Challenges and opportunities for educating health professionals after the COVID-19 pandemic.

The education of health professionals substantially changed before, during, and after the COVID-19 pandemic. A 2010 Lancet Commission examined the 100-year history of health-professional education, beginning with the 1910 Flexner report. Since the publication of the Lancet Commission, several transformative developments have happened, including in competency-based education, interprofessional education, and the large-scale application of information technology to education. Although the COVID-19 pandemic did not initiate these developments, it increased their implementation, and they are likely to have a long-term effect on health-professional education. They converge with other societal changes, such as globalisation of health care and increasing concerns of health disparities across the world, that were exacerbated by the pandemic. In this Health Policy, we list institutional and instructional reforms to assess what has happened to health-professional education since the publication of the Lancet Commission and how the COVID-19 pandemic altered the education process.

Interprofessional Education: A Summary of Reports and Barriers to Recommendations.

PURPOSE: Effective, quality care to achieve the newly developed sustainable development goals requires the development of collaborative teams and is predicated on implementing transformative interprofessional education and on team members who are equally empowered. This is a report on The Lancet commission on transformative education for health professionals and the National Academy of Medicine's dialogues on developing and implementing innovations to enhance collaborations and to facilitate the effectiveness of healthcare teams. METHODS: Using postcolonial feminist theory for critical analysis and integrations of findings from both reports, as well as for identification of barriers to achieving equity in team functioning. FINDINGS: The global Lancet commission and the National Academy of Medicine/Institute of Medicine forum developed frameworks that could be used to educate the next generation of professionals based on identifying the local needs of communities within a global context. Recommendations included breaking down silos that exists between schools and using an equity and justice framework in developing educational programs; utilizing contemporary innovations in teaching that correspond with innovations in healthcare systems; and insuring investments in time, energy, and resources in interprofessional education. However, without addressing the silos created through professional identities and power differentials, goals of interprofessional education and collaborative practice may not be achieved. CONCLUSIONS: While a great deal has been written about interprofessional education, it is imperative for faculty in the different professional schools and for members of healthcare teams to engage in dialogues that address the fundamental and most obstinate barriers to forming equitable teams, which is the consistent narrative of medical privilege and centrism. CLINICAL RELEVANCE: The dialogues about medical privilege and physician centrism in education and health care could drive the development of programmatic approaches to enhancing interprofessional education and teamwork based on justice and equity frameworks.

The undeaning transition: Toward becoming a former dean.

Stepping up from leadership is a protracted transition that involves a complex set of interactions with many constituents. It begins with making the personal decision to step up to integrating the role of the dean in existing repertoire of roles that the person enacts. Deliberate planning, awareness of phases, challenges, goals and strategies, clear communication, transparency, and supportive interactions enhance the potential of experiencing a smooth and a healthy transition for the dean who is stepping up, the incoming dean, and the organization. The beginning and the ending of the undeaning transition are not definitive, but indicators of a healthy transition could be identified along the way through disengagement from old roles, focused new interactions, engagement in new roles, redefinition of goals, and narratives and dialogues about topics that reflect a new set of goals. The nature of the role of former dean is developed through careful onboarding strategies for the new dean and interactions with a new set of constituents who perceive the dean as a former dean. There are five phases involved in undeaning. These are the decision, the search, the naming of the new dean, the exit, and reclaiming professorial voice.

Improving women's cardiovascular health: a position statement from the International Council on Women's Health Issues.

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the number one killer of women worldwide, and it remains the primary cause of death and disability in both developed and developing countries. The International Council on Women's Health Issues is an international nonprofit association dedicated to the goals of promoting the health, health care, and the well-being of women. Based on the outcomes of a facilitated discussion at its 18th biannual meeting, delegates aim to raise awareness about the potent influence of gender-specific factors on the development, progression, and outcomes of CVD. Key recommendations for decreasing the burden of CVD are also discussed.

The Doctor of Nursing Practice: a national workforce perspective.

In 2004, the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) adopted a position statement concerning the future of advanced practice nursing education. A target date of 2015 was articulated as the point by which master's preparation for advanced practice nurses would be replaced by doctoral level education. Seismic shifts in the realities surrounding nursing education and practice have occurred since the proposal to require a Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) degree for entry into advanced practice nursing was proposed. Unprecedented economic challenges have resulted in significant budget downturns for all sectors, including higher education. The consequent cutbacks, furloughs, and restructuring in educational operations of all types have placed enormous demands on faculty, staff, and students across the country. In addition, the growing incidence and earlier onset of chronic disease, a rapidly aging population, health care reform agendas, a shortage of primary care practitioners, and projected severe shortages of nursing faculty have raised fundamental questions about the capacity of nursing education to produce the numbers of advanced practice nurses needed. This article addresses the changing realities and growing concerns associated with the future of advanced practice nursing. Recommendations to ensure continuing development of advanced nursing practice that serves the interests and needs of the public now and in the future are presented within the context of a national workforce perspective.

