First-year Health Science Students Research Articles

Health science students’ well-being during distance learning: a qualitative interview study

The recent shift from face-to-face learning to distance learning has affected students’ well-being, which could impact commitment to studies and lead to delays or interruptions. The aim of this study was to describe health science students’ experiences of well-being during the distance learning and social isolation resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. A qualitative descriptive interview study was conducted with virtual semi-structured individual interviews. A total of 15 first-year health science students participated. Content analysis was used to analyse the data. The study identified six main categories of well-being: social relationships; healthy lifestyle; versatile everyday life; psychophysical well-being; the physical living environment; and adaptation to a new situation. The participants mainly reported satisfactory well-being, but they needed support to maintain it. The study showed that students’ well-being and resilience increased when distance learning lasted longer. In the future, it will be important to study how to combine the flexibility of distance learning with the communality of contact teaching.

Students Ability to Self-Regulate in a First-Year Experience Health Sciences Course

Purpose: Research has shown students in general do better throughout their post-secondary education if they participated in a First Year Experience (FYE) course. Research questions whether first-year students peform better in face-to-face, online, or blended courses. The purpose of this study was to determine the perceptions of first-year health science students in online and blended learning environments and self-regulation, in a FYE course. Methods: The study utilized educational design and research tools designed to create and improve teaching and learning practices. For the design of the learning environment, analysis, design, development, implementation, and evaluation (ADDIE) was implemented. Action-based research (ABR) was utilized for analyzing and improving instructional practices. A survey adapted to evaluate self-regulation was used to evaluate perceptions of self-regulation, goal setting, environment, task strategies, time management, help seeking, and self-evaluation and students’ perceptions of instructional modality. Results: A total of 657 students (online n=295 and blended n=362) consented and participated in the study. Majority of online participants (90%) somewhat agreed to strongly agreed in being efficient in goal setting compared to the blended group at 87%. In the area of environment for studying, 95% of online participants reported having a comfortable, distraction-free environment as compared to the blended group (85%). For the category of learning environment (online vs. blended), 94% of online participants reported being comfortable, compared to 85% in the blended. There was low confidence identified among participants (63%) in the categories of time management, environment, help seeking, and task strategies. Conclusions: Ways to help students improve and expand their self-regulation skills should be developed in the early years of higher education. The study revealed students were not accessing supplemental resources to aid their learning. Therefore, faculty may need to consider streamlining the supplemental resources made available to students, utilizing the ADDIE model to evaluate their course. Increasing faculty and peer face time, could improve self-regulation skills and make students feel a stronger connection to the learning process and potentially overall academic success.

Animated teaching improves student learning of human gastrulation and neurulation

Human embryology is a complex topic that brings together core components of anatomy and physiology to describe the developmental process from fertilisation to birth. Embryonic development is a challenging topic of study that is core to the curricula for health science students. There are challenges ingrained in teaching and learning embryology, due to the three-dimensional dynamic processes that occur as the embryo develops. This study aimed to develop and assess two newly developed animations depicting key processes in embryology, namely gastrulation and neurulation, as supplemental learning aids for students. Indeed, animated teaching tools to enhance the learning of gastrulation and neurulation are not widely available. A multi-disciplinary team of physiologists, biochemists, anatomists, and a computer scientist developed the animation sets. A student cohort of 81 first-year health science students were enrolled in this study over a period of three academic years. Both animations are in line with the course content of the first-year health science students undertaking the Human Health and Disease BSc at Trinity College Dublin, who were the study participants. Participants were randomly assigned to a non-animation control group and an animation group. Each set of animated teaching aids was broken down into individual clips which were given identifiable headings to allow the user to interchange between clips to facilitate a more personal learning experience. The animation group had open access to the animations for a three-week period. Questionnaires were designed to assess participants’ attitude to the animations and their knowledge of embryology, both at the start of the study and three weeks later following access to the animations. Data presented herein indicate that students incorporated the animated teaching aids into digital home study and that the use of the animations acted as a supplemental tool that increased student knowledge in key areas of human embryology. From a qualitative point of view, students described the animations as enjoyable and helpful in visualising complex processes. This study indicates that the development of gastrulation and neurulation animated learning tools allow for a more engaging learning experience, facilitating student’s engagement with academically challenging concepts in human embryology.

