Advancing the Mission of Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry Through Innovation in Teaching

HIV Matters: an educational podcast series to improve outcomes for people living with HIV

The growth of podcasting since its development in 2004 has been phenomenal. Within health education, it has become an innovative way of broadcasting information on a wide range of subjects. Podcasting offers creative ways to support learning and share best practice. The aim of the article is to explore the use of podcasting as an educational tool to improve outcomes for people living with HIV.

An Audit of Inpatient Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry Services at an Inner New York City Safety Net Hospital

Background Our study's primary objective is to audit the resource utilization of a consultation-liaison (CL) psychiatry service in an inner New York City safety net hospital. This cross-sectional, observational study was conducted as a subset of a quality improvement project at the hospital to investigate the characteristics of the emergent nature of consults, types, and the specialty from which the referral was placed to the CL services. This study aims to improve the efficacy of our consult process by improving the appropriateness and precision of consult requests. Methodology This cross-sectional, observational study was reviewed and approved by the Institutional Review Board under a quality improvement exemption. The study investigated the EPIC electronic medical record data for characteristics of consult referrals in the third quarter of 2019 from July 1, 2019, to September 30, 2019. A total of 629 consults were recorded during this period. We excluded follow-up calls, duplicate data rows, and patients with missing data points; the final consults were 421. Patients who required more than one new consult (follow-up excluded) within 90 days were considered; thus, the total number of patients who were included in the study was 327. Results Of the 421 consults identified in the dataset for review, only 45.8% were valid consults, 32.8% were not valid, and 21.4% were uncertain. Further, the most common department from which consults were placed was Medicine (73.2%), followed by Surgery (12.8%), Obstetrics/Gynecology (9%), Critical Care (3.6%), and, finally, Pediatrics (1.4%). Conclusions The study overviews the quality of general consults for the CL psychiatry service and how the CL staff manages it. It also provides an idea about the number of consults that can be comprehensively addressed.

What Lessons Can Be Learned for the Agroecological Transition From the Use of Social Media in Preventive Medicine?

In agriculture, web-based social media are increasingly used to share knowledge concerning best practices. One goal of agroecology is to reduce the use of synthetic chemical inputs. Agroecology represents a contrast with intensive agriculture in that it better manages interactions with life forms. It is crucial to help people share their knowledge to accomplish the agroecological transition. This paper proposes an analogy between the use of social media to facilitate (1) caring for plants in the context of agroecology and (2) preventing human diseases in the context of medicine. The authors created a bibliography of scientific publications related to social media use in preventative medicine to identify best practices for social media use (and the associated drawbacks) that can be applied to develop social media dedicated to agroecology.

Enhancing Psychiatry Education through Podcasting: Learning from the Listener Experience

OBJECTIVE

Podcasts have recently been introduced into psychiatry education, despite limited evidence evaluating podcasting in medical education. PsychEd is an educational, publicly available podcast targeting junior learners in psychiatry. This study characterized PsychEd's listeners and the podcast's role in their education.

METHODS

The study involved a mixed-methods survey, followed by semi-structured phone interviews with respondents. There were 97 survey responders in total, of whom 9 participated in a telephone interview. Survey responses were coded as interval data and analyzed descriptively using statistical software. Interviews were transcribed and coded for emergent themes using a grounded theory model.

RESULTS

PsychEd listeners represented an interprofessional audience, with 46 respondents (48%) being physicians or physicians in training, and 34 (35%) being allied mental health professionals. All respondents (100%) rated the podcast as "helpful" or "very helpful" for general knowledge. Listeners were attracted to PsychEd for the auditory learning format, the opportunity to review existing knowledge, the focus on core topics, the Canadian expertise, and the presentation of "clinical pearls." Respondents highlighted valuable qualities of a psychiatry podcast: conversational, case-based, narrative approach, longer episodes (i.e., 30-60 minutes) as compared to other medical specialties, and a clinical focus. Furthermore, they identified podcasts as an opportunity for shared interprofessional curricula.

CONCLUSION

This study is the first to examine the motivations and experiences of listeners of a psychiatry educational podcast. The findings support existing literature on the benefits of podcasts in medical education. Future studies should explore the impact of podcasts on learning and behaviors.

The Innovative Trend of Piano Teaching in Music Education in Multicultural Education under Ecological Environment

Primarily based on theoretical studies of multicultural pedagogy, anthropology of music, and postmodern music education concepts, techniques combining qualitative and quantitative research are used. Eight types of design guidelines are then proposed according to different intelligence characteristics, according to intelligence characteristics and context of conversational design. Finally, based on the perspective of multicultural learning environments, this work will explore and provide insights into new concepts of piano teaching in multicultural learning environments in three areas: new piano teaching, new instruction, and new piano learning materials. The experimental results show that piano teaching activities based on multiple intelligences theory can stimulate students' interest in learning music, fully mobilize students' initiative in learning music, and improve the quality of music teaching.

Bibliometric Study of Scientific Production on the Term Collaborative Learning in Web of Science

Currently, more and more teachers decide to follow active teaching methods, leaving behind traditional teaching methods. Among the most used pedagogical methods in the educational field is the collaborative learning. The general objective of the present investigation is to know the performance and academic development of the term "collaborative learning" in the documents collected in the Web of Science database. The research method developed was based on a bibliometric study, identifying academic performance and conceptual development, through a co-word analysis. Particularly, we have pursued four main objectives: (a) To determine the degree of performance of documents collected from collaborative learning; (b) to identify the scientific development of so-called collaborative learning; (c) to analyze the most incidental aspects of collaborative learning; and (d) to value the most representative authors who are experts in the use of collaborative learning. The total number of manuscripts studied is 3295. The results show the manuscripts are written mainly in English by researchers who belong from the United States. The main area of knowledge is Education Educational Research. As a conclusion, it can be said that the collaborative learning pedagogical method is at a turning point in the scientific field. Its scientific evolution, focused on its principles in the students themselves, has extended to other branches. At present, studies are oriented towards technological resources, co-regulation, and the academic achievements of students. Furthermore, in the coming years the terms innovation, design, patterns, collaboration, and communication will probably be the new lines of study in this scientific field.

