3,998 research outputs found

    “Have patients with chronic skin diseases needs been met?”:A thesis on psoriasis and eczema patient care in dermatology service

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    Background: Common chronic skin diseases such as eczema and psoriasis usually require long term medical care. They are often associated with psychological and metabolic comorbidities, which can impact on patient quality of life (QOL) and on the self-management of these diseases. Regular assessment of patient needs, comorbidities and feedback is a critical step in the development of decision-analytic models. Currently, no intervention is available to regularly assess such patients’ needs and comorbidities and support their involvement in the decision-making and self-management of their morbidity and comorbidities. The aim of this research is to involve the patients in decision making of their care and to support their self-management by the use of a paper questionnaire (study tool) at each consultation. Objective: To explore the acceptability and potential of a self-developed paper questionnaire that constituted a study tool for addressing the needs, comorbidities, and feedback of patients with psoriasis and eczema and supporting their involvement in decision making and self-management of their chronic conditions. Method: A mixed method study was conducted and included a postal survey on adult male and female patients with psoriasis and eczema, using the study tool, which is a paper questionnaire and contains the Dermatology Life Quality Index (DLQI) and seven supplementary open-ended questions to capture patients’ views, feedback, comorbidities, coping status and needs. The survey was followed by semi-structured face-to-face interviews with a sample of the patients who had participated in the survey. The aims of the interviews were two-fold: 1. to gain a deeper understanding of their experience of living with and managing their skin disease; and 2. to gather patient feedback on the service they received as well as their views on using the new study tool or any alternative intervention to address and support their self-management. The final study was a pilot which involved presenting a proposal of an online version of the study tool to a group of healthcare experts asking them to critically review the extent to which the online model responded to patients expressed needs. Results: Of the 114 patients who participated in the postal survey 108 (94.7%) of them expressed physical, metabolic and psychological comorbidities. Stress was identified as the dominant disease-triggering factor in 72 (63%) participants. Thirty-three (28.9%) of participants reported that they could not cope with their chronic illness. Eighteen (15.7%) participants suffered from anxiety, and 12 (10.5%) had depression and suicidal thoughts. Twenty-nine (25%) participants addressed their needs for support at home, and 16 (14%) of them asked for support at work. In the patient feedback section, 21 (18.4%) and 9 (7.8%) participants rated the service they received from their general practitioner (GP) and dermatologist as poor, respectively. In the interviews, all the participants 22 (100%) welcomed the use of the study tool on a regular basis to address their needs, comorbidities and feedback. Nineteen (86.3%) of them suggested that they would prefer using an online version of the tool or patient portal system as a convenient way of remote and interactive communication with the healthcare provider, particularly during the worsening of their skin condition. In the final pilot study, the healthcare experts agreed that the proposed online version of the study tool could be a convenient platform for such patients to support their self-management. They discussed the potential importance of such a tool if it provided them with access to supportive services such as patient information on skin diseases and self-management, access to local mental health service and other relevant psoriasis and eczema patients’ support groups and charities. Conclusion: This novel mixed method research identified knowledge gaps in managing patients with psoriasis and eczema. It provided a new tool that has the potential to regularly engage and assess patients’ unmet needs, comorbidities and feedback. The tool can involve patients in decision-making and offers them the autonomy to disclose heterogeneous needs that may support their self-management. All the interviewees welcomed regular use of the study tool and the majority of them suggested that they would prefer using an online version of the tool if it was available. Future research is needed to assess the impact of the study tool in filling important gaps in patient self-management and in health service improvement

    Reshaping Higher Education for a Post-COVID-19 World: Lessons Learned and Moving Forward

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    Making Connections: A Handbook for Effective Formal Mentoring Programs in Academia

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    This book, Making Connections: A Handbook for Effective Formal Mentoring Programs in Academia, makes a unique and needed contribution to the mentoring field as it focuses solely on mentoring in academia. This handbook is a collaborative institutional effort between Utah State University’s (USU) Empowering Teaching Open Access Book Series and the Mentoring Institute at the University of New Mexico (UNM). This book is available through (a) an e-book through Pressbooks, (b) a downloadable PDF version on USU’s Open Access Book Series website), and (c) a print version available for purchase on the USU Empower Teaching Open Access page, and on Amazon

