Nurses Involvement in Nursing Home Culture Change: Overcoming Barriers, Advancing Opportunities

Summarizes discussions from a 2008 interdisciplinary panel convened to identify facilitators and barriers to nurses' involvement in culture change in nursing homes and actions to promote nurse competencies in resident-directed care. Makes recommendations

Evaluation Process and Quality Management in a Blended-learning Bachelor's Programme

AbstractIn this contribution an evaluation process for a blended-learning Bachelor's programme in electrical engineering and information technology is reported. The rather diverse group of students with limited contact time, due to the fact that they work alongside studying, made us design a dedicated and effective quality circle for continuous improvement. Various layers are used to open channels for information exchange: Self assessment is element of a bridging course in mathematics. Biographical data are retrieved in the beginning of the course programme for a better understanding of the cohort. For each module, summative evaluation by means of an electronic questionnaire is used in addition to a quick feedback channel during the semester. In order to enable improvement, the loop is closed. Additionally, the whole study programme undergoes external evaluation by an accreditation agency on a regular basis. The described quality management process has been developed and tested over the last three years. We suggest that this process can be easily used as a versatile blueprint for blended and distance-learning programmes

The internship "Eignungspraktikum" ["aptitude internship"] in teacher training. An analysis of school counseling concepts and the understanding of the role of mentors

Das Eignungspraktikum in Nordrhein-Westfalen soll zu einer reflektierten Entscheidung für oder gegen die Aufnahme eines Lehramtsstudiums führen. Die Ergebnisse der vorliegenden qualitativen Studie zeigen, dass das Rollenverständnis der Mentorinnen und Mentoren überwiegend berufsbiografisch geprägt ist. Der Rollenkonflikt, vom Beurteilenden zum Beratenden, wird umgangen und eine Position des aktiven Zuhörers bzw. der aktiven Zuhörerin eingenommen. (DIPF/Orig.)The internship "Eignungspraktikum" in North Rhine-Westphalia should lead to a more reflected decision of students for or against the achievement of a teaching degree. The results of this qualitative study show that the role of mentors is predominantly characterized by their own professional experiences. Mentors avoid the conflicting roles from judge to counselor and limit themselves to the position of an active listener. (DIPF/Orig.

The magnetic environment in the central region of nearby galaxies

The central regions of galaxies harbor some of the most extreme physical phenomena, including dense stellar clusters, non-circular motions of molecular clouds and strong and pervasive magnetic field structures. In particular, radio observations have shown that the central few hundred parsecs of our Galaxy has a striking magnetic field configuration. It is not yet clear whether these magnetic structures are unique to our Milky Way or a common feature of all similar galaxies. Therefore, we report on (a) a new radio polarimetric survey of the central 200 pc of the Galaxy to better characterize the magnetic field structure and (b) a search for large-scale and organized magnetized structure in the nuclear regions of nearby galaxies using data from the Very Large Array (VLA) archive. The high angular resolution of the VLA allows us to study the central 1 kpc of the nearest galaxies to search for magnetized nuclear features similar to what is detected in our own Galactic center. Such magnetic features play a important role in the nuclear regions of galaxies in terms of gas transport and the physical conditions of the interstellar medium in this unusual region of galaxies.Comment: 8 pages; Proceedings for "The Universe under the Microscope" (AHAR 2008), held in Bad Honnef (Germany) in April 2008, to be published in Journal of Physics: Conference Series by Institute of Physics Publishing, R. Schoedel, A. Eckart, S. Pfalzner, and E. Ros (eds.

Confirming the unusual temperature dependence of the electric-field gradient in Zn

The electric-field gradient (EFG) at nuclei in solids is a sensitive probe of the charge distribution. Experimental data, which previously only existed in insulators, have been available for metals with the development of nuclear measuring techniques since about 1970. An early, systematic investigation of the temperature dependence of the EFG in metals, originally based on results for Cd, but then also extended to various other systems, has suggested a proportionality to T 3/2 . However, later measurements in the structurally and electronically similar material Zn, which demonstrated much more complex behavior, were largely ignored at the time. The present experimental effort has confirmed the reliability of this unexpected behavior, which was previously unexplained

Toxic Epidermal Necrolysis after Pemetrexed and Cisplatin for Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer in a Patient with Sharp Syndrome

Background: Pemetrexed is an antifolate drug approved for maintenance and second-line therapy, and, in combination with cisplatin, for first-line treatment of advanced nonsquamous non-small cell lung cancer. The side-effect profile includes fatigue, hematological and gastrointestinal toxicity, an increase in hepatic enzymes, sensory neuropathy, and pulmonary and cutaneous toxicity in various degrees. Case Report: We present the case of a 58-year-old woman with history of Sharp's syndrome and adenocarcinoma of the lung, who developed toxic epidermal necrolysis after the first cycle of pemetrexed, including erythema, bullae, extensive skin denudation, subsequent systemic inflammation and severe deterioration in general condition. The generalized skin lesions occurred primarily in the previous radiation field and responded to immunosuppressive treatment with prednisone. Conclusion: Although skin toxicity is a well-known side effect of pemetrexed, severe skin reactions after pemetrexed administration are rare. Caution should be applied in cases in which pemetrexed is given subsequent to radiation therapy, especially in patients with pre-existing skin diseases