In-service training for academic librarians : a pilot programme for staff

This paper discusses the need for continuing professional development for librarians in academic libraries in general and at Rhodes University Library, South Africa in particular. It describes the planning, design, implementation and evaluation of a staff-development and training pilot programme for professional librarians at Rhodes Library. A group of 15 librarians, drawn from the library staff complement, participated in an 8-session training course developed by Information Services librarians. The course, which covered basic information-finding skills using a variety of research databases and offered an introduction to concepts in 21st century academic librarianship, was presented using course management software in a face-to-face environment and required homework exercises and the completion of a 2-hour final test. The results of the project demonstrated the urgent need for such development programmes for professional library staff. 80% of the participants completed the course. The final test results indicated below average database search skills and an inability to think laterally. An unexpected finding was a lack of IT competencies. Important lessons were learned with regard to course-construction, content and timing

First aid knowledge retention in school children: A review of the literature

Introduction First aid training for lay people is recognised as an important capacity building component of pre-hospital care in communities. In countries such as Australia, this training is increasingly targeted to school children, but relatively little attention is directed to knowledge retention or optimal training methods for this population. This literature review aimed to determine whether the published literature demonstrates that first aid knowledge is retained by school children who have learnt first aid from professional first aid providers. Methods A systematic search of the peer-reviewed and grey literature was conducted for narrative review. Journal articles were retrieved from three databases (MEDLINE, CINAHL, ERIC) using the search terms ‘first aid’; ‘resuscitation’; ‘training’; ‘child*’; and ‘school’. Inclusion and exclusion criteria were applied and review findings organised thematically. Results The search yielded four primary studies of European school children aged between 4 and 12 years trained by professional first aid providers. Subsequent review identified emergent themes of Resuscitative first aid and Non-resuscitative first aid. Heterogeneity was apparent in training and evaluation methods, and study quality varied. Reported first aid knowledge retention was mixed. Conclusion There is a lack of quality evidence to guide optimal training methods and maximise first aid knowledge retention in school children. To date, research in this area has been limited to Europe. Further research is therefore recommended. Formal evaluation of professional first aid training can help guide training methods and enhance first aid knowledge retention in school children, thereby building more robust first aid capacity in the community

Graduate Connections- April 2012

In This Issue: Navigating Graduate School ....................................... 1 Self-Promotion and the Job Search Titles in Academia Planning a Program of Studies Five Reason to Attend the Campuswide Workshop for Graduate Teaching Assistants Good Practices in Graduate Education .................................. 3 Academic Integrity Week Professional Development ........ 4 Choosing a Research Topic An Introduction to the Learner- Centered Syllabus Teaching Tip ............................. 5 Muddiest Point The Graduate Writer ................. 6 Things You Already Know (But it Can’t Hurt to Review) Funding Opportunities ............... 7 Events ....................................... 8 NuGrant Training Sessions Lab Safety Colloquium International Water for Food Conference Summer Institute for International Teaching Assistants Campuswide Workshop for Graduate Teaching Assistants Calendar .................................. 10 Degree Deadlines Event Dates Readers’ Corner ...................... 11 On Course: A Week by Week Guide to Your First Semester of College Teachin

Professional Role Attitudes and Decision-making in Medication Administration

This is a case study of nurses\u27 attitudes toward professional nurse role factors affecting decision-making in medication administration. This chapter includes an introduction to the problem, a statement of the problem, objectives of the study, the significance of the problem, definitions of terms pertinent to this study, variables and their operational definitions, and a summary statement. The objectives of this study are to examine five selected role attitudes of nurses that may affect the specific decisions involved in floor stock system medication administration procedures. These selected role attitudes are frequency, complexity, importance, discretion, and search intensity. The theoretical and methodological frameworks utilized in this study, as well as the role attitude variables, are based on a previous study done by Hinshaw

Graduate Connections- April 2012

In This Issue: Navigating Graduate School ....................................... 1 Self-Promotion and the Job Search Titles in Academia Planning a Program of Studies Five Reason to Attend the Campuswide Workshop for Graduate Teaching Assistants Good Practices in Graduate Education .................................. 3 Academic Integrity Week Professional Development ........ 4 Choosing a Research Topic An Introduction to the Learner- Centered Syllabus Teaching Tip ............................. 5 Muddiest Point The Graduate Writer ................. 6 Things You Already Know (But it Can’t Hurt to Review) Funding Opportunities ............... 7 Events ....................................... 8 NuGrant Training Sessions Lab Safety Colloquium International Water for Food Conference Summer Institute for International Teaching Assistants Campuswide Workshop for Graduate Teaching Assistants Calendar .................................. 10 Degree Deadlines Event Dates Readers’ Corner ...................... 11 On Course: A Week by Week Guide to Your First Semester of College Teachin

