One health in our backyard: Design and evaluation of an experiential learning experience for veterinary medical students

An Experiential Approach to Canine-Assisted Learning in Corrections for Prisoners Who Use Substances

ABSTRACT

Canine-assisted interventions are a promising approach to help address substance use and mental health issues in prisons. However, canine-assisted interventions in prisons have not been well explored in relation to experiential learning (EL) theory, despite canine-assisted interventions and EL aligning in many ways. In this article, we discuss a canine-assisted learning and wellness program guided by EL for prisoners with substance use issues in Western Canada. Letters written by participants to the dogs at the conclusion of the program suggest that such programming can help shift relational dynamics and the prison learning environment, benefit prisoners' thinking patterns and perspectives, and help prisoners generalize and apply key learnings to recovery from addiction and mental health challenges. Implications are discussed in relation to clinicians' practices, prisoners' health and wellness, and prison programming.

Cultural Competence Is Everyone's Business: Embedding Cultural Competence in Curriculum Frameworks to Advance Veterinary Education

Cultural competence in professional and research practice is important to effectively deliver animal and One Health services and programs. Veterinarians work with culturally and linguistically diverse teams, clients, and communities. Cultural perspectives on the significance and perceptions of animals and differences in consultation and engagement protocols and strategies can influence client-practitioner and researcher-community relationships, impacting animal health, welfare, and/or research outcomes. Curricula have been proposed to build cultural capacity in graduates, but these have not been reported in veterinary programs, and early attempts to integrate cultural competency into the University of Sydney veterinary curriculum lacked a formal structure and were ad hoc with respect to implementation. To address this, the authors introduced a broad curriculum framework into the University of Sydney veterinary program, which defines cultural competence, perceptions of animals, effective communication, and community engagement in a range of contexts. Cultural competency learning outcomes were described for units of study. These were contextually relevant and aligned to course learning outcomes and University of Sydney graduate qualities. Constructive alignment was achieved by linking learning outcomes to teaching and learning activities and assessment. The continuum of cultural competency underpinned mapping of cultural competency across the curriculum with staged, vertical integration of key principles. Additionally, action to engage staff, students, and stakeholders in a cultural competence agenda assisted in sustaining curriculum change. The result was integration of cultural competency across the curriculum aligning with recommendations from accrediting bodies and with best practice models in medicine, nursing, and allied health programs.

An Interdisciplinary Approach to One Health: Course Design, Development, and Delivery

One Health is an approach to studying health by recognizing the interconnections between people, animals, plants, and their shared environment. This article describes the process of designing a new course on One Health at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). We brought together faculty and students from across campus to develop a multidisciplinary course dedicated to One Health and infectious diseases. This group met over 9 months to brainstorm course goals, objectives, and ideas. The group also organized a workshop to explore One Health's existing knowledge and ongoing work on the UIUC campus. We solicited the help of experts throughout the university to co-teach the course. The course curriculum and course materials included 13 unique case studies. The course was offered in fall 2019, and its goals were to add to the existing training and coursework on One Health at the University of Illinois campus, offer a course that would be suitable for students from all fields of study, and develop helpful case studies to be made available to other educators. Student feedback highlights the course's successes as well as areas for future improvement. This article describes this entire process of course development, provides recommendations to guide improvements in the next offering of the course, and details our contributions to the field of One Health education.

One health: A brief appraisal of the Tripartite - UNEP definition

In 2021, the Joint Tripartite WHO-FAO-OIE plus UNEP committed to a unifying definition of "One health", seemingly distinctive in its systems approach to health. The new definition preserves core aspects of previous One Health conceptualisations. However, it also introduces emerging currents of thought which promote integration and unification, emphasise ecosystem health, and may facilitate the exploration and adoption of traditional forms of knowledge. It is argued that the operationalisation of One Health will require a foundational understanding of the factors that underpin a health issue, along with ongoing development of educational curricula that promote One Health awareness, acceptance, and adoption. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

Knowledge and perceptions of Australian postgraduate veterinary students prior to formal education of antimicrobial use and antimicrobial resistance

