Journal Club: An Innovative Teaching Practice to Foster Peer Connection and Enhance Information Literacy Skills

This project aimed to better understand the impact and student experience of an innovative teaching strategy focused on information literacy (IL) for first-year undergraduate nursing students. Information literacy (IL) involves the development of a set of abilities essential for higher education learners, such as the ability to identify, critically evaluate, understand, and apply scholarly literature (ACRL 2013), yet studies often demonstrate that these IL skills are lacking and need further development (Bury 2016; Saunders 2012). Traditional methods of addressing this need center around stand-alone librarian-led IL sessions, which cannot provide the time or space needed to develop critical reading and reflection practices. Within our context of nursing, this is a common challenge; one study found that 40% of second-year nursing students have difficulty reading journal articles (Chaudoir et al. 2016), despite IL being an essential skill for nursing practice (Mitchell and Pereira-Edwards 2022). In an attempt to address learner needs, a course instructor and librarian teamed up. Journal clubs, used in practice settings to maintain currency and promote EBP behavior (Wilson et al. 2015), have been used successfully in other health education contexts (Steenbeek et al. 2009; Szucs et al. 2017; Thompson 2006). This application is referred to as evidence-based practice (EBP) and is an essential component of nursing practice. Having activities for undergraduate nursing students that instill EBP aims to ensure that it will be incorporated into practice after graduation (Mitchell and Pereira-Edwards 2022). Instead of the traditional librarian-led IL sessions, a first-year nursing course was redesigned to utilize a guided journal club approach to enhance the ability to seek, read, and interpret journal literature. Journal club activities took place over eight weeks, alternating guided activities with brief IL lessons, and culminated in a group journal club assignment. Students were placed in small groups based on an area of practice they wanted to learn more about. Activities were scaffolded starting with introducing a research database and basic literature searching strategies. As students progressed through the term’s journal club activities, they were asked to find articles related aligned with course topics and their area of practice, critique and present their articles to their group members, and then apply their interpretations. A survey was used to measure the impact of journal club on student IL self-efficacy, as measured through the validated Information Literacy Self-Efficacy Scale (ILSES) developed by Kurbanoglu et al. (2006). Initial findings support journal club as an effective modality to enhance students’ self-efficacy in specific areas of IL. Additionally, other valuable outcomes of this strategy were discovered. For example, students reported becoming more comfortable collaborating with peers and anecdotal reports showed students developed friendships with peers. This scaffolded journal club approach to discipline-specific IL learning would translate well to other contexts, particularly those that require a significant grounding in reading and understanding disciplinary research. The journal club activities are available at: https://tinyurl.com/JournalClubPosterISSOTL2022, or by contacting the authors. Click here to read the corresponding ISSOTL blog post

Exploring the Emotional Responses of Undergraduate Students to Assessment Feedback: Implications for Instructors

Summative assessments tend to be viewed as high-stakes episodes by students, directly exposing their capabilities as learners. As such, receiving feedback is likely to evoke a variety of emotions that may interact with cognitive engagement and hence the ability to learn. Our research investigated the emotions experienced by undergraduate students in relation to assessment feedback, exploring if these emotions informed their learning attitudes and behaviours. Respondents were drawn from different years of study and subject/major. A qualitative approach was adopted, using small group, semi-structured interviews and reflective diaries. Data were analysed thematically and they revealed that receiving feedback was inherently emotional for students, permeating their wider learning experience positively and negatively. Many students struggled to receive and act upon negative feedback, especially in early years, when it was often taken personally and linked to a sense of failure. Negative emotional responses tended to reduce students’ motivation, self-confidence, and self-esteem. Some students, especially in later years of study, demonstrated resilience and engagement in response to negative feedback. By contrast, positive feedback evoked intense but fleeting emotions. Positive feedback made students feel cared about, validating their self-worth and increasing their confidence, but it was not always motivational. The paper concludes with recommendations for instructors, highlighting a need to communicate feedback carefully and to develop student and staff feedback literacies

