Publications by authors named "Sara North"

Article Synopsis
  • There is a pressing need to enhance access and inclusion in health professions education, particularly in Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT) programs, which this study aims to investigate through student perspectives.
  • The lack of established best practices for promoting student belonging highlights the importance of including student voices to inform DPT program improvements and compliance with new accreditation standards.
  • The study found six key themes affecting belonging among students, including staff relationships, program policies, peer dynamics, diverse identities, communication, and available resources, providing valuable insights for enhancing the educational experience.
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Introduction: There is a need to investigate the application of systematic, scholarly methods to develop and implement a sustainable, flexible process for evaluating academic-clinical partnership effectiveness. The purpose of this study was to explore the potential for multiattribute utility analysis (MAUA) methodology to be applied in the context of academic-clinical partnership evaluation.

Review Of The Literature: Persistent systemic challenges related to academic-clinical partnership volume and quality require intentional strategies addressing the inherent complexities of the clinical learning environment and contextual differences between academic institutions.

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Best practices have not yet been established in the interprofessional education (IPE) literature to guide the ideal dose and duration of IPE experiences across the curriculum. As such, the content, structure, and delivery format of IPE offerings vary significantly across institutions. The University of Minnesota had the rare opportunity to evaluate learner-perceived collaborative competency outcomes due to the transition of its centrally offered introductory IPE course.

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Healthcare providers need to simultaneously identify with their own profession and the broader interprofessional group to improve interprofessional team functioning and collaboration. The purpose of this study was to explore firstyear healthcare students' interprofessional identity development following a brief introductory interprofessional activity. The Extended Professional Identity Theory (EPIT) served as the framework for this qualitative study.

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Though technological capabilities to provide high-quality, flexible interprofessional education (IPE) have continued to grow, this remains a largely undeveloped area in the clinical learning environment (CLE). To address this gap, the University of Minnesota launched the Collaboration in Action: Learner-Driven Curriculum (CIA-LDC) as an IPE model designed for sustainability in a post-pandemic world. Over the course of two academic years, the CIA-LDC framework evolved and expanded through an iterative, data-informed approach incorporating student feedback, academic programme co-creation, evolving literature, and lessons learned.

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Background And Purpose: Data analytics are increasingly important in health professions education to identify trends and inform organizational change in rapidly evolving environments. Unfortunately, limitations exist in data currently available to determine physical therapy (PT) academic excellence. It is imperative that the American Council of Academic Physical Therapy (ACAPT) be able to demonstrate data-informed progress in addressing the common challenges faced by Doctor of Physical Therapy programs.

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Strong partnerships between academic health professions programs and clinical practice settings, termed academic-clinical partnerships, are essential in providing quality clinical training experiences. However, the literature does not operationalize a model by which an academic program may identify priority attributes and evaluate its partnerships. This study aimed to develop a values-based academic-clinical partnership evaluation approach, rooted in methodologies from the field of evaluation and implemented in the context of an academic Doctor of Physical Therapy clinical education program.

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Introduction: Cost burden in health professions education is rising. To bridge the gap between growing tuition and stagnating wages, student loans are increasingly obtained to cover educational costs. The spiraling after-effects are a source of acute concern, raising alarms across institutions and occupations.

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Integrative medicine and health (IMH) content and pedagogy for health professional education best practices are not established. Physician assistant (PA), physical therapy (PT), and occupational therapy (OT) students' knowledge and self-perception of integrative health, lifestyle behavior change, and professional well-being were assessed pre- and post- participation in IMH online modules. Students demonstrated significant increases in knowledge and self-perception scores from pre- to post-test.

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Purpose: As the United States health care model progresses towards medical teams and the country's population continues to diversify, the need for health professional education programs to develop and implement culturally specific interprofessional education (IPE) becomes increasingly imperative. A wide range of models exists for delivering and implementing IPE in health education, but none have included the cultural components that are vital in educating the health professional.

Methods: A cross-cultural decentralized IPE model for physician assistant (PA) and physical therapy (PT) students was developed.

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