Education Commons^™

A Curriculum Framework At Glsm, A Canadian Medical School, Jeff Bachiu

The Dissertation in Practice at Western University

Medical education has seen minor changes over the decades, but a dynamic movement towards competency-based medical education (CBME) has swept across the field in recent years. Organizing medical education curriculum to respond to these changes can be challenging due to many factors, in both content and context. The public rightly expects that graduating medical students be competent physicians, ready to deliver effective health care. This Organizational Improvement Plan (OIP) looks at a relatively new medical school’s lack of an outcomes-based curriculum framework. The Problem of Practice (PoP) is focused on the difficulty of moving the school toward the development of …

Implementing Innovative Mental Health Supports And Services At A Post-Secondary Institution, Adam K. Lawrence

The Dissertation in Practice at Western University

In 2020, the Government of Ontario published a report entitled In It Together: Foundations for Promoting Mental Wellness in Campus Communities. This document outlines that the priority of post-secondary institutions should be the health and well-being of students by ensuring that students receive the supports they need to be successful. Most importantly, the document outlines a community approach needed for students to access mental health supports and services on their campuses. Many post-secondary students are becoming increasingly aware of their own mental health needs prior to enrolling at university or college. This has resulted in a culture on post-secondary …

Building A Co-Curricular Wellness Program For Medical Students At A Canadian Medical School, Renea D. Leskie

The Dissertation in Practice at Western University

The increasing number of medical students who present with mental illness and burnout is becoming a very real challenge among medical schools nationally and globally, prompting a need for medical schools to address this very real problem. This Organizational Improvement Plan (OIP) seeks to help solve this problem by means of a co-curricular wellness program aimed at preventing mental illness and burnout from happening. Rather than being reactive as students self-identify as having a mental illness, this OIP argues for preventative measures that help to prevent mental illness and burnout from occurring at all.

Using a three-pronged leadership approach of …

Development Of An Academic-Service Alliance To Address New Graduate Registered Nurses’ Practice Readiness, M. Dianne Norman

The Dissertation in Practice at Western University

New Graduate Registered Nurses’ (NGRN) lack of practice readiness is a Problem of Practice (PoP) impacting hospitals. Stemming from the evolving complexity of today’s healthcare environment and the generalist nature of the baccalaureate nursing program, the lack of NGRN practice readiness increases hospital-based orientation costs, patient safety risks, and NGRN attrition. There is currently no formal structure in which key stakeholders can address the NGRN lack of knowledge, skills and judgment and the associated implications for the safety and quality of patient care. This Organizational Improvement Plan (OIP) examines NGRN practice readiness within the organizational context of the Health Centre …

Evaluation Of The Basic Science Pre-Clerkship Curriculum In Medicine At Western University, Madeleine E. Norris

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Basic sciences are a cornerstone of undergraduate medical education (UME), upon which the clinical sciences are built, however, research indicates that students’ basic science knowledge is not well retained. Additionally, UME curricula vary with respect to which basic science content is delivered, the depth in which it is taught, and the employed instructional methods, which could influence trainees’ knowledge retention. Thus, there is a need for an educational model that ensures students are competent in the fundamentals prior to entering a clinical setting. This investigation provides insights into current strengths and potential areas for improvement with respect to basic science …

Investigating Elementary School Food Programs: Impacts On Child Knowledge And Dietary Behaviours, Paige Colley

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Good nutrition is an important part of maintaining a healthy lifestyle. A balanced diet can promote positive health outcomes, protecting against health problems caused by nutritional deficiencies. Canada has reported poor diet quality and high rates of overweight and obesity among children. Obesity has been linked to several non-communicable diseases including type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and some forms of cancer. Efforts to improve lifelong, healthy eating behaviours must be implemented.

This dissertation investigated the impacts of school food programming on child nutrition. A Centrally Procured School Food Program (CPSFP) was implemented at 30 elementary schools in Southwestern Ontario, Canada. …

Environmental Changes Following The Implementation Of The Childcare Physical Activity (Play) Policy, Victoria Tran

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Environmental factors such as the infrastructure and equipment in childcare centres can influence the physical activity levels of young children. This study explored if implementing the Childcare PhysicaL ActivitY (PLAY) policy resulted in unintended environmental changes that were conducive to physical activity in childcare. Childcare centres were randomized to an experimental (n = 5) or control (n = 4) condition. Three Environment and Policy Assessment and Observation Self-Report (EPAO-SR) tools were used to measure 12 best practice items in relation to the childcare environment and early childhood educators’ (ECEs) practices. Descriptive statistics and mixed-effects logistics regression models were …

Quality Assurance In Competency Training Of Pre-Anesthesia Consultation Skills, Michelle Wong

The Dissertation in Practice at Western University

The absence of quality assurance in training clinicians to perform pre-anesthesia consultations at a Canadian university is the Problem of Practice addressed in this Organizational Improvement Plan. This competency requires learners to apply their anesthesia knowledge to take medical histories; perform physical examinations; diagnose anesthetic risks; and generate anesthesia plans. Random chart audits of many learners identify deficiencies and suggest inconsistent training of this competency. This Organizational Improvement Plan analyzes the anesthesia program’s organizational context to be a complex adaptive system; organizational structure to be a hierarchy; and organizational state to be static. Through the paradigms of complexity theory, interpretivism, …

Exploring Resiliency During The Nursing Student Clinical Experience, Natalie N. Mcmullin

The Dissertation in Practice at Western University

In nursing programs, it is common for students to not complete their degree (Van Hoek et al., 2019). This problem is perpetuated as students who experience high stress and lack resiliency are more likely to be unsuccessful or take longer to complete their nursing degree (Van Hoek et al., 2019). Resiliency is not only important for students during their degree, it is essential to continuously strengthen it throughout their nursing career (Turner & Kaylor, 2015). The aims of this organizational improvement plan will be to empower nursing students to be more resilient in the clinical setting so that they are …

Construction And Preliminary Validation Of The Interrai 0-3 Developmental Domains, Jo Ann M. Iantosca

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Background. With no standardized approach for early assessment of childhood development in Canada, and with a lack of a comprehensive assessment-to-intervention system that amalgamates social, psychiatric, medical, functional, psychological, and environmental constructs, the interRAI 0-3 was developed to support intervention efforts based on the needs of young children and their families. The interRAI 0-3 includes over 650 items that seek clinical information, developmental milestones, and context items regarding the family and social relationships surrounding the child. The newly developed interRAI 0-3 was most recently evaluated to examine the reliability and validity of the Expressive and Receptive Language and the Gross …