Competency-Based Education ; Education, Medical ; methods ; Health Personnel ; education ; Humans ; Philippines ; Program Evaluation ; Teaching ; methods

In response to the increasing amount of drug information, the teaching strategy of Pharmacotherapeutics was changed from Teacher-based Classroom Lecture to Small Group Discussion ( SGD ) revolving around ten to twelve of the most prevalent diseases in the country.

OBJECTIVES: To investigate the effect of small group discussion on the performance of Pharmacology students by 1) Comparing the drug choices of students during Medical Internship with those of Pharmacology teachers for five selected clinical conditions 2) Describing the attitudes of Medical Students while in Medical Clerkship towards SGD 3) Determining areas of disagreements in prescribing choices between Clinical Consultants and Pharmacologists.

METHODS: Medical Interns and their pharmacology teachers were concurrently administered the same questionnaire testing their drug choices for five clinical conditions. Attitudes of Medical Interns during their Clinical clerkship towards SGD was determined using their reflection papers. A survey was also conducted among interns to determine which diseases showed more frequent disagreements in prescribing between clinical consultants and pharmacologists.

RESULTS: Ninety one medical interns participated in the study. Agreement on the choice of drugs was generally low ( 23%-44% ) except for Exercise-induced Asthma (89%). Majority of 147 reflection papers by clinical clerks expressed positive attitude towards SGD as a learning tool for Pharmacotherapeutics. Medical interns also perceived that drug choices of their clinical consultants/residents agree with what they were taught in Pharmacology 70% of the time. But it was actually 43% low when they were given five clinical cases to virtually treat. It is presumed that their drug choices only reflected their actual prescribing practice while under the supervision of their Residents/ Consultants. Most disagreements were observed in the treatment of Hypertension and UTI.

CONCLUSIONS: There was poor retention of knowledge about drug choices from undergraduate Pharmacology especially for eradication of H. pylori and recurrent UTI at 23% and 28%, respectively. Forty six percent of medical interns concur that Small Group Discussion is an acceptable strategy for case -based learning. It likewise positively influenced their prescribing decisions as Medical Interns. 

Human ; Male ; Female ; Students, Medical ; Internship And Residency ; Asthma, Exercise-induced ; Perception ; Choice Behavior ; Attitude ; Hypertension

Purpose: Nurses play a significant role in maternal health. The nursing competency-based curriculum prepares students for this role. This study identified the competencies on safe motherhood expected of graduating nursing students, determined the degree of integration of these competencies in the curriculum, and described students' perceived levels of proficiency in performing said competencies. Design: This is a descriptive cross-sectional study. The authors deduced concepts and principles of safe motherhood in nursing based on the 2006 standard competencies. A complete enumeration of 55 graduating students of a college of nursing in a state university in Manila participated in the study. Methods: Students rated the competencies from A: “concepts were merely introduced” to D, “threaded through” in selected courses. The level of proficiency ranged from 1: “can perform well without supervision” to 4 “cannot perform despite supervision.” Ratings were analyzed using frequency counts, mode, and percentage distributions. Findings: Seventy competencies on safe motherhood were derived. Cognitive and affective competencies on the basic nursing processes were threaded through in foundation, intervention, and intensive nursing process courses. Students could perform the cognitive and affective competencies without supervision but required assistance in performance of skills. Conclusion The nursing curriculum prepares students to promote safe motherhood; however, students need to improve their clinical skills to be fully competent.
Education, Nursing

OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the relevance, usefulness, applicability, responsiveness, acceptability, efciency, overall impact and sustainability of the Master of Science in Epidemiology-Clinical Epidemiology (MSE-CE) curriculum.

METHODS: The context, input, process and product evaluation (CIPP) design was used. Of 106 alumni and students, 100 were contacted and 80 participated in a survey. Key informant interviews, direct observation and focus group discussions with faculty members, present and past administrators, selected alumni and students, and review of data were done. The results were analyzed using descriptive statistics and content analysis.

RESULTS: Context evaluation revealed that MSE-CE responded to the need to train physicians to use research evidence in clinical decision-making. Despite some reservations among other UP colleges, the program pushed through due to support from local and international sponsors. Alumni and students appreciated the effectiveness of their teachers and complementing instructional resources. The range of work by its graduates, the networks established, and the expansion of the Department of Clinical Epidemiology (DCE, the UP department ofering the MSE-CE program) prove that the MSE-CE is a sustainable post-graduate program.