Culture-based prescribing to improve mental health: a scoping review protocol

Objective: The objective of this review is to investigate what is known about culture-based prescribing to improve mental health and well-being. Introduction: Culture-based prescribing, where a person is referred by a clinical professional to an arts or cultural activity aimed at improving mental health and well-being, is increasingly used as a community-based source of support. Although culture-based prescribing seems promising, the field is heterogeneous with respect to definition, underlying hypotheses, and cultural activity, and this hampers its further development and implementation. Inclusion criteria: We will consider publications that report on or explore culture-based prescribing to improve mental health and well-being for adults suffering from symptoms related to mental health conditions who are seeking care from any clinical professional. Methods: We will search 8 electronic literature databases for published or unpublished reports on culture-based prescribing, without time limits. We will also search for gray literature and screen reference lists of relevant reviews. No language restrictions will be applied during the screening process, but for data extraction, we will only extract studies in languages our team has proficiency in. The screening and data extraction will be performed by 2 reviewers, independently. Data analysis will be descriptive, with results tabulated separately for each subquestion. The results will be complemented with a narrative summary

Social media and nurse education: an integrative reviewof the literature

Introduction. The exponential advance of social media has touched all areas of society, no exception for the professional and personal lives of healthcare people. The issue to be considered is not whether or not social media are being used, but how they are used. The line between proper and improper use, and even abuse, of social media is a subtle one. Thus, the key issue is to be aware of the tool that is being used and this should be supported with suitable training for healthcare professionals and, at an even earlier stage, for students at healthcare training institutions during their studies. Objective. To describe, through an integrative review of the literature, the use of social media by teachers and students during teaching activity and practical training courses. Materials and methods. An integrative review of the literature was conducted in October 2014. The literature search was performed by consulting the main biomedical databases: PubMed, CINAHL and Embase. Results. The literature search brought up a total of 854 citations. 804 abstracts were excluded as they were not relevant. Of the remaining 50, 31 were excluded for not meeting the general criteria and, hence, only 19 articles were included. Two aspects emerged from the works selected: the use and potential of social media in nursing education and the ethical and professional implications of their use. Conclusions. The analysis of the literature reveals two areas for further investigation: evaluating the level of moral awareness in nursing education with regards to the use of Web 2.0 communication tools and implementing teaching methods to promote the construction and development of moral reasoning in professionals

Sistemi di trasmissione WiFi per il monitoraggio sismico del Vesuvio

First-year engineering students at the University of Queensland used an interactive webbook to acquire information skills. These helped them search information resources for their projects, which they are required to undertake as part of the subject Introduction to professional engineering. The information skills exercise was an integral part of the project and worth 10% of the overall assessment. The exercises were only available on the Web, allowing the students to enter their answers from home or wherever they had access to the Internet. All answers were marked automatically using a database of all possible answers. Students were able to go back to check their answers. Students were assessed on both their responses to the exercises and also their final bibliography which largely reflected the impact of the webbook. The entire process was evaluated. This paper presents the process and the outcomes of the first-year engineering project involving use of WWW for information skills instruction. The webbooks can be found at http://www.library.uq.edu.au/9e105/

