Teaching Cultural Sensitivity to Pediatric Residents

Teaching cultural sensitivity to healthcare professionals is critical in providing appropriate care to diverse patient populations. Constantly increasing U.S. immigrant population and growing numbers of international medical graduates practicing in the U.S. bring the issue of appropriate cross-cultural training to the forefront of addressing health disparities. Cultural competence training of healthcare professionals and provision of culturally sensitive patient care is the responsibility of healthcare leadership.1 Acquiring awareness and knowledge about cultural differences requires focused development of skills to communicate with patients from diverse cultures; this is a process developed through professional training and experience.2 Few professional continuous education programs have been offered to prepare mentors and role models in the field of healthcare to ensure culturally sensitive approach in patient service

Managing Professional Competencies of Teaching Staff in the University: Views of Finnish University Leaders

Higher education institutions should recognize that their staff are their vital and valued asset. The university should therefore, commit itself to encouraging and enabling staff to realize their potential by providing opportunities for all colleagues to gain the knowledge, skills, and experience necessary for them to enhance their contribution to meeting individual, area, and organizational objectives. Not only that staff development should be among a clutch of institutional innovations thrust upon universities, it is a technique or tool to increase quality, efficiency and output, it can be associated with high quality professional performance resulting in career advancement, strategic development, and initiative to sustain change (Duke, 1992: 98, 105). The purpose of this article was to understand the nature of staff development in Finnish universities in helping staff fulfill their roles as educators. In line with this objective, the crucial question that this paper seeks to answer is: How would the professional competencies of teaching staff in Finnish universities be developed in order to bring quality in their academic work of student teaching. It is believed that answer to this vital question would present best practices in academic staff management in institutions of higher learning in other countries

Outcomes of Using Heart Sound Simulator in Teaching Cardiac Auscultation

Background - Despite continued curriculum reform, the clinical skills competencies of medical graduates at all levels are steadily declining within a training system, where bedside opportunities become a luxury and the laboratory tests prevail over the clinical skills. While high-fidelity expensive simulators are being embraced by high-procedure volume specialties, low-fidelity and relatively inexpensive simulators, such as the heart sounds simulators remain under-utilized in medical training.  Methods - We used a commercially available heart sound synthesizer in 2-hour training sessions with students and residents. Pre-post testing was completed at the beginning of the training session and three weeks after the session; participant responses were recorded by audience interactive response system.  Results - Data analysis was accomplished with statistical software SPSS 17.0 utilizing paired t-test, and showed a statistically significant difference in learners’ knowledge and skills attainment 3 weeks after completion of the simulation training (p<0.0001).  Conclusions - Based on our findings and the review of literature, we recommend that heart sound simulation is introduced at medical student level as the standard for teaching cardiologic auscultation findings and as preparation for auscultation of live patients.  We also suggest that training with digitally simulated heart sounds is similarly beneficial in resident training

Resident Block-rotation in Clinical Teaching Improves Student Learning

In 2007, a new block-rotation in clinical teaching was implemented for the third-year residents in the pediatric residency program at Texas Tech HSC in El Paso, Texas. We describe the design and implementation of this rotation, as well as its impact on student learning and satisfaction. During 2.5 academic years, the teaching residents supported the experiences in the pediatric clerkship of 129 medical students. Evaluations of teaching residents and clinical teaching rotation, as well as written feedback indicate improved student learning and satisfaction. Our clinical teaching rotation presents a structured approach to “teaching residents to teach” with an ample time for practice of the new skills and discovery of resident own teaching style. We recommend the implementation of teaching block rotations to augment training experiences and student learning

Outcomes of Using Heart Sound Simulator in Teaching Cardiac Auscultation

Background - Despite continued curriculum reform, the clinical skills competencies of medical graduates at all levels are steadily declining within a training system, where bedside opportunities become a luxury and the laboratory tests prevail over the clinical skills. While high-fidelity expensive simulators are being embraced by high-procedure volume specialties, low-fidelity and relatively inexpensive simulators, such as the heart sounds simulators remain under-utilized in medical training.  Methods - We used a commercially available heart sound synthesizer in 2-hour training sessions with students and residents. Pre-post testing was completed at the beginning of the training session and three weeks after the session; participant responses were recorded by audience interactive response system.  Results - Data analysis was accomplished with statistical software SPSS 17.0 utilizing paired t-test, and showed a statistically significant difference in learners’ knowledge and skills attainment 3 weeks after completion of the simulation training (p<0.0001).  Conclusions - Based on our findings and the review of literature, we recommend that heart sound simulation is introduced at medical student level as the standard for teaching cardiologic auscultation findings and as preparation for auscultation of live patients.  We also suggest that training with digitally simulated heart sounds is similarly beneficial in resident training

Critical processes and performance measures for patient safety systems in healthcare institutions: a Delphi study

