What is the current global health participation and future interest of healthcare students and National Health Service (NHS) staff? A cross-sectional research study of healthcare students and NHS staff in England.

This research aimed to understand the prior and current global health participation, current availability of and future interest in participating in global health activities healthcare students and National Health Service (NHS) staff. An online survey was conducted on NHS staff and healthcare students in England between July and November 2021. The survey was disseminated to all secondary care providers in the English NHS and universities in England. A volunteer sample of 3955 respondents, including 2936 NHS staff, 683 healthcare students, 172 individuals combining NHS working and study and 164 respondents classified as other. Most (80%) respondents had not participated in a global health activity before, with 6% having previously participated, a further 3% currently participating and 11% unsure. Among those who had participated, the most common types of activity were attending global health events (75%). The most common reason for not participating was a limited knowledge of opportunities (78%). When asked about their future interest in global health participation, more than half of respondents (53%) indicated an interest and 8% were not interested. There was an significant proportion (39%) answering unsure, indicating a possible lack of understanding about global health participation. Global health has gathered increasing significance in recent years, both in policy and in education and training for healthcare professionals. Despite recognition of the role global learning plays in knowledge enhancement, skill development and knowledge exchange, this study suggests that global health participation remains low among NHS staff and healthcare students. [Abstract copyright: © Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2023. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ.

Understanding implementation of maternal acute illness management education by measuring capability, opportunity and motivation : a mixed methods study in a low-income country

A major cause of maternal death in low-income countries is a lack of adequate healthcare. The dominant approach to improving care involves continuing professional development but little is known about their impact on practice. Less still is known about the determinants of practice change and barriers to implementation. This study investigated the implementation of an acute illness management course on Ugandan health professionals’ practice and determinants of practice change. Before and after training, 51 nurses, midwives, doctors and clinical officers completed tests of knowledge. Immediately post-course and 1-month later, participants completed questions assessing intention to change practice, practice and determinants of change. Post course, participants took part in focus groups. Post-course, participants reported that they were capable and were motivated to use their knowledge and skills in practice and a lower belief in opportunity to change practice. Behavioural intention was very high and behaviour 1 month later was statistically significantly lower. Three themes emerged: 1) systematic approach changing clinical practice, 2) inter-professional communication, and 3) barriers and facilitators to implementation. Educators should consider behaviour change determinants as important assessments of outcome because they provide crucial implementation of training into practice

How behavioural science can contribute to health partnerships: The case of The Change Exchange

© 2017 The Author(s). Background: Health partnerships often use health professional training to change practice with the aim of improving quality of care. Interventions to change practice can learn from behavioural science and focus not only on improving the competence and capability of health professionals but also their opportunity and motivation to make changes in practice. We describe a project that used behavioural scientist volunteers to enable health partnerships to understand and use the theories, techniques and assessments of behavioural science. Case studies: This paper outlines how The Change Exchange, a collective of volunteer behavioural scientists, worked with health partnerships to strengthen their projects by translating behavioural science in situ. We describe three case studies in which behavioural scientists, embedded in health partnerships in Uganda, Sierra Leone and Mozambique, explored the behaviour change techniques used by educators, supported knowledge and skill development in behaviour change, monitored the impact of projects on psychological determinants of behaviour and made recommendations for future project developments. Discussion: Challenges in the work included having time and space for behavioural science in already very busy health partnership schedules and the difficulties in using certain methods in other cultures. Future work could explore other modes of translation and further develop methods to make them more culturally applicable. Conclusion: Behavioural scientists could translate behavioural science which was understood and used by the health partnerships to strengthen their project work

Core Clinical Skills For Osces In Surgery

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Measuring the Outcomes of Volunteering for Education: Development and pilot of a tool to assess health professionals' personal and professional development from international volunteering

Objective The development and pilot of a self-report questionnaire, to assess personal and professional development of healthcare professionals gained through experiences in low-income and middle-income countries.Design The instrument was developed from a core set of the outcomes of international placements for UK healthcare professionals. Principal component analysis and multidimensional item response theory were conducted using results of a cross-sectional pilot study to highlight items with the best psychometric properties.Setting Questionnaires were completed both online and in multiple UK healthcare professional events face-to-face.Participants 436 healthcare professional participants from the UK (with and without international experience) completed a 110-item questionnaire in which they assessed their knowledge, skills and attitudes.Measures The 110-item questionnaire included self-report questions on a 7-point Likert scale of agreement, developed from the core outcome set, including items on satisfaction, clinical skills, communication and other important healthcare professional knowledge, skills, attitudes and behaviours. Item reduction led to development of the 40-item Measuring the Outcomes of Volunteering for Education-Tool. Internal consistency was evaluated by the Cronbach's alpha coefficient. Exploratory analysis investigated the structure of the data using principal component analysis and multivariate item response theory.Results Exploratory analysis found 10 principal components that explained 71.80% of the variance. Components were labelled 'attitude to work, adaptability, adapting communication, cultural sensitivity, difficult communication, confidence, teaching, management, behaviour change and life satisfaction'. Internal consistency was acceptable for the identified components (alpha=0.72-0.86).Conclusions A 40-item self-report questionnaire developed from a core outcome set for personal and professional development from international placements was developed, with evidence of good reliability and validity. This questionnaire will increase understanding of impact of international placements, facilitating comparisons of different types of experience. This will aid decision making about whether UK healthcare professionals should be encouraged to volunteer internationally and in what capacity.</p

The educational impact of experience overseas

Background: Healthcare professionals are increasingly seeking overseas experience as part of their training. In the UK and Ireland, spending time overseas is becoming increasingly common during the first few years of training, with 10.8 per cent of foundation year 2 (postgraduate year 2) doctors working outside the UK in 2015. Whilst we know that doctors in training are increasingly seeking overseas experience, the reasons behind this are unknown. Many travel with the intention of returning after a period of time. With medical ‘gap years’ becoming common, there is a need to understand the reasons behind this phenomenon and what doctors take away from their overseas experience. Methods: We interviewed 20 British and Irish doctors in training who had spent time working in another high-income country before choosing to return home. A qualitative study was conducted to explore their experiences and what they learned from them. Findings: Doctors in training reported choosing to travel overseas to experience living abroad, take a break from training and help them decide on their specialty choice. Participants reported a positive experience, with increased motivation, a greater sense of perspective, increased confidence, improved clinical skills and a better-informed decision on which specialty they wished to pursue. Discussion: Working overseas can be a positive educational experience for doctors in training. Although increasing numbers of doctors are choosing to work abroad, many wish to return to their countries of origin to complete training, and doctors should not be discouraged from undertaking additional experience overseas

The benefits of international volunteering in a low-resource setting: development of a core outcome set

Background: Qualitative narrative analysis and case studies form the majority of the current peer-reviewed literature about the benefits of professional volunteering or international placements for healthcare professionals. These often describe generalised outcomes that are difficult to define or have multiple meanings (such as 'communication skills' or 'leadership') and are therefore difficult to measure. However, there is an interest from employers, professional groups and individual volunteers in generating metrics for monitoring personal and professional development of volunteers and comparing different volunteering experiences in terms of their impact on the volunteers. In this paper, we describe two studies in which we (a) consolidated qualitative research and individual accounts into a core outcome set and (b) tested the core outcome set in a large group of global health stakeholders. Method: We conducted a systematic review and meta-synthesis of literature to extract outcomes of international placements and variables that may affect these outcomes. We presented these outcomes to 58 stakeholders in global health, employing a Delphi method to reach consensus about which were 'core' and which were likely to be developed through international volunteering