The importance of incorporating systems thinking and One Health in global health classrooms: findings from a One Health simulation activity.

There are several challenges and opportunities in health education in global health. Given the field's rapid expansion, demand for including systems thinking and One Health (a unifying approach that considers human, animal, and environmental health) in global health courses has recently increased. Simulation activities provide an avenue to attain and assess learning objectives that foster critical and systems thinking. This study carried out a One Health simulation activity in an undergraduate global health course, conducted a focus group discussion, and obtained responses from written questionnaires from students who participated in the activity. Data were analyzed using thematic analysis. Results show that the One Health simulation was instrumental for students to understand the complex interactions between different actors and stakeholders in global health systems. The One Health simulation also improved class dynamics, peer-to-peer interactions, and collaborations in the remaining part of the course. The activity helped assess two of the critical thinking learning objectives of the course, and there was some evidence that student agency and confidence may have been improved. Evidence shows that the activity helped students understand the principles of systems thinking and apply them in complex scenarios. Findings support including interactive simulation activities in global health courses to include elements of system science and One Health into classroom activities innovatively and engagingly.

Arts Engagement as a Health Behavior: An Opportunity to Address Mental Health Inequities.

The significance of mental health inequities globally is illustrated by higher rates of anxiety and depression amongst racial and ethnic minority populations as well as individuals of lower socioeconomic status. The COVID-19 pandemic has further exacerbated these pre-existing mental health inequities. With rising mental health concerns, arts engagement offers an accessible, equitable opportunity to combat mental health inequities and impact upstream determinants of health. As the field of public health continues to shift its focus toward social ecological strategies, the social ecological model of health offers an approach that prioritizes social and structural determinants of health. To capture the impacts of arts engagement, this paper creates an applied social ecological model of health while aiming to advocate that engaging in the arts is a protective and rehabilitative behavior for mental health.

Exploring public health education's integration of critical race theories: A scoping review.

Introduction: Public health has declared a commitment toward diversity as a whole, with a commitment toward addressing and dismantling racism being at the forefront. Although public health has admirably taken on this mission, and the foundational principles of public health align with social justice and health equity, public health as a discipline is vastly behind other fields in integrating and utilizing critical race theorizations. Of particular concern is the lack of critical race theorization within public health education materials. Public health education serves as a precursor to public health practice and situates topics and competencies that are essential to one's foundational public health knowledge and skillset, thus the use of strong theoretical groundings is critical in public health education. Objectives: Therefore, to explore the current landscape of public health educational research that employs critical race theories, this study sought to conduct a scoping review investigating the current literature of public health pedagogical, instructional, and curricular efforts that utilize race and antiracist theorization principles as a means to administer public health education. More specifically, we sought to investigate how have faculty and instructors published their integration of race theorization in public health curriculum/instruction within the United States since 2011. Results: We found 18 examples from peer-reviewed literature of curricular, pedagogical, or instructional practices and strategies that integrate critical theories of race, including contemplative pedagogy (n = 1), antiracism (n = 3), Public Health Critical Race praxis (n = 4), Critical Race (n = 5), critical service-learning/community engagement (n = 2), ethnic studies (n = 1), and intersectionality (n = 2). Conclusion: These articles present a wide breadth of innovative approaches to infusing critical race studies within public health higher education, ranging from individual assignments to course design and implementation to institutional culture change, thus demonstrating the multifaceted nature of critical race studies within micro-learning communities and macro-discipline practices. Identifying theoretically grounded, exemplary models and scholarly recommendations of pedagogical, instructional, and curricular practices provides readers the opportunity to borrow from successful practices and implement concepts of race, racism, antiracism, intersectionality, and more into their classrooms.

Self-Efficacy and Student Satisfaction in a Clinical-Year Diagnostic Imaging Course Using an Online Instruction Format.

Accurate interpretation of radiographic images is critical to diagnosing clinical patients. Remote instruction in radiology has become more common at veterinary colleges as academic institutions struggle to fill open veterinary radiologist positions and as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. This study sought to gather the feedback of fourth-year veterinary students via pre- and post-study surveys (n = 45) and focus groups (n = 7) about a newly implemented 2-week long radiology rotation. Ninety-eight percent of students reported having taken an online course before, and on both pre- and post-study surveys, students commonly reported feeling interested, determined, and attentive. On average, students reported that they were neither more nor less engaged than they would have been in an in-person course and that they understood the material neither better nor worse than they would have in an in-person course. Students reported that the key to their success was primarily hard work; secondarily, instructor availability and student ability were important. Students did not rate luck as having much influence on their success. Although diagnostic imaging can be a challenging subject to master, students effectively learned this subject through online instruction. They provided feedback for the course's continued improvement; their comments centered around improved interactivity, including providing automated quiz questions' answers and increased instructor availability. Data collected in this study will help to guide further development of the radiology course.

What does community resilience mean in the context of trauma-informed communities? A scoping review.

Several communities are implementing trauma-informed, community-level approaches focused on addressing/preventing adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), yet most community resilience definitions from published articles are based on acute traumas. This scoping review aims to determine how community resilience is defined and operationalized within the context of chronic/complex traumas. METHODS: We performed a rigorous, comprehensive literature search using multiple databases. RESULTS: The 38 included articles addressed multiple types of chronic traumas, including historical trauma, poverty, minority stress, mass incarceration, and ACEs. A variety of definitions of community resilience were cited, several of which stressed the ability to thrive despite risk factors and the safety and wellbeing of residents. Few articles operationalized community resilience within the context of ACEs, suggesting significant gaps in the literature. CONCLUSION: This review can serve as an important building block to develop expanded definitions of community resilience for chronic traumas and assist communities in promoting community-wide responses to ACEs.