New directions

Journal of Allied Health, Fall 2003 by Lyons, Kevin J

BEGINNING WITH THIS ISSUE, the Journal of Allied Health has a new publisher, which is called Science & Medicine and is under the direction of Michael Bokulich. Their office is located in Narberth, Pennsylvania, which is conveniently close to our office here at Jefferson. We are looking forward to a long and profitable relationship with Mike and his staff.

As I mentioned in the last issue, Mary Mullison has left the Journal to pursue other career opportunities. Ms. Lisa Marzucco, of our staff, has assumed many of Mary's responsibilities and will be the first line of contact with our reviewers and potential authors. Since Mary's departure, Lisa and Dr. Jennifer Lapin, also of our staff, have done an excellent job reorganizing the infrastructure of the Journal. This new system will enable us to continue to respond in a timely manner to the many queries we receive from outside sources.

In this issue, we present articles covering a wide range of topics. We begin with Tom Elwood's "View from Washington," in which he discusses the history of federal attempts to deal with personnel shortages in the health professions and describes the Allied Health Reinvestment Act of 2003. A draft bill, developed by American Society of Allied Health Professions staff and legislative staff, has been forwarded to the Legislative Counsel's Office, where it will be converted into the proper legislative language and assigned House and Senate bill numbers.

Conditions that affect the way health professionals view their jobs have been of continual interest to researchers. Understanding the influences on variables such as professional commitment, withdrawal, and insecurity is particularly important in times when shortages exist in many professions. Gary Blau and his colleagues present the results of a 4-year study of medical technologists designed to identify the relationship between proficiency in fundamental or complex skills and various job-related attitudes, such as job commitment and involvement.

Understanding student achievement and behavior also are topics of ongoing interest. Most studies of variables affecting student accomplishment focus on cognitive measures of academic success. Relatively few address noncognitive predictors as they relate to clinical performance. Deborah Opacic presents the results of her study of the predictive relationship between student self-efficacy, beliefs, achievement expectations, perceived outcomes values, and student clinical performance.

Many educators hold certain assumptions about the important elements of teaching effectiveness. Rarely are students asked, however, what they consider to be important to good instruction. Hoppes and Chesbro compared the perceptions of students and faculty at the University of Oklahoma regarding the most important elements that they consider to be indicative of good teaching. Although there was broad agreement on many of the items, significant differences were found on others.

The incidence of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection among African-American youth is higher than any other racial/ethnic group. One contributing factor to the problem might be what is termed the knowledge-behavior gap, in which knowledge about transmission does not translate to behavior change. Peggy Valentine and her colleagues present the results of a survey of more than 600 allied health students from seven historically black colleges and universities and four predominantly African-American physician assistant programs. The survey measured risk behaviors in five areas. The authors found that allied health students practiced safer sex than other student populations, were more likely to use condoms, and were more likely to be tested more than once for HIV infection.

There are two Commentaries in this issue. Assessing program effectiveness is becoming more in demand as pressure grows from legislators and accrediting agencies for evidence of program success. Richter and Ruebling describe one method of outcomes assessment using student alumni and employer satisfaction surveys. With increased use of the Internet, the issue of protecting the rights of authors has received much attention. Meridee Van Draska discusses copyright law and makes recommendations regarding the use of computers to disseminate class materials to students.

The three Research Notes address a variety of topics. Beth Velde and her colleagues report on a baseline study used to assess the cultural competency of students and faculty at the School of Allied Health at East Carolina University. The purpose of the study was to develop baseline measures to assess the effectiveness of educational programs designed to increase cultural competency of students and faculty and to use as a comparison for other schools of allied health that conduct similar studies. Nicole Porcher and her team report on their study to determine whether memory recall strategies were effective in helping older adults remember their food intake over a 24-hour period. Accuracy in recall of this intake helps dietitians provide counseling and identify imbalances. Heiss and Basso tested an innovative approach to improve students' attitudes toward research and their confidence and ability to interpret and apply research findings to clinical practice. They developed and tested a process of debate using a mock trial format to assess improved attitudes and confidence.