Interprofessional education-relevant accreditation standards in Canada: a comparative document analysis

Background Increasing evidence suggests that sustainable delivery of interprofessional education (IPE) has the potential to lead to interprofessional collaborative practice (IPCP), which in turn has the potential to lead to enhanced healthcare systems and improved patient-centered care health outcomes. To enhance IPE in Canada, the Accreditation of Interprofessional Health Education (AIPHE) project initiated collaborative efforts among accrediting organizations of six health professions to embed IPE language into their respective accreditation standards. To further understand the impact of the AIPHE project, this study evaluated the accountability of the IPE language currently embedded in Canadian health professions’ accreditation standards documents and examined whether such language spanned the five accreditation standards domains identified in the AIPHE project. Methods We conducted a comparative content analysis to identify and examine IPE language within the “accountable” statements in the current accreditation standards for 11 Canadian health professions that met our eligibility criteria. Results and discussion A total of 77 IPE-relevant accountable statements were identified across 13 accreditation standards documents for the 11 health professions. The chiropractic, pharmacy, and physiotherapy documents represented nearly 50% (38/77) of all accountable statements. The accountable statements for pharmacy, dentistry, dietetics, and nursing (registered) spanned across three-to-four accreditation standards domains. The remaining nine professions’ statements referred mostly to “Students” and “Educational program.” Furthermore, the majority of accreditation standards documents failed to provide a definition of IPE, and those that did, were inconsistent across health professions. Conclusions It was encouraging to see frequent reference to IPE within the accreditation standards of the health professions involved in this study. The qualitative findings, however, suggest that the emphasis of these accountable statements is mainly on the students and educational program, potentially compromising the sustainability and development, implementation, and evaluation of this frequently misunderstood pedagogical approach. The findings and exemplary IPE-relevant accountable statements identified in this paper should be of interest to all relevant stakeholders including those countries, where IPE accreditation is still emerging, as a means to accelerate and strengthen achieving desired educational and health outcomes.

Creating and Maintaining TDWG Vocabularies using Spreadsheets

Because TDWG vocabularies change and grow as they are developed by the community, it is nearly impossible to document their version history and generate both machine and human readable documentation by manual editing of multiple documents in several formats. In this talk, I will provide an overview of the workflow that has been established to maintain vocabularies in accordance with the TDWG Standards Documentation and Vocabulary Maintenance specifications. I will show how vocabulary creators and maintainers can use simple CSV spreadsheets to create new vocabularies or to update existing ones. I will also provide an overview of the Python scripts that TDWG infrastructure maintainers use to process those simple spreadsheets to turn them into the authoritative files in TDWG's rs.tdwg.org GitHub repository, which serves as the data source for both machine readable serializations of the vocabularies and human readable standards documents.

Dimensions of Learning Probability Vocabulary

Normative discourse about probability requires shared meanings for disciplinary vocabulary. Previous research indicates that students’ meanings for probability vocabulary often differ from those of mathematicians, creating a need to attend to developing students’ use of language. Current standards documents conflict in their recommendations about how this should occur. In the present study, we conducted microgenetic research to examine the vocabulary use of four students before, during, and after lessons from a cycle of design-based research attending to probability vocabulary. In characterizing students’ normative and nonnormative uses of language, we draw implications for the design of curriculum, standards, and further research. Specifically, we illustrate the importance of attending to incrementality, multidimensionality, polysemy, interrelatedness, and heterogeneity to foster students’ probability vocabulary development.

Dimensions of Learning Probability Vocabulary

Normative discourse about probability requires shared meanings for disciplinary vocabulary. Previous research indicates that students’ meanings for probability vocabulary often differ from those of mathematicians, creating a need to attend to developing students’ use of language. Current standards documents conflict in their recommendations about how this should occur. In the present study, we conducted microgenetic research to examine the vocabulary use of four students before, during, and after lessons from a cycle of design-based research attending to probability vocabulary. In characterizing students’ normative and nonnormative uses of language, we draw implications for the design of curriculum, standards, and further research. Specifically, we illustrate the importance of attending to incrementality, multidimensionality, polysemy, interrelatedness, and heterogeneity to foster students’ probability vocabulary development.

What non-technical skills competencies are addressed by Australian standards documents for health professionals who work in secondary and tertiary clinical settings? A qualitative comparative analysis

ObjectivesAt minimum, safe patient outcomes are recognised as resulting from a combination of technical and non-technical skills. Flin and colleagues provide a practical framework of non-technical skills, cognitive, social and interpersonal, that complement technical skills, with categories identified assituational awareness, communication, team working, decision-making, leadership, coping with stressandmanaging fatigue. The aim of this research was to explore the alignment of categories and elements of non-technical skills with those in the published standards documents of several health professions in Australia.DesignA qualitative comparative analysis using document analysis and deductive coding examined, extracted and interpreted data from competency standards documents focusing on non-technical skills categories and elements.ParticipantsA purposive sample of 11 health professions competency standards documents required for registration in Australia.FindingsThe 11 competency standards documents contained 1616 statements. Although standards documents addressed all non-technical skills categories, there was limited reporting ofmanaging stressandcoping with fatigue.Of the 31 elements included in the non-technical skills framework, 22 were not common to all health professions and 3 elements were missing from the standards documents. Additionally, the documents were composed differently with no common taxonomy and multifaceted statements.ConclusionWhile commonalities identified in the standards documents related to non-technical skills categories are likely to support patient safety, gaps in associated elements may undermine their effectiveness. The notable lack of reference to stress and fatigue requires further attention for health professional well-being in Australia. A shared taxonomy with clear statements may offer the best support for collaborative practice and positive patient outcomes. Competency standards need to be flexible to respond to the emerging demands of current healthcare practice along with consumer and health service needs.

SEMI Standards for SiC Wafers

SEMI Standards charter is to develop standards that benefit the semiconductor industry. The SEMI organization has evolved over the last 40 years into an international organization with covering all aspects of semiconductor and flat panel materials and devices. SEMI Standards provides the framework for the development of consensus based standards documents. At present there are two published standards specific to silicon carbide, the first dealing with dimensions, properties and ordering information for SiC wafers, and the second defining a nomenclature for defects found on SiC: SEMI M55-0817 Specification for Polished Monocrystalline Silicon Carbide Wafers SEMI M81-0611 Guide to Defects Found on Monocrystalline Silicon Carbide Substrates Additional standards applicable to various semiconductor wafers also are available and new SiC related standards are being developed based on industry needs and volunteer participation.