    Oral hygiene practice: the experiences and perspectives of older adults

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    Increasing longevity has brought with it evolving trends in dental health. Older adults are, now more than ever, maintaining their natural teeth longer in life. The benefits of preserving a natural dentition are considerable and among other advantages have shown to increase one’s quality of life. Alongside the maintenance of natural teeth many older people have partial or complete dentures to care for and maintain, therefore oral care has the potential to become more complicated. Rates of periodontal disease are recognised to increase substantially with age while rates of dental decay in the older population increase. These concerns have been raised by experts in the field and the World Health Organisation have urged countries to implement suitable strategies to improve the oral health of older people. This study seeks to investigate the experience of oral hygiene maintenance and explore the challenges that older people are faced with when trying to maintain appropriate oral hygiene practices at home. The opinions of independently living older adults were sought as little is known about their personal oral health practices and associated experiences. In an attempt to understand the potential impact ageing may have on oral hygiene practices, the aims of this research comprise; 1. Explore the narratives of older adults regarding the maintenance of natural teeth in older age. 2. Identify the most common practices adopted by older adults to care for their natural dentition and explore the associated behaviours and influences. 3. Determine if there are challenges which impact oral hygiene behaviour/practice later in life. 4. Theorize about this phenomenon in order to provide better insight and understanding of how teeth are cared for/maintained in old age. 5. A constructivist grounded theory methodology was adopted which allowed the generation of substantive theory - A theory of ageing and perspectives on oral hygiene (APOH). It is hoped this theory will assist in providing an insight and better understanding of the common oral hygiene behaviours and practices of the independently living, older adult population. As well as this, the theory developed offers an interpretive explanation of why older adults may fail to identify problems in their personal practice The perspectives of this older cohort were gathered from 2 separate semi structured interviews. A 2 week oral hygiene diary was also maintained by participants in-between in an attempt to further pursue the everyday thoughts and experiences/practices of older people maintaining an oral health routine at home. Three core categories were developed from the data and were intimately linked with one contributing to or impacting upon the next. The 1st core category identified that the meaning and significance of dental health, as well as the experience of personal oral hygiene, changes and evolves over the course of an individual’s life. The 2nd core category highlights how natural teeth become a prized possession and oral hygiene self-care is perceived to improve significantly by independent older adults, later in life. As a result, and detailed in the 3rd and final core category, challenges impeding practice were much less of a concern and rarely considered among this ageing cohort. ‘A theory of ageing and perspectives on oral hygiene’ contributes to knowledge by explaining the viewpoints of the independent older adult regarding personal oral hygiene, providing a better understanding of common practices. It also explains how and why older adults may become less aware of issues within their personal oral hygiene practice, later in life

    Exploring Compassion-Driven Interaction: Bridging Buddhist Theory and Contemplative Practice Through Arts-led Research-through-Design

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    Compassion cultivation focuses on developing a genuine concern for others and a willingness to alleviate their suffering. As understandings of the benefits of compassion cultivation on wellbeing have evolved, an increasing interest in designing technologies for this context have followed. However, while scientific research focuses on measuring and evaluating compassion, designerly understandings of compassion informing human-computer interaction have been less explored. We are currently confronted with huge global challenges and our entanglement with technology brings paradoxes and existential tensions related to wellbeing and human flourishing. Viewing technologies as mediators of values and morality, human-computer interaction has a stake in shaping our possible futures. A shift in the field to welcoming a plurality of worldviews, invites opportunities to authentically integrate knowledge from ancient wisdom traditions into how and why we design. This research aims to advance understandings of compassion cultivation for designing technologies by developing novel approaches to research inspired by Buddhist philosophy and practice. This thesis draws upon an arts-led research-through-design approach and spiritual practice. The findings and insights from the studies contribute primarily to the areas of soma design, first-person research and design for wellbeing. The main contributions to knowledge are design guidelines emerging from three case studies: Understanding Tonglen, Wish Happiness, and Inner Suchness comprising one autoethnography and two concept-driven design artefacts for public exhibition. While in the act of researching, the contemplative practitioner-researcher, a research persona, emerged to support authentic engagement and embodied understandings of the dynamic unfolding processes of the practice. A contemplative framework to train self-observation and the concept of designerly gaze were developed to help investigate the phenomenon

    Volume 45: Full Issue

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    Humboldt Journal of Social Relations 50th Anniversary Edition: Becoming a Polytechni

    Summer/Fall 2023

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    Bone Flute:Exploring Voices from the Margins of Entrepreneurship with Expressive Therapies

