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Background: Pharmacy internships are an important part of pharmacy education in Poland; they are an integral part of professional studies. The first two internships are held after the third and fourth year of study during the summer break and last for four weeks. The study aims to analyze the didactic process of the pharmacy students taking place during the summer internship in community and hospital pharmacies in Poland. The analysis emphasizes the acquisition of skills built on the master-student contact, and the results are based on trainees’ feedback. Methods: The research tool was a questionnaire addressed to fifth-year pharmacy students who had previously completed summer internships in both community and hospital pharmacy. The survey contained 17 questions that sought to gain insight into their perceptions of the internship’s supervision and guidance of work by tutors and pharmacy staff, involvement in different workplace routines and comparison between formal education and everyday practice. The data collection was carried out in the academic year 2015–2016 among the ninth-semester pharmacy students from four Medical Universities in Poland. Information about internships performed in community and hospital pharmacies were collected separately. Results: The paper presents the results of selected questions related specifically to the legitimacy of summer internships and learning about professional responsibilities. Altogether 447 questionnaires, evaluating summer internships in both community and hospital pharmacies were collected. For the majority of students the summer internship made them aware of the profession; however, the internship in some pharmacies did not always provide them with all aspects of pharmaceutical practice. 14–40% of students admitted that their mentors did not introduce the internship program at the beginning of the internship. Only 35–46% of students performed drug formulations on a daily basis. Less than 30% of respondents indicated that drug formulary process in community pharmacies was the same as they have learned at university. Almost every day or very often students were involved in checking or spreading out the drugs delivered to the pharmacy from the wholesale institution. Only two universities conducted regular audits of the internship process by the supervisors (academic teachers). Conclusions: The summer internship of pharmacy students complements the opportunity to acquire practical skills in the training of future pharmacists. The quality of this didactic process should be subjected to constant verification. What is important is that pharmacists who are tutors of students participating in summer internships should obtain an academic support in the area of education and training, relevant to the professional preparation for the didactic process. Similar rules for summer internships should be developed, despite maintaining distinctiveness, across faculties. The students’ responses indicate varying levels of mentor involvement in the implementation of practical vocational training. What is worrying is the lack of substantive and practical supervision during the internship. © The Author(s) 2024.

This ethnographic study examines the effects of a health-promotion intervention involving orienteering in urban parks for first-year Italian vocational students. Green exercise, known to enhance psychological well-being and foster a sense of kinship with nature and community, was chosen to address risk factors in vocational education and training (VET) institutions. Orienteering offers mental and physical benefits while encouraging participation. This study involved 53 students (mean age 14.51) from a VET institution in Milan, employing interviews with teachers and ethnographic observations. Findings indicate that the intervention promoted group cooperation, reduced conflicts, and helped students develop navigation skills while exploring their city. It also strengthened students’ connestion with nature and community spaces, fostering a sense of belonging and engagement. © 2025 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

Business sustainability practices have become pivotal due to the growth of digital technology and human-centered innovation in society 5.0. Society 5.0 aims to seamlessly integrate technological advancements with societal needs, promoting a balance between economic growth, environmental sustainability, and social well-being. Embracing sustainable practices is essential for companies to meet regulatory and consumer expectations while driving innovation and securing a competitive advantage. Further research is necessary to ensure businesses embrace society 5.0 for environmentally friendly plans and programs. Business Sustainability Practices in Society 5.0 offers solutions for sustainable development in organizational processes as a part of society 5.0. It explores the positive effects of sustainability on economic growth, social well-being, and environmental preservation. This book covers topics such as artificial intelligence, risk management, and sustainable development, and is a useful resource for business owners, entrepreneurs, human resource managers, data scientists, academicians, and researchers. © 2025 by IGI Global Scientific Publishing. All rights reserved.