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is widely perceived as a threat to human and animal health and a significant One Health issue with extensive and complex factors contributing to its occurrence and spread. Previous studies have surveyed human and animal health professionals to determine their perceptions regarding AMR and antimicrobial use (AMU). There are limited studies exploring the understanding of veterinary students despite their critical role as future antimicrobial prescribers. A cross-sectional survey was administered to an entire cohort of Doctor of Veterinary Medicine Year 2 (DVM2) students (n = 136) to investigate their knowledge and perceptions regarding AMR and AMU prior to formal education on this issue. Ninety students (66.2% of the cohort) completed the survey. There was overwhelming agreement regarding the immediacy of the problem, with 84.4% of students indicating that ‘We must take action on AMR’. Despite more than 94.4% of students correctly defining AMR, specific knowledge regarding AMR impact, contributory causes to AMR and strategies to solve the challenge of AMR was variable. Most students perceived livestock producers to have a significant role in the perpetuation of AMR due to AMU for prophylaxis (71.1% substantial/moderate contribution) and treatment (56.7% substantial/moderate contribution). Over a third of respondents (37.8%) were unsure if AMR could spread from animals to humans. Respondents perceived that various groups (dentists, doctors, veterinarians, professional organisations) are all important in ameliorating the issue of AMR. The implementation of restrictive measures to reduce veterinary prescription of antimicrobials was viewed as less important than strategies involving education, hygiene, surveillance, and guideline development/availability. To encourage the development of good antimicrobial stewardship (AMS) practices, professional veterinary education needs to foster an understanding of the scientific, behavioural and social issues that contribute to AMR and inappropriate AMU, as well as prescribers' personal contribution to AMR perpetuation and amelioration.

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Reports on perceptions of postgraduate veterinary students regarding factors responsible for AMR prior to formal instruction in a DVM program

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Students were unsure about routes of transfer of AMR between humans and animals, and antimicrobial use for routine veterinary procedures

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Students had high agreement that antimicrobial use in livestock contributed to AMR

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Students, like qualified veterinarians, do not like the concept of government restricting their ability to prescribe antimicrobials

Effective Veterinary Clinical Teaching in a Variety of Teaching Settings

This review explores different modalities for clinical teaching of veterinary learners globally. Effective clinical teaching aims to prepare graduates for a successful career in clinical practice. Unfortunately, there is scant literature concerning clinical teaching in veterinary medicine. Our intent for this review is to stimulate and/or facilitate discussion and/or research in this important area. We discuss the different forms that veterinary clinical teaching can take, depending on their setting, which can be university-based clinical activities, work-based in commercial clinical practices, or in a traditional academic setting with little to no real-time exposure to clients and patients. We suggest that each of these modalities has a place in clinical teaching of veterinary learners at any point in the curriculum but that a mix of these approaches will likely provide an improved experience for the learner. Further, we discuss strategies to improve clinical teaching in these different settings. Potential strategies related to the teaching skills of clinical instructors could include training in delivery of clinical teaching in a variety of learning settings, and instructors’ official recognition, including opportunities for career progression. Potential strategies to improve clinical teaching in different teaching settings would vary with the learning settings. For example, in traditional academic settings, case-based learning with incorporation of simulation models is one proposed strategy. The involvement of learners in ‘teach-others’ is a strategy for both traditional academic and clinical settings. Finally, clearly addressing Day One competencies is required in any clinical teaching setting.

How to Approach Cultural Humility Debriefing within Clinical Veterinary Environments

Cultural humility debriefing provides learners with the opportunity to consider how they engage with clients and patients while keeping their own identities and biases in mind. In this article, we invite a deeper understanding of the cultural humility debrief by reviewing its history and uses, describing the state of mind and communication skills required for successful facilitation, and providing a step-by-step process as a framework for veterinary educators to implement effective cultural humility debriefing in practice. This teaching technique is rooted in established communication tools-specifically, permission seeking, open-ended questions, reflective listening, and empathy. Drawing on experience from an inter-professional clinic that serves people who live at or below the national poverty level, this article offers insights to veterinary educators so they can use the cultural humility debrief. By utilizing the outlined debriefing strategies in a clinical setting, it is possible to augment any existing veterinary curriculum and strengthen education around cultural topics.

Survey of One Health programs in U.S. medical schools and development of a novel one health elective for medical students

Lessons learned from recent pandemics, such as SARS-CoV-2 have illustrated that education and training in a One Health approach, which recognizes the interdependency of the health of people, animals and the environment, are essential in improving preparations for and responses to disease outbreaks. For this reason and others, there is a critical need to provide One Health (OH) training to medical professionals early in their careers. 133 U.S. medical schools were surveyed for the incorporation of OH learning activities. Results showed that 56% of surveyed programs included OH-related subject matter, primarily in the context of preclinical classroom learning. This supports previous findings that OH education efforts in medical schools lag behind veterinary schools, with many veterinary schools already including OH as a central part of their curricula. A two week OH elective course for third year medical students was developed and implemented at Georgetown University School of Medicine. Topics such as emerging infectious diseases, zoonoses, vector-borne diseases, epidemiology, emergency preparedness, the human-animal bond, and effects of climate change on public health were discussed. The 21 participants were surveyed before and after the course regarding their knowledge and understanding of OH. Participation in the course enhanced the students' knowledge of OH and furthermore, the students' perception of the importance of incorporating OH within the curriculum and in their future careers changed significantly. This study provides clear evidence that successful integration of OH material is achievable at low cost through interdepartmental and interdisciplinary collaboration. A more holistic approach to health care that takes into consideration environmental, wildlife, and domestic animal factors, and introduction of concepts such as OH into the medical school curriculum, can help close the educational gaps identified in the surveys.

