Student Demographic Data Research Articles

Update on Workforce Diversity in Vascular Surgery: What Has Changed in 20 Years?

Creating a diverse workforce is paramount to the success of the surgical field. A diverse workforce allows us to meet the health needs of an increasingly diverse population and to bring new ideas to spur technical innovation. The purpose of this study was to assess trends in workforce diversity within vascular surgery (VS) and general surgery (GS) compared with orthopedic surgery (OS), a specialty that instituted a formal diversity initiative more than a decade ago. Data on the trainee pool for VS (fellowships and integrated residencies), GS, and OS were obtained from the U.S. graduate medical education reports for 1999 through 2017. Medical student demographic data were obtained from the Association of American Medical Colleges U.S. medical school enrollment reports. The proportion of each group (female, Hispanic, and black) in medical school was compared with their proportion of the surgical trainee populations. The proportion of female trainees increased significantly between the two time periods for the three surgical disciplines examined (P < .001), although the increase was less robust in OS. Hispanic trainees also represented an increasing proportion of all three disciplines (P < .001). The proportion of black trainees did not significantly change in any discipline between the two periods (Table). Relative to their proportion in medical school, Hispanics were well represented as surgical trainees in all surgical specialties studied (relative ratio [RR], 0.95-1.52; 0.95 OS, 1.00 GS, 1.52 VS fellowship, and 1.23 VS residency). Compared with their representation in medical school, women were under-represented as surgical trainees (RR: 0.32 OS, 0.82 GS, 0.56 VS fellowship, and 0.78 VS residency) as were blacks (RR: 0.63 OS, 0.90 GS, 0.99 VS fellowship, and 0.81 VS residency). The lack of increase in black trainees across all specialties was particularly discouraging. Whereas there were significant increases in the number of women and Hispanic trainees in these three surgical disciplines during the study period, only Hispanics enter the surgical field at a rate similar to their proportion of medical students. Women and black trainees were under-represented in all specialties compared with their representation in medical school. The data presented suggest potential problems with recruitment at multiple levels of the pipeline. Particular attention should be paid to increasing the pool of qualified undergraduate students who are under-represented in medicine.TableProportion of women, black, and hispanic trainees in each surgical discipline between the two time periods1999-20052013-2017P valueWomen Vascular residencyN/A36.7%– Vascular fellowship13.8%27%<.001 General surgery24.7%38.5%<.001 Orthopedic surgery10.1%14.6%<.001Blacks Vascular residencyN/A5.1%– Vascular fellowship4.3%5.4%NS General surgery5.9%5.7%NS Orthopedic surgery4%4%NSHispanics Vascular residencyN/A7.3%– Vascular fellowship5.2%8.7%<.001 General surgery6.1%8.4%<.001 Orthopedic surgery3.3%5.3%<.001 Open table in a new tab

Medical Interns and COVID-19: results of national research.

OBJECTIVE Assess the impact of COVID-19 on medical students' internships in public and private institutions in Brasil, in addition to estimating the quality of the measures taken by their respective Universities in the face of the problem and the availability of personal protective equipment (PPE). METHODS A descriptive cross-sectional quantitative analysis study carried out with 317 students undergoing medical internship from March 31, 2020, to April 12, 2020. The survey was conducted through an online questionnaire using the SurveyMonkey tool with 20 questions. Interns from the fourth to the sixth year of medical schools in the country were randomly included in the study through a survey sent by Whatsapp application. Statistical analysis was performed using the Chi-Square, considering p <0.05 as significant. RESULTS Four main topics were identified in the research: student demographic data; how classes and courses are being taught; the use and ease of access to personal protective equipment and the students' fears and perspectives for the future. CONCLUSION The study clarified that although half of the students still have some degree of content and, in their majority, they are satisfied, there is still a lot of difficulty in obtaining personal protective equipment, which prevents students from returning safely to their internships.

