Search

Abstract: Background: Clinical placements are crucial to the development of skills and competencies in speech–language pathology (SLP) education and, more generally, a requirement of all health professional training programmes. Literature from medical education provides a context for understanding how the environment can be vital to all students’ learning. Given the increasing costs of education and demands on health services, students who struggle or fail on clinical placement place an additional burden on educators. Therefore, if more is known or understood about these students and their experience in relation to the clinical learning environment, appropriate strategies and support can be provided to reduce the burden. However, this literature does not specifically explore marginal or failing students and their experience. Aims: To review existing research that has explored failing and struggling health professional students undertaking clinical placements and, in particular, SLP students. Methods & Procedures: A critical narrative review was undertaken. Three electronic databases, ProQuest, CINAHL and OVID (Medline 1948–), were searched for papers exploring marginal and failing students in clinical placement contexts across all health professions, published between 1988 and 2017. Data were extracted and examined to determine the breadth of the existing research, and publications were critically appraised and major research themes identified. Main Contribution: Sixty‐nine papers were included in the review. The majority came from medicine and nursing in the United States and United Kingdom, with other allied health disciplines less well represented. The review identified key themes with the majority of papers focused on identification of at risk students and support and remediation. The review also highlighted the absence of literature relating to the student voice and in the allied health professions. Conclusions & Implications: This review highlighted the limited research related to failing/struggling student learning in clinical contexts, and only a handful of papers have specifically addressed marginal or failing students in allied health professions. The complexity of interrelated factors in this field has been highlighted in this review. Further research needs to include the student's voice to develop greater understanding and insights of struggle and failure in clinical contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: NMDA receptors have been implicated in conditioned taste aversion (CTA), a form of associative learning with the unique temporal characteristic of associating taste and toxic stimuli across very long delays. d-cycloserine (DCS), an NMDA receptor agonist, has been shown to enhance short-delay CTA learning. Here we examined the interaction of DCS with varying temporal parameters of CTA. DCS (15 mg/kg) administered prior to the pairing of 0.125% saccharin and LiCl (38 mM, 12 ml/kg) enhanced CTA when there was a short delay between the taste-toxin pairing (10 min), but not when there was a long delay (45 min). DCS activity remained at effective levels over the long delay, because DCS administered 60 min prior to a short-delay pairing enhanced CTA. The interaction of DCS with the delay between taste stimulus onset and LiCl injection was investigated by administering DCS and then 5 min access to saccharin 45 min prior to a short-delay pairing of saccharin and LiCl. DCS failed to enhance CTA in rats pre-exposed to saccharin, even with a short delay between the second saccharin exposure and LiCl injection. These results suggest that DCS enhancement of CTA is dependent on mechanisms underlying gustatory processing during long-delay taste-toxin associations. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Conditioned taste aversion (CTA) is a form of associative learning in which the pairing of a taste with a toxin causes an animal to avoid the taste. NMDA receptor mediated neurotransmission has been implicated in CTA, but the role of the NMDA receptor glycine-binding site has not been examined. To examine the effects on CTA of the glycinergic NMDA receptor agonist d-cycloserine, rats received d-cycloserine (15 mg/kg, i.p.) or vehicle 15 min before 10-min access to 0.125% saccharin, followed by a low dose of LiCl (19 mg/kg, i.p.). CTA was measured with 24-h, 2-bottle preference tests between water and saccharin. Vehicle-treated rats formed a mild CTA that rapidly extinguished, while d-cycloserine-treated rats formed a stronger CTA that extinguished slowly. The effect of d-cycloserine was specific to the NMDA receptor glycine-binding site, because pretreatment with HA-966 (6 mg/kg), a partial glycinergic agonist, blocked enhancement by d-cycloserine. Three follow-up experiments suggest that the enhancement of CTA was not due to an aversive effect of d-cycloserine. First, saccharin paired with d-cycloserine (15 mg/kg) alone did not induce a CTA, although a higher dose (30 mg/kg) did significantly lower saccharin preference. Second, pretreatment with d-cycloserine did not increase the duration of “lying-on-belly” behavior induced by LiCl. Third, pretreatment with d-cycloserine did not increase c-Fos induction by either LiCl or vehicle injection in central visceral relays (the nucleus of the solitary tract, the parabrachial nucleus, the central nucleus of the amygdala, the supraoptic nucleus, and the paraventricular nucleus). These results confirm the participation of NMDA receptor, and specifically the glycine-binding site of NMDA receptor, in CTA learning. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples face significant challenges in accessing mainstream health services due to the ongoing impacts of racism, colonisation, and intergenerational trauma. To address health inequalities, it is important to build Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander workforce capacity in the health professions where there is significant under-representation. A pilot mentoring programme was developed to support Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander ear and hearing health professionals and students, which aimed to understand their expectations and experiences. Six participants enrolled in the study, two mentors and four mentees, all from a speech pathology background. The study found that maintaining relationships with other Aboriginal speech pathologists was vital for longevity in the profession. The study stresses the importance of workplaces and universities ensuring that individuals are not thrown into culturally unsafe situations and that they are culturally safe and responsive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]