The profession of psychology in South Africa has not always been regulated by a statutory body such as the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA). Currently, the profession of psychology is regulated by the HPCSA and psychologists and the HPCSA find themselves in a lawful and interminable relationship. The HPCSA’s motto is to protect the public and to guide the profession, but it was questioned whether psychologists actually experience guidance from the HPCSA. In response to this problem, this study aimed to explore the subjective experiences of a group of South African psychologists regarding the HPCSA as well as the ethical code which serves as a guideline for the conduct of psychologists. This study made use of a sequential mixed method design, which comprised of a qualitative phase followed by a quantitative phase. All participants in this study were qualified psychologists. Seven participants took part in the qualitative phase and 74 participants took part in the quantitative phase. The data from the qualitative phase was grouped into broad categories and served as the basis for compiling a questionnaire for the quantitative phase. After collecting the completed questionnaires, the data was read into SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences), which was used for the statistical analysis of the data. The data was analysed by means of frequency distributions and mean scores. During the analysis of the data, six themes where identified: five regarding the HPCSA as the regulator of psychology and one regarding the ethical code that guides the conduct of psychologists. The themes include “guidance and mentorship”, “the HPCSA as a watchdog”, “the HPCSA’s motive”, “reverence that psychologists have for the HPCSA”, “the competence of the HPCSA” and “psychologists’ view on the ethical code”. The results indicated that an ambiguous relationship exists between this group of psychologists and the HPCSA, as these two entities seem to function separately. Generally, psychologists who took part in this research have a negative view towards the HPCSA, although they realise the necessity for the HPCSA as a regulating body for psychology. The recognition of this need is a platform for a workable relationship between psychologists and the HPCSA. The participants provided less detail and responded more neutral regarding their views on the ethical code, and it is concerning that quite a number of psychologists indicated that they did not know the code. This study concludes with recommendations for the HPCSA to be more approachable and to provide psychologists with more support. / Thesis (M.A. (Research Psychology))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2011.

It is the aim with this paper, to research the shortcomings experienced in the appeal procedures as contained in the Engineering Profession Act ("EPA"), in order to determine whether the process should be revised or if only certain relevant sections of the EPA should be rewritten. Due to the administrative nature of certain duties of the Council as authorised by the EPA, it makes it inevitable that appeals will follow. It is therefore imperative that the procedures to appeal, must be both functional and effective. The relevant sections of the EPA as well as the appeal procedures of the Health Professions Act's will be researched, taking into account the stipulations of the Constitution and the Promotion of Administrative Justice Act ("PAJA"). Relevant legal administrative principles and doctrines, court judgments, as well as the views of authors are also taken into account. Two major areas of concern in certain sections of the EPA have been identified: • The fact that the whole council has to decide on appeals, and • the fact that such hearings have to take place within a very limited time frame. Relevant court findings have made it clear that decisions made by authorities, have to comply with the requirements set out in the Constitution in coherence with PAJA. In conclusion, based on the Constitutional and the legal administrative requirements, it is found to be necessary to rewrite the relevant sections of the EPA, as well as the rules of appeal, as these do not make the grade at present. / Thesis (LL.M. (Public Law))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2009.

