Preparation For Professional Practice Research Articles

Graduates' Views of the Ontario Midwifery Education Program

A survey of all graduates of Ontario's Midwifery Education Program was done in 2003 in order to obtain their views about the adequacy of their preparation for professional practice, the satisfaction with program features and future educational aspirations. The respondents (123 of 181[68%] graduates) were nearly all working as midwives, most were working full time and more than half had been preceptors for students since the time of their own graduation. The most highly rated Program features were biological science courses, final year clinical courses, small group tutorials and skilled preceptors. The aspects of the Program that were most stressful were balancing the high demands of the Program with family responsibilities, relocating for clinical placements and having difficulties with preceptors. Overall, graduates felt well prepared for professional practice. All graduates reported undertaking continuing education and many were interested in master's level courses or programs. The crucial role of preceptors in students' educational experiences was reinforced by the survey results. preceptor development continue to be a high priority.

Entrustable professional activities-based objective structured clinical examinations in a pharmacy curriculum

Entrustable professional activities-based objective structured clinical examinations in a pharmacy curriculum

Exploring VR Simulation in Healthcare and Social Work Education: Students’ Experiences with VR Simulation as Preparation for Professional Practice

Exploring VR Simulation in Healthcare and Social Work Education: Students’ Experiences with VR Simulation as Preparation for Professional Practice

Evaluating the Use of ePortfolios in Social Work Education: Assessing Student Competency in Meeting Graduate Attributes

ABSTRACT Social work external accrediting bodies are moving towards competency-based models that require educational providers to demonstrate that students meet specific competencies at graduation. It is expected that all social work students at accredited social work programs in Australia will have acquired specific graduate attributes and demonstrated the associated learning outcomes by the completion of their degree. The purpose of this study was to investigate the experiences and benefits of using an ePortfolio with Master of Social Work students (n = 43) to critically reflect on their own learning and demonstrate how they met the Australian Association of Social Work graduate attributes necessary for accreditation. The findings revealed that students’ perceived level of readiness for practice and identity as a professional social worker increased with the successful completion of the ePortfolio. The study also identified barriers and enablers in implementing the ePortfolio as an assessment piece to document overall program learning outcomes. The conclusion discusses how ePortfolios are a viable assessment tool in the online and blended learning space that has benefit for both the student and the program in demonstrating learning outcomes and compliance with accreditation graduate standards. IMPLICATIONS Academic ePortfolios are an effective tool for student reflection and communication of competence of required graduate outcomes. Student self-assessment of graduate attributes can strengthen professional identity and preparedness for professional practice. The ePortfolios benefit students and social work educators by sharing the accreditation-obligated responsibility of ensuring that AASW graduate competencies are met.

Health professional graduate perspectives of practice education during the COVID-19 pandemic

Introduction: COVID-19 created a need to rapidly adapt practice education placements to minimise the impact on students’ progression to graduation. Physiotherapy and occupational therapy students at one university completed their final practice education placement between April and May 2020, during the period when health care was urgently adapting to the developing pandemic. 
 Aim: This study explored the impact of this final placement on new graduates, following their employment. 
 Method: 10 students took part in 3 online focus groups to share their experiences and perceptions of the impact on their preparedness for professional practice 
 Results: Four themes emerged from the analysis of transcripts including: 1. Coping with uncertainty, 2. Rising to the challenge, 3. Developing skills and competence and 4. Readiness for employment in the “new world” of practice. Overall, the study demonstrates the resilience of students in response to these unusual circumstances. Strategies including peer support, demonstration of learning, and client-centredness increased confidence and the development of professional identity. 
 Conclusion: Graduates identified both positive and negative experiences of placement during COVID-19, but overall felt proud that they had demonstrated resilience and developed skills relevant to their current employment as professionals.

Accommodating Students with Disabilities: Fieldwork Educators' Experiences.

Background. Fieldwork is an essential part of experiential learning in occupational therapy education. Fieldwork educators identify limits on reasonable accommodation and difficulty implementing disability-related accommodations. Student occupational therapists with disabilities report discrimination from within the profession, including inflexible fieldwork environments. Purpose. To understand the experiences of occupational therapy fieldwork educators in Canada in accommodating students with disabilities and to develop action-oriented practice recommendations. Method. In this interpretive description study, we interviewed 11 fieldwork educators about their experiences accommodating students with disabilities. Interviews were recorded, transcribed, and analyzed using a constant comparative approach. Findings. Educators emphasized a meta-theme of "Learning" when asked about disability-related accommodations. Three subthemes about student learning emerged: 1. Educators focused on "Student Learning in Preparation for Professional Practice" rather than their fieldwork setting only; 2. Educators were "Using Occupational Therapy Skills for Student Learning" in fieldwork; and 3. Educators recognized that their professional and personal "Context Influences Student Learning." Conclusion. Fieldwork educators can work with students to align their accommodations with required learning outcomes for professional practice and use their occupational therapy skills to assist with implementation. Fieldwork educators require time and other supports to work effectively with all students.

