).

Discussion: Participants shared that the virtual IPE experience is beneficial for optimal holistic care and felt some components of the IPE experience prepared them for real-world clinical practice. However, logistical issues (large group size and online format) prevented equal participation and establishing a connection with other participants.

Objectives: Knowledge associated with the construct of leadership and the sociodemographic profiles of those in leadership positions within academic communication sciences and disorders (COSD) programs in the United States is limited. The purpose of this study was to investigate the sociodemographic profiles of people holding department chair and/or program director positions in accredited graduate speech-language pathology (SLP) and audiology (AUD) programs.

Methods: A cross-sectional observational investigation using public information was conducted to profile individuals in leadership positions of academic programs. Tabulated data included program variables (SLP, AUD, or SLP+AUD), degree offered, program level, and national ranking, in addition to sociodemographic variables of the individuals holding a leadership position. A multidimensional statistical analysis was employed to address three research questions examining: (a) the sociodemographic characteristics of people in COSD leadership positions, (b) gender distribution within leadership positions, and (c) national ranking of institutions from which leaders obtained their terminal degree.

Results: Data were acquired from 502 people holding a department chair or program director positions at 305 universities, representing 98% of all accredited graduate programs. Over 80% of leaders held a research doctorate (PhD) in COSD, and a large majority of all leadership positions were in standalone academic departments. A greater proportion of males held leadership positions when compared to the distribution of male members of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA), but the proportion of male academic leaders was equivalent to their representation among all male COSD faculty (20%). A larger proportion of academic COSD leaders tended to have earned their terminal degree from a highly ranked academic program.

Conclusions: This study illuminates the current profiles of those in leadership positions of academic graduate programs in COSD. Given the critical shortage of qualified faculty to staff accredited COSD programs, findings from this study may inform potential solutions to the problem of faculty sufficiency to assume leadership roles.

Background: Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT) students experience an increased level of stress throughout their curriculum. Hatha Yoga is associated with stress reduction; however, no study has investigated its efficacy on DPT students' level of perceived stress.

Objective: To determine what difference Hatha Yoga has on DPT students' level of perceived stress.

Methods: A pretest/posttest quasi experimental design was utilized. Repeated measures included the Perceived Stress Scale 10-item instrument (PSS-10). The convenience sample included 22 DPT students.

Results: The intervention had a statistically significant influence on perceived stress reduction, observed by a decrease in perceived stress scores from 21.32 to 13.23 (p < 0.001).

Conclusion: Hatha Yoga is an effective strategy to reduce perceived stress in DPT students and improve wellbeing.

Purpose: To describe the product evaluation of a curriculum of integrated clinical education (ICE) implemented into a Doctor of Physical Therapy program.

Methods: A novel curriculum incorporating five stand-alone ICE courses was developed and evaluated using the Context, Input, Product, Process program assessment model. Primary outcomes for product evaluation included Clinical Performance Instrument (web-CPI) ratings of student performance, student self-assessment aptitude, student satisfaction, and clinical remediation counts during full-time clinical education experiences (FTCEs).

Results: Outcomes from the first ICE curriculum cohort (n=58) were compared to the prior two traditional curriculum cohorts (n=76). There were no differences in clinical instructors' (CI) final web-CPI assessments during terminal FTCEs. However, ICE students scored higher on initial and intermediate FTCEs and were more satisfied with the clinical education program. Student and CI final web-CPI ratings indicated ICE group's ratings aligned more closely with CI ratings. Remediation was similar between the two curricula, and the majority of CIs felt ICE students were at least as well prepared for FTCEs as students in the traditional curriculum.

Conclusion: The outcomes of our product evaluation suggest that educational strategies such as ICE may be capable of maximizing student potential and reducing clinic and program resources during clinical education.

Issue: As healthcare educators, we must continually evaluate innovative technologies and practices that may assist us in meeting the complex needs of individuals. In this study, we sought to address some barriers associated with using virtual reality (VR) to assess an interprofessional team of students' knowledge of and practice with telehealth and their ability to address psychosocial health.

Methods: A non-experimental, descriptive, embedded (explanatory quan/QUAL) mixed methods design of 240 students enrolled in the IPE Journey of Professional Trans-formation, Fall 2022.

