The Australian honours research degree plays an important role as a pre-requisite for direct entry into doctoral research programmes. The honours degree training is particularly important to health disciplines where there is a growing recognition of the importance of research training to embed evidence-based approaches to practice. This study…

New public management ideals and standards have become increasingly adhered to in health professions education; this is particularly apparent in high-stakes assessment, as a gateway to practice. Using an Institutional Ethnographic approach, we looked at the work involved in running high-stakes Objective Structured Clinical Exams (OSCEs) throughout…

Inclusive work-integrated learning (WIL) requires collaboration between universities, host organizations and students, particularly, when designing and delivering WIL for students with disabilities. Host organizations, however, are not often included in the collaborations. This study explored host organization knowledge, capacity and challenges to…

This study explores the development and implementation of a custom-designed simulated Electronic Medical Record (sEMR) system integrated into a simulation-based Level I occupational therapy fieldwork experience. The sEMR was collaboratively developed by the Occupational Therapy Department and the University Learning Design Team to provide…

Transfer of learning from an academic setting to clinical practice and vice versa represents a challenge. The aim of this study was therefore to identify, organize, and prioritize ideas on how to support the entangled relation between theory and practice in occupational therapy (OT) education. To gain broad perspectives on the topic, Group Concept…

Bodies of the deceased are important for training healthcare professionals in anatomy education, research, and clinical skills. While body donation programs exist in many countries around the world, few exist in Africa, likely due to strong religious convictions of the public, socioeconomic factors, and other difficulties. Consequently, many…

Interprofessional education (IPE) has an added value in interpreting training since it improves the collaboration between different professional groups, by constructing common ground and raising awareness of the needs, role boundaries and interactional goals of both professions. Although the value of IPE is acknowledged in interpreting studies,…

Worldviews influence research--from design to interpretation and reporting. Historically, psychometrics has been predominantly situated within a positivist paradigm, while social research has often aligned with interpretivist or critical paradigms. However, emerging perspectives in the philosophy-of-science are challenging this rigid alignment,…

Health professional organisations are increasingly promoting the use of self-directed learning. Furthermore, the rapidly evolving field of healthcare has meant that there is greater emphasis within tertiary education for students to become self-directed learners and possess the skills to engage in life-long learning. The aim of this scoping review…

Intraprofessional knowledge and skills are essential to the field of occupational therapy. Despite the importance, not all occupational therapy (OT) and occupational therapy assistant (OTA) educational programs provide collaborative intraprofessional experiences to students who are expected to collaborate effectively in practice. Therefore,…

Students bring their life histories, including traumatic experiences, to their learning and education. Potentially up to 75% of the student body of occupational therapy programs may have experienced a traumatic event, which often leads to occupational disruption and challenges in academic performance. Thus, it is critical for occupational therapy…

Defining and measuring "professionalism" in academic occupational therapy (OT) programs is a highly interpretative and formidable task, as evidenced in the literature and revised language in the 2023 ACOTE® Standards. Within the context of a university assessment workshop, a team of OT educators and students used an occupation- and…

The conceptual complexity of employability remains a barrier for its integration into discipline-based curricula. In the health professions, a particular challenge lies in integrating employability with the dominant paradigms of competency and professionalism. In this study, we explore these contextual challenges, and present the rationale and…

Instructors in the Medical Laboratory Science (MLS) program at Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) work within the Diagnostic Laboratories and volunteer as adjunct instructors for the educational program. Instructors do not receive training when they assume this role and must learn how to teach while actively creating and modifying…

Many healthcare professions struggle with knowing what the entry-level educational requirement should be for their profession. This study looked at the educational level of hiring managers for respiratory therapy and whether that affected their decisions on hiring associate or baccalaureate degree graduates in the state of Pennsylvania. The…