The Influence of Professional Identity Formation on the Attitudes of HealthCare Professional Students toward Interprofessionalism

The objective of this study was to quantify first-year health professional students’ attitudes toward their own and other professions following an interprofessional education (IPE) course. Additionally, this study sought to investigate the relationship between strength of professional identity and attitudes toward other professions. Professional identity, along with the stereotypes that students hold of other professions, are key factors influencing IPE. Expectations are that attitudes towards other professions will improve following participation in an introductory IPE experience. However, theory surrounding professional identity formation suggests this expectation may be premature. In the Fall of 2011, using a pre/post-test design, researchers administered the Readiness for Interprofessional Learning Scale and the Interdisciplinary Education Perception Scale to 864 first year healthcare students enrolled in an introductory IPE course at the University of Minnesota. The findings showed a decline in student attitudes toward their own and other professions and a positive correlation between a weakened professional identity and readiness for IPE. The findings of this study revealed a first-year IPE course did not positively affect student attitudes toward other professions. Additionally, the results suggest strength of professional identity is associated with readiness for interprofessional learning. Analysis of the findings supports the stages of professional identity formation postulated by Bebeau and Monson in an adaptation of Kegan’s Constructive-Developmental Theory of Self. The findings of this study support Kegan’s theory of identity development as a framework for understanding the phenomenon of declining attitudes of first-year healthcare professional students toward other professions following an introductory IPE course. Kegan’s theory may provide a constructivist-developmental framework for IPE by providing transitional periods of professional identity development for students. This study may also help to inform faculty of the stage of professional identity of their students and to set realistic expectations for introductory IPE. Learning objectives: 1 Explain the developmental stages of professional identity formation. 2 Discuss the application of Robert Kegan’s theory as a framework to construct progressing phases of interprofessional education. 3 Discuss the suggestion that unchanging or declining attitudes toward IPE may be a reflection of natural professional identity development in health care professions students

The specialist breast care nurse\u27s role in the indentification and minimisation of distress in a members\u27 only, breast cancer focused online support community

Objectives: To show how a specialist breast care nurse (SBCN) can use the distress thermometer to determine an online community member’s distress level and then use the information in their posts and blogs to identify the cause(s) and deal with them appropriately. To highlight the use of a structured written emotional expression (SWEE) format online, as a way of minimising distress. Method: A survey of online community members together with analysis of the content of members’ posts and blogs to determine whether their distress thermometer score had decreased since the SBCN had been online to deal with member distress. Results: The survey showed that four of the survey participants who completed the survey N=30 had completed a SWEE, been personal messaged by the SBCN about their distress thermometer score and declared that the information and advice they received had been instrumental in decreasing their distress score. It was not possible to identify whether a SWEE made any difference to the Distress Score. Conclusion : The SBCN can use the Distress Thermometer tool online to screen for member distress and deal with this distress through information, advice and support or referral to another health professional. A DT scores should be repeated before and after each of the breast cancer treatment stages so that appropriate interventions can be put in place to minimise or prevent the member’s distress. Specialist nurses in other specialised nursing areas can use the distress thermometer to measure and address the problems/issues causing support community members distress. That the content of a SWEE is one way in which members can document and vent about the problems causing their distress and this information can be used by the nurse to put in place appropriate solution or provide advice and support

Munchausen by Internet and nursing practice : An ethnonetnographic case study

This paper used Feldman’s clues to factitious illness behavior on the Internet (FIBI), to determine whether the online behaviour of one member of an online breast cancer support community www. breastcancerclick.com , moderated by a specialist breast cancer nurse (SBCN), could be Munchausen by Internet (MBI) and why identification of this behaviour is important for online nursing practice. This was a focused ethnonetnographic and qualitative research study whereby the online behaviour of one member was observed and compared with Feldman’s clues to factitious behaviour on the Internet. The online data showed that nine out of ten of Feldman’s clues were applicable to the member’s behavior in the Click online community. The relevance of these findings are discussed in relation to the effects this behaviour can have on other community members, the attendant legal ramifications and the necessity for nurses and other health professionals, who are employed or who participate in online support communities, to be aware of this behaviour and how to recognize it

Transformations in health information technology and the impact on patient experience

