A Novel Program Trains Community‐Academic Teams to Build Research and Partnership Capacity

The Community‐Engaged Research Team Support (CERTS) program was developed and tested to build research and partnership capacity for community‐engaged research (CEnR) teams. Led by the Northwestern University Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute (NUCATS), the goals of CERTS were: (1) to help community‐academic teams build capacity for conducting rigorous CEnR and (2) to support teams as they prepare federal grant proposal drafts. The program was guided by an advisory committee of community and clinical partners, and representatives from Chicago''s Clinical and Translational Science Institutes. Monthly workshops guided teams to write elements of NIH‐style research proposals. Draft reviewing fostered a collaborative learning environment and helped teams develop equal partnerships. The program culminated in a mock‐proposal review. All teams clarified their research and acquired new knowledge about the preparation of NIH‐style proposals. Trust, partnership collaboration, and a structured writing strategy were assets of the CERTS approach. CERTS also uncovered gaps in resources and preparedness for teams to be competitive for federally funded grants. Areas of need include experience as principal investigators, publications on study results, mentoring, institutional infrastructure, and dedicated time for research.     

Giving feedback in medical education

OBJECTIVE: We investigated naturally occurring feedback incidents to substantiate literature-based recommended techniques for giving feedback effectively. SETTING: A faculty development course for improving the teaching of the medical interview, with opportunities for participants to receive feedback. PARTICIPANTS: Seventy-four course participants (clinician-educators from a wide range of medical disciplines, and several behavioral scientists). MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: We used qualitative and quantitative approaches. Participants provided narratives of helpful and unhelpful incidents experienced during the course and then rated their own narratives using a semantic-differential survey. We found strong agreement between the two approaches, and congruence between our data and the recommended literature. Giving feedback effectively includes: establishing an appropriate interpersonal climate; using an appropriate location; establishing mutually agreed upon goals; eliciting the learner’s thoughts and feelings; reflecting on observed behaviors; being nonjudgmental; relating feedback to specific behaviors; offering the right amount of feeback; and offering suggestions for improvement. CONCLUSIONS: Feedback techniques experienced by respondents substantiate the literature-based recommendations, and corrective feedback is regarded as helpful when delivered appropriately. A model for providing feedback is offered.     

The Network Trilogy Project:

There is a striking disparity between the estimated need for mental health care by 18-25% of the nation's elderly, and the minimal utilization of private and publicly funded services by this age cohort. Recognition that the elderly are not well served by existing systems led a trilogy of major Philadelphia aging, mental health, and health organizations to form a partnership for the purpose of improving, expanding, and integrating service delivery for a segment of the population which has been overlooked. A training model was devised to overcome the organizational isolation of agencies serving mutual clients with interrelated problems. For training purposes, the city was divided into five sections. Consultants were recruited to organize staff development groups from the health, mental health and senior centers in the georgraphic areas to which they were assigned. This paper describes the interagency training experience, the receptivity of the participants, and discusses the issues which must be addressed to improve coordination of elderly services by the aging, health, and mental health systems.     

2003-2008年青岛大学师范学院女教职工妇科查体结果分析

目的了解青岛大学师范学院已婚育龄妇女妇科疾病发病趋势,以制定有效的干预措施。方法对我院在职女教职工2003—2008年妇科查体结果进行统计分析。结果乳腺疾病、子宫肌瘤患病率呈上升趋势,宫颈炎、阴道炎患病率呈下降趋势,附件炎患病率较平稳。结论我院女教职工乳腺疾病患病率较高,应定期体检,增强自我保健意识,提高生活质量。     

Substance Abuse Integration in Nursing Education: An Innovative Collaborative Model

This paper reports the outcomes of a 3-year faculty development project, the Nursing School Education Collaborative (NSEC), implemented in four baccalaureate schools of nursing. The focus of the NSEC was to strengthen educational programs through faculty development and curriculum integration in the area of substance abuse and addictions education. A comprehensive needs assessment process is outlined, and faculty development and curriculum integration activities are detailed. Faculty development has resulted in significant improvements in each school's substance abuse curriculum. Outcomes at each participating school have included continuing education activities, acquisition of additional teaching resources, the development of an integration model, and increased curriculum and clinical contact hours. With the increasing recognition of substance abuse as a number one public health problem and nursing as a major health workforce, this project serves as a model for replication.     

Part-Time Nursing Faculty Perceptions of Their Learning Needs During Their Role Transition Experiences

The purpose of this study was to explore and interpret the part-time nursing faculty's perceptions of their need to learn pedagogical skills during their role transition experiences from an expert clinician identity to a clinical instructor identity while teaching at a rural 2-year institution (community college). A qualitative design with Moustaka's phenomenological methods approach was conducted with 3 nurses as they transitioned into their clinical instructor identities. Analysis of the data yielded 5 themes: (a) development of their clinical instructor identity; (b) perception of similar and different learning needs; (c) incentive and motivation to learn; (d) the necessity of prior and current nursing experience; and (e) the importance of other faculty and resources. Study results propose the use of Illeris' Transformative Learning and Identity theory as a framework for associate degree nursing program administrators to use in the development of successful part-time faculty orientation and professional development programs.     

The Global Summit on Nurse Faculty Migration

As global demand for health care workers burgeons, information is scant regarding the migration of faculty who will train new nurses. With dual roles as clinicians and educators, and corresponding dual sets of professional and legal obligations, nurse faculty may confront unique circumstances in migration that can impact nations' ability to secure an adequate, stable nursing workforce. In a seminal effort to address these concerns, the Honor Society of Nursing, Sigma Theta Tau International, and the International Council of Nurses invited a diverse group of international experts to a summit designed to elucidate forces that drive nurse faculty migration. The primary areas of consideration were the impact on nurse faculty migration of rapid health care workforce scale-up, international trade agreements, and workforce aging. Long-term summit goals included initiating action affecting national, regional, and global supplies of nurse educators and helping to avert catastrophic failure of health care delivery systems caused by an inadequate ability to educate next-generation nurses.     

Organising a surgical skills centre

The aim of this paper is to define a strategy for the development and organisation of a surgical skills centre. The areas of interest can be divided into decisions about who, what and where to teach, the importance of an approach which is competency‐based, definition of staff to run the centre, and also the use of the centre for the purposes of assessment, as well as training. The efficient delivery of this service will be augmented by adopting a multi‐disciplinary and multi‐professional approach, and must also be malleable enough to adopt future developments, such as web‐based learning. Simulation is now the preferred mode of practice for commencement of surgical training. Surgical skills centres must be able to supply users with tools in a suitably designed environment, which enables them to move along a curriculum which is delivered in a competency‐based manner.     

Training and experience of examiners

Variation in the accuracy of examiner judgements is a source of measurement error in performance-based tests. In previous studies using doctor subjects, examiner training yielded marginal or no improvement in the accuracy of examiner judgments. This study reports an experiment on accuracy of scoring in which provision of training and background of examiners are systematically varied. Experienced teaching staff, medical students and lay subjects were randomly assigned to either training or no-training groups. Using detailed behavioural check-lists, they subsequently scored videotaped performance on two clinical cases, and accuracy of their judgments was appraised. Results indicated that the need for and effectiveness of training varied across groups: it was least needed and least effective for the teaching staff group, more needed and effective for medical students, and most needed and effective for the lay group. The accuracy of the lay group after training approached the accuracy of untrained teaching staff. Trained medical students were as accurate as trained teaching staff. For teaching staff and medical students training also influenced the nature of errors made by reducing the number of errors of commission. It was concluded that training varies in effectiveness as a function of medical experience and that trained lay persons can be utilized as examiners in performance-based tests.