University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences electronic health record and medical informatics training for undergraduate health professionals

The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) is planning interprofessional training in electronic health records (EHRs) and medical informatics. Training will be integrated throughout the curricula and will include seminars on broad concepts supplemented with online modules, didactic lectures, and hands-on experiences. Training will prepare future health professionals to use EHRs, evidence-based medicine, medical decision support, and point-of-care tools to reduce errors, improve standards of care, address Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act requirements and accreditation standards, and promote appropriate documentation to enable data retrieval for clinical research. UAMS will ensure that graduates are ready for the rapidly evolving practice environment created by the HITECH Act.     

The construction of a questionnaire to evaluate the science orientedness of students' identities as learners from a cognitive perspective

Forming a science-oriented identity is considered a process underlying both interest and achievement in science education. A questionnaire is developed for describing “identities as learners” and evaluating their science orientedness. The instrument (k = 65) focuses on cognitive aspects. An internal coherence of .88 was found. Five subscales were defined that proved interrelated yet distinguishable. A pilot amongst 40 students from Dutch general secondary education showed that preferring science over non-science subjects and relatively high grades for sciences subjects were strongly correlated to science orientedness of the learner identity (r_s  = .65; p < .001). The results support the reliability and validity of the questionnaire but also point to the importance of identity as a central concept in studying science education. It is concluded that we made a promising step in constructing an instrument for monitoring the development of cognitive aspects of science-oriented identities during (innovative) science education.     

PERSISTENCE AND THE RELATIONSHIP TO ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE MEASURES: A LONGITUDINAL STUDY

The persistence rates of community college transfer students were contrasted to those of native university students over a six year period. A general trend was observed which suggested community college transfer students were less likely to persist when returning to school for their second or third semesters of coursework. However, those transfer students remaining for the third semester of coursework were just as likely to persist as the native students for the next semester. Questions were raised about the validity of the notion of “transfer shock”, which may actually be a reflection of the change in the student population being observed.     

VOCATIONAL PREPARATION: HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT SPECIALISTS’ ASSESSMENT

This study investigated the perceptions of Human Resource Development (HRD) Specialists regarding the preparation of Illinois community college vocational/ technical program graduates. Two hundred and forty‐five respondents answered a mail questionnaire concerning the technical, human relations, problem solving and basic skills of program graduates. The graduates were employed in Nursing and Allied Health, Industrial Technology, Secretarial and Clerical, Agriculture, Marketing and Management, Accounting and Data Processing, and Social and Public Services. The perceptions of these HRD Specialists toward community college program graduates are positive. Graduates of Nursing and Allied Health programs were consistently rated higher than graduates of other programs. Overall, graduates were ranked highest on human relations skills and lowest on problem solving skills. Finally, implications for practice included suggestions for involving HRD Specialists in community college vocational programs.