Faculty Perspectives on Factors Promoting Effective RN to BSN Completion Programs

The need for a more highly educated nursing workforce has been well established. The need for BSN-prepared nurses continues to escalate and more registered nurse to bachelor of science in nursing (RN to BSN) programs are approved in Washington State every year. RN to BSN completion programs provide an efficient bridge for diploma and associate degree (ADN) nurses to progress academically and advance their careers. This multi-method, descriptive study was designed to identify common elements and promising practices for curricular and program design across seven of the nine RN to BSN programs in the state of Washington. Program directors compiled institutional data and a confidential online survey was sent to faculty who were teaching in each program. The University of Washington School of Social Work Survey Research Division (SRD) was contracted to administer the online surveys. SPSS was utilized for quantitative data analysis, while the investigative team used standard content analysis techniques for the qualitative items. Sixty-two of the 82 faculty surveys were returned (75.6%) and all seven programs provided extensive institutional data. This report explains mainly the faculty responses, while noting areas for immediate improvement including the statewide failure to gather important student demographic data like race and ethnicity. Given the wide diversity of this student population, and the profession’s drive to diversify the workforce, failure to carefully monitor these data needs action. Characteristics of the wide range in student readiness for BSN-level coursework and rigors of work/life balance, along with the dynamic nature of RN to BSN education, were consistently brought forward by faculty, independent of years of teaching experience.

Technology Acceptance and Information System Success of a Mobile Electronic Platform for Nonphysician Clinical Students in Zambia: Prospective, Nonrandomized Intervention Study.

BackgroundZambia is still experiencing a severe shortage of health workers, which is impacting the national health care system. Very few people are trained, educational infrastructure is inadequate, and senior human resources for training are not yet sufficient to produce the number of health care workers needed, especially for currently underserved rural areas. Therefore, to strengthen the medical education program of medical licentiates, we implemented a tablet-based electronic learning platform (e-platform) with a medical decision-support component.ObjectiveAs the primary objective, this study aimed to explore the acceptance and information system (IS) success of an e-platform focused on offline-based tablet usage for nonphysician clinical students in a low-resource context in Zambia, Africa. Furthermore, we aimed to evaluate student demographic factors and prior technological experience, as well as medical lecturers’ acceptance of technology of the e-platform.MethodsWe collected data for the study before and after the intervention. Before the intervention, we collected student demographic data and prior technological experience using a questionnaire. After the intervention, we collected results of the questionnaire on technology acceptance of students and IS success of the e-platform, as well as technology acceptance of medical lecturers. We calculated statistical measures such as means, standard deviations, and correlations of investigated variables. The study report was compiled using the Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials-Electronic Health checklist.ResultsOverall, questionnaire results of students and medical lecturers indicated acceptance of the e-platform and showed higher ratings for overall net benefits and information quality (students) and perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness (medical lecturers) as compared with ratings of other categories. The lowest scores were conveyed for system use and service quality (students) and attitude and behavioral intention (medical lecturers).ConclusionsAcceptance of the e-platform as a learning technology for strengthening medical education in a low-resource context in Zambia was generally high for students and medical lecturers, but shortcomings were also identified. Results indicated low overall usage of the e-platform as a learning and teaching tool. One hindering factor was the tablets’ overall weak reliability with regard to its service life and battery life span, and another was the teachers’ low engagement with the e-platform. Next steps may include other hardware and more technology-based training for medical lecturers. The evaluation results indicated that the e-platform may open new promise for further strengthening and expanding medical education in this context, especially with more affordable and viable technologies that are available.

Empowered Holistic Nursing Education as the Philosophical Framework for an RN-BS Program: A Six-Year Impact Evaluation Study.

The educational structure of many nursing programs is largely monocultural, with a traditional pedagogy. Empowered holistic nursing education (EHNE) creates a learning environment with more cultural responsiveness and support for diverse classrooms. The aim of this study was to determine what impact the theory had on diversification. With EHNE the philosophical framework of a new RN-to-BSN program, student demographic data were collected, along with exit survey questions. A statistically significant increase was found in the diversification of the six cohorts. The EHNE shows potential as a programmatic framework for increasing diversification of the nursing profession.