A contemporary pedagogy of drawing

ABSTRACT This article reviews 20 years of attitudes to drawing pedagogy and looks forward with a studioful of post-pandemic optimism. It reiterates the importance of drawing in art schools as the most direct and economic means of nurturing our intelligence of seeing. Throughout the period, neoliberal policies directing the UK higher education curricula towards market-oriented criteria of success have eroded the foundation of a visual arts pedagogy: the exploration of the perceptual and its communication through visual language; educative activities of wider import than market concerns. An articulacy in drawing – visualcy – is fundamental to human culture, let alone preparation for professional practice in the visual arts and design disciplines. A remedial pedagogy is proposed, structured upon the two fundamental theoretical bases of visual perception and visual communication, illustrated with students’ drawings and the author’s efforts to practise what he preaches.

Effectiveness of the Community–Academia Student Tutoring (CAST) Programme in Enhancing Students’ Practice Education Readiness

Abstract Date Presented Accepted for AOTA INSPIRE 2021 but unable to be presented due to online event limitations. OT programs include practice education that is a vital aspect of professional practice preparation. The Community–Academia Student Tutoring (CAST) program was developed to enhance OT students’ perceived readiness for their practice placement. The results of the study revealed that the CAST is a useful model of a prefieldwork program for fostering students’ feelings of competency and readiness for their practice placement. Primary Author and Speaker: Miri Tal-Saban Additional Authors and Speakers: Naomi Weintraub

Learning-by-Teaching and Service Learning to Promote Bleeding Control Education: An Academic-Community Partnership.

Stop the Bleed is a free 1-hour class that teaches laypersons to identify and treat life-threatening bleeding. The training requires a 1:10 instructor-to-participant ratio, which creates a resource drain on volunteer instructors. Nursing students are eligible to assist instructors. Our State Legislature mandated that public schools equip themselves with bleeding control kits resulting in thousands of school staff needing training. Our nursing school used a service learning model to aid schools. Nursing students coordinated the program, and student learning occurred through a learning-by-teaching strategy. We trained 656 community members, taught in 5 counties, and students received 320 clinical hours. If not for COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019), numbers would have been doubled. We developed a sustainable relationship with school nurses. Students rated the program highly with respect to meeting course objectives and preparation for professional practice. The program met its goals and will continue.

Does participation in extended immersive ward-based simulation improve the preparedness of undergraduate bachelor's degree nursing students to be ready for clinical practice as a registered nurse? An integrative literature review.

To determine if extended immersive ward-based simulation programmes improve the preparedness of undergraduate bachelor's degree nursing students to be ward ready for professional practice as a registered nurse. The practice readiness of new graduate nurses to enter the workforce continues to raise concern among educators and industry. Often the transition period is a vulnerable time when the reality of clinical practice bears little resemblance of their experiences as a student. Simulation of a busy ward offers the opportunity for pre-registered nurses to practise a variety of situations they are likely to encounter once qualified in a safe and supportive learning environment. The review considered studies that investigated the experiences and learning outcomes of nursing students following participation in extended immersive ward-based simulation. Databases searched included CINAHL, EMBASE, Medline and Scopus. Two reviewers independently assessed retrieved studies that matched inclusion criteria using standardised critical appraisal instruments. Reporting of review followed PRISMA checklist. Fourteen studies met the inclusion criteria. The majority of studies used a quasi-experimental mixed methods approach (10). Programme evaluations focused on self-reporting in learning satisfaction and student perceptions of performance. Six studies used a pre- and post-test design to compare the after effect on preparedness for professional practice. Two studies investigated student learning between simulated experiences and experiences gained during clinical placements. Learning satisfaction was high among students who participated in programmes that incorporated extended immersive ward-based simulation experiences. Students are able to practise what they need to know and on what will be expected of them in professional practice. Evidence on whether these programmes make a difference in workplace performance, and retention of graduate nurses is yet to be established. Extended immersive ward-based simulation allows educators the opportunity to meet the perceived needs of students in preparation for professional practice.

'Re-placing' professional practice.

