Student engagement while learning a new, unfamiliar vocabulary is challenging in health science courses. A group role-play activity was created to teach students medical terminology and learn why its correct usage is important. This activity brought engagement and relevance to a topic traditionally taught through lecture and rote memorization and…

Active teaching methods are believed to facilitate higher-order thinking skills and prepare allied health students for independent clinical decision-making. This quantitative, correlational study aimed to explain the relationships between student preferences for active over traditional methods and their beliefs, the frequency and positiveness of…

The dearth of Latinx and African American (AA) professionals in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) fields is most concerning. AA and Latinx workers in the labor market hold an 11% and 17% share of US workers, respectively. However, these groups only contribute 9% and 8%, respectively, of STEM professionals and 4.8 and 6% of…

The University of St. Francis's College of Business and Health Administration operates a campus business incubator for student and community entrepreneurs. The business incubator is an innovative use of space that supports the economic development of the region and entrepreneurial education that includes for-credit and non-credit programming.…

Health professions students can increase their understanding of how social determinants impact health equity through experiential learning opportunities. Using key informant interviews with faculty and staff familiar with experiential education programs in medicine, dentistry, nursing, pharmacy, public health, and social work, we sought to…

Community college faculty have always been more than classroom teachers, but during the pandemic their roles as counselors, navigators and sources of needed referrals perhaps have never been more paramount--or appreciated. Beyond the dizzying logistics and scrambled pedagogy involved in switching from in-person to online learning, faculty have…

Those following recent employment trends have heard about the nursing shortage. A combination of increased demand and impending retirements means 1 million nurses will be needed in hospitals, homes, and medical facilities by 2018. That's good news for job seekers. But it is not just shortages in nursing. Allied health careers, including…

Case-writing within an integrated, systems-based health professions education curriculum presents many unique challenges. Specifically, case-writing in this context must consider integration of multidisciplinary learning objectives and synthesis of biomedical and clinical sciences. Establishing an effective process for content integration and…

Evidence-based practice (EBP) is applying research to assist in the selection of interventions that result in increased client quality care. Recently the Commission on Accreditation of Allied Health Education Programs (2010), a new accreditation body for recreational therapy education, included standards that state students should obtain knowledge…

Head Start, a U.S. federally funded program, prepares children for school through early childhood intervention in social-emotional and cognitive arenas. This article describes program evaluation survey results from the past 5 years of an 18-year collaboration between a university graduate art therapy program and 8 Head Start centers. Graduate art…

Context: Past research has documented rural physician and health care professional shortages. Purpose: Rural hospital chief executive officers' (CEOs') reported shortages of health professionals and perceptions about recruiting and retention are compared in Illinois and Arkansas. Methods: A survey, previously developed and sent to 28 CEOs in…

Carreras en Salud (Careers in Health) provides bilingual/bicultural individuals with a fully-supported customized career path for nursing and other allied health occupations bridging individuals from unemployment/underemployment to high-demand healthcare positions. Healthcare providers, elected officials, and community leaders have partnered with…

Efforts to expand diversity in the health professions has received a boost from a prominent member of Congress. U.S. Senator Bill Frist, R-Tennessee, recently introduced a bill to amend the Public Health Service Act as part of a comprehensive initiative to improve the health of minority and other underserved populations. This bill, which is being…

Health care delivery and manpower shortages continually plague rural communities in the United States. This article presents the results of a Rural Allied Health Manpower Project (RAHMP) implemented in Southern Illinois. RAHMP has effectively reduced the health care manpower deficiencies in 31 counties. (CT)