A Deeper Look at Bar Success: The Relationship Between Law Student Success, Academic Performance, and Student Characteristics

In recent years, law schools have experienced a decline in enrollment and bar passage, and legal education has been challenged to understand this new phenomenon and conduct research that can inform practices and policies regarding law student success. This article presents findings from research conducted at the University of Cincinnati College of Law, a large, midwestern public university, which aimed to investigate which factors and student characteristics contribute to bar passage within the home jurisdiction (Ohio). Results suggest bar passage can be predicted by a wide battery of variables, most notably student performance during the law school course of study. Despite some prior literature that suggests otherwise, however, LSAT and undergraduate GPA were only weakly predictive of first‐time bar passage among admitted students: the best prelaw model based on student admissions and demographic data identified just over one‐third of the students who ultimately failed the bar on the first attempt. Information from the first year of law school—even just performance in one first semester course—explained significantly more variation in bar passage. Furthermore, data from beyond the first year of legal study, including upper‐level course taking in bar‐tested subjects, enriched the predictive power of the model, enabling us to predict 78 percent of students who failed the bar compared to just 58 percent after the first year. These preliminary results provide important insights into bar passage, particularly given the increased public scrutiny around incoming student credentials, bar success, and law school performance and accreditation.

Level of School Bullying among Victims of Primary School Students at AL- Nasiriya City Center

Objective: to assess the level of school bullying among victims of primary school students at AL- Nasiriya City Center and their demographic data such as age, gender, grade level, type of family, parents level of education, parents occupation, and monthly income . School bullying has several forms and vary depending on the age, and were selected primary schools because it is possible that contain all forms of school bullying, and it is the first school stage to the students it is possible to start with the phenomenon, which may affect their lives in the future, and in addition to that it is researcher's interest . Methodology: A descriptive study was carried out on Non-probability (purposive) sample of 362 students in primary schools accurately 5TH and 6TH grade diagnosed as victims by the administers and teachers of a sample of 34 primary schools were selected systemic randomly from a total 160 schools at Al Nasiriya City Center in Thi-Qar Governorate. Results The results of the current study appeared that more than half of the study sample (57%) are males, and the highest percentages(26.5%)and (34.8%) of the sample was between the ages of 11 and 12 years respectively, and more victims were in the fifth grade where their proportion was (59%), while the sixth grade was (41%) of the study sample, and that most of victims(58.6%) was arrange in the family between (2nd-5th), and the largest percentage of responses to the paragraphs of victims scale that they were being bullied strongly for most of the items of the scale and their proportion was (59.9%) while the remaining of the study sample responses to the items of the scale that they were exposed to bullying weakly and their proportion was 40.1%. Conclusions : There is strong level of bullying against primary school students , student's demographic data have affect on there to be victims of school bullying . Recommendations: The present study recommends using some global intervention programs that confirmed its effectiveness in addressing the phenomenon to prevent and combat bullying, and activating the role of the student advisor and social worker to work with the administration, teachers, students and parents to deal with school bullying .

Using Facebook as a Learning Medium in Undergraduate Anatomy and Physiology (A&amp;P) Courses