Psychological distress among first-year health science students in Taiwan

BackgroundMost first-year college/university students are adolescents or young adults and therefore are at high risk of developing psychological distress symptoms. Little is known about psychological distress among first-year university students in Taiwan, especially those studying health science-related fields. ObjectiveTo understand the prevalence of psychological distress and its five dimensions (depression and anxiety, self-harm, impulsivity, and psychiatric disturbance) and explore the relationship between student-specific variables (enrollment year, age, sex, program duration, and college) and psychological distress. MethodsA secondary analysis design was adopted. We enrolled 4,212 first-year university students throughout 2016, 2017, and 2018. Health screening data were obtained using the Mental Health Scale for Undergraduate-Screening Assessment (MHSU-SA) for first-year health science students at a private technical-vocational university in northern Taiwan. ResultsMany first-year university students were at-risk for depression (4.2%), anxiety (8.2%), self-harm (5.2%), impulsivity (2.6%), psychiatric disturbance (4.4%), and overall psychological distress (4.2%). Students in a four-year program were more than twice as likely to demonstrate psychological distress symptoms compared to their two-year (night) program counterparts (odds ratio = 2.05, 95% confidence interval = 1.20–3.49, p < 0.01). ConclusionSome first-year health science university students showed psychological distress, including anxiety, self-harm, psychiatric disturbance, depression, and impulsivity. Students in four-year programs were twice as likely to show symptoms of psychological distress than those in two-year (night) programs. Therefore, mental health screenings are recommended to facilitate early detection and timely intervention for at-risk students.

Improving serious games by crowdsourcing feedback from the STEAM online gaming community

The inclusion of game-based learning in tertiary institutions is increasing as educators seek ways to enhance student engagement and motivation. During the development process for gaming resources, educators need feedback to ensure a quality learning experience. In many cases this feedback is generally received from students at the end of the subject or course and is often regulated centrally. Another way of garnering feedback and capturing player analytics could be to capitalize on the millions of global gamers. A game developed for use in a Health Sciences and Medicine program, The King's Request: Physiology and Anatomy Revision Game, was made freely available on the Steam platform. Over 16,000 Steam users engaged with the game over 12 months, with 150 providing written reviews. In contrast, a cohort of 100 first-year health science and medical students were requested to review the game after playing in class, with only 17 providing written feedback. In reviewing feedback, similarities were found between the groups, such as where both Steam community players and in-class students requested more questions and a longer game. However, the Steam community highlighted several unique aspects which could be used to improve the game for learning, such as a refined implementation of the incentive system. As the online gaming community is far larger than students enrolled in any tertiary subject, its expansive feedback can be used to accelerate the design and refinement of serious games. This wealth of feedback could provide unique insights for educators wishing to improve the provision of games in education and the overall student learning experience.

Addressing the divergence between health science students’ learning preferences and the way their teachers teach

Abstract Both the literature and personal experience show that attrition from prerequisite science courses for the health professions is significant. To examine one possible reason for that attrition, a study was designed to examine the relationship between the teaching approaches employed by college-level anatomy and physiology (A&amp;P) instructors and the learning preferences of first-year health science (FYHS) students. Students and instructors of a first-year Anatomy and Physiology course at a small, private four year college in the Northeast participated in a combined quantitative and qualitative research protocol. Results showed that instructors’ teaching approaches met the participating FYHS students’ learning preferences in some areas but not all. The findings suggest that addressing the gap between FYHS students’ learning preferences and the teaching approaches of A&amp;P instructors could lead to more successful academic outcomes.

Corn? When did I eat corn? Gastrointestinal transit time in health science students.

The objective of this study was to determine gastrointestinal transit time in first-year health science students with a laboratory practical exercise conducted in two cohorts (classes of 2018 and 2019) of first-year health sciences students at the Health Science Campus in Windhoek, Namibia. All first-year health science students undertaking the Physiology course were invited to take part in the laboratory exercise. The primary outcome was the measurement of gastrointestinal transit time from the amount of time taken for ingested whole-kernel sweetcorn to be eliminated, which was calculated as the time period between ingestion of corn and the time of corn first seen in the stool and the time corn was last seen in the stool. The secondary outcome was an association between emotional irritability and/or anxiety and gastrointestinal transit time. The study analyzed responses of 175 students, who reported a median transit time of 29 (1-99) h. There was no difference in gastrointestinal transit time between male and female students. Likewise, there was no difference in the duration of the corn in the bowel between male and female students. Students who reported being worried and irritable during the exercise had more bowel movements before they saw corn in their stool and had slower transit times, respectively. A wider range of transit time was reported in a group of young, healthy students compared with previous studies in the literature. There were no differences between male and female student bowel activity. Anxiety did impact the bowel activity of the participants.