The profession of psychology in South Africa has not always been regulated by a statutory body such as the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA). Currently, the profession of psychology is regulated by the HPCSA and psychologists and the HPCSA find themselves in a lawful and interminable relationship. The HPCSA’s motto is to protect the public and to guide the profession, but it was questioned whether psychologists actually experience guidance from the HPCSA. In response to this problem, this study aimed to explore the subjective experiences of a group of South African psychologists regarding the HPCSA as well as the ethical code which serves as a guideline for the conduct of psychologists. This study made use of a sequential mixed method design, which comprised of a qualitative phase followed by a quantitative phase. All participants in this study were qualified psychologists. Seven participants took part in the qualitative phase and 74 participants took part in the quantitative phase. The data from the qualitative phase was grouped into broad categories and served as the basis for compiling a questionnaire for the quantitative phase. After collecting the completed questionnaires, the data was read into SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences), which was used for the statistical analysis of the data. The data was analysed by means of frequency distributions and mean scores. During the analysis of the data, six themes where identified: five regarding the HPCSA as the regulator of psychology and one regarding the ethical code that guides the conduct of psychologists. The themes include “guidance and mentorship”, “the HPCSA as a watchdog”, “the HPCSA’s motive”, “reverence that psychologists have for the HPCSA”, “the competence of the HPCSA” and “psychologists’ view on the ethical code”. The results indicated that an ambiguous relationship exists between this group of psychologists and the HPCSA, as these two entities seem to function separately. Generally, psychologists who took part in this research have a negative view towards the HPCSA, although they realise the necessity for the HPCSA as a regulating body for psychology. The recognition of this need is a platform for a workable relationship between psychologists and the HPCSA. The participants provided less detail and responded more neutral regarding their views on the ethical code, and it is concerning that quite a number of psychologists indicated that they did not know the code. This study concludes with recommendations for the HPCSA to be more approachable and to provide psychologists with more support. / Thesis (M.A. (Research Psychology))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2011.

There are great expectations that collaboration among professions and various sectors will further develop health care and thus lead to improved public health. In the World Health Organization’s declaration “Health 21” the designated goal for health professions in the member nations in Europe by the year 2010 is to have developed health promotional competence, including teamwork and cooperation based on mutual respect for the expertise of various professions. The challenges faced by the interprofessional teams are, however, multifaceted, and these challenges place demands upon society, which, in turn, determines the fundamental conditions for collaboration among the health professions within the health care organizations. This licentiate dissertation contains discourse and content analyses of interprofessional teamwork in health care. The major objective of this dissertation is to study and describe how the team members construct and create the content and significance of teams and teamwork among health professions. One specific goal has been to study how the members of a multi-professional health care team refer to their team, especially the discursive patterns that emerge and the function that these patterns has (I). The second specific goal has been to identify and describe the difficulties that the health professionals have experienced within their interprofessional teamwork. One purpose has been to enable discussions of the implications for interprofessional learning (II). Focused group interviews with team members (n=32) from six teams were studied using discursive social psychological research approach. The analysis concentrated on the use of the pronouns “I”, “we” and “them”. The results were then analyzed in relation to theories on discursive membership and discursive communities (I). Individual semi-structured interviews with team members (n=18) from four of the six teams were carried out using critical incident techniques. The interviews were analysed via latent qualitative content analysis and the results were interpreted in the light of theories on sociology of professions and learning at work (II). The findings showed that two discursive patterns emerged in the team members’ constructions of “we