Standard precautions for preventing Tuberculosis and HIV: Compliance of Eswatini university student nurses

Tuberculosis and Human Immunodeficiency Virus are among the top ten causes of death globally. To prevent the spread of these infections, health workers and student nurses should comply to infection prevention and control measures called standard precautions. The aim of this study is to assess compliance of Eswatini university student nurses regarding standard precautions for preventing Tuberculosis and Human Immunodeficiency Virus. A non-experimental quantitative approach was used to conduct a survey on all senior student nurses of Eswatini University using questionnaires. IBM SPSS Statistics version 26 software was used to analyse the data. Results from this study showed that out of the 105 student nurses who were asked only 51.4% (n = 54) said they always used personal protective equipment. However, they did comply well on disposing sharps as 92.4% (n = 97) reported that they always used designated containers. There is a need for close supervision of student nurses in the clinical area. The researcher recommends that clinical facilitator should always accompany student nurses in the clinical area and that preceptors should be exempted from other nursing duties when there are student nurses in the hospitals so that they can mentor the students.

Rapid Implementation of a Novel Embedded Senior Medical Student Program, as a Response to the Educational Challenges of COVID-19

As with many OECD countries, graduating medical students have been choosing specialist careers at a greater rate than ever before. Generalism in the form of family (general practice) and more generalist medical specialties have been trending down resulting in distributional geographic challenges. With the advent of COVID-19 in March 2020, medical schools and in particular the Joint Medical Program situated in a regional and rural area in NSW Australia had the unique opportunity to rethink the penultimate year curriculum when the previous rapid rotation model through numerous medical specialities became untenable. The need to vision a new practical pragmatic curriculum spurred a rapid revaluation of assessment, placement length and model with a pivot to an “embedded senior student placement” agnostic of discipline and supported by a competency-based learning portfolio. This article explores the barriers and enablers and identifies the potential elements of this type of placement which can be adapted to community and smaller rural sites. The positive student and supervisor experience also enabled an employment model to be woven into the students learning and ensured on hand medical student workforce for hospitals throughout the rural footprint. The capacity of these placements to celebrate variation in experience and support students to learn on the job have now caused a revision of the penultimate year with expectation of gains in students’ satisfaction and in employability. It has also opened up options to deliver and increase the inherent value of generalist placements with likely long term workforce benefit.

A Socio-Cultural Analysis of Learning English in Unassisted and Assisted Peer Groups at University in Vietnam

<p>The fieldwork for this study was carried out in Vietnam over a period of three months with a class of 45 first-year university students who were learning English as a foreign language. The conceptual framework was sociocultural theory as developed by Vygotsky and his followers. The focus was on small groups of peers as they practised speaking English. The processes involved in learning and using English were explored by studying what occurred within two kinds of groups. In one kind there were five first-year students. In the second there were four first-year students and one fourth-year student. These are referred to as unassisted and assisted peer groups. Over the three months of the study all students in the class had an opportunity to work in an unassisted and an assisted group. Data were collected each week by audio- and video-recording an unassisted and an unassisted group discussing the same topic. The processes within each of the groups were compared on the basis of the social interaction and the use of classroom artifacts including the text book which supplied the topics for discussion. First-year students were interviewed following the classroom observations and they kept journals. Students reported their experiences of being assisted and unassisted and what they believed they had learnt from each. Information was also collected on support for learning the English language in the broader Vietnamese environment. The results showed that the discourse pattern of the unassisted groups was unpredictable whereas in the assisted groups the senior student conducted a series of dyadic interactions with each student in turn. In both kinds of groups, students discussed the assigned topics but the assisted groups spoke almost entirely in English while the unassisted groups used more Vietnamese. Analysis of the incidence of Vietnamese showed the kind of situations which produced it. There were differences in the management of the tasks, and unassisted students had more trouble getting started. Observations showed that the unassisted students often teased others and laughed more often. The experience of speaking English amongst peers produced both stress and enjoyment irrespective of the type of group. Students from both groups reported that they had learned new words associated with the discussions of the topics set by the textbook. The textbook was a major factor in guiding participation and structuring the continuity of the discourse. Unassisted students worked directly with the textbook whereas the senior student mediated the questions from the textbook. The textbook came from a foreign culture and the study illustrated how students used their knowledge of Vietnamese culture in giving responses to the questions in the text. The study showed a complex mediation process consisting of interconnected layers. Mediation occurred both through the oral language of the discussions and through the written language in the textbook and on the blackboard, through the classroom teacher's instructions, by peers in both types of groups, and between the senior student and peers. On the basis of the research findings recommendations are made for teaching practice in EFL classrooms.</p>

