Creative Solutions for Today's Students

This chapter will explore the connection between diversifying health profession student demographics, diversifying challenges these students face, and the new obstacles presented by shifting curriculum delivery to remote and hybrid learning during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. The chapter will explore challenges that may seem especially difficult to address in a remote learning model: the desire to develop community among fellow learners when in a hybrid or fully remote program and when learners are from varied backgrounds; cultivating in students coping mechanisms to manage anxiety from the economic uncertainty of today's world, balancing commitments between educational pursuits and other responsibilities (e.g., child or parent care, etc.); and facilitating learning for students with physical and/or mental disabilities or chronic medical conditions.

Medical students’ perceptions of play and learning: A qualitative study (Preprint)

BACKGROUND In times where distance learning is becoming the norm, game-based learning (GBL) is increasingly applied to health professions education. Yet, decisions for if, when, how and for whom GBL should be designed cannot be made on a solid empirical basis. Though the act of play seems to be intertwined with GBL, it is generally ignored in current scientific literature. OBJECTIVE The objective of our study was to explore students’ perceptions of play in leisure time, and of GBL, as part of a mechanistic, bottom-up approach towards evidence-informed design and implementation of GBL in health professions education. METHODS We conducted six focus group discussion in medical and dentistry students, which were analysed using thematic analysis. RESULTS A total of 58 students participated. We identified four major themes based on the students’ perception of play in leisure time and on the combination of play and learning. Our results indicate that while play preferences were highly various in our health profession student cohort, pleasure was the common ground reported for playing. Crucially, play and the serious act of learning seemed paradoxical, indicating that the value and meaning of play is strongly context-dependent for students. CONCLUSIONS Four key points can be constructed from our study: (1) Students play for pleasure. Perceptions of pleasure vary considerably among students; (2) Students consider play as inefficient. Inefficiency will only be justified when it increases learning; (3) Play should be balanced with the serious and only be used for difficult or tedious courses; (4) Game-based learning activities should not be made compulsory for students. We provide practical implication and directions for future research. CLINICALTRIAL Ethical approval was obtained via the Netherlands Association for Medical Education (NVMO, 2019.1.11)

The effects of an empathy role-playing program for operating room nursing students in Iran

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of a role-playing training program conducted among operating room nursing students on empathetic communication with patients through measurements of empathy scores.Methods: This study was carried out among 77 operating room nursing students from the first to the fourth years studying at the School of Nursing and Midwifery of Isfahan University of Medical Sciences in the academic year 2017–2018. The intervention administered to the experimental group included a 12-hour training program on expressing empathy to patients that incorporated roleplaying. The Jefferson Scale of Empathy-Health Profession Student version was completed by the participants before, immediately after, and 1 month after the intervention. A comparative analysis of these 3 time points was conducted.Results: No significant difference was found in the total pre-intervention mean empathy scores before the intervention between the control group and the experimental group (P= 0.50). However, the total mean empathy scores in the experimental group immediately after and 1 month after the intervention were higher than those in the control group (P< 0.001).Conclusion: Empathy training through a role-playing technique was effective at improving the empathy scores of operating room nursing students, and this finding also underscores the fact that empathy can be promoted by education. Changing the educational curriculum of operating room nursing students is suggested in order to familiarize them with the concept of empathy in the operating room.

Burnout and Engagement in Health Profession Students: The Relationships Between Study Demands, Study Resources and Personal Resources

Burnout has been related to increased suicidal thoughts, lower self-esteem and dropout in university students. Engagement in students, however, has been underexplored. This study uses the Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) model and the Conservational of Resources (COR) model to contribute to the knowledge about burnout and engagement in health profession university students. In particular, the role of personal resources, including psychological flexibility, was examined. Participants were 260 nursing, social work, occupational therapy and psychology students from 10 Australian universities. Regression analyses were used to test the JD-R model with a health profession student sample. The model was extended by including personal resources and testing mediation and moderation hypotheses. Personal resources contributed significant additional variance to the model. Mediation effects of study demands and resources with psychological flexibility were found, while moderation effects were not. The results indicate the validity of the JD-R model in a health profession student population and the important role of personal resources. Further design and evaluation of interventions targeting personal resources and study demands and resources are indicated.