Social networking sites such as Facebook have recently been shown to have great pedagogical potential especially for undergraduate students whose time is typically spent more online rather than in their physical persons. Even so, in most A&amp;P courses the use of online technologies is limited to learning management systems (LMS). This mixed‐method study aimed to examine the impact of using a Facebook group page in addition to LMS in undergraduate A&amp;P courses at one community college. Research participants consisted of all students enrolled in two A&amp;P 101 courses (N=39) that were offered over two successive semesters. The experimental group consisted of N=19 students enrolled in Spring 2017, whereas control group consisted of N=20 students enrolled in Fall 2016. Both courses were taught by the same instructor (author, HA) using identical instructional and assessment materials – except for the Facebook platform which was introduced only to the experimental group as an independent variable. Student achievements between two groups were measured using both qualitative and quantitative methods. Qualitative methods included direct observation, document analysis, and student‐filled questionnaires collected from all participants. Quantitative data consisted of individual student demographic and dropout (yes/no) data as well as formal course gradebooks. Each of the four unit‐exam scores, final course grade (%), and student dropouts were selected as the main study variables. Statistical methods including independent t‐tests, chi‐square tests, and multiple regression analysis were performed to test the hypotheses suggesting that use of Facebook had a positive impact on students' academic achievements as well as reducing student dropouts. Both hypotheses were confirmed by statistical analyses (p&lt;.05 and p&lt;.001, respectively). Moreover, results from the thematic analysis of the qualitative data suggested that students who used Facebook were able to more easily connect with other students and make better use of peer‐learning study circles. They also engaged with class materials more actively, deeply, and playfully which helped them become more intrinsically motivated to learn. Therefore, the findings of this study indicate that using Facebook as an additional learning platform can provide undergraduate A&amp;P students with more opportunities for active learning. Furthermore, using Facebook can enhance students' academic gain and reduce the student dropout rates.Support or Funding Informationnone.This abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2019 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal.

Identifying key factors of student academic performance by subgroup discovery

Identifying the factors that influence student academic performance is essential to provide timely and effective support interventions. The data collected during enrolment and after commencement into a course provide an important source of information to assist with identifying potential risk indicators associated with poor academic performance and attrition. Both predictive and descriptive data mining techniques have been applied on educational data to discover the significant reasons behind student performance. These techniques have their own advantages and limitations. For example, predictive techniques tend to maximise accuracy for correctly classifying students, while the descriptive techniques simply search for interesting student features without considering their academic outcome. Subgroup discovery is a data mining method which takes the advantages of both predictive and descriptive approaches. This study uses subgroup discovery to extract significant factors of student performance for a certain outcome (Pass or Fail). In this work, we have utilised student demographic and academic data recorded at enrolment, as well as course assessment and participation data retrieved from the institution’s learning management system (Moodle) to detect the factors affecting student performance. The results have demonstrated the effectiveness of the subgroup discovery method in general in identifying the factors, and the pros and cons of some popular subgroup discovery algorithms used in this research. From the experiments, it has been found that students, who have indigent socio-economic background or been admitted based on special entry requirement, are most likely to fail. The experiments on Moodle data have revealed that students having lower level of access to the course resources and forum have higher possibility of being unsuccessful. From the combined data, we have identified some interesting subgroups which are not detected using enrolment or Moodle data separately. It has been found that those students, who study off-campus or part-time and have a low level of contributions to the course learning activities, are more likely to be the low-performing students.

Differences in Empathy Levels of Medical Students Based on Gender, Year of Medical School and Career Choice.

To measure mean empathy scores of Pakistani medical students and to explore any association of empathy scores with gender, medical school year and future career choice. Cross-sectional survey. Shifa College of Medicine, Shifa Tameer-e-Millat University, during the academic year 2015-2016. The student version of Jefferson Scale of Physician Empathy (JSPE) was distributed to the students electronically via the student portal. Response that were completed in full were included in the study. Descriptive statistics was used to analyse student demographic data. The student score on the JSPE was reported as the mean (out of 7) of each item. Independent samples t-test was employed to check the significant differences between genders. Empathy score with advancing year of study was investigated using ANOVA. ANOVA with post-hoc Tukey's test was used to study the relationship between career choice and empathy score. The response rate was 70.94%. The mean score was 4.51 ±0.69. Females obtained greater, but statistically insignificant (p=0.08) empathy score (4.58) as compared to the male students (4.45). No statistically significant difference was seen between scores on the survey across the five academic years (F=0.88, p=0.47). Students who selected medicine and allied as career choice showed a significantly higher empathy score than those who opted for surgery. The internal consistency reliability (Cronbach's alpha) was 0.78. There were low levels of empathy in Pakistani medical students. Students with interest in medicine and allied showed higher empathy scores compared to surgical or technical specialties. No association of empathy scores with gender and medical school year was observed.

