ABSTRACT
The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic early in 2020 forced universities to shut down their campuses and transition to emergency remote instruction (ERI). Students had to quickly adapt to this new mode of instruction while dealing with all other distractions caused by the pandemic. This study integrates extensive data from students' institutional records at a large Historically Black College and University (HBCU) institution with data from a students' survey about the impact of COVID-19 on learning during the Spring 2020 semester to examine the impact of the transition to ERI on students' performance and identify the main factors explaining variations in students' performance. The main findings of our analysis are: (a) students' university experience was positively correlated with performance (continuing students who spent at least one academic year at the university prior to the outbreak had better performance than freshman and new transfer students), (b) students' perceived change in performance after the transition was positively associated with actual performance (students who perceived a decline in their performance after transition to ERI had significantly worse performance than other students), and (c) students' prior online learning experiences and students' emotional experiences with the COVID-19 disease were not significantly associated with performance. These results suggest that the approaches adopted by higher education institutions to support students during times of crisis should pay special attention to certain groups of students.
Subject(s)
Academic Performance/trends , COVID-19/psychology , Education, Distance/trends , Academic Performance/psychology , Black or African American/psychology , Disease Outbreaks , Education, Distance/methods , Educational Status , Humans , Learning , Pandemics , SARS-CoV-2/pathogenicity , Schools , Students , UniversitiesABSTRACT
Chronic pain and the opioid epidemic need early, upstream interventions to aim at meaningful downstream behavioral changes. A recent pain neuroscience education (PNE) program was developed and tested for middle-school students to increase pain knowledge and promote healthier beliefs regarding pain. In this study, 668 seventh-grade middle-school students either received a PNE lecture (n = 220); usual curriculum school pain education (UC) (n = 198) or PNE followed by two booster (PNEBoost) sessions (n = 250). Prior to, immediately after and at six-month follow-up, pain knowledge and fear of physical activity was measured. Six months after the initial intervention school, physical education, recess and sports attendance/participation as well as healthcare choices for pain (doctor visits, rehabilitation visits and pain medication use) were measured. Students receiving PNEBoost used 30.6% less pain medication in the last 6 months compared to UC (p = 0.024). PNEBoost was superior to PNE for rehabilitation visits in students experiencing pain (p = 0.01) and UC for attending school in students who have experienced pain > 3 months (p = 0.004). In conclusion, PNEBoost yielded more positive behavioral results in middle school children at six-month follow-up than PNE and UC, including significant reduction in pain medication use.
Subject(s)
Chronic Pain , Neurosciences , Child , Curriculum , Female , Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice , Humans , Male , Neurosciences/education , Pain Management , Public Health , SchoolsABSTRACT
Students in baccalaureate nursing programs often receive minimal exposure to specialty areas such as perioperative nursing, and new nurses may therefore fail to consider perioperative nursing as a potential practice area. Instructors from one college of nursing partnered with local hospitals to develop a program to introduce baccalaureate nursing students to the perioperative nursing specialty. This partnership program had positive outcomes for the college, the health care facilities, and the students. Six nursing students pursued careers in perioperative nursing after graduation.
