Data Governance in International Neuroscience Research

open access articl

Perceptions of Professional Practice and Work Environment of New Graduates in a Nurse Residency Program

New nurses continue to face challenging work environments and high expectations for professional competence as they enter practice. Nurse residency programs are gaining prominence as a mechanism to ease new graduates’ transition to practice. This study examined new graduates’ perceptions of their professional practice competence and work environment throughout a yearlong nurse residency program. Employing a repeated measures design, data were collected at baseline, at 6 months, and at 12 months. Results showed that job satisfaction was significantly lowest at 6 months and highest at 12 months. Job stress was found to be lowest at 12 months and organizational commitment was highest at baseline. Of the variables related to professional practice, clinical decision-making was highest at 12 months and quality of nursing performance significantly increased at each measurement point. These data add to the growing evidence supporting the efficacy of nurse residency programs

Public Health and Epidemiology Informatics: Recent Research and Trends in the United States

Objectives To survey advances in public health and epidemiology informatics over the past three years. Methods We conducted a review of English-language research works conducted in the domain of public health informatics (PHI), and published in MEDLINE between January 2012 and December 2014, where information and communication technology (ICT) was a primary subject, or a main component of the study methodology. Selected articles were synthesized using a thematic analysis using the Essential Services of Public Health as a typology. Results Based on themes that emerged, we organized the advances into a model where applications that support the Essential Services are, in turn, supported by a socio-technical infrastructure that relies on government policies and ethical principles. That infrastructure, in turn, depends upon education and training of the public health workforce, development that creates novel or adapts existing infrastructure, and research that evaluates the success of the infrastructure. Finally, the persistence and growth of infrastructure depends on financial sustainability. Conclusions Public health informatics is a field that is growing in breadth, depth, and complexity. Several Essential Services have benefited from informatics, notably, “Monitor Health,” “Diagnose & Investigate,” and “Evaluate.” Yet many Essential Services still have not yet benefited from advances such as maturing electronic health record systems, interoperability amongst health information systems, analytics for population health management, use of social media among consumers, and educational certification in clinical informatics. There is much work to be done to further advance the science of PHI as well as its impact on public health practice

Team-Based Competencies: Building a Shared Foundation for Education and Clinical Practice

Highlights discussions from a February 2011 conference on the need for collaborative health care, factors supporting and restraining change, and strategies for advancing interprofessional collaboration in education and practice

Canada’s new ethical guidelines for research with humans: A critique and comparison with the United States

Canada’s Tri-Council Policy Statement: Ethical conduct for research involving humans, first published in 1998, has recently been updated.1 The US Department of Health and Human Services has just issued an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that would substantially change the 20-year-old Common Rule governing most federally funded research involving human participants.2 A comparison of the two countries’ systems for protecting human research participants is therefore timely. This analysis situates the Canadian system in an international context, with particular attention to its similarities and differences to the US system and their shared challenges going forward with their changes