Learning Preferences among Medical and Physical Therapy Students: A Systematic Review

Learning style is known as affective, cognitive, physiological, or combined characteristics which indicate the ways through which students interact, respond and understand the learning environment. A systematic review was conducted with relevant literature from 2012 to 2021 by hand searching and from electronic databases (PubMed, MEDLINE, ProQuest, and Eric) with proper search strategy as Boolean operator. They were searched using the keywords ‘allied health students’ ‘learning style’, ‘medical students’, ‘MBBS students’ and ‘physical therapy students OR physiotherapists’. Out of 1027 studies, only 16 potentially relevant articles were included in this review. This study reflected undergraduate physical therapy and MBBS students from various countries and their most preferred learning style is kinaesthetic and activist which states learning is based on experiments, hands-on practice, audio-visual lectures, teaching sessions in a new environment allowing students to analyze and synthesize theories. However, students require adaptable, educative, and assessment strategies as they have different learning styles.

An Exploration of Attitudes Towards Spiritual Care for Recovery from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

Spiritual-based care has been increasingly explored and investigated for its effectiveness for assisting mental illness, such as PTSD in the United States of America (Harris et al., 2018). Although research studies have attempted to explore attitudes towards spiritual care and the effectiveness of spiritual-based care for PTSD, few have explored attitudes regarding spiritual care for recovery from PTSD, especially from undergraduate allied health students. This paper explores the attitudes towards spiritual care for recovery from post-traumatic stress disorder, from undergraduate allied health students. The study adopted an interpretivist approach that deployed qualitative methods. The data collection method used for the study were semi-structured interviews. In total, four participants participated in the interviews. A thematic analysis was utilised to examine the datasets from the interviews.The research revealed that majority of participants had negative opinions regarding traditional medical treatment for PTSD and mental illness recovery. This led to the identification of barriers, such as stigma and cultural barriers, for seeking treatment for mental illness. Participants had positive opinions regarding spiritual care for assisting PTSD recovery, with recommendations that religious and spiritual needs must be assessed before the allocation of spiritual-based care to prevent conflict with patient’s religious or cultural beliefs.  

Educating university allied health students about gender-based violence: Report of a pilot study

Introduction: Sexual harassment, bullying and discrimination occur across a range of healthcare settings, with frequent complaints made to health professional registration boards of Australia. Health professional education provides an ideal opportunity to ensure students understand the nature of gender-based violence (GBV) and how to prevent and address such behavior. However, there has been minimal health professional curricula that incorporates an integrated focus on gender. The aim of this study was to increase awareness and knowledge of pre-registration health students of the context of GBV and for participants to learn bystander approaches to effectively intervene to reduce violence.Methods: A violence prevention workshop incorporating a bystander approach was developed as a key component of the curriculum for a single discipline cohort of health students. Participants completed a survey pre and post workshop, where they provided responses, on a 5-point Likert scale, to statements exploring attitudes, knowledge and behaviours in relation to behaviours that constitute GBV. Within-subject pre- and post-intervention statistical analysis was completed.Results: The results demonstrated several significant positive changes to knowledge and attitude of the participants in relation to GBV.Conclusions: The findings of the project can inform the development of integrated gender-focused education as a core competency for preparing health professional students across a range of disciplines in clinical health and public health curricula.

Teaching Human Anatomy: A Comparison of In-Person and Online Learning Programs

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic created challenges in providing anatomy instruction to allied health professions. Human anatomy laboratory classes often rely on human cadavers as instructional material. At some institutions, the anatomical instructional method shifted to online resources. It was essential to compare online methods to those used in the traditional cadaver-based curriculum to determine efficacy. A technique was devised to compare these two approaches. The working hypothesis was that virtual human anatomy models are equally effective to traditional methods in providing anatomy instruction to allied health students. Methods: Students enrolled in this study participated in a human anatomy course delivered either in-person or virtually via Aclan’s Anatomy, NetAnatomy, and Anatomy TV. The instructional design was the same except that the in-person learning group participated in a real-time cadaver anatomy lab, while the virtual learning group utilized online models and simulations. Students were assessed using the same three written tests and three laboratory examinations. Results: Student demographics and evaluation outcomes were presented, and no significant differences concerning sex or educational program between the two student cohorts were identified. Post hoc testing revealed no statistically significant differences between student cohort and test-type. The three-way interaction between test type, test number, and cohort was not significant. Conclusions: The findings confirmed the hypothesis. There were no statistically significant differences between the test performance of human anatomy students who received online training versus those who participated in in-person classroom instruction. These results suggest that human anatomy can be taught effectively using an online format.

