Explore the vast range of titles available.

The politics and science of health and disease remain contested terrain among scientists, health practitioners, policy makers, industry, communities, and the public. Stakeholders in disputes about illnesses or conditions disagree over their fundamental causes as well as how they should be treated and prevented. This thought-provoking book crosses disciplinary boundaries by engaging with both public health policy and social science, asserting that science, activism, and policy are not separate issues and showing how the contribution of environmental factors in disease is often overlooked.

Background The Malaysian Allied Health Profession Act (Act 774) regulates the practice of allied health practitioners in Malaysia, with two described professions viz . allied health profession (AHP) and profession of allied health (PAH). While AHPs have been clearly identified by the law, comprehensive implementation of the act requires development of specific criteria in defining any profession as PAH in the Malaysian context. Hence, the research aims to explore and identify the criteria for defining such professions for healthcare policy direction in Malaysia. Methods This research utilised two methods of qualitative research (document review and focus group discussions (FGDs) involving 25 participants from four stakeholders (higher education providers, employers, associations and regulatory bodies). Both deductive and inductive thematic content analysis were used to explore, develop and define emergent codes, examined along with existing knowledge on the subject matter. Results Sixteen codes emerged from the FGDs, with risk of harm, set of competency and skills, formal qualification, defined scope of practice, relevant training and professional working within the healthcare team being the six most frequent codes. The frequencies for these six codes were 62, 46, 40, 37, 36 and 18, correspondingly. The risk of harm towards patients was directly or indirectly involved with patient handling and also relates to the potential harms that may implicate the practitioners themselves in performing their responsibilities as the important criterion highlighted in the present research, followed by set of competency and skills. Conclusions For defining the PAH in Malaysia, the emerged criteria appear interrelated and co-exist in milieu, especially for the risk of harm and set of competency and skills, with no single criterion that can define PAH fully. Hence, the integration of all the empirically identified criteria must be considered to adequately define the PAH. As such, the findings must be duly considered by policymakers in performing suitable consolidation of healthcare governance to formulate the appropriate regulations and policies for promoting the enhanced framework of allied health practitioners in Malaysia.

While explicit conceptual models help to inform research, they are left out of much of the health professions education (HPE) literature. One reason may be the limited understanding about how to develop conceptual models with intention and rigor. Group concept mapping (GCM) is a mixed methods conceptualization approach that has been used to develop frameworks for planning and evaluation, but GCM has not been common in HPE. The purpose of this article is to describe GCM in order to make it more accessible for HPE scholars. We recount the origins and evolution of GCM and summarize its core features: GCM can combine multiple stakeholder perspectives in a systematic and inclusive manner to generate explicit conceptual models. Based on the literature and prior experience using GCM, we detail seven steps in GCM: (1) brainstorming ideas to a specific “focus prompt,” (2) preparing ideas by removing duplicates and editing for consistency, (3) sorting ideas according to conceptual similarity, (4) generating the point map through quantitative analysis, (5) interpreting cluster map options, (6) summarizing the final concept map, and (7) reporting and using the map. We provide illustrative examples from HPE studies and compare GCM to other conceptualization methods. GCM has great potential to add to the myriad of methodologies open to HPE researchers. Its alignment with principles of diversity and inclusivity, as well as the need to be systematic in applying theoretical and conceptual frameworks to practice, make it a method well suited for the complexities of contemporary HPE scholarship.

Background Faculty development (FD) is essential for strengthening health professions education, yet context specific evidence from emerging medical schools in lower- and middle-income settings remains limited. This study aimed to identify faculty development needs, perceived barriers, and preferred delivery formats at the College of Health Sciences, VinUniversity, with the goal of informing contextually appropriate program design. Methods A descriptive cross-sectional needs assessment was conducted using an electronic survey that addressed faculty development needs in teaching, research, and leadership; perceived barriers to accessing development initiatives; and preferred formats for organizing training programs. Results From 350 faculty members invited, 121 participated (response rate: 34.6%), representing a diverse range of disciplines. Across all domains, faculty rated most development topics as important or very important, with the highest mean scores observed for teaching evidence-based medicine, clinical teaching and supervision, assessment design, research methodology and international research collaboration. The study also identified significant barriers to FD such as time constraints (80%), language challenges in English-delivered programs (31%), and high program costs (36%). Despite these barriers, there was a notable preference for interactive training formats, with workshops and seminars (76%), and hands-on training (75%) being the most favored. Notably, 76% of respondents were willing to serve as trainers, indicating promising potential for peer-led FD initiatives. Qualitative analysis highlighted four themes: the need to prioritize clinical and adjunct faculty, the impact of workload and limited institutional support, demand for structured pedagogical and research training with international linkages, and the importance of linguistically and culturally adapted programs. Conclusion This study identifies convergent faculty development priorities, barriers, and preferred strategies in a Vietnamese health professions context. The findings point to the value of flexible, affordable, and bilingual initiatives that emphasize core teaching, research, and leadership skills, explicitly target clinical and adjunct faculty, and make use of interactive and peer led formats. Multi institutional and longitudinal studies are warranted to examine how such programs can be implemented and to assess their impact on faculty practice and educational outcomes in similar settings.