the team”. These patterns were designated knowledge synergy and trustful support (I). The following three themes that touched upon the difficulties of interprofessional teamwork were identified in the personal interviews: (A) difficulties concerning the teams’ dynamics that arose when the team members acted as representatives for their respective professions; (B) difficulties when the various contributions of knowledge interacted in the team; and (C) difficulties that were related to the surrounding organisation’s influence on the team (II). The conclusion was reached that the discursive pattern provided rhetorical resources for the team members, both in order to reaffirm membership in the team and to promote their views with other care providers, but also to deal with difficulties regarding, for example, lack of unity in outlook. The conclusion was also drawn that, in addition to the individual consequences, one outcome of the perceived difficulties was that they caused limitations of the use of collaborative resources to arrive at a holistic view of the patient’s problems. Thus the patients could not be met in the desired manner. The practical implications of the research project concern the development of teams in which various forms of interprofessional learning can influence the continued development of the team and the management of health care in regard to the importance of implementation processes and organisational learning. / Stora förväntningar ställs på att samarbete mellan yrkesgrupper och mellan sektorer ska utveckla hälso- och sjukvården och leda till en förbättrad folkhälsa. I Världshälsoorganisationens policydokument “Health21” anges exempelvis målsättningen att hälsoprofessionerna i de europeiska medlemsländerna till år 2010 ska ha utvecklat en hälsofrämjande kompetens som bland annat innefattar teamarbete och samarbete på basis av ömsesidig respekt för de olika professionernas expertis. Det interprofessionella teamets utmaningar är dock mångfacetterade och kräver uppmärksamhet från det samhälle som skapar villkoren för hälsoprofessionernas samarbete inom hälso- och sjukvårdens organisationer. Denna licentiatavhandling innehåller diskurs- och innehållsanalytiska studier om interprofessionellt teamarbete i vården. Avhandlingens övergripandet syfte var att undersöka och beskriva hur teammedlemmar konstruerar och skapar innebörder av team och teamarbete mellan flera hälsoprofessioner. Det ena specifika syftet var att undersöka hur medlemmar i multiprofessionella vårdteam talar om sitt team, särskilt avseende de diskursiva mönster som framträdde och vilken funktion dessa mönster hade (studie I). Det andra specifika syftet var att identifiera och beskriva svårigheter som hälsoprofessioner har uppfattat vid interprofessionellt teamarbete, där avsikten även var att möjliggöra en diskussion om implikationer för interprofessionellt lärande (studie II). Fokusgruppintervjuer med teammedlemmar (n=32) från sex team analyserades utifrån en diskursiv socialpsykologisk forskningsansats och fokuserade på användningen av pronomina ”jag”, ”vi” och ”de”. Fynden relaterades sedan till teorier om diskursivt medlemskap och diskursiva samhällen (studie I). Individuella semistrukturerade intervjuer med teammedlemmar (n=18) från fyra av de sex teamen genomfördes med critical incident-teknik. Intervjuerna analyserades via latent kvalitativ innehållsanalys och fynden tolkades utifrån teorier om professionssociologi och lärande i arbetet (studie II). Resultaten visade att två diskursiva mönster framträdde i teammedlemmarnas konstruktioner av ”vi-som-team”. Dessa mönster benämndes kunskapssynergi och tillitsfullt stöd (studie I). Vid individuella intervjuer med teammedlemmar identifierades följande tre teman som rörde svårigheter vid interprofessionellt teamarbete; (i) svårigheter som gällde den teamdynamik som uppstod när teammedlemmarna agerade som företrädare för sina professioner i relation till teamet, (ii) svårigheter när medlemmarnas olika kunskapsbidrag interagerade i teamet och (iii) svårigheter som rörde den omgivande organisationens påverkan på teamet (studie II). Konklusionen gjordes att de diskursiva mönstren utgjorde retoriska resurser för teammedlemmarna, både för att bekräfta medlemskapet i teamet, för att hävda sina åsikter i kontakter med andra vårdgivare (”de andra”) och även för att hantera uppfattade svårigheter beträffande exempelvis bristande samsyn. Vidare drogs slutsatsen att en konsekvens av de uppfattade svårigheterna var, förutom individuella konsekvenser, begränsningar i användandet av de gemensamma resurserna för att nå en helhetssyn på patientens problem och att patienterna inte kunde bemötas på det sätt som önskades. Forskningsprojektets praktiska implikationer rörde teamutveckling där olika former av interprofessionellt lärande påverkar teamets fortsatta utveckling, samt ledning av hälso- och sjukvården avseende betydelsen av imple-menteringsprocesser och organisatoriskt lärande.

