Occupational Therapists’ Perspectives on Using the Physical Environment in Skilled Nursing Facilities

Occupational therapists (OTs) are among the health care professionals who assist individuals with neurocognitive disorders (NCDs) to engage in self-care and leisure skills in a skilled nursing facility (SNF) environment. Although the SNF environment has been researched, a gap exists regarding how OTs use the built environment to help clients with a NCD engage in self-care and leisure-related activities. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to understand how OTs use the physical environment in a SNF to help individuals with a NCD engage in self-care and leisure related activities. The conceptual framework that guided this study was the lived environment life quality model. A total of 12 OTs who had experience working with clients with a NCD in a SNF and four SNF administrators were interviewed using a semi-structured interview format. The data collected were member checked for accuracy and analyzed via first and second level coding. The three themes that emerged from the data are complexities of collaboration, pragmatic aspects of care, and familiarities of the environment. Recommendations include nonpharmacological-based intervention strategies that incorporate the use of the built environment in a SNF to improve the quality of life for clients with a NCD. Implications for positive social change include contributing to the understanding of how the built environment in an SNF can influence the ability of an individual with a NCD to engage in meaningful occupations and thus improve quality of life

Occupational Therapists’ Perspectives on Using the Physical Environment in Skilled Nursing Facilities

Occupational therapists (OTs) are among the health care professionals who assist individuals with neurocognitive disorders (NCDs) to engage in self-care and leisure skills in a skilled nursing facility (SNF) environment. Although the SNF environment has been researched, a gap exists regarding how OTs use the built environment to help clients with a NCD engage in self-care and leisure-related activities. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to understand how OTs use the physical environment in a SNF to help individuals with a NCD engage in self-care and leisure related activities. The conceptual framework that guided this study was the lived environment life quality model. A total of 12 OTs who had experience working with clients with a NCD in a SNF and four SNF administrators were interviewed using a semi-structured interview format. The data collected were member checked for accuracy and analyzed via first and second level coding. The three themes that emerged from the data are complexities of collaboration, pragmatic aspects of care, and familiarities of the environment. Recommendations include nonpharmacological-based intervention strategies that incorporate the use of the built environment in a SNF to improve the quality of life for clients with a NCD. Implications for positive social change include contributing to the understanding of how the built environment in an SNF can influence the ability of an individual with a NCD to engage in meaningful occupations and thus improve quality of life

Thinking and Acting Outside the Box

Role play and simulation are both powerful teaching tools that have been used in nursing and physician education for many years. Role playing offers a cheaper alternative than simulation and allows the individuals playing the roles to experience the patient’s perspective. The University of St. Augustine in California is one of the few PT programs to teach PT students the Allen Cognitive levels, and the importance of cognition when planning and developing interventions. With the aging of the baby boomers, more therapists will be working with the aging population, and it is critical that the concept of cognitive challenges is introduced, and practiced, within the professional educational setting. The university also strongly supports inter-professional education and its growing role in health education.https://soar.usa.edu/casmsummer2018/1000/thumbnail.jp

Impacts of design configuration and plants on the functionality of the microbial community of mesocosm-scale constructed wetlands treating ibuprofen

Microbial degradation is an important pathway during the removal of pharmaceuticals in constructed wetlands (CWs). However, the effects of CW design, plant presence, and different plant species on the microbial community in CWs have not been fully explored. This study aims to investigate the microbial community metabolic function of different types of CWs used to treat ibuprofen via community-level physiological profiling (CLPP) analysis. We studied the interactions between three CW designs (unsaturated, saturated and aerated) and six types of mesocosms (one unplanted and five planted, with Juncus, Typha, Berula, Phragmites and Iris) treating synthetic wastewater. Results show that the microbial activity and metabolic richness found in the interstitial water and biofilm of the unsaturated designs were lower than those of the saturated and aerated designs. Compared to other CW designs, the aerated mesocosms had the highest microbial activity and metabolic richness in the interstitial water, but similar levels of biofilm microbial activity and metabolic richness to the saturated mesocosms. In all three designs, biofilm microbial metabolic richness was significantly higher (p < .05) than that of interstitial water. Both the interstitial water and biofilm microbial community metabolic function were influenced by CW design, plant presence and species, but design had a greater influence than plants. Moreover, canonical correlation analysis indicated that biofilm microbial communities in the three designs played a key role in ibuprofen degradation. The important factors identified as influencing ibuprofen removal were microbial AWCD (average well color development), microbial metabolic richness, and the utilization of amino acids and amine/amides. The enzymes associated with co-metabolism of l-arginine, l-phenyloalanine and putrescine may be linked to ibuprofen transformations. These results provide useful information for optimizing the operational parameters of CWs to improve ibuprofen removal

