Blogging as a viable research methodology for young people with arthritis: a qualitative study.

The development of services that are responsive to the needs of users is a health policy priority. Finding ways of engaging young people in research to gain insights into their particular experiences, perspectives, and needs is vital but challenging. These data are critical to improving services in ways that meet the needs of young people

The 'follow-through' experience in three-year Bachelor of Midwifery programs in Australia: A survey of students

Introduction: The follow-through experience in Australian midwifery education is a strategy that requires midwifery students to 'follow' a number of women through pregnancy, labour and birth and into the parenting period. Background: The experience was introduced by the Australian College of Midwives as part of national standards for the three-year Bachelor of Midwifery programs. Anecdotally, the introduction caused considerable debate. A criticism was that these experiences were incorporated with little evidence of their value. Methods: An online survey was undertaken to explore the follow-through experience from the perspectives of current and former students. There were 101 respondents, 93 current students with eight recent graduates. Results: Participants were positive about developing relationships with women. They also identified aspects of the follow-through experience that were challenging. Support to assist with the experience was often lacking and the documentation required varied. Despite these difficulties, 75% felt it should be mandatory as it facilitated positive learning experiences. Discussion: The follow-through experience ensured that students were exposed to midwifery continuity of care. The development of relationships with women was an important aspect of learning. Conclusion: Despite these challenges, there were significant learning opportunities. Future work and research needs to ensure than an integrated approach is taken to enhance learning. © 2012 Elsevier Ltd

Placements with women, not institutions

University of Technology, Sydney. Faculty of Nursing, Midwifery and Health.Background This research explored the follow-through experience in three year, pre-registration Bachelor of Midwifery programs in Australia. The follow-through experience involves midwifery students following women on their journey through pregnancy, labour and birth and into the early parenting period. The concept was introduced to midwifery education in Australia in 2001 when it was embedded in the foundational Australian College of Midwives. National Education Standards for Bachelor of Midwifery programs. The inclusion of the follow-through experience in Bachelor of Midwifery education programs was a deliberate strategy to ensure midwifery students would experience midwifery continuity of care. Aims The aims of this research were to: explore the follow-through experience in order to better understand its impact on students, midwifery education providers and midwives, and, to identify the learning that is associated with this experience. Setting This research was conducted in Australia. Students from all three-year pre-registration Bachelor of Midwifery programs were invited to participate. Design A qualitative study was undertaken. In-depth interviews were conducted with key stakeholders who had been involved in the development and implementation of the follow-through experience. Data were collected from former and current Bachelor of Midwifery students through an online survey and telephone interviews. A thematic analysis was undertaken and situated learning and constructivist theories were used to identify whether learning occurred in the context of the follow-through experience. Results The findings provided a unique insight into the follow-through experience from the perception of students and stakeholders. This research established that students do learn from their engagement in this experience. This learning was characterised by the primacy of the relationship with the women. Students also identified the challenges they faced in undertaking these experiences, including problems with recruitment and time commitment. Difficulties were identified around requirements of the follow-through experience, the lack of support at times for students, and the lack of congruence with the existing Australian maternity system. These difficulties were identified as having a significant impact on the students. ability to engage in, and to maximise their learning from, this experience. A conceptual model was developed to provide a synthesis of the results of this research and a framework for effective implementation and management of the follow-through experience. Implications This research has implications for midwifery education, particularly in Australia but also internationally. This experience does indeed provide unique learning opportunities for students. It is however essential that the student is given adequate support to aid their learning and to ensure they gain the most from these experiences. Conclusions The follow-through experience is an innovative education strategy and this research identified that learning occurred within this experience. This learning was identified as being situated in the context of students being placed with women. This research clearly identifies the value of the follow-through experience as an important component of student learning

