Equity for excellence in academic institutions: a manifesto for change.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Wedekind L
PROVIDER: S-EPMC8343400 | biostudies-literature |
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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Project description:Today's colleges and universities consist of highly complex structures that dictate interactions between the administration, faculty, and student body. These structures can play a role in dictating the efficiency of policy enacted by the administration and determine the effect that curriculum changes in one department have on other departments. Despite the fact that the features of these complex structures have a strong impact on the institutions, they remain by-and-large unknown in many cases. In this paper we study the academic structure of our home institution of Trinity College in Hartford, CT using the major and minor patterns between graduating students to build a temporal multiplex network describing the interactions between different departments. Using recent network science techniques developed for such temporal networks we identify the evolving community structures that organize departments' interactions, as well as quantify the interdisciplinary centrality of each department. We implement this framework for Trinity College, finding practical insights and applications, but also present it as a general framework for colleges and universities to better understand their own structural makeup in order to better inform academic and administrative policy.
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Project description:Implementation science approaches the challenges of translating evidence into practice as a matter of scientific inquiry. This conceptual paper uses an implementation science lens to examine the ways in which evidence from health professions education research is brought to bear on decision-making. The authors describe different decision-making contexts and the kinds of evidence they consider, and from this, they outline ways in which research findings might be better presented to support their translation into policy and practice. Reflecting on the nature of decision-making in health professions education and how decisions are made and then implemented in different health professions education contexts, the authors argue that researchers should align their work with the decision-making contexts that are most likely to make use of them. These recommendations reflect implementation science principles of packaging and disseminating evidence in ways that are meaningful for key stakeholders, that stem from co-creation of knowledge, that require or result in meaningful partnerships, and that are context specific and relevant.
| S-EPMC8633355 | biostudies-literature
Project description:IntroductionHealth profession schools have acknowledged the need for a diverse workforce by increasing diversity in recruitment, but little has been done to build inclusive excellence in learning environments. Microaggressions and other forms of mistreatment can increase stress levels and depression and negatively impact academic performance. To increase student performance, retention, and wellness, mitigating microaggressions is needed to promote an inclusive culture.MethodsWe designed this workshop as a framework to think critically about microaggressions, how they impact the health professions academic environment, and how administrators, faculty, and students can promote inclusion excellence. The workshop included a presentation discussing microaggression theory, seven cases describing microaggressions in the health professions education environment, and discussion and facilitator guides. Cases were based on prior research conducted by the primary author and upon interactions authors shared from their professional experience. Participants completed pre- and postsurveys.ResultsDuring six workshops at three different institutions, 138 out of 190 participants (73% response rate), including nursing and medicine faculty, students, and leadership, completed the pre- and postsurveys. Pre- and posttraining measurements found statistically significant improvements in participants' knowledge of the impact of microaggressions, self-efficacy in responding to microaggressions, and commitment to being an active bystander in the face of microaggressions. Participants were highly satisfied with the training.DiscussionThis humanistic, case-based learning curriculum allows facilitators to guide faculty, student, and leadership conversations to build skills to promote inclusion excellence through preventing microaggressions, repairing and reestablishing relationships, and restoring reputations once microaggressions occur.
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Project description:While academia is moving forward in terms of diversifying recruitment of undergraduate and graduate students, diverse representation is still not found across the academic hierarchy. At the graduate level, new discussions are emerging around efforts to improve the experiences of women and underrepresented minorities through inclusive graduate programming. Inclusive graduate programs are that which actively center and prioritize support for diverse experiences, identities, career goals, and perspectives, from recruitment through graduation. Establishing regular and rigorous evaluation of equity and inclusion efforts and needs is a critical component of this work. This is recognized by funding agencies that increasingly require reporting on inclusion efforts; here, we suggest use of a systems change framework for these evaluations. A systems change approach emphasizes three levels: explicit change (e.g., policies), semi-explicit change (e.g., power dynamics), and implicit change (e.g., biases). We use the Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior (EEB) PhD Program at the University of Texas at Austin in an exercise to (a) identify areas of concern regarding inclusive programming voiced by graduate students, (b) categorize efforts to address these concerns, and (c) integrating and evaluating which areas of the systems change framework show the greatest progress or potential for progress. We argue this framework is particularly useful for academic systems as they are complex, composed of variable individuals, and must address diverse stakeholder needs.