Rural and remote areas of Australia remain the last bastion of health disadvantage in a developed nation with an enviable health score-card. During the last ten years, rural and remote health has emerged as a significant issue in the media and the political arena. This thesis examines print media, policy documents and interviews from selected informants to ascertain how they represent medical practitioners and health services in rural and remote areas of Australia, why they do so, and the consequences of such positions. In many of these representations, rural and remote medical practitioners are aligned with national and cultural mythologies, while health services are characterised as dysfunctional and at crisis point. Ostensibly, the representations and identity formulations are aimed at redressing the health inequities in remote rural and Australia. They define and elaborate debates and contestations about needs and claims and how they should be addressed; a process that is crucial in the development of professional identity and power (Fraser; 1989). The research involves an analysis and critical reading of the entwined discourses of culture, power, and the politics of need. Following Wodak and others (1999), these dynamics are explored by examining documents that are part of the discursive constitution of the field. In particular, the research examines how prevailing cultural concepts are used to configure the Australian rural and remote medical practitioner in ways that reflect and advance socio-cultural hegemony. The conceptual tools used to explore these dynamics are drawn from critical and post-structural theory, and draw upon the work of Nancy Fraser (1989; 1997) and Ruth Wodak (1999). Both theorists developed approaches that enable investigation into the effects of language use in order to understand how the cultural framing of particular work can influence power relations in a professional field. The research follows a cultural studies approach, focussing on texts as objects of research and acknowledging the importance of discourse in the development of cultural meaning (Nightingale, 1993). The methodological approach employs Critical Discourse Analysis, specifically the Discourse Historical Method (Wodak, 1999). It is used to explore the linguistic hallmarks of social and cultural processes and structures, and to identify the ways in which political control and dominance are advanced through language-based strategies. An analytical tool developed by Ruth Wodak, Rudolf de Cillia, Martin Reisigl and Karin Leibhart (1999) was adapted and used to identify nationalistic identity formulations and related linguistic manoeuvres in the texts. The dissertation argues that the textual linguistic manoeuvres and identity formulations produce and privilege a particular identity for rural and remote medical practitioners, and that cultural myth is used to popularise, shore up and advance the goals of rural doctors during a period of crisis and change. Important in this process is the differentiation of rural and remote medicine from other disciplines in order to define and advance its political needs and claims (Fraser, 1989). This activity has unexpected legacies for the rural and remote health sector. In developing a strong identity for rural doctors, discursive rules have been established by the discipline regarding roles, personal and professional characteristics, and practice style; rules which hold confounding factors for the sustainability of remote and rural medical practice and health care generally. These factors include: the professional fragmentation of the discipline of primary medical care into general practice and rural medicine; and identity formulations that do not accommodate an ageing workforce characterised by cultural diversity, decreasing engagement in full time work, and a higher proportion of women participants. Both of these factors have repercussions for the recruitment and retention of rural and remote health professionals and the maintenance of a sustainable health workforce. The dissertation argues that the formulated identities of rural and remote medical practitioners in the texts maintain and reproduce relationships of cultural, political and social power. They have also influenced the ways in which rural and remote health services have been developed and funded. They selectively represent and value particular roles and approaches to health care. In doing so, they misrepresent the breadth and complexities of rural and remote health issues, and reinforce a reputational economy built on differential professional and cultural respect, and political and economic advantage. This disadvantages the community, professions and interest groups of lower value and esteem, and other groups whose voices are often not heard. Thus, regardless of their altruistic motivations, the politics of identity and differentiation employed in the formulated identities in the texts are based on an approach that undermines the redistributive goals of justice and equity (Fraser 1997), and works primarily to develop and advantage the discipline of rural medicine.

abstract: This study determined if differences exist among the health professions advising community between factors (academic and non-academic) used as selection criteria in medical school admissions, as well as the impact of the holistic review in admissions on new admissions initiatives with respect to personal and professional backgrounds of advisors. The study examined the differences based on the gender, race and ethnicity, age, years of advising experience, institution size and type, classification and region of the population. Statistical analyses were conducted using comparison of means tests: one-sample t-tests and one-way ANOVA to determine the significance of differences for each of the variables. Significant differences were found to exist among the health professions advising community based on gender, race and ethnicity, institution type, classification of appointment, institution size and type. The findings of the study suggested that the personal and professional background of a health professions advisor did impact the perception of importance among the academic and non-academic factors used in the selection of medical students. The medical school admissions community should appreciate the unique viewpoints of the broader health professions advising community when building relationships and finding opportunities to collaborate. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ed.D. Educational Administration and Supervision 2012

The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic disrupted health professions education on a number of different levels. Many health professions and pre-health professions students lost access to real-world clinical experience which has lead to disruptions in the healthcare workforce pipeline. At the University of Montana a diverse group of health professions educators designed an innovative experiential learning program, called Griz Health, that would allow UM students to engage in healthcare experiences while helping the campus with COVID-19 response. Because of the overwhelmingly positive response from students and community members that participated in this program, the Griz Health program was shifted from a volunteer response program to a year-long course. Students in the Griz Health course will work in small, interprofessional teams to engage in the innovation process to tackle local healthcare issues in underserved communities.

