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Contextual influences and post-educational application of learning among health professionals

University of British Columbia

The purpose of this study was to determine whether contextual influences of resources, encouragement from others, organizational support, opportunity to apply learning, and authority to act or apply learning were associated with post-educational application of learning in the work environment. Data were drawn from a national U.S. evaluation study of the Centre for Substance Abuse Prevention (CSAP) Training Systems (CTS). Four health professional groups — physicians, nurses, mental health counsellors and rehabilitation specialists, were included in this study. Chi-square analysis was the method of choice for within group comparisons. Statistically significant associations between contextual influences and post-educational application of learning were found for various health professional groups as follows: (1) organizational support was significantly associated with application for nurses, mental health counsellors and rehabilitation specialists; (2) encouragement from others was significantly associated with application for nurses and rehabilitation specialists; and (3) opportunity to apply learning was significantly associated with application for nurses and mental health counsellors. Authority to act and apply learning, and resources were not significantly associated with application for any of the four health professional groups. This study adds to our understanding of the role of the human element of support for post-educational application of learning. Planners can incorporate features which provide organizational support, encouragement from others, and opportunity to apply learning to increase the likelihood of post-educational application. The results confirm the relevance of organizational support, opportunity to apply learning and encouragement from others as valid indicators for evaluation of the post-educational environment. The variables of resources and authority require further clarification for future use in outcome evaluations. Future research should explore the role of age, gender, educational level, work focus and organizational work setting of participants on these associations between contextual influences and post-educational application of learning.

Thesis/Dissertation

application/pdf

2009-05-05

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http://hdl.handle.net/2429/7875

Educational Studies

University of British Columbia

UBCV

DSpace