Gabrielle Brand

Expanding the Caring Lens: Nursing and Medical Students Reflecting on Images of Older People

In changing higher education environments, health profession’s educators have been increasingly challenged to prepare future health professionals to care for aging populations. This article reports on an exploratory, mixed-method research study that used an innovative photo-elicitation technique and interprofessional small-group work in the classroom to enhance the reflective learning experience of medical and nursing students. Data were collected from pre- and postquestionnaires and focus groups to explore shifts in perceptions toward older persons following the reflective learning session. The qualitative data revealed how using visual images of older persons provides a valuable learning space for reflection. Students found meaning in their own learning by creating shared storylines that challenged their perceptions of older people and themselves as future health professionals. These data support the use of visual methodologies to enhance engagement, reflection, and challenge students to explore and deepen their understanding in gerontology.

Expanding worldview: Australian Nursing Students’ experience of cultural immersion in India

Abstract Increasing cultural diversity and a sense of global community has necessitated the introduction of cultural competence in the education of health care providers. Some institutions have utilised cultural immersion programmes to address this need of cultural competence. Studies have not yet described what this experience is for Australian nursing students. The purpose of this study is to describe the immersion experience of a group of senior Australian nursing students who participated in a 5-week cultural immersion programme in India.

“Helping someone with a skill sharpens it in your own mind”: a mixed method study exploring health professions students experiences of Peer Assisted Learning (PAL)

BackgroundPeer assisted learning (PAL) has been described as “the development of knowledge and skill through active help and support among status equals or matched companions”. To enhance the learning experience of health professions students and improve collaborative and collegial learning, six pilot Peer Assisted Learning (PAL) projects were conducted across a health science faculty.MethodsA responsive mixed method evaluation design was applied to explore the adequacy of the preparation for PAL, the impact PAL had on student attainment of examination, consultation, communication and feedback skills and to explore students’ learning experiences through PAL.ResultsThe 149 participants agreed the training programme was well organised, offered a safe learning environment and prepared the participant for the PAL activity. The impact of PAL included improvements in students’ confidence and ability to give feedback and developed students’ teaching, clinical and communication skills. Qualitative analysis revealed participants experienced deeper learning through teaching and learning from their peers, became more open to giving and receiving feedback and valued the comfortable/safe learning environment offered through PAL.ConclusionProviding appropriate training in peer teaching and feedback and the schools engagement and openness to peer learning in the classroom and clinical setting enhances students’ peer assisted learning experience.

“You don’t know half the story”: deepening the dialogue with young mothers in Australia

Pregnant and young mothers’ stories often go untold or are poorly represented within dominant health and social care discourses. Consequently, narratives of young mothers are largely absent from social and health care literature, especially in relation to how young women make sense, understand, and experience young motherhood. Drawing on 7 months of participant observation fieldwork at a community service, and 11 in-depth interviews, we discuss six metaphorical themes which capture the experiences of young mothers using a narrative approach. These include: Picking up the Pieces; Walking a Narrow and Familiar Path; Jumping over Puddles; Riding the Rapids to Motherhood; Living with Dirty Looks; and Asking for Directions. Contrary to the wider community’s deficit view and stereotypes of young mothers, what emerged from the narratives was quite a different story. Becoming a young mother meant taking a stand against stigma from the wider community; recognising motherhood as a significant and transformational turning point in their lives, one that opened doors to alternative storylines of hope, autonomy and agency, especially given a supportive context. These findings enhance our understandings by widening the lens to diverse realities that exist in young mothers’ lives and present a strong case for using a narrative approach to research and practice when working with young mothers.

Capturing the 'art' of emergency medicine: Does film foster reflection in medical students?

Integrating arts and humanities‐based pedagogy into curricula is of growing interest among medical educators, particularly how it promotes reflection and empathy. Our aim was to explore whether a 2.50 min film titled ‘The Art of the ED’ stimulated reflective learning processes in a group of first year medical students.

Depth of Field: Using photographs and narratives to explore and reflect on ageing

Abstract The learning landscape of the higher education environment is changing, with an increased focus over the past decade on how educators might begin to cultivate reflective skills in health professions students. In addition, changing professional requirements demand that health professionals are adequately prepared to practise in today’s complex healthcare systems, including responding to changing demographics of population ageing. In this educational case study, we will share how we (a group of education, medical and nursing academics) developed ‘Depth of Field: Exploring Ageing’ a digital, consumer-driven, interprofessional reflective learning resource that uses photographs, narrative and small-group work to strengthen reflective capacity in current and/or future health professionals.

Qualitative research thrives in primary care with the support of research training and mentoring

Primary care faces many challenges with increasing complexities, multi-morbid aging patient populations and diminishing resources for health care. Qualitative research increases our understanding o...

Depth of Field: Teaching the Art of Reflection to Medical Students

Fostering reflective practice and lifelong learning skills is a core component of medical education, particularly during the clinical years. However, reflective models tend to focus on reflection-in-action and after-action, and neglect to consider reflection-before-action or as we term it ‘preflection’. In addition, a growing ageing population and complex health care systems require medical educators to prepare future doctors to adopt positive approaches to older age and illness, including practicing humanistic models of care for older people.

Ethnography 1: Revisioning teenage pregnancy using participant observation: Life in the happy hut

A social ecological model of health (Brofenbrenner, 1979) recognises the dynamic exchange between young people and their environment including the impact wider social, cultural, and physical environments have on peoples health and well-being...