Twelve tips to facilitate Interprofessional Education and Collaborative Practice with students on placements in healthcare settings

It is acknowledged that the adverse effects of the COVID-19 pandemic will be long-lasting on healthcare organisations. Consequently, healthcare teams will need to work more collaboratively, supporting each other better in the post-pandemic period. Pre-registration clinical placements in healthcare settings provide an ideal opportunity to instil Interprofessional Education and Collaborative Practice (IPECP) skills, values, and competencies in students early-on. It is a common belief that teams need to have students from two or more professions to facilitate IPECP. Whilst this may be the ideal scenario, healthcare settings were struggling even prior to the pandemic to orchestrate such placement opportunities given the complicated logistics and their resource-intensive nature. This 12 tips paper provides clinical educators with practical tips to facilitate IPECP across the whole continuum from a single student on placement, to several students from two or more professions on placement at the same time. These tips, by promoting IPECP in all student placements, have the potential to re-energise IPECP in healthcare settings, thereby contributing to better outcomes for healthcare professionals, organisations, and service users.

Clinical educator’s experiences of the decentralised training platform for Occupational Therapy students in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

Background: In piloting a shift from traditional practice-based placements to decentralised clinical training (DCT), there was a need to explore the factors that influenced the placement as part of monitoring and evaluation. DCT involves placementto clinical sites away from the higher education institution necessitating changes to supervision strategies utilised.Objective: This study explored the experiences of clinical educators supervising occupational therapy students within this new model during a pilot phase of the DCT programme at one institution in South Africa.Method: The study was located in KwaZulu-Natal province and followed an explorative qualitative design with semi-structured interviews and focus groups with purposively sampled clinical educators (n=11). Data were audio-recorded and thematically analysed.Findings: Two central themes emerged and included the clinical educators’ expectations (organisation factors, role and scope of partners in decentralised training and communication) and experiences (perspectives and value of decentralised training).Conclusion: Decentralised training has considerable potential to contribute to authentic student learning. Improved communication between all stakeholders would assist in enhancing the quality of the learning experiences on such platforms. Students need to be more prepared prior to commencing DCT, and there is a need for more rural placements with a primary health care focus. Keywords: Decentralised training; clinical educators; service learning.

Facilitating in-situ simulations in an acute care environment: A qualitative study

Background and objective: Clinical Educators frequently use in-situ simulation-based experiences (SBE) to improve the skill and competency of healthcare professionals. The aim of the experience is to improve the quality of patient care and, ultimately, patient outcomes. The facilitator plays a key role in the in-situ SBE as they provide structure, guidance, and support, to help learners achieve the educational outcomes. However, they often face barriers concerning preparation for their role, time release from clinical duties, time to facilitate an effective debrief, and space constraints. The aim of this research was to gain insights into the opportunities and barriers educators face when facilitating in-situ simulations.Methods: A qualitative descriptive design utilising semi-structured interviews with twelve clinical educators who had facilitated in-situ SBE's in the acute care environment within a hospital facility. Interview data was analysed utilising a general inductive approach to determine themes.Results: The facilitators valued in-situ SBE as a teaching and learning strategy however they faced challenges related to time constraints, resourcing, ‘buy in’ and competing priorities for themselves and the learners.Conclusions: Sustaining an in-situ SBE programme long term requires a departmental culture that normalises SBE as routine practice, a simulation design appropriate to the in-situ environment, and opportunities to engage in a community of practice.

Stress and Perfectionism in Communication Sciences and Disorders and Social Work Students

Purpose To further inform faculty and clinical educators interested in facilitating the overall well-being of their students, areas causing stress for undergraduate (UGs) and graduate (Gs) students in communication sciences and disorders (CSD) and in social work (SWK) were explored. The perceived stress levels as well as levels and types of perfectionism demonstrated by students, as well as the methods used to manage stress, were also explored. Method A survey of 193 CSD students (105 UGs and 88 Gs) and 137 SWK students (104 UGs and 33 Gs) from the same institution was conducted. The survey asked respondents to list their top 3 stressors, as well as the stress management practices in which they engaged, and to complete the Perceived Stress Scale and the Almost Perfect Scale–Revised. Results CSD UGs were the only group who indicated that the graduate school admission process was a major stressor; other stressors listed by UGs in CSD and SWK were similar. CSD Gs were the only group who listed clinic as stressful, and SWK Gs listed finances as a more prominent stressor than did CSD Gs. Stress management practices were primarily similar. No differences existed between UGs and Gs on measures of perceived stress and perfectionism. More CSD respondents demonstrated healthy aspects of perfectionism than did SWK respondents. CSD respondents' stress levels were lower overall than those of SWK respondents. Conclusions Similarities and differences existed between CSD and SWK respondents regarding stressors, stress management practices, perceived stress levels, and perfectionism. This information can provide faculty and clinical educator with insight regarding our students' overall well-being.