Changes in the way we collect and use health information, and the technology that enables these processes, have transformed the patient experience in health care. Compared to an earlier focus on using health information technology (HIT) for clinical purposes, patients are now also significant users of HIT, spurring the development of Patient-Facing Health Information Technology (PFHIT). These tools allow patients to use and interact with their health information and healthcare providers is new and transformative ways. We suggest that while these transformations have significant positive impacts, there are three important considerations which must be included as HIT continues to evolve: a focus on usability of HIT tools, providing appropriate training at all levels of use, and assessing individual’ patient’s capacity to use such tools to alleviate disparities in use. Experience Framework This article is associated with the Innovation & Technology lens of The Beryl Institute Experience Framework. (http://bit.ly/ExperienceFramework) Access other PXJ articles related to this lens. Access other resources related to this len

Assessing Ozone-Related Health Impacts under a Changing Climate

Climate change may increase the frequency and intensity of ozone episodes in future summers in the United States. However, only recently have models become available that can assess the impact of climate change on O(3) concentrations and health effects at regional and local scales that are relevant to adaptive planning. We developed and applied an integrated modeling framework to assess potential O(3)-related health impacts in future decades under a changing climate. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration–Goddard Institute for Space Studies global climate model at 4° × 5° resolution was linked to the Penn State/National Center for Atmospheric Research Mesoscale Model 5 and the Community Multiscale Air Quality atmospheric chemistry model at 36 km horizontal grid resolution to simulate hourly regional meteorology and O(3) in five summers of the 2050s decade across the 31-county New York metropolitan region. We assessed changes in O(3)-related impacts on summer mortality resulting from climate change alone and with climate change superimposed on changes in O(3) precursor emissions and population growth. Considering climate change alone, there was a median 4.5% increase in O(3)-related acute mortality across the 31 counties. Incorporating O(3) precursor emission increases along with climate change yielded similar results. When population growth was factored into the projections, absolute impacts increased substantially. Counties with the highest percent increases in projected O(3) mortality spread beyond the urban core into less densely populated suburban counties. This modeling framework provides a potentially useful new tool for assessing the health risks of climate change

Role of technology: Podcast in influencing respondents to receive a flu shot

Background and Problem: Studies have demonstrated that flu shots are an effective method to control flu infection. However, statistics reveal that only about 68% of people get vaccinated in the U.S. every year. We wanted to develop and evaluate an intervention to increase influenza vaccination rate. [See PDF for complete abstract

Community College and University Interprofessional Collaboration: Student Centered Partnership Between Nutrition and Dental Hygiene Faculty

Interprofessional education (IPE) is critical in today’s educational and healthcare arenas. This article describes the initial design, implementation, and evaluation of a Community College/ University IPE collaboration that enabled dental hygiene graduate students to satisfy course requirements and service learning competencies, promoted faculty development, and also served the community. Under the direction of a community college dietetics professor, students and faculty from both academic institutions had opportunities to participate in community outreach events. Experiences included teacher recertification training for community college credits in the local school system, paraprofessional workshops, community-based health fairs, career counseling, guest lectures, expanded internship sites, and access to daycare personnel studying childcare. Step-bystep procedures for implementing such a model offers guidance for other institutions seeking to replicate the arrangement. The model presented in this paper can serve as a guide for curriculum integration with a variety of nursing and allied health programs. Partnerships of this nature provide rich environments for faculty development, program marketing, transfer counseling, student service learning experiences, IPE collaborations, and access to community at-risk populations

The Use of Podcasts in Education

Background: The use of podcasts has emerged as an important tool for use in education. This is especially relevant in nursing schools with the shortage of nursing faculty. The use of podcasts allows the instructor to provide lectures and other course content to students. [See PDF for complete abstract

The influence of 2-hop network density on spoken word recognition

The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.3758/s13423-016-1103-9The influence of 2-hop density on spoken word recognition was investigated. 2-hop density measures the density of connections among the phonological neighbors (i.e., 1-hop neighbors) and phonological neighbors of those neighbors (i.e., 2-hop neighbors) of a target word. In both naming and lexical decision tasks, words with low 2-hop density were recognized more quickly than words with high 2-hop density. Because stimuli were selected such that the number of 1-hop and 2-hop neighbors were matched across both sets of words, the results suggest that spoken word recognition is influenced by the amount of connectivity among distant neighbors of the target word—a result that is not easily accommodated by current models of spoken word recognition. A diffusion of activation framework is proposed to account for the present finding