Perspectives Of Advisors Research Articles

Listener, member, and advisor perspectives regarding a pharmacy podcast student organisation

Background: This work describes the structure and function of a pharmacy student-led Podcast Student Organisation (PSO) through the perspectives of the organisation’s members, listeners, and advisors. It aims to provide a blueprint for other colleges of pharmacy to replicate and develop their own programmes and share the experiences of those involved with the PSO. Methods: Perspectives from the advisors were gathered via statements. The listener and member perspectives were collected via a survey. Data were collected to share the listener and PSO member experience regarding the PSO. Results: Based on the post-surveys meeting inclusion criteria (n = 32), most listeners showed statistically significant improvement in attitudes towards the topic of the episode (p = 0.027) and their college of pharmacy (p = 0.017). The podcast team showed statistical improvement in attitudes towards their college of pharmacy (p = 0.020) and their Doctor of Pharmacy curriculum (p = 0.046). Satisfaction responses were overwhelmingly positive after listening to the episodes. Conclusion: The PSO may help improve attitudes towards some topics and promote positive feelings regarding students’ college. This description of the PSO and lessons learned may serve as a blueprint for colleges of pharmacy considering implementation and encourage others to adopt a PSO.

Advisors and inspectors for the development of organic agriculture in Italy

The advisory services play a pivotal role in addressing the challenges of the European green transition and enhancing the quality of services along the organic agricultural supply chain. However, there is limited evidence regarding the role and current working conditions of professionals supporting organic farming. The present study aims to fill this gap by investigating the working characteristics and job satisfaction levels among Italian organic advisors and inspectors. The analysis of selected variables encompassing interviewee characteristics, work activities, and satisfaction metrics provides insights into the perspectives of advisors and inspectors on their roles and working conditions. The findings reveal that while technicians generally express satisfaction with their remuneration and opportunities for personal and professional growth, they also report significant stress levels and workload. Identifying variables influencing satisfaction levels was pursued to measure the association between variables. This research establishes a foundation for developing strategies to enhance the well-being and effectiveness of organic farming advisors and inspectors, thereby promoting agricultural knowledge and innovation. One potential avenue for further investigation is monitoring agricultural technicians' operational activities at both the national and regional levels.

When advisors do not know what is best for advisees: Uncertainty inhibits advice giving.

While seeking advice can be beneficial for advisees, advisors may not always possess the necessary knowledge to provide appropriate guidance. Poor-quality advice can mislead advisees rather than offering assistance. Despite the research interest in advisees, few studies have investigated advisors' psychological and behavioral responses, especially when they faced uncertainty regarding the optimal course of action for advisees. To fill this gap, we developed novel paradigms aiming at manipulating advisors' uncertainty, allowing for a systematic investigation of advisors' behavior, motivation, and emotion. Across four studies, we consistently found that advisors under uncertainty give less advice. Furthermore, we observed that uncertainty modulates advisors' motivation to influence, worry about harm to others, and/or sense of power. The motivation to influence and/or worry about harm to others can mediate the effect of uncertainty on advice giving. Besides, we identified nuanced distinctions in the effects of ambiguity and risk, two distinct types of uncertainty, on advisors' psychological processes. Our findings shed light on advisors' self-monitoring of the quality of their advice, thereby contributing to a deeper understanding of advisor-advisee communication from the perspective of advisors.

Exploring farmer and advisor lameness management behaviors using the COM-B model of behavior change.

This paper applies the COM-B framework to farmer and farm advisor understandings and responses to lameness in sheep, beef, and dairy systems. It reflects on how farmers' and advisors' capability, opportunity, and motivation (COM-B) influence lameness management practices in these farming systems, and considers the interaction between these three factors, and stakeholders' behavior. Interviews with 29 farmers and 21 farm advisors in the north of England were conducted. Thematic analysis was undertaken with results categorized in relation to the COM-B framework focusing on barriers and enablers of lameness management. Use of the COM-B model provides a useful means of understanding the underlying behavioral mechanisms that contribute toward the persistence of lameness. This includes the complexities and interactions which hamper implementation of lameness management best practice. The findings highlight three key areas to address with interventions to improve lameness management on farm: (1) removing physical and social barriers for lameness management; (2) improving psychological capability and motivation for lameness management; and (3) facilitating relationships and developing communication between farmers and advisors. In particular, the value of exploring both farmer and advisor perspectives on behavior in the animal health context is demonstrated. Future interventions should look to target these three areas to overcome barriers and focus on factors that enable positive lameness practices to occur.

