Dataset Information

Montana's Early Childhood Educators: Recruiting and Retaining an Essential Workforce.

ABSTRACT: Shifting realities across the world have emphasized the need to change early childhood systems thinking. Specifically, a quality early childhood workforce was in high demand before the COVID-19 pandemic and will continue to be in demand until sustainable recruitment and retention efforts are achieved. Encouraging more professionals to enter and stay in the field of early childhood education involves building an understanding of the current workforce through analyzing the influence of age, role, education, wages, and access to incentives on career motivation. In this case study, a rich description of Montana's early childhood workforce is presented along with recommendations to strengthen the state's early childhood workforce systems. Results of survey and focus group data collection and analysis confirmed the pervasive compensation disparity that exists in the early childhood workforce and revealed the need for financial incentives to pursue and attain higher education degrees to help ensure the delivery of quality early childhood education. Specific recommendations for policy change include sharing the data across other state systems and with other nations for the purpose of supporting the growth and development of the early childhood workforce in the United States and beyond.

Supplementary information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10643-022-01308-3.

SUBMITTER: Lux C

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8832078 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Montana's Early Childhood Educators: Recruiting and Retaining an Essential Workforce.

Lux Christine C Noble Cassandra C Bird Nanci Red NR

Early childhood education journal 20220211 3

Shifting realities across the world have emphasized the need to change early childhood systems thinking. Specifically, a quality early childhood workforce was in high demand before the COVID-19 pandemic and will continue to be in demand until sustainable recruitment and retention efforts are achieved. Encouraging more professionals to enter and stay in the field of early childhood education involves building an understanding of the current workforce through analyzing the influence of age, role, ...[more]

PMID: 35194367

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Project description:ImportanceUnderstanding trends in the representation of women and individuals from underrepresented racial and ethnic populations in cardiovascular disease and cardiovascular subspecialty fellowships is essential to improving the diversity of the cardiology workforce.ObjectiveTo examine changes in the representation of women and underrepresented individuals in cardiovascular disease and cardiovascular subspecialty fellowships over time.Design, setting, and participantsThis cross-sectional study of trainee sex and race and ethnicity in various training programs from 2008 to 2022 used data from the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education's publicly available online source. Participants included all residents, internal medicine residents, general surgery residents, and fellows in cardiovascular disease and cardiovascular subspecialty fellowships.Main outcomes and measuresPercentages of women and Black and Hispanic trainees in these programs were calculated for each year. Mann-Kendall tests were used to determine if changes over the years represented a significant trend.ResultsAmong the 3320 cardiovascular disease trainees in 2022, 848 (25.5%) were women, and 459 (13.8%) were Black or Hispanic, less than the representation among internal medicine trainees at 43.8% and 15.6%, respectively. However, the percentage of women trainees in cardiovascular disease significantly increased from 17.6% in 2008 (P = .001 for time trend) and also increased for interventional cardiology fellowships (from 6.3% in 2008 to 20.1% in 2022; P = .002). Over the same period, the proportion of women in general surgery increased from 27.4% to 45.2% (P < .001). The percentage of Black and Hispanic trainees in internal medicine significantly increased from 8.6% in 2012 (P < .001) while increases in general surgery were not statistically significant (9.7% to 16.1%; P = .35). There were also important increases in the percentages of Black and Hispanic trainees in cardiovascular disease (from 8.3% in 2012; P = .09) and interventional cardiology (3.8% to 13.4%; P = .12).Conclusions and relevanceIn this study, the representation of women in cardiovascular fellowships, including interventional cardiology, increased over recent years. While representation of Black and Hispanic individuals is low in all residencies, including cardiovascular fellowships, recent positive trends are important to recognize and provide hope to drive future efforts.

Project description:BackgroundEarly childhood educators (ECEs) play a critical role in promoting physical activity (PA) among preschoolers in childcare; thus, PA-related training for ECEs is essential. The Supporting PA in the Childcare Environment (SPACE) intervention incorporated: 1. shorter, more frequent outdoor play sessions; 2. provision of portable play equipment; and, PA training for ECEs. An extension of the SPACE intervention (the SPACE-Extension) incorporated only the shorter, more frequent outdoor play periods component of the original SPACE intervention. The purpose of this study was to explore the individual impact of these interventions on ECEs' PA-related self-efficacy and knowledge.MethodsECEs from the SPACE (n = 83) and SPACE-Extension (n = 31) were administered surveys at all intervention time-points to assess: self-efficacy to engage preschoolers in PA (n = 6 items; scale 0 to 100); self-efficacy to implement the intervention (n = 6 items); and, knowledge of preschooler-specific PA and screen-viewing guidelines (n = 2 items). A linear mixed effects model was used to analyze the impact of each intervention on ECEs' self-efficacy and knowledge and controlled for multiple comparison bias.ResultsThe SPACE intervention significantly impacted ECEs' self-efficacy to engage preschoolers in PA for 180 min/day (main effect), and when outdoor playtime was not an option (interaction effect). Further, the interaction model for ECEs' knowledge of the total PA guideline for preschoolers approached significance when compared to the main effects model. Participants within the SPACE-Extension did not demonstrate any significant changes in self-efficacy or knowledge variables.ConclusionsFindings from this study highlight the benefit of ECE training in PA with regard to fostering their PA-related self-efficacy and knowledge. Future research should explore the impact of PA training for ECEs uniquely in order to determine if this intervention component, alone, can produce meaningful changes in children's PA behaviours at childcare.

Dataset Information

Montana's Early Childhood Educators: Recruiting and Retaining an Essential Workforce.

Supplementary information

Publications

Montana's Early Childhood Educators: Recruiting and Retaining an Essential Workforce.

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