A report on the ULTRLAB's development of online components in NCSL programmes

This report is one of two produced by ULTRALAB forthe National College of School Leadership (NCSL). Here we discuss the research and development of online components of two NCSL programmes. The other report looks at the Talking Heads project, an online community for Headteachers in England. This report considers our work on two NCSL programmes. The new model National Qualification for Headship (NPQH) had its first cohort of learners in March 2001. ULTRALAB was involved in consultancy with the DfES, the writers of the programme materials and the ten regional training providers, in setting up the online elements from September 2000. The online community aspects of NPQH were established using think.com software, with the name Virtual Heads chosen for the overarching national community. The pilot for the Certificate of School Business Management started in February 2002. Our involvement here was to develop the online community and support the tutors in its use.The online community aspects were established using think.com software, with the name Bursars’ Count chosen for the overarching national community

Greening critical care

Climate change and environmental stewardship are phrases that have been defining the past few decades and promoting change in our societies. The sensitivities of intensive care as a specialty make the process of greening an intensive care unit a challenge, but not one that is insurmountable. This paper discusses opportunities for critical care to reduce its environmental impact and provide a framework change. The article includes suggestions of what can be done as an individual, as a unit and as a hospital. Generally, practices in critical care are accepted without questioning the environmental consequences. We believe it is time for change, and critical care should give environmental stewardship a higher priority

Locating Scottish Cosmopolitanism in the Digital Archive

A reassessment of late nineteenth century Scottish cosmopolitan poets as represented in Digital Victorian Periodical Poetry (https://dvpp.uvic.ca/ ), focussing on the poems of John Davidson, William Sharp, Francis Annesley Brodie-Innes, and Violet Tweedale, and on the Scottish periodicals Good Words and Chambers’s (Edinburgh) Journal

Christina Rossetti and the aesthetics of the feminine

The act of contextual recovery that motivates New Historicist readings of Christina Rossetti's poetry has its own validity, but the consequence of recovery is often to posit a fully intentional, strong, and subversive subject position. An alternative critique is offered which interprets subjectivities as endlessly oscillating between positions of presence and absence, subject and object, silence and speech, here and elsewhere, and between the text and (impossibly) outside the text. This dynamic allows for a subtle matrix of collusion with, resistance to, and evasion of the representational system. I read this matrix as the product of Rossetti's biographical and poetical subject positions conventionally encoded as the superlatively and excessively feminine, and thus as both the basis of nineteenth-century gender ideology and its blind spot. The various discursive pressures on Rossetti's poetry - specifically Pre-Raphaelitism, Tractarianism, and Aestheticism - produce an unstable poetic that both avows and rejects the aesthetic of the feminine. The Introduction traces the implications of the aesthetic of the feminine for feminist readings of nineteenth-century gender ideology. The first three chapters then explore specific interactions between Rossetti and the aesthetic: Chapter 1 analyses biographical constructions of Christina Rossetti as a trope for the feminine and for representation itself; Chapter 2 explores D.G. Rossetti's manuscript revisions of her poetry and her collisions; and Chapter 3 critiques his two earliest paintings for which she sat as a model for the Virgin Mary and also critiques her own poetic responses which expose the repressed alterity beneath her brother's gender ideology. The following chapters move on to suggest how other discourses bear the aesthetic of the feminine: in Chapter 4, Italy and the maternal; in Chapters 5 and 6, the Tractarian doctrines of analogy and reserve

Material Evidence

How do archaeologists make effective use of physical traces and material culture as repositories of evidence? Material Evidence is a collection of 19 essays that take a resolutely case-based approach to this question, exploring key instances of exemplary practice, instructive failures, and innovative developments in the use of archaeological data as evidence. The goal is to bring to the surface the wisdom of practice, teasing out norms of archaeological reasoning from evidence. -/- Archaeologists make compelling use of an enormously diverse range of material evidence, from garbage dumps to monuments, from finely crafted artifacts rich with cultural significance to the inadvertent transformation of landscapes over the long term. Each contributor to Material Evidence identifies a particular type of evidence with which they grapple and considers, with reference to concrete examples, how archaeologists construct evidential claims, critically assess them, and bring them to bear on pivotal questions about the cultural past. -/- Historians, cultural anthropologists, philosophers, and science studies scholars are increasingly interested in working with material "things" as objects of inquiry and as evidence – and they acknowledge on all sides just how challenging this is. One of the central messages of the book is that close analysis of archaeological best practice can yield constructive guidelines for practice that have much to offer practitioners within archaeology and well beyond

