Clinical characteristics of Australian osteopaths who teach: A national sample

Background: Health professionals involved in teaching future practitioners have been studied to some extent, but our knowledge of their clinical characteristics is variable. Our study sought to profile the clinical characteristics of osteopaths who teach in the three Australian universities delivering pre-professional osteopathy education.Materials: This study is a secondary analysis of data collected via the Australian Osteopathy Research and Innovation Network (ORION) project. Descriptive statistics were generated for each of the 27-item questionnaire variables. For binary responses, unadjusted odds ratios were calculated, and for continuous variables, independent t-tests were used. Backward step-wise regression modelling was used to identify significant characteristics associated with university teaching in osteopathy. Results: The survey demonstrated 9.9% of Australian osteopaths reported being involved in university teaching. Compared to non-teaching survey respondents, the osteopaths involved in university teaching were more likely to be female (OR 1.56), older (p 0.01) and in clinical practice for longer (p 0.01) but report fewer patient care hours (p 0.01) and patient visits per week (p 0.01). Osteopaths involved in university teaching were also more likely to be involved in research (OR 18.54) and clinical supervision (OR 12.39). They also reported a broader range of patient presentations and therapeutic modalities than their counterparts.Conclusions: This nationally representative survey demonstrates a small percentage of the Australian osteopathy profession are engaged in university teaching. Our secondary analysis has highlighted several characteristics associated with involvement in university teaching that begin to shed light on the composition of the Australian osteopathy teaching workforce. This data may inform development of a skilled and experienced teaching workforce.

Near-peer teaching in paramedicine education: A cross-sectional study of student experiences

Near-peer teaching (NPT) has been identified as a contemporary and valued pedagogical approach in higher education health programs, and it has recently gained momentum in paramedicine education. The objective of this study was to investigate the perceived experience of student paramedics involved in a near-peer teaching program over two academic trimesters. A cross-sectional study design was utilised in the form of an online questionnaire. The questionnaire contained a variety of questions that related to the experience of student paramedics involved in paramedicine near-peer programs. Of the 65 students enrolled, 34 completed the questionnaire (52.3% response rate). The results indicated that NPT was overwhelmingly considered a valuable and positive pedagogical method for use in paramedicine education.

Three principles for writing an effective qualitative results section

Writing an effective qualitative results section can be a daunting task. How do you report the findings of the study and tell a compelling story? It is this delicate balance that we strive to navigate in this paper. We offer three principles—storytelling, authenticity and argument—to help writers envision the story they will tell, select the data as evidence for that story and integrate quotations to guide the reader’s interpretation. Practical advice and concrete illustrations make the principles easy to apply to your own writing. Finally, by reflecting on how historical, methodological and disciplinary elements shape their application, you will be able to use these principles to enhance the persuasiveness of your qualitative results section.

Assessing the relationship between student learning characteristics and academic performance in chemical pathology in an undergraduate medical curriculum

Background: Teaching and learning chemical pathology requires that medical trainees interpret biochemical test results correctly (against the background of clinical information) to solve clinical problems, while being aware of factors that could affect results. To meet these competencies, students must possess certain learning characteristics. This study explored the relationship between student learning characteristics and academic performance in chemical pathology. It is expected that a better understanding of the relationship between students' learning characteristics and academic performance will help formulate strategies to enhance teaching and learning of this subject. Methods: This study was designed as an exploratory survey. Self-administered, validated questionnaires were used to obtain data on learning mode, learning style and learning approach from 250 fourth-year undergraduate medical students at a medical university in South Africa. One-way ANOVA and Pearson correlations were used to analyse the relationship between each learning characteristic and academic performance. Spearman’s rho was used to study the relationships between the three learning characteristics. Results: A response rate of 72% was obtained. The largest number of participants (35%; n = 63) were visual learners, pragmatists (25%; n = 45) and learned using a superficial approach (44%; n = 79). Multimodal learning mode, balanced learning style and deep learning approach were found to correlate significantly with better academic performance in chemical pathology (r = 0.262, 0.307 and 0.467, respectively; p ≤ 0.0001).Conclusions: Our findings reveal that multimodal learners with a balanced learning style who have a deep approach to learning performed well in chemical pathology. This concurs with findings by studies that report a positive association between these learning characteristics and academic performance in other subjects in medicine. We propose that to achieve effective student learning, chemical pathology educators explore alternative teaching and learning activities to move students towards these positive learning characteristics.

