Statistical competencies for medical research learners: What is fundamental?

IntroductionIt is increasingly essential for medical researchers to be literate in statistics, but the requisite degree of literacy is not the same for every statistical competency in translational research. Statistical competency can range from 'fundamental' (necessary for all) to 'specialized' (necessary for only some). In this study, we determine the degree to which each competency is fundamental or specialized.MethodsWe surveyed members of 4 professional organizations, targeting doctorally trained biostatisticians and epidemiologists who taught statistics to medical research learners in the past 5 years. Respondents rated 24 educational competencies on a 5-point Likert scale anchored by 'fundamental' and 'specialized.'ResultsThere were 112 responses. Nineteen of 24 competencies were fundamental. The competencies considered most fundamental were assessing sources of bias and variation (95%), recognizing one's own limits with regard to statistics (93%), identifying the strengths, and limitations of study designs (93%). The least endorsed items were meta-analysis (34%) and stopping rules (18%).ConclusionWe have identified the statistical competencies needed by all medical researchers. These competencies should be considered when designing statistical curricula for medical researchers and should inform which topics are taught in graduate programs and evidence-based medicine courses where learners need to read and understand the medical research literature

A Primer for Work-Based Learning: How to Make a Job the Basis for a College Education

Provides an overview of the Jobs to Careers model, in which employers and colleges collaborate to embed curricula and training in the work process, as a way to meet healthcare labor force needs. Includes grantee profiles, lessons learned, and worksheets

Setting priorities for EU healthcare workforce IT skills competence improvement

A major challenge for healthcare quality improvement is the lack of IT skills and knowledge of healthcare workforce as well as their ambivalent attitudes towards IT. This paper identifies and prioritises actions needed to improve the IT skills of healthcare workforce across the EU. 46 experts, representing different fields of expertise in healthcare and geolocations systematically list and scored actions that would improve IT skills among healthcare workforce. The Child Health and Nutrition Research Initiative methodology was used for research priority-setting. The participants evaluated the actions using the following criteria: feasibility, effectiveness, deliverability, and maximum impact on IT skills improvement. The leading priority actions were related to appropriate training, integrating eHealth in curricula, involving healthcare workforce in the eHealth solution development, improving awareness of eHealth and learning arrangement. As the different professionals’ needs are prioritised, healthcare workforce should be actively and continuously included in the development of eHealth solutions

Public Health Informatics in Local and State Health Agencies: An Update From the Public Health Workforce Interests and Needs Survey

OBJECTIVE: To characterize public health informatics (PHI) specialists and identify the informatics needs of the public health workforce. DESIGN: Cross-sectional study. SETTING: US local and state health agencies. PARTICIPANTS: Employees from state health agencies central office (SHA-COs) and local health departments (LHDs) participating in the 2017 Public Health Workforce Interests and Needs Survey (PH WINS). We characterized and compared the job roles for self-reported PHI, "information technology specialist or information system manager" (IT/IS), "public health science" (PHS), and "clinical and laboratory" workers. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: Descriptive statistics for demographics, income, education, public health experience, program area, job satisfaction, and workplace environment, as well as data and informatics skills and needs. RESULTS: A total of 17 136 SHA-CO and 26 533 LHD employees participated in the survey. PHI specialist was self-reported as a job role among 1.1% and 0.3% of SHA-CO and LHD employees. The PHI segment most closely resembled PHS employees but had less public health experience and had lower salaries. Overall, fewer than one-third of PHI specialists reported working in an informatics program area, often supporting epidemiology and surveillance, vital records, and communicable disease. Compared with PH WINS 2014, current PHI respondents' satisfaction with their job and workplace environment moved toward more neutral and negative responses, while the IT/IS, PHS, and clinical and laboratory subgroups shifted toward more positive responses. The PHI specialists were less likely than those in IT/IS, PHS, or clinical and laboratory roles to report gaps in needed data and informatics skills. CONCLUSIONS: The informatics specialists' role continues to be rare in public health agencies, and those filling that role tend to have less public health experience and be less well compensated than staff in other technically focused positions. Significant data and informatics skills gaps persist among the broader public health workforce

Nursing informatics competencies for entry to practice: the perspective of six countries

Internationally, countries are challenged to prepare nurses for a future that has ever increasing use of technology and where information management is a central part of professional nursing practice. There has been a growing trend to move nursing to competency-based education, especially for those students undertaking their first nursing qualification. This first nursing qualification may be linked to pre-registration, pre-licensure or undergraduate education; the term used depending on the country. The authors are drawn from the International Medical Informatics Association special interest group, Nursing Informatics (IMIA-NI) Education Working Group and represent New Zealand, the United States of America, England, Australia, Finland and Canada

