Health literacy, dementia knowledge and perceived utility of digital health modalities among future health professionals

Objectives: Studies of dementia knowledge (including dementia risk reduction) in health-care trainees highlight varying levels of understanding across countries and disciplines. This draws attention to the need for a well-trained health workforce with the knowledge to champion and implement such strategies. This study (a) assessed dementia knowledge and health literacy among a sample of Australian health-care students, (b) identified modality preferences of digital health interventions addressing dementia prevention and (c) examined potential relationships among health literacy, dementia knowledge, dementia prevention knowledge and a student's preferences for different digital health modalities. Methods: A cross-sectional survey assessed dementia knowledge and health literacy in 727 health students across 16 Australian universities representing both metropolitan and regional cohorts. The All Aspects of Health Literacy Scale and the Dementia Knowledge Assessment Scale were administered. Questions about the perceived effectiveness of strategies and preferred digital health modalities for dementia prevention/risk reduction were asked. Results: The students had relatively high health literacy scores. However, dementia knowledge and evidence-based dementia prevention knowledge were average. Only 7% claimed knowledge of available dementia-related digital health interventions. Associations among health literacy, dementia knowledge and dementia prevention, with recommendations for different digital modalities, are presented. Conclusions: Health-related degrees need to increase dementia knowledge, health literacy and knowledge of effective dementia-related digital health interventions. It is imperative to equip the future health workforce amid an ageing population with increased dementia rates and where evidence-based digital health interventions will increasingly be a source of support

Using SMS as a way of providing connection and community for first year students

Technology provides one means of meeting the challenge of providing for frequent and meaningful interaction amongst students and staff which underpins students’ feelings of being valued, leading to deeper and more meaningful engagement university studies (Pascarella & Terenzini, 1991). The challenge lies in providing for interaction in an environment where students and casual academic staff are spending less time on campus as a result of busy and complex lives. This paper relates the experiences of one lecturer/tutor using texting to stay in contact with her students and how this contact has supported and encouraged students to persist. It also discusses some of the implications for using mobile telephony to provide connection and community for first year students in higher education

Understanding the needs of all the stakeholders: issues of training and preparation for health work students and their clinical educators

Work-integrated learning (WIL) is vital for preparing health-work students for practice. WIL activities have multiple stakeholders, each with their own set of expectations and requirements, both explicit and implicit. Negotiations to provide these learning experiences for students happen at many levels and those at the coalface are often unaware of the different expectations of the various stakeholders. By developing their ability to consider multiple stakeholder perspectives, health students and their clinical educators are in a strong position to maximize the benefits, limit the disadvantages, and increase the satisfaction of the multiple stakeholders. Social awareness, communication skills and relationship development and maintenance hold the key to building capacity to manage the WIL experiences more skillfully, leading to better outcomes for all. This discussion paper examines an example from the field that drew attention to the need for a better understanding of the needs of all stakeholders

Elaboration of the students self and persistence in higher education

Higher education institutions around the world have invested decades of research and employed countless interventions to address low first year retention rates, as such rates impact negatively on funding, enrolments and public perceptions. The increased diversity of the contemporary first year student population, and their competing identities of student, worker, partner, parent and friend has further complicated an already complex issue. Persistence is used in this study to understand the individual student\u27s efforts to seek encouragement and support to persevere in his/her studies despite the challenges that he/she may face. Social Exchange Theory is proposed as a model for understanding student decision-making behaviour regarding continuation of study. We propose that students continually evaluate the cost -benefits associated with each of their life roles, and invest in those roles that are relatively rewarding and disinvest in those that they perceive as relatively costly. We explore the notion of an elaborated student self as a means of negotiating increased time and energy for study. We also consider ways in which such elaboration may lead to positive student behaviour

A matter of time: temporal influences on engagement of first year university students

This paper confirms the influence of temporal orientation on student engagement as investigated in a survey of first year university students at a multi-campus institution in Australia. The study considered inter-relationships between five temporal orientations (Future, Past Positive, Past Negative, Present Hedonistic and Present Fatalistic) and three measures of student engagement (Academic Orientation, Academic Application and use of Deep Approaches to study). Hierarchical multiple regression analyses showed that the five temporal factors were able to explain between 13% and 34% of the variance of the student engagement measures. Future was an important predictor of engagement for traditional and mature age students, though the influence was tempered by different variables in the case of traditional and mature age students. We propose that developing students’ temporal orientations is a new dimension to approaches in enhancing student engagement

Twelve tips for educating tomorrow\u27s clinical educators today: a Proactive Approach to Clinical Education (PACE)

Teaching the next generation of health workers is considered a core role for all clinicians, yet in practice it is often regarded as an optional activity. While health professionals are expected to teach, many are reluctant to attend faculty development initiatives that provide the training. There are many and varied reasons for this: lack of personal motivation or support from managers to undertake additional education in clinical education, staff shortages and, perhaps, a misunderstanding of the expectations of today’s professionals. Moreover, position descriptions of clinicians seldom include a role and responsibility to educate. Thus clinicians who do undertake additional formal education to provide clinical education may have limited opportunities for promotion after making such an effort. An adjustment to pre-registration clinical curricula that highlights the importance of and focuses on developing competence, capacity and capability in clinical education may be the key. This paper presents a “12 tips” framework to embed a proactive approach to learning clinical education skills (PACE) into a program of study. The 12 tips of PACE propose how, from the beginning of their undergraduate practicum experiences, pre-registration learners can be prepared to take up their professional responsibilities as clinical educators. The PACE framework can also be applied to the post-registration curriculum. The PACE model has the potential to both strengthen the skill base and increase the size of the clinical education workforce by including clinical education skills as an integral part of all clinical training