Self-Efficacy and Mental Health Services Provided by Rural and Frontier Oncology Social Workers

This pilot study explores the relationship between self-efficacy and professional behaviors of a non-random membership sample of the Association of Oncology Social Work (AOSW) who practice in rural and frontier settings (N = 19). The New Generalized Self-Efficacy (NGSE) scale was used to measure provider self-efficacy; a researcher-designed questionnaire was used to assess the professional behaviors of conducting mental health assessments and providing supportive counseling to individuals diagnosed with cancer. Pearson correlation and two-sample t-tests were used to analyze data. While study results did not elucidate relationships explored, results revealed a disparity between participants’ overall high sense of professional preparedness and comfort conducting mental health assessments and the regularity with which they perform these functions of oncology patient care

Examining Change in Confidence: A Unique Approach to Interprofessional Education Evaluation

Introduction. Measuring student confidence is integral to evaluating student perceived ability regarding interprofessional collaborative practice. The purpose of this study was to examine change in confidence after an introductory interprofessional education assignment using Bandura’s self-efficacy framework. Methods. A retrospective pre-post design assessed change in student confidence, targeting the strength dimension of self-efficacy beliefs. Students enrolled in health discipline-specific courses in two sequential years participated in an introductory embedded case-based IPE assignment. Sixteen statements were developed to assess students’ confidence for specific Interprofessional Education Collaborative (IPEC) sub-competencies consistent with student learning outcomes. Descriptive statistics, paired sample t-tests (comparing pre-post), analysis of variance and independent samples t-tests (comparing across disciplines and the two years) were used in the analysis. Results. Data from 203 participants provided a useable response of 80.6%. The percent of students indicating an increase in their confidence for the different IPEC sub-competencies ranged from 38.9% for “Encourage ideas and opinions of other team members” to 82.3% for “Explain the roles and responsibilities of other professionals”. Differences in mean change in confidence was found among nine sub-competencies when comparing across the disciplines. In addition, students in Year 1 reported larger increases in confidence for nine sub-competencies compared to Year 2 students. Discussion. Results give insight to student perceptions for strategic formative assessment and IPE assignment design. A retrospective pre-post design provided a novel means of examining change in confidence that avoids response-shift bias, while providing students the opportunity to explicitly self-report change or lack of change in confidence. Smaller increases in confidence in Year 2 compared to Year 1 were unexpected and may be due to the Year 2 requirement that teams discuss and agree upon team rules. Although counter-intuitive, the potential for reducing the amount of conflict may have contributed to less of an increase in confidence, as confidence can be gained from not only being well prepared, but also overcoming adversity (mastery experience). Each Year 2 student also was required to write a reflection regarding team ground rules and their implementation. This may have helped students realize greater complexities of successful interprofessional collaboration and their own limitations to achieve it

Teaching interprofessional teamwork skills to health professional students: A scoping review

<p>An expanding body of literature is examining interprofessional teamwork and its effect in healthcare. To produce capable healthcare professionals prepared to participate in interprofessional roles, teamwork training must begin early in health professional students’ training. The focus of this scoping review was to explore interprofessional education (IPE) studies designed to teach and/or assess interprofessional teamwork skills to students from two or more different health professions, to find and describe effective pedagogy and assessment strategies. Using a scoping review methodology, 1,106 abstracts were reviewed by three teams of investigators. Eligibility criteria were inclusion of students in interprofessional teams, an intervention to improve interprofessional teamwork skills and assessment of outcomes related to teamwork. Thirty-three studies met the criteria for inclusion. The literature was varied in terms of study design, teaching methods and assessment measures for interprofessional teamwork. The lack of rigorous, comparable studies in this area makes recommending one teaching method or assessment measure over another difficult. Regardless of teaching method, it appears that most learning activities where interprofessional teams interact result in positive changes in student perceptions and attitudes towards IPE and practice. As health education programs seek to incorporate more interprofessional activities into their respective programs, it is important to review methods and measures that would best fit their individual program. This review highlights the importance of standardising the reporting of methods and outcomes for those who wish to incorporate the studied methods into their curricula.</p