Consensus on how to optimise patient/family engagement in hospital planning and improvement: a Delphi survey

ObjectivePatient and family engagement (PE) in health service planning and improvement is widely advocated, yet little prior research offered guidance on how to optimise PE, particularly in hospitals. This study...

Challenges to evidence-informed decision-making in the context of pandemics: qualitative study of COVID-19 policy advisor perspectives

IntroductionThe exceptional production of research evidence during the COVID-19 pandemic required deployment of scientists to act in advisory roles to aid policy-makers in making evidence-informed decisions. The unprecedented breadth, scale...

Thinking of doing a doctorate? : Reflections from a Tertiary Learning Advisor perspective

This article considers the desirability of the doctorate for a tertiary learning advisor (TLA), explains the process and experience of doctoral study, and affirms how doctoral study can enhance the effectiveness of a TLA in developing students’ academic literacies. Effectiveness relates not only to the pedagogical relationship between a TLA and students, but to enhanced visibility and credibility of the TLA and their team within their institution. But what is the doctoral journey actually like? This article will be of interest to curious individuals who may have wondered what the doctorate involves in terms of time and commitment, and whether the benefits outweigh the costs. This article seeks to demystify the process and encourage neophyte researchers who may be considering a qualitative project. Using an autoethnography approach, I take as a case study my own doctoral journey, touching on my initial motivation and sharing candid insights on the challenges and milestones as I perceived them. These insights are shared through a series of brief narratives and reflections, with practical advice offered for each stage of the journey.

Reflective Practice Column Introduction September 2020

Welcome to Relay’s sixth Reflective Practice column, where teachers and researchers share deep insights from their practice and explore how autonomy is and can be developed in their local contexts. In the previous issue, papers by Hatice Karaaslan and Mizuki Shibata, Chihiro Hayashi and Yuri Imamura presented reflections from a variety of view points: learners, administrative staff and advisors. In addition, Albert Wong reflected on his use of strategies in an advising session. In the current issue, we continue these themes with three papers which reflect on the use of strategies in advising sessions. The papers demonstrate variety within the advisor perspective, showing advisor roles colliding and combining with other identities, such as researcher, teacher or learner.

Faculty Advisor Perspectives of Academic Advising

A considerable body of research connects students' college experiences to their interactions with a faculty member. Quality academic advising is key to student success and the faculty advisor is a valuable piece of the advisor-student interaction. To ensure student success through academic advising, it is important for institutions to understand how they can best support faculty in their advisor roles. This qualitative study explored the experiences of eleven faculty members at a mid-sized, Midwestern public institution in their role of academic advisor. The findings suggest faculty consider their greatest advising responsibilities are to ensure students fulfill graduation requirements, explain graduate school and career exploration, teach students to navigate systems, and empower students. However, faculty advisors experience challenges navigating software, view academic advising as an isolated process, receive unclear expectations, and observe workload inequity. An awareness of these difficulties should impact how higher education administrators support faculty advisors and how they demonstrate their appreciation for the advising work faculty do.

“Most important is that they figure out how to solve the problem”: how do advisors conceptualize and develop research autonomy in chemistry doctoral students?

While the paths after graduate school are increasingly varied, the central goal of doctoral programs remains to develop independent researchers. Given the important role of doctoral advisors in the socialization and progress-making of doctoral students, we conducted semi-structured interviews with faculty advisors who regularly advise chemistry doctoral students from three chemistry departments with rotation programs for their first-year students. In contrast to existing studies documenting advisee perspectives of research autonomy, this work focuses particularly on the advisor perspective. After open coding these interviews, we found a breadth of ideas and approaches to developing research autonomy. The faculty advisors conceptualized research autonomy in their first-year doctoral students as enthusiasm or curiosity for their research or research area. The advisor’s approaches to developing and promoting autonomy in doctoral students varied widely, and some went so far as to not develop autonomy in new students but to “screen” for it. Finally, different subdisciplines in chemistry provide unique opportunities as well as constraints for advisors and students. We discuss the implications of these findings for doctoral students, advisors of doctoral students, administrators, and research advisors of undergraduate students.

Strategies for enhancing medical student resilience: student and faculty member perspectives.

