Halaqa: preparing a culture of success for young professionals

This paper discusses "Halaqa", which aims to create a culture of learning by sharing experiences in sessions where people interact with one another and encouraging the free flow of ideas among the teams. This inspires young professionals to enhance the learning curve, seek new ideas and develop a culture of creative problem-solving pathways. As a definition, "Halaqa" is a platform for sharing ideas and experiences. The session is planned bi-weekly targeting young professionals in the Petroleum Engineering function. The topic of the session can be presented by (i) a senior or an experienced professional as a part of coaching or (ii) a young professional as a knowledge sharing methodology. The sessions are interactive allowing open discussions for the deeply inquisitive minds. The sessions also provide support with unpacking complex and sticky issues, helping young professionals to replicate the best practices for the efficient and effective delivery of the project. Each session usually takes about an hour including discussions and the points are documented properly for the retention of knowledge. "Halaqa" is a new concept in the asset and has the potential to be replicated in the entire organization. The uniqueness comes from the fact that it provides a platform to interact and collaborate to pursue common objectives. The relationships that are created through these interactions are crucial as far as the learning of young professionals is concerned.

COMPARATIVE CLINICAL EVALUATION ON THE EFFECT OF GUDUCHI VATI AND YASTIMADHU VATI ON MEDHA (ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE) IN SCHOOL GOING CHILDREN

Medha is a concept in Ayurveda where man has always failed to arrive at a definite conclusion. As per the ayurvedic classics, Medha is the retention power of an individual or is the unobstructed and uninterrupted perception and retention of knowledge in all the aspects of an object [1] Academic Performance of an individual is an outcome of his mental and physical potential. Recent studies show that the intellectual abilities of students have a positive association with their scholastic achievement.[2] Acharya Charaka has mentioned 4 individual drugs under Chara- koktha Medhya Rasayanas for their action on Medha [3] and Guduchi Swarasa and Yastimadhu Ksheerapaka are mentioned among them. In this study, an attempt was made to evaluate the Medhya effect of Guduchi Vati and Yastimadhu Vati. The study was a comparative clinical study with a total subject of 40, where 20 patients were administered with Guduchi Vati and the other 20 with Yastimadhu Vati. The study showed a statistically significant result where the Guduchi Vati is having similar action to that of Yastimadhu Vati on Medha (Academic Perfor- mance) in School going children. Keywords: Guduchi Vati, Yastimadhu Vati, Medha, Academic Performance

Retention of knowledge on blood pressure measurement among medical students within preparation for primary accreditation

Aim. To assess the retained knowledge of sixth year medical students on noninvasive blood pressure (BP) measurement.Material and methods. The study included 148 6th year medical students. According to the curriculum, in the fall semester, students studied the procedure of BP measurement according to checklists developed based on ROSOMED. In the spring semester, as part of the preparation course for accreditation, the retained knowledge of students was assessed. A completed skill was assessed at 1 point, not completed — 0 points. Thus, each student can score a maximum of 50 points. The teacher assessed the manipulations during their performing by filling in the checklist items for each student.Results. None of the students completed the full range of manipulations. The number of completed skills ranged from 15 (30%) to 49 (98%) and averaged 33 points on the checklist (66%). In addition, 74% of students (n=109) completed more than half of the required skills. Almost the only item completed by all students (99%, n=146) was a greeting, which was comparable with self-presentation (92%, n=136) and identification of a patient’s personal data (surname and first names) (80%, n=118). The rest of checklist items was performed in the range from 39% (n=57) for “remeasurement of BP on the other hand” to 87% (n=129) for “finding a radial pulse”. Thus, the average fulfillment rate was 67% (n=99). There were following most common mistakes in BP measurement: 39% of students did not measure a patient’s upper arm diameter and did not select the cuff size; every second student (51%) placed the phonendoscope diaphragm under the cuff; 40% of students reduced the cuff pressure with inadequate rate.Conclusion. The retention of knowledge on measuring BP within six months after a detailed analysis and passing a test remains insufficient, but comparable with foreign studies. The data obtained indicate the need for additional trainings both using simulators and in conditions closer to real ones, including with simulated patients.

