Preparing for a Career in Pediatric Hospital Medicine: A Needs Assessment and Recommendations for Individualized Curricula

OBJECTIVES: The individualized curriculum within residency programs allows residents to tailor their elective time toward future career goals and interests. Our objective was to identify experiences and activities that would foster resident interest and enhance preparation for a career in pediatric hospital medicine (PHM). METHODS: Electronic surveys were distributed to pediatric hospitalists, PHM fellowship directors, and graduating PHM fellows. These stakeholders were asked to identify key experiences for residents to explore before entering fellowship or practice. Descriptive statistics and thematic analysis were performed on survey responses. RESULTS: Forty-six percent of PHM fellows (16 of 35), 42% of pediatric hospitalists (149 of 356), and 58% of fellowship program directors (35 of 60) completed the survey. All 3 groups identified complex care as the most important clinical experience to gain in residency. Other highly valued clinical experiences included pain management, surgical comanagement, and palliative care. Lumbar puncture, electrocardiograph interpretation, and airway management were identified as essential procedural skills. Nonclinical experiences that were deemed important included quality improvement, development of teaching skills, and research methodology. All groups agreed that these recommendations should be supplemented with effective mentorship. CONCLUSIONS: Identification of key clinical experiences, nonclinical activities, and mentorship for residents interested in PHM may assist with tailoring the individualized curriculum to personal career goals. Incorporating these suggested experiences can improve preparedness of residents entering PHM.

Participation value of undergraduate students leading STEM outreach: Evaluation of academic, personal and professional effects

This study explores the academic, professional and personal career benefits of leading Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) outreach, from the perspective of undergraduate student leaders. We consider traditional and non-traditional STEM university students, gender and type of position (paid or volunteer) in this evaluation. Data were collected through an online survey completed by 30 former student STEM outreach leaders from the University of British Columbia. Survey data indicated that STEM outreach had a moderately strong impact on academic, professional and personal career development. Outcomes did not differ between genders and paid work was found to contribute to greater personal and professional impact. The positive influence of outreach on academic and professional decision making was higher in traditional STEM fields than STEM based health-science studies. Future studies are needed to fully understand how demographics and year of study might differentially inform career decision making within as well as between STEM fields to maximize university student leader involvement and create advances in the university-leaders academic and professional development. The outcomes of this research will further inform the relevant impacts of STEM outreach on university student leaders.

Mentoring Support of Cooperating Teachers: Insights from Filipino Practice Teachers

ABSTRACT The literature reveals the indispensable role of mentoring in practice teaching. However, little is known about the mentoring support the Filipino cooperating teachers (CTs) extended to their practice teachers (PTs). Also, no study has been conducted yet on mentoring using a constructively aligned scale with the Philippine Professional Standards for Teachers (PPST). Through sequential explanatory mixed-method design, this study determined the extent of CTs’ mentoring support from the viewpoint of the PTs. There were 840 PTs (680 females, 160 males) from a public university who participated in the survey using the Mentoring Practices Scale. Besides, 25 randomly selected PTs’ portfolios were content analysed to substantiate the quantitative data. Findings revealed that the CTs provided mentoring to a very great extent along with personal, career, professional knowledge, instructional process, and role modelling supports. Indeed, though preliminary research, this study serves as a take-off for strengthening the mentoring activities to benefit both Filipino CTs and PTs.

PROJECT-BASED LEARNING IN A FOREIGN LANGUAGE CLASSROOM: PECULIARITIES OF IMPLEMENTATION

The article deals with the aspects of project-based learning (PBL) for teaching foreign languages. The authors state that although PBL has much in common with task-based learning, which makes a task the central target of a lesson, PBL often makes it a whole semester or even academic year target and promotes learner centeredness to a higher level. PBL is usually comprised of three main stages: pre-task stage, performance stage and presentation stage which have their own peculiarities and standards to comply. Project-based learning allows students to achieve the highest level of mastery of a foreign language as it leads them to higher-order thinking, prepares them for academic, personal, career success, and makes young people ready to meet the challenges, gain the 21st century skills. Struggling students and students’ misbehavior and reluctance are considered to be essential factors that keep teachers away from implementing the method into life. Practical guidelines are given on how to get over obstacles and how to evaluate the outcomes of project work. The authors emphasize on the necessity of careful planning, team formation which will meet the needs of all the students, and elaboration of a rubric with sharply defined criteria (e.g., needs, accommodations, modifications, assets and team position) to evaluate students.

