Centre for Digital Transformation of Health - Research Publications
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ItemFostering the use of Learning Health Systems through a fellowship program for interprofessional clinicians(WILEY, 2022-10)INTRODUCTION: To address Australian workforce needs, we developed a Learning Healthcare System (LHS) Academy fellowship program for clinicians. In the Academy, fellows complete foundational coursework, an LHS project, and other professional development deliverables to foster their future as digital health champions within their organizations. In this paper, we describe the 11-month-long program, as well as our evaluation results from the first 2 months of the program. METHODS: In the first week of the program, we sent all fellows an open-ended survey asking fellows to describe their digital health professional identities and what they expected to achieve from the fellowship program. At 2 months, we sent a follow-up open-ended survey that captured identical measures, their perceived barriers to participation in the program, perceived use of topics in the workplace and to their projects, and recommendations for program improvement. We analyzed the open text responses using qualitative content analysis, to identify categories of responses. RESULTS: Overall, 2 months into the program, it was evident that participants were finding the teaching model engaging, useful, valuable, and applicable to their work and projects. Fellows perceived barriers to engagement in the program as balancing other commitments, lacking technical expertise, and having difficulty seeing themselves as leaders. Fellows expected that the program will allow them to implement new models of care, provide them with enough expertise to become leaders and champions in digital health, and become mentors for future generations. As far as changes in their professional identity, there was a notable increase in the number of fellows perceiving themselves as leaders. CONCLUSION: Fellowship programs are one promising means of developing the healthcare workforce in LHS capabilities. Future studies should describe and evaluate LHS programs, to provide insights and recommendations for other educators interested in implementing similar programs of work within their own institutions.
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ItemPharmacy Student Challenges and Strategies towards Initial COVID-19 Curriculum Changes(MDPI, 2021-10)Due to COVID-19, tertiary institutions were forced to deliver knowledge virtually, which proposed challenges for both institutions and students. In this study, we aimed to characterize pharmacy students' challenges and strategies during COVID-19 curriculum changes, therefore developing a comprehensive understanding of students' learning, wellbeing, and resilience in the ever-changing situation. Data were collected from student written reflections across four year levels at one school of pharmacy from March-May 2020. In addition, data were collected from written responses of second-year pharmacy students responding to prompted questions. The data were qualitatively analyzed inductively by five coders using NVivo 12. For each piece of data, two coders independently coded the data, calculated the inter-rater agreement, and resolved discrepancies. The most coded challenges were 'negative emotional response' and 'communication barrier during virtual learning'. The most coded strategies were 'using new technology' and 'time management'. This study allows researchers and education institutions to gain an overview of pharmacy students' experiences during COVID-19, therefore helping universities to provide students with necessary support and techniques on how to self-cope with COVID-19 as well as stressful events in the future.
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ItemExploring health care graduates' conceptualisations of preparedness for practice: A longitudinal qualitative research study(WILEY, 2021-09)INTRODUCTION: Although preparedness for practice (P4P) has been variously described, little shared understanding exists about what P4P is across the health professions. How P4P is conceptualised matters, because this shapes how stakeholders think, talk about and act towards it. Further, multiple understandings can result in diverse expectations for graduate performance. This study therefore explores health care learners' solicited and unsolicited conceptualisations of P4P over their early graduate transition. METHODS: We conducted longitudinal qualitative research including individual and group entrance interviews (phase 1: n = 35), longitudinal audio-diaries (phase 2: n = 30), and individual and group exit interviews (phase 3: n = 22) with learners from four disciplines (dietetics, medicine, nursing and pharmacy). We employed framework analysis to interrogate data cross-sectionally and longitudinally. RESULTS: We found 13 conceptualisations of P4P (eg knowledge, confidence), broadly similar across the disciplines. We found some conceptualisations dominant in both solicited and unsolicited talk (eg skills), some dominant only in solicited talk (eg competence) and others dominant only in unsolicited talk (eg experience). Although most conceptualisations appeared relatively stable across time, some appeared to dominate at certain time points only (eg employability and skills in phases 1 and 2, and competence in phase 3). DISCUSSION: This novel study extends previous uniprofessional work by illustrating a broader array of conceptualisations, differences between professions, solicited versus unsolicited talk and longitudinal cohort patterns. We encourage health care educators to discuss these different P4P understandings in graduate transition interventions. Further research is needed to explore other stakeholders' conceptualisations, and over a duration beyond the early graduate transition.