COVID-19 PANDEMIC: HOW STRESSED THE STUDENTS AND FACULTY ARE?

Objective: To assess the perceived stress levels amongst faculty and students of medicine, dentistry and allied health sciences during COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: This multi-institutional descriptive study was conducted from April to June 2020. All the students and faculty from three institutes namely University College of Medicine, University College of Dentistry and Institute of Allied Health Sciences were invited to participate. Data were collected using a pre-validated Perceived Stress Scale (PSS -10). Descriptive and inferential statistics were calculated using SPSS v.21. Results: 1199 responses were obtained. Students from University College of Medicine reported higher score on the perceived stress scale (23.02+11.85) than those from University College of Dentistry (21.87+10.86) and Institute of Allied Health Sciences (21.95+11.32). The students and the faculty experienced stress ‘sometimes to fairly often’ during this pandemic. Females experienced more stress than males and there were no significant differences among students and faculty of various age groups. Conclusion: During COVID-19 pandemic, the students and the faculty from medicine, dentistry and allied health sciences institutes are moderately stressed. The medical students are more affected than the allied health students and the faculty in general. Institutions should promote resilience and mental well-being and provide for flexible work schedules.

Online or onsite? Comparison of the relative merit of delivery format of Aboriginal cultural-awareness-training to undergraduate chiropractic students

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to work with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people (ATSI), it is expected that non-ATSI health-care professionals become culturally aware; however, participants’ perceptions of the relative merit of cultural awareness training (CAT) formats is uncertain. Design/methodology/approach The authors compared undergraduate students’ perceptions of an asynchronous online format with onsite delivery formats of CAT using a mixed-method design. Students from five successive cohorts (n = 64) in an undergraduate programme were invited to complete a post-training survey which gathered quantitative and qualitative data. Findings Whilst feedback was positive regarding both formats, the onsite format was preferred qualitatively with several valuable learning outcome themes emerging from the results. These themes included; “perceived benefits of self-evaluation of students’ own culture whilst learning about Aboriginal culture”; “encouraging to be provided with scenarios, examples and exercises to enhance cultural awareness” and “engagement with the interactive facilitator approach”. There were differing views about the benefits of learning the history of oppression which warrant further research. Research limitations/implications Results may be applicable to undergraduate allied health students who participate in clinical immersion placements (CIPs) who participate in Aboriginal CAT. Practical implications Given the changing dynamic in education forced by the COVID-19 pandemic, more resources may need to be directed to improving online training and possibly combining formats in course delivery. Social implications The strength of the study is that the authors achieved a response rate of 100%, thus the results are highly significant for the sample. This sample represents 41.3% of chiropractic students who attended CAT and CIPs at this university over the course of 9 years, thus the results could be generalized to chiropractic students who participated in these types of placements. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to compare student perceptions of different formats of Aboriginal CAT for final year chiropractic undergraduate students in Australia.

Student experiences of a return to practice programme: a qualitative study

Background: Nurses, midwives and other health professionals who return to practice come from a range of backgrounds and return for a variety of reasons. Much of the research on return to practice concerns programme provision rather than returnee experience. Aim: This qualitative study focused on the experiences of nursing, midwifery and allied health students undertaking a return to practice programme at a higher education institute. It interpreted the perceptions of the student experience of returning to clinical practice following a lapse in professional registration. Methods: Data collection methods were qualitative and involved focus groups. Findings were analysed using thematic analysis. Findings: Several themes and subthemes emerged from the data, including ‘the importance of returnee identity’ and ‘challenges and barriers’. Findings demonstrated different approaches to and influences on returnees' learning journeys. Conclusion: Previous knowledge, skills and experience were often hidden from view and hard to explain although crucial to returnee success.