Hawwash Nadin, Lavallee Jacqueline, Haque Enam
School of Medical Sciences, Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health, University of Manchester, Manchester, United Kingdom.
Cancer Research UK Manchester Cancer Research Centre, Manchester, United Kingdom.
BMC Med Educ. 2025 Jul 31;25(1):1133. doi: 10.1186/s12909-025-07637-2.
There are over 350 careers within healthcare. However, in the United Kingdom, opportunities are limited for secondary school pupils to learn about a variety of healthcare careers. We aimed to address this by delivering an in-person regional conference on healthcare careers for Year 10 pupils from widening participation (WP) backgrounds. This "Hello Healthcare Conference" enabled pupils to gain insight into a range of careers within healthcare. We explored the impact of the conference on pupils' self-reported knowledge, skills, and attitudes to healthcare careers.
We conducted a pre-test-post-test study of 44 pupils from WP backgrounds who attended Hello Healthcare to evaluate the effectiveness of the conference. A five-point Likert scale confidence questionnaire was used to evaluate the impact of Hello Healthcare on school pupils' self-reported knowledge, skills, and attitude to healthcare careers. A Shapiro-Wilk test revealed a lack of normal distribution (p < 0.05); therefore, the pre-test-post-test results for each pupil were compared using a Wilcoxon signed-rank test.
44 Year 10 pupils from WP backgrounds across 4 schools were included in this study. Self-reported knowledge of most healthcare careers improved after the conference. Pupils' perception of having the necessary skills for a healthcare career significantly increased, with Z = -5.78, p < 0.001, and large effect size (r = -0.87). Pupils' perception that they could successfully apply for a healthcare course increased (Z = -5.52, p < 0.001, r =-0.83).
The Hello Healthcare conference was beneficial in improving pupils' awareness and attitudes towards healthcare careers and demonstrated an effective method by which to address the limited perceived knowledge WP pupils may have. Government and universities need to support and invest in the Hello Healthcare conference concept to replicate the impact of the intervention in other regions of the UK.
医疗保健领域有超过350种职业。然而，在英国，中学生了解各种医疗保健职业的机会有限。我们旨在通过为来自扩大参与（WP）背景的10年级学生举办一场关于医疗保健职业的面对面区域会议来解决这一问题。这场“医疗保健你好会议”使学生能够深入了解医疗保健领域的一系列职业。我们探讨了该会议对学生自我报告的关于医疗保健职业的知识、技能和态度的影响。
我们对44名来自WP背景且参加了“医疗保健你好会议”的学生进行了一项前后测试研究，以评估该会议的效果。使用一份五点李克特量表信心问卷来评估“医疗保健你好会议”对学生自我报告的关于医疗保健职业的知识、技能和态度的影响。夏皮罗-威尔克检验显示数据缺乏正态分布（p < 0.05）；因此，使用威尔科克森符号秩检验比较每个学生的前后测试结果。
本研究纳入了来自4所学校的44名10年级WP背景学生。会议后，学生对大多数医疗保健职业的自我报告知识有所提高。学生认为自己具备从事医疗保健职业所需技能的认知显著增加，Z = -5.78，p < 0.001，效应量较大（r = -0.87）。学生认为自己能够成功申请医疗保健课程的认知也有所增加（Z = -5.52，p < 0.001，r = -0.83）。
“医疗保健你好会议”有助于提高学生对医疗保健职业的认识和态度，并展示了一种有效的方法来解决WP学生可能存在的有限认知知识问题。政府和大学需要支持并投资于“医疗保健你好会议”这一概念，以便在英国其他地区复制该干预措施的影响。