ДОСЛІДНО-ЕКСПЕРИМЕНТАЛЬНА ПЕРЕВІРКА ЕФЕКТИВНОСТІ ТЕХНОЛОГІЇ НАВЧАННЯ РОЗВ’ЯЗУВАННЮ ЗАДАЧ З МЕДИЧНОЇ І БІОЛОГІЧНОЇ ФІЗИКИ

The article presents the results of research on the introduction of the technological model of professionally oriented tasks in medical and biological physics in the educational process of higher medical institutions (2015 – 2020).The effectiveness of the developed technology for solving professionally oriented problems and tasks, which are based on the method of scientific knowledge, was tested by empirical (assessment of academic achievement, questionnaires, surveys, observations and more) and theoretical (induction, deduction, systems approach, modelling and more) methods of research. The effectiveness of the technological model in the educational process was confirmed by the educational research and the elements of scientific research of students. During the pedagogical experiment were detected problems and contradictions in the process of professional training of future doctors, were described criteria for assessing the academic achievements of students in the discipline of medical and biological physics, including problem solving. The observational experiment showed the insufficiency of the level of formation of natural science and professional competence of students. Control and formative stage of the experiment to assess the effectiveness of the proposed technological content-structural model of solving problems in medical and biological physics, showed the effectiveness of the impact of technology of solving problems in medical and biological physics on the level of positive motivation, level of knowledge, level of educational research and scientific research of students.During the search experiment, technology of solving the tasks, which was confirmed by updated educational and methodical support, was developed. An expert assessment of the effectiveness of the educational process, solving tasks of different levels, levels of skills, and expediency of introduction of educational and methodical support was conducted. The analysis of the results of pedagogical experiment showed the expediency of introduction of developed technology of solving the tasks and training methodical model of support in the educational process. By means of experiment was proved the effectiveness and efficiency of the model of training a specialist in the medical field, in which the leading role belongs to the technological approach to the formation of professional competencies by means of tasks in medical physics, aimed at implementing educational and research activities of students.The article presents the results of research on the introduction of the technological model of professionally oriented tasks in medical and biological physics in the educational process of higher medical institutions (2015 – 2020).The effectiveness of the developed technology for solving professionally oriented problems and tasks, which are based on the method of scientific knowledge, was tested by empirical (assessment of academic achievement, questionnaires, surveys, observations and more) and theoretical (induction, deduction, systems approach, modelling and more) methods of research. The effectiveness of the technological model in the educational process was confirmed by the educational research and the elements of scientific research of students. During the pedagogical experiment were detected problems and contradictions in the process of professional training of future doctors, were described criteria for assessing the academic achievements of students in the discipline of medical and biological physics, including problem solving. The observational experiment showed the insufficiency of the level of formation of natural science and professional competence of students. Control and formative stage of the experiment to assess the effectiveness of the proposed technological content-structural model of solving problems in medical and biological physics, showed the effectiveness of the impact of technology of solving problems in medical and biological physics on the level of positive motivation, level of knowledge, level of educational research and scientific research of students.During the search experiment, technology of solving the tasks, which was confirmed by updated educational and methodical support, was developed. An expert assessment of the effectiveness of the educational process, solving tasks of different levels, levels of skills, and expediency of introduction of educational and methodical support was conducted. The analysis of the results of pedagogical experiment showed the expediency of introduction of developed technology of solving the tasks and training methodical model of support in the educational process. By means of experiment was proved the effectiveness and efficiency of the model of training a specialist in the medical field, in which the leading role belongs to the technological approach to the formation of professional competencies by means of tasks in medical physics, aimed at implementing educational and research activities of students

Profiling UK injectable aesthetic practitioners: a national cohort analysis

Introduction: The United Kingdom (UK) injectables market has been growing rapidly with a lack of robust regulation and to date, no information regarding the profile of practitioners has been published. Aim: We aim to provide a descriptive and qualitative analysis of the advertised practitioners in the United Kingdom. Methods: We performed a systematic search using the internet search engine Google to perform a qualitative descriptive analysis of aesthetic practitioners in the UK. For each contiguous country in the UK: England, Scotland, and Wales, five searches were performed. The list of practitioners was then cross-referenced with professional regulatory bodies, with extraction of registration number, date of registration and presence or absence from the Specialist Register or General Practitioner register. Results: 3,000 websites were visited and evaluated. 1,224 independent clinics with 4,405 practitioners were identified. 738 were identified as those in business support functions and the remaining 3,667 practitioners were undertaking injectable practice. The profile of professions were doctors 32%, nurses 13%, dentists 24% and dental nurses 8%. Of the 1,163 doctors identified 481 were on the specialist register (41%) and 219 were on the GP register (19%). 27 specialties were represented in this cohort analysis. Plastic Surgery formed the majority of those who were on the specialist register at 37%, followed by Dermatology at 18%. Conclusion: This paper is the first to describe the range of practitioners, their professional backgrounds and experience who perform non-surgical aesthetic interventions. The range of backgrounds may have an impact on the potential risks to patients and will be an important consideration in proposed legislation to introduce licensing to the industry