Filtering by
- All Subjects: Health education
- Creators: Chen, Angela
- Creators: Pannabecker, Virginia
Methods: "a student's education is only as valuable as the information that a student has access to" Matt Cooper (president of the National Association of Graduate and Professional Students, 2012). Evidence-based practice is no longer a new concept in health professions or education, but its integration into allied health higher education curricula and its inclusion by health professionals in everyday, lifelong practice still presents challenges. One challenge is affordable access to research study findings and data, and to resources that index such information. A librarian from a public, research-1 university will draw from experiences and practices at her institution, and from a review of such at similar institutions. She will present methods to promote: use of open access and open educational resources, greater participation in these movements, and curriculum-related applications.
Results: This flipped presentation will include an overview of top overall and health sciences-related open access and open educational resources: how to find them and suggestions for evaluation criteria. It will also include options to promote and use Creative Commons search and licensing for discovering and sharing materials licensed for others to use, reuse, and adapt. Methods for promoting open access and open educational resources in higher educational and other settings will follow, with a final overview of newly expanding options for do-it-yourself and open science initiatives including opportunities for involvement in health research and innovation.
Conclusions: Join us, and bring your laptop, tablet, or mobile device! This presentation will be a "flipped presentation," with a brief (ten-to-fifteen minutes) voice-over PowerPoint presentation sent out ahead of time. The in-person session will offer a hands-on approach with opportunities to delve into using one or more major sources of open access or open educational resources to discover resources to recommend for supporting curricula, professional development, or training. You will also have a chance to collaborate with colleagues and explore ideas for promotional events and materials to build awareness of open access and open education initiatives. Leave with first-hand knowledge of new resources and an action plan for an event to promote these important initiatives within your community.
As a Health Sciences Librarian at a large public research university, requests for one off library sessions, or online how-to support, to teach evidence-based practice (EBP) research skills are common. Having mastered brief 'hands-on' activities to practice skills learned, I was ready to branch out, and so were some faculty with whom I work, especially in the fields of Nutrition, Exercise, and Wellness. For Spring 2013 I worked with faculty to try pre-class time assignments followed by participatory, hands-on, student reporting (flipped) class sessions on:
1. Finding the source of research reported in health news articles.
2. Identifying high level EBP research studies on a nutrition topic.
3. Exploring career and research tools in Kinesiology.
This session will include a brief overview of each case study with discussion opportunities.
Method: Twenty families with children 10 years and older were recruited to participate in a 3-week equine assisted learning program at a therapeutic riding center in Phoenix, Arizona. Sessions included groundwork activities with horses used to promote life skills using experiential learning theory. The study design included a mixed-method quasi-experimental one-group pretest posttest design using the following mental health instruments: Devereaux Student Strengths Assessment, Brief Family Assessment Measure (3 dimensions), and Family Satisfaction Scale to measure child social-emotional competence, family function, and family satisfaction, respectively. Acceptability was determined using a Likert-type questionnaire with open-ended questions to gain a qualitative thematic perspective of the experience.
Results: Preliminary pretest and posttest comparisons were statistically significant for improvements in family satisfaction (p = 0.001, M = -5.84, SD = 5.63), all three domains of family function (General Scale: p = 0.005, M = 6.84, SD = 9.20; Self-Rating Scale: p = 0.050, M = 6.53, SD = 12.89; and Dyadic Relationship Scale: p = 0.028, M = 3.47, SD = 7.18), and child social-emotional competence (p = 0.015, M = -4.05, SD 5.95). Effect sizes were moderate to large (d > 0.5) for all but one instrument (Self-Rating Scale), suggesting a considerable magnitude of change over the three-week period. The intervention was highly accepted among both children and adults. Themes of proximity, self-discovery, and regard for others emerged during evaluation of qualitative findings. Longitudinal comparisons of baseline and 3-month follow-up remain in-progress, a topic available for future discussion.
Discussion: Results help to validate equine assisted learning as a valuable tool in the promotion of child social-emotional intelligence strengthened in part by the promotion of family function and family satisfaction. For mental health professionals, these results serve as a reminder of the alternatives that are available, as well as the importance of partnerships within the community. For therapeutic riding centers, these results help equine professionals validate their programs and gain a foothold within the scientific community. Additionally, they invite future riding centers to follow course in incorporating evidence into their programs and examining new directions for growth within the mental health community.