The Use of a 3 Dimensional Anatomy Application to Enhance Engagement and Satisfaction of Graduate Students Enrolled in Anatomy Courses in a Physical and Occupational Therapy Program

BackgroundAnatomy education is a mainstay in graduate education programs for health professionals, and is included in both physical and occupational therapy curricula. A multi‐modal approach to teaching anatomy is often used, including lecture, online material, laboratory with anatomy models, and dissection laboratory 3,5, in part to best target students with a variety of learning styles. Self‐regulated learning, where students take a more independent role in accessing information, is one such approach that has been shown to increase student engagement in the classroom. 7 To promote this learning mode, there has recently been an educational trend on utilizing computer‐based and digital software applications, to help supplement existing teaching styles, and offer an innovative method for students to access anatomy content and apply it to obtaining anatomy knowledge.1,4, 2,6,8,9 The purpose of this survey‐based study was to identify Physical and Occupational Therapy students' levels of satisfaction and engagement surrounding the use of a 3‐dimensional digital anatomy software application, within required anatomy courses in a post‐graduate level university setting.Methods and Data AnalysisFirst term Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT) and Master of Occupational Therapy (MOT) students completed a questionnaire about the use of the digital application, and their opinions on the effectiveness of its use in the context of learning anatomy course content, including for didactic material, plastic model identification, and in cadaver dissection. Mixed method data analysis was performed on student demographic data, use of the application, and opinions about application effectiveness in supporting the acquisition of anatomical knowledge. Questions utilizing a Likert Scale were analyzed, and open‐ended questions were considered separately by qualitative analysis.ResultsFor both DPT and MOT students, the majority of respondents had not used a digital anatomy application prior to this study, and agreed or strongly agreed that a digital anatomy application was a valuable tool in acquiring anatomical knowledge for didactic lecture material, anatomy identification on plastic models, and for cadaver dissection. Most students recommended the use of this application for future anatomy students. The most prevalent qualitative comments supporting the use of the application included the clarity of the anatomy model, the ability to readily remove layers of anatomy, and the ability to quickly access anatomical information about a given structure with one link. The biggest barriers to application use were the lack of training in procedure and lack of comfort with utilizing digital media.ConclusionThe results of this study show that both DPT and MOT students felt that the addition of a digital anatomy application to available resources was a valuable tool for learning anatomy material across multiple aspects of the anatomy course.References provided on request.Support or Funding InformationNoneThis abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2018 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal.

Inequitable Compliance: Implementation Failure of a Statewide Student Discipline Reform

ABSTRACTResearchers and others in the education community are concerned about over-reliance on exclusionary discipline such as out-of-school suspension (OSS) and expulsion. Exclusionary discipline is associated with lower student achievement, higher risk of drop-out or grade retention, and involvement in the juvenile justice system. In response, many schools, districts, and states are moving toward less exclusionary consequences. In 2013, the Arkansas state legislature passed a bill prohibiting the use of OSS as a consequence for truancy. Yet, even after 3 school years, there has not been a complete elimination in the use of OSS for truancy. In this article, I use 8 years of student achievement, demographic, and disciplinary data from all Arkansas public schools to assess which school-level factors are associated with the use of OSS as a consequence for truancy in the year the law was passed, and which are associated with policy compliance in the following 3 years. I find schools that served more minority students, had higher rates of truancy, and higher rates of OSS were less likely to comply with the policy, all else equal. Combined, these results suggest that the types of schools likely targeted by this policy are the same ones not fully complying with it. As a result, the impact of policy reforms, which sound beneficial prima facie, may be limited if changes are not communicated well to schools, if there is not accountability to ensure compliance, and if there is not school capacity to handle discipline effectively.

