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Pinpointing What is Wrong With Cross-Agency Collaboration in Disaster Healthcare
Get PDFA disaster is an event in which a hazard has a destructive environmental or ecological impact on such a scale that the effects cannot be managed within local community resources. In disaster healthcare, the main responders to provide emergency relief are usually emergency management and health personnel. Although these two sectors share the same vision of providing public health services to disaster victims, post-disaster analysis reflects poor communication between them leading to delayed, substandard and even unavailable healthcare. This paper investigates the barriers to smooth and effective communication between health and emergency management personnel in a disaster, with the aim of pinpointing possible points of improvement. The paper presents a comprehensive review of the available literature on the subject and suggests suitable interventions to enhance healthcare delivery through cross-agency collaboration and information exchange based on a projected telehealth system
Experience and Perspectives of Remote Interactive Training in Medicine
Get PDFOver the past 20 years there has been growing interest in remote interactive training of doctors using videoconferencing that allows for the exchange of knowledge and experience, and facilitates the introduction of new technologies. Videoconferencing was initially constrained by digital communication limitations and costs, but modern videoconferencing tools have helped to resolve this. Access to the experience and knowledge of leading world specialists can achieve through interactive video lectures, master classes or participation in scientific conferences. A Telemedicine Centre for videoconferencing based on modern ITU standards and a simulation-training centre where physicians can improve their practical skills have been installed at the Medical Institute of the RUDN- University. This provides the necessary infrastructure and conditions for the provision of videoconference based continuing medical education (CME) programmes which allow physicians to study at their workplace Two professional educational programmes on telemedicine have been developed and have been included in the list of CME programmes approved by the Ministry of Health of Russia. Using videoconferencing for interactive distance learning in CME, allows. These consist of theoretical sections of telelectures with interactive remote master classes from leading Russian and foreign clinics, the provision of parallel work using medical simulators, as well as the introduction of 3D visualization technologies in organizing master classes will improve practical skills
Logistics and Uptake of Genetic Testing for Patients Referred for Telegenetic Counselling for Cancer
Get PDFPurpose: There is a dearth of information about the uptake of genetic testing after telegenetic (videoconference) counselling for hereditary cancer, which has been previously reported as a limitation of this service delivery model. Methods: We performed a review of the triage list for patients referred to The Ohio State University (OSU) from two community cancer centres for telegenetic counselling appointments from April 1, 2014 to May 31, 2016. Results: A total of 179 patients were referred for telegenetic counselling, and of these 62.6% (112/179) completed a 30-60 minute telegenetic counselling appointment. Of those counselled, 82.1% (92/112) completed genetic testing, 12.0% (11/92) of whom were found to have a pathogenic mutation. Of those with mutations, 45.5% (5/11) returned for a follow-up telegenetic counselling session to review results in more detail. In addition, 18.5% (17/92) of patients tested had at least one variant of uncertain significance (VUS). Conclusions: The presence of a nurse/nurse practitioner with the patient at the remote site during the telegenetic counselling session may have facilitated higher completion rates for genetic testing compared to previous reports in the literature, and appropriateness of genetic testing in this method of providing genetic counselling is reflected in the rates of results identifying deleterious mutations and variants of uncertain significance
Human rights and neo-liberal education in post-apartheid South Africa
Get PDFInternationally, human rights are considered innate, natural and inalienable. The article offers proffers a historical account of the natural law philosophy as the basis upon which human rights are ascribed to a supernatural force and human agency, on the one hand, and to the struggle for human existence, on the other hand. The author shows how the social contract that stems from human rationality underpins global, regional and domestic human rights frameworks. Based on a neo-liberal ideology, governance and policies, I argue that the education agenda in post-apartheid South Africa does not guarantee equal access to education. In light of this, the article maintains that, despite the anti-apartheid struggle movement’s achievements in human rights, the right to education is yet to be fully realised. In the end, I employ political philosophy to help us clarify fundamental problems of education within neo-liberalism that need to be addressed in post-apartheid South Africa
Exploring pre-service teachers’ opportunities to learn to teach science with ICTs during teaching practice
