Reference Management Software Research Articles

Adoptions of reference management software among the research scholars of India

Background: There were only a few reference management softwares accessible in the 1980s, but presently there are more than 30 reference management softwares available to consumers. Reference management software is an extremely important tool for researchers; it gives error-free references and allows users to move from one referencing style to another in a matter of seconds, such as APA to MLA, MLA to Chicago, and many more. Import, export, highlight, cooperate with others, establish your own library, and so on are all vital functions of reference management software. It also helps us save time. Purpose: The study's purpose was to determine how frequently reference management software is recognized and used in India's central universities. Research Design: The survey method and questionnaire were used to collect data from research scholars at central universities in India. Study Sample: The researchers chose 18 central universities in India, which are offering Ph.D. course in Library and Information Science. Data Collection: 264 out of 347 responses received from respondents. Conclusion: The findings of the study showed that the respondents are aware of reference management software in central universities in India, and hypothesis 1 also proved that library and information science research scholars are aware of reference management software in central universities in India. Suggestion: The study strongly supports the necessity for a training program for the correct use of reference management technologies.

The factors that influence care home residents’ and families’ engagement with decision-making about their care and support: an integrative review of the literature

Background:As care homes play an important role in the lives of an increasing number of older people, it is pivotal to understand how residents’ and their families engage in decision-making about their care and support. Internationally, there is an increasing emphasis in long-term care settings on the right of residents to be actively involved in all aspects of decision-making about their care and support. However, the steps necessary to achieving a culture of shared decision-making in long-term care settings remain unclear. The aim of this literature review is to summarise what is known in the literature about the factors that influence care home residents’ and families’ engagement with decision-making about their care and support.Methods:An integrative literature reviews was carried out, guided by the methodological framework proposed by Whittemore and Knafl (2005). CINAHL, Medline Ovid and ProQuest Health and Medical databases were searched for relevant articles from 2011 to 2021. A three-step method was used, including the use of reference and citation management software to manage search results and identify duplicate citations. s and full texts were reviewed by two reviewers. Details of the selected articles were then extracted using the Data Extraction Form.Results:In total, 913 articles were located and 22 studies were included in the final analysis. The thematic analysis identified three main themes that illustrate the complexities of shared decision-making in care homes: (a) a positive culture of collaborative and reciprocal relationships; (b) a willingness to engage and a willingness to become engaged; and (c) communicating with intent to share and support rather than inform and direct.Conclusion:The implementation of shared decision-making in care homes is highly dependent on the support and nurturing of collaborative and reciprocal relationships between residents, families, and staff. Part of this process includes ascertaining the willingness of residents and families to become engaged in shared decision-making. Communication skills training for staff and guided approaches that view decision-making as a supportive process rather than a once off event are essential prerequisites for implementation.

Bibliometric Analysis of Publication on Protein Nanoparticle Using VOSviewer

Background: A Study to determine the development of research can be done by bibliometric analysis technique. There are many studies that have been carried out on bibliometric analysis. However, research on bibliometric analysis of published data in the field of protein nanoparticles that has been carried out specifically to determine research development has not been carried out.
 Objective: This study aims to examine the development of protein nanoparticle research through a bibliometric approach. 
 Methods: The article data was obtained from the Google Scholar database using the publish or perish reference manager software. The keyword "Protein Nanoparticles" is used with a publication time span from 2012 to 2022. Data processing uses Microsoft Excel. Computational mapping using VOSviewer.
 Results: The article data obtained and considered relevant were 390 articles. The results of the analysis of the development of protein nanoparticle publications in the last 10 years show quite frequent fluctuations. Research fluctuations occurred in 2012 to 2020. There was a decline in 2020-2022 from 35 in 2020 to 19 in 2022. In 2012 and 2014 research on protein nanoparticles became popular, with 47 studies each.
 Conclusion: Based on the results of mapping the collected article data, it can be seen that the keyword protein nanoparticles is still rarely used in research. It can be concluded that the field of protein nanoparticles is still very likely to be researched and associated with other terms, this will have a higher impact on the novelty of the research.