Outcomes: Several themes emerged from the students' responses; the experience prompted a recognition of the need for clear communication, both verbal and non-verbal, in coordinating person-centered care. There was a significant decrease in Interprofessional Collaborative Competency Attainment Scale (ICCAS) (z=2.54, p=0.01), suggesting that students may have overestimated their interprofessional collaboration and communication abilities. There was no significant change in Transgender Knowledge, Attitude, and Belief Scale (T-KAB) and Telehealth Confidence Survey (TCS) scores.

Conclusion: This study demonstrates that an interprofessional active learning experience using an avatar-based simulation case can facilitate in meaningful interdisciplinary teaming and promote the quality of a transgender person's well-being by employing telehealth and person-centered care practices.

The COVID-19 pandemic forced many healthcare education programs to alter teaching methods, leading to a transition from face-to-face learning to distance learning. This study aimed to evaluate how curricular changes made during the COVID-19 pandemic may have influenced student performance in a medical laboratory science (MLS) program. MLS student exam scores, final course grades, and Board of Certification performance data were investigated to determine how changes made to curriculum and delivery influenced program outcomes for students completing the program before and during the COVID-19 pandemic at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. Self-reported responses to faculty survey questions explored curriculum changes and perception of student success. There were 24 instances in which scores between the two cohorts were statistically significant with only two of those demonstrating the COVID-19 cohort performed better. Four of six faculty indicated they felt there was a disconnect between theory and laboratory application for the COVID-19 academic year and students performed better in the pre-COVID-19 academic year. While there are benefits for asynchronous learning, the findings and perceptions of this study suggest that in-person learning and combining theory and laboratory components support the education of introductory courses.

Periodicals in the biomedical and natural sciences differ in fundamental ways, such as whether they use an impact factor. Peer review is considered another key element in scientific publications, but also can be viewed as having various flaws, e.g., poor in detecting fraud, highly subjective, prone to bias, expensive, and easily abused. Single-blind peer review is the traditional model in which reviewers know the identity of authors, but the reverse is not true, thereby raising a related concern that there is a serious power imbalance. The results of a recent study describe an investigation in which it was found that after switching from single-blind to double-blind peer review the quality of review reports, measured using the modified Review Quality Instrument (RQI), improved. Results indicate that double-blind peer review is a feasible model to a journal in a small language area without major downsides. The Journal of Allied Health uses double-blind peer review.

The Research, Discovery, and Innovation Publications (RDI-P) Task Force met from October 2020 to March 2022 to discuss ways in which the Association of Schools Advancing Health Professions (ASAHP) can help to guide institutional leaders to assign faculty effort and resources to enable success with the scholarship mission. The purpose of this White Paper is to propose a guiding framework for institutional leaders to determine their faculty's individual or team scholarly goals, assign appropriate percent efforts (funded/unfunded), and guide an overall faculty mix that balances required teaching loads with scholarly activities. The Task Force identified seven modifiable factors that can influence workload allocation for scholarship: 1. Limited range of the spectrum for effort distribution; 2. Matching expectations with reality; 3. Clinical training undervalued as adequate prep for translational or implementation research; 4. Limited support for mentorship availability; 5. Richer collaborations needed; 6. Finding resources and matching them to individual faculty needs; and 7. Further time for training needed. We then provide a set of recommendations to address the seven issues described. Finally, we describe four foci of scholarly activity (evidence-based educator; evidence-based clinical application; evidence-based collaborator; and evidence-based principal leader) with which a leader can develop strategies to align faculty interests and growth opportunities towards advancing scholarship.

Aims: This study examined how the qualities of grit and resilience correlated with career achievements in physical therapists. The purpose of this study was to determine if select career achievements were correlated with 1) Original Grit Scale (Grit-O) scores, 2) Short Grit Scale (Grit-S) scores, or 3) Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC) scores among Mayo Clinic School of Health Sciences Physical Therapy Program graduates from 2000-2018.

Methods: Cross-sectional research design. Participants were 212 graduates between 2000 and 2018, inclusive. Participants completed the Grit-O, Grit-S, and CD-RISC scales and reported career achievements. Descriptive statistics were used to summarize the demographics, career achievements, grit, and resilience of the subjects. Point biserial and partial correlations were used to examine associations between Grit-O and Grit-S subscales, CD-RISC scores, and career achievements.

Results: When controlled for gender and time since graduation, there were significant positive relationships between Grit-O Perseverance of Effort and 1) publication in a peer-reviewed journal and 2) attainment of an additional degree. Biological males were significantly more likely to have reported certain career achievements.

Conclusion: Few of the expected relationships were found, possibly due to a lack of true relationships, a homogeneous population, ceiling effect, or inaccurate self-reports.