CONCLUSION: The MSE-CE institutionalized clinical epidemiology as a distinct discipline among medical colleges in the Philippines.

Human ; Male ; Female ; Clinical Decision-making ; Philippines ; Program Evaluation ; Faculty ; Curriculum ; Students

Education ; Curriculum ; Philippines

Background: Healthcare workers remain the key players in the delivery of healthcare services. Their supply and distribution must be carefully monitored and taken care of. Objectives: To describe the stock of doctors, nurses, and midwives in the Philippines in 2020. Methods: This study employed a descriptive ecologic design and involves a secondary-data analysis where the relevant statistical data were retrieved from the public database in the country’s Department of Health. The data source also provides the statistics of other health professions such as medical technologists, nutritionists/dieticians, pharmacists, and dentists. However, this study limited the numerical data of the doctors, nurses, and midwives because there are readily available data for comparison. Descriptive statistics such as frequency counts, percentages, and population density were used to analyze the data. Results: The available density of health workers (14.76 per 10,000 population) composed of doctors, nurses, and midwives in the country remains at par with the recommendation of the World Health Organization (44.5 per 10,000 population). Likewise, data showed maldistribution of the health workforce still exists where a greater number of them are found in urban areas such as the National Capital Region (NCR) and CALABARZON. Majority of them are also working in the hospitals (doctors = 86.64%, nurses = 76.75%, and midwives = 48.46%) than in the primary healthcare facilities (doctors = 13.36%, nurses = 23.25%, and midwives = 51.54%). Conclusions The study revealed that maldistribution and shortage of doctors, nurses, and midwives prevail in the country. Likewise, the available workers in the country remain at par with the recommendations to meet the targets of the sustainable development goals (SDGs). The health agency and policymakers must focus on strategies to accelerate the number of health workers required in the country and redistribute them according to the areas in dire need.
Midwifery ; Nurses ; Philippines

INTRODUCTIONAs of 2001, the Philippines ranks 7th among the world's 22 countries with a heavy tuberculosis (TB) burden. As the country accelerates its campaign to control the global epidemic, the Philippine Tuberculosis Initiatives for the Private Sector (PhilTIPS) joined the efforts to combat it through the Directly Observed Treatment Short-course (DOTS) strategy and brought it to the level of medical schools. PhilTIPS commissioned this work to develop an evidence-based medical curriculum with strong and conscious integration of TB-DOTS.

MATERIALS AND METHODSIn the needs assessment, curricula, sample tests, and syllabi were reviewed. Deans and curriculum committee chairs were also asked to answer a questionnaire dealing with how TB, TB control and DOTS were taught. Based on the needs assessment, the TB control-DOTS core curriculum was developed. Ten months after its implementation, a monitoring evaluation was conducted through questionnaires, review of records and key informant interviews.

DISCUSSIONRepresentative samples of 18 out of 32 schools participated in the needs assessment and monitoring phase. Data revealed that the biomedical and clinical aspects of TB are emphasised in all schools. But only 7 out of 18 (38.89%) actually dealt with DOTS. A competency-based, integrated, and interactive TB-DOTS curriculum was then developed. The competencies around which the curriculum was designed were: (1) a thorough understanding of TB as a biomedical and social phenomenon; (2) the management of TB patients; and (3) an adherence to DOTS in managing TB patients. The curriculum was reviewed by local and international panelists, and implemented in 2003 to 2004. Monitoring evaluation 10 months later revealed that this curriculum was minimally to moderately integrated by medical schools. The study exhorts all medical schools to empower their graduates with competence in TB-DOTS.