The health of women and girls determines the health and well-being of our modern world: A white paper from the International Council on Women's Health Issues.

The International Council on Women's Health Issues (ICOWHI) is an international nonprofit association dedicated to the goal of promoting health, health care, and well-being of women and girls throughout the world through participation, empowerment, advocacy, education, and research. We are a multidisciplinary network of women's health providers, planners, and advocates from all over the globe. We constitute an international professional and lay network of those committed to improving women and girl's health and quality of life. This document provides a description of our organization mission, vision, and commitment to improving the health and well-being of women and girls globally.

Factors related to dimensions of grief intensity among African-American women after pregnancy loss.

Grief is a normal response after pregnancy loss. Potentially, prolonged periods of grief can have a negative impact on physical or mental health. African-American women experience pregnancy loss at rates that are at least twice the rate of any other racial or ethnic group. However, the research literature on pregnancy loss has failed to include representative samples of African-American women or to explore and describe adequately their unique experiences after pregnancy loss. The purpose of this study was to examine the factors that are related to grief intensity after pregnancy loss (i.e., miscarriage, ectopic pregnancy, or fetal death) among African-American women. The results presented in this paper are components of a larger study in which the grief and coping experiences of African-American women following pregnancy loss were examined, using both quantitative and qualitative analysis. Eighty-six (N = 86) African-American women with a self-reported history ofinvoluntary pregnancy loss were recruited using a variety of culturally sensitive methods. The women completed three instruments: the Perinatal Grief Scale-Short Form (PGS-S), the Women's Role Integration Protocol (WRIP), and a personal profile tool designed specifically for the study. Pearson correlations were computed using pairwise deletion. Four models were tested using hierarchical multiple regression. Age and level of role integration were recurring predictors of the various dimensions of grief as measured by the PGS-S. Being older and reporting more major role satisfaction contributed to having less grief intensity after pregnancy loss. It is proposed that women with a history of pregnancy loss be assessed for residual grieving across their life span. Future explorations should address two main areas: specific interpersonal relations that facilitate grief management and the partners' experiences after pregnancy loss.

Nursing Theory in the Quest for the Sustainable Development Goals.

The 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) are intended to promote a safe, healthy, and equitable world by the year 2030. Nurses are at the forefront of realizing the 2030 agenda through concerned citizenship and professional leadership. Nursing theory informs knowledge development and theory-guided practice essential for nurses working in all domains and in all nations. Although all extant nursing theories are relevant, a select few are discussed in detail to make explicit the links between theory and SDG realization. Middle-range theories are also valuable in helping to contextualize nursing practice through the lens of the SDGs. The SDGs address five themes - People, Planet, Peace, Prosperity, and Partnership - and theory remains vital to ensure nurses working in all settings are equipped to meet the needs of humanity and the world, now and in the future.

Trapped in circle of threats: violence against sex workers in Thailand.

Most researchers studying sex work have focused on the risks of sexually transmitted diseases, predominantly HIV, for sex workers, their clients, and subsequent partners. Violence against these women often goes undocumented and unnoticed. Consequently, few researchers have addressed violence against sex workers, and these few have generated limited evidence about the nature of violence from the sex-worker perspective--especially the street sex worker perspective. In this study, we used qualitative methods to explore characteristics of violence against street sex workers and how violence influences personal and societal health risks. The participants were 28 female street sex workers. The data were collected through in-depth interviews with 23 women, one focus group with 5 women, and observations of these women in their working and social environment. The results revealed that violence against sex workers can be clustered into three categories, threat to their life and health, threat to control of work and financial security, and finally, threat to humanity. Because they are disadvantaged, and engage in illegal employment, theses women were trapped in a circle of threats. To reduce violence, sex work should be decriminalized along with strategies to decrease poverty and social inequality. A special agency needs to be established to protect the rights and safety of sex workers.

Women and Health: Women's Dual Roles as Both Recipients and Providers of Healthcare.

With the many economic, demographic, social and epidemiological global transitions, a Harvard-Penn-Lancet commission reviewed the current health status of women and its relationship to sustainability, and redefined the field as women and health. Four major recommendations were offered, insuring mechanisms to count women properly as providers and recipients of care, to value them by insuring protective policies, to treat and compensate them fairly and equitably, and to develop strategies to be accountable for sustaining and implementing the recommendations. However, without a life span approach to women, and their health, and without universal access to comprehensive health care, women's wellbeing and abilities to function up to their full capacities will be compromised. These recommendations have many implications for health care, education and practice.