Mandatory COVID Vaccination: Perspectives from Graduate Allied Health Students at a Mid-size University in the United States.

Because many students enrolled in Allied Health programs are on track to becoming health practitioners or clinicians and frontline workers who would become critical sources of information for patients it is critical to understand their perspectives about mandatory COVID-19 vaccination. Results: COVID-19 Risk Perception. A significant majority of the respondents had high or strongly high-risk perception of COVID-19, 82(56.6%) strongly agreed and 29(20%) agreed with the statement, COVID-19 is a public health issue (P-value < 0.0001), Comparing by demographic characteristics: African American/Black compared with other races (P-Value = 0.0462), Master of Public Health program, compared with all other graduate programs (P-Value = 0.0140) and fully vaccinated and fully vaccinated and boosted compared with incomplete or not-vaccinated for COVID-19 (P-value = 0.0059) had higher COVID-19 risk perceptions. strongly high-risk perception of COVID-19, 82(56.6%) strongly agreed and 29(20%) agreed with the statement, COVID-19 is a public health issue (P-value < 0.0001), Comparing by demographic characteristics: African American/Black compared with other races (P-Value = 0.0462), Master of Public Health program, compared with all other graduate programs (P-Value = 0.0140) and fully vaccinated and fully vaccinated and boosted compared with incomplete or not-vaccinated for COVID-19 (P-value = 0.0059) had higher COVID-19 risk perceptions.

Stress and Stressors: The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Students, Faculty and Staff at a Historically Black College/University.

Due to COVID-19 restrictions, academic institutions have changed their modus operandi, particularly in adopting distance learning in lieu of face-to-face instruction. This has sometimes produced unanticipated effects on students. The purpose of this study was to determine COVID-19 pandemic stressors and coping mechanisms utilized as relief measures by students, faculty, and staff in the College of Health Sciences at a historically Black institution. Cross-sectional study. SAMPLING: A convenience sample of 209 students, 34 faculty, and 9 staff from the College of Health Sciences at a historically Black institution participated in this study. INSTRUMENT: A 32-item Qualtrics survey was utilized to gather demographic data, COVID-19-related stressors, and coping mechanisms. ANALYSIS: Descriptive statistics, Chi-square test for categorical variables, and Cochran-Mantel-Haenszel tests for ordinal variables were used. Female students, African American students (AAS), and undergraduates perceived stress related to the risk of contagion during the pandemic higher than the male students (P-value = 0.0096), other races (P-value = 0.0249) and graduate students (P-value = 0.0141) respectively. Female students perceived more stress related to relationships with relatives (P-value = 0.0128). Caucasian students compared to others (P-value = 0.0240) and graduate students compared to undergraduate students (P-value = 0.0011) reported less perceived stress related to the relationships with other colleagues. Top coping strategies of students and staff included interaction with family and friends, social media, hand hygiene, and meditation/spiritualty. Except for "avoidance of public spaces/transportation", all other mechanisms were the same for faculty.

Description of Specialty Practice-10 Years Onward: The Changes in Geriatric Physical Therapy.

BACKGROUND: An analysis of practice is conducted by the American Board of Physical Therapy Specialties (ABPTS) every 10 years to revalidate, update, and revise the description of specialty practice (DSP) for each specialty. The Geriatric Specialty Council recently conducted an analysis of practice and revised its content consistent with established procedures by the ABPTS. PURPOSE: The purpose of this article is threefold: first, to describe the process of the most recent practice analysis; second, to report revisions to the description of specialty practice based on the analysis of practice; and third, to identify elements of practice that define current specialist practice in geriatric physical therapy. METHODS: A 10-member committee of subject matter experts (SMEs) and a psychometric consultant developed a survey instrument addressing geriatric physical therapy specialty practice areas. The survey was initially pilot-tested and subsequently administered online to a sample of 801 board-certified geriatric clinical specialists. The consultant facilitated the consensus process to determine decision rules in selecting the final competencies describing current geriatric physical therapy specialty practice. RESULTS: A total of 372 respondents fully or partially completed the survey, resulting in a response rate of 46.4%. Based on a priori decision rules regarding survey data, consensus of the group of SMEs, and input from the ABPTS, the DSP for geriatric physical therapy specialty practice was revised. Revisions (elimination [-] of prior items and addition [+] of new items) were made in Section 1: Knowledge Areas (-8 and +6), in Section 2: Professional Roles, Responsibilities, and Values (-14 and +4), and Section 3: Practice Expectations (-53 and +28). CONCLUSION: The revised DSP will be used as the basis for the development of the examination blueprint for the specialist examination in geriatric physical therapy and the curricula for residency programs in geriatric physical therapy.

A descriptive study of losses associated with permanent long-term care placement.

OBJECTIVES: This qualitative study describes the process of and factors associated with losses connected to permanent long-term care (LTC) placement of the elderly. METHODS: Five subjects were recruited on a voluntary basis upon consultation with a staff member of a small rural long-term care facility in Northeast Arkansas. Researchers conducted 1 to 2, hour to hour-and-a-half interview sessions with each participant. In order for subjects to be included in the study, participants met the following criteria: placement within the past 12 months, absence of acute disease, and cognitive ability to respond to and communicate during interview sessions. The interviews were taped with the patients' consent, and then transcribed word for word. The transcriptions were analyzed for emergent themes using the grounded theory approach. RESULTS: Qualitative analysis revealed several themes related to losses associated with LTC placement. These include: cohort losses, defined as losses that participants identified with as a cohort through lived experiences; antecedent losses, defined as losses that have contributed greatly to long-term care placement; and consequent losses, defined as losses that have been experienced as a consequence of placement. CONCLUSION: The cumulative nature of losses that eventually results in LTC placement is an important consideration in geriatric physical therapy practice. The study highlights the physical therapist's role in prolonging function, preserving quality of life, and preventing for as long as possible LTC placement. Losses identified as leading to LTC were found to be in alignment with current research. Transitioning to LTC may interfere with the need to attend to end-of-life role expectations, resulting in the experience of additional loss. Gender-related differences appear to be significant as well, with males expressing a marked sense of loss of meaningful activity.

Continuing competence: an institutional look at engagement, link, and faculty perceptions.

This action research project addresses the issue of continuing competence from the viewpoint of allied health faculty members at a community college in Illinois. With input by and feedback from the faculty, the researcher describes how full-time allied health faculty members maintain their clinical competence, determines if efforts toward continuing competence are linked with academic responsibilities, and ascertains the role of the academic institution, the educational programs and the faculty members in ensuring continuing competence. Results of the study indicate that faculty members maintain their competence by attending continuing education courses, reading professional literature, and engaging in clinical work. There appears to be a disconnect, however, between these activities and the academic responsibilities of the faculty members. An analysis of perceptions reveals that the responsibility for ensuring continuing competence increases from the institutional level to the level of the faculty members, whereas accountability is shouldered by the faculty members and the educational programs.