A Socio-Cultural Analysis of Learning English in Unassisted and Assisted Peer Groups at University in Vietnam

<p>The fieldwork for this study was carried out in Vietnam over a period of three months with a class of 45 first-year university students who were learning English as a foreign language. The conceptual framework was sociocultural theory as developed by Vygotsky and his followers. The focus was on small groups of peers as they practised speaking English. The processes involved in learning and using English were explored by studying what occurred within two kinds of groups. In one kind there were five first-year students. In the second there were four first-year students and one fourth-year student. These are referred to as unassisted and assisted peer groups. Over the three months of the study all students in the class had an opportunity to work in an unassisted and an assisted group. Data were collected each week by audio- and video-recording an unassisted and an unassisted group discussing the same topic. The processes within each of the groups were compared on the basis of the social interaction and the use of classroom artifacts including the text book which supplied the topics for discussion. First-year students were interviewed following the classroom observations and they kept journals. Students reported their experiences of being assisted and unassisted and what they believed they had learnt from each. Information was also collected on support for learning the English language in the broader Vietnamese environment. The results showed that the discourse pattern of the unassisted groups was unpredictable whereas in the assisted groups the senior student conducted a series of dyadic interactions with each student in turn. In both kinds of groups, students discussed the assigned topics but the assisted groups spoke almost entirely in English while the unassisted groups used more Vietnamese. Analysis of the incidence of Vietnamese showed the kind of situations which produced it. There were differences in the management of the tasks, and unassisted students had more trouble getting started. Observations showed that the unassisted students often teased others and laughed more often. The experience of speaking English amongst peers produced both stress and enjoyment irrespective of the type of group. Students from both groups reported that they had learned new words associated with the discussions of the topics set by the textbook. The textbook was a major factor in guiding participation and structuring the continuity of the discourse. Unassisted students worked directly with the textbook whereas the senior student mediated the questions from the textbook. The textbook came from a foreign culture and the study illustrated how students used their knowledge of Vietnamese culture in giving responses to the questions in the text. The study showed a complex mediation process consisting of interconnected layers. Mediation occurred both through the oral language of the discussions and through the written language in the textbook and on the blackboard, through the classroom teacher's instructions, by peers in both types of groups, and between the senior student and peers. On the basis of the research findings recommendations are made for teaching practice in EFL classrooms.</p>

An American Business School’s Academic Advising and Professional Development Centers’ Early Pandemic Response

As colleges and universities around the world grapple with the continuing impact of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, it is necessary for research to not only focus on student academic learning issues, but also test for maintained support of needed student resources such as Academic Advising and Professional Development Centers. Using the Senior Student Satisfaction Survey, two separate samples of graduating business undergraduates at a Mid-Atlantic University in the United States of America were surveyed, in late Spring 2019 (pre-pandemic) and late Spring 2020 (early pandemic). The goals of this study were two-fold. The first was to test for changes from pre-pandemic to early pandemic in seven student-related perception measures: attendance motivation, coursework challenge, professional development engagement, academic advising ease/quality, professional development ease/quality, business degree satisfaction, and perceived market value to potential employers. The second goal was to test for changes in the perceived relationships of five “independent variables”, i.e., attendance motivation, coursework challenge, professional development engagement, academic advising center ease/quality, and professional development center ease/quality, to two “dependent variables”, i.e., business degree satisfaction and perceived market value to potential employers. Comparing pre-pandemic (2019) to early pandemic (2020) perceptual change data, this study found that both the Academic Advising and Professional Development Centers handled these student-based perception variables from the surveys quite well. When the campus was suddenly closed due to the pandemic, both Centers successfully made quick adaptive changes to virtual models to handle initial student needs.