Influencing Features and Factors of Reference Management Software among University Research Scholars in Tamil Nadu, India

This study examined the awareness and influencing features and factors of reference management software in university research scholars in Tamil Nadu, in India Descriptive survey method was adopted for the study. The Web-based questionnaire was used to collect data for the study. The total population of the study is 200 people. Among total responses, 177 was returned, which represents the response rate for the study is 88.50%. The findings of the study revealed that Mendeley is the most used reference management software by the research scholars. It was recommended that research scholars should be trained on how to make use of the most used reference management software.

Smartphone-RCCT: an online repository of randomized controlled clinical trials of smartphone applications for chronic conditions

BackgroundChronic health conditions have a big impact on disability, morbidity, and mortality worldwide. Smartphone health applications (apps) can improve the health of patients with chronic conditions and enhance the quality and efficiency of healthcare. The number of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of smartphone health apps is increasing, but a collection of the available evidence into a single database is still missing. The purpose of this study is to describe Smartphone-RCCT, which is an in-progress database of RCTs of smartphone apps for chronic conditions.MethodsFor a study to be included in the database, the following criteria had to be met: (a) RCT published in a peer-reviewed journal; (b) population: adult study participants with one or several chronic conditions that represent the main health problem addressed by the study intervention; (c) intervention: smartphone health app used by the patient; (d) comparator: any control condition; (e) outcomes: any patient-reported health outcome (studies exclusively measuring the patients’ knowledge about the chronic conditions or their satisfaction with the smartphone app were excluded); (f) sample size: at least 15 participants per study arm. We searched in electronic databases and other resources to identify relevant studies. Two reviewers selected the studies and extracted data independently. Annual updates are planned.ResultsThe proposed database is called Smartphone-RCCT, an open-access repository collecting bibliographic references and important characteristics of RCTs of smartphone apps for chronic conditions. The database is available for free in Open Science Framework (OSF): https://osf.io/nxerf/. To date, it includes 70 trials. Their references can be exported to standard reference management software and the extracted data is available in a Microsoft Excel file.ConclusionsSmartphone-RCCT is the first systematic open-access database collecting peer-reviewed publications of RCTs of smartphone apps for patients with chronic conditions. The database accelerates the delivery of evidence-based information in a dynamic research field. It represents an essential resource for different stakeholders, such as professionals working in evidence synthesis, meta-epidemiological studies, or planning an RCT.

Bibliography Management with Reference Management Software: A Case Study

Bibliography Management with Reference Management Software: A Case Study

Creative Thinking Physics: A Review and Bibliometric Analysis

Creative thinking is one of the tallents required for the Industrial Revolution 4.0. The goal of this research is to conduct a comprehensive evaluation of the bibliometric literature on physics students' creative thinking abilities. Scopus data base articles discovered using publish software or perish (pop). This research analyzes 70 of 102 publications discovered in the Scopus database between 1960 to 2020. Mendeley's Reference Manager software is then used to handle the selected reference. After maintaining the database, this study uses Vosviewer software to classify and visualize it. In general, this study serves as an excellent starting point for future research on "creative thinking in physics." The principal result of this article is that are seven clusters, the authors who contribute the most and wherever the location of this research is carried out from the keyword “Creative Thinking in Physics”.

Use of Reference Management Software Among Allopathy, Ayurveda, and Homeopathy Practices

Background: Reference management software (RMS) enable researchers to organize and manage large number of references that are typically identified during the publication of research articles. Aims and Objectives: The purpose of our study was to determine the extent to which faculties from allopathy, homeopathy, and Ayurveda use RMS for their academic pursuits and to identify which methods are used most frequently. Methods: The survey was circulated among the faculties of three different disciplines of the health-care system to collect respondent demographic details and questionnaire responses. Data distribution and variable type were used to perform descriptive analysis. Results: The data from 114/150 respondents were analyzed. Of the 114 faculties who responded to our survey, 72 (63%) reported using RMS to publish their articles. Knowledge of how to use RMS software is common in allopathic faculties (40%), followed by homeopathy (14%) and Ayurveda (9%). Zotero (41%) is the most popular RMS software among users, followed by Mendeley (31%) and Endnote (12%). Conclusion: Despite being underreported, RMS software is frequently used for the needs of authors from various disciplines in the health-care system.