This dissertation study presents a conceptual framework for implementing and assessing patient safety systems in healthcare institutions. The conceptual framework consists of critical processes and performance measures identified in the context of the 2003 Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award (MBNQA) Health Care Criteria for Performance Excellence. Methodology: The Delphi technique for gaining consensus from a group of experts and forecasting significant issues in the field of the Delphi panel expertise was used. Data collection included a series of questionnaires where the first round questionnaire was based on literature review and the MBNQA criteria for excellence in healthcare, and tested by an instrument review panel of experts. Twenty-three experts (MBNQA healthcare reviewers and senior healthcare administrators from quality award winning institutions) representing 18 states participated in the survey rounds. The study answered three research questions: (1) What are the critical processes that should be included in healthcare patient safety systems? (2) What are the performance measures that can serve as indicators of quality for the processes critical for ensuring patient safety? (3) What processes will be critical for patient safety in the future? The identified patient safety framework was further transformed into a patient safety tool with three levels: basic, intermediate, and advanced. Additionally, the panel of experts identified the major barriers to the implementation of patient safety systems in healthcare institutions. The identified "top seven" barriers were directly related to critical processes and performance measures identified as "important" or "very important" for patient safety systems in the present and in the future. This dissertation study is significant because the results are expected to assist healthcare institutions seeking to develop high quality patient safety programs, processes and services. The identified critical processes and performance measures can serve as a means of evaluating existing patient safety initiatives and guiding the strategic planning of new safety processes. The framework for patient safety systems utilizes a systems approach and will support healthcare senior administrators in achieving and sustaining improvement results. The identified patient safety framework will also assist healthcare institutions in using the MBNQA Health Care Criteria for Performance Excellence for self-assessment and quality improvement

Designing and Implementing a Competency-based Curriculum: Leadership Implications

Choices in leadership decision-making reflect forces stemming from the leader, the environment and the group, where the quality of the decision and its acceptance are at stake (Yukl 1981). In academic institutions, establishing a supportive learning environment is not sufficient for achieving desired changes; implementing and sustaining the leader’s vision becomes absolutely necessary (Stinson, Pearson, and Lucas 2006)

Stability of response characteristics of a Delphi panel: application of bootstrap data expansion

BACKGROUND: Delphi surveys with panels of experts in a particular area of interest have been widely utilized in the fields of clinical medicine, nursing practice, medical education and healthcare services. Despite this wide applicability of the Delphi methodology, there is no clear identification of what constitutes a sufficient number of Delphi survey participants to ensure stability of results. METHODS: The study analyzed the response characteristics from the first round of a Delphi survey conducted with 23 experts in healthcare quality and patient safety. The panel members had similar training and subject matter understanding of the Malcolm Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence in Healthcare. The raw data from the first round sampling, which usually contains the largest diversity of responses, were augmented via bootstrap sampling to obtain computer-generated results for two larger samples obtained by sampling with replacement. Response characteristics (mean, trimmed mean, standard deviation and 95% confidence intervals) for 54 survey items were compared for the responses of the 23 actual study participants and two computer-generated samples of 1000 and 2000 resampling iterations. RESULTS: The results from this study indicate that the response characteristics of a small expert panel in a well-defined knowledge area are stable in light of augmented sampling. CONCLUSION: Panels of similarly trained experts (who possess a general understanding in the field of interest) provide effective and reliable utilization of a small sample from a limited number of experts in a field of study to develop reliable criteria that inform judgment and support effective decision-making

Interprofessional Education in Health Sciences

Jornadas Académicas de Salud 2021Las Jornadas Académicas en Salud 2021 tienen como propósito promover la actualización de los profesionales de la salud de diversas especialidades, enfatizando la atención interprofesional centrada en el paciente

Science and Team Development

This paper explores a new idea about the future development of science and teams, and predicts its possible applications in science, education, workforce development and research. The inter-relatedness of science and teamwork developments suggests a growing importance of team facilitators' quality, as well as the criticality of detailed studies of teamwork processes and team consortiums to address the increasing complexity of exponential knowledge growth and work interdependency. In the future, it will become much easier to produce a highly specialised workforce, such as brain surgeons or genome engineers, than to identify, educate and develop individuals capable of the delicate and complex work of multi-team facilitation. Such individuals will become the new scientists of the millennium, having extraordinary knowledge in variety of scientific fields, unusual mix of abilities, possessing highly developed interpersonal and teamwork skills, and visionary ideas in illuminating bold strategies for new scientific discoveries. The new scientists of the millennium, through team consortium facilitation, will be able to build bridges between the multitude of diverse and extremely specialised knowledge and interdependent functions to improve systems for the further benefit of mankind.teamwork development, knowledge development, science development, concept development, inter-relatedness of knowledge and science and teamwork