Health education and practice relationships in a rural context

The quality, resourcing and accessibility of healthcare is a key issue facing societies in the 21st century. Despite the system delivery focus of these factors it is critical to remember that healthcare is a human service and as such, people need to be placed at the centre of healthcare systems and processes. To do this we need to improve the way that people are valued and involved in healthcare practices. Professional relationships lie at the heart of such practices. This book illuminates and challenges professional healthcare relationships. The authors examine the nature, context and purpose of healthcare relationships, explore models through which these relationships are enacted, developed and critiqued, and provide narratives of health practice relationships in action. These narratives reveal how health practice relationships are experienced and created in real-world situations. The various chapters generate a range of implications and recommendations for healthcare practice and systems and for the education of health professionals. This is a book for practitioners, educators, clients, members of the community, advocacy and agency groups, regulatory bodies and those with power to shape the future direction of healthcare

Can interactive educational technologies support the link between ultrasound theory and practice via feedback mechanisms?

Linking theory to practice is an area of concern for ultrasound students, clinical mentors and academic staff. The link between theory and practice requires a robust clinical mentorship scheme in addition to careful curricula design considerations to improve student outcomes. The introduction of interactive technology in education provides ripe opportunity to improve feedback to students to support the link between theory and practice. A series of three interactive learning and teaching activities were designed and delivered to a PostGraduate Ultrasound cohort, after which, evaluation was performed to answer the research question: Which interactive technologies support the link between theory and practice through improved feedback mechanisms? An action research methodology was adopted involving an enquiry based literature review, planning, design and action process. Data were collected following action of three interactive teaching and learning sessions within the Medical Ultrasound cohort of 2013/2014 at Glasgow Caledonian University via a paper based questionnaire. A 100% response rate was achieved (n = 14). All three interactive learning and teaching sessions were considered with 100% highest point agreement to support the link between ultrasound theory and practice via feedback. Students found all three designed and facilitated sessions valuable and relevant to their learning, which in turn provided positive experiences which were perceived to support the link between theory and practice through feedback. These activities can be considered valuable in Postgraduate Ultrasound education