Background: The demand for physiotherapy student clinical placements is increasing in many countries, including Australia, and there is continued reliance on physiotherapists to assume the student clinical educator role. Exploring factors influencing physiotherapists’ decision to be involved in clinical education is essential to maintaining and building clinical education capacity for the future. Objective: To explore factors influencing Australian physiotherapists’ decision to be involved in student clinical education. Methods: A qualitative study using data collected from a valid and reliable online survey tool. Respondents were physiotherapists representing public and private workplaces across varied geographical settings in Australia. Data were thematically analyzed. Results: Surveys were completed by 170 physiotherapists. Most respondents were employed in hospital (81/170, 48%) and private (53/170, 31%) settings in metropolitan locations (105/170, 62%). Six themes representing factors influencing physiotherapists’ involvement in student clinical education were identified, including perceptions of: professional duty, personal benefits or gains, suitability of workplace, support requirements, role related challenges, and readiness to be a clinical educator. Conclusion: Many factors influence physiotherapists’ decisions to assume the clinical educator role. This study could assist clinical education stakeholders to provide practical and targeted strategies to overcome challenges, and optimize support, for physiotherapists in the clinical educator role. © 2023 The Author(s). Published with license by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

Background: The conceptualisation of medical competence is central to its use in competency-based medical education. Calls for ‘fixed standards’ with ‘flexible pathways’, recommended in recent reports, require competence to be well defined. Making competence explicit and measurable has, however, been difficult, in part due to a tension between the need for standardisation and the acknowledgment that medical professionals must also be valued as unique individuals. To address these conflicting demands, a multilayered conceptualisation of competence is proposed, with implications for the definition of standards and approaches to assessment. The model: Three layers are elaborated. This first is a core layer of canonical knowledge and skill, ‘that, which every professional should possess’, independent of the context of practice. The second layer is context-dependent knowledge, skill, and attitude, visible through practice in health care. The third layer of personalised competence includes personal skills, interests, habits and convictions, integrated with one's personality. This layer, discussed with reference to Vygotsky's concept of Perezhivanie, cognitive load theory, self-determination theory and Maslow's ‘self-actualisation’, may be regarded as the art of medicine. We propose that fully matured professional competence requires all three layers, but that the assessment of each layer is different. Implications: The assessment of canonical knowledge and skills (Layer 1) can be approached with classical psychometric conditions, that is, similar tests, circumstances and criteria for all. Context-dependent medical competence (Layer 2) must be assessed differently, because conditions of assessment across candidates cannot be standardised. Here, multiple sources of information must be merged and intersubjective expert agreement should ground decisions about progression and level of clinical autonomy of trainees. Competence as the art of medicine (Layer 3) cannot be standardised and should not be assessed with the purpose of permission to practice. The pursuit of personal excellence in this level, however, can be recognised and rewarded. © 2023 The Authors. Medical Education published by Association for the Study of Medical Education and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Background: Traineeships have been proven to be beneficial vocational pathways for people with intellectual disability however to date the on-the-job training provision associated with traineeships has not been well documented. Method: This study describes components of on-the-job training provided to eight people, most with intellectual disability undergoing traineeships for 12 months in four aged care services. Sheri et al.’s (2019) framework for mentors during training was used to examine the findings. Results: Challenges in the traineeships were common to most new staff, such as developing confidence, recognising the urgency of some tasks, and time to learn how to support aged-care residents. The findings highlighted on-the-job training that was individualised, incorporating a variety of approaches was most beneficial to the trainees. Conclusions: Traineeships for people with intellectual disability require support from both the trainee and mentors. This support is essential to develop skills and ensure positive workplace attitudes. © 2023 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Background: Competence-based education (CBE) highlights the important position of clinical nursing teachers and stipulates additional requirements for them. However, research on the core competence of clinical nursing teachers remains lacking, which has hindered their development and the cultivation of nursing students. Objectives: Developing and verifying a core competence instrument to evaluate clinical nursing teachers' competence in clinical settings and provide empirical guidance for their development. Design: A mixed-methods study including qualitative and quantitative methods. Settings: Primarily, 9 universities and hospitals throughout China. Participants: Fourteen nursing experts and 2 students participated in the qualitative study, and 626 nursing professionals ultimately participated in the quantitative study. Methods: The instrument was developed based on behavioral event interviews and expert consultation as well as exploratory factor analysis using a cross-sectional survey, following which the instrument was verified by confirmatory factor analysis. Results: A 4-factor core competence instrument for clinical nursing teachers was developed and verified; the four factors included education and teaching competence, clinical nursing competence, management competence and professional awareness and attitude, and the instrument included 25 items in total. The instrument has an explanatory degree of 90.58 %, and it exhibits good reliability and validity as well as a good fit to the data. Conclusions: This instrument can provide theoretical guidance for the development of clinical nursing teachers and can be widely used as an effective tool in practice. Nursing administrators and educators should implement policies and programs to help clinical nursing teachers improve their competencies with regard to these four aspects, which can play an important role in the development of nurse education. © 2023

