Posts Tagged ‘investigating’
Balancing rigor against the inherent limitations of investigating hard-to-reach populations
Maintaining rigor in research is critical; however, this need must be balanced by the necessity of conducting studies in populations where inherent barriers exist relative to key issues such as recruitment, attrition, sampling, sample size, assessment techniques, psychometric rigor, the identification of mediators and moderators and the practical relevance of the research question itself. Ultimately, the value of a study in health promotion should be judged on the practicality of the research question within the context of the target population. Striking the perfect balance between rigor and practicality to the field is a question that health promotion researchers and professionals need to determine through ongoing dialogue and debate.
Investigating students’ attitudinal barriers towards the introduction of a Personal and Professional Development portfolio
Background:
Portfolios, widely used in undergraduate and postgraduate medicine, have variable purposes, formats and success. A recent systematic review summarised factors necessary for successful portfolio introduction but there are no studies investigating the views of students inexperienced in portfolio use towards portfolio learning. This study’s aim was to survey student views about a prospective Professional and Personal Development (PPD) portfolio.
Methods:
This was a qualitative, focus group study. All focus groups were taped and transcribed verbatim, and anonymised. The transcripts were analysed inductively, using framework analysis.
Results:
Four focus groups were carried out with 32 undergraduate medical students naive in portfolio use. Three themes relevant to portfolio introduction emerged. The first theme was the need for clear information and support for portfolio introduction, and anxieties about how this could be supported effectively. The second was that students had negative views about reflective learning and whether this could be taught and assessed, believing formal assessment could foster socially acceptable content. The third was that participants revealed little understanding of reflective learning and its potential benefits. Rather portfolios were seen as useful for concrete purposes (e.g., job applications) not intrinsic benefits.
Conclusions:
Undergraduate medical students without experience of portfolios are anxious about portfolio introduction. They require support in developing reflective learning skills. Care must be taken to ensure students do not see portfolios as merely yet another assessment hurdle.
Investigating the barriers to teaching family physicians’ and specialists’ collaboration in the training environment: a qualitative study
Background:Collaboration between physicians in different specialties is often taken for granted. However, poor interactions between family physicians and specialists contribute significantly to the observed discontinuity between primary and specialty care. The objective of this study was to explore how collaboration between family physicians and specialists was conceptualised as a competency and experienced in residency training curricula of four faculties of medicine in Canada.Methods:This is a multiple-case study based on Abbott’s theory of professions. Programs targeted were family medicine, general psychiatry, radiology, and internal medicine. The content of the programs’ objectives was analyzed. Associate deans of postgraduate studies, program directors, educators, and residents were interviewed individually or in focus groups (47 residents and 45 faculty members).Results:The training objectives related to family physicians-specialists collaboration were phrased in very general terms and lacked specificity. Obstacles to effective collaboration were aggregated under themes of professional responsibility and questioned expertise. Both trainees and trainers reported increasing distances between specialty and general medicine in three key fields of the professional system: the workplace arena, the training setting, and the production of academic knowledge.Conclusions:The challenges of developing collaborating skills between generalists and specialist physicians are comparable in many ways to those encountered in inter-professional collaboration and should be given more consideration than they currently receive if we want to improve coordination between primary and specialty care.
Investigating The Development Of Mechanosensitivity
Researchers have gained crucial insight into how mechanosensitivity arises. By measuring electrical impulses in the sensory neurons of mice, neurobiologists and pain researchers were able to directly elucidate, for the first time, the emergence of mechanosensitivity.
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By N2H