Patients undergoing dialysis as a model for medical students’ longitudinal engagement with chronic illness: Patient perspectives

Background: Medical students are predominantly exposed to patients with chronic conditions during acute episodes requiring hospitalisation. Consequently, this limits students’ opportunities to learn about continuity of patient care. Unlike hospitalised patients, patients undergoing haemodialysis attend dialysis clinics in ambulatory/outpatient settings multiple times per week over long time periods. Patients undergoing dialysis would be well placed to share their knowledge of their own chronic illness and their experience of patient-centred care. This study explored the willingness of patients undergoing haemodialysis to interact with the same medical student throughout the academic year. Methods: Twenty-seven patients undergoing dialysis at four dialysis units were interviewed.Results: Twenty-five patients indicated that they would be willing to regularly interact with students. Patients indicated that they would permit students to conduct a range of activities (e.g., taking a medical history). All 25 were willing to provide students with verbal feedback. Twelve were willing to provide written feedback. In terms of interacting with students, there were two predominant groups: 1) those who focus on the students’ needs and are prepared to interact with students frequently and over a long duration and 2) those who have had “enough” after a while and are prepared to interact with students over a shorter duration. Conclusions: Patients undergoing haemodialysis could provide students with opportunities to follow a patient’s journey, provided the length and frequency of the patient–student interaction is matched with patient preferences.

Multiple feedback sources in learning clinical history-taking skills: Developing evaluative judgement

Introduction: Contemporary feedback models emphasise the value of multiple feedback opportunities. Effective feedback participation requires evaluative judgement—the ability to discern the quality of one’s own and others’ work. Self and peer assessment may enable repeated practice and feedback for developing evaluative judgement. However, attitudes to self and peer assessment may present a barrier to effective implementation. This study explored whether congruence between marks from self and peer assessment improved with assessment task participation. Participants’ attitudes towards self and peer assessment and approaches to learning were also evaluated.Methods: Participants undertook simulated history-taking tasks in semester 2, 2018. Group 1 undertook formative and summative assessments and participated in self and peer assessment . Group 2 undertook formative and summative assessment. Group 3 undertook only summative assessment. All groups received faculty feedback for each submitted assessment. Participants completed the modified Study Process Questionnaire (mSPQ) and the Peer Perception of Assessment (PPA) before (T1) and after the formative task (T2) and after the summative task (T3).Results: Summative task scores improved for group 1 (n = 9, p 0.01) and group 2 (n = 26, p 0.01). Within-group (p = 0.02) and between-group differences (p = 0.01) were identified for surface learning approaches. All groups’ perceptions of peer assessment decreased significantly (p 0.01) across all three time periods.Conclusions: Participants receiving self and peer assessment and faculty feedback improved performance and increased congruence of their self- and peer-assessment marks, potentially developing their evaluative judgment skills. Peer assessment perception became less positive, while surface learning approaches increased. Future research should assess the role of self and peer assessment in developing evaluative judgment.

Enhancing intergroup communication in healthcare: The role of the receiver

This paper explores how the communication behaviour of another can have significant personal and professional impact and, in turn, put others in harm’s way. In healthcare, in a continual attempt to address known barriers to communication, such as fear, hierarchy and power differentials, significant human and financial resources are deployed to develop and teach new and existing methods of how to speak up. Despite the effort, speaking up remains difficult, and as a result, patients are still being harmed. The author’s personal story highlights the fact that maybe, until now, we have not been addressing the whole issue.