Recognizing the expatriate and transnational distance student: A preliminary demographic exploration in the Republic of Korea

Descriptions of distance students in the literature are robust. Yet when speaking about students outside of a national context, nuance is lost by the failure to identify the complexity in borderless higher education. The global student body is often too broadly categorized as “international” when in reality, this can be further refined to produce two additional classifications that more appropriately identify and describe a hitherto invisible phenomenon: the expatriate and transnational distance student. Utilizing respondent-driven sampling, student demographic and academic program data were collected using these two operational definitions. The resulting data suggests a potential profile for the expatriate/transnational distance student phenomenon as manifested in South Korea, along with broader demographic and program characteristics. As a nascent phenomenon and introductory inquiry, the research is limited in scope with the intention of a) establishing a taxonomy for the distance education community, b) a practical method for investigation, and c) avenues for further research such as student characteristics, motivation, attrition/retention, etc. Such insight would assist policy/guidelines for universities, their programs, and instructors.

Balancing Student Success: Assessing Supplemental Instruction Through Coarsened Exact Matching

Supplemental Instruction (SI) is a voluntary, non-remedial, peer-facilitated, course-specific intervention that has been widely demonstrated to increase student success, yet concerns persist regarding the biasing effects of disproportionate participation by already higher-performing students. With a focus on maintaining access for all students, a large, public university in the Western United States used student demographic, performance, and SI participation data to evaluate the intervention’s efficacy while reducing selection bias. This analysis was conducted in the first year of SI implementation within a traditionally high-challenge introductory psychology course. Findings indicate a statistically significant relationship between student participation in SI and increased odds of successful course completion. Furthermore, the application of Coarsened Exact Matching reduced concerns that increased course performance was attributed to an over-representation of higher performing students who elected to attend SI Sessions.

An Integrated System Framework for Predicting Students' Academic Performance in Higher Educational Institutions

Accurate prediction and early identification of student at-risk of attrition are of high concern for higher educational institutions (HEIs). It is of a great importance not only to the students but also to the educational administrators and the institutions in the areas of improving academic quality and efficient utilisation of the available resources for effective intervention. However, despite the different frameworks and various models that researchers have used across institutions for predicting performance, only negligible success has been recorded in terms of accuracy, efficiency and reduction of student attrition. This has been attributed to the inadequate and selective use of variables for the predictive models. This paper presents a multi-dimensional and an integrated system framework that involves considerable learners' input and engagement in predicting their academic performance and intervention in HEIs. The purpose and functionality of the framework are to produce a comprehensive, unbiased and efficient way of predicting student performance that its implementation is based upon multisources data and database system. It makes use of student demographic and learning management system (LMS) data from the institutional databases as well as the student psychosocial-personality (SPP) data from the survey collected from the student to predict performance. The proposed approach will be robust, generalizable, and possibly give a prediction at a higher level of accuracy that educational administrators can rely on for providing timely intervention to students.

The Role of Historically Black College and University Medical Schools in Academic Medicine.

Although less than 3% of medical schools are considered Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU), they have played a significant role in the education of Black physicians. The Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) databases were used to obtain faculty and student demographic data from 2003-2013. We analyzed racial distributions of faculty and students at HBCU medical schools compared with all other medical schools and calculated correlations between rates of Black chairs, faculty, and students. Although HBCUs represent 2.4% of medical colleges, they house 31% of Black chairs, 10% of Black faculty and 14% of Black students. A significant (a* &lt; .002) positive correlation was found between rates of Black chairs and students. Black chairs are associated with higher percentages of Black students. Medical colleges may find that increasing the number of Black chairs increases the number of Black medical students.

Knowledge and Perception about Pharmacovigilance among Pharmacy Students of Universities in Sana'a Yemen.