Test Anxiety and Associated Factors Among First-Year Health Science Students of University of Gondar, Northwest Ethiopia: A Cross-Sectional Study.

BackgroundThe experience of extreme worry and self-doubt before taking a test can drastically hinder an individual’s ability to perform well and may lead to miserable. Studies about test anxiety and associated factors among first-year health science students in Ethiopia are limited. Therefore, this study is meant to provide essential data for future interventions.ObjectiveTo assess test anxiety and associated factors among first-year regular undergraduate health science students of the University of Gondar, northwest Ethiopia, 2019.MethodsAn institutional-based cross-sectional study with a stratified random sampling technique. Test anxiety was assessed using the Test Anxiety Questionnaire. Data were analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 20. Bivariate and multivariate logistic regression analysis was performed. A P-value of less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant in the multivariate analysis, and the strength of association was measured using adjusted odds ratio at a 95% confidence interval.ResultsIn this study, the prevalence of test anxiety was 54.7% (95% CI=49.40–60.20). The result revealed that fathers’ education of grade 9–12 (AOR=0.31, 95% CI=0.14–0.69), mothers’ education of grade 9–12 (AOR=2.43, 95% CI=1.07–5.47), psychological distress (AOR=8.37, 95% CI=4.29–16.39), the field of studies; midwifery (AOR=3.56, 95% CI=1.07–11.76), and medicine (AOR=6.79, 95% CI=1.64–28.22) were significantly associated with test anxiety at a P-value<0.05.ConclusionThe study found that test anxiety is a major problem of first-year undergraduate health science students. Mothers’ education of grades 9–12, psychological distress, midwifery, and medical field of studies were risk factors of test anxiety, whereas fathers’ education of grade 9–12 was protective for test anxiety. This showed that an increment in the education of father and mother has a controversial effect on test anxiety. It can be reduced by providing suitable trainings for first-year health science students in dealing with factors causing test anxiety.

“I need it now!” Developing a formulaic frame phrasebank for a specific writing assessment: Student perceptions and recommendations

A plethora of research has demonstrated the use of formulaic language in teaching English for academic purposes to participate in discipline-specific communities. However, time-pressured, first-year undergraduates seeking support for writing may prefer a targeted writing resource for their current assignment. In this paper, I detailed the successful development of an assignment-specific academic phrasebank, which provides examples of open-slot, formulaic frames grouped according to the process required to complete an Individual Development Narrative (IDN) essay. Over two cycles of action research (n1 = 285, n2 = 213), first-year health science students offered their perceptions of the Cycle 1 phrasebank and recommendations for improvement primarily relating to promotion, content, and layout. Considering these three factors led to the development of a self-accessed resource in cycle 2 that received a more positive evaluation and uptake from students. These findings may assist future course design and facilitate increased student uptake of support for development of academic writing, especially in large classes.

Individual Learning Strategies and Choice in Student-Generated Multimedia

There has been an increasing focus on student-generated multimedia assessment as a way of introducing the benefits of both visual literacy and peer-mediated learning into university courses. One such assessment was offered to first-year health science students but, contrary to expectations, led to poorer performance in their end-of-semester examinations. Following an analysis, the assignment was redesigned to offer students a choice of either a group-based animation task or an individual written task. Results showed improved performance on the assignment when students were offered a choice of assignments over when they were offered only the multimedia assignment. Student feedback indicated that students adopt deliberate individual learning strategies when offered choices in assessment. The study suggests that assumptions regarding the superiority of student-generated multimedia over more traditional assessments are not always correct, but that students' agency and individual preferences need to be recognized.

What are the attributes of a good health educator?

ObjectivesThe purpose of this study was to examine the attributes that students and educators believe are important to being a good health educator in a non-clinical setting. MethodsA cross-sectional survey of first-year health science students and educators involved with a Health Science course in Melbourne, Australia was performed. A convenience sampling approach was implemented, with participants were required to rate the importance of teaching attributes on a previously developed 15-item written questionnaire. Descriptive statistics were generated, with Pearson’s chi-square statistics used to examine differences between groups. In total 94/147 (63.9%) of students and 15/15 (100%) of educators participated in the study. ResultsOf the 15 attributes, only ‘scholarly activity’ was not deemed to be not as an important attribute to define a good educator. Knowledge base (50% vs. 13.3%) and feedback skills (22.3% vs. 0%) were rated as important attributes by students in comparison to educators. Professionalism (20% vs. 5.3%), scholarly activity (20% vs. 3.2%) and role modelling (26.7% vs. 3.2%) were rated as the most important attributes by educators in comparison to students. ConclusionsNo single attribute makes a good health educator; rather health educators are required to have a rounded approach to teaching. Students have greater focus on the educator providing a transfer of knowledge. Educators are additionally focused on professionalism attributes, which may not be valued by students. Students and educators must enter into a clearer understanding of expectations, from both parties, to obtain optimal education outcomes.

