Effects of a virtual simulation-based interprofessional education activity for rehabilitation nursing using shared resources: A quasi-experimental study.

BACKGROUND: Interprofessional education (IPE) is crucial for effective clinical practice but remains challenging to be implemented. The IPE activity using virtual simulation (VS) may potentially solve the time and space challenges of in-person interprofessional simulations. Using shared VS resources may increase the popularity of virtual teaching in conditions of limited resources. OBJECTIVES: Using shared resources, this study aimed to design and implement a VS-based IPE activity for undergraduate healthcare students, exploring the effects. DESIGN: A quasi-experimental design was used, with assessments conducted before and after the activity. SETTINGS: One university and its affiliated hospitals in south China. PARTICIPANTS: Forty-two undergraduate students majoring in nursing, clinical medicine, and rehabilitation therapy participated in this study. METHODS: A test composed of ten questions was used to evaluate knowledge of rehabilitation. The Chinese version of Critical Thinking Disposition Inventory (CTDI-CV) and the Chinese version of Assessment of Interprofessional Team Collaboration in Student Learning Scale (AITCS-II (Student)-CV) were used to evaluate critical thinking and interprofessional collaboration. Participants' opinions about the activity were assessed, considering satisfaction, perceived effectiveness, the ease of shared VS platform use, and suggestions about the activity. RESULTS: Significant improvements were shown in pre- and post-test total scores on knowledge of rehabilitation, mean scores for overall critical thinking disposition, and mean item scores on overall interprofessional team collaboration. CONCLUSIONS: The study provides a reference for designing and implementing VS-based IPE but the effects of this innovative pedagogy on students' rehabilitation knowledge, critical thinking, and interprofessional collaboration ability still need to be further confirmed. Most of the students gave positive feedback on the activity. Technical issues should be addressed to decrease their impacts on the VS practice experience.

Evaluating the effects of simulated interprofessional teaching on the development of clinical core competence in nursing students: a mixed methods study.

BACKGROUND: While single-method studies have reported on the effectiveness of simulated interprofessional teaching, our understanding of its full effects remains incomplete. Teaching design also provides no relevant theoretical guidance, which reduces the scientific quality and rigor of research. The purpose of this work was to study the effects of the simulated interprofessional education (SIPE) teaching model based on the 3P theory on the course of "Clinical Critical Thinking Training" through a convergent mixed method, and to provide the basis for future teaching design. METHODS: A convergent mixed-method design was used, which consisted of a survey and a semi-structured interview. Data collection took place from September 2021 to July 2022. A cluster sampling method was used to select 60 full-time nursing students from a school in China, and randomly divide them into a control group of 36 and an experimental group of 24. According to the principle of voluntary participation, 6 students majoring in clinical medicine and 6 students majoring in pharmacy were recruited to join the experimental group to form an interprofessional team. The students studied "Clinical Critical Thinking Training" together, in which the control group used traditional simulation teaching and the experimental group used SIPE. The CCTDI (California Critical Thinking Disposition Inventory) and AITCS-II Student (Assessment of Interprofessional Team Collaboration in Student Learning Scale) were used for quantitative evaluation before and after the course, and descriptive statistics and Mann-Whitney U test were used to compare the critical thinking and interprofessional collaboration skills of the two groups of students. Semi-structured interviews were used for qualitative evaluation. Thematic analysis was used to understand student development on the basis of inter-professional core competencies and learning experience. RESULTS: The students' interprofessional cooperation abilities and critical thinking scores improved compared with the beginning of the course, but the scores of the experimental group were significantly higher than the control group (p < 0.05). Three themes emerged regarding simulated interprofessional teaching: clarifying team positioning, improving team efficiency, and optimizing the learning experience. CONCLUSION: SIPE can build students' critical thinking, teamwork, and interprofessional core competencies, which makes it a useful teaching design.

Application of telehealth intervention in Parkinson's disease: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

INTRODUCTION: Telehealth intervention has been proposed as a sustainable and innovative intervention approach to Parkinson's disease (PD) patients, but there are still conflicting results in the literature about its effect. This study aimed to evaluate the efficacy of telehealth intervention for PD patients. METHODS: PubMed, EMBASE, CENTRAL and China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) were searched from the inception to June 2018 for randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and cohort studies, without language restrictions. When feasible, data were statistically pooled for meta-analysis using Review Manager 5.3. Otherwise, narrative summaries were used. RESULTS: Twenty-one studies were included. With respect to PD severity, compared with usual care, telehealth intervention was beneficial in lowering motor impairment of PD patients significantly (mean difference (MD) = -2.27, 95% confidence interval (95% CI) -4.25 to -0.29, p = 0.02), rather than mental status (MD = -0.98, 95% CI -2.61 to 0.65, p = 0.24), activities of daily living (MD = -1.51, 95% CI -4.91 to 1.89, p = 0.38) and motor complications (MD = -0.36, 95% CI -1.31 to 0.59, p = 0.46). Telehealth intervention did not lead to significant reduction in quality of life (standardized mean difference (SMD) = 0.04, 95% CI -0.20 to 0.28, p = 0.76), depression (SMD = -0.12, 95% CI -0.37 to 0.13, p = 0.34), cognition (MD = 0.37, 95% CI -0.34 to 1.09, p = 0.31) and balance (MD = 0.09, 95% CI -2.49 to 2.66, p = 0.95). DISCUSSION: Telehealth intervention is an effective option for individuals with PD to improve their motor impairment. Further well-designed studies are warranted to confirm our findings.

Effect of telehealth intervention on breast cancer patients' quality of life and psychological outcomes: A meta-analysis.

Introduction Telehealth intervention has been proposed as an innovative intervention approach to breast cancer patients, but there are still conflicting results in the literature about its effect. Methods PubMed, EMBASE, CENTRAL and China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) were searched from inception to 3 October 2016 for randomized controlled trials (RCTs) which assessed the effect of telehealth intervention versus usual care in breast cancer patients. No language restrictions were used. Standardized mean difference (SMD) with corresponding 95% confidence interval (95% CI) was pooled when needed. Subgroup and sensitivity analyses were conducted if necessary and feasible. Results Twenty RCTs with a total of 2190 participants were included into this meta-analysis. Compared with usual care, telehealth intervention was associated with higher quality of life (SMD = 0.60, 95% CI 0.18-1.01, p = 0.005) and self-efficacy (SMD = 0.59, 95% CI 0.19-0.98, p = 0.003), with less depression (SMD = -1.29, 95% CI -2.28 to -0.30, p = 0.01), distress (SMD = -0.25, 95% CI -0.40 to -0.10, p = 0.001) and perceived stress (SMD = -0.30, 95% CI, -0.59 to -0.02, p = 0.04). However, anxiety score did not differ significantly between the two groups (SMD = -0.09, 95% CI -0.22 to 0.04, p = 0.17). Discussion Telehealth intervention is superior to usual care in breast cancer patients for improved quality of life, higher self-efficacy and less depression, distress, and perceived stress. However, these results should be recognized cautiously due to between-study heterogeneity, indicating that further well-designed RCTs are warranted.