Search

Work-integrated learning (WIL) has become an essential component of many university curricula. Recent global disruptions have challenged traditional models of WIL, particularly industry-based student placements, leading to growing calls for new, sustainable models of WIL. Aligned with this call and the increased emphasis on learning across disciplines, interdisciplinary project-based WIL provides an alternative to student placements that is both student and industry centered. This study reports on the outcomes of pilots of this model of WIL across four Australian universities. A cohort of 38 students, faculty and industry staff who participated in the pilots were interviewed. The key challenges and enablers of interdisciplinary project-based WIL are identified along with recommendations for implementation.

Supervisors are often reluctant to make an adverse assessment of the student's performance during work placements, which leads to a phenomenon known as "failure to fail". This Australian study evaluated resources designed to enhance the management of students who fail to meet the required standard of performance during work placements. Staff from a range of health disciplines evaluated the training program comprised of a half-day workshop and written guide using a questionnaire and semi-structured interviews. Staff reported renewed confidence in working with underperforming students, increased comfort with failing students who did not reach the required standards. The Staff Guide was seen as useful with all students undertaking work placements, not just underperforming students. The Student Guide was perceived as relevant to the student experience. The findings of this research are important to university educators engaged with work placements, work placement supervisors, and students who undertake work placements.

This article describes the principles and structure used to create the Graduate Resilience Curriculum Framework intended to support academics to develop higher education students' resilience as an important graduate attribute. Enhancing student resilience requires a structured approach to learning that articulates the factors that are important for the building of resilience, in a format that reflects incremental development across the student journey. This paper describes the principles used to inform the design and development of the curriculum framework including the adoption of a systemic program approach that is strengths-based, learner-centred and viewed through an ecological lens to support students' resilience over time. The three learning domains of knowledge, skills and application guide students to develop a sense of themselves as resilient. The Graduate Resilience Curriculum Framework provides an evidence-based guide for university staff to embed strategies that develop student resilience in a planned, supportive and scaffolded way.

Resilience is a much-needed capability for both university staff and students in this volatile time. However, conceptualisations of resilience vary widely, with many viewing this as a fixed attribute each individual either has or doesn't have, and the impact of context on resilience is often neglected. This research explores the outcomes of a staff leadership program focused on participants' conceptualisation of resilience and how they can influence student resilience through curricula and/or co-curricula innovation. The program, informed by social cognition and political leadership theory, was delivered to 58 staff from a range of disciplines across three Australian universities. Several program attendees participated in a pre (N = 13) and/or post (N = 10) interview that examined their understanding of resilience and self-identified changes in their teaching practice in relation to resilience. The importance of the social cognition process of sensemaking (establishing a shared, contemporary view of resilience as a dynamic process through an ecological lens) appeared critical. The program's political leadership strategies promoted changes to participants' teaching practices.

There is growing pressure in higher education to develop graduates with the capabilities to work effectively in collaborative, interdisciplinary teams to solve the key issues facing humankind. For many years, health has been pioneering interprofessional education as the means to deliver professionals with capacity to work together to deliver high quality, cost-effective, client-centered care. This paper reports on an explorative case study where interviews were undertaken with ten students from different professions who had experienced interprofessional education at three different community sites. The learning was informed by an adapted version of contact hypothesis for use in interprofessional education combined with adult learning principles. Four interrelated metathemes were identified: space and time, informality and independence, which resulted in a more holistic approach to practice. Results suggest that the contact hypothesis, with consideration of contact variables, has the potential to improve the quality of interdisciplinary group interaction.