ObjectivesTo improve programs aimed to enhance medical student resiliency, we examined both medical student and faculty advisor perspectives on resiliency-building in an Asian medical school. MethodsIn two separate focus groups, a convenience sample of 8 MD-PhD students and 8 faculty advisors were asked to identify strategies for enhancing resilience. Using thematic analysis, two researchers independently examined discussion transcripts and field notes and determined themes through a consensus process. They then compared the themes to discern similarities and differences between these groups. ResultsThemes from the student suggestions for increasing resilience included “Perspective changes with time and experience”, “Defining effective advisors,” and “Individual paths to resiliency”. Faculty-identified themes were “Structured activities to change student perspectives,” “Structured teaching of coping strategies”, and “Institution-wide social support”. Students described themselves as individuals building their own resilience path and preferred advisors who were not also evaluators. Faculty, however, suggested systematic, structural ways to increase resilience. ConclusionsStudents and advisors identified some common, and many distinct strategies for enhancing medical student resilience. Student/advisor discrepancies may exemplify a cultural shift in Singapore’s medical education climate, where students value increased individualism and autonomy in their education. As medical schools create interventions to enhance resilience and combat potential student burnout, they should consider individually-tailored as well as system-wide programs to best meet the needs of their students and faculty.

Pre-Health Advisor Perspectives on Undergraduate Short-Term Global Health Experiences

Pre-Health Advisor Perspectives on Undergraduate Short-Term Global Health Experiences

A survey exploring private farm advisor perspectives of agri-environment schemes: The case of England’s Environmental Stewardship programme

Most stakeholder-based research concerning agri-environmental schemes (AES) derives from work engaging with farmers and land managers. Consequently, the voices and opinions of other actors involved in AES tends to be unrepresented in the wider literature. One group of actors that seem particularly overlooked in this respect are private (independent) farm advisors (i.e., the consultants contracted by farmers and land managers to advise-on AES and agronomic matters). To begin to rectify this knowledge gap we developed an exploratory online survey to explore private farm advisor perspectives in the UK; specifically, the situation in England and advisors' experience of Natural England’s Environmental Stewardship programme. A total of 251 Natural England registered farm advisors (29.9%) completed our survey. The majority of these had knowledge and expertise in relation to two (31.5%) or three (42.2%) Environmental Stewardship schemes, with proficiency in ELS (93.4%) and HLS (82.8%) being the most common. On average, advisors had 9.6±5.6yrs of experience and operated (75.3%) in a single region of England. Although our results concentrated upon a relatively simple set of initial topics of inquiry, the survey revealed a number of interesting findings. Firstly; for example, that in the opinion of the advisors working with farmers applying for Environmental Stewardship schemes, the 'knowledge-exchange encounter' occurring between themselves, their clients and Natural England is fundamental to the environmental effectiveness of these schemes as well as their farm business compatibility. Secondly, respondents suggested that beneath this ‘encounter’ lie tensions arising from the competing agendas and objectives of the different actors involved which can affect the content of agreements; for instance, farmer selection of management options versus Natural England's target environmental objectives. Farm advisors suggested that they had to negotiate this balance whilst also serving the needs of their clients. Thirdly, respondents raised issues concerning the complicated nature of scheme arrangements, both from their own and farmers’ perspectives, as well as the adequacy of payments to cover input costs and matters regarding contractual compliance, all of which theyproposed affected farmer participation. Looking ahead, we believe that future AES should account for all of these issues in their design to aid long-term farmer participation, effective agreement implementation and beneficial environmental management.

Why Financial Advice Cannot Substitute for Financial Literacy?

This paper examines the ability of financial advice provided by sellers of financial services to substitute for financial literacy of customers. I set up a simple theoretical model in which an informed financial advisor communicates with a less informed customer of financial services. Given the existence of a conflict of interest from the advisor's perspective, the model predicts that only well financially sophisticated customers receive relevant information from the advisor. This fact tends to prevent less financially sophisticated customers from asking advice although they are the most in need of financial guidance. Overall, the model predicts a monotonic relationship between financial literacy and the demand for financial advice. I then use a representative sample of French households (PATER 2011) to test the predictions of the model. I find that financial literacy is strongly associated to the probability to ask a financial advisor. Decomposing the measure of financial literacy, I show that the relationship is weakly monotonic which provides support to the fact that financial advice cannot substitute for financial literacy. This result is robust to alternative specifications and instrumental variables regressions.

Why Financial Advice Cannot Substitute for Financial Literacy?

