PEARLS debriefing for social justice and equity: integrating health advocacy in simulation-based education.

Addressing health inequities in health professions education is essential for preparing healthcare workers to meet the demands of diverse communities. While simulation has become a widely recognized and effective method for providing safe and authentic clinical learning experiences, there has been limited attention towards the power of simulation in preparing health practitioners to work with groups who experience health disparities due to systems of inequality. Balancing technical proficiency with educational approaches that foster critical reflection and inform action oriented towards social accountability is essential.

Virtual reality simulation for facilitating critical reflection and transformative learning: pedagogical, practical, and ethical considerations.

There is growing recognition that preparing health professionals to work with complex social issues in the delivery of healthcare requires distinct theoretical and pedagogical approaches. Recent literature highlights the significance of employing simulated environments which aim to immerse learners in the experiences of diverse populations and bridge the gap between academic learning and lived realities across a diverse society. Virtual Reality (VR) is gaining traction as a promising pedagogical approach in this context.

Measuring Scholarly Practice in Respiratory Therapists: The Development and Initial Validation of a Scholarly Practice Tool.

Introduction: Respiratory therapists (RTs) must apply competencies to address the health care needs of the public. Although all competencies are deemed essential, scholarly practice requires that professionals critically assess their practices, integrate evidence-based literature, and enhance the care they deliver to patients. Though scholarly practice is also associated with professional empowerment, role satisfaction, and improved patient care, it is rarely measured.

Mitigating Algorithmic Bias in AI-Driven Cardiovascular Imaging for Fairer Diagnostics.

: The research addresses algorithmic bias in deep learning models for cardiovascular risk prediction, focusing on fairness across demographic and socioeconomic groups to mitigate health disparities. It integrates fairness-aware algorithms, susceptible carrier-infected-recovered (SCIR) models, and interpretability frameworks to combine fairness with actionable AI insights supported by robust segmentation and classification metrics. : The research utilised quantitative 3D/4D heart magnetic resonance imaging and tabular datasets from the Cardiac Atlas Project's (CAP) open challenges to explore AI-driven methodologies for mitigating algorithmic bias in cardiac imaging.

Disentangling faculty development: A scoping review towards a rich description of the concept and its practice.

Background: There is wide variation in how faculty development (FD) is practiced globally and described in the literature. This scoping review aims to clarify how FD is conceptualised and practiced in health professions education.

Methodology: Using a systematic search strategy, 418 papers, published between 2015-2023, were included for full text review.

Stakeholder Perspectives on Retention Strategies for Rehabilitation Professionals: A Qualitative Study.

There is a scarcity of health human resources worldwide. In occupational therapy (OT), physical therapy (PT), and speech-language pathology (S-LP), attrition and retention issues amplify this situation and contribute to the precarity of health systems. Therefore, we aimed to investigate retention strategies for rehabilitation professionals in Quebec.

High workload and under-appreciation lead to burnout and low job satisfaction among radiographers.

Introduction: Burnout and low job satisfaction in healthcare can impact patient safety and staff retention. This study aims to gain information on the factors influencing burnout and job satisfaction among radiographers in the UK, Ireland and internationally. This can inform strategies for improving the workforce supply and demand imbalance.

Identifying practices of information transfer between the hospital and primary care for older adults: a scoping review protocol.

Introduction: Transition of care from hospital to primary care has been recognised globally as a high-risk scenario for older patients' safety by the WHO. Indeed, sub-optimal care transitions are associated with increased mortality, morbidity and adverse events.Improving communication through timely and accurate clinical information transfer has been identified as a key component of optimal care transitions.

Perceptions and reported use of extended reality technology in Royal College-Accredited Canadian Simulation Centres: a national survey of simulation centre directors.

Background: Extended reality technology (XR) in simulation-based medical education is becoming more prevalent. This study examined Canadian simulation centre directors' perceptions toward XR and their self-reported adoption of XR within their centres.

Methods: We conducted a national, cross-sectional survey study to examine five kinds of XR: Immersive Virtual Environments, Screen-based Virtual Worlds, Virtual Simulators, Immersive Augmented Reality, and Non-immersive Augmented Reality.

Validation of the Blended Learning Usability Evaluation–Questionnaire (BLUE-Q) through an innovative Bayesian questionnaire validation approach.

Purpose: The primary aim of this study is to validate the Blended Learning Usability Evaluation–Questionnaire (BLUE-Q) for use in the field of health professions education through a Bayesian approach. As Bayesian questionnaire validation remains elusive, a secondary aim of this article is to serve as a simplified tutorial for engaging in such validation practices in health professions education.

Methods: A total of 10 health education-based experts in blended learning were recruited to participate in a 30-minute interviewer-administered survey.

Losing Much More Than a Transplant: A Qualitative Study of Kidney Transplant Recipients' Experiences of Graft Failure.