Secondary school factors relating to academic success in first-year Health Science students

Universities in South Africa, experience challenges related to throughput rates, especially in the first year of study. Student dropout in the School of Health Sciences (SHS) negatively affects the enrolment targets with the concomitant loss of student subsidy and fees as well as the number of prospective health care professionals who are required to address the shortage of skilled health care workers in the country. This thus emphasizes the need to determine secondary school factors that relate to success and throughput in the first year of study, viz., area and type of schooling, matriculation point scores and matriculation subject choices. A retrospective design with a quantitative approach was used to collect data from a total of 713 student records over the period 2009-2011. Quantitative data were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics while the Spearman Rank-order correlation test and the Mann-Whitney test were used to determine differences among variables related to academic success. A p-value of ?0.05 was considered statistically significant. Data was analysed and presented as annual composite results as well as stratified by disciplines. Overall the area of secondary schooling did not statistically significantly correlate with academic success. In contrast, the type of secondary schooling (p=.012), matriculation points (p=.000) and all matriculation subjects investigated (p<.005) were statistically significant variables that correlated with academic success. At discipline-level, Physiotherapy showed to have the most consistent correlations among variables, with a moderate correlation with matriculation subjects as well as the APS. The results of this study yielded evidence-based admissions criteria for students into the SHS at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN).

Exploring lecturers' views of first-year health science students' misconceptions in biomedical domains.

Research has indicated that misconceptions hamper the process of knowledge construction. Misconceptions are defined as persistent ideas not supported by current scientific views. Few studies have explored how misconceptions develop when first year health students conceptually move between anatomy and physiology to construct coherent knowledge about the human body. This explorative study analysed lecturers' perceptions of first-year health science students' misconceptions in anatomy and physiology to gain a deeper understanding of how and why misconceptions could potentially arise, by attempting to link sources of misconceptions with four schools of thought, namely theories on concept formation, complexity, constructivism and conceptual change. This was a qualitative study where ten lecturers involved in teaching anatomy and physiology in the health science curricula at the University of Cape Town were interviewed to explore perceptions of students' misconceptions. Analytical induction was used to uncover categories within the interview data by using a coding system. A deeper analysis was done to identify emerging themes that begins to explore a theoretical understanding of why and how misconceptions arise. Nine sources of misconceptions were identified, including misconceptions related to language, perception, three dimensional thinking, causal reasoning, curricula design, learning styles and moving between macro and micro levels. The sources of misconceptions were then grouped together to assist educators with finding educational interventions to overcome potential misconceptions. This explorative study is an attempt in theory building to understand what is at the core of biomedical misconceptions. Misconceptions identified in this study hold implications for educators as not all students have the required building blocks and cognitive skills to successfully navigate their way through biomedical courses. Theoretical insight into the sources of misconceptions can assist educators in addressing potential hampering factors in the construction of coherent scientific knowledge.

Interprofessional socialization as a way to introduce collaborative competencies to first-year health science students

Interprofessional education (IPE) is the cornerstone of preparing future health care providers but remains to be a challenge for many health science programs. We aimed to develop and evaluate an interprofessional conference for first-year health science students with goals to provide students with interprofessional socialization opportunity and introduce IPE principles. A half-day conference was based upon core competencies for health professionals and involved 277 first-year health sciences, nursing, pharmacy, physical therapy, and speech language pathology and audiology students. Alcohol and substance misuse was chosen as a topic for its relevance to college students and health professionals. Results from program evaluation revealed that the conference was successful in exposing students to core interprofessional competencies and provided useful information about alcohol and substance misuse. This study advocates for early inclusion of IPE in the health professions curricula in the form of interprofessional socialization.

Evaluation of knowledge of and attitudes toward epilepsy among the health science students of Manipal University

This study was carried out to assess the knowledge, attitudes, and practices with respect to epilepsy among health science students of Manipal University. The study was conducted among first-year health science students of Kasturba Medical College on the Manipal and Mangalore campuses of Manipal University. All students willing to participate (n=587) were asked to answer a standardized questionnaire on epilepsy. Our study group included educated urban people from various ethnic backgrounds of various countries who chose health science as a career, which makes the study different from others. Even though most of the students had heard about epilepsy, very few knew about the underlying cause. Most of the students were ignorant about the drugs and ways to deal with epileptic seizures. Questions related to community and religion were deliberately avoided as some subjects found such questions offensive, which may have resulted in a difference in response as compared with previously published studies. It was observed that a large number of students were not aware of the nuances of epilepsy. However, we expect the knowledge, attitudes and awareness to improve considerably with time and increased exposure. These findings support a need to promote epilepsy awareness programs as a means of increasing public knowledge of epilepsy.