A perceptional analysis of online and offline mode of lectures in second year undergraduate medical students at SMIMER medical college, Surat

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic demanded lockdown to control the spread of disease, inevitably medical colleges are also affected and online mode of teaching has become a solution for continuity of teaching in medical colleges. The main purpose of study to identify perception of medical students towards online and offline mode of lectures by parameters as follows: knowledge, understanding, skills and methodology.Methods: This was a prospective, cross-sectional study with duration of three months. A well- articulated set of questionnaires based on knowledge, understanding, skills and methodology parameters will be circulated among the second-year undergraduate medical students from SMIMER, Surat.Results: About 82% of the students perceived that offline mode of lectures provide more information of subject and helps with better retention of knowledge. Only 21.5% students were in favour of online mode for being able to understand lecture content. For the development of the practical skills and clinical training, 97% of the participants favoured offline mode. However, 67% of the participants believe online mode of lectures save their time and work well with their schedule.Conclusions: Majority of students perceived that offline mode of lectures provide more information of subjects and better retention of knowledge. According to them offline mode of lectures is easy to understand and improved conceptual thinking. For development of clinical and practical skills offline mode of lectures is mandatory. But, majority of students perceived that online learning provide flexibility in participation of lectures and time saving method.

Homework questions designed to require higher-order cognitive skills in an undergraduate animal physiology course did not produce desirable difficulties, testing effects, or improvements in information retention

Studies show that retrieval practices such as homework assignments that are completed during the encoding phase of learning benefit knowledge acquisition and retention. In addition, desirable difficulties, which are strategies that intentionally create a greater challenge during initial learning to enhance encoding and retrieval pathways, also benefit learning long term. Our objective was to determine whether weekly homework questions intended to create desirable difficulties by requiring higher-order cognitive skills (HOCS) benefited students’ long-term retention of physiology concepts compared to questions designed to require lower-order cognitive skills (LOCS). Undergraduate students in a junior-level animal physiology course were presented information during weekly laboratory periods, and then required to complete retrieval practices in the form of online homework assignments 5 d after each lab. Homework questions were formatted per Bloom’s Taxonomy to require HOCS (i.e. level 4 or 5) or LOCS (i.e. level 1 or 2). Information retention was assessed the next week via performance on an in-class quiz and again at semesters’ end via performance on a final practical exam. We observed no differences in performance on the in-class quiz or final practical exam between students randomly assigned to complete homework with HOCS questions compared to LOCS questions. However, students that received homework with HOCS questions had decreased (P < 0.05) performance scores on 9 out of the 11 homework assignments compared to those receiving homework with LOCS questions. These findings indicate that desirable difficulties were not created by our HOCS homework questions because students receiving these more difficult retrieval practices did not achieve equal success on them. As a result, this attempt to create variations in cognitive demand did not enhance retention of knowledge in this study.

Retention of Knowledge and Skills in Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation Among Clinical and Intensive Care Professionals After Educational Intervention

Background: Health professionals are expected to be competent in cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), thus requiring acquisition and maintenance of knowledge and practice. If time is an important factor associated with the loss of these competencies, acting in CPR situations more frequently may contribute to greater retention. Thus, this study aimed to compare the retention of knowledge and skills in CPR among health professionals in clinical and intensive care after educational intervention. Methods: Intervention, prospective and analytical study. Nursing professionals from the clinical care unit (CCU) and intensive care unit (ICU) received a first theoretical and practical CPR training, called T1, and a retraining nine months later, called T2, being followed for a total period of 18 months. The comparison of the percentage score of knowledge and practice between the evaluations was made by the Wilcoxon test and Friedman's test, considered significant for p<0.05. Results: 56 professionals participated in all stages of the study, 34 CCU professionals and 22 ICU professionals. Soon after T1, the ICU group showed a greater ease of learning (p=0.032), which disappeared after T2, showing a leveling of the groups. Regarding skills, they also reduced with time in a similar way between groups. However, nine months after T2, even reducing practical skills, they were significantly higher in ICU professionals compared to those in the CCU (p=0.018). Knowledge retention nine months after T1 and T2 was similar between groups. However, nine months after T2 the ICU professionals were able to retain more practical skills in CPR (p=0.030). Conclusions: The retraining improved knowledge in both groups in a similar way, but the ICU group retained more practical skills, reinforcing the thesis that a higher frequency of action in CPR situations favors the retention of skills.

