Achieving Consensus in the Development of an Online Intervention Designed to Effectively Support Midwives in Work-Related Psychological Distress: Protocol for a Delphi Study

BACKGROUND: The development of an online intervention designed to effectively support midwives in work-related psychological distress will be challenging due to the ethical, practical, and therapeutic issues surrounding its design. Related literature suggests that midwives may require an anonymous, confidential, and therapeutic platform that facilitates amnesty and nonpunitive approaches to remedy ill health. However, it is unclear which requirements may be most salient to midwifery populations. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this paper is to describe the design of a Delphi study, intended to achieve expert consensus on the needs of midwives in work-related psychological distress who may be supported via an online intervention. This protocol may also serve as a research framework for similar studies to be modeled upon. METHODS: A heterogeneous sample of at least thirty experts on psychological well-being and distress associated with midwifery work will be recruited. Their opinions regarding the development of an online intervention designed to support midwives in work-related psychological distress will be collected through 2 rounds of questioning, via the Delphi Technique. When 60% (≥18, assuming the minimum is 30) of panelists score within 2 adjacent points on a 7-point scale, consensus will be acknowledged. This Delphi study protocol will invite both qualitative and quantitative outcomes. RESULTS: This study is currently in development. It is financially supported by a full-time scholarship at the Centre for Technology Enabled Health Research at Coventry University (Coventry, UK). The implementation of this Delphi study is anticipated to occur during the autumn of 2015. CONCLUSIONS: The results of this study will direct the development of an online intervention designed to support midwives in work-related psychological distress, summarize expert driven consensus, and direct future research

Taking Current Climate Change Research to the Classroom—The “Will Hermit Crabs Go Hungry in Future Oceans?” Project

© 2019, Springer Nature Switzerland AG. Climate change and its consequences at environmental, social and economic level will affect all of us, in particular the children of today who are the world’s citizens of tomorrow. However, the causes, consequences and mitigating measures to counteract climate change are not currently part of the regular primary or lower secondary school curriculum in the UK. With the evident lack of practical climate change-based school activities for the UK curriculum in mind, this report describes an outreach project that takes authentic up-to-date research to the classroom with the aim to provide an example to cover this topic. The project focuses on the effects of ocean acidification and the drop of ocean pH on the foraging ability of hermit crabs. Besides a detailed description of the project set-up, this report highlights scientific as well as educational outcomes. The classroom-based experimental sessions yielded a significant scientific result, showing that the hermit crabs’ ability to locate food is significantly impaired by pH conditions expected for the year 2100. Combining theoretical and practical parts, the project reached the pupils through different channels and therefore made every child take home the message in their own way, at the same time adding to their key skills in teamwork and effective communication. We could further observe a clear gain in knowledge and confidence with regards to the scientific skills obtained through this project. Professional scientists delivering the sessions alongside school teaching staff also served as positive role models to foster the children’s future aspirations for science