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Clinical education has long been accepted as integral to the education of physiotherapy students and their preparation for professional practice. The clinical environment, through practice immersion, situates students in a powerful learning context and plays a critical role in students' construction of professional knowledge. Despite this acknowledged centrality of practice and clinical environments to the students' experiential construction of professional knowledge, there has been limited exploration of learning theories underpinning clinical education in the literature. In this paper, we explore a selection of learning theories underpinning physiotherapy clinical education with a view to providing clinical educators with a firm foundation on which to base wise educational practices and potentially enhance physiotherapy students' clinical learning experiences. This exploration has drawn from leading thinkers in the field of education over the past century. © 2013 Informa Healthcare USA, Inc.

[No abstract available]

INTRODUCTION: Undertaking training in rural areas is a recognised way of helping recruit staff to work in rural communities. Postgraduate year two medical doctors in New Zealand have been able to undertake a three-month placement in rural practice as part of their pre-vocational training experience since November 2010. AIM: To describe the experience of a rural general practice team providing training to a postgraduate year two medical trainee, and to describe the teaching experience and range of conditions seen by the trainee. METHODS: A pre- and post-placement interview with staff, and analysis of a logbook of cases and teaching undertaken in the practice. RESULTS: The practice team's experience of having the trainee was positive, and the trainee was exposed to a wide range of conditions over 418 clinical encounters. The trainee received 22.5 hours of formal training over the three-month placement. DISCUSSION: Rural general practice can provide a wide range of clinical experience to a postgraduate year two medical trainee. Rural practices in New Zealand should be encouraged to offer teaching placements at this training level. Exposure to rural practice at every level of training is important to encourage doctors to consider rural practice as a career.

Background: Continuing professional development of nurses is increasingly necessary to keep abreast of rapid changes in nursing care. Concurrently, the nursing workforce is growing older. Therefore, future strategies for continuing professional development should be directed at both younger and older nurses. Although there is some evidence that various personal, organisational and social factors result in lower participation of older workers in development activities, age-related differences in continuing professional development among nurses remain under-explored. Objective: This study explored nurses' and their managers' perceptions of the differences in continuing professional development between younger and older nurses. Design: A qualitative study using focus groups. The interviews were analysed using a thematic analysis strategy. Settings: A large academic hospital in the Netherlands. Participants: 22 nurses in three age groups (20-34 years, 35-49 years and 50-65 years) and 10 nurse managers participated in four focus groups. Results: Six themes regarding differences in continuing professional development for younger and older nurses emerged from the data: (1) level of focus, (2) creating possibilities to leave the bedside, (3) ambitious young nurses, (4) same resources, different requirements, (5) ceiling in courses for older nurses, and (6) social status and self esteem. Overall, participants seemed to conceptualise continuing professional development along three dimensions: purpose, level of formality of learning activities, and scope of development. Conclusions: The findings suggest that participants perceive differences in continuing professional development between younger and older nurses. Its purpose and the contributing learning activities are considered to change during the lifespan. When developing strategies for continuing professional development, the requirements and needs of different age groups need to be taken into account. Whether the scope of professional development is confined to " keeping up to date" or used more broad, including " expansion of skills and knowledge" seems to relate more to nurses' attitudes towards work than to their age. © 2012 Elsevier Ltd.

Background: Training for Australian general practice, or family medicine, can be isolating, with registrars (residents or trainees) moving between rural and urban environments, and between hospital and community clinic posts. Virtual communities of practice (VCoPs), groups of people sharing knowledge about their domain of practice online and face-to-face, may have a role in overcoming the isolation associated with general practice training. Objective: This study explored whether Australian general practice registrars and their supervisors (trainers) would be able to use, and would be interested in using, a VCoP in the form of a private online network for work and training purposes. It also sought to understand the facilitators and barriers to intention to use such a community, and considers whether any of these factors may be modifiable. Methods: A survey was developed assessing computer, Internet, and social media access and usage, confidence, perceived usefulness, and barriers, facilitators, and intentions to use a private online network for training purposes. The survey was sent by email link to all 139 registrars and 224 supervisors in one of Australia's 17 general practice training regions. Complete and usable responses were received from 131 participants (response rate=0.4). Results: Most respondents had access to broadband at home (125/131, 95.4%) and at work (130/131, 99.2%). Registrars were more likely to spend more than 2 hours on the Internet (P=.03), and to use social media sites for nonwork purposes (P=.01). On a 5-point Likert scale, confidence was high (mean 3.93, SD 0.63) and was negatively associated with higher age (P=.04), but not associated with training stage. Social media confidence was lower, with registrars more confident than supervisors for almost all social media activities. On a 5-point Likert scale, overall usefulness was scored positively (n=123, mean 3.63, SD 0.74), and was not significantly associated with age or training level. The main concerns of respondents were worries about privacy (registrar: 61/81, 75.3%; supervisor: 30/50, 60.0%) and insufficient time (registrar: 41/81, 50.6%; supervisor: 36/50, 72.0%). Using a multivariate generalized linear regression model, training stage and perceived usefulness were positively predictive, and concerns about privacy and time were negatively predictive of intention to use a private online network. Conclusions: General practice registrars and supervisors are interested in using a private online network, or VCoP, for work and training purposes. Important considerations are the extent to which concerns such as privacy and usefulness may be overcome by training and support to offset some other concerns, such as time barriers. Participants at an early stage in their training are more receptive to using an online network. More senior registrars and supervisors may benefit from more training and promotion of the online network to improve their receptiveness.