Get PDFTeaching practice is an important component of the teacher education programme that provides opportunities for pre-service teachers to learn in the context of real classrooms. In this paper, I use the framework of opportunities to learn (OTL) to analyse data from a mixed-methods study on the experiences of pre-service teachers with learning to integrate Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) into the teaching of science during teaching placement in schools. A sample of 103 science pre-service teachers from one mid-size university in South Africa completed a survey on their use of ICTs for subject teaching during teaching practice, 21 of whom submitted 33 actual lesson plans from teaching practice for analysis and participated in 4 focus group interviews. The findings show that the teacher education programme provided uneven opportunities to learn for students in the same cohort. These findings have implications for how universities should structure teaching practice experience for equitable OTL for all pre-service teachers, especially with respect to the integration of ICTs for subject teaching. Thus, I recommend restructuring of teacher education programmes to better the opportunities for future teachers to learn to use ICTs for subject teaching during and after teaching practice
“If I choose history it is likely that I won’t be able to leave for the cities to get a job” – rural South African learners and the choosing of history as a subject
No full textThe aim of this paper was to understand why rural learners, in a South African context, viewed learning History beyond Grade 9 as being disadvantageous to their future prospects. Using two qualitative methods, pen-and-pencil test and focus group interviews, the views of 15-year-old rural learners were probed on why they made the choices about History that they did. What an analysis of the data revealed was that Mathematics, Science and Commerce, rather than History, was favoured as subjects. The reasons for this was rooted in the sub-culture of financial gain, personal worth and the possibility to escape to the city fostered around these subjects by the state and the formal economy and perpetuated by teachers, parents and learners in the rural schools in which this study took place. In contrast History was viewed as a subject for learners who struggled academically and who should therefore remain in a rural setting. The consequence of this was the development of a Historical Consciousness rooted in the present and the future with the past being rejected as having any significance. This in itself militated against the creation of a sustainable rural learning ecology in which a consciousness existed that all bodies of knowledge, learners and places are of equal worth in the quest to understand the world
Towards an Integrated School Geography Curriculum: The Role of Place-based Education
Get PDFIn this article, we review literature on curriculum changes to school Geography in post-apartheid South Africa. We note the gains and losses with each iteration of the national curriculum for school Geography over the past two decades or so. We argue that although the latest version, the CAPS has been strengthened in terms of continuity and progression it still has shortcomings: integration in the curriculum is weak, Indigenous Knowledge is not valued and its reliance on textbooks is likely to foster behaviourist pedagogical practices. We propose place-based education as a conceptual framework and approach to address current weaknesses in school Geography in South Africa so as to imagine the practice differently
1st International Conference on eHealth and Telemedicine (ICEHAT) Kathmandu 1st - 3rd November 2018
Get PDFLegitimation of knowers for access in science
Get PDFBased on poor performance of students in the higher education science context, this paper questions the current focus on content knowledge and, in so doing, examines the role student knowers play in enabling epistemological access. Using Legitimation Code Theory, and drawing on data from interviews, course documents, observations, and critical reflections, the social relations of a science foundation course in the South African context are examined empirically to reveal the valuing of two kinds of knowers—learning-context knowers (or science learners) and production-context knowers (or scientists). Since being both kinds of knowers is necessary for access to powerful science knowledge, and home and educational contexts of certain groups of students are better in terms of enabling science knowers and learners than others, it is argued from a social justice perspective that science (and other) curricula account for knower attributes in enabling access for success for all students
Are instructivist pedagogies more appropriate for learning the sciences in South African low-quintile schools than western literature suggests?
Get PDFSome research suggests that the use of instructivistic teaching strategies may be detrimental to learning, while other research asserts that such strategies can enhance learning under certain conditions. I argue that the conditions present in South African township schools and probably more broadly in schools typical of developing countries, correspond to the conditions for which such strategies are appropriate and may currently be the only strategies implementable on a large scale in the South African township context. I propose two kinds of instructivistic resources which may be effective in improving learning in this context by developing language competence, increasing feedback and reinforcement, and extending teaching and learning time; namely low-language-demand drill-and-practise worksheets and software. I discuss difficulties which could be encountered and caution against a simplistic interpretation of my argument. Discussions such as this are necessary as we search for appropriate and implementable solutions to the crisis of South African township underperformance in education