Social-comparative feedback (i.e., providing a learner with information regarding his/her performance relative to a group average) has been shown to influence a learner’s psychological and behavioural outcomes during motor skill acquisition (Avila, Chiviacowsky, Wulf, & Lewthwaite, 2012; Eliasz, 2012; Lewthwaite & Wulf, 2010; McKay, Lewthwaite, & Wulf, 2012; Stoate, Wulf, & Lewthwaite, 2012; Wulf, Chiviacowsky, & Cardozo, 2014; Wulf, Chiviacowsky, & Lewthwaite, 2010, 2012; Wulf & Lewthwaite, 2016). This research indicates that motor skill acquisition is facilitated when learners believe they are performing better than the average, regardless of their actual performance. It has been suggested (Wulf & Lewthwaite, 2016) that a better-than-average mindset enhances psychological factors such as self-efficacy and motivation and in turn, actual behaviour. However, there is also evidence to suggest that self-efficacy (having state-like properties) and motivation (having both state and trait-like properties) are related in terms of their affective influence on learning (Bandura, 1997; Schunk, 1990, 1991, 1995) but the relationship between the two constructs and its subsequent outcomes remain unclear. Even though individual differences in motivation have been suggested to influence self-efficacy beliefs, they have been largely ignored in this line of research. There is also evidence to suggest that learners possessing high levels of motivation (whether that may be at a trait or state level) may not interpret feedback in the same manner (Aronson, 1992; Festinger, 1957; Frey, 1986; Harmon-Jones, 2012; Harmon-Jones & Harmon-Jones, 2002; Harmon-Jones, Harmon-Jones, Fearn, Sigelman, & Johnson, 2008; Harmon-Jones & Mills, 1999; Harmon-Jones, Schmeichel, Inzlicht, & Harmon- Jones, 2011; Steele, 1988). Therefore, the goal of this dissertation is use both theoretical and applied perspectives to examine the degree to which social- comparative feedback affects psychological and behavioural outcomes in highly- motivated learners (e.g., medical trainees) learning procedural skills. Independent of actual performance, we provided manipulated feedback information to novice pre-clerkship medical trainees while they were learning motor skills to suggest that they were performing better or worse than the average. The first study used a basic sequential key-press learning task (Eliasz, 2012) and a basic suturing task to explore the role of social-comparative feedback in medical trainees and tested whether features of the task were important (i.e., basic laboratory task or technical skill task) during the interpretation of this feedback. The second study used the same experimental paradigm to extend our results to a relevant medical education context (i.e., medical trainees learning basic suturing techniques). The final study examined whether the credibility of the feedback provider (i.e., expert versus peer) played a role in how social-comparative feedback was being internalized by novice medical trainees. Our initial study demonstrated that, compared to those receiving positive or no social-comparative feedback, medical trainees receiving negative social- comparative feedback during motor skill acquisition had significant difficulties in learning both the laboratory and technical skill task. These findings suggested that compared to other learners, novice medical trainees (a subset of highly-motivated learners), responded differently to social-comparative feedback. The second study replicated this pattern and revealed that medical trainees receiving below-average feedback during technical skill acquisition experienced significant detriments to their performance, learning and self-efficacy. Our final study found that regardless of the feedback source (hypothetical expert versus another peer), the experience of receiving negative social-comparative feedback impacted self- reported psychological measures and the immediate performance of a basic surgical technique. This dissertation provides, to the best of our knowledge, the first demonstration that medical trainees, a subset of highly-motivated learners, interpret social-comparative feedback differently than other learners studied in the literature. More specifically, receiving positive social-comparative feedback did not facilitate the learning process as found in previous studies with non-medical learners, while the delivery of negative social-comparative feedback, irrespective of task or feedback provider, was psychologically and behaviourally detrimental to novice medical trainees learning motor skills. / Dissertation / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / This dissertation includes three original studies designed to examine the effects of social-comparative feedback during skill acquisition in highly- motivated learners (e.g., medical trainees). Regardless of actual task performance, novice medical trainees who were provided with feedback during the learning process indicating that they were performing worse than the group average, experienced significant detriments to their psychological and behavioural outcomes. This effect was present regardless of the task being learned (i.e., key- pressing or suturing) or who was delivering the feedback (i.e., a hypothetical ‘expert’ or ‘peer’). Receiving better-than-average feedback did not result in any additional psychological and behavioural benefits. Contrary to the research with non-medical students, where “you are above-average” social-comparative feedback facilitates learning and “you are below-average” social-comparative feedback is no different than a control condition, these studies suggest that the experience of receiving below-average feedback during the learning process can be detrimental for highly-motivated novice learners. These findings are important to consider in both the context of feedback delivery and remediation as they provide evidence that novice medical trainees, regardless of the task and feedback provider, experience difficulty in receiving information that they are performing relatively poorly compared to their peers.