Research trend in latex harvesting of rubber tree (Hevea brasiliensis Muell. Arg.) based on bibliographic analysis

The rubber plant (Hevea brasiliensis Muell. Arg.) is the main natural rubber-producing species. Researches on rubber has been carried out for more than a century. Researchers and academics should stay up to date with the current scientific issues including latex harvesting in H. brasiliensis Muell. Arg. This article presents a bibliometric analysis of scientific literature indexed by Scopus and published from 2018 to 2022. The literature was categorized into three sub-topics i.e., latex harvesting techniques (38 papers), physiological mechanisms (41 papers), and oxidative stress induced by latex harvesting practices (18 papers). Metadata validation was performed using Mendeley reference management software and bibliometric analysis was carried out using VOSviewer bibliometric network visualization software. The results on the latex harvesting technique showed that most of the articles were related to the development of automatic tapping machines. This indicates a trend that latex harvesting techniques are likely shifting from manual tapping to fully automated methods using machines and robots. In terms of physiological mechanisms related to latex production, the mechanism of rubber biosynthesis and ethylene response at the genomic, transcriptomic, and proteomic levels predominated the finding. Research on oxidative stress induced by tapping mainly focuses on the effects of mechanical wounding and ethylene stimulation, while research on antioxidants is still limited. In the past five years, biotechnology and molecular analysis are the main tools to study physiological mechanisms and oxidative stress. This can be a consideration for scientists and research institutions to develop laboratories and human resources to be able to conduct molecular-based research.

Cascading a New Knowledge: The Implementation of Reference Management Software in The Academic Writing Class

College students should meet numerous requirements to produce a well-written academic paper. One of those requirements is constructing correct references. Nonetheless, based on the phenomenon spotted in the author’s academic writing class, arranging references manually is not an effortless task. Time-consuming and style memorizing are the two main obstacles faced by the students. To answer the preceding problems, the author, the teacher in charge in class, proposed a solution by implementing EndNote as reference management software. It enables students to write references automatically. Seventy students were involved as the participants while EndNote was administered. To cascade the knowledge of the mechanism of implementing EndNote, this paper aimed to describe the steps involved. Video recording and checklist form were utilized as research instruments. The results revealed four steps of implementing EndNote used by the teacher. They are planning, implementation, observation, and reflection. By explaining those steps, it is expected that the mechanism of implementing EndNote can be explained and adapted by other teachers and students facing the same problems.

Challenges and Importance of Thoracic Expansion Measuring Device

Thoracic expansion is defined as the difference in chest circumference between maximal exhalation and maximal inhalation. The ability to accurately evaluate thoracic expansion is important in diagnosing and evaluating the severity of disorders such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, asthma, bronchiectasis, and ankylosing spondylitis. This study aimed to evaluate the available device for measuring thoracic expansion along with its cost, working mechanism, equipment required, the expertise required to operate it, reliability and validity of the device, and its commercial availability in the market. From January 2011 to December 2021, relevant keywords such as instruments for measuring chest expansion, sensors for detecting chest expansion, and others were used to search articles in electronic databases such as PubMed, PEDro, Cochrane Library, and Google Scholar. To handle bibliographic data, the open-source reference management software Mendeley was utilized, and the duplicate research article was removed, allowing the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses flow diagram to be generated. Only 96 publications were considered based on the Downs and Black checklist, which was used to assess the methodological quality of the studies. Statistical analysis was done using the descriptive analysis method for assessing the data. Further study into producing accurate, cost-effective, easy-to-use, and widely available chest expansion measurement equipment that anybody can use without complexity or supervision is suggested.

