How does tele-learning compare with other forms of education delivery? A systematic review of tele-learning educational outcomes for health professionals.

UNLABELLED: Telecommuniciation technologies, including audio and videoconferencing facilities, afford geographically dispersed health professionals the opportunity to connect and collaborate with others. Recognised for enabling tele-consultations and tele-collaborations between teams of health care professionals and their patients, these technologies are also well suited to the delivery of distance learning programs, known as tele-learning. AIM: To determine whether tele-learning delivery methods achieve equivalent learning outcomes when compared with traditional face-to-face education delivery methods. METHODS: A systematic literature review was commissioned by the NSW Ministry of Health to identify results relevant to programs applying tele-learning delivery methods in the provision of education to health professionals. RESULTS: The review found few studies that rigorously compared tele-learning with traditional formats. There was some evidence, however, to support the premise that tele-learning models achieve comparable learning outcomes and that participants are generally satisfied with and accepting of this delivery method. CONCLUSION: The review illustrated that tele-learning technologies not only enable distance learning opportunities, but achieve comparable learning outcomes to traditional face-to-face models. More rigorous evidence is required to strengthen these findings and should be the focus of future tele-learning research.

All together now? Staff views and experiences of a pre-qualifying interprofessional curriculum.

An interprofessional pre-qualifying curriculum for health and social care professionals was introduced at an English university in September 2000. This study explored the experiences of academic staff from a range of professional backgrounds involved in this interprofessional initiative. Data were collected via questionnaires, individual interviews and focus groups and were analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. Sixty-one questionnaires were returned out of a possible two hundred (response rate 30.5%); twenty-nine respondents participated in interviews and focus groups. Four main themes emerged from the data: (i) Huge: Size does matter; (ii) Isolation: Together but separate; (iii) Facilitation: Anything but easy; and (iv) Faculty: Do we walk the talk? The study found a cross-Faculty commitment to interprofessional education, but revealed considerable difficulties for those staff responsible for the management and delivery of the curriculum. The vast scale, the complex nature of interprofessional education delivery, the logistics and organizational challenges created significant difficulties for staff, who could at times feel overwhelmed and isolated. Attitudinal barriers to interprofessional education were identified, although the interprofessional curriculum had enhanced interprofessional working within the Faculty. In order to optimize the success of interprofessional education, the significant challenges that exist for academic staff must be addressed, and ownership by staff enabled.

Making words count: the value of qualitative research.

In the current climate of evidence-based practice, physiotherapy is urged to prove its worth via rigorous scientific research. However, there are concerns that limited methodologies are used to explore complex therapeutic issues, and that the profession relies too heavily on quantitative research studies to provide its evidence base. Qualitative research methods are able to explore the complexity of human behaviour and generate deeper understanding of illness behaviours and therapeutic interactions. Nevertheless, there is still a sense of distrust of qualitative research, related to the challenge of evaluating both the quality and usefulness of findings derived through qualitative methods. This discussion paper explores these issues. It examines some of the most frequently used techniques aimed at ensuring quality and value in qualitative research, such as sampling, triangulation, multiple coding, respondent validation and the use of audit trails, as well as addressing reflexivity. Because of the pluralistic and interactive nature of qualitative inquiry, the criteria used to judge quality need to be appropriate to each piece of research and should provide evidence to help readers to evaluate the calibre of the study and its relevance to their own area of work.