Historically, mixed arrangements have been in place between educational institutions and podiatrist registration bodies to evaluate the capacity of courses to adequately prepare new graduates for clinical practice. The national scheme for the registration of health practitioners introduced in 2010, followed by a national system for accreditation…

Based upon a review and analysis of selected literature, the author presents a conceptual model of discrepancy analysis evaluation for planning, implementing, and assessing the impact of continuing medical education (CME). The model is described in terms of its value as a means of diagnosing errors in the development and implementation of CME. The…

The University of Saskatchewan's Longitudinal Elderly Person Shadowing (LEPS) is an interprofessional senior mentors program (SMP) where teams of undergraduate students in their first year of medicine, pharmacy, and physiotherapy; 2nd year of nutrition; 3rd year nursing; and 4th year social work partner with community-dwelling older adults.…

Uncertain economic times and job availability are concerns for scores of Americans, including many new health education professionals who seek to enter the workforce. One way to distinguish health education professionals from their competitors to increase the chances of employment is certification. Yet, over the years, some health education…

Introduction: The controversy surrounding commercial support for continuing medical education (CME) programs has led to policy changes, but data show no significant difference in perceived bias between commercial and noncommercial CME. Indeed, what attendees perceive as commercial influence is not fully understood. We sought to clarify what…

Context and Background: Athletic therapy postsecondary education and certification requirements in Canada have reached considerable milestones throughout their history. The most important of these accomplishments was administration of the first Canadian Athletic Therapists' Association (CATA) certification examination in 1975. At that time, there…

Participatory action research (PAR) can be used in the health professions to redefine their roles. This study investigated a small health professional group, the members of The Chiropractic Association Singapore (TCAS), by using a PAR method; researchers and participants gained insights into the self-regulation of a health profession. A…

A college of health professions at a medical university located in the southeastern United States is striving to increase the use of educational technology among faculty, staff, and students. A strategic planning group was formed and charged with enhancing the use of educational technology within the college. In order to understand the current…

Background: Despite awareness of the health inequalities experienced by people with intellectual disability, their health status remains poor. Inequalities in health outcomes are manifest in higher morbidity and rates of premature death. Contributing factors include the barriers encountered in accessing and receiving high-quality health care.…

Assessment of practical clinical skills is essential in the health fields. Objective Structured Clinical Exams (OSCEs), where examiners assess students performing clinical procedures on simulated patients (actors), are central to the evaluation of practical skills. However, traditional OSCEs require considerable time-investment to administer, and…

Physicians and other health professionals are an important part of the national scientific and technical workforce, and it is important to understand the factors that attract (or fail to attract) young adults into these fields. Using data from the 20-year record of the Longitudinal Study of American Youth (LSAY) and working within a social…

This paper examines diagnostic error from an educational perspective. Rather than addressing the question of how educators in the health professions can help learners avoid error, however, the literature reviewed leads to the conclusion that educators should be working to induce error in learners, leading them to short term pain for long term…

The anticipated nursing shortage in the United States is well documented and continues to be a topic of discussion. A nationwide solution has been for nursing programs to increase their enrollment of nursing students. This could be difficult for many nursing schools; as many have a shortage of qualified nursing faculty with which to instruct…

The growing presence of technology in health care has infiltrated educational institutions. Numerous software and hardware technologies have been designed to improve student learning; however, their use in the classroom is unclear. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to examine the experiences of medical assisting faculty using…

Introduction: Our goal was to identify the clinical questions that health care professionals have at the point of care and explore whether these questions could be used to drive a needs assessment for continuing education programs. Methods: We gathered questions from 28 clinicians; 11 were directly observed for approximately 5 days per person,…