Mapping Research on Multimedia Biology: A Bibliometric Analysis

The development of biology as a science and its application in technology that is increasingly rapidly encouraging innovative efforts to use technology results in biology learning. Currently, the biology learning process does not only use a single media but is required to use multimedia. This is done to make it easier for students to understand complex and very complex biological material. The aim of this paper is to provide an extensive bibliometric literature review on “multimedia biology education”. Articles found by Publishing or Perish software (PoP) with a Mendeley database. There are 200 articles found from the Google Scholar database from 2017 to 2021 which are analyzed in this study. The selected references are then managed using reference manager software, namely Mendeley. After managing the database, this research classifies and visualizes it using VOSviewer software. Overall, this review provides an appropriate reference point for further research on “multimedia biology education”. The search results 100 articles were obtained through the GS database and we found 55 articles were grouped from the GS database from 2017-2021 with the keyword 'biology education multimedia.This study aims to find research gaps for research on multimedia biology.

Creating Scholarship from Your Daily Work – Tips for Increasing Scholarly Output during Medical Training

Medical training is a rewarding but challenging time in a physician’s career. Balancing clinical work, staying up-to-date with literature, and managing personal life is time-consuming. To add to this, for those who want to pursue a career as a physician-scientist or conduct outcomes research, it is even more challenging, and the word “research” can sometimes sound intimidating. Therefore, in clinical training programs we now often use the world scholarly activity. Scholarly activity is an essential part of medical training and encompasses many pursuits such as case reports, retrospective studies, quality improvement work, educational curriculum development, patient safety projects, meta-analyses and systematic reviews, prospective studies, and randomized controlled trials. While there are several approaches to maximize your scholarly output during medical training, here we review some tips on how to create scholarship from your day-to-day work.
 Saw an interesting case:
 During your training, if you saw an interesting case or a unique presentation of a common clinical presentation or notice a few similar cases, this is an opportunity to publish a case report or case series.1 Several journals also have “image of the month” sections so if there is a striking clinical image, endoscopic, radiographic, or pathological image, you can consider publishing in those sections as well.
 Core lecture:
 As part of your clinical training, you are often asked to review a topic or give a lecture on a topic pertaining to your training. In preparation for that, you review extensive literature and prepare a systematic approach to managing or approaching a clinical problem. Since you have already performed an extensive review of literature, this is an opportunity to convert your work into a review article. Partnering with an expert mentor or colleague will likely provide valuable feedback which will improve the chances of a publication.
 See room for improvement in your clinical work or workflow:
 During our daily work, we often notice opportunities in the clinical work itself or the related workflow, where there is room for improvement. This is a good opportunity to conduct a quality improvement project.2 The classic quality improvement project revolves around the PDSA cycle (plan-do-study-act). There could be several PDSA cycles before improvement is seen. Quality improvement work can both be presented at regional, national, and international meetings as well as can be published.
 Questions about a recent article you read:
 We all read and review recent articles. If there are any questions or points that you need clarification on, this is an opportunity to write a “letter to the editor” to the journal.3
 Created or implemented a new curriculum, module, or examination system:
 The development or implementation of a new curriculum, module or examination, or teaching system falls under the umbrella of educational innovation.4 Systematically sharing your experience at your local institution and lessons learned while implementing it is an opportunity to publish your work and ideas as education-related research.5
 Notice a clinical pattern not described in the literature:
 This provides an opportunity for retrospective research where you can highlight your observations. Oftentimes, these retrospective research projects provide the hypothesis for future clinical trials and prospective studies.
 In summary, there is no one way to succeed in maximizing your scholarly output during clinical training. The above-mentioned strategies provide some suggestions on how you can convert your day-to-day work into clinical scholarship. This allows you to make your work count twice and in the process, one has the opportunity to refine the skills that will eventually help in conducting future clinical research, i.e. using reference manager software, medical writing, and editing, formatting articles to journal formats and most importantly develop critical thinking.