End-of-Life Care in Individuals With Serious Mental Illness

Background

Approximately 4.5% of the population live with serious mental illness (SMI), a term referring to mental health disorders that are chronic, impair function, and require ongoing treatment. People living with SMI are at risk of premature mortality relative to people without SMI. Chronic medical illnesses contribute significantly to mortality among individuals with SMI. The standard of care for individuals with serious medical illnesses includes palliative care. However, the provision of palliative care has not been operationalized for individuals with SMI.

Objectives

To review existing data on end-of-life and palliative care for individuals with serious medical illness and comorbid serious mental illness. To operationalize the role of the consultation-liaison (C-L) psychiatrist in such care, with a particular eye towards redressing disparities.

Methods

In this narrative review, we draw upon a review of the literature on end-of-life and palliative care provision for individuals with serious medical illness and comorbid serious medical illness. We also draw upon the experiences of the authors in formulating best practices for the care of such patients.

Results

Individuals with SMI are at risk of suboptimal end-of-life care. Patient, clinician, and system-level factors all contribute to disparities including decreased access to palliative care, uneven continued engagement with mental health services, and low rates of advance care planning. C-L psychiatrists can use their expertise at the intersection of medicine and psychiatry to address such disparities by (1) correcting misassumptions, (2) promoting advance care planning, (3) engaging long-term caregivers, (4) recognizing social needs, (5) ensuring ongoing access to psychiatric treatment, and (6) addressing suffering.

Conclusions

There are significant disparities in the end-of-life care of individuals with SMI. C-L psychiatrists have expertise to ally with medical providers and redress these disparities.

How to Teach Pre-Service Teachers to Make a Didactic Program? The Collaborative Learning Associated with Mobile Devices

Today, pedagogical proposals are increasingly moving away from purely traditional approaches, with a proliferation of active methodologies in the teaching–learning processes. This research aims to find out the effectiveness of the collaborative method in mobile learning, as opposed to traditional methodology, for university students in the learning of the didactic program. The research methodology is quantitative, applying a quasi-experimental design with a control group and experimental group. The results show that the collaborative learning teaching method associated with mobile learning mainly increases motivation, the relationships between teachers and students, the relationships between students and content, the relationships between students and students, autonomy in learning, pedagogical collaboration between students, problem-solving, and the sense of time in the training process. It is concluded that the collaborative learning method associated with mobile learning is more effective for learning didactic programming than the traditional method.

Collaborative Learning Based on Harry Potter for Learning Geometric Figures in the Subject of Mathematics

Nowadays, education requires changes in the teaching and learning processes, through the implementation of innovative and motivating pedagogical actions, owing to the existing needs in society. Education, owing to the current needs of society, requires changes in the teaching and learning processes through the implementation of innovative and motivating pedagogical actions. The main objective of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of the collaborative method, based on the Harry Potter theme, with respect to the traditional method in the first year of Obligatory Secondary Education for the learning of geometric figures in the subject of mathematics. For this purpose, a quasi-experimental, quantitative, descriptive, and correlational study has been designed, using a standardized questionnaire as a technique to collect information. The sample is composed of 236 students from the first year of Obligatory Secondary Education distributed in eight groups (four control and four experimental) from a public high school in the city of Cádiz (Spain). The tests carried out show that collaborative learning generates improvements in the attitudes and mathematical dimensions. Therefore, the collaborative method, developed by means of the Harry Potter theme for students in the first year of Compulsory Secondary Education in the subject of mathematics, causes a better attitude of the student towards the teaching and learning process. Furthermore, it facilitates the acquisition of mathematical contents related to geometry, which does not directly affect the students’ grades because, although those of the experimental group are better than those obtained by the control group, the differences between the two are minimal.

Online Curriculum in Transplant Psychiatry

BACKGROUND

Transplant psychiatry is a subspecialty of consultation-liaison psychiatry that focused on evaluation, treatment, and research of mental health problems in organ transplant recipients and organ donors. To date, there is no literature about training programs that would ensure psychiatrists acquire the necessary knowledge and skills required to meet the clinical needs of these patients.

OBJECTIVES

The author describes the implementation of an online curriculum in transplant psychiatry created at the request of physicians located outside the United States.

METHOD

A 3-session online interactive course focused on knowledge relevant to transplant psychiatry was held in the fall of 2018. While the instructor was based in the United States, all attendees were located in Pakistan. The impact of the course was evaluated via precourse and postcourse surveys assessing knowledge level, interest in transplant psychiatry, and level of comfort with transplant psychiatry evaluations in the pretransplantation and posttransplantation settings.

RESULTS

Nine participants attended at least one of the 3 sessions, and 6 attended all 3 sessions. There were no significant events regarding the implementation of the curriculum. The response rate to the questionnaire was 100% before the course and 88.8% after the course. Precourse and postcourse tests indicated the curriculum had a positive impact on the level of knowledge and level of confidence in addressing problems relevant to transplant psychiatry.

CONCLUSIONS

Online curriculum for highly specialized areas of psychiatry is feasible and can have a positive impact on knowledge levels and confidence in addressing clinical challenges.