Findings have implications for enhancing the professional behaviours and engagement of James Cook University medical students in Indigenous communities while on rural placement and after graduation, and for Australian medical and health practitioners more broadly.
Nearly all medical students welcomed learning pathology via online digital technology. DM should improve the quantity, quality, cost and accessibility of pathology teaching by regional medical schools, and has significant implications for the growing emphasis in Australia for decentralised medical education and rural clinical placements.
Introduction: Medical students should be equipped with the necessary knowledge, skills and attitudes to engage with local communities on placement, and later act as agents of change in addressing health system priorities and inequities. Determining what are the necessary knowledge, skills and attitudes requires the medical school to collect input from the local communities they serve. This study describes the steps taken by the James Cook University (JCU) School of Medicine & Dentistry (SMD) to develop a systematic process for collecting input from a local Indigenous community. Methods: This 2011 study utilised a participatory action research design. An Indigenous Reference Group (IRG) consisting of 13 local Indigenous people including health professionals, Elders and community members was established by the JCU SMD in the North Queensland town of Mount Isa. 'Yarning Circle' discussions between SMD representatives and the IRG developed a Terms of Reference (ToR) to guide the engagement process, and negotiated reciprocal benefits to compensate participants for time involved in consultations and to promote sustainability. Results: A framework for engaging with the Mount Isa Indigenous community was developed. Benefits for the SMD included a list of the good and bad engagement strategies with the local Indigenous community. Benefits for the IRG members included assistance with grant applications, media skills and organizing a community-wide health event.
Background and Objective
People living with asthma, their carers, clinicians and policymakers are the end‐users of research and need research that address their individual healthcare needs. We aimed to understand the research priorities of end‐users of asthma research.
Methods
A national cross‐sectional mixed‐methods study was conducted. The study included an online survey that engaged patients, carers, healthcare professionals and policymakers to provide statements to free‐text questions about what they would like to see answered by research to improve living with asthma on a day‐to‐day basis. Responses where thematically analysed followed by three online priority setting consensus workshops.
Results
There were 593 respondents who provided 1446 text comments. Participants prioritized 10 asthma research themes which were: (1) asthma in children, (2) COVID 19 and asthma, (3) asthma care and self‐management, (4) diagnosis and medication, (5) managing asthma attacks, (6) causes, prevention and features of asthma, (7) mental health, (8) asthma and ageing, (9) severe asthma, (10) asthma and other health conditions. Each theme comprises specific research questions.
Conclusion
This project successfully established 10 priority research themes for asthma, reflecting the collective voice of the end‐users of this research. These novel data can be used to address the documented mismatch in research prioritization between the research community and the end‐users of research.
This study demonstrates that a tailor-made primary health-care education course can create opportunities for Indigenous people to pursue health careers, promote health knowledge and leadership skills, inspire pride and self-esteem, and strengthen links within the community.
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