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Field education globally, has been highly disrupted by restrictions associated with COVID-19. This disruption has forced many students to engage with online learning. The current article presents a student-led co-operative inquiry exploring the experience of four social work students undertaking a remote research-based placement in regional Australia during a global pandemic. In this inquiry students' critically self-reflected on the strengths and challenges of remote research-based placements. Despite some initial reservations, the students' experience was positive overall. This article reports on four key themes that emerged from this inquiry: the translation of social work communication and relationship-building skills to online environments, the development of professional identity in a remote research-based placement, access to supervision in a remote context, and reflection on the experience of completing a research placement guided by the social work value of respect for persons. We conclude that undertaking a remote research placement helped forge students' appreciation for the role of research in social work, enhanced their communication and research skills, and strengthened students' sense of professional identity. These findings confirm remote research-based placements can offer relevant and effective placement opportunities that can inform social work field-education heutagogy as we move beyond the restrictions associated with the pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To explore changes to rural nursing and allied health placements during the latter stage of the COVID-19 public health emergency., Setting: Regional, rural and remote Australia., Participants: Nursing and allied health students with a scheduled University Department of Rural Health (UDRH) facilitated rural placement between 1 January 2022 and 31 October 2022., Design: Cross-sectional online survey (n = 333), followed by semi-structured interviews (n = 21)., Results: Almost all students surveyed (98.5%) were able to undertake their placement, although 13.1% reported changes to the setting, timing or delivery of training. Placement tasks (47.3%), experience of the local community (39.0%) and connection with other students (39.6%) were the placement aspects most commonly reported to have changed. However, most students were satisfied with their placement (86.0%), agreed their placement provided quality clinical training (79.3%) and wanted to work rurally after their experience (73.2%). Nursing students had lower odds of reporting satisfaction with placement (OR, 0.49 [95% CI 0.24-0.99, p = 0.03]), while placements longer than 4 weeks had almost twice the odds of promoting rural intention (OR, 1.84 [95% CI 1.09-3.15, p = 0.02]). Placement changes were associated with: fear of contracting COVID-19; circulating illness; health workforce shortages; and health and safety compliance., Conclusions: Despite changes, most students found rural placements undertaken during 2022 to be quality learning experiences which left them satisfied and wanting to work rurally. UDRHs should advocate for longer placements, improve remote supervision and accommodation infrastructure, and help prepare and support students for challenging learning environments to promote positive rural training experiences during public health emergencies., (© 2024 National Rural Health Alliance Ltd..)

Organ shortage is a major challenge in kidney transplantation but the use of older donors, often with co-morbidities, is hampered by inconsistent outcomes. Methods of accurately stratifying marginal donor organs by clinical and histological assessment are lacking. To better understand organ variability, we profiled the transcriptomes of 271 kidneys from deceased donors at retrieval. Following correction for biopsy composition, we assessed molecular pathways that associated with delayed, and sub-optimal one-year graft function. Analysis of cortical biopsies identified an adaptive immune gene-rich module that significantly associated with increasing age and worse outcomes. Cellular deconvolution using human kidney reference single cell transcriptomes confirmed an increase in kidney-specific B and T cell signatures, as well as kidney macrophage, myofibroblast and fibroblast gene sets in this module. Surprisingly, innate immune pathway and neutrophil gene signature enrichment was associated with better outcomes. Thus, our work uncovers cellular molecular features of pathological organ ageing, identifiable at kidney retrieval, with translational potential., (Crown Copyright © 2024. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Objective: To investigate students' perceptions of the impact of coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 on rural and remote placements facilitated by 16 University Departments of Rural Health in Australia in 2020., Design: A mixed-method design comprising an online survey and semi-structured interviews., Setting: Australia., Participants: Allied health, nursing and medical students with a planned University Departments of Rural Health-facilitated rural or remote placement between February and October 2020., Intervention: A planned rural or remote placement in 2020 facilitated by a University Departments of Rural Health, regardless of placement outcome., Main Outcome Measures: Questionnaire included placement outcome (completed or not), discipline of study (nursing, allied health, medicine), and Likert measures of impact to placement (including supervision, placement tasks, location, accommodation, client contact and student learning) and placement experience (overall, support, supervision, university support). Semi-structured interviews asked about placement planning, outcome, decisions, experience and student perceptions., Results: While coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 reportedly impacted on the majority of planned placements, most students (80%) were able to complete their University Departments of Rural Health-facilitated placement in some form and were satisfied with their placement experience. Common placement changes included changes to tasks, setting, supervisors and location. Allied health students were significantly more likely to indicate that their placement had been impacted and also felt more supported by supervisors and universities than nursing students. Interview participants expressed concerns regarding the potential impact of cancelled and adapted placements on graduation and future employment., Conclusions: The coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 pandemic was reported to impact the majority of University Departments of Rural Health-facilitated rural and remote placements in 2020. Fortunately, most students were able to continue to undertake a rural or remote placement in some form and were largely satisfied with their placement experience. Students were concerned about their lack of clinical learning and graduating on time with adequate clinical competence., (© 2022 National Rural Health Alliance Ltd.)