5,706 research outputs found
Some factors influencing occupational engagement for people with schizophrenia living in the community
With the emergence of occupational science, there has been renewed interest
in the health benefits of occupational engagement and a call for more research
into the occupational nature of humans. Engaging in occupations is known to
have a positive effect on an individual’s health and sense of wellbeing. A
common feature of people with schizophrenia, however, is a decrease in
volition and a reduction in the occupations performed. This study explored
some of the influences on occupational engagement for people with
schizophrenia living in the community.
A qualitative approach was chosen, using semi-structured interviews. Four
male and four female participants, aged 23 to 49 years, described the
influences on their occupational engagement. Content analysis, primarily using
coding and memoing, was employed to categorise the data. Four main themes
emerged: health, routine, external factors and internal factors. Some specific
factors identified within these themes were medication, daily schedules, staff,
family, work, self-concept and challenges. The implications of the results are
discussed, with particular reference to assisting occupational therapists to
enable clients with schizophrenia to engage more successfully in occupations
Accreditation of practice educators: An expectation too far ?
The successful completion of practice placements is essential to the education
of occupational therapists; however, ensuring quality placements is challenging
for occupational therapy educators. In 2000, Brunel University introduced a
revised system of accreditation of practice educators which involved attendance
at a course, the supervision of a student and the submission of an essay to be
assessed.
An audit revealed that a total of 314 therapists attended 15 courses between
2000 and 2003; of these, 243 (77%) subsequently supervised students and
32 (10%) became accredited. The requirement to accredit practice educators,
which is a commendable attempt to ensure quality, may paradoxically have
been detrimental in achieving quality. The College of Occupational Therapists’
apparent change of emphasis on this topic is welcome
Occupational therapists' perceptions of predischarge home assessments with older adults in acute care
Predischarge occupational therapy home assessments are routinely performed with older adults in Europe, Australia and North America. Their primary aim is to facilitate a timely and safe discharge from hospital. However, there is a lack of published research on this topic, especially studies exploring occupational therapists' perceptions of home assessments. The paper aims to redress this by describing occupational therapists' perceptions of predischarge occupational therapy home assessments with older adults in acute care.
All occupational therapists who undertook home assessments in an acute care hospital with older adults during the duration of the study period were invited to complete a reflective diary. In total, 15 reflective diaries were completed by six therapists. The data were analysed using thematic content analysis.
The findings suggest that home assessments were carried out because of mobility or environmental concerns. Satisfaction and dissatisfaction with the outcome of the home assessment were related to the incidents that occurred during the assessment. Some of the occupational therapists' anxieties were related to the older adults' level of functioning or ill health, and the older adults' own concerns did have an impact upon the therapists' expectations of the home assessment process
Enabling occupational therapy students to take a fresh approach to psychosis
This practice evaluation describes the implementation of a 2-day workshop on
psychosis with third-year undergraduate occupational therapy students at
Brunel University. The work was undertaken by the teaching team at Brunel
University, a clinical psychologist working in assertive outreach and an
occupational therapist working in community mental health. The background
to the project and the way in which the 2-day workshop was adapted to
accommodate the university timetable are outlined. An evaluation of the
workshop, its place in the occupational therapy programme and the feedback
from students are presented
Enhancement of the Benjamin-Feir instability with dissipation
It is shown that there is an overlooked mechanism whereby some kinds of
dissipation can enhance the Benjamin-Feir instability of water waves. This
observation is new, and although it is counterintuitive, it is due to the fact
that the Benjamin-Feir instability involves the collision of modes with
opposite energy sign (relative to the carrier wave), and it is the negative
energy perturbations which are enhanced.Comment: 15 pages, 2 figures To download more papers, go to
http://www.cmla.ens-cachan.fr/~dias. Physics of Fluids (2007) to appea
Interprofessional learning in practice: The student experience
Interprofessional learning and the development of teamworking skills are
recognised as essential for patient care and are also a government priority for
undergraduate education. Sixteen occupational therapy students worked on
an interprofessional training ward as part of their practice placement and three
of them participated in an evaluation using the nominal group technique.