Veronica Robles Cultural Center (VROCC): an NGO’s Journey in Time of Pandemic

Study Level/Applicability This case study is intended for an MBA level audience; however, it can be used for upper-level college students as well. Subject Area This case's main subject areas include the following: organizational strategy, NGO strategic management, strategy and management during pandemic and women entrepreneurs or women-led business. Case Overview This case is about the organizational strategy of the Veronica Robles Cultural Center, an NGO, during the COVID-19 pandemic. The central challenge of this case study is about decision-making for a sustainable future, given limited resources, and thus a great urgency to plan conservatively. The central protagonist of the case is Veronica Robles herself. Veronica is an entrepreneur in both her personal career as a performing and teaching artist as well as the founder and creator of many programs to help spread culture and unite communities, including the Veronica Robles Cultural Center. Expected learning outcomes Students will learn about entrepreneurial strategy, NGO creation and management, strategy to create social value and organizational management during time of pandemic or widespread crisis. Social Implications This case is focused on creating social value through the analysis of a woman-founded and managed NGO. While managing the NGO's strategy through the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020, operations must proceed with the utmost level of sustainability. With a focus on the well-being of the community, Veronica Robles Cultural Center (VROCC) needs to find a way to remain relevant in the short term while building out a sustainable organizational structure to succeed in the long term. Subject code CSS 11: Strategy Supplementary Materials Teaching Notes are available for educators only.

Perceived Discrimination and Motivation to Pursue Higher Education in Ethiopian-Origin Students: The Moderating Role of Ethnic Identity

Research has increasingly recognized the adverse effects of perceived discrimination on the academic outcomes of children and adolescents from ethnic and racial minority backgrounds. However, little is known about the association between perceived discrimination and the motivation of ethnic minority students to pursue higher education. Guided by an academic resilience framework, the current study examined the relationship between perceived discrimination and two types of motivation to pursue higher education (personal/career-driven and expectation-driven) among Ethiopian undergraduate students in Israel. In addition, we examined the role of ethnic identity as a potential moderator of this relationship. Participants were 183 undergraduate students of Ethiopian origin (77% females) who studied in 18 different higher-education institutes. Participants completed self-report questionnaires concerning their experiences of perceived discrimination, affiliation with their Ethiopian identity, and their reasons for pursuing higher education. Results showed that frequent discrimination experiences were positively related to a stronger ethnic identity and to higher levels of personal/career motivation to pursue higher education. Ethnic identity moderated the relationship between perceived discrimination and personal/career motivation so that the association was significant under low and moderate levels of ethnic identity but not under high levels. Our findings suggest that the awareness of discrimination may motivate students to pursue higher education and succeed in academia. However, the motivating force of perceived discrimination diminishes under high levels of ethnic identification. Further investigation is needed to explore how discrimination and ethnic identity work together to impact academic motivation in different developmental stages and socio-cultural contexts.

Knowledge and Opinion of Nurse Leaders on the Practice of Clinical Mentorship in a Tertiary Hospital in Nigeria

Introduction: Mentoring is an important strategy to support the development of a transformational leader. It involves the nurturing of a personal career, intellectual growth/development, as well as improving corporate knowledge, and making employees feel valued. Aim: This study aims at exploring the knowledge and opinions of nurse leaders on clinical mentoring using pre-test and post-test evaluations. Methods: It is a pre-test and post-test single-subject design among 135 Chief Nursing Officers (CNO) that attended the Nurse Leaders’ Summit. Data were analyzed using SPSS 22.0, and probability value p<0.05 was used to determine the significance of the descriptive and inferential statistics. Results: The study revealed that 56.3% of the respondents had adequate knowledge of mentoring at pre-, and 74.1% at post-evaluation; 91.1% claimed to be mentors; 57% were not assigned to a mentee; while 64.4% of them had a good opinion of mentorship and were willing to practice clinically based mentoring. Conclusions: Mentoring is an effective intervention to build the capacity of nurses and improve the quality of healthcare delivery.

The Portuguese referee performance model

The concern with the performance of football referees has opened lines of investigation in areas such as technical and physical performance. Theoretical and analytical gaps regarding the causes of their performances in a holistic perspective are scarce. The purpose of this study is to understand how various processes of personal, career development and contextual nature influences the classification of football referees. The literature review on excellence and the performance of the referees allowed to define a model that contemplates three distinct areas: 1) personal experience; 2) sports course; 3) surrounding context. The model to understand the causes of the performance of the Portuguese referees was obtained by comparing the classification of referees for national boards between the periods of 2009-10 and 2018-19 with the relative data to their age, experience as a federated player and referee, region density and proximity to peers of national board. The results show that the performance of the referees is influenced by a set of processes such as individual experience, sporting background and the context. This article opens a new perspective on the referees' training process. Its content may constitute an important insight for the implementation of referee training programs, namely at the base.