Little is known about tobacco smoking and health risk drinking among apprentices at vocational schools. The aim of this study was to determine the proportions of subjects who smoke or drink alcohol in a risky way, their preparedness to stop smoking, and the proportions of smokers and risk drinkers according to occupational groups and general school education. The methods included a survey of all apprentices in their first year of vocational training and all trainees in a course of preparation for occupation in a north-eastern region of Germany. All vocational schools of the study region participated. At the time of the survey, 77.9% of the apprentices were present. Among them, 99.8% (N=1 124) filled in questionnaires. The data revealed that among the total sample 61.2% were daily or less than daily current smokers. Among adults, 8.2%, among those at age 17 or younger 12.9% had a mean daily consumption of more than 12 grams (females) or more than 24 grams (males) of pure alcohol. These proportions were 12.6-18.0% among apprentices of blue collar occupations and 2.8-6.5% among apprentices of white collar or health occupations. Among subjects who had left school without graduation, 85.0%, and among those with the highest school education 36.9% were current smokers. It is concluded that vocational schools are a suitable and essential setting to reach a high risk population concerning tobacco smoking or unhealthy alcohol consumption. © Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart · New York.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to highlight the benefits of implementing the Project method, by applying the technique in adult vocational training environments. Design/methodology/approach: While the central idea of this method stems from Greek antiquity, the method itself began to evolve within American pragmatism based on the principles of cognitive and Gestalt psychology. In the present paper, the assessment process of the Project method was undertaken with the multi-methodical approach and use of combined levels of triangulation to determine whether it can be applied to a group of adults, training in the subject of marketing communications. Findings: Since the projected conditions from the bibliography are observed through the implementation of the Project technique it appears that adult trainees activate learning skills and competencies of emotional intelligence. Thus, the creation of knowledge operates as a "spiral" process starting from the individual level and expanding to the business and social environment with significant benefits for participants. Practical implications: This application proposes fertile speculation about alternative, practical instruction, in the future environments of the broader vocational education, as well as their effective connection with society and the economy in general. Originality/value: This paper provides empirical results from the application of Project technique in vocational training for adults. It highlights the benefits of this method in teaching standards, personal and social development, human resource development and, consequently, in the development of the business, economic and wider environment. © Emerald Group Publishing Limited.

Background: Successful transition to practice programs that use competency-based assessment require the involvement of all staff, especially those undertaking the preceptor role. Methods: Qualitative data were collected using interview methods. Participants were 14 newly employed nurses and 7 preceptors in the child and family community health service in South Australia. Participant narratives were recorded electronically, transcribed, and thematically analyzed using the paradigm of critical social science. Results: Five themes were identified that describe enablers as well as barriers to applying a flexible transition to practice program using competency-based assessment. These included flexibility in the program design, flexibility on the part of preceptors, flexibility to enable recognition of previous learning, flexibility in the assessment of competencies, and flexibility in workload. Conclusion: To ensure successful application of a transition to practice program using competency-based assessment, preceptors must understand the flexible arrangements built into the program design and have the confidence and competence to apply them. © SLACK Incorporated.

The use of portfolios has rapidly expanded in recent years and is now relevant to a number of different aspects of professional practice in medicine in general and psychiatry in particular, including training, appraisal and revalidation as well as continuing professional development. In this article I will examine the background of important changes and new trends in medical education on which the increasing use of portfolios is based, their potential value as learning and assessment tools, and some of the challenges and dilemmas associated with their use.

Medical professionals and public consumers expect that new physical therapy graduates possess cognitive, technical, and behavioral skills required to provide safe and high-quality care to patients. The purpose of this study was to determine if a repertoire of ten professional behaviors assessed at the beginning of doctorate of physical therapy education and before the first significant clinical internship could be enhanced in a semester course in gross human anatomy using individual formative feedback. During the human anatomy course, 28 first-year physical therapy students completed six biweekly, anonymous self- and peer assessment surveys that targeted ten professional behaviors important to physical therapists. All professional behaviors were assessed using a five-point Likert scale. Feedback reports occurred at week eight (mid-semester) and week 16 (end-of-semester) and comprised the direct intervention components of this study. At the midpoint of the semester, professional behavior scores and narrative comments from weeks two, four, and six were compiled and shared with each student by one of three faculty members in a feedback session. Students then submitted biweekly self-and peer professional behavior assessments (weeks 10, 12, and 14) for the remainder of the human anatomy course. Differences between preintervention and postintervention scores for each of the ten professional behaviors were compared using the Wilcoxon signed-ranks test. Upon receiving mid-semester individual feedback, students demonstrated significant improvement in each of the ten professional behaviors. Results from this study indicated a gross anatomy laboratory dissection experience during the first academic semester provided an effective opportunity for teaching and assessing professional behaviors of doctoral students in physical therapy. © 2013 American Association of Anatomists.