Allogenic perinatal tissue for musculoskeletal regenerative medicine applications: a systematic review protocol

BackgroundMusculoskeletal ailments impact the lives of millions of people, and at times necessitate surgery followed by physiotherapy, drug treatments, or immobilization. Regenerative musculoskeletal medicine has undergone enormous progress over the last few decades. Sources of tissues used for regenerative medicine purposes can be grouped into autologous or allogenic. Although autologous sources are promising, there is a wide range of limitations with the treatment, including the lack of randomized controlled studies for orthopaedic conditions, donor site morbidity, and highly variable outcomes for patients. Allogenic sources bypass some of these shortcomings and are a promising source for orthopaedic regenerative medicine applications.MethodsA systematic search will be performed using PubMed, Elsevier, ScienceDirect, and Google Scholar databases for articles published in English before May 2022. The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses statement and guidelines will be used. Studies will be eligible if they apply to acute and chronic orthopaedic musculoskeletal complications or animal or human disease models. Publications must include the use of MSCs and/or tissue obtained from amniotic/chorionic membrane, amniotic fluid, umbilical cord, and/or umbilical cord-derived Wharton’s jelly as an intervention. Placebos, noninjury models, acute injury models, non-injury models, and gold standard treatments will be compared. The study selection will be performed by two independent reviewers using a dedicated reference management software. Data synthesis and meta-analysis will be performed separately for preclinical and clinical studies.DiscussionThe results will be published in relevant peer-reviewed scientific journals. Investigators will present results at national or international conferences.Trial registration: The Protocol will be registered on PROSPERO international prospective register of systematic reviews prior to commencement.

The impact of design elements on undergraduate nursing students\u2019 educational outcomes in simulation education: protocol for a systematic review

BackgroundAlthough simulation-based education (SBE) has become increasingly popular as a mode of teaching in undergraduate nursing courses, its effect on associated student learning outcomes remains ambiguous. Educational outcomes are influenced by SBE quality that is governed by technology, training, resources and SBE design elements. This paper reports the protocol for a systematic review to identify, appraise and synthesise the best available evidence regarding the impact of SBE on undergraduate nurses’ learning outcomes.MethodsDatabases to be searched from 1 January 1990 include the Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL), the Medical Literature Analysis and Retrieval System Online (MEDLINE), American Psychological Association (APA) PsycInfo and the Education Resources Information Centre (ERIC) via the EBSCO host platform. The Excerpta Medica database (EMBASE) will be searched via the OVID platform. We will review the reference lists of relevant articles for additional citations. A combination of search terms including ‘nursing students’, ‘simulation training, ‘patient simulation’ and ‘immersive simulation’ with common Boolean operators will be used. Specific search terms will be combined with either MeSH or Emtree terms and appropriate permutations for each database. Search findings will be imported into the reference management software (Endnote© Version.X9) then uploaded into Covidence where two reviewers will independently screen the titles, abstracts and retrieved full text. A third reviewer will be available to resolve conflicts and moderate consensus discussions. Quantitative primary research studies evaluating the effect of SBE on undergraduate nursing students’ educational outcomes will be included. The Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool (MMAT) will be used for the quality assessment of the core criteria, in addition to the Cochrane RoB 2 and ROBINS-I to assess the risk of bias for randomised and non-randomised studies, respectively. Primary outcomes are any measure of knowledge, skills or attitude.DiscussionSBE has been widely adopted by healthcare disciplines in tertiary teaching settings. This systematic review will reveal (i) the effect of SBE on learning outcomes, (ii) SBE element variability and (iii) interplay between SBE elements and learning outcome. Findings will specify SBE design elements to inform the design and implementation of future strategies for simulation-based undergraduate nursing education.Systematic review registrationPROSPERO CRD42021244530

A systematic review case study of urgent and emergency care configuration found citation searching of Web of Science and Google Scholar of similar value.