Pharmacists in community or hospital setting play a key role in reporting Adverse Drug Reaction (ADRs) during practice. Under reporting is considered as a profession malpractice worldwide. To determine the level of knowledge and perception about phramacovigilance and ADRs reporting among final year pharmacy students of Universities in Sana'a Yemen. A cross-sectional study design was conducted among 385 final year pharmacy students. One public and four private universities were selected randomly using a validated self-administered questionnaire. The questionnaire contained data about student demographic data, knowledge and perception about the ADRs. The data was analysed by SPSS program and Chi-square tests were used to assess the significance of association. The male students were more knowledgeable than female (p=0.035), as well as private university students had better ideas on how to report ADRs than public university students (p=0.009). Private university students reported that pharmacovigilance topic is well covered in their curriculum compared to public university students (p≤0.001). A significant difference was seen amongst the students of public and private universities when asked about reporting ADRs in future, former found more confident (p≤0.001). Furthermore, the private university students also had more command on the concept of post-marketing surveillance than public university students (p≤0.001). The private university students in Yemen were more known to causality assessment of ADRs as compared to the students of public universities (p≤0.001). The results of perception revealed regarding perception toward ADRs and pharmacovigilance. Female students (p≤0.018) and private universities students (p≤0.001) had positive perception than male and public university students respectively. The findings showed poor knowledge among students in Sana'a Universities and positive perception towards pharmacovigilance and ADRs reporting. A poor knowledge among the future pharmacists suggests need for educational interventions and improvement of strategies to ease the reporting mechanisms. Steps can be taken to improve pharmacovigilance tools and methods in Yemen as well as incorporating subjects of pharmacovigilance in the health faculty's curriculum in Yemen.

Attachment and empathy in Australian undergraduate paramedic, nursing and occupational therapy students: A cross-sectional study

This study examines attachment and empathy in undergraduate health care students at one Australian university. A cross-sectional survey was conducted in 2014 with 600 students across three health professions from four university courses; paramedic, nursing, occupational therapy and a combined paramedic/nursing course. Attachment styles were measured with the Relationship Scales Questionnaire, and empathy levels with the Jefferson Scale of Empathy-Health Profession-Student version. Student demographic data were also collected. The results indicated paramedic students scored highest on the Secure attachment style and nursing students scored highest on the Insecure attachment style. Paramedic/nursing students recorded the highest empathy scores and nurses scored the lowest. On the Dismissing attachment style the mean difference between the four student groups was found to be statistically significant (p=0.003). A small but significant correlation was found between attachment style and empathy scores. The findings suggest that attachment style has an impact on empathy levels. Results will assist educators in designing appropriate curricula to promote an understanding of attachment style and empathy as positive graduate attributes and essential factors in providing high-quality care to patients.

Culturally Responsive Adolescent Pregnancy and Sexually Transmitted Infection Prevention Program for Middle School Students in Hawai'i.

To evaluate the effectiveness of Pono Choices, a culturally responsive adolescent pregnancy and sexually transmitted infection (STI) prevention program targeting middle school youths in Hawai'i. We conducted a cluster randomized controlled trial with the school as the unit of random assignment over 3 semesters between 2012 and 2013. The sample consisted of 36 middle schools and 2203 students. We administered student surveys to collect baseline outcomes, student demographic data, and outcomes at 12 months after baseline. We found statistically significant effects for the knowledge assessment, which focused on basic understanding of adolescent pregnancy and STI prevention. The average percentage of correct responses was 73.6 for the treatment group and 60.4 for the control group (P < .001). We did not find statistically significant effects on behavioral outcomes (initiation of sexual activity or engagement in high-risk sexual behavior) or on other nonbehavioral outcomes (attitudes, skills, intentions). Pono Choices had a statistically significant impact on knowledge of adolescent pregnancy and STI prevention among middle school students at 12 months after baseline, though it did not lead to detectable changes in behavioral outcomes within the 1-year observation period. These results call for an exploration of longer-term outcomes to assess effects on knowledge retention and behavioral changes.

Understanding MOOC students: motivations and behaviours indicative of MOOC completion

AbstractMassive open online courses (MOOCs) continue to appear across the higher education landscape, originating from many institutions in the USA and around the world. MOOCs typically have low completion rates, at least when compared with traditional courses, as this course delivery model is very different from traditional, fee‐based models, such as college courses. This research examined MOOC student demographic data, intended behaviours and course interactions to better understand variables that are indicative of MOOC completion. The results lead to ideas regarding how these variables can be used to support MOOC students through the application of learning analytics tools and systems.