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Project description:The purpose of this study is to describe the volume, topics, and methodological nature of the existing research literature on research data management in academic institutions.We conducted a scoping review by searching forty literature databases encompassing a broad range of disciplines from inception to April 2016. We included all study types and data extracted on study design, discipline, data collection tools, and phase of the research data lifecycle.We included 301 articles plus 10 companion reports after screening 13,002 titles and abstracts and 654 full-text articles. Most articles (85%) were published from 2010 onwards and conducted within the sciences (86%). More than three-quarters of the articles (78%) reported methods that included interviews, cross-sectional, or case studies. Most articles (68%) included the Giving Access to Data phase of the UK Data Archive Research Data Lifecycle that examines activities such as sharing data. When studies were grouped into five dominant groupings (Stakeholder, Data, Library, Tool/Device, and Publication), data quality emerged as an integral element.Most studies relied on self-reports (interviews, surveys) or accounts from an observer (case studies) and we found few studies that collected empirical evidence on activities amongst data producers, particularly those examining the impact of research data management interventions. As well, fewer studies examined research data management at the early phases of research projects. The quality of all research outputs needs attention, from the application of best practices in research data management studies, to data producers depositing data in repositories for long-term use.
| S-EPMC5441653 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Citations measure the importance of a publication, and may serve as a proxy for its popularity and quality of its contents. Here we study the distributions of citations to publications from individual academic institutions for a single year. The average number of citations have large variations between different institutions across the world, but the probability distributions of citations for individual institutions can be rescaled to a common form by scaling the citations by the average number of citations for that institution. We find this feature seems to be universal for a broad selection of institutions irrespective of the average number of citations per article. A similar analysis for citations to publications in a particular journal in a single year reveals similar results. We find high absolute inequality for both these sets, Gini coefficients being around 0.66 and 0.58 for institutions and journals respectively. We also find that the top 25% of the articles hold about 75% of the total citations for institutions and the top 29% of the articles hold about 71% of the total citations for journals.
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Project description:IntroductionPatient age and hospital volume have been shown to affect perioperative outcomes after pediatric pyeloplasty. However, there are few multicenter studies that focus on outcomes at teaching hospitals, where many of the operations are performed.ObjectiveThe goal was to determine if surgical approach, age, case volume, or other factors influence perioperative outcomes in a large contemporary cohort.Study designUsing the clinical database/resource manager (CDB/RM) of the University Health-System Consortium (UHC), children who underwent open, laparoscopic, or robotic pyeloplasty from 2011 to 2014 were identified at 102 academic institutions. Surgery type, age, race, gender, insurance type, geographic region, comorbidities, surgeon volume, and hospital volume were measured. Multivariable mixed-effects logistic regression analysis was used to analyze independent variables associated with complication rates, length of stay (LOS), readmission rates, and ICU admission.ResultsA total of 2219 patients were identified. Complication rates were 2.1%, 2.2%, and 3% after open, laparoscopic, and robotic pyeloplasty, respectively. Approximately 12% of patients had underlying comorbidities. Comorbidities were associated with 3.1 times increased odds for complication (p = 0.001) and a 35% longer length of stay (p < 0.001). Age, gender, insurance type, and hospital volume had no effect on complication rates. A trend was seen towards a lower rate of complications with higher surgeon volume (p = 0.08). The mean LOS was 2.0 days in the open pyeloplasty group, 2.4 days in the laparoscopic group and 1.8 days in the robotic group. Patients who underwent robotic surgery had an estimated LOS 11% shorter than those after open surgery (p = 0.03) (Table). Patients aged 5 years and under who had robotic surgery had an estimated LOS 14% shorter than those after open surgery (p = 0.06). ICU admission and hospital readmission were not associated with any variables.DiscussionThe study is limited by the accuracy of the data submitted by the hospitals and is subject to coding error. Complication rates remain low in all three approaches, validating their safety. Patients, including younger patients, had shorter lengths of stay after robotic surgery. The statistically significant differences between approaches were small so clinically there may not be a difference.ConclusionsThis large multicenter analysis demonstrates that patient comorbidity had the greatest impact upon complication rates and length of stay. Previous work showed that the benefits of laparoscopy were limited to older children. However, this large multicenter study suggests that these benefits now extend to young children with the application of robotics.
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Project description:Chronic pancreatitis (CP) is a progressive inflammatory disease, which leads to loss of pancreatic function and other disease-related morbidities. A group of academic physicians and scientists developed comprehensive guidance statements regarding the management of CP that include its epidemiology, diagnosis, medical treatment, surgical treatment, and screening. The statements were developed through literature review, deliberation, and consensus opinion. These statements were ultimately used to develop a conceptual framework for the multidisciplinary management of chronic pancreatitis referred to as an academic pancreas center of excellence (APCOE).
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Project description:To enhance equity and diversity in undergraduate biology, recent research in biology education focuses on best practices that reduce learning barriers for all students and improve academic performance. However, the majority of current research into student experiences in introductory biology takes place at large, predominantly White institutions. To foster contextual knowledge in biology education research, we harnessed data from a large research coordination network to examine the extent of academic performance gaps based on demographic status across institutional contexts and how two psychological factors, test anxiety and ethnicity stigma consciousness, may mediate performance in introductory biology. We used data from seven institutions across three institution types: 2-year community colleges, 4-year inclusive institutions (based on admissions selectivity; hereafter, inclusive), and 4-year selective institutions (hereafter, selective). In our sample, we did not observe binary gender gaps across institutional contexts, but found that performance gaps based on underrepresented minority status were evident at inclusive and selective 4-year institutions, but not at community colleges. Differences in social psychological factors and their impacts on academic performance varied substantially across institutional contexts. Our findings demonstrate that institutional context can play an important role in the mechanisms underlying performance gaps.
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Project description: Not available
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