Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Osces’ Impact On Occupational Therapy Student Learning: Insights From Second- And Third-Year Focus Groups, Craig R. St. Jean, Karin Werther, Mary R. Roberts

The Open Journal of Occupational Therapy

Background: Objective Structured Clinical Examinations (OSCEs) are widely used in health programs to assess clinical skills. We present results of a qualitative study investigating occupational therapy students’ perceptions of OSCEs’ impact on their learning and readiness for clinical practice.

Method: Six second and six third year students in the University of Alberta’s Master of Science in Occupational Therapy program were interviewed in separate focus groups. Independent reviewers applied thematic analysis to the focus group transcripts to identify, analyze, and report themes in the data.

Results: Five themes were constructed from the data: from learning to action, transition …

Assessment And Diagnostic Practices Relating To Autism Spectrum Disorder In The United States And Mexico, Maria Valdez, Jessica R. Stewart, Wan-Lin Chang, Ruth Crutchfield, Ralph Carlson

Internet Journal of Allied Health Sciences and Practice

Purpose: The present study examined and compared professional assessment and diagnostic practices relating to autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in Mexico and the United States (U.S.). This information is of great importance because there is an extremely limited amount of information pertaining the assessment and diagnostic practices for ASD in Mexico and little is known about how these practices compare to those in the U.S. Methods: Archival data from a survey investigating ASD in the U.S. and Mexico was used for this study. Participants included 29 professionals from the U.S. and 7 professionals from Mexico. Professionals were from a variety of …

The Role Of Using Formative Assessments In Problem-Based Learning: A Health Sciences Education Perspective, Kristi W. Kelley, Julaine M. Fowlin, Andrew A. Tawfik, Max C. Anderson

Interdisciplinary Journal of Problem-Based Learning

Practitioners in the field of pharmacy are often confronted with ill-structured problems. Specifically, pharmacists are tasked with making patient-specific recommendations that are both safe and effective, which requires combining knowledge from the biomedical, behavioral, and pharmaceutical sciences. Given the dynamic nature of pharmacy as a profession, the field has begun to explore learning strategies that go beyond mere content coverage to strategies that better support higher-order learning outcomes. One of these approaches is problem-based learning (PBL). While studies have focused on how to support PBL to improve learning outcomes, the role of assessment is often overlooked. Further exploration is thus …

Faculty Entrustment Of Students In The Core Clerkships: A Comparison Between The Longitudinal Integrated Clerkship And The Block Clerkship, Robert L. Trowbridge, Marybeth D. Ford, Jenny L. Carwile, Eliza R. Bullis, Robert G. Bing-You

Journal of Maine Medical Center

INTRODUCTION: Entrustable Professional Activities (EPAs) have been proposed for use in undergraduate medical education. The ability of faculty to entrust students with EPAs may differ between Longitudinal Integrated Clerkships (LICs) and traditional block clerkships.

METHODS: Participants were core clerkship faculty, 64 in a LIC and 31 in a sequential block clerkship. We administered a web-based survey at the end of the core clerkship year to measure preceptors’ typical entrustment (on a scale of 0–10) in students for the 13 American Association of Medical Colleges Core EPAs. We compared entrustment between LIC and block faculty using a Mann-Whitney test.

RESULTS:LIC …

Assessment Of Medical Screening And Clinical Reasoning Skills By Physical Therapy Students In A Simulated Patient Encounter, Therese E. Johnston

Internet Journal of Allied Health Sciences and Practice

Purpose: Physical therapists (PTs) screen their patients for medical issues that may present as musculoskeletal conditions. In physical therapy education, learning activities followed by assessment of skills and clinical reasoning is important. The purposes of this study are to 1) demonstrate the feasibility of the use of standardized patients (SPs) and standardized physicians (SPhs) during a practical examination focused on medical screening, and 2) report outcomes related to the students’ abilities to screen for medical issues and make clinical decisions about referral to a physician.

Methods: Students evaluated a standardized patient in an outpatient setting model. After receiving …

Correlation Of Formative Assessments As The Means Of Predicting Summative Performance In Paramedic Students, William J. Leggio Jr, Alan M. Batt, Jennifer C. Berry, Tom Fentress, Marilee L. Vosper, Kelly Walsh, James Dinsch

Internet Journal of Allied Health Sciences and Practice

Background: Paramedic programs use formative assessments to determine cognitive competency. Understanding the number of failed formative units as a probability of passing the summative exam will allow programs to set additional benchmarks. The purpose of this study was to determine whether failure in formative exams determines success on a summative exam.

Methods: Formative and summative scores from 2011 – 2016 for paramedic students with accounts in Fisdap™, an Internet-based administrative database, were retrospectively reviewed for the following criteria: provided consent for research, completed all six formative (unit) examinations, and completed a summative (comprehensive) examination. Analyses were performed with Pearson correlations …

The Purpose And Value For Students Of Pbl Groups For Learning, Vicki J. Skinner, Annette Braunack-Mayer, Tracey A. Winning

Interdisciplinary Journal of Problem-Based Learning

Groups are central to problem-based learning (PBL) and educational and professional outcomes relevant to clinical education. However, PBL groups in practice may differ from theoretical conceptions of groups. Therefore, this study explored students’ understandings of the purpose and value of PBL groups for their learning. We conducted a naturalistic study with novice (first-year) students at two dental schools (Australia, Ireland), using observation and interviews analyzed thematically. Students constructed PBL learning as individual knowledge gain, and group purpose as information gathering and exchange; few students acknowledged the learning potential of group processes. Group value depended on assessment and curriculum context. Findings …