A core curriculum for the continuing professional development of nurses: Developed by the Education Committee on behalf of the Council on Cardiovascular Nursing and Allied Professions of the ESC

Background: The European Society of Cardiology and the Council on Cardiovascular Nursing and Allied Professions share a vision; to decrease the burden of cardiovascular disease in Europe. Nurses represent the largest sector of the health professional workforce and have a significant contribution to make, which has not yet been fully realised. Recent evidence highlights an association between the level of nurse education and inpatient mortality making this an important topic, particularly as the provision of nurse education in Europe is variable. Aim: To develop a core curriculum to inform the education of nurses following initial qualification for work in cardiovascular settings. Method: A syllabus was developed using published literature, policy documents and existing curricula with expert input from service users, specialist nurses, cardiologists, educationalists and academics. The syllabus formed the framework for the development of the core curriculum. Results: Eight key themes characterise the core curriculum which are presented together with an account of the development process. While the curriculum is not intended to cover all aspects of the highly complex role of the cardiovascular nurse, the themes do exemplify the science and art of nursing and are transferable across different levels of clinical practice and settings. The curriculum functions both as a ‘map’, which identifies key themes to include in nurse education, and as a ‘tool’ to inform educational provision that bridges’ the gap between initial nurse education and advanced specialist practice. Content can be adapted for use to fit the national context and reflects the specific needs, health priorities, legislative and regulatory standards that govern safe nursing practice across different countries. Conclusion: The core curriculum can be used as a learning framework to guide nurse education, in particular the continuing professional education of post-qualifying nurses working in cardiovascular settings. This represents a significant step towards streamlining cardiovascular nurse education in Europ

The role of the exit in the initial screening of investment opportunities: The case of business angel syndicate gatekeepers

The exit process has been largely ignored in business angel research.. The practitioner community identifies the difficulty in achieving exits as the most pressing problem for investors. This has been attributed to the failure of investors to adopt an exit-centric approach to investing. The validity of this claim is examined via a study of the investment approach of 21 ‘gatekeepers’ (managers) of angel groups in Scotland and Northern Ireland. Most gatekeepers say that they do consider the exit when they invest. However, this is contradicted by a verbal protocol analysis which indicates that the exit is not a significant consideration in their initial screening process. The small number of exits achieved by the groups is consistent with the general lack of an exit-centric approach to investing. Only three groups exhibit evidence of a strong exit-centric approach to investing. The lack of exits may have a negative impact on the level of future angel investment activity

CIRCO NOS ANOS INICIAIS DO CA: UMA NOVA EXPERIÊNCIA?

O objetivo deste artigo é de relatar a pesquisa de Iniciação Científica que buscou  compreender como as atividades circenses podem ser integradas aos conteúdos da disciplina Educação Física e quais suas possíveis contribuições para ampliação das práticas corporais na escola? Este estudo caracteriza-se como pesquisa ação, pois aconteceu no próprio fazer cotidiano das aulas de Educação Física. As pesquisadoras se envolveram com a solução do problema de pesquisa de modo participativo e cooperativo com os sujeitos da mesma. Estabelecemos como objetivos específicos: pesquisar materiais didáticos sobre o circo para e com as crianças (textos, vídeos, imagens, e objetos); montar um banco de dados a ser disponibilizado para todos os professores e alunos do CA/UFSC; participar do processo de ensino e de aprendizagem dos movimentos circenses; participar da montagem de um espetáculo de final de ano para os pais. Foram utilizadas como ferramentas para a coleta de informações:  fotografias, diário de campo realizado pela bolsista ao final de cada aula e documentos, tais como, planos de ensino, livros e materiais que serviram de referenciais na área de Educação Física e de circo

Estratégia para o refinamento da parametrização na solução do problema inverso da identificação de inclusões

This paper presents a methodology for identifying a single inclusion in a conductor domain based on the knowledge of measured electrical potentials on the external boundary of the conductor body due to known injected electrical currents. The inclusion boundary is approximated by an Extended X-Spline, that allows identify inclusions with smooth or sharp boundary. In this work, the forward problem is solved by an implementation of the direct formulation of the Boundary Element Method (BEM) and the inverse one is solved by Levenberg-Marquardt method, which requires the evaluation of the objective function derivatives, here approximated by finite differences. This work presents a methodology to increase the number of optimization variables during the solution of the inverse problem in order to improve the quality of the results.Este trabalho apresenta uma metodologia para a identificação de uma única inclusão em um domínio condutor baseada em medidas de potencial elétrico no contorno externo do corpo devido à injeção de corrente elétrica. O contorno da inclusão é aproximado por uma curva cujo modelo é denominado Extended X-Spline e permite identificar inclusões com contorno suave ou anguloso. Neste trabalho, o problema direto é resolvido por uma implementação da formulação direta do Método dos Elementos de Contorno e o problema inverso é resolvido pelo Método de Levenberg-Marquardt. Tal método exige o cálculo das derivadas da função objetivo em relação às variáveis de otimização, que aqui são aproximadas por diferenças finitas. Este trabalho apresenta uma metodologia para o aumento do número de variáveis de otimização ao longo da solução do problema inverso de modo a melhorar a qualidade dos resultados de identificação