Emotions Experienced by Instructors Delivering Written Feedback and Dialogic Feed-Forward

Understanding the emotions experienced by higher education instructors related to assessment feedback, how instructors understand student emotions, and how instructors might manage these emotions positively, can help to secure the educational benefits of feedback. In this research, we aimed to explore the emotional responses that instructors experienced through the giving and receiving of assessment feedback. We undertook qualitative data collection, carrying out individual semi-structured interviews with instructors from three universities who had administered a dialogic feed-forward intervention on one of their teaching units. The full interview transcripts were analysed inductively using thematic analysis. Five main themes emerged from the interview data: 1. Summative written feedback aroused largely negative emotions in instructors because they felt distanced from their students; 2. Instructors experienced a broad range of emotions related to dialogic feed-forward encounters, emerging from their proximity to students; 3. Dialogic feed-forward, as an affective encounter, was emotionally challenging for instructors; 4. Dialogic feed-forward built strong learning relationships between students and instructors, strengthening students’ sense of belonging; 5. Dialogic feed-forward was transformational for instructors as educators. We consider the implications of our findings for instructors and wider assessment and feedback practices, including emotional labour, promotional reward, and instructor professional development

in silico verification and parallel reaction monitoring prevalidation of potential prostate cancer biomarkers

Purpose: Targeted proteomics of potential biomarkers is often challenging. Hence, we developed an intermediate workflow to streamline potential urinary biomarkers of prostate cancer (PCa). Materials & methods: Using previously discovered potential PCa biomarkers; we selected proteotypic peptides for targeted validation. Preliminary in silico immunohistochemical and single reaction monitoring (SRM) verification was performed. Successful PTPs were then prevalidated using parallel reaction monitoring (PRM) and reconfirmed in 15 publicly available databases. Results: Stringency-based targetable potential biomarkers were shortlisted following in silico screening. PRM reveals top 12 potential biomarkers including the top ranking seven in silico verification-based biomarkers. Database reconfirmation showed differential expression between PCa and benign/normal prostatic urine samples. Conclusion: The pragmatic penultimate screening step, described herein, would immensely improve targeted proteomics validation of ..

Exploring the Emotional Responses of Undergraduate Students to Assessment Feedback: Implications for Instructors

Summative assessments tend to be viewed as high stakes episodes by students, directly exposing their capabilities as learners. As such, receiving feedback is likely to evoke a variety of emotions that may interact with cognitive engagement and hence the ability to learn. Our research investigated the emotions experienced by undergraduate students in relation to assessment feedback, exploring if these emotions informed their learning attitudes and behaviours. Respondents were drawn from different years of study and subject/major. A qualitative approach was adopted, using small group semi-structured interviews and reflective diaries. Data were analysed thematically and they revealed that receiving feedback was inherently emotional for students, permeating their wider learning experience positively and negatively. Many students struggled to receive and act upon negative feedback, especially in early years, when it was often taken personally and linked to a sense of failure. Negative emotional responses tended to reduce students’ motivation, self-confidence, and self-esteem. Some students, especially in later years of study, demonstrated resilience and engagement in response to negative feedback. By contrast, positive feedback evoked intense but fleeting emotions. Positive feedback made students feel cared about, validating their self-worth and increasing their confidence, but it was not always motivational. The paper concludes with recommendations for instructors, highlighting a need to communicate feedback carefully and to develop student and staff feedback literacies

Emotions Experienced by Instructors Delivering Written Feedback and Dialogic Feed-Forward