A Molecular Phylogeny Of The Remoras And Their Relatives

The Echeneoidea comprise three families of cosmopolitan tropical/subtropical marine fishes: the Echeneidae (remoras), Coryphaenidae (dolphin fishes), and Rachycentridae (cobia). Complete nucleotide sequences from the mitochondrial 12S rRNA, 16S rRNA, protein-coding ND2, and nuclear ITS-1 gene regions were used to reconstruct the phylogenetic history of these fishes. Parsimony, maximum likelihood, and Bayesian analyses of combined data sets resolved trees of similar topology. Congruent with evolutionary hypotheses based on larval morphology, a monophyletic Rachycentridae + Coryphaenidae was resolved with high support. Within a monophyletic Echeneidae, the subfamilies Echeneinae and Remorinae were monophyletic. In agreement with recent morphological analyses, the genus Remora was paraphyletic based on the position of Remorina albescens Temminck and Schlegel, 1850. Consistent resolution within the Remorinae using parsimony, maximum likelihood, and Bayesian inference was not achieved with the gene regions surveyed in this study

Midwifery pre-registration education and mid-career workforce participation and experiences

© 2018 Australian College of Midwives Background: Midwives in Australia are educated through a range of routes providing flexible ways to become a midwife. Little is known about whether the route to registration impacts on mid-career experiences, in particular, whether the pathway (post-nursing pathway compared with ‘direct-entry’) makes any difference. Aim: The aim of this study was to explore the midwifery workforce experiences and participation in graduates six to seven years after completing either a post-nursing Graduate Diploma in Midwifery (GradDip) or an undergraduate degree, the Bachelor of Midwifery (BMid), from one university in New South Wales, Australia. Methods: Data were collected from mid-career midwives having graduated from one NSW university from 2007–2008 using a survey. The survey included validated workforce participation instruments — the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI), the Practice Environment Scale-Nursing Work Index (PES-NWI) and the Perceptions of Empowerment in Midwifery Scale (PEMS). Results: There were 75 respondents: 40% (n = 30) Bachelor of Midwifery and 60% (n = 45) GradDip graduates. The age range was 27–56 years old (mean age = 36 years) Bachelor of Midwifery graduates being on average 7.6 years older than Graduate Diploma in Midwifery graduates (40 vs 33 years; p < 0.01). Almost 80% (59), were currently working in midwifery. Nine of the 12 not working in midwifery (75%) planned to return. There were no differences in workforce participation measures between the two educational pathways. Working in a continuity of care model was protective in regards to remaining in the profession. Conclusion: Most mid-career graduates were still working in midwifery. There were no differences between graduates from the two pathways in relation to burnout, practice experiences or perceptions of empowerment

How New Caledonian crows solve novel foraging problems and what it means for cumulative culture.

New Caledonian crows make and use tools, and tool types vary over geographic landscapes. Social learning may explain the variation in tool design, but it is unknown to what degree social learning accounts for the maintenance of these designs. Indeed, little is known about the mechanisms these crows use to obtain information from others, despite the question's importance in understanding whether tool behavior is transmitted via social, genetic, or environmental means. For social transmission to account for tool-type variation, copying must utilize a mechanism that is action specific (e.g., pushing left vs. right) as well as context specific (e.g., pushing a particular object vs. any object). To determine whether crows can copy a demonstrator's actions as well as the contexts in which they occur, we conducted a diffusion experiment using a novel foraging task. We used a nontool task to eliminate any confounds introduced by individual differences in their prior tool experience. Two groups had demonstrators (trained in isolation on different options of a four-option task, including a two-action option) and one group did not. We found that crows socially learn about context: After observers see a demonstrator interact with the task, they are more likely to interact with the same parts of the task. In contrast, observers did not copy the demonstrator's specific actions. Our results suggest it is unlikely that observing tool-making behavior transmits tool types. We suggest it is possible that tool types are transmitted when crows copy the physical form of the tools they encounter.We are grateful to our funders: the SAGE Center for the Study of the Mind at the University of California Santa Barbara and the National Geographic Society/Waitt Grants Program (CJL), a Rutherford Discovery Fellowship from the Royal Society of New Zealand (AHT), the Marsden Fund (RG), and a BBSRC grant (WH; BB/I007997/1).This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.3758/s13420-015-0194-