Letter. Dr Launer provides significant insight into the challenges faced by doctors in his article ‘Managing the threat to reflective writing’.1 In particular, attention has been focused on the approaches to sustain reflective practice in postgraduate education.
As a junior doctor, I volunteered to become a reflective writing tutor for medical students in first year clinical training. Students were given constructive guidance for these assignments, including examples of the different models used in reflective practice; the Gibbs’ cycle (description, feelings, evaluation, analysis, conclusions and actions) was highlighted as an exemplar framework.2 My task was then to provide feedback to students on reflective writing pieces through the year and award an overall score. But can we—or should we—grade reflective writing? . To read the full article, log in using your NHS OpenAthens details.
Open access. This scoping review aims to gather and map inspiration, ideas and recommendations for teaching evidence-based practice across Professional Bachelor Degree healthcare programmes by mapping literature describing evidence-based practice teaching methods for undergraduate healthcare students including the steps suggested by the Sicily Statement. A computer-assisted literature search using PubMed, Cinahl, PsycINFO, and OpenGrey covering health, education and grey literature was performed. Literature published before 2010 was excluded. Students should be attending either a Professional Bachelor’s degree or a Bachelor’s degree programme. Full-text articles were screened by pairs of reviewers and data extracted regarding: study characteristics and key methods of teaching evidence-based practice. Study characteristics were described narratively. Thematic analysis identified key methods for teaching evidence-based practice, while full-text revisions identified the use of the Sicily Statement’s five steps and context. The database search identified 2220 records. One hundred ninety-two records were eligible for full-text assessment and 81 studies were included. Studies were conducted from 2010 to 2018. Approximately half of the studies were undertaken in the USA. Study designs were primarily qualitative and participants mainly nursing students. Seven key methods for teaching evidence-based practice were identified. Research courses and workshops, Collaboration with clinical practice and IT technology were the key methods most frequently identified. Journal clubs and Embedded librarians were referred to the least. The majority of the methods included 2–4 of the Sicily Statement’s five steps, while few methods referred to all five steps. This scoping review has provided an extensive overview of literature describing methods for teaching EBP regarding undergraduate healthcare students. The two key methods Research courses and workshops and Collaboration with clinical practice are advantageous methods for teaching undergraduate healthcare students evidence-based practice; incorporating many of the Sicily Statement’s five steps. Unlike the Research courses and workshop methods, the last step of evaluation is carried out partly or entirely in a clinical context. Journal clubs and Embedded librarians should be further investigated as methods to reinforce existing methods of teaching. Future research should focus on methods for teaching EBP that incorporate as many of the five steps of teaching and conducting EBP as possible.
The HEE mandate for 2019 to 2020 covers strategic objectives around:
workforce planning
health education
training and development
The mandate looks at how to develop the healthcare workforce to improve care for patients through education and training.
Conclusions: Serious gaming/gamification appears to be at least as effective as controls, and in many studies, more effective for improving knowledge, skills, and satisfaction. However, the available evidence is mostly of low quality and calls for further rigorous, theory-driven research
We have published new resources dedicated to work-based learning.
The new web section and infographic aims to support employers with understanding the key elements which need to be in place to successfully enable a culture of work-based learning, such as when implementing apprenticeships.
The resources cover topics from senior leadership and management buy-in, to infrastructure, workforce planning and robust relationships with education providers.
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Open access. Evidence-informed practice is fundamental to the delivery of high quality health care. Delays and gaps in the translation of research into practice can impact negatively on patient care. Previous studies have reported that problems facing health care professionals such as information overload, underdeveloped critical appraisal skills, lack of time and other individual, organisational and system-level contextual factors are barriers to the uptake of evidence. Health services research in this area has been restricted largely to the evaluation of program outcomes. This paper aims to describe the implementation process of an educational initiative for health care professionals working in midwifery, neonatology or obstetrics aimed at disseminating evidence and enhancing evidence-informed clinical care.
Open access. The translation of research into clinical practice is a key component of evidence-informed decision making. We implemented a multi-component dissemination and implementation strategy for healthcare professionals (HCPs) called Evidence Rounds. We report the findings of focus groups and interviews with HCPs to explore their perceptions of Evidence Rounds and help inform the implementation of future similar initiatives. This is the second paper in a two-part series.
Open access. The number of resources available to medical students studying a degree in medicine is growing exponentially. In addition to traditional learning resources such as lectures and textbooks, students are increasingly using e-learning tools like commercially available question banks to supplement their learning. Student preference for learning resources has not been described in detail, and a better understanding of the tools perceived to be useful could provide essential information to medical educators when designing and implementing medical curricula.
The article explores how visual communications in the training environment can contribute to solving the productivity puzzle. Topics discussed include Great Britain's economy being in the position to most to gain from increasing visual communications to employees, research that investigated how the brain responds differently to different types of workplace communication and adjustments businesses can make to increase their productivity levels. To read the full article, log in using your NHS OpenAthens details.
Health Education England (HEE) will work jointly with NHS Improvement to develop HEE’s mandate for 2019/20 onwards. HEE’s board will continue to sign-off the draft mandate, but as a new step the mandate will then need to be approved by NHS Improvement’s board to ensure it meets service requirements, before approval by the Secretary of State. This will ensure that workforce plans are more closely aligned with NHS service plans.
The ‘better evidence for better healthcare manifesto’ recently published in the BMJ considers the importance of generating higher quality research and of ensuring the dissemination of research into relevant, digestible and accessible formats.1 In addition to these important considerations, in order to ‘fix’ evidence-based medicine (EBM) and facilitate evidence-based practice, the strategies currently advocated to teach EBM and the evidence base of the foundational knowledge taught in medical schools need to be addressed. To read the full article, log in using your NHS OpenAthens details.
Open access. Despite the established interest in evidence-based practice (EBP) as a core competence for clinicians, evidence for how best to teach and evaluate EBP remains weak. We sought to systematically assess coverage of the five EBP steps, review the outcome domains measured, and assess the properties of the instruments used in studies evaluating EBP educational interventions.
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Opinion and comments on a recent book on learning organisations and the changing form of learning. To read the full article, log in using your NHS OpenAthens details.
We’ve just heard that SSOTP will not be renewing their agreement with SSSFT LKS for library services for this financial year. Because of this we will be reviewing our Be Aware bulletins. Sadly we won’t be accepting any new sign-ups from SSOTP staff and will be withdrawing some of the physical healthcare bulletins that we…
Open access. Book review. MCQs in Psychiatry for Medical Students By John Lally and John Tully. RCPsych Publications, 2016, £18.00 (£16.20 for College members), pb, 224 pp. ISBN: 9781909726482
Love them or loathe them, most medical student written examinations now take the form of multiple choice questions (MCQs). Some medical educators dislike this assessment style, suggesting it encourages students to learn isolated facts in a superficial way. Yet, undeniably, MCQs provide an objective, time-efficient manner of evaluation. To read a copy of the book in this review, please contact the library
Reading and appreciating medical literature is an important aspect of continuing medical education.1 Residents need to learn this important aspect during their training period.2–4 Evidence-based medicine involves updating, critiquing and using the evidence for patient care. It is the explicit use of the best available evidence combined with intuition of the clinician and the intentions of patients in a given clinical situation.5 To practice evidence-based medicine, it is important to analyse the literature critically. Journal club is an effective way to teach critical appraisal skills to residents.6 Use of journal clubs to impart training in evidence-based medicine has been demonstrated by various studies and also been shown to improve clinical care........To read the full article, log in using your NHS OpenAthens details.