FACTORS RELATED TO DECISION-MAKING WITHIN INTERPROFESSIONAL TEAMS: A SCOPING REVIEW EXTENDED TO AN ONLINE ENVIRONMENT

This scoping review provides a comprehensive synthesis of the various factors associated with interprofessional team decision-making. This review is unique in that it includes a broad number of factors relevant to a variety of health settings and professionals involved in team decision-making. Arksey and O’Malley’s methodological framework was used to explore empirical studies following the established protocol. First, clearly developed and inclusive search criteria were specified to find studies on interprofessional team decision-making. This review located 34136 abstracts; a total of 218 met the inclusion criteria. Second, the variety of factors were classified broadly as occurring at the individual, interpersonal, and organizational levels. These factors were further grouped as individual: attitudes, gender, expertise, personality characteristics, and professional identity; interpersonal: communication, coordination, hierarchy, leadership, role definition, shared understanding, team characteristics; and organizational: evaluation and feedback, organizational structure/culture, procedures, and resources. Our next study draws on these findings to determine how decision-making occurs in an online case consultation environment. Specifically, our goal is to examine the role of expertise and hierarchy, found in our scoping review to affect decision-making. Social work and school psychology students (low expertise) will be invited to participate in online case consultations. Upon hearing an incorrect diagnosis given by students in other professional programs, including medicine (higher status hierarchy), we will observe whether they change their correct diagnosis to the same incorrect one that was stated by another team member. Clinical case consultations are a typical training activity (i.e., occur weekly) and a typical professional activity within all professional fields. Thus, it is important to determine how individual and interpersonal factors might affect clinical decision-making

Assessing the needs of primary-aged children: Student and parent perspectives

Bibliography: p. 78-9

Assessment of number concepts in kindergarten and grade one students

Bibliography: p. 182-213In the present study, an assessment instrument was developed and examined to determine its applicability to the assessment of kindergarten and grade one students' understanding of number concepts. Based on an integration of two neo-Piagetian theories, Robbie Case's (1992, 1996) mental number line and Biggs and Collis' (1982a) structure of observed learning outcomes (SOLO) model, the Test of Early Number Concepts (TENC) was developed to provide an assessment of five proficiency levels in a child's acquisition of four aspects of number concepts (i.e., symbols, magnitude comparison, sequence, composition). Both the TENC and a standardized mathematics assessment (WIA T-II mathematics subtests) were administered to kindergarten and grade one students (n = 160; age range 4 years, 11 months to 8 years, 2 months). Descriptive and inferential analysis confirmed the performance pattern achieved on the TENC as consistent with theory-based expectations. Participants performed at each of the five proficiency levels, with grade one students demonstrating significantly higher scores than the kindergarten students. Construct validity of the TENC was obtained through correlational analysis that revealed a moderate to strong relationship between TENC tasks and the WIAT-II (r = .59 to .72). Moreover, multiple regressions identified several TENC tasks as significant predictors of the WIAT-II mathematical subtests, accounting for 48% to 68% of the observed variance. Overall, the results provide preliminary support for the use of the TENC instrument in the assessment of early number concepts. A secondary area of investigation concerned children's recognition of perceptual configurations of number and their counting skills. Children's recognition of perceptual configurations, particularly for familiar patterned sets, was found to both moderately correlate with (r = .30 to .64) and predict (accounting for 24 to 45% of the variance) their mathematics knowledge as assessed using the TENC and WIAT-II. Mann-Whitney tests identified the bi-directional counting tasks as differentiating between children with poorly developed from those with well-developed number concepts. These results support an interplay between children's knowledge of number configurations and their bi-directional counting skills with their understanding of number concepts, although further research is warranted to further examine the extent and direction of influence

Clinical Reasoning: A Missing Piece for Improving Evidence-Based Assessment in Psychology

Clinical reasoning is a foundational component of conducting evidence-based psychological assessments. In spite of its importance, limited attention has been paid to the teaching or measurement of clinical reasoning skills relative to psychological assessment, as well as how clinical reasoning develops or how its efficacy can be measured. Improving clinical reasoning throughout the assessment process, from initial case conceptualization to hypotheses testing, to recommendation writing, has the potential to address commonly noted concerns regarding diagnostic accuracy, as well as the accessibility and utility of psychological reports and recommendations, and will, ultimately, lead to improved outcomes for clients. Consequently, we provide a definition of clinical reasoning in relation to psychological assessment, followed by a critique of graduate training assessment and the current challenges of measuring clinical reasoning in psychology. Lastly, this paper provides suggestions for how to incorporate clinical reasoning throughout the assessment process as a way to answer client questions more effectively and provide meaningful recommendations to improve outcomes.</jats:p

Comparing Math LD Diagnostic Rates Obtained Using LDAC and <i>DSM-5</i> Criteria: Implications for the Field

Within the Canadian context, the two major learning disability classification systems are arguably the American Psychiatric Association’s (APA) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders and the Learning Disabilities Association (LDAC) of Canada’s Official Definition of Learning Disabilities. Several of the more recent changes to the fifth edition of the DSM contrast with the LDAC definition, which establishes them as competing diagnostic frameworks. We investigated the frequency of math learning disability identification when both the LDAC and DSM-5 criteria were modelled and applied to an archived data set (2011–2016). Results support generally similar percentages of math learning disability cases identified when employing LDAC or DSM-5 criteria; however, the two methods identified a different set of cases. Implications for using DSM-5 versus LDAC criteria in diagnosing learning disabilities are discussed, including the need to consider adopting a national diagnostic standard. </jats:p

Clinical Reasoning: A Missing Piece for Improving Evidence-Based Assessment in Psychology

Clinical reasoning is a foundational component of conducting evidence-based psychological assessments. In spite of its importance, limited attention has been paid to the teaching or measurement of clinical reasoning skills relative to psychological assessment, as well as how clinical reasoning develops or how its efficacy can be measured. Improving clinical reasoning throughout the assessment process, from initial case conceptualization to hypotheses testing, to recommendation writing, has the potential to address commonly noted concerns regarding diagnostic accuracy, as well as the accessibility and utility of psychological reports and recommendations, and will, ultimately, lead to improved outcomes for clients. Consequently, we provide a definition of clinical reasoning in relation to psychological assessment, followed by a critique of graduate training assessment and the current challenges of measuring clinical reasoning in psychology. Lastly, this paper provides suggestions for how to incorporate clinical reasoning throughout the assessment process as a way to answer client questions more effectively and provide meaningful recommendations to improve outcomes