Introduction: Revisions to the UK Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) standards of proficiency for diagnostic radiographers came into effect on September 1st 2023. Changes include an increase of proficiencies in CT and extended to MRI imaging. As workforce support the development of learners to meet stage outcomes in practice, this study aimed to understand the radiographers' expectations of future learners' training to meet the new standards of proficiency. Methods: Snowball sampling was used to invite practice educators/student supervisors and department leads within the 21 NHS Trusts in the North East and Yorkshire region providing diagnostic radiography practice placements. Online focus groups used a semi structured topic guide to explore the expectations of student performance during different stages of their training, and on different types of pre-registration programmes. Participants views were sought on considerations for appropriate assessment. Thematic analysis was supported by NVivo software. Results: Fifteen diagnostic radiographers across 11 NHS trusts participated in 5 focus groups in November 2022. The findings showed consistency in expectations of student performance in projectional radiography, patient care and communication. Participants felt some standards of proficiency were beyond threshold competency, or current practices were a barrier in supporting learning. Participants felt assessment over a period and range of examinations in the clinical environment gave a fairer picture of student performance. Conclusion: There is uncertainty and perceived barriers in supporting future diagnostic radiography training in the practice setting. Implications for practice: Further work will be needed to identify and support appropriate learning opportunities and stage outcomes if learners are to meet the breadth of HCPC standards of proficiency with some consistency. © 2023 The Authors

Objective. The purpose of this study was to describe common perspectives important to achieving excellence and success in physical therapist residency education programs. Methods. Individuals with direct responsibility for creating and revising physical therapist residency program goals participated in a mixed-methods study using Q-methodology. They sorted 31 goal topics based on the level of importance for achieving excellence and success in physical therapist residency education. By-participant factor analysis identified dominant perspectives, which were interpreted based on emergent themes from the topics identified as the most important. Participants' rationale for selecting goal topics as the most important were extracted from the post-survey. Results. Seventy-three individuals responded, representing 9 of the 11 clinical residency areas of practice. Three main perspectives emerged: resident behaviors, resident achievements, and program attributes. One shared perspective emerged across all 3 factors that emphasized the residents' ability to become self-regulated, lifelong learners who integrate learning into practice: preparation for future learning. Conclusions. Variability in weighting the importance of program goals associated with each perspective may include a program's organization and mission, individual beliefs and experiences related to program leadership, and resource availability. Although respondent emphasis placed importance of some items over others, the findings do not suggest that items ranked lower were unnecessary or unimportant in achieving program excellence. The relative importance of items was weighted differently based on the perspective of program leadership and the individual completing the sorting activity. Impact. The results of this study suggest that physical therapist residency programs should have at least 1 or 2 goals in each of the 3 distinct perspectives, as well as the 1 shared perspective identified in our findings. Some consistency in program goals based on the perspectives identified here may enable further research exploring excellence, value, and outcomes in physical therapist residency education. © 2024 Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.

Purpose: Dental students learn knowledge and practical skills to provide oral health care to the population. Practical skills must be maintained or continuously developed throughout a professional career. This cross-sectional survey aimed to evalu- ate the perception of practical skills of dental students and dental-school graduates by national dental associations (NDAs) in international comparison in the European Regional Organization of the FDI World Dental Federation (ERO-FDI) zone. Materials and Methods: A questionnaire of 14 items collected information on pre-/postgraduate areas. Results: A total of 25 countries participated (response rate: 69.4%), with 80.0% having minimum requirements for practical skills acquisition and 64.0% starting practical training in the 3rd year of study. In countries where clinical practical work on pa- tients begins in the 2nd year of study, practical skills of graduates are perceived as average, starting in the 3rd year of study as mainly good, starting in the 4th as varying widely from poor to very good. In total, 76.0% of respondents feel that improve- ments are needed before entering dental practice. Improvements could be reached by treating more patients in dental school (32.0%), increasing the quantity of clinical training (20.0%), or having more clinical instructors (12.0%). In 56.0% of the coun- tries, it is possible to open one’s own dental practice immediately after graduation, and in 16.0%, prior vocational training is mandatory. Conclusions: All participating countries in the ERO-FDI zone reported practical training in dental school, most starting in the 3rd year of study. The perception of practical skills of dental students and dental-school graduates among NDAs is very heterogeneous. Reasons for the perceived deficiencies should be further explored. © This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License