An Interprofessional Education Session for First-Year Health Science Students

To implement and evaluate the effectiveness and short-term impact of an interprofessional education (IPE) session in the first year for health sciences students representing 9 health professions. An interprofessional faculty committee created a 2(1/2) hour introductory interprofessional education session focusing on a single patient case and 2 possible discharge scenarios. A mixed method pretest/posttest research design was used to examine changes in students' perceptions of and attitudes toward IPE. Six follow-up focus groups also were held with students from the participating professions. Of 1197 health professions students enrolled, 914 students (76%) attended the IPE session. Two hundred thirty-two of 240 pharmacy students (97%) attended. Forty-three (18.5%) pharmacy students responded to the open-ended questions on the survey instrument. The most frequently reported gains from attending the session were recognition of teamwork importance to benefit the patient (30%) and understanding of other professionals' roles (29%). Shortfalls reported by students related to the content/style of presentation (26%) and technical/organizational (23%) aspects of the session. Pharmacy students who participated in one of the focus groups stated the session demonstrated the benefits as well as facilitators and barriers to collaborative care. The session served as an effective introduction to IPE; debriefing and integration with uniprofessional curricula should occur. Students need additional small group interaction with other health professional students, and can contribute as members of the planning committee.

Learning to learn and learning to teach — Introduction to studies in higher education

Background: How students are introduced to their studies will affect the quality of learning. This project deals with tools for lifelong learning to increase students’ awareness of learning how to learn. In parallel to an introductory course for students, a course for teachers was given with a focus on tutoring students.Aims: To evaluate an interprofessional transition course for first-year health science students, the LearnAble project, and a teachers’ course aiming to support students to be successful in their learning.Method: The project was followed up by a computer-based course evaluation, reflective journals, the Learning Process Questionnaire and the Approaches to Teaching Inventory. The questionnaires were distributed before and after the courses. Teachers (n = 31) and students (n = 270) in two courses from different health educations participated.Results: Students’ approaches to the course and to learning could be described as technical/reproductive, seeking for an identity or as reflective/transformative. The evaluation indicates that a deep approach to the studies among the students was related to higher age and female gender. Teachers with earlier pedagogical education supported students more in the attempts to question their own understanding.Conclusion: The most obvious result was the positive impact of being a tutor for a group of students in parallel to studying pedagogy.

How can we help students learn respiratory physiology?

APS REFRESHER COURSE REPORTHow can we help students learn respiratory physiology?H I ModellH I ModellNational Resource for Computers in Life Science Education, Seattle, Washington 98115, USA.Published Online:01 Dec 1997https://doi.org/10.1152/advances.1997.273.6.68MoreSectionsPDF (122 KB)Download PDF ToolsExport citationAdd to favoritesGet permissionsTrack citations ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInWeChat Back to Top Next Download PDF FiguresReferencesRelatedInformation Cited ByDesign and evaluation of a new consolidation exercise for students studying cardiac physiology: a digital escape roomMargaux A. Horn18 January 2023 | Advances in Physiology Education, Vol. 47, No. 1Learning difficulties, alternative conceptions and misconceptions of student teachers about respiratory physiology13 November 2019 | International Journal of Science Education, Vol. 41, No. 18Exploring lecturers’ views of first-year health science students’ misconceptions in biomedical domains7 August 2014 | Advances in Health Sciences Education, Vol. 20, No. 2CO2 rebreathing: an undergraduate laboratory to study the chemical control of breathingN. J. Domnik, S. E. Turcotte, N. Y. Yuen, S. Iscoe, and J. T. Fisher1 December 2013 | Advances in Physiology Education, Vol. 37, No. 4SMALL GROUP TEACHING: CLINICAL CORRELATION WITH A HUMAN PATIENT SIMULATORTammy Y. Euliano1 March 2001 | Advances in Physiology Education, Vol. 25, No. 1 More from this issue > Volume 273Issue 6December 1997Pages 68-74 https://doi.org/10.1152/advances.1997.273.6.68PubMed9435747History Published online 1 December 1997 Published in print 1 December 1997 Metrics