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Education Sciences
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Health Professional Education: Responding to Population Health Needs
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Health Professional Education: Responding to Population Health Needs

A special issue of Education Sciences (ISSN 2227-7102).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 March 2017) | Viewed by 35797

Special Issue Editor

Prof. Dr. Nicky Hudson

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
1. MBBS Coordinator, School of Medicine, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA 5005, Australia
2. Conjoint Professor, School of Medicine and Public Health, University of Newcastle, University Drive, Callaghan, NSW 2308, Australia
Interests: community-based health education; health workforce; interprofessional education; assessment

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

There are several challenges facing healthcare systems worldwide. The main challenge is the ageing of the population and the growing burden of chronic disease. Another is the maldistribution of the health workforce such that many rural, indigenous and/or disadvantaged urban communities don’t have access to the range of clinicians required to maintain health and prevent disease. In addition, there are gaps in the health literacy of many populations, and not enough emphasis is placed on addressing the social determinants of health.

This calls for new strategies in health professional education. We need more generalist clinicians able to tackle multi-morbidity, rather than individual diseases, and provide personalised, comprehensive continuity of care. We need to further examine student selection/admission procedures targeting candidates from areas of most need, provide quality clinical experience in these areas and offer motivations for practice there. Finally, we should develop, in all clinicians, the skills and knowledge for health promotion, the ability to work in partnership with colleagues from other professions and patients, to improve health literacy and the impact on the social determinants of health.

This guest-edited issue, “Health Professional Education” invites articles on educational research or strategies aiming to prepare health professionals with the attributes to address current and future challenges in global health.  

Prof. Dr. Nicky Hudson
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All papers will be peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Education Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • health professional education
  • health workforce
  • multimorbidity
  • health literacy
  • social determinant of health

Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

10 pages, 248 KiB  
Article
Medical Student Research during a Longitudinal Community-Based Placement Can Provide Opportunities for Learning about Public Health
by Kathryn Weston, Judy Mullan, Warren Rich and Peter McLennan
Educ. Sci. 2018, 8(2), 60; https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci8020060 - 23 Apr 2018
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 3937
Abstract
While ‘public health medicine’ is a specialised field, most medical practitioners practice ‘public health’ to some extent, e.g., undertaking preventative screening tests or advising individuals about lifestyle interventions. While requirements to demonstrate capability in public health are common to medical education around the [...] Read more.
While ‘public health medicine’ is a specialised field, most medical practitioners practice ‘public health’ to some extent, e.g., undertaking preventative screening tests or advising individuals about lifestyle interventions. While requirements to demonstrate capability in public health are common to medical education around the world, medical programs face a challenge to integrate public health education and promote health advocacy in an environment where the doctor: patient relationship is at the core of learning. Students who spend part of their medical education working within general practice or community settings have an opportunity to observe and identify issues of public health importance, and to see how they impact at both a personal and a population level. This paper aims to illustrate how a year-long research project can provide an opportunity for medical students to learn about public health issues and methods to investigate them. Analysis was undertaken of the research topics chosen by eight successive cohorts of medical students, representing 519 students, who successfully completed a research project. Over half of the student research projects (51.8%) directly related to Australian national health priority areas of dementia, obesity, arthritis and musculoskeletal conditions, asthma, diabetes, mental health, injury prevention and control, cardiovascular health and cancer control, and a further 28.5% of projects had a specific public health focus, within domains that include lifestyles and health, communicable disease, and healthy growth and development. Researching public health topics in the community setting represents a practical way to engage medical students in learning about public health, and can help to develop their potential to become ‘clinician researchers’, investigating and understanding issues relevant to their communities. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Health Professional Education: Responding to Population Health Needs)
9 pages, 410 KiB  
Article
In-Place Training: Optimizing Rural Health Workforce Outcomes through Rural-Based Education in Australia
by Jennifer May, Leanne Brown and Julie Burrows
Educ. Sci. 2018, 8(1), 20; https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci8010020 - 24 Jan 2018
Cited by 13 | Viewed by 5582
Abstract
The medical workforce shortfall in rural areas is a major issue influencing the nature of undergraduate medical education in Australia. Exposing undergraduates to rural life through rural clinical school (RCS) placements is seen as a key strategy to address workforce imbalances. We investigated [...] Read more.
The medical workforce shortfall in rural areas is a major issue influencing the nature of undergraduate medical education in Australia. Exposing undergraduates to rural life through rural clinical school (RCS) placements is seen as a key strategy to address workforce imbalances. We investigated the influence of an extended RCS placement and rural origin on the rural principal place of practice (PPP) of the first 3 graduate cohorts (2012–2014) from a Joint Medical Program offered by two universities based in northern New South Wales. Data was available for 426 eligible graduates. Participation in an extended RCS placement (odds ratio (OR), 6.075, 95% confidence interval (CI) 2.716–13.591), rural background (OR 3.613, 95% CI 1.752–7.450) and being 25 years or older at completion of a medical degree (OR 2.550, 95% CI 1.252–5.194) were all independently associated with rural PPP. Being bonded into a program to practice rurally was not associated with rural PPP. Participation in an extended RCS placement is strongly associated with rural practice in the first 3 to 5 years of practice for graduates from both rural and metropolitan backgrounds. This finding indicates that strategies to improve the rural workforce should focus on the promotion of rural placements, in addition to rural background. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Health Professional Education: Responding to Population Health Needs)
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208 KiB  
Article
Preparing Graduates to Meet the Allied Health Workforce Needs in Rural Australia: Short-Term Outcomes from a Longitudinal Study
by Leanne Brown, Tony Smith, Luke Wakely, Alexandra Little, Rebecca Wolfgang and Julie Burrows
Educ. Sci. 2017, 7(2), 64; https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci7020064 - 15 Jun 2017
Cited by 24 | Viewed by 7475
Abstract
The future allied health workforce needs to be flexible to meet the needs of an ageing population with increasing chronic health care needs and geographically dispersed populations in many developed countries. Existing research shows the maldistribution of the Australian health workforce, with allied [...] Read more.
The future allied health workforce needs to be flexible to meet the needs of an ageing population with increasing chronic health care needs and geographically dispersed populations in many developed countries. Existing research shows the maldistribution of the Australian health workforce, with allied health professionals being poorly represented in rural and remote areas. This mixed-methods longitudinal workforce outcomes study is ongoing to determine the rural and remote allied health workforce outcomes from an immersive student placement program based in rural New South Wales, Australia. Outcomes, to date, show 52% of graduates working in a rural or remote area (RA2–RA5) after one year and 37.5% at three years post-graduation. Students from a rural or remote background were 2.35 times (95% CI 1.056–5.229) more likely to be located in a rural or remote workplace after one year than graduates from a metropolitan background. Graduates provided reasons for their plans to move from or stay in their current position. Four key themes emerged: Seeking new and different opportunities; Better income and job security; Personal change and lifestyle improvement and Level of job satisfaction. An existing program to develop the allied health workforce in rural Australia is demonstrating positive short-term outcomes. Ongoing monitoring of workforce outcomes is required to determine the long-term outcomes for rural and remote communities. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Health Professional Education: Responding to Population Health Needs)
202 KiB  
Article
Structuring Medical Education for Workforce Transformation: Continuity, Symbiosis and Longitudinal Integrated Clerkships
by Nora Y. Osman, Alev Atalay, Arundhati Ghosh, Yamini Saravanan, Bianca Shagrin, Tara Singh and David A. Hirsh
Educ. Sci. 2017, 7(2), 58; https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci7020058 - 2 Jun 2017
Cited by 14 | Viewed by 5781
Abstract
Health systems worldwide are increasingly unable to meet individual and population health needs. The shortage of healthcare workers in rural and other underserved communities is compounded by inadequate primary care infrastructure and maldistribution of services. At the same time, the medical education system [...] Read more.
Health systems worldwide are increasingly unable to meet individual and population health needs. The shortage of healthcare workers in rural and other underserved communities is compounded by inadequate primary care infrastructure and maldistribution of services. At the same time, the medical education system has not changed to address the growing mismatch between population health needs and care delivery capacity. Internationally, leaders are calling for change to address these challenges. Substantive changes are needed in medical education’s stance, structure, and curricula. Educational continuity and symbiosis are two guiding principles at the center of current clinical educational redesign discourse. These principles rely on empirically-derived science to guide educational structure and improve outcomes. Educational continuity and symbiosis may improve student learning and support population health through workforce transformation. Longitudinal integrated clerkships (LICs), growing out of workforce imperatives in the 1970s, have demonstrated sustainable educational and workforce outcomes. Alongside the success of LICs, more innovation and more reaching innovation are needed. We propose restructuring clinical medical education specifically to address workforce needs and develop science-minded (rigorous, inquisitive, and innovative) and service-minded (humanistic, community-engaged, and socially accountable) graduates. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Health Professional Education: Responding to Population Health Needs)
211 KiB  
Article
Health Literacy amongst Health Professional University Students: A Study Using the Health Literacy Questionnaire
by Judy Mullan, Pippa Burns, Kathryn Weston, Peter McLennan, Warren Rich, Shelley Crowther, Kylie Mansfield, Robyn Dixon, Emma Moselen and Richard H. Osborne
Educ. Sci. 2017, 7(2), 54; https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci7020054 - 16 May 2017
Cited by 56 | Viewed by 12553
Abstract
Background: This study aimed to assess and compare health literacy levels in a range of university-based health students. Methods: A survey containing the Health Literacy Questionnaire (HLQ) was administered to students enrolled in university-based medical, allied health or nursing degree programs. The HLQ [...] Read more.
Background: This study aimed to assess and compare health literacy levels in a range of university-based health students. Methods: A survey containing the Health Literacy Questionnaire (HLQ) was administered to students enrolled in university-based medical, allied health or nursing degree programs. The HLQ scores and scale scores were compared across student groups. Results: In total, 374 students (24% response rate) with a median age of 25 years (range: 17–61 years), returned completed surveys. Three students who did not identify their degree programs were excluded from the final analysis which included 371 respondents; 242 graduate-entry medical students (65%), 67 allied health students (18%) and 62 nursing students (17%). Overall, the medical students had the highest score for seven of the nine HLQ scales; while the nursing students had the lowest score for all of the nine HLQ scales. Conclusion: These results show that health literacy profiles are different across student groups. In order to provide excellent patient-centred care, and to successfully look after their own health, a high level of health literacy is required by future health professionals. Health literacy training modules, tailored according to the different needs of the student groups, should therefore be included in university-based health professional degree programs. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Health Professional Education: Responding to Population Health Needs)
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