The Influence of Poverty and Culture on the Transmission of Parasitic Infections in Rural Nicaraguan Villages

Intestinal parasitic infections cause one of the largest global burdens of disease. To identify possible areas for interventions, a structured questionnaire addressing knowledge, attitude, and practice regarding parasitic infections as well as the less studied role of culture and resource availability was presented to mothers of school-age children in rural communities around San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua. We determined that access to resources influenced knowledge, attitude, and behaviors that may be relevant to transmission of parasitic infections. For example, having access to a clinic and prior knowledge about parasites was positively correlated with the practice of having fencing for animals, having fewer barefoot children, and treating children for parasites. We also found that cultural beliefs may contribute to parasitic transmission. Manifestations of machismo culture and faith in traditional medicines conflicted with healthy practices. We identified significant cultural myths that prevented healthy behaviors, including the beliefs that cutting a child’s nails can cause tetanus and that showering after a hot day caused sickness. The use of traditional medicine was positively correlated with the belief in these cultural myths. Our study demonstrates that the traditional knowledge, attitude, and practice model could benefit from including components that examine resource availability and culture

Contemporary Black Women\u27s Voting Rights Activism: Some Historical Perspective

As the United States arrived at the brink of the 2020 election, three interdisciplinary scholars engaged in a panel discussion about why and how Black women of all classes have been at the forefront of movements for civil rights and economic justice. Based on their expertise on race, gender, and class, and scholarly backgrounds in history, labor studies, and political science, this paper presents perspectives on the critical role of Black women in simultaneously fighting for the right to vote, while protesting the disenfranchisement of all African Americans from the Reconstruction Era to the present. The paper discusses why and how previously marginalized groups have struggled to gain inclusion in the American political system, and how the efforts of Black women have shaped and prodded efforts to build a more democratic nation

Use of an audit with feedback implementation strategy to promote medication error reporting by nurses

Aims and objectivesTo outline the development and effect of an audit with feedback implementation strategy that intended to increase the rate of voluntary medication error reporting by nurses.BackgroundMedication errors are a serious global health issue. Audit with feedback is a widely used implementation strategy that has potential to modify nurses’ reporting behaviour and improve medication error reporting rates.DesignQuasi‐experimental implementation study (fulfilling the TIDieR checklist) with two pairs of matched wards at a private hospital in Australia was conducted from March 2015–September 2016. One ward from each pair was randomised to either the intervention or control group.MethodNurses within intervention wards received audit with feedback on a quarterly basis over a 12‐month implementation period. Control wards underwent quarterly audits only (without feedback). Feedback consisted of a one‐page infographic poster, with content based on medication error data obtained from audits and the hospitals’ risk management system (RiskMan). The primary outcome—rate of medication errors reported per month—was determined in both groups at pre‐implementation, implementation and postimplementation phases. Differences between groups were compared using generalised linear mixed models with Poisson distribution and log link.ResultsA nonsignificant intervention effect was found for rate of medication errors reported per month. Interestingly, when combining data from both groups, a significant increasing time trend was observed for medication errors reported per month across pre‐implementation and implementation phases (80% increase).ConclusionsThe audit with feedback strategy developed in the present study did not effectively influence the voluntary reporting of medication errors by nurses.Relevance to clinical practiceDespite the lack of intervention effects, the use of a published checklist to optimise the reporting quality of this study will contribute to the field by furthering the understanding of how to enhance audit with feedback implementation strategies for nurses.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/163422/2/jocn15447.pdfhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/163422/1/jocn15447_am.pd