Understanding undergraduate students’ eHealth usage and views of the patient-provider relationship

© 2022 Reyes, Vance-Chalcraft. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.eHealth has grown exponentially alongside technology and has become widely accessed by some populations, but little is documented about how undergraduate students use eHealth or perceive their eHealth literacy. As access to online information and non-traditional options for interacting with providers has increased, patient views of the provider-patient relationship may also be changing. This study evaluates how frequently undergraduates use eHealth, how they perceive their ability to use eHealth appropriately, and how they view their patient-provider relationships. A mixed methods approach was used to address the research questions, with quantitative data from a survey and qualitative data from follow-up interviews of twelve of the survey respondents. The survey was distributed to over 650 undergraduate students in introductory biology laboratory courses for students of all fields of interest at one university. Based on 527 survey responses and 12 interviews, students reported commonly using eHealth but being skeptical of telehealth appointments. Although students generally felt capable of finding and interpreting eHealth sources, they were not strongly confident in their ability to do so. Use of eHealth was not seen as altering the patient-provider relationship, but students expressed a desire for their physician to act more as a counselor or advisor than a guardian. Students from minority populations were more likely to use eHealth in comparison to their peers. In addition, student comfort with their provider differed by race and ethnicity, as well as whether they shared the same gender identity as their provider. This research highlights how undergraduate students, who are often making medical decisions for themselves for the first time as adults, access health information and view the patient-provider relationship differently than the traditional guardian or paternalistic model. In addition, having diverse, culturally competent medical providers are critical for students to develop the relationship with their provider that they desire.ALS PLOS ONE institutinal accoun

Mismatched anti-predator behavioral responses in predator-naïve larval anurans

Organisms are adept at altering behaviors to balance the tradeoff between foraging and predation risk in spatially and temporally shifting predator environments. In order to optimize this tradeoff, prey need to be able to display an appropriate response based on degree of predation risk. To be most beneficial in the earliest life stages in which many prey are vulnerable to predation, innate anti-predator responses should scale to match the risk imposed by predators until learned anti-predator responses can occur. We conducted an experiment that examined whether tadpoles with no previous exposure to predators (i.e., predator-naive) exhibit innate antipredator behavioral responses (e.g., via refuge use and spatial avoidance) that match the actual risk posed by each predator. Using 7 treatments (6 free-roaming, lethal predators plus no-predator control), we determined the predation rates of each predator on Lithobates sphenocephalus tadpoles. We recorded behavioral observations on an additional 7 nonlethal treatments (6 caged predators plus no-predator control). Tadpoles exhibited innate responses to fish predators, but not non-fish predators, even though two non-fish predators (newt and crayfish) consumed the most tadpoles. Due to a mismatch between innate response and predator consumption, tadpoles may be vulnerable to greater rates of predation at the earliest life stages before learning can occur. Thus, naïve tadpoles in nature may be at a high risk to predation in the presence of a novel predator until learned anti-predator responses provide additional defenses to the surviving tadpoles

Using an Observation Protocol To Evaluate Student Argumentation Skills in Introductory Biology Laboratories

ABSTRACT Argumentation is vital in the development of scientific knowledge, and students who can argue from evidence and support their claims develop a deeper understanding of science. In this study, the Argument-Driven Inquiry instruction model was implemented in a two-semester sequence of introductory biology laboratories. Student’s scientific argumentation sessions were video recorded and analyzed using the Assessment of Scientific Argumentation in the Classroom observation protocol. This protocol separates argumentation into three subcategories: cognitive (how the group develops understanding), epistemic (how consistent the group’s process is with the culture of science), and social (how the group members interact with each other). We asked whether students are equally skilled in all subcategories of argumentation and how students’ argumentation skills differ based on lab exercise and course. Students scored significantly higher on the social than the cognitive and epistemic subcategories of argumentation. Total argumentation scores were significantly different between the two focal investigations in Biology Laboratory I but not between the two focal investigations in Biology Laboratory II. Therefore, student argumentation skills were not consistent across content; the design of the lab exercises and their implementation impacted the level of argumentation that occurred. These results will ultimately aid in the development and expansion of Argument-Driven Inquiry instructional models, with the goal of further enhancing students’ scientific argumentation skills and understanding of science

Mismatched anti-predator behavioral responses in predator-naïve larval anurans

Organisms are adept at altering behaviors to balance the tradeoff between foraging and predation risk in spatially and temporally shifting predator environments. In order to optimize this tradeoff, prey need to be able to display an appropriate response based on degree of predation risk. To be most beneficial in the earliest life stages in which many prey are vulnerable to predation, innate anti-predator responses should scale to match the risk imposed by predators until learned anti-predator responses can occur. We conducted an experiment that examined whether tadpoles with no previous exposure to predators (i.e., predator-naive) exhibit innate antipredator behavioral responses (e.g., via refuge use and spatial avoidance) that match the actual risk posed by each predator. Using 7 treatments (6 free-roaming, lethal predators plus no-predator control), we determined the predation rates of each predator on Lithobates sphenocephalus tadpoles. We recorded behavioral observations on an additional 7 nonlethal treatments (6 caged predators plus no-predator control). Tadpoles exhibited innate responses to fish predators, but not non-fish predators, even though two non-fish predators (newt and crayfish) consumed the most tadpoles. Due to a mismatch between innate response and predator consumption, tadpoles may be vulnerable to greater rates of predation at the earliest life stages before learning can occur. Thus, naïve tadpoles in nature may be at a high risk to predation in the presence of a novel predator until learned anti-predator responses provide additional defenses to the surviving tadpoles

Understanding undergraduate students’ eHealth usage and views of the patient-provider relationship

eHealth has grown exponentially alongside technology and has become widely accessed by some populations, but little is documented about how undergraduate students use eHealth or perceive their eHealth literacy. As access to online information and non-traditional options for interacting with providers has increased, patient views of the provider-patient relationship may also be changing. This study evaluates how frequently undergraduates use eHealth, how they perceive their ability to use eHealth appropriately, and how they view their patient-provider relationships. A mixed methods approach was used to address the research questions, with quantitative data from a survey and qualitative data from follow-up interviews of twelve of the survey respondents. The survey was distributed to over 650 undergraduate students in introductory biology laboratory courses for students of all fields of interest at one university. Based on 527 survey responses and 12 interviews, students reported commonly using eHealth but being skeptical of telehealth appointments. Although students generally felt capable of finding and interpreting eHealth sources, they were not strongly confident in their ability to do so. Use of eHealth was not seen as altering the patient-provider relationship, but students expressed a desire for their physician to act more as a counselor or advisor than a guardian. Students from minority populations were more likely to use eHealth in comparison to their peers. In addition, student comfort with their provider differed by race and ethnicity, as well as whether they shared the same gender identity as their provider. This research highlights how undergraduate students, who are often making medical decisions for themselves for the first time as adults, access health information and view the patient-provider relationship differently than the traditional guardian or paternalistic model. In addition, having diverse, culturally competent medical providers are critical for students to develop the relationship with their provider that they desire

Appendix A. A list of all papers used in the meta-analytic calculations.

A list of all papers used in the meta-analytic calculations