Beyond Checklists: A Nursing Informatics Education Strategy for Undergraduate Nursing Students Appraising Health Information on Social Networking Sites (SNS) / Au-delà des listes de vérification : Une stratégie de formation infirmière au numérique pour l’évaluation, par les étudiantes de premier cycle, des informations sur la santé présentes sur les sites des réseaux sociaux (SRS)

Increasingly internet social networking sites are used in healthcare to support, communicate and offer information platforms between healthcare providers, users, and the public. Undergraduate nursing students draw on various sources of evidence to inform best-practice decisions in collaboration with patients and the healthcare team. Student or patient-initiated access of information from social networking sites necessitates high levels of informatics literacy. While students may reveal adept social networking site navigation skills, their capacity to appraise and apply information from these sites to their nursing practice, in ways that demonstrate informatics competence, requires further exploration. The purpose of this education project was to describe how students’ informatics competence was enriched through the development and implementation of a Credibility, Argument, Purpose and Evidence guide, compared to a previously implemented checklist as part of a digital health assignment. The Constructivist Online Learning Environment Survey evaluated student-learning perceptions using the new guide as well as the previously utilized checklist. The developed guide improved students’ perceptions of their ability to appraise social networking sites. Results revealed an improvement in students’ appreciation of the significance of moving beyond the use of checklists when appraising and evaluating social networking sites. Educational institutions assume a prominent role as stakeholders in curriculum development, to equip nursing students with informatics skills to critically appraise and evaluate information from various social networking sites and technologies, alongside other health knowledge, for ethical evidence informed nursing practice. Résumé Les intervenants du secteur de la santé utilisent de plus en plus les sites de réseautage social en ligne pour soutenir, communiquer et offrir une plateforme d’information permettant des échanges entre les professionnels de la santé, les utilisateurs des services de santé et le public. Les étudiantes en sciences infirmières de premier cycle s’appuient sur diverses sources de résultats probants pour prendre des décisions éclairées basées sur les pratiques exemplaires, en collaboration avec les patients et les membres de l’équipe des soins. L’accès aux informations par les étudiantes ou les patients à partir des sites de réseautage social nécessite un niveau élevé de maîtrise du numérique. Bien que les étudiantes puissent détenir des habiletés de navigation sur de tels sites, leur capacité à évaluer et à mettre en application des informations tirées de ces sites dans leur pratique infirmière, de manière à démontrer une compétence numérique, nécessite une exploration plus poussée. Le but de ce projet de formation était de décrire comment la compétence numérique des étudiantes a été enrichie grâce à l’élaboration et à la mise en œuvre d’un guide portant sur la Crédibilité, l’Argumentation, le But, et les Résultats probants, pour remplacer une liste de vérification précédemment utilisée dans le cadre d’un travail en santé numérique. Le Constructivist Online Learning Environment Survey (sondage sur un environnement constructiviste d’apprentissage en ligne) a permis d’évaluer les perceptions d’apprentissage des étudiantes à l’aide du nouveau guide et de la liste de vérification utilisée précédemment. Le guide élaboré a amélioré la perception de ces dernières quant à leur capacité à évaluer les sites de réseautage social et les résultats ont révélé qu’elles comprennent davantage la nécessité d’aller au-delà des listes de vérification pour évaluer de tels sites. Les établissements d’enseignement jouent un rôle de premier plan dans l’élaboration des programmes de formation qui poussent les étudiantes en sciences infirmières à développer leur compétence numérique, leur permettant d’évaluer de manière critique les informations provenant de divers sites de réseaux sociaux et de technologies , en plus d’autres connaissances en matière de santé, pour une pratique infirmière éclairée par une analyse éthique des résultats probants

The Threads of Biosystems Engineering

The core concepts, or threads, of Biosystems Engineering (BSEN) are variously understood by those within the discipline, but have never been unequivocally defined due to its early stage of development. This makes communication and teaching difficult compared to other well established engineering subjects. Biosystems Engineering is a field of Engineering which int egrates engineering science and design with applied biological, environmental and agricultural sciences. It represents an evolution of the Agricultural Engineering discipline applied to all living organisms not including biomedical applications. The basic key element for the emerging EU Biosystems Engineering program of studies is to ensure that it offers essential minimum fundamental engine ering knowledge and competences . A core curriculum developed by Erasmus Thematic Networks is used as benchmark for Agr icultural and Biosystems Engineering studies in Europe. The common basis of the core curriculum for the discipline across the Atlantic , including a minimum of competences comprising the Biosystems Engineering core competencies, has been defined by an Atlan tis project , but this needs to be taken further by defining the threads linking courses together. This paper presents a structured approach to define the Threads of BSEN . The definition of the mid-level competences and the associated learning outcomes has been one of the objectives of the Atlantis programme TABE.NET. The mid-level competences and learning outcomes for each of six specializations of BSEN are defined while the domain-specific knowledge to be acquired for each outcome is proposed. Once the proposed definitions are adopted, these threads will be available for global development of the BSEN