While preparation for professional practice is conceived as placeless, it is enacted in place. Consequently, many professionals find themselves working in conditions significantly different than those they were educated in and for. This is especially relevant for new professionals arriving in rural settings after preparation in urban programs, where metrocentric models of orientation to practice are implicitly privileged. The consequent dis-join between practice and place often results in new professionals feeling 'out of place' and questioning their professional competence. It also results in settings outside the metrocentric norm being viewed as less desirable practice contexts. Negative desirability hinders professional recruitment, while feeling out of place and incompetent hinders professional retention; both are longstanding issues in rural communities. Recent developments in professional education and practice standards emphasise adaptability to practise in specific contexts. However, 'context,' a primary focus to date for rural preparation is presented as a largely static backdrop that needs to be accommodated to engage in the 'real practice' one was trained for. Drawing on the spatial turn in social theory, we argue that place both shapes and is shaped by professionals and their practices and as such, must be engaged with deeply and dynamically. This conceptualisation of the relationship between place and practice has critical implications for professional preparation. As interdisciplinary practitioners and researchers working in diverse contexts, we examine 'place' from a social constructivist perspective as a focal point for professional preparation.

What Are Literary Studies For?

The present article addresses the nature and purposes of literary studies in secondary and upper secondary English teacher education programmes in Sweden. It is based on a study of syllabi from all programmes nationally and for the academic year 2017-2018. The article maps the goals formulated for literary studies as well as the literary and disciplinary repertoires foregrounded in these documents, and so provides a snapshot of the kinds of literary studies that student teachers of Englishhad access to. It situates literary studies in the context of steering documents for English teacher education, and it shows that, whilst literary studies were a given part of English teacher education in the studied period, they relied on a narrow conception of the discipline. Literary studies mainly attended to twentieth and twenty-first century prose fiction and regarded literature primarily as a source of worldly knowledge. Indeed, the repertoires mediated seemed based on their potential to cover curricular ground in relation to steering documents for Swedish schools. Given the relative freedom institutions had to define the subject-specific content of teacher education, the results prompt a discussion about the knowledge repertoires that student teachers need as part of their higher education and as preparation for professional practice.

Effectiveness of the Community-Academia Student Tutoring (CAST) Program in Enhancing Students’ Practice Placement Readiness

Abstract Date Presented 03/27/20 OT programs include clinical practice as a vital aspect of preparation for professional practice. The CAST program was developed to enhance OT students’ perceived readiness for their practice placement. This study evaluated the effectiveness of the CAST program as a useful prefieldwork program for fostering students’ feelings of competency and readiness for their practice placements. Primary Author and Speaker: Miri Tal-Saban Contributing Authors: Naomi Weintraub

Becoming a reflexive and reflective practice educator: considering theoretical constructs of Bronfenbrenner and Bourdieu for social work student field placements

ABSTRACT Social work student field placements can be challenging, demanding and at times complex, for both the student and practice educator. In this paper a model of practice education will be proposed that draws on the concepts of critical reflexivity in addition to critical reflective practice along with applying the theoretical constructs of Bronfenbrenner and Bourdieu. Two distinct objectives are presented: becoming a reflexive practice educator, and becoming a reflective practice educator: do, teach, assess, and will consider how the practice educator might explore what they do as a social worker, how they are going to teach what they do and how they are going to assess the student’s practice. The model supports the practice educator in facilitating the student’s learning and development during their placement and in the preparation for professional practice.

Undergraduate nursing student perceptions of directed self-guidance in a learning laboratory: An educational strategy to enhance confidence and workplace readiness

A self-directed learning laboratory (SDL Lab) was established in which undergraduate nursing students were provided access to experienced nurses in a simulated ward environment to enhance preparedness for clinical practice. The aim of this study was to explore perspectives of final year, undergraduate student nurses about the SDL Lab and directed self-guidance, with particular focus on the impact on learning and preparedness for professional practice. The study was framed within a qualitative descriptive approach using semi-structured, digitally recorded face-to-face interviews. The purposive sample included undergraduate students enrolled in their final year of a Bachelor of Nursing program, who had accessed the SDL Lab on at least two occasions. Thematic analysis was used. Twelve students participated. Three main themes were identified: 1) A safe environment that fosters effective learning; 2) Directed self-guidance strengthens confidence and competence during workplace experiences; 3) Enhancing accessibility and realism will improve learning. Reports of increased confidence in performing nursing skills was found in this study. Evaluation of the SDL Lab found that this alternative teaching strategy was favourable, and students appreciated the safe learning environment. Future research might explore measurement of the effect of directed self-guidance in an SDL facility on competence and confidence.