Social media may promote knowledge sharing but what users do with the new knowledge and how it may influence practice remains to be known. This exploratory study used a social constructivist lens to understand how health professions educators and researchers integrate knowledge from social media into their respective practices. We purposively sampled health professions educators and researchers using the hashtags #MedEd, #HPE, and #HealthProfessionsEducation on Twitter/X. We obtained informed consent, conducted interviews via videoconference, and engaged in multiple cycles of deductive and inductive coding and analysis. Participants identified as educators and researchers ( n  = 12), as researchers ( n  = 1), or as educators ( n  = 1) from Canada ( n  = 8), the United States ( n  = 3), and Switzerland, Ireland, and China ( n  = 1, respectively). Eight participants actively used social media (i.e., creating/posting original content); six participants indicated passive use (i.e., reading/retweeting content). They discussed the importance of crafting a consumable message and social media identity to streamline the content shared. Social media’s accessible, non-hierarchical nature may facilitate knowledge-sharing, whereas the potential spread of misinformation and technological requirements (e.g., internet access, country-specific restrictions on platforms) present barriers to uptake. Participants described using knowledge gained from social media as teaching tools, new research methodologies, new theoretical frameworks, and low-risk clinical interventions. Previous research has demonstrated how social media has empirically been used for diffusion or dissemination rather than as an active process of evidence uptake. Using knowledge translation frameworks, like the Knowledge to Action or Theoretical Domains frameworks, to inform social media-based knowledge sharing activities in health professions education is recommended.

Background The number of healthcare professionals leaving clinical practice and transitioning to alternative careers in health professions education is increasing. Among these non-practicing healthcare professionals, concerns have been reported regarding tensions in relation to identity, role, and credibility in their new field. There are suggestions that this is a particularly pressing issue for minoritised professionals who make this transition. Support is critical to attract and retain diverse talent within health professions education teaching and research. The purpose of this scoping review is to explore the career experiences of non-practicing healthcare professionals who work in health professions education internationally. Methods Arksey and O’Malley’s framework has been utilised to guide the design of this scoping review process and will be used throughout the course of the review. A comprehensive search of seven electronic databases and limited search of Google Scholar will be conducted, as well as a hand search of eligible article reference lists. Two reviewers will independently screen all articles based on inclusion criteria, with conflicts resolved by a third reviewer. Data from included articles will be charted, collated, and analysed thematically. Meta-data will be summarised quantitatively. Discussion This scoping review aims to explore the role and experiences of non-practicing healthcare professionals working within health professions education. The review will follow established scoping review guidelines and will include studies from various regions and languages, provided an English translation is available. The study remit will be broad, including both quantitative and qualitative studies, as well as reviews and opinion papers. Limitations may include the exclusion of non-English articles and potential difficulty of identifying papers which discuss the experiences of non-practicing clinicians. However, the review will provide insight into the current knowledge on what it is like to be a non-practicing clinician working within health professions education and identify gaps for both future research, and future support for those making this career transition. Systematic review registration Open Science Framework Registration  https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/485Z3

Due to the complexity and multidimensional nature of professional identity assessment in health professions education, it is essential to establish appropriate criteria. Therefore, we conducted a scoping review to explore the current knowledge in this process and map the directions for future research. The present review was based on the five-step framework of Arksey and O’Malley. Eligible articles were examined using descriptive analysis of studies on the characteristics and psychometrics of the tools for professional identity assessment and their underlying theories. After an extensive search, 9,924 studies were identified, 162 of which were selected for full-text review, and finally, 17 articles qualified for inclusion in the study. For the most part, the target group consisted of studies on nursing and medical students. In 14 of the included studies, tools and psychometric properties were mentioned. Most professional identity assessment tools were designed or developed based on identity theories, particularly the social identity theory and Kagan’s constructive-developmental theory, which were used more often than others. This scoping review will help researchers to choose or develop reliable and valid tools under clear conceptual and theoretical frameworks to assess the formation and development of professional identity in health professions education.