Understanding the emotions experienced by higher education instructors related to assessment feedback, how instructors understand student emotions, and how instructors might manage these emotions positively, can help to secure the educational benefits of feedback. In this research, we aimed to explore the emotional responses that instructors experienced through the giving and receiving of assessment feedback. We undertook qualitative data collection, carrying out individual semi-structured interviews with instructors from three universities who had administered a dialogic feed-forward intervention on one of their teaching units. The full interview transcripts were analysed inductively using thematic analysis. Five main themes emerged from the interview data: 1. Summative written feedback aroused largely negative emotions in instructors because they felt distanced from their students; 2. Instructors experienced a broad range of emotions related to dialogic feed-forward encounters, emerging from their proximity to students; 3. Dialogic feed-forward, as an affective encounter, was emotionally challenging for instructors; 4. Dialogic feed-forward built strong learning relationships between students and instructors, strengthening students’ sense of belonging; 5. Dialogic feed-forward was transformational for instructors as educators. We consider the implications of our findings for instructors and wider assessment and feedback practices, including emotional labour, promotional reward, and instructor professional development

Can Relational Feed-Forward Enhance Students’ Cognitive and Affective Responses to Assessment?

Assessment feedback should be an integral part of learning in higher education, but students can find this process emotionally and cognitively challenging. Instructors need to consider how to manage students’ responses to feedback so that students feel capable of improving their work and maintaining their wellbeing. In this paper, we examine the role of instructor-student relational feed-forward, enacted as a dialogue relating to ongoing assessment, in dissipating student anxiety, enabling productive learning attitudes and behaviours, and supporting wellbeing. We undertook qualitative data collection within two undergraduate teaching units that were adopting a relational feed-forward intervention over the 2019–2020 academic year. Student responses were elicited via small group, semi-structured interviews and personal reflective diaries, and were analysed inductively using thematic analysis. The results demonstrate that relational feed-forward promotes many elements of student feedback literacy, such as appreciating the purpose and value of feedback, judging work against a rubric, exercising volition and agency to act, and managing affect. Students were keen for instructors to help them manage their emotions related to assessment, believing this would promote their wellbeing. We conclude by exploring academic strategies and pedagogies that position relational instructor feed-forward as an act of care, and we summarize the key characteristics of emotionally resonant relational feed-forward meetings.KEYWORDSassessment feedback, relational feed-forward, thematic analysis, emotional resonance, wellbeingINTRODUCTIONThe number of undergraduate students in higher education experiencing psychological distress appears to be rising across the globe (Auerbach et al. 2018; Carter et al. 2017; Ferguson 2017). Academic pressure contributes to this distress, particularly associated with university assessments (Barnett 2007). Feedback on assessments should be an integral part of learning in higher education (Hattie and Timperley 2007), but students can find this process challenging (Carless and Boud 2018). Part of the difficulty for students is that their emotional responses can play a significant role in determining how they receive and act on feedback (Pitt and Norton 2017; Ryan and Henderson 2018; Small and Attree 2016). Negative emotions, such as stress and anxiety, can reduc

Patterns and trends among physicians-in-training named in civil legal cases: a retrospective analysis of Canadian Medical Protective Association data from 1993 to 2017

BACKGROUND: Medico-legal data show opportunities to improve safe medical care; little is published on the experience of physicians-in-training with medical malpractice. The purpose of this study was to examine closed civil legal cases involving physicians-in-training over time and provide novel insights on case and physicians characteristics. METHODS: We conducted a retrospective descriptive study of closed civil legal cases at the Canadian Medical Protective Association (CMPA), a mutual medico-legal defence organization for more than 105 000 physicians, representing an estimated 95% of physicians in Canada. Eligible cases involved at least 1 physician-in-training and were closed between 1993 and 2017 (for time trends) or 2008 and 2017 (for descriptive analyses). We analyzed case rates over time using Poisson regression and the annualized change rate. Descriptive analyses addressed case duration, medico-legal outcome and patient harm. We explored physician specialties and practice characteristics in a subset of cases. RESULTS: Over a 25-year period (1993-2017), 4921 physicians-in-training were named in 2951 closed civil legal cases, and case rates decreased significantly (β = -0.04, 95% confidence interval -0.05 to -0.03, where β was the 1-year difference in log case rates). The annualized change rate was -1.1% per year. Between 2008 and 2017, 1901 (4.1%) of 45 967 physicians-in-training were named in 1107 civil legal cases. Cases with physicians-in-training generally involved more severe patient harm than cases without physicians-in-training. In a subgroup with available information (n = 951), surgical specialties were named most often (n = 531, 55.8%). INTERPRETATION: The rate of civil legal cases involving physicians-in-training has diminished over time, but more recent cases featured severe patient harm and death. Efforts to promote patient safety may enhance medical care and reduce the frequency and severity of malpractice issues for physicians-in-training

