Findings, progress, and lessons learned during the first 3 years of a student-led interprofessional health clinic in regional Australia.

We describe the establishment and operation of a student-led interprofessional chronic disease prevention and management clinic in regional Australia. Our aim was twofold. First, to report on service delivery, student placement, and health outcome data; and second, to discuss key lessons learned during the first 3½ years of clinic operations. Between July 2019 and December 2022, 146 (79.3%) clinic participants completed the 4-month program and participated in an average of 48.4 occasions of service (total 7,060). The clinic supported 1,060 clinical placement weeks across 147 health students. There was a significant improvement across health measures reported at program completion, with the largest changes observed for the 6-min walk test and preference-adjusted quality of life. Nine key challenges and lessons were identified that affected operations and service delivery, which should be of interest to healthcare teams considering establishing an interprofessional student-led clinic.

Aspire2Health and COVID-19: the impact of the pandemic on outcomes from an outreach program to increase high school student interest in rural health careers.

INTRODUCTION: Rural health career outreach programs promote health careers to secondary school students and aim to address rural health workforce shortages. This study analyses student feedback data from Aspire2Health, a multidisciplinary rural health career outreach program conducted in Queensland Australia before COVID in 2019, and during COVID lockdown and isolation periods during 2020-2021. The study aims were to assess the suitability of the program and its elements, the program's short-term impact on students' interest in health careers and whether COVID restrictions on program delivery affected students' program experience and outcomes. METHODS: We conducted statistical and semantic analysis of data collected pre- and peri-COVID from participating secondary school students living in regional, rural and remote Australian communities. Data validity was established by triangulating quantitative results from items using a five-point Likert scales, qualitative themes from short-response items and frequency analysis of themes. Data were collected pre-COVID (2019, n=125) and peri-COVID (2020-21, n=248). RESULTS: Student responses to the program remained extremely positive despite COVID-imposed restrictions. Feedback scores indicated quite strong agreement in pre- and peri-COVID periods that the program motivated students to pursue a career in health (mean (M)=4.6 pre-COVID v M=4.5 peri-COVID) and that students would recommend the program to a friend (M=4.8 pre-COVID v M=4.7 peri-COVID). Overall ratings of the event were high, although a drop occurred during the peri-COVID period (M=4.8 pre-COVID v M=4.7 peri-COVID; p=0.043). Activity interest rankings indicated that, irrespective of the pandemic, clinical skills sessions, meeting health professionals and watching the emergency scenario were more interesting to students than ambulance and hospital tours (p<0.001). Four themes were generated from analysing qualitative data. In response to the item 'What did you enjoy the most?' the themes were 'clinical skills' (n=203, 55% of respondents) and 'interacting with professionals' (n=146, 39% of respondents). Responses to 'Is there anything we could do differently?' produced the themes 'no changes required' (n=158, 58% of respondents) and 'variety and duration' (n=40, 11% of respondents). 'Variety and duration' described students' desire for more variety, more professionals and more time to engage in activities. The themes and their frequency among student responses indicate strong support for the validity of the results. CONCLUSION: This study found that the Aspire2Heath program continued to motivate rural students to pursue health careers during the COVID-19 pandemic and that student interest is greatest during activities with hands-on clinical skills and student-professional interactions. These results suggests that rural health career outreach programs can be run under challenging social circumstances with confidence that students can be successfully encouraged to pursue health careers. Furthermore, program design should emphasise hands-on clinical skills and interactions with professions. These findings have practical implications for rural health career outreach programs, particularly those faced with restricted financing or external circumstances that limit their access to external healthcare resources.

Perceptions, concerns and reported behaviours in response to the first wave of the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic across metropolitan, regional, rural and remote Australian communities.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate coronavirus disease 2019 community transmission concerns and adherence to social distancing and hygiene practices across metropolitan, regional, rural and remote areas in Australia. DESIGN: Cross-sectional online survey of Australian adults conducted between April and May 2020 through convenience snowball sampling. SETTING: A range of locations across all states and territories of Australia. PARTICIPANTS: Six hundred and seventy-seven Australian adults, of which 78.8% lived outside of a metropolitan area. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Perceived threat of coronavirus disease 2019; social distancing guidelines and adherence; infection concerns; hygiene practices; frequency of leaving the house; impact of coronavirus disease 2019 on day-to-day life. RESULTS: Almost all respondents perceived the threat of the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic was serious. There were high levels of support for the Australian Government's social distancing guidelines, although the perception that social distancing guidelines in participants' communities were 'too strict' increased with remoteness area classification. Most respondents reported adherence with Australian Government social distancing guidelines. There was an association between remoteness and risk perception, with non-metropolitan respondents more likely to feel safe when leaving the house. However, there was no association between geographical remoteness and self-reported adherence with Australian Government social distancing guidelines. CONCLUSIONS: This study provides an important initial insight into Australian perceptions and behaviours relating to the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic, and how perceptions and behaviours varied by geographical remoteness. The geographical remoteness of communities should be considered by policy makers to ensure effective communication with the Australian public regarding coronavirus disease 2019 and ongoing adherence with preventative health behaviours.

Involving patients in clinical research: the Telescot Patient Panel.

BACKGROUND: To date, patient involvement in the development of clinical research work has been limited. In 2011, the Telescot research team commenced work on a feasibility trial to investigate home telemonitoring of blood pressure for people who have experienced stroke or transient ischaemic attack (TIA). The team decided to involve patients in the development of the research. OBJECTIVES: To improve research design through patient involvement. METHOD OF PATIENT INVOLVEMENT: A modified form of the 'Scrutiny Panel' approach was used to involve people who had stroke in the research project. RESULTS: The Patient Panel supported the research in three key ways: it informed patient communication; it presented patient perspectives on the applicability and usability of the intervention; and it guided the development of the qualitative study. DISCUSSION: The initiative was considered a positive experience for all. However, challenges were identified in terms of the time and cost implications of undertaking patient involvement. IMPLICATION FOR RESEARCH PRACTICE: Importance is attached to adequate project planning and development, partnership working with community-based organizations and the necessity for clear role delineation between patients and professionals to enable effective collaborative working. CONCLUSIONS: The Telescot Patient Panel was beneficial in supporting the development of the feasibility trial. The Panel approach was considered transferable to other clinical research contexts.