Introduction: Kidney transplant recipients with graft failure are a growing cohort of patients who experience high morbidity and mortality. Limited evidence guides their care delivery and patient perspective to improve care processes is lacking. We conducted an in-depth exploration of how individuals experience graft failure, and the specific research question was: "What impact does the loss of an allograft have on their lives?"

Methods: We adopted an interpretive descriptive methodological design.

Bringing a Systems Approach to Living Donor Kidney Transplantation.

Introduction: Living donor kidney transplantation (LDKT) is the best treatment option for patients with kidney failure. Efforts to increase LDKT have focused on microlevel interventions and the need for systems thinking has been highlighted. We aimed to identify and compare health system-level attributes and processes that are facilitators and barriers to LDKT.

An Environmental Scan of Canadian Kidney Transplant Programs for the Management of Patients With Graft Failure: A Research Letter.

Background: Kidney transplant recipients with graft failure (KTR-GF) and those with a failing graft are an increasingly prevalent group of patients. Their clinical management is complex, and outcomes are worse than transplant naïve patients on dialysis. In 2023, the Kidney Disease: Improving Global Outcomes (KDIGO) organization reported findings from a controversies conference and identified several clinical practice priorities for KTR-GF.

Walking the Talk: "Reflexivity" to Advance Integration of Patient Reported Outcomes for Cancer Care Screening.

In this commentary, we propose the use of video-reflexive ethnography (VRE) as a means to support integration of patient-reported outcomes (PROs) in cancer care screening. As for any policy or intervention, the optimization of PROs depends on moving beyond their mere formal introduction, and depends on the integration of PROs in the everyday practice contexts of health care professionals (HPEs). The use of VRE allows for video-playback sessions among oncology professionals to support team-based learning and practice-change grounded in "reflexivity.

The scholarly and practice profile of respiratory therapists in Canada: A cross-sectional survey.

Introduction: Respiratory therapists (RTs) are expected to provide high-quality care for patients with chronic and acute cardiopulmonary conditions across the lifespan by staying abreast of emerging scientific evidence and effectively integrating it into clinical practice. This integration of evidence is encompassed within the competency of scholarly practice. However, there is currently a limited understanding of RTs' scholarly practice.

What if we consider research teams as teams?

Research teams are an important means by which knowledge is generated in Health Professions Education (HPE). Although funding agencies encourage the formation of interdisciplinary and interprofessional research teams, we know little about how our interdisciplinary and interprofessional research teams are functioning, nor how best to ensure their success. Indeed, while HPE Scholarship Units and research environments have been the object of study, little work has been focused on research teams themselves.

Unravelling the differences between observation and active participation in simulation-based education.

Background: In simulation-based education, the effectiveness of observation or active participation on the retention of knowledge and skills is uncertain. The aim of the study was to investigate knowledge retention, technical and non-technical skills and self-efficacy among observers and active participants in a simulated palliative extubation.

Method: We included medical and nursing undergraduates and residents.

"I seemed calmer, clearer, and better able to react to challenging situations": phenomenological reflections on learning about mindfulness in health professions education.

It is widely acknowledged that healthcare practitioner well-being is under threat, as many factors like excessive workloads, perceived lack of organizational support, the rapid introduction of new technologies, repercussions of the COVID-19 pandemic, and other factors have transformed the health care workplace. Distress, anxiety and burnout are on the rise, and are particularly concerning for health professions' students who must navigate challenging academic and clinical demands, in addition to personal responsibilities. While not a panacea for the systemic issues at play, 'mindfulness practices' have shown some promise in supporting students to navigate stressful environments.

Perspectives on virtual interviews and emerging technologies integration in family medicine residency programs: a cross-sectional survey study.

Background: During the coronavirus disease of 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, in-person interviews for the recruitment of family medicine residents shifted to online (virtual) interviews. The purpose of this study was twofold: (1) to gather the ideas about virtual interviews of family medicine applicants (interviewees), and faculty and staff who interviewed these applicants (interviewers), and (2) to describe interviewers' and interviewees' opinions of use of emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and virtual reality (VR) in the recruitment process as well as during clinical practice.

Methods: This was a cross-sectional survey study.

How can we use distance education to teach medicine in conflict-affected countries?

Rates of global conflict have increased by over 40% from 2020 to 2023, increasing the demands on healthcare systems and impacting healthcare training, education and workforce. There is a need for innovative educational support from the international community. Distance education is a sustainable avenue that is not as contingent on travel, political, or financial restrictions.

Eight ways to get a grip on validity as a social imperative.

Validity as a social imperative foregrounds the social consequences of assessment and highlights the importance of building quality into the assessment development and monitoring processes. is informed by current assessment trends such as programmatic-, longitudinal-, and rater-based assessment, and is one of the conceptualizations of validity currently at play in the Health Professions Education (HPE) literature. This Black Ice is intended to help readers to get a grip on how to embed principles of in the development and quality monitoring of an assessment.