An Exploration of Student Perception Toward Interprofessional High-Fidelity Clinical Simulation.

OBJECTIVES: Interprofessional education is recognized for its potential for collaboration and teamwork, reflecting clinical practice; however, existing literature for simulation-based interprofessional education does not include Physician Associate (PA) students. This initiative aimed to explore the students' perception of interprofessional clinical simulation for PA students and allied health professional (AHP) students as part of our program development. METHODS: A high-fidelity simulation session was designed and conducted for volunteering students from the PA, paramedic science, and physiotherapy courses. We used a mixed-method electronic questionnaire consisting of 15 statements rated on a numerical rating scale (0-5) and four open-ended questions with unlimited free-text responses to explore student perceptions. Inductive thematic analysis was used for qualitative analysis. The session design was underpinned by Allport's (intergroup) contact hypothesis with an emphasis on mutual intergroup differentiation. RESULTS: Forty-six students participated in the simulation teaching, with 48% (n = 22) providing feedback. Overall student perception was mainly positive toward the interprofessional simulation; however, some barriers to learning were recognized. Based on the evaluation of our initiative and existing literature, we propose 5 top tips to promote an effective learning experience for students. (1) Understand the importance of interprofessional collaboration. (2) Establish clear roles. (3) Plan the scenarios in advance. (4) Maintain equal status between groups. (5) Provide clear instructions and expectations. CONCLUSION: To our knowledge, this is the first study of high-fidelity interprofessional simulation involving PA and AHP students. We successfully explored student perception which highlighted aspects that can impact learning. This pilot study demonstrated that interprofessional simulation is a feasible and acceptable form of learning for our students and highlighted how to improve future interprofessional simulation teaching sessions.

Comparative Analysis of Female Leadership Styles in Public and Private Sector Universities: A Study in Pakistan.

This study aimed to compare the styles of leadership practices of female leaders in public and private Universities in Pakistan. In this study, both quantitative and qualitative data were collected using a mixed-method approach. An adapted and developed questionnaire was used for quantitative data collection, whereas qualitative data were collected through a semi-structured interview schedule. A sample of 200 female leaders was selected for quantitative data collection, while 10 females from the said sample were selected for qualitative data collection through a simple random method. Quantitative data were analyzed using SPSS, whereas qualitative data were analyzed using thematic analysis. Based on the statistical results, this study discovered statistically significant differences in female transformational and transactional leadership styles and significant differences in job performance based on the university sector. This study discovered statistically insignificant differences based on the different positions of female leaders regarding transformational and transactional leadership, and job performance. Moreover, qualitative data revealed that female leaders clearly understood both leadership styles and how to improve job performance by practicing them. The originality of this study concerns the identification of the differences between leadership styles (transformational and transactional) practiced by female leaders of public and private Universities in Pakistan and explains female leaders' perceptions of the role of leadership styles in their job performance.

Principals' leadership styles and its impact on teachers' performance at college level.

In this study, we examined the impact of principals' leadership style on the performance of teachers at the college level. For this purpose, we collect data from 300 college teachers via a random sampling approach. A self-administrated questionnaire (five-point Likert Scale) was used to collect data. For detecting relationships and differences among the opinions of the study's participants, correlation and the t-test were used. This study has revealed that the majority of college principals practice a democratic style of leadership at a higher level, Laissez-faire at a moderate level, and autocratic at a low level in their colleges. Moreover, it has been also revealed that when principals increase the use of a democratic leadership style, teacher performance may progress as well. The findings revealed that principals' leadership style had a positive impact on the performance of teachers. The study exposed a strong statistically positive relationship between college principals' leadership style and teacher performance. Thus, the results of this study suggest that college principals' should adopt the leadership style according to the level of teachers. The leadership style should be changed with specific situations in the colleges.

FOXM1 induces a global methylation signature that mimics the cancer epigenome in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma.

The oncogene FOXM1 has been implicated in all major types of human cancer. We recently showed that aberrant FOXM1 expression causes stem cell compartment expansion resulting in the initiation of hyperplasia. We have previously shown that FOXM1 regulates HELLS, a SNF2/helicase involved in DNA methylation, implicating FOXM1 in epigenetic regulation. Here, we have demonstrated using primary normal human oral keratinocytes (NOK) that upregulation of FOXM1 suppressed the tumour suppressor gene p16(INK4A) (CDKN2A) through promoter hypermethylation. Knockdown of HELLS using siRNA re-activated the mRNA expression of p16(INK4A) and concomitant downregulation of two DNA methyltransferases DNMT1 and DNMT3B. The dose-dependent upregulation of endogenous FOXM1 (isoform B) expression during tumour progression across a panel of normal primary NOK strains (n = 8), dysplasias (n = 5) and head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) cell lines (n = 11) correlated positively with endogenous expressions of HELLS, BMI1, DNMT1 and DNMT3B and negatively with p16(INK4A) and involucrin. Bisulfite modification and methylation-specific promoter analysis using absolute quantitative PCR (MS-qPCR) showed that upregulation of FOXM1 significantly induced p16(INK4A) promoter hypermethylation (10-fold, P<0.05) in primary NOK cells. Using a non-bias genome-wide promoter methylation microarray profiling method, we revealed that aberrant FOXM1 expression in primary NOK induced a global hypomethylation pattern similar to that found in an HNSCC (SCC15) cell line. Following validation experiments using absolute qPCR, we have identified a set of differentially methylated genes, found to be inversely correlated with in vivo mRNA expression levels of clinical HNSCC tumour biopsy samples. This study provided the first evidence, using primary normal human cells and tumour tissues, that aberrant upregulation of FOXM1 orchestrated a DNA methylation signature that mimics the cancer methylome landscape, from which we have identified a unique FOXM1-induced epigenetic signature which may have clinical translational potentials as biomarkers for early cancer screening, diagnostic and/or therapeutic interventions.