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    The problem under investigation is the lived experiences of marginalized entrepreneurs in Barbados. The group of entrepreneurs being explored have been marginalized culturally, institutionally, and resourcefully. The research questions were: How do marginalized entrepreneurs experience business-related encounters due to their identity? How does their identity and use of their “voice” in business situations, position them as businesspersons? Can photography illustrate how they see themselves as businesspersons? There were eight participants in the study, who ranged in age from 18 to 69 years. They were three females and five males who belonged to diverse marginalized identities such as a single mother, street vendors, a formerly incarcerated individual, and a visually impaired individual among others. A phenomenological and Arts based research (ABR) methodology were combined. The ABR had two parts: (a) use of photo-narrative, (b) an artistic reflection on how the participants used their voice-in-business. The findings of the study showed that there were nine themes of relevance to the participants. The themes were personal attributes, business challenges, customer relations, COVID, the Barbados business environment, funding and money, training, assistance, and institutions. The participants were highly driven and committed to the entrepreneurial path despite many setbacks. They relied on their inner strengths and self-beliefs to surmount challenges and looked to their family and friends to help find financial or business solutions. This research is useful in creating a perspective on the entrepreneurial journey for individuals who are marginalized

    Co-designing the inflammatory arthritis self-management (aiM) intervention.

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    Self-management is an integral part of care for people living with inflammatory arthritis. The benefits of self-management interventions for people living with long-term conditions are well established. To date, most of the inflammatory arthritis self-management interventions have targeted only rheumatoid arthritis. Therefore, there is a need for a self-management intervention that reaches beyond just people living with rheumatoid arthritis. The overarching aim of this project was to co-design a self-management intervention for people across the inflammatory arthritis spectrum, based on the needs and preferences of co-designers (i.e. both people living with IA and healthcare professionals), as well as on the scientific literature. This project commenced with a mixed-method systematic review exploring the effectiveness and acceptability of existing inflammatory arthritis self-management interventions. Then, a two-phase, sequential multi-methods approach was employed. The first phase involved five asynchronous co-design workshops, guided by the Intervention Mapping Framework (Bartholomew et al. 2016). The second phase then explored participants' experience in participating in co-design research, including the barriers and facilitators to co-design. The mixed-method systematic review demonstrated that inflammatory arthritis self-management interventions produced a clinically meaningful reduction in fatigue and pain in people living with inflammatory arthritis. There was also some data to suggest that inflammatory arthritis self-management interventions have a beneficial effect on self-efficacy; knowledge; communication; health- related quality of life; and engagement with self-management behaviours. Additionally, the review found that inflammatory arthritis self-management interventions are generally acceptable to people living with inflammatory arthritis and healthcare professionals. Workshop findings provided important insight into the health problems and self-management needs of people living with inflammatory arthritis. The workshops also helped to identify the key content and features of the developed self-management intervention - i.e. the inflAmmatory arthrItis self-Management (aiM) intervention. Participants reported having an overall positive experience participating in the workshops, which provided them with an opportunity to meet others living with IA. The use of asynchronous workshops was felt to contribute to the participants' high attendance rate and the study's low attrition, despite IT-issues that were reported as a barrier to the participants' ability to fully participate in the workshops. This project developed a novel self-management intervention, which aims to improve the health status of people living with inflammatory arthritis through increased engagement with self-management strategies. The aiM intervention is based on the needs and preferences of the co-designers, and is grounded in theory and evidence. The findings have also provided new knowledge regarding the health problems related to people living with inflammatory arthritis, their self-management needs, and mechanisms that facilitate and inhibit co-design processes in an asynchronous remote context. Moving forward, it is recommended that the aiM intervention be tested for its feasibility and acceptability

    International Academic Symposium of Social Science 2022

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    This conference proceedings gathers work and research presented at the International Academic Symposium of Social Science 2022 (IASSC2022) held on July 3, 2022, in Kota Bharu, Kelantan, Malaysia. The conference was jointly organized by the Faculty of Information Management of Universiti Teknologi MARA Kelantan Branch, Malaysia; University of Malaya, Malaysia; Universitas Pembangunan Nasional Veteran Jakarta, Indonesia; Universitas Ngudi Waluyo, Indonesia; Camarines Sur Polytechnic Colleges, Philippines; and UCSI University, Malaysia. Featuring experienced keynote speakers from Malaysia, Australia, and England, this proceeding provides an opportunity for researchers, postgraduate students, and industry practitioners to gain knowledge and understanding of advanced topics concerning digital transformations in the perspective of the social sciences and information systems, focusing on issues, challenges, impacts, and theoretical foundations. This conference proceedings will assist in shaping the future of the academy and industry by compiling state-of-the-art works and future trends in the digital transformation of the social sciences and the field of information systems. It is also considered an interactive platform that enables academicians, practitioners and students from various institutions and industries to collaborate
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