Objectives: This study aimed to evaluate the psychometric properties of the Australian Interprofessional Socialisation and Valuing Scale (ISVS)-21 and provide an invariant measure for health practitioners and students to assess interprofessional socialisation. Methods: The COnsensus-based Standards for the selection of health Measurement INstruments (COSMIN) were used as guidelines. This research began with a key step: conducting a pilot study to assess content validity, a requirement of COSMIN for item development. The ISVS-21 has not yet been validated in Australia. Content validity checks ensure the developed items accurately represent the measured construct in the intended cultural context. In addition to conducting more comprehensive tests of psychometric properties compared to previous studies on ISVS-21, this paper introduces something new by evaluating the internal structure of the instrument involving measurement invariance and hypothesis testing for construct validity based on several assumptions related to interprofessional socialisation and values. An invariant measure validates the use of the Australian ISVS-21 on practitioner and student equivalently, allowing the comparison of outcomes at both levels. Results: The evaluation of content validity indicated that the items were relevant, comprehensible (practitioners and students had an agreement score of >70% for all 21 items), and comprehensive to the concepts intended to be measured. Structural validity confirms ISVS-21 Australia as unidimensional, with good internal consistency reliabilities, Cronbach's α scores = 0.96 (practitioner) and 0.96 (student). Measurement invariance tests confirm ISVS-21 Australia is configural, metric and scalar invariance (ΔCFI ≤ 0.01) across the tested groups of practitioner and student, and therefore suitable for use by both cohorts in Australia. Age and length of work/study were discriminant factors for interprofessional socialisation in both cohorts; the professional background was a differentiating factor for practitioners but not for students. Hypotheses testing results support the COSMIN construct validity requirement for the measure, with 83.3% of assumptions tested accepted. Conclusion: The Australian ISVS has good psychometric properties based on evaluating the content validity, internal structure, and hypotheses testing for construct validity. In addition, Australian ISVS is an invariant measure for use by health practitioners and students and, therefore, confirmed as a quality measure to assess interprofessional socialisation for both cohorts in Australia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Curtin University introduced an interprofessional first year curriculum in the Faculty of Health Sciences in 2011. This curriculum, now delivered to over 3,300 first year health science students annually, consists of five common compulsory units, eight optional units (specific to several courses) and one discipline specific unit for each course. Significantly, the learning outcomes are informed by an Interprofessional Capability Framework (Brewer & Jones, 2013). This paper reports on a study which aimed to analyse the use of the capability framework in supporting the development of the desired interprofessional capabilities. This qualitative study was based on data from student reflective journals in one of the large common units. The sample consisted of 105 of the 411 students enrolled in one of the common units (response rate 25.6 percent) in the second major teaching period (semester two) in 2011. The data was analysed via NVivo8© to provide a holistic view of the content of the reflections as they related to the Interprofessional Capability Framework. The results indicate that the use of the Interprofessional Capability Framework in structuring the learning outcomes has influenced student learning. This is evidenced by the correlation between the themes which emerged during the coding of the data and the Interprofessional Capability Framework. For example, 'Client-centred' was the most frequently coded theme, followed by Collaboration, Team Function, and Quality Care, all of which are reflected in the Framework. The major finding of the study is that the framework did have an impact in guiding the development of the foundational interprofessional unit; the learning outcomes included key elements of the framework, the learning experiences were designed to meet these outcomes, and the assessment utilising a reflective journal was designed to measure the development of novice interprofessional capabilities.

The health, wellbeing and employability of university students are key considerations within higher education. In response, interest in student resilience is on the rise. Reviews of contemporary resilience literature highlight both conceptual and methodological weaknesses, issues which hamper attempts to design effective resilience interventions. To inform the design of a student resilience program, to be piloted at three Australian universities, a scoping review of resilience specific to the higher education context was undertaken. Searches of three electronic databases (PsychINFO, CINAHL and ProQuest) were conducted. Seventy-two peer-reviewed articles published between 2007 and 2017 were included in the review. While the review reaffirms the conceptual and methodological issues found in previous resilience research, it provides a useful critique of key issues in relation to university student resilience and interventions to enhance students' resilience. Recommendations for educators and researchers are provided.

Universities face increasing pressure not only to embed interprofessional education within health education curricula but also to prepare graduates as catalysts of change for interprofessional, team-based approaches to health care delivery. Currently, few leadership programmes exist that support the expansion of interprofessional education. This paper describes the development, implementation and evaluation of a leadership programme aimed to build faculty and health practitioners' capacity to become change agents for interprofessional education and practice. The programme was delivered by two Australian universities, each in partnership with a local health care provider. A mixed method approach was adopted to measure participants' pre- and post- knowledge, reactions to the programme, planned and reported behavioural changes, and organizational outcomes. The programme was positively evaluated and reported to increase participants' understanding of interprofessional education and practice. Follow up with participants suggested the programme had facilitated the implementation of interprofessional education and practice in both academic and practice contexts.