Supplementary search methods, including citation searching, are essential if systematic reviews are to avoid producing biased conclusions. Little evidence exists on how to prioritise databases for citation searching or to establish whether using multiple sources is beneficial. A systematic review examining urgent and emergency care reconfiguration was used to investigate the utility of citation searching on Web of Science (WOS) and/or Google Scholar (GS). This case study investigated numbers of studies, additional studies and unique studies retrieved from both sources. In addition, the time to search, the ease of adding references to reference management software and obtaining abstracts of studies for screening are briefly considered. WOS retrieved 62 references after deduplication of the results, 52 being additional references not retrieved during the database searching. GS retrieved 134 unique references with 63 additional references. WOS and GS retrieved the same three additional included studies. WOS was less time intensive to search given the facility to restrict to English language papers and availability of abstracts. In a single systematic review case study, citation searching was required to identify all included studies. Citation searching on WOS is more efficient, where a subscription is available. Both databases identified the same studies but GS required additional time to remove non-English language studies and locate abstracts.

Protocol for a scoping review on the development of policy, guidelines and protocols within emergency medical services.

Emergency medical services (EMS) use a combination of policy, clinical practice guidelines and protocols to set out their expectations for service delivery and to inform patient care. While these are integral to how EMS now operate, relatively little is known about how they are developed, or the processes involved. Therefore, the aim of this scoping review is to understand what is known in the literature about the development of policy, guidelines and protocols within EMS. This scoping review will follow the Arksey and O'Malley (2005) methodological framework for scoping reviews. A search strategy has been developed using index term definitions, building from authors' knowledge of the field. The following electronic databases will be searched from 2002 to 2021 for all types of publication: CINAHL, Medline, Academic Search Complete and PsycINFO, EMBASE, Nursing and Allied Health, the Cochrane library, NICE Evidence, Scopus, OpenGrey, EThOS, Google Scholar, Google search and key EMS journal websites. The results will be downloaded using EndNoteX9 reference management software and duplicates will be removed. Titles and abstracts of the results will be independently screened for their relevance to the research question, and the full text of each selected publication will be assessed against pre-determined inclusion and exclusion criteria to determine its eligibility. The reference list and forward citations will be searched for articles meeting the eligibility criteria. A second researcher will independently assess a 10% sample of results to allow for validation of this assessment. Data will be extracted and charted on the characteristics of the publications and the knowledge they contribute on the development of policy, guidelines or protocols. Accompanying narratives will be presented to identify themes and gaps in the available evidence. A critical appraisal will be undertaken of the included publications, where empirical research is presented.

3 - Introducing Open Source Reference Management Software to a Rural South African Campus: Evaluating the Effectiveness of Workshops at the University of the Free State’s Qwaqwa Campus

Despite the increased availability of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS), the adoption of such information technology remains poor in developing countries. Free reference management software such as Zotero can significantly improve academic workflow and thus its adoption by academics in peripheral nations could be a cost-effective method of supporting and boosting research output. Guided by the Technology Acceptance Model, we assessed the effectiveness of a workshop as intervention to introduce Zotero (a novel FOSS in this particular community) to staff members and students at a rural university campus in South Africa. A series of questionnaires assessed how this intervention affected attitude towards, and use of, Zotero. While participants had positive attitudes towards the software at the start of the intervention, the workshop improved the perceived usefulness and ease of use of FOSS. For all participants, the main predictor of eventual regular use was its perceived ease of use. This study suggests that brief training workshops could significantly improve usage of novel open-source software, even with a lack of prior exposure to similar technologies. For students, it becomes important to emphasise the usefulness of the software, while academic staff may benefit from an emphasis on hands-on technical training.

Metastatic gastroesophageal cancer in older patients \u2013 is this patient cohort represented in clinical trials?