The field of health professions education research draws inspiration from many disciplines, creating a dynamic socio-cultural context that is replete with contests over research rigour and quality. These knowledge politics are never definitively resolved. Thus, an important question that any graduate program established within the field has to contend with is what should constitute expertise in HPER. In this paper we explore interrelated contextual, conceptual and procedural dimensions of expertise to substantiate our suggestions for a core curriculum for graduate students in health professions education. We argue that an expert in health professions education research should have both an appreciation of when knowledge politics are relevant to their research process as part of their procedural knowledge and also an awareness of why these politics can affect their work as part of their conceptual knowledge.

Background Videos demonstrating clinical skills are considered powerful educational tools. However, there is limited evidence on the effectiveness of comprehensive multimedia skills courses on knowledge and skills acquisition. We used cognitive load theory to develop an online course to introduce medical students to core paediatric physical examination concepts and skills, within a resource-constrained learning environment with high student-to-clinical teacher ratios. This study evaluated the impact and acceptance of the online course. Methods We used an observational quasi-experimental analysis for the impact evaluation. The main outcome was students’ marks for the paediatrics station in the final paper-based observed structured clinical examination (OSCE). We measured the frequency of viewing core course content and used the median number of views to divide 351 fourth-year students into low and high users. Propensity score matching analysis was used to adjust for potential selection biases of course use. Low- and high-users were matched on gender, age, type of course entry, previous academic performance, and OSCE group before calculating the average treatment effect (ATE). The matched ATE was also calculated for different sub-groups of the class. A voluntary, online, cross-sectional survey about the course was administered post-OSCE. Closed-ended survey responses were analysed using descriptive statistics, and open-ended questions using content analysis. Results Increased course usage significantly increased performance in the paediatrics component of the OSCE: high course users scored an average of 7.0% points [95%CI: 3.8–10.2] higher. The impact of the course was greatest for the middle 60% of the class, in terms of previous academic performance, with a matched ATE of 8.2% [95%CI: 4.3–12.2]. The survey response rate was 74.9%. The respondents expressed positive perceptions about the overall value of the course, including the clearly presented content that fostered an appreciation for paediatrics and prepared them for hospital rotations and the OSCE. Conclusions This study demonstrates that an online paediatric physical examination skills course can significantly improve students’ examination performance, particularly for those in the middle academic performance range. The findings support the integration of multimedia clinical skills courses in medical curricula, especially in resource-constrained settings.

Background Men who have sex with men (MSM) are a priority group in Malawi’s national response to Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS). There are limited data on service providers’ acceptability to deliver appropriate sexual health services in relation to HIV prevention, care and treatment targeting the MSM. We assessed attitudes of healthcare providers already working, health professions students and faculty at health professions training institutions regarding the provision of MSM focused HIV related health services. Methods We conducted a qualitative study between April and May 2017 in Lilongwe, Malawi. We purposively recruited 15 participants (5 health service providers, 5 health professions students and 5 faculty of tertiary health training institutions) among whom individual in-depth interviews were conducted. Interviews were audio recorded, transcribed and analysed thematically. Results Participants recognized MSM as having health needs and rights. Participants generally expressed willingness to deliver appropriate healthcare because they perceived this as their professional responsibility. Participants suggested that it was the responsibility for MSM to disclose their sexual orientation and or preferences when they access care such that healthcare providers better anticipate their care needs. They suggested a need to increase the availability of MSM-centered and friendly health services as well as trained providers that are non-judgmental, non-discriminatory and have respect for people’s right to health care access. Conclusion Despite widespread poor attitudes against MSM in Malawi, health service providers and health professions students and faculty accepted and were willing to provide MSM-focused health services. The acceptability and willingness of health service providers, health professions students and faculty to provide health services to MSM offer hope and scope for efforts to strengthen the delivery of health services and quality of care to MSM in Malawi.