We aimed to develop a culturally appropriate psychometrically robust measure for assessing interprofessional socialization for health practitioners and students in Indonesia. The COnsensus-based Standards for the selection of health Measurement INstruments (COSMIN) were used as guidelines. Our study was organized in three phases (a) translation, (b) cross-cultural validation by evaluating the content validity and internal structure of the translated instrument (i.e. structural validity, internal consistency reliability, and measurement invariances), and (c) hypotheses testing for construct validity. A total of 266 health practitioners and 206 students from various professional backgrounds participated. The Indonesian ISVS-19 was confirmed unidimensional. Content validity evaluation confirmed the inclusion of relevant, understandable items and was comprehensive. Factor analysis supported removal of two items. Configural, metric, and scalar tests confirmed the invariance of the 1-Factor 19-Items model in practitioner and student cohorts. Age was a differentiating factor in both cohorts; length of work was only significant for practitioners, and educational background was significant for students (80% of assumptions were accepted, fulfilling COSMIN requirement for construct validity). The Indonesian ISVS-19 has good psychometric properties regarding content validity, internal structure, and construct validity and, therefore, is a psychometrically robust measure for assessing interprofessional socialization for health practitioners and students in Indonesia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective Structured Clinical Examinations (OSCEs) are a gold-standard method of assessing clinical competence, yet few studies have evaluated their use in speech-language pathology. This study aimed to evaluate the perceptions of postgraduate speechlanguage pathology students towards a final-year OSCE. Students' perceptions were captured via an online survey. Quantitative data were analysed descriptively. Qualitative responses were analysed using content analysis. Pass rates across stations are also reported. Over 80% of students passed each OSCE station. Survey respondents (n = 13) agreed that the OSCEs were valuable and well run, despite causing nervousness. Ambiguity was observed for items related to OSCE validity and authenticity, student confidence, preparedness, and overall experience. OSCEs can be feasible way to assess clinical competencies in speech-language pathology. When adopting this method of assessment, it is crucial to consider the students' experiences of, and preparedness for, the OSCE process and their perceptions of task validity and authenticity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Interprofessional education (IPE) is embedded in many health professional training programs, often with a focus on collaborative teamwork. Most studies into whether IPE delivers the desired collaborative teamwork capabilities has tended to rely on short term, self-assessed changes in learners' attitudes, knowledge and skills. This study adopted overt ethnographic observation to understand how a convenience sample of students behave in groups during interprofessional team-based clinical placements. Interprofessional student teams were observed by two independent observers on eight occasions (a total of 720 hours) across three sites. Thematic analysis of the observational data indicates that student teams fell into two categories: higher and lower functioning. Higher functioning teams were observed using humor to build rapport, reduce tension and express humility, and evidenced a greater emphasis on shared client goals. In contrast, lower functioning teams were more formal, with no evidence of humor and less interaction. The higher functioning teams, therefore, not only demonstrated greater interprofessional collaboration they also appeared to have higher levels of psychological safety. Participants in the higher functioning teams also demonstrated mutual trust and confidence and took more risks, often speaking up to provide suggestions, share knowledge and skills, and seek or offer feedback. The results suggest that further explicit training in, and assessment of, psychological safety in IPE needs to be undertaken. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The majority of studies exploring the impact of interprofessional education (IPE) for pre-licensure health professionals have focused on IPE experiences in the classroom, online or through simulation. Research into IPE in clinical settings has been carried out, however, to date most studies have focused on short-term outcomes related to learner reaction, attitudes and perceptions, and knowledge and skills. This study adds to the literature investigating IPE in clinical settings for pre-licensure health professionals by investigating the experiences of learners who, following their IPE clinical placement, had moved into other clinical (workplace) environments. To understand what, if any, influence the clinical IPE experience had on their subsequent professional practice, 13 participants (students and graduates) from five professions were interviewed. Inductive thematic analysis identified that, following their IPE placement, participants engaged in interprofessional practice by seeking and sharing information, embedding other professional goals into patient sessions and conducting joint sessions. Several factors influenced the ability and capacity to collaborate at the individual and organisation level. Findings from this study suggest that the dedicated IPE placements enhanced both student and graduate openness and ability to collaborate with other professions in subsequent clinical workplace settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]