The practical and the aspirational: Managing the student employee experience in library publishing efforts

Student employees are a critical component in the workforce of academic libraries. While more established library services have the benefit of attracting student employees specifically interested in their work, scholarly communication programs, and library publishing efforts in particular, have more difficulty describing and garnering interest in their work. This article describes the journey of the Digital Initiatives Unit at Utah State University Libraries as we navigated the particular trials that come with library publishing—specifically delving into the work of our institutional repository (IR) and the role of student employees in those efforts. The labor of our program is variable and largely project-based, which has presented a number of challenges related to our student employees: understanding the larger context of their work; retention of knowledge and skills alongside their ability to prioritize; and a struggle to transfer skills from one project to another. Addressing these problems involved more intentional gathering of student feedback, colleague brainstorming, and trial and error; through which process and results we are gaining a more developed understanding of the critical importance of the student experience. When student employees see their work as more than just a job, and recognize the skills they are learning, they come away with greater satisfaction and our unit benefits from improved outputs. Using what we have learned, we will be able to continue our efforts for a better student experience as well as creating future goals for our unit.

Spaced learning: A review on the use of spaced learning in language teaching and learning

Time has contributed to most of our daily activities. In the field of understanding how the human brain reacted to specific learning processes, the neuroscientist supports the impact of having multiple learning sessions with the retention of knowledge. Spaced Learning is a product makes out of human's lack of capacity in retaining information and attempts to reduce the forgetting rate. In exploring the condition of how the human mind works and the chances of forgetting, the demonstration of spaced and massed learning in retaining information is recognized in this paper. This paper is aimed to synthesize information on the foundation of Spaced Learning with a focus on language learning, especially to students in academic institutions in Malaysia. This paper used a qualitative design in analyzing documents from articles whereby these articles are synthesized and analyzed using Microsoft excel and the conclusion later on drawn from the analyses. Based on the reviews highlighted in this paper, the practicality of spaced learning is proven in enhancing memory retention in which can contribute to positive performance and can help maximize students' language performance particularly to those who engaged in specific fields of knowledge.

Knowledge about adult basic life support (BLS) among interns completing internship and first year MBBS students who underwent BLS training during foundation course - An observational study from a tertiary health care centre

To assess and compare the knowledge about adult basic resuscitation amongst interns completing their internship and 1 year MBBS students who underwent three day hands on training in BLS during their foundation course. It’s a cross-sectional observational study using a questionnaire comprising of 19 questions to assess the knowledge of BLS among interns completing their internship and 1 year MBBS students who underwent BLS training during their foundation course. Majority of the medical students knew that BLS can be performed both outside and inside the hospital settings. (96.1% vs 77%, P =0.001) Knowledge about BLS was poor amongst both the groups. 40 interns (55.4%) had scored ≥ 60% whereas 65 medical students (63.5%) had scored ≥60%. (P value 0.21) indicating comparable knowledge about BLS amongst both the group. Self-grading of knowledge about BLS was better amongst medical students (P=0.001). 37. 8% of interns and 21.6% of medical students had expanded the terminology AED correctly indicating poor knowledge about defibrillation and defibrillator amongst both the group. Difference was not significant (p = 0.220) Also medical students knowledge about Heimlich maneuver was poor (52% compared to 70.3% amongst interns) indicating the poor retention of knowledge amongst medical students. Knowledge about BLS among medical students who underwent training during foundation course was same like that of interns who studied the earlier curriculum and was poor, hence needs inclusion of periodic revision of the knowledge about BLS in the curriculum.