Despite this small number, the evaluation identifies the value of this learning
experience in giving the students an opportunity to appreciate the importance of
interpersonal skills; to learn about other team members’ roles; and to experience
the challenges of working on a busy rehabilitation ward for older people
Magnetoelliptic Instabilities
We consider the stability of a configuration consisting of a vertical
magnetic field in a planar flow on elliptical streamlines in ideal
hydromagnetics. In the absence of a magnetic field the elliptical flow is
universally unstable (the ``elliptical instability''). We find this universal
instability persists in the presence of magnetic fields of arbitrary strength,
although the growthrate decreases somewhat. We also find further instabilities
due to the presence of the magnetic field. One of these, a destabilization of
Alfven waves, requires the magnetic parameter to exceed a certain critical
value. A second, involving a mixing of hydrodynamic and magnetic modes, occurs
for all magnetic-field strengths. These instabilities may be important in
tidally distorted or otherwise elliptical disks. A disk of finite thickness is
stable if the magnetic fieldstrength exceeds a critical value, similar to the
fieldstrength which suppresses the magnetorotational instability.Comment: Accepted for publication in Astrophysical Journa
Multidisciplinary perspectives on the role of nurses and health care assistants in the rehabilitation of older adults.
Aim. This paper describes the perceptions of nurses, healthcare assistants, doctors and therapists of rehabilitation and the role of nurses and healthcare assistants on an acute older adults ward in a London teaching hospital.
Background. The role perception, education and training and attitudes towards the older adults have been identified as barriers that have an impact upon the nurses’ role within rehabilitation. However, little is known about the role of nurses and healthcare assistants in rehabilitation of older adults in acute health care.
Design. Action research study.
Method. Twenty-four semi-structured interviews were conducted and audio recorded about healthcare professionals’ understanding of rehabilitation, the type of skills needed and their perceptions of the role of nurses and healthcare assistants in rehabilitation. The interview transcripts were analysed using the thematic content analysis.
Results. The findings suggest that the therapists relied on nurses and healthcare assistants for therapy carry-over. Healthcare assistants were perceived as the professional group who could deliver therapy carry-over. There was an evidence of role hierarchy as healthcare assistants perceived that they were not actively involved in decision-making or discharge planning.
Conclusion. This paper suggests that healthcare assistants and nurses are viewed as the professional group best placed to deliver therapy carry-over. However, whilst there is an acknowledgement of their role, there remains a reluctance to acknowledge healthcare assistants as a professional group and to involve them within decision-making and discharge planning
Relevance to clinical practice. Employers must be seen to advocate, support and implement education and training programs for healthcare assistants. However, whilst nurses and healthcare assistants have an integral role in rehabilitation, there needs to be more research into the how they are supported by therapy professionals
On over-reflection and generation of Gravito-Alfven waves in solar-type stars
The dynamics of linear perturbations is studied in magnetized plasma shear
flows with a constant shearing rate and with gravity-induced stratification.
The general set of linearized equations is derived and the two-dimensional case
is considered in detail. The Boussinesq approximation is used in order to
examine relatively small-scale perturbations of low-frequency modes:
Gravito-Alfven waves (GAW) and Entropy Mode (EM) perturbations. It is shown
that for flows with arbitrary shearing rate there exists a finite time interval
of non-adiabatic evolution of the perturbations. The non-adiabatic behavior
manifests itself in a twofold way, viz. by the over-reflection of the GAWs and
by the generation of GAWs from EM perturbations. It is shown that these
phenomena act as efficient transformers of the equilibrium flow energy into the
energy of the perturbations for moderate and high shearing rate solar plasma
flows. Efficient generation of GAW by EM takes place for shearing rates about
an order of magnitude smaller than necessary for development of a shear
instability. The latter fact could have important consequences for the problem
of angular momentum redistribution within the Sun and solar-type stars.Comment: 20 pages (preprint format), 4 figures; to appear in The Astrophysical
Journal (August 1, 2007, v664, N2 issue
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Inhibition of a viral enzyme by a small-molecule dimer disruptor.
We identified small-molecule dimer disruptors that inhibit an essential dimeric protease of human Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV) by screening an alpha-helical mimetic library. Next, we synthesized a second generation of low-micromolar inhibitors with improved potency and solubility. Complementary methods including size exclusion chromatography and 1H-13C HSQC titration using selectively labeled 13C-Met samples revealed that monomeric protease is enriched in the presence of inhibitor. 1H-15N HSQC titration studies mapped the inhibitor binding site to the dimer interface, and mutagenesis studies targeting this region were consistent with a mechanism where inhibitor binding prevents dimerization through the conformational selection of a dynamic intermediate. These results validate the interface of herpesvirus proteases and other similar oligomeric interactions as suitable targets for the development of small-molecule inhibitors
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