Evaluation - the educational context

Evaluation comes in many shapes and sizes. It can be as simple and as grounded in day to day work as a clinical teacher refl ecting on a lost teaching opportunity and wondering how to do it better next time or as complex, top down and politically charged as a major government led evaluation of use of teaching funds with the subtext of re-allocating them. Despite these multiple spectra of scale, perceived ownership, fi nancial and political implications, the underlying principles of evaluation are remarkably consistent. To evaluate well, it needs to be clear who is evaluating what and why. From this will come notions of how it needs to be done to ensure the evaluation is meaningful and useful. This paper seeks to illustrate what evaluation is, why it matters, where to start if you want to do it and how to deal with evaluation that is external and imposed

Maximising learning opportunities in handover

Handing over responsibility for patients has always been part of medical practice. Definitions emphasise transfer of responsibility to ensure patient safety and the available literature tends to follow this line (see box 1). Handover is much more than this, however. It is a key event where teams meet, have the opportunity to communicate, support each other and learn. This paper considers different ways of maximising learning opportunities in handover, with particular emphasis on the strengths and challenges of the paediatric environment. Alongside review of the best available evidence, many of the ideas discussed were generated from working with a group of 65 experienced paediatricians with particular experience and interest in medical education as part of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health Paediatric Educators Programme. Formal handover has increased in importance and been embedded in practice with the transition from “on-calls” to “full-shift” rotas in an effort to comply with the European Working Time Directive1 in the United Kingdom (UK). Departments responsible for acute patient care have had to incorporate two or three handover sessions into every day to ensure patient problems and management plans are appreciated by the incoming medical team

A pilot-testing study of multicultural lifestyle change questionnaire in Ottawa and Gatineau, Canada

This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.A Multicultural Lifestyle Change Questionnaire that included English, French and Chinese versions which was developed by Ning Tang was pilot-tested in 98 English, French and Chinese speaking immigrants in two adjacent cities (Ottawa and Gatineau) of Canada. The participants were recruited by a purposive sampling and answered the questions in the questionnaire with self-reporting. The pilot-testing results exhibited that the questionnaire had higher validity (face validity, content validity, criterion-related validity and construct validity) and reliability (test-retest reliability). After being revised appropriately, the questionnaire could be used in multicultural lifestyle changes surveys in full population and more wide use

Health Status Change of English, French and Chinese Immigrants in Ottawa and Gatineau, Canada

All articles published by HRPUB are distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC-BY). So anyone is allowed to copy, distribute, and transmit the article on condition that the original article and source is correctly cited.Background: Health status change of the immigrants is of particular interest to health researchers and policy-makers, because it can impact population health outcomes; English, French and Chinese speaking immigrants are main immigrant sub-groups in Canada. Objectives: The multicultural study aims at examining general Health Status Change of English, French and Chinese speaking immigrants in Ottawa and Gatineau, Canada, and identifying demographic factors that correlate with the change and impact the change. Methods: In total, 810 English, French and Chinese speaking immigrants in Ottawa and Gatineau, Canada were recruited by purposive-sampling. Using self-reports, respondents answered questions regarding general Health Status and Demography in a Multicultural Lifestyle Change Questionnaire of English, French or Chinese version. Data in Health Status Change were analyzed statistically in percentage, significance of difference, correlation and regression. Results: Immigrants of different gender, language and category sub-groups exhibited different Health Status Change Rates, Health Status Improving Rates and Health Status Declining Rates, but no statistical difference between the rates. Immigrant general Health Status Change was correlated positively with Age and Primary Occupation, and negatively with Income. Mother Tongue, Primary Occupation and Income significantly impacted Health Status Change. Conclusion: Immigrants of different sub-groups in Canada experienced different health status change. The results supported “healthy immigrant effect”. The “decline in immigrant health status” over time existed in some of immigrant sub-groups. Data of immigrant health status change can provide evidence for health policy-making and policy-revising in Canada