Variation in red cell transfusion practice in the intensive care unit: a multicentre cohort study

OBJECTIVES: To determine the degree of interinstitutional transfusion practice variation and reasons why red cells are administered in critically ill patients. STUDY DESIGN: Multicentre cohort study combined with a cross-sectional survey of physicians requesting red cell transfusions for patients in the cohort. STUDY POPULATION: The cohort included 5298 consecutive patients admitted to six tertiary level intensive care units in addition to administering a survey to 223 physicians requesting red cell transfusions in these units. MEASUREMENTS: Haemoglobin concentrations were collected, along with the number and reasons for red cell transfusions plus demographic, diagnostic, disease severity (APACHE II score), intensive care unit (ICU) mortality and lengths of stay in the ICU. RESULTS: Twenty five per cent of the critically ill patients in the cohort study received red cell transfusions. The overall number of transfusions per patient-day in the ICU averaged 0.95 ± 1.39 and ranged from 0.82 ± 1.69 to 1.08 ± 1.27 between institutions (P < 0.001). Independent predictors of transfusion thresholds (pre-transfusion haemoglobin concentrations) included patient age, admission APACHE II score and the institution (P < 0.0001). A very significant institution effect (P < 0.0001) persisted even after multivariate adjustments for age, APACHE II score and within four diagnostic categories (cardiovascular disease, respiratory failure, major surgery and trauma) (P < 0.0001). The evaluation of transfusion practice using the bedside survey documented that 35% (202 of 576) of pre-transfusion haemoglobin concentrations were in the range of 95-105 g/l and 80% of the orders were for two packed cell units. The most frequent reasons for administering red cells were acute bleeding (35%) and the augmentation of O(2) delivery (25%). CONCLUSIONS: There is significant institutional variation in critical care transfusion practice, many intensivists adhering to a 100g/l threshold, and opting to administer multiple units despite published guidelines to the contrary. There is a need for prospective studies to define optimal practice in the critically ill

Forest and Water Policies. The need to reconcile public and science perceptions

This paper compares and contrasts some of the science and public perceptions of the role of forests in relation to the water environment. It is suggested that the disparity between the two perceptions needs to be addressed before we are in a position to devise and develop land and water policies (whether market or non-market based) which are aimed at either improving the water environment, and by doing so improving the livelihoods of poor people by greater access to water, or conserving and protecting forests. Examples are given of three research projects in South Africa, India and Costa Rica where, through the involvement of stakeholder groups, often with representatives comprising both the science and public perceptions, interactive research programmes were designed not only to derive new research findings with regard to the biophysical processes but also to achieve better "ownership" and acceptance of research findings by the stakeholders. It is concluded that to move towards a reconciliation of the different perceptions and to put in place better policies and management systems, where policy is better connected with science, will require further efforts: a) To understand how the "belief" systems underlying the science and public perceptions have evolved, and how these are affecting land and water policy processes; b) To develop management support tools, ranging from simple dissemination tools, which can demonstrate the impacts of land use decisions on the water environment to institutions and local people, to detailed robust and defensible hydrological models which are needed to help implement the new land and water policies, such as those now being implemented in RSA; and c) To understand better how land and water related policies impact on the poorest in society. It is argued that many present policies may not be significantly benefiting the poor and may even, in some situations, be resulting in perverse outcomes