Influence des contraintes environmentales combinées sur la capacité photochimique et les flux de CO2 dans une prairie tempérée

Increase in agricultural production to insure food security and energy demand by 2050 might result in higher greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) from the agricultural sector. Managed grasslands, however, offer the opportunity to offset some of the GHG emission through the storage of carbon in terrestrial systems by photosynthesis. Photosynthesis, however, is highly sensitive to environmental conditions. Especially, plant ability to harvest and use light energy for photochemistry can be impaired by abiotic stresses. While numerous studies have focused on the impact of environmental constraints on ecosystem carbon fluxes, the influence on ecosystem photochemical capacity is understudied. The main goals of this thesis was to evaluate how environmental constraints impacted the grassland photochemical capacity and how variations in processes involved in light reactions of photosynthesis influenced ecosystem carbon fluxes. Frequent chlorophyll fluorescence measurements were conducted over a two-year period, on three grassland species (Lolium perenne L., Taraxacum sp., and Trifolium repens L.). The ecosystem photochemical capacity was estimated from measurements performed on the three grassland species. In addition, monitoring CO2 fluxes was performed by eddy covariance. Our results showed that photochemical capacity of the primary grasslands species exhibited diurnal and seasonal variations. The monocot L. perenne and the dicots (Taraxacum and T. repens) exhibited different acclimation strategies. All species exhibited the onset of energy dissipation mechanisms within the photosystem II but expressed contrasted response in the photosystem I efficiency. As a result, the ecosystem also exhibited variations in its ability to harvest and use photon energy. The strongest declines in photochemical capacity were observed in summer when abiotic stresses such as high light and high air temperature were combined. However, decrease in photochemical capacity did not result in a decreased ability to fix carbon in the grassland. The maintenance of carbon assimilation despite the onset of energy dissipation mechanisms can be explained by the higher availability of light energy under these conditions. In the final section of this PhD thesis, we discuss how future experiments can improve our knowledge in plants functional ecology and in the relationship between the photochemical capacity and ecosystem carbon fluxes. We also discuss how these results can benefit GHG mitigation strategies and how plants influence GHG balance through other routes than photosynthesis.CROSTVO

Impact of abiotic stresses on volatile organic compound production of field crops and grasslands

Abiotic and biotic stresses are known to alter biogenic volatile organic compound (BVOC) emission from plants. With the climate and global change, BVOC emissions are likely to increase. This increase on BVOC emissions could be driven by many environmental parameters like temperature, ozone and light availability for photosynthesis although it is still difficult to predict the impact of some environmental parameters, environmental controls on BVOC emission being species and BVOC-dependent. These BVOC are involved in a wide range of interactions of plants with their environment and these interactions could be affected by the global change. Moreover, BVOC also play a key role in the atmospheric chemistry and may contribute to ozone formation and an increase in methane lifetime, strengthening the global change. Yet, due to technical limitation, there are few studies examining the impact of multiple co-occurring stresses on BVOC emission at the ecosystem level although stress combination is probably more ecologically realistic in field. In the CROSTVOC (for CROp STress VOC) project, the impact of abiotic stresses (e.g. heat, drought, ozone and grazing) on BVOC emission will be investigated for field crops (maize and wheat) and grassland both at the ecosystem and plant scale.CROSTVO