Skill domains for allied health professions

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Allied Health Professions
• Professional Skill Development

Background:

• Seven cognitive affective skill domains are recognized as crucial for helping professions.
• Previous studies indicated these skills are perceived as necessary and teachable across disciplines.
• A gap exists between the perceived importance of these skills and their use in professional evaluation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To replicate and extend previous research on cognitive affective skills.
• To focus exclusively on the allied health professions educational context.
• To assess perceptions of skill necessity, teachability, and evaluative use in allied health.

Main Methods:

• Replication and extension of prior research methodologies.
• Exclusive focus on participants within allied health professional education programs.
• Analysis of perceptions regarding cognitive affective skill domains.

Main Results:

• Findings in allied health education are nearly identical to those in other helping professions.
• Cognitive affective skills are perceived as required and teachable, but not for student selection/evaluation.
• There is strong consensus that these skills are not currently used for evaluation.

Conclusions:

• A significant discrepancy exists between the recognized need for affective skills and their implementation in allied health education.
• The current educational practices in allied health professions do not align with the perceived importance of affective skills.
• This disconnect poses a challenge for establishing explicit affective curricular goals and instructional methods.