This paper examines the ability of financial advice provided by sellers of financial services to substitute for financial literacy of customers. I set up a simple theoretical model in which an informed financial advisor communicates with a less informed customer of financial services. Given the existence of a conflict of interest from the advisor's perspective, the model predicts that only well financially sophisticated customers receive relevant information from the advisor. This fact tends to prevent less financially sophisticated customers from asking advice although they are the most in need of financial guidance. Overall, the model predicts a monotonic relationship between financial literacy and the demand for financial advice. I then use a representative sample of French households (PATER 2011) to test the predictions of the model. I find that financial literacy is strongly associated to the probability to ask a financial advisor. Decomposing the measure of financial literacy, I show that the relationship is weakly monotonic which provides support to the fact that financial advice cannot substitute for financial literacy. This result is robust to alternative specifications and instrumental variables regressions.

Laying the foundations: An advisor's perspective

Manfred Morari's years of graduate studies at the University of Minnesota (1974–1977), coincided with an intense period of fertile reexamination of control theory and its relevance to the industrial practice, that led to new questions and challenges, which defined Manfred's PhD research and determined the directions in which he would reshape the academic landscape and industrial practice. These questions and their resolution are today part of the mainstream: control structures for chemical plants; design of processes with desired operability, resiliency, and flexibility; design of robust controllers; inferential control. Manfred's impact is, by now, part of an exceptional personal record: groundbreaking papers and books, patented industrial devices and systems, and an influential family of academic off-springs. Here, the author will describe the control theory and practice milieu during Manfred's formative years, and underline certain factors (which unfortunately have weakened considerably in the last 30 years) that defined his successful professional trajectory.

An advisory program for first- and second-year medical students: the Weill Cornell experience

PurposeFirst-year students negotiate new professional culture with a certain amount of excitement and anxiety. There are different approaches for offering guidance. In this study, the authors present Weill Cornell Medical College's experience with an advising program for first- and second-year students.MethodsFifty faculty advisors were each assigned 1–3 first-year students who they would follow for 2 years. The responsibilities were outlined to both faculty and students. The program was evaluated using an anonymous questionnaire.ResultsFor the two classes surveyed (2011 and 2012), most students met their advisors once. For both classes, the most frequently discussed issues were general adjustment to medical school, academic life, and the professional life of the advisor. Summer research and career opportunities were also discussed. Most students were satisfied with the advising program. Satisfaction increased with an increase in visits. Most students who did not meet their advisors established an advisor relationship on their own.ConclusionsAn advising program was established at Weill Cornell Medical College that satisfied most of the students. It is important to evaluate its format regularly, from both student and advisor perspectives, in order to ensure its continued success.

Racial context, currency and connections: Black doctoral student and white advisor perspectives on cross-race advising

In the higher education context of the United States, in which Blacks have had the most significant increase among other ethnic minority groups, this article explores the cross-race advising relationship between Black doctoral students and their White advisors. Through examining congruence in faculty advisors’ and their student protégés’ perspectives on race, we find: (1) the role of race in context; (2) race as leverage and/or liability; and (3) the importance of same-race connections emerged as important issues: each has implications for doctoral student persistence and retention, faculty development, and graduate advising and mentoring. The implications of these findings extend beyond the US to other international systems of higher education where there is a growing interest in the increased diversity of doctoral students and the cross-cultural or cross-ethnic relationship between student and advisor/supervisor.

The Status of Social Security and Its Role in Retirement Planning: A Professional Advisor's Perspective

AbstractCurrently, one of the more salient retirement debates surrounds the future insolvency of the Social Security retirement system. In spite of the important role that financial planning professionals play in the retirement and private‐savings decisions that individuals make, no research has focused on assessing the opinions of this group. This study uses a survey approach to assess the opinions of financial planning professionals regarding the problems faced by the Social Security retirement system, the solutions that have been proposed thus far, and the use of Social Security benefits in the financial planning process.

Faculty as Part of the Advising Equation: An Inquiry into Faculty Viewpoints on Advising

This study examines faculty advisor perspectives on faculty-student advising interactions. A survey questionnaire and two focus groups tapped faculty concerns about a variety of advising issues that faculty members feel contribute or detract from successful advising. Questions regarding the influence of the advising process, including the role of advisors and perceived student expectations, were also asked of advisors. Suggestions for improving the faculty-student advising relationship were also sought. Results suggest that advisors' knowledge of advising and preparation contribute to advising success. Advisors also reported a concern that the time and importance of good advising were not sufficiently recognized by upper-administrative personnel.