Biomedical subjects

Britta M Thompson

Publications and source records attributed to Britta M Thompson.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2006

The effect of a multicomponent professional development training on the beliefs and behaviors of community health educators concerning food irradiation.

Beliefs have a significant effect on the health behaviors of individuals and educators; however, they can be difficult to change. The purpose of this study was to determine if exposing community health educators, specifically family and consumer sciences county extension educators, to a multicomponent professional development training on food irradiation could change their beliefs and behaviors. This study compared the food irradiation beliefs and educational programming of educators who participated in a professional development training with those who did not. Results indicated that the training significantly improved the food irradiation beliefs of participants. In addition, the number of participants who provided food irradiation education significantly improved compared with educators who had not attended the training. These results suggest that this type of professional development training format can significantly affect beliefs and could increase the amount of food irradiation information available to consumers through community health educators.

Adult↗

PubMed2006

Making it work: the evolution of a medical educational fellowship program.

Longitudinal programs to enhance the educational skills of medical school faculty are present in many medical schools and academic health centers. Multiinstitutional programs are less common. Three health professions schools, Baylor College of Medicine, The University of Texas Medical School at Houston, and The University of Texas Dental Branch have jointly sponsored the Educational Scholars Fellowship Program (ESFP) since 2003. The evolution of this program, from one that addressed the faculty educator development needs of one medical school in the mid-1990s to a more flexible model that includes faculty and fellows from three institutions, reflects the changing needs of faculty as well as those of other health professions schools. The ESFP's strengths lie in the effective use of resources across three schools; the opportunity for an interinstitutional and interdisciplinary collaborative network; the flexibility of the curriculum offerings; and the positive impact on fellows' knowledge, skills and leadership in medical and dental education. The evolution of this program represents a cost-effective and educationally sound response to the changing needs of faculty educators.

Adult↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Determining the food irradiation beliefs of community nutrition educators: do beliefs influence educational outreach?

OBJECTIVE: To develop an instrument to measure the food irradiation beliefs of community nutrition educators and to determine the influence of those beliefs on food irradiation educational outreach. DESIGN: Survey development, cross-sectional telephone survey. SETTING: Cooperative Extension Program. PARTICIPANTS: All Family and Consumer Sciences (FCS) county extension agents serving in the most populated counties in Texas (n = 134, response rate = 99%). These participants may not be representative of all FCS extension agents. VARIABLES MEASURED: Food irradiation beliefs and educational outreach as well as selected demographic variables. ANALYSIS: To determine validity and reliability of the instrument, factor analysis and Cronbach's alpha were conducted, respectively. To determine if food irradiation beliefs influenced food irradiation educational outreach, logistic and multiple regression analyses were conducted, with significance set at P < .05. RESULTS: The instrument had adequate reliability; two belief scales were identified through factor analysis, referred to as Safety Beliefs and Understanding Beliefs. Additionally, regression analysis suggested that educators' beliefs about food irradiation influenced the amount of food irradiation education they provided. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS: Results suggest that educators' beliefs about the safety and their understanding of food irradiation are predictors of the educational outreach they provide about it, indicating the potential value of professional development regarding food irradiation.

Community Health Services↗