There is a paucity of adult professional education literature, yet there are multiple theories and models from which to extrapolate information regarding learning in this population, including self-regulated learning theory and adult learning models. The first aim of this study was to explore these bodies of literature and provide a compelling argument for how these theories and models may be considered relative to each other. The second aim of this study was to provide empirical support for the theoretical framework within the professional education population, specifically for Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT) students. Participants included 232 DPT students from a large, research-intensive university in the mid-Atlantic region. The Self-directed Learning Readiness Survey for Nursing Education (SDLRSNE) (Fisher, King, & Tague, 2001) was administered to five cohorts of students seven times throughout the duration of the DPT program. T-tests and ANOVAs were conducted to determine cohort differences. The data were collapsed across time in order to generate longitudinal growth curve models. Results revealed that the SDLRSNE is an internally consistent tool to utilize with DPT students and that the majority of DPT students were self-regulated learners. Results from the growth curve models indicated that self-regulated learning increased across time, was discontinuous within the DPT program, and that participation in clinical education experiences coincided with the change in slope of the model that best fit the data. Additionally, results indicated that the age of a student (traditional: age 19-24 versus nontraditional: age 25+) significantly predicted Desire For Learning subscale scores. / Educational Psychology

Registered counsellors were regarded as part of the solution to the ever-increasing void in mental healthcare and were acknowledged by the South African government over a decade ago. Some challenges have however arisen regarding the implementing of their vocations in the community, that impact service delivery as well as career satisfaction of registered counsellors, but limited information is available in terms of the exploration of the perceptions of registered counsellors regarding their role in the South African context. This study focused on exploring how registered counsellors perceive their role in South Africa and describing these perceptions. This research is important because little is known about the perceptions of registered counsellors and their experience of their role in the South African context. The research was conducted in Johannesburg and Kwa-Zulu Natal, South Africa. 12 participants (one man and 11 women) volunteered to be part of the research. The size of the sample was not predetermined, but was rather based on data saturation. The participants were purposefully selected on the basis of having acquired the registration of registered counsellor with the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA). Data was collected through conducting semi-structured interviews with all the participants. An interview schedule was used to facilitate the interview process for consistency in the interviews. Thematic analysis was utilised to delineate different themes. To ensure the trustworthiness of the research process, the guidelines suggested by Lincoln and Guba (1985) were followed. The current researcher found that the registered counsellors experienced conflicting perceptions of their role in South Africa. They felt that their role was a necessary and important one in South Africa and in the context of the development of mental healthcare in South Africa. However, some negative feelings were also expressed as they experienced uncertainty regarding their role in the profession as well as the changing scope of practice for registered counsellors in South Africa. Additional negative perceptions were associated with a lack of acknowledgement of their role by other mental healthcare professionals and some ignorance from the public regarding the work of registered counsellors. To promote adequate mental healthcare in South Africa, mental health professionals such as registered counsellors are particularly important. But what appears to be the uncertainty and a lack of information related to the role of registered counsellors, has impacted negatively on their perception of their role in South Africa and, as a result, many individuals do not work in the professional mental healthcare field. It is recommended that the perception of the registered counsellors be acknowledged and taken into consideration to further the development of mental healthcare and treatment for mental health difficulties within the South African context. / MA (Psychology), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014