Stimulating Intrinsic Motivation in Millennial Students: A New Generation, a New Approach

There has been a fundamental change in health care pedagogy to address the demands and challenges posed by the present generation of millennial students. There is also a growing recognition of the role of intrinsic motivation as a catalyst in a positive learning experience. The term intrinsic motivation refers to energizing behavior that comes from within an individual and develops due to an inherent interest in the activity at hand. However, stimulating intrinsic motivation in the present generation of millennial health care students is a daunting task, considering their diverse and disparate nature. In addition, the inherent generational differences between educators and students, and an increasing emphasis on technological tools have resulted in a dichotomy in the educational environment leading to the development of a greater incidence of burnouts among students. Hence, numerous innovative techniques have been introduced in health care education to enhance the levels of intrinsic motivation in these students. Unfortunately, most of these approaches have only been moderately successful due to their limited ability to address the unique educational expectations of millennial students. The cumulative evidence suggests that specific approaches to stimulate intrinsic motivation should aim at nurturing the learning efforts of students, bridging the generational barriers between educators and students, and ameliorating the stress associated with health care education. Hence, the specific aim of this narrative review is to suggest empirically proven curricular strategies and institutional reforms to enhance intrinsic motivation in health care students belonging to the Millennial Generation.

Development, implementation, and evaluation of a novel multidisciplinary one health course for university undergraduates

Today's collaborations across fields of health and wellness are insufficient to meet societies' challenges in combating disease and maintaining the ecosystem and public health. In this article, we present a One Health curriculum model designed to encourage undergraduate students of varying disciplines to value the connectedness of animals, humans, and the environment and to think innovatively about solutions to priority global health issues. We present the design and implementation of a course that brought together multiple faculty from different fields of study, including the dental, medical, nutrition, and veterinary schools, in a curriculum designed for undergraduates primarily from Arts & Sciences fields. The curriculum was collaboratively designed around four key One Health categories: 1) Infectious zoonotic diseases and global health, 2) Naturally occurring shared disease in companion animals that can serve as models for human disease, 3) Human-animal interactions, and 4) Impact of environmental health on human and animal health. We show this course successfully deepened students' understandings of One Health, its role in addressing high priority health issues and the overall benefits of a One Health approach to tackling societal problems. We also report a positive experience by the faculty working in collaboration to implement the curriculum model and the overall enthusiasm of students for the course, all of whom would recommend it to their peers. We conclude by proposing the potential of the curriculum model underlying this course to fill the need for One Health Curricula in programs preparing future health professionals.

Design and implementation of a molecular imaging elective for third-year pharmacy students

OBJECTIVE

To design, implement, and evaluate a molecular imaging elective course that would expose Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD) students to fundamentals of various imaging modalities and their pre-clinical and clinical applications.

METHODS

The "Surveys of Multi-Modality Imaging" course is a two-credit hour elective course offered to third-year PharmD and doctoral students. Experiential learning methods including active learning application-based exercises were used to supplement didactic lectures in the form of field trips (with follow-up debriefings), small group team-based tasks, hands-on demonstrations, visual modelling, gamification with problem sets, concept maps regarding given modalities, and concluding with written summary reports and formal in-class group presentations. In addition to standard course evaluations, a pre- and post-course survey were conducted to assess the students' confidence regarding course content.

RESULTS

Since its implementation in 2013, 101 students have completed the course with 72% being PharmD students (n = 73) and the remainder being doctoral students in pharmaceutical science (n = 28). Pre- and post-assessments completed by the students the last two offerings (n = 40 of a possible 43) indicated a shift in students' self-reported confidence in discussing imaging modalities from a total of 2.4% confidence (pre-course) to 97.4% confidence (post-course). Also, post-course survey indicated that 77.5% (n = 31 of 40 participants) students strongly agreed that our immersive and experiential learning activities were beneficial to overall learning for this elective.

CONCLUSION

Students who participated in this innovative experiential learning-grounded course gained an appreciation for molecular imaging and its value and role in modern drug therapy.