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Biomedical subjects

Joy Higgs

Publications and source records attributed to Joy Higgs.

5 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2006

Being a clinical educator.

What is it like to be a clinical educator? How do clinical educators experience and describe their continuing journey of becoming a clinical educator? Within the model developed in this research, dimensions of being a clinical educator were identified. These dimensions include (a) having a sense of self (and the impact of bringing self into the clinical educator's role), (b) having a sense of relationship with others (and the place of this "interactive self" as a central feature of clinical education), (c) having a sense of being a clinical educator (and how this understanding relates to the previous two dimensions), (d) having a sense of agency (which is vital to the performance of many clinical education roles), (e) seeking dynamic self-congruence, and (e) growth as a clinical educator. This paper presents an overview of the model, discusses its strengths and limitations as a representation of speech pathology clinical educators' experiences, and briefly considers its value for professional development.

Faculty↗
PubMed2006

Physiotherapy students' attitudes towards and knowledge of older people.

The purpose of this study was to determine whether students' attitudes towards and knowledge of older people changed throughout the physiotherapy undergraduate program. Students' demographic information and attitudes towards and knowledge of older people were gathered via repeated question-responses over three points of time during the 4-year program. Validated instruments--the Geriatric Attitudinal Scale (GAS) and the Facts on Ageing Quiz 1 (FAQ1)--were used to measure participants' attitudes and knowledge of older people. The FAQ1 yielded two variables: knowledge as percentage of FAQ1 correct responses, and ignorance as percentage of FAQ1 Don't Know responses. The instruments were administered in Year 2 prior to the students' first clinical (Time 1), immediately after their first clinical (Time 2), and Year 4 just prior to completion of the program (Time 3). Changes over time were analysed using paired t-tests with significance set at p < 0.05. Participants initially demonstrated positive attitudes towards older people with a mean of 73.8% GAS positive responses with no significant change over time (p = 0.56). Initial knowledge about older people was poor with a mean of 43.6% FAQ1 correct responses which increased significantly over time to 51.7% (p = 0.0001). This improvement in knowledge was accompanied by a decrease in ignorance over the study period (p = 0.0001). While attitudes toward older people were positive and knowledge improved over time, the level of knowledge attained was below expectation for beginning practitioners. This finding has implications for the education and training of physiotherapy students.

Adult↗
PubMed2002

Historical perspective milestones in the evolution of lumbar spinal postural health in seating.

The best knowledge on seated posture before the Enlightenment was not scientific, but influenced by sociocultural, economic, and manufacturing factors. Although the pursuit of knowledge related to spinal postural health was advanced with the advent of empirico-analytic research, academic opinion continued to be influenced by unsubstantiated information, often resulting in incorrect advice to the public. Only in the past decade has advice on "correct" seated posture, spanning the time from the Hippocratic texts to the present, been brought into question by evidence-based research. By exploring seating from 3100 B.C to the present, this article discusses key influences that have an impact on seating functional to spinal postural health. Emphasis is placed on the role of medical opinion.

China↗
PubMed1997

Benchmarking in physiotherapy education: a collaborative project.

Many factors including demands for accountability and funding reductions give rise to the need for educational institutions to demonstrate their quality for purposes of public accountability and in order to attract students, both local and international. Benchmarking is a process which can address this need. Benchmarking also is a strategy for program evaluation and development which can be used in other fields such as clinical practice. The project reported in this paper concerns the school of physiotherapy in Australia and New Zealand. It utilises the concept of benchmarking within a collaborative context in order to incorporate the most positive aspects of seeking and achieving excellence within a peer review framework.

Journal Article↗