Academic stress in adolescent students of an islamic-based school: the correlation with parenting style and spirituality

Background: Adolescents are vulnerable to experiencing academic stress because of exams and their expectations about their careers. Proper parenting styles from parents can reduce students’ academic stress. Also, Islamic-based schools develop youth spirituality so it can reduce academic stress. This study aimed to identify the correlation of parenting styles and spirituality with academic stress in adolescent students of an Islamic-based school.Design and Methods: The study was used descriptive correlative with a cross-sectional approach. Data was collected online started from April 3rd to May 10th, 2020, with 109 respondents of the 12th-grade senior student at Islamic-based high school MAN Jakarta Timur. Respondents were selected by simple random sampling. This study used the Parental Care Style Questionnaire, the Spiritual Involvement and Beliefs Scale, and the Educational Stress Scale for Adolescents. Data were analysed using the Pearson correlation analysis (CI 95%).Results: There was a significant negative correlation between the democratic parenting style and academic stress level (p=0.000). There was a negative correlation between spirituality level and academic stress level (p=0.000).Conclusions: This study suggests the parents use the democratic parenting style by encouraging and giving comfort to their children to be open to their parents about academic problems. Islamic-based schools should carry out routine religious programs, such as reading the Qur'an every day before classes start.

Empowering International Students to Succeed

International students report higher sociocultural and academic stress when settling into a new university compared with their local counterparts. Three disciplines in the health professions collaborated to create a transition program addressing international student health and well-being concerns. Commencing students and senior student mentors participated in a four-session program of activities to reflect on their current study/work practices, and learn self-management strategies. They developed plans for coping with cultural, language, academic and social barriers, and assisted in improving physical and mental health and well-being. Of the 26 participants who attended sessions, 15 participated in in-depth interviews to share their experiences of the program. ‘Facilitating adjustment’, ‘Establishing relationships’, ‘Gaining new skills and knowledge’, and ‘Transforming beliefs and behaviour’ were the four themes identified that captured and explicated the impact of the initiative. The program demonstrated a positive impact in creating a supportive learning environment for commencing and continuing international students.

Reinforcing the Importance of Maintaining Internship Support for College Student Engagement and Anticipated Employment

The Covid-19 pandemic has created many challenges for universities around the world, including how to keep students engaged in their professional development, despite the challenges of remote learning and virtual student services. The goal of this study was to demonstrate the continued importance of Career Professional Development Center (CPDC) support (pre-pandemic to early stages of the pandemic) for business-related internships influencing student professional development engagement (PDE) and anticipated employment upon graduation. PDE encompasses typical CPDC resources (e.g., internship search support; involvement in student professional organizations (SPOs); professional development coaching; and job search assistance). A survey, the Senior Student Satisfaction Survey (SSSS) was deployed prior to graduation to business students. Using the SSSS, two separate samples of graduating business undergraduates at a Mid-Atlantic University in the United States were surveyed, in late Spring 2019 (pre-pandemic) and late Spring 2020 (early pandemic). Pre-pandemic survey results showed that students having at least one internship experience (versus none) were more likely to: join an SPO sooner; attend more SPO meetings/semester; complete their professional development sooner; and anticipate &ldquo;by graduation&rdquo; full-time employment. Despite the drop in survey participation due to the pandemic onset, results consistent with this were found with the early pandemic survey. Like other academic-related and campus services in the face of the pandemic, the business school CPDC is adapting to the new remote ways of operating and successfully transitioned their delivery mode to a 100% virtual model to meet the resource challenge of supporting student PDE. It is hoped that the ideas discussed will be useful to a wider audience.