BackgroundOlder patients are underrepresented in the clinical trials that determine the standards of care for oncological treatment. We conducted a review to identify whether there have been age-restrictive inclusion criteria in clinical trials over the last twenty five years, focusing on patients with metastatic gastroesophageal cancer.MethodsA search strategy was developed encompassing Embase, PubMed and The Cochrane Library databases. Completed phase III randomised controlled trials evaluating systemic anti-cancer therapies in metastatic gastroesophageal malignancies from 1st January 1995 to 18th November 2020 were identified. These were screened for eligibility using reference management software (Covidence; Veritas Health Innovation Ltd). Data including age inclusion/exclusion criteria and median age of participants were recorded. The percentage of patients ≥ 65 enrolled was collected where available. The change over time in the proportion of studies using an upper age exclusion was estimated using a linear probability model.ResultsThree hundred sixty-three phase III studies were identified and screened, with 66 trials remaining for final analysis. The majority of trials were Asian (48%; n = 32) and predominantly evaluated gastric malignancies, (86%; n = 56).The median age of participants was 62 (range 18–94). Thirty-two percent (n = 21) of studies specified an upper age limit for inclusion and over half of these were Asian studies. The median age of exclusion was 75 (range 65–80). All studies prior to 2003 used an upper age exclusion (n = 12); whereas only 9 that started in 2003 or later did (17%). Among later studies, there was a very modest downward yearly-trend in the proportion of studies using an upper age exclusion (-0.02 per year; 95%CI -0.05 to 0.01; p = 0.31). Fifty-two percent (n = 34) of studies specified the proportion of their study population who were ≥ 65 years. Older patients represented only 36% of the trial populations in these studies (range 7–60%).ConclusionsRecent years have seen improvements in clinical trial protocols, with many no longer specifying restrictive age criteria. Reasons for poor representation of older patients are complex and ongoing efforts are needed to broaden eligibility criteria and prioritise the inclusion of older adults in clinical trials.

The Limited Level of Digital Skills and Competencies of Optometry Students

Aim/Purpose: Digital health is increasingly being utilized in clinical practice given its ease of accessibility, but it lacks emphasis from universities and accreditation bodies. This study attempted to better understand the digital capabilities of optometry students. Background: With technological advancements transforming the Australian workforce and healthcare, there is a growing demand for digitally competent graduates. This study investigated digital perceptions and preferences of optometry students relating to their studies and readiness for work in healthcare. Methodology: Current optometry students participated in an anonymous online survey. Questions were designed to evaluate their understanding and awareness of digital skills and competencies for learning whilst at university, and for use in the health sector workforce. Results were analyzed to underscore key trends and answers to open-ended questions underwent inductive thematic analysis to generate themes for discussion. Contribution: Optometry educators can bridge the gap in digital practices between students and the workplace by obtaining a baseline of their capabilities and incorporating specific activities within the curriculum to increase student awareness and support their understanding and development in this aspect. Findings: Most students were confident in using daily technologies for learning. Reference management software was perceived to be most important and useful skill to attain. While students were less confident in creating applications, they were keen to learn even though it seemed peripheral to their career and professional development. 70% of the students knew how to manage their online privacy and security. Of the students, 92% highlighted that attaining competency in digital skills would enhance their career and professional development, but only 54% believed they possessed the relevant skills for entering the workforce. Only 19% of the students reported having sufficient university support. Recommendations for Practitioners: Digital capabilities of learners do need to be taught explicitly and should not be assumed. To improve student learning outcomes, digital skills and competencies need to be embedded throughout the curriculum and addressed through learning objectives. Recommendation for Researchers: More work needs to be done in implementing digital training and services at a subject, course, and institutional level. Some international benchmarking of optometry curricula and optometry research would clarify the need for digital education, to educators and students alike. Impact on Society: Currently, there is a lack of recognition of digital health by accrediting bodies, thus preventing digital competency from being a priority in the curriculum of schools. There is a further need to establish dialogue between universities, employers, and accrediting bodies to set consistent and realistic expectations of digital skills and competencies. Future Research: Future studies should consider having larger sample sizes to observe similarities and differences in digital capabilities between year levels. Student focus groups and interviews can be performed to better understand the rationale behind the desire and interest to learn digital technologies that seemed irrelevant to optometry.