Transitioning from undergraduate to postgraduate studies : A multistage evaluation of a discipline-specific writing intervention

This study attempted to address academics’ general concern about the steady decline in students’ academic writing abilities and the impact this has on students’ ability to demonstrate their learning and negotiate written tasks in their respective disciplines. The study focused on what can be done within a higher education institution in terms of academic writing instruction to develop the literacy abilities required to enable students to cope with the demands of tertiary studies within specific disciplines, as students progress from undergraduate to postgraduate work. Given the varied and specialised nature of academic discourses in different fields of study, a discipline-specific approach to writing instruction was adopted to facilitate students’ familiarity with the conventions of academic and discourse-specific writing, and develop their ability to produce effective and appropriate texts for their courses. A multistage evaluation design was used to measure the potential impact of the writing intervention, there results of which indicate an improvement in students’ academic literacy and writing abilities, as well as their ability to apply these abilities to writing in their subject area. &nbsp

Facilitating skills transfer: a collaborative writing centre intervention for undergraduate Law students

Despite the ability to write being central to success in the legal profession, there is general consensus concerning the poor writing skills of law graduates. In an attempt to address these concerns, this paper reports on the joint effort of subject experts and writing centre practitioners to address law students’ legal writing skills early on in their law degree. The objective of the study was to evaluate the potential impact of a blended, subject-specific writing intervention designed to address first-year Law students’ academic essay writing skills in terms of structure, organisation and argumentation. A multistage evaluation design was adopted to measure the potential impact of the intervention by collecting qualitative and quantitative data at various stages to triangulate the findings of the study. The results showed a statistically significant improvement in the submissions of students who engaged fully in the various stages of the writing intervention. This study contributes to research that shows that by embedding writing development initiatives in disciplines which form part of disciplinary course assessment, higher education institutions might begin to make headway in meeting their obligation to ensure that students possess the key graduate attributes that are required to make a contribution to the workplace

Facilitating skills transfer: a collaborative writing centre intervention for undergraduate Law students

Despite the ability to write being central to success in the legal profession, there is general consensus concerning the poor writing skills of law graduates. In an attempt to address these concerns, this paper reports on the joint effort of subject experts and writing centre practitioners to address law students’ legal writing skills early on in their law degree. The objective of the study was to evaluate the potential impact of a blended, subject-specific writing intervention designed to address first-year Law students’ academic essay writing skills in terms of structure, organisation and argumentation. A multistage evaluation design was adopted to measure the potential impact of the intervention by collecting qualitative and quantitative data at various stages to triangulate the findings of the study.The results showed a statistically significant improvement in the submissions of students who engaged fully in the various stages of the writing intervention. This study contributes to research that shows that by embedding writing development initiatives in disciplines which form part of disciplinary course assessment, higher education institutions might begin to make headway in meeting their obligation to ensure that students possess the key graduate attributes that are required to make a contribution to the workplace

Addressing incontinence for people with dementia living at home: a documentary analysis of local English community nursing service continence policies and clinical guidance

Aim and objectives.  To establish whether the problems and issues experienced by people with dementia living at home and their carers were addressed in the clinical guidance for continence management for community nursing services in England. Background.  Internationally, the numbers of people with dementia are rising. Managing incontinence is a significant issue as the presence of incontinence is one of the triggers for people with dementia to move their residence to a care home. People with dementia living at home and their family carers report difficulties in accessing knowledgeable professionals and acceptable continence products. Design.  A review by documentary analysis of clinical policies and guidance from a sample of community nursing services in all Strategic Health Authority regions of England. Methods.  A sample of clinical policy and guidance documents for continence assessment and management from up to four community nursing services in each of the ten Strategic Health Authority regions in England was sought. Documentary analysis was undertaken on the relevance of the documents identified for people with dementia living at home. Findings.  Ninety-eight documents from 38 local community nursing services spread across ten Strategic Health Authority areas were obtained and analysed. Only in the documents of three services were nurses offered detailed guidance about the management of incontinence for people with dementia at home. In the documentation of only one service were people with dementia identified as a special case which warranted the provision of additional continence products. Conclusion.  Clinical guidance on continence assessment and management for community nurses in many parts of England does not address the specific needs of people with dementia living at home or their carers. Relevance for clinical practice.  Nurses working in community settings and those providing clinical leadership in continence care should review their clinical guidance and policies to ensure relevance for people with dementia living at home and their family carers

The contribution of physician assistants/associates to secondary care : a systematic review

OBJECTIVE: To appraise and synthesise research on the impact of physician assistants/associates (PA) in secondary care, specifically acute internal medicine, care of the elderly, emergency medicine, trauma and orthopaedics, and mental health. DESIGN: Systematic review. SETTING: Electronic databases (Medline, Embase, ASSIA, CINAHL, SCOPUS, PsycINFO, Social Policy and Practice, EconLit and Cochrane), reference lists and related articles. INCLUDED ARTICLES: Peer-reviewed articles of any study design, published in English, 1995-2017. INTERVENTIONS: Blinded parallel processes were used to screen abstracts and full text, data extractions and quality assessments against published guidelines. A narrative synthesis was undertaken. OUTCOME MEASURES: Impact on: patients' experiences and outcomes, service organisation, working practices, other professional groups and costs. RESULTS: 5472 references were identified and 161 read in full; 16 were included-emergency medicine (7), trauma and orthopaedics (6), acute internal medicine (2), mental health (1) and care of the elderly (0). All studies were observational, with variable methodological quality. In emergency medicine and in trauma and orthopaedics, when PAs are added to teams, reduced waiting and process times, lower charges, equivalent readmission rate and good acceptability to staff and patients are reported. Analgesia prescribing, operative complications and mortality outcomes were variable. In internal medicine outcomes of care provided by PAs and doctors were equivalent. CONCLUSIONS: PAs have been deployed to increase the capacity of a team, enabling gains in waiting time, throughput, continuity and medical cover. When PAs were compared with medical staff, reassuringly there was little or no negative effect on health outcomes or cost. The difficulty of attributing cause and effect in complex systems where work is organised in teams is highlighted. Further rigorous evaluation is required to address the complexity of the PA role, reporting on more than one setting, and including comparison between PAs and roles for which they are substituting. PROSPERO REGISTRATION NUMBER: CRD42016032895

Family Planning Targets and Quality of Services: Workers' Perspectives and Dilemmas

This paper uses data from in-depth group interviews with family planning workers in Bangladesh to demonstrate both the dysfunctional influence of family planning targets on quality of care as well as the strong connection between targets and the manage ment system. The findings show that the presence of targets influenced the advice and information workers provided, pushing them towards long-term methods such as steril isation and the IUD rather than helping clients select methods most suited to their needs. The paper then shows the connection between the target system and the struc ture of official and unofficial incentives, the pattern of supervision, the system of accountability and a hierarchically organised and gender-biased organisational cul ture. The authors argue that unless these underlying managerial determinants of qual ity of care are addressed, the hope for reaching the goals of the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) will remain illusory.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/69103/2/10.1177_097206349900100206.pd

TLR2 deficiency by compromising p19 (IL-23) expression limits T helper 17 cell responses to Mycobacterium tuberculosis

The authors are grateful to Drs. Manuel Teixeira da Silva, Fernando Rodrigues, Margarida Correia-Neves and Paul S. Redford for critically reading this manuscript and thank the personnel at the ICVS animal house facility for excellent animal husbandry.CD4+ Th1 cells producing IFN-γ are of extreme importance in controlling infections by Mycobacterium tuberculosis both in mice and in men. In addition to IFN-γ-producing T cells, IL-