Curriculum ; Directly Observed Therapy ; Humans ; Philippines ; Population Surveillance ; Program Development ; Public Health ; Schools, Medical ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Tuberculosis ; prevention & control

Objective: The process of adaptation in academia can best be understood and measured using valid and reliable tools. To understand how occupational therapy educators adapt to academic roles and how they use adaptation to build academic careers, the Adaptation Process in Academia Questionnaire (APA-Q) was developed. The APA-Q is a 199-item tool with four sections: academic experiences (104 items); contexts (16 items); adapting responses (13 items); and adaptation outcomes (66 items). This study described the development and the process of determining the content validity of the APA-Q. Method: We conducted an extensive review of literature and the available faculty instruments in developing the APA-Q items. Six content experts were recruited to rate the 199-item and scale relevance of the instrument. Qualitative feedback were provided from open-ended questions. Item and scale content validity indices (I-CVI/S-CVI) were calculated. CVI and qualitative assessment informed questionnaire revisions. Results: Content experts rated 161 of the items (81%) to be highly relevant. The I-CVI of 30 items was acceptable (0.83). Eight items were rated irrelevant (0.5-0.66). S-CVI was excellent (0.97). In terms of constructs, experts agreed on the relevance of items (>0.80): academic experiences (99 or 95%); contexts (16 or 100%); adapting responses (12 or 92%); and adaptation outcomes (63 or 95%). Qualitative assessment indicated a lack of clarity in some items and instructions, redundancy in some of the items, the use of jargon, and missing items. Based on I-CVI and qualitative assessment, 12 items were deleted, 13 items were revised, and 10 items were added. Conclusion Context experts deemed the APA-Q to be relevant. Further establishment of its construct validity and reliability is warranted.
Occupational Therapy

Background: Occupational therapy (OT) academic educators are vital in building the workforce and advancing the profession. With the retirement of senior faculty, hiring of new OT faculty members have increased. There have also been changes in national and global policy guidelines in OT education. These changes have brought forth a compelling need to examine the profile of Filipino OT educators. To this date, there has been no formal analysis of the Philippine OT academic education workforce. A study aiming at understanding this profile is important to inform OT educators, administrators, and policymakers on the development of strategic approaches that may address their needs and help build the capacity of this workforce.

Objectives: We aimed to establish an occupational profile of OT educators in the Philippines and to recommend capacity-building strategies for next-generation Filipino OT educators.

Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted using the Adaptation Process in Academia Questionnaire. OT educators were recruited through their institutional affiliations.

Results: Ninety (53%) of the estimated 170 educators participated in the study, representing 16 schools with OT programs in the country. The median age is 26 years, majority female, and single. The academic profile shows that the majority have a bachelor's as their highest educational degree, work part-time, hold the instructor rank, nontenured, and have been in academia for 5+ years. Teaching is the primary role, and >50% of the time is spent on teaching tasks. The most frequently experienced challenges are balancing multiple roles and the need to develop competence in research skills. Most effective institutional resources are the availability of teaching resources and orientation programs. Excellent communication between university management and academic staff and the opportunity to participate in decision-making are perceived to be the most useful relationship support. Productivity in teaching is higher than in research and service.

Conclusion: The current OT academic workforce based on this study is young, in the early career stage, and expected to assume many roles, primarily teaching. They are most challenged in balancing multiple roles and how to advance their academic careers. Institutional resources and relationship supports are available but need to be reinforced and accessed. Strategic initiatives to build capacity include the development of communities of practice, increasing research engagement and productivity, increasing access to professional development programs, and faculty development initiatives.

Occupational Therapy

BACKGROUND: Since 1976, the School of Health Sciences (SHS) in the Philippines has produced a broad range of health professionals serving depressed and underserved communities. Most researches about the SHS present the impact of its unique community-based ladder-type curriculum and only a few focus on the lived experiences of its students.

OBJECTIVES: This study described how the lived experiences of SHS students with their community-based curriculum manifested as academic resilience.

METHODOLOGY: This is an exploratory social research. Data were obtained from key informant and focus group interviews, observations of purposively chosen students, teachers, and alumni in Baler Campus, and document review. Data were analyzed using iterative terms and concepts describing respondents' patterns of activities that establish norms in SHS. Joint displays of these norms were constructed to describe the students' academic resilience.

RESULTS: Admission in SHS requires students to undergo a stringent, often political recruitment process. While in the degree program, students go through constant financial constraints, demanding academic requirements, and challenging balance of hospital and community work with their personal and academic lives. The interplay between inner strength and external support promoted academic resilience. Studying in the SHS is a transformative learning experience. Students experienced multi-faceted problems requiring them to resiliently meet academic standards and maintain their own well-being. The culture of 'damayan' was an important source of psychosocial support.

CONCLUSION: The SHS curriculum and culture are most instrumental in promoting academic resilience among its students.

Schools ; Curriculum