Creating good habits: making reflection the norm

The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) states that midwives should reflect on their practice in order to highlight areas where changes might lead to improvements in future. The NMC Code also states that midwives must be aware of, and mitigate as far as possible, any potential harm associated with practice. The importance of reflection cannot be underestimated in relation to providing high quality, safe and effective care in line with the standards expected by the NMC, employers and service users. A previous article in this series discussed an innovative e-module supporting student midwives' employability, social awareness and preparedness for professional practice on qualification. This article will review the e-module through a different lens: that of the student. Alice will share her experiences from the student's perspective of how she feels engagement with this module will impact on her employment opportunities and future practice.

Enhancing social work student learning: converging Bronfenbrenner, Bourdieu and practice learning

ABSTRACTSocial work student field placements can be complex, challenging and demanding for the practice educator and student. In this paper a model of practice education is explored that incorporates the theoretical constructs of Bronfenbrenner’s ecological framework and Bourdieu’s concepts of habitus, capital and field. Through the application of these constructs, the practice educator can enhance the student’s learning and development in three distinctive ways. These will be explored and presented as a model that facilitates the practice educator in supporting the student during their placement and in the preparation for professional practice.

The use of simulation and moulage in undergraduate diagnostic radiography education: A burns scenario

IntroductionThere is a national drive to increase allied health professions simulation training. However, there is a paucity of literature within diagnostic radiography in relation to clinical simulation. No research could be found regarding the impact of simulation in radiography with complex clinical burns scenarios.This research aims to explore the perceptions of radiography undergraduate students regarding their preparedness for the complex care requirements in imaging examinations of clinical burns cases using a mixed methods approach. MethodA small-scale simulation-based teaching session was developed in a Scottish HEI, using role play and moulage to create realism. Twenty-eight undergraduate student radiographers participated in the scenario. Students completed pre and post-scenario questionnaires using Likert scale and free response data. Focus groups were undertaken three months after the simulation to obtain rich qualitative data. Common themes were identified via a process of initial coding and a 6-phase thematic analysis. ResultsThematic analysis demonstrated a marked increased perception of preparedness post-scenario; students felt more prepared to undertake their role in the imaging of complex care patients (Likert scoring increased with both mode and median post-scenario). Common themes that were identified were patient centeredness, realism and learning. ConclusionWithin this limited pilot project, the use of simulation was an effective means of preparing students to understand their role within the complex care setting (with respect to the traumatic realism of burns) in preparedness for professional practice. Additionally, students related to the practical understanding of the complexity of human factors that exist within clinical practice.

Comparison of an Online and a Traditional MSSW Program: A 5-Year Study

ABSTRACTThe purpose of the current study was to compare 5 years of educational outcome data for online and face-to-face MSSW students (N=883) who graduated from University of Tennessee Knoxville College of Social Work. Students’ knowledge (comprehensive exam scores, grade point averages), skills (field evaluation scores), and perception of their graduate social work program were examined. Univariate and multivariate analyses revealed significantly higher knowledge scores for face-to-face, and significantly greater skills ratings for online students. Online students possessed significantly more positive perceptions of faculty and their own preparedness for professional practice. Effect sizes for all findings were extremely small, however, and suggest that differences between online and traditional student outcomes have minor practical relevance related to student achievement. Educational and research implications are discussed.

Medical Students’ Non-Technical Skills (Medi-StuNTS): preliminary work developing a behavioural marker system for the non-technical skills of medical students in acute care

IntroductionGood non-technical skills (NTS) are critical to the delivery of high-quality patient care. It is increasingly recognised that training in such skills should be incorporated into primary medical training curricula. This study aimed to develop an NTS behavioural marker system (BMS), specifically applicable to medical students, for use within simulated acute care scenarios.MethodsThe methodology used to develop other BMS was adopted and modified. Following ethical approval, 16 final year medical students participated in acute care simulated scenarios. Semistructured interviews were performed to gauge the understanding of NTS. A panel meeting of subject matter experts was convened to translate key NTS into skill elements and observable behaviours. A second expert panel was consulted to refine aspects of the BMS. Further refinement and initial face validity was undertaken by a third panel of experts using the prototype BMS to observe prerecorded simulation scenarios.ResultsFive categories of NTS were identified: situation awareness, teamwork and communication, decision-making and prioritisation, self-awareness, and escalating care. Observable behaviours in each category describe good and poor performance. Escalating care was identified as a unique component that incorporated behaviours related to each of the other four skill categories. A 5-point rating scale was developed to enable both peer-to-peer and tutor-to–student feedback.ConclusionThe Medi-StuNTS (Medical Students’ Non-Technical Skills) system is the first BMS for the NTS of medical students. It reinforces the importance of escalating care effectively. It provides an exciting opportunity to provide feedback to medical students and may ultimately aid their preparedness for professional practice.