Upskilling health and care workers with augmented and virtual reality: protocol for a realist review to develop an evidence-informed programme theory

IntroductionAugmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) are increasingly used to upskill health and care providers, including in surgical, nursing and acute care settings. Many studies have used AR/VR to deliver training, providing mixed evidence on their effectiveness and limited evidence regarding contextual factors that influence effectiveness and implementation. This review will develop, test and refine an evidence-informed programme theory on what facilitates or constrains the implementation of AR or VR programmes in health and care settings and understand how, for whom and to what extent they ‘work’.Methods and analysisThis realist review adheres to the Realist And Meta-narrative Evidence Syntheses: Evolving Standards (RAMESES) standards and will be conducted in three steps: theory elicitation, theory testing and theory refinement. First, a search will identify practitioner, academic and learning and technology adoption theories from databases (MEDLINE, Scopus, CINAHL, Embase, Education Resources Information Center, PsycINFO and Web of Science), practitioner journals, snowballing and grey literature. Information regarding contexts, mechanisms and outcomes will be extracted. A narrative synthesis will determine overlapping configurations and form an initial theory. Second, the theory will be tested using empirical evidence located from the above databases and identified from the first search. Quality will be assessed using the Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool (MMAT), and relevant information will be extracted into a coding sheet. Third, the extracted information will be compared with the initial programme theory, with differences helping to make refinements. Findings will be presented as a narrative summary, and the MMAT will determine our confidence in each configuration.Ethics and disseminationEthics approval is not required. This review will develop an evidence-informed programme theory. The results will inform and support AR/VR interventions from clinical educators, healthcare providers and software developers. Upskilling through AR/VR learning interventions may improve quality of care and promote evidence-based practice and continued learning. Findings will be disseminated through conference presentations and peer-reviewed journal articles.

EDUKASI PROGRAM AQUATIC EXERCISE DALAM MENGURANGI KELUHAN SERTA MENINGKATKAN KEMAMPUAN FUNGSIONAL PASIEN NYERI PINGGANG KRONIK

Nyeri pinggang bawah atau Low Back Pain (LBP) merupakan sindroma nyeri yang terjadi pada regio punggung bawah dan yang menjadi beberapa penyebabnya adalah degenerasi, inflamasi, infeksi, dan trauma muskuloskeletal. Lebih dari 70% individu di negara-negara industri mengalami keluhan nyeri pinggang di seumur hidupnya, dan terjadi pada usia 35-55 tahun. Di Indonesia belum diketahui secara pasti jumlah penderita yang mengalami low back pain. Namun, diperkirakan 7,6% - 37% masyarakat Indonesia mengalami nyeri pinggang. Nyeri pinggang kronik (CLBP) menyebabkan perubahan aktivasi otot serta postural tubuh, sehingga membuat gerak fungsional individu dalam beraktivitas menurun. Penggunaan treatment Aquatic Exercise teruji efektif untuk meningkatkan fungsi fisik pada penderita nyeri pinggang. Pengabdian masyarakat ini bertujuan untuk menambah pengetahuan clinical educators atau pembimbing lahan terkait variasi metode aquatic exercise dalam menangani nyeri pinggang kronik pada pasien. materi yang diberikan kepada peserta berkaitan prosedur penatalaksaan aquatic exercise dalam meningkatkan aktifitas fungsional penderita nyeri pinggang bawah kronik. Termasuk juga gerakan yang dilakukan serta peralatan yang digunakan dalam intervensinya. Hasil dari pengabdian masyarakat ini berupa meningkatnya tingkat kepahaman clinical educators tentang penggunaan aquatic exercise dalam menangani pasien penderita nyeri pinggang kronik, dan meningkatkan kemampuan clinical educators dalam memberikan pelayanan aquatic exercise.

Impact of physical therapy and occupational therapy student placements on productivity: a scoping review

Introduction: Clinical educators may perceive that student supervision is time consuming and reduces productivity. This perception is in contrast to research conducted in the 1990’s that found students do not negatively impact productivity. There is a need to review the current literature on this topic as a result of health care cost-containment measures that emphasize efficiency. The purpose of this scoping review was to map and examine the impact of physical and occupational therapy student placements on productivity in the clinical environment. Methods: PRISMA Scoping review methodology was used to identify relevant papers. A search was completed in MEDLINE, CINAHL, ERIC and Business Source Premier. Included studies measured clinician productivity while supervising a physical or occupational therapy student. Two reviewers independently reviewed studies according to pre-determined eligibility criteria. Results and discussion: Fourteen studies met the inclusion criteria and were included in the review. Overall, the studies suggest that the supervision of students does not have a negative impact on productivity. However, the productivity measures varied in the type and methods which limits comparisons. This variability, along with the experience of stress by clinical educators as they attempt to satisfy multiple roles may account for the discrepancy between the perception and actual measure of productivity. Conclusions: This scoping review found some evidence that students do not negatively impact productivity. This contrasts with the perception held by the supervising physical and occupational therapists. Further research is recommended to explore this discrepancy and determine optimal productivity measures matched to the characteristics of the environment.