Mood Change of English, French and Chinese Speaking Immigrants in Ottawa and Gatineau, Canada

This journal provides immediate open access to its content on the principle that making research freely available to the public.This multicultural study aimed at examining moodchange of English, French and Chinese speaking immigrants in Ottawa and Gatineau, Canada, and identifying demographic factors that impact the change. 810 immigrants of English, French and Chinese speaking sub-groupswere recruited by purposive-sampling. Using self-reports, respondents answered questions regarding moodchange (moodstatus change and mood belief change) and demography in Multicultural Lifestyle Change Questionnaire of English, French or Chinese version. Data were analyzed statistically for the different immigrant sub-groups. Immigrants of different gender, language and category sub-groups exhibited different Mood Change Rates, Mood Improving Rates, Mood Declining Rates and MoodBelief Change Rates. There was no statistical difference between the ratesof immigrant subgroups. Mood Change (MoodStatus Change + MoodBelief Change) was correlated positively with Mother Tongue and negatively with Speaking Languages. MoodStatusChange was negatively correlated with Marital Status and Highest Level of Education. Mother Tongue, Speaking Languages and Highest Level of Education significantly impacted MoodChange (MoodStatus Change + MoodBelief Change).Marital Status and Highest Level of Education significantly influenced MoodStatus Change. Immigrants of different sub-groups in Canada experience ddifferent mood changes. Marital Status and Highest Level of Educationweremain factors impactingMoodStatus Change. Mother Tongue and Speaking Languages wereprincipal factors influencing Mood Belief Change. Culture was an important factor contributingMoodChange. Acculturation could impact MoodStatus Change andMood Belief Change. Data of immigrant mood change can provide evidence for health policy-making and policy-revising in Canada

Alcohol Consumption Change of English, French and Chinese Speaking Immigrants in Ottawa and Gatineau, Canada

This is the author accepted manuscript (post-print) made available in accordance with publisher copyright policy. The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10389-015-0666-7Aim: The multicultural study aimed at examining alcohol consumption change or drinking change of English, French and Chinese speaking immigrants in Ottawa and Gatineau, Canada, and identifying demographic factors that impact the change. Subjects and methods: In all, 810 immigrants of three language sub-groups were recruited by purposive-sampling. Using self-reports, respondents answered questions regarding drinking change and demography in the Multicultural Lifestyle Change Questionnaire in either the English, French or Chinese versions. Data on drinking were analyzed statistically. Results: The immigrants of different gender, language and category sub-groups exhibited different drinking rates, drinking rates before immigration, drinking rates after immigration, drinking change rates and drinking belief change rates. Drinking change (drinking behavior change + drinking belief change) was correlated positively with mother tongue and negatively with gender. Drinking behavior change was negatively correlated with gender and category of immigration. Mother tongue and gender significantly impacted drinking change. Gender significantly impacted drinking behavior change. Conclusion: The immigrants of different sub-groups in Canada experienced different drinking change. Mother tongue and gender were main impacting factors. Culture and acculturation were important contributing factors. Data of immigrant drinking change may provide evidence for drinking policy-making and policy-revising in Canada

STR-959: OPTIMIZATION OF A POLYGONAL HOLLOW STRUCTURAL STEEL SECTION IN THE ELASTIC REGION

Square, rectangular, circular, elliptical, and oval steel hollow structural sections are commonly used in a wide range of structural applications. The need for deep sections with increased bending stiffness has been the motivation for polygonal hollow structural sections. Polygonal hollow structural sections can have a higher bending strength, and rotational capacity when compared to traditional rectangular or square hollow structural sections with similar cross-sectional area. This paper discusses the numerical optimization of one such polygonal hollow structural section currently used in Canada. Previously conducted full-scale beam bending tests provide data for the calibration of the numerical model. The optimized cross-section has a 9.4% higher bending stiffness with no increase in cross-sectional area as compared to the original design. If a 19.6% increase in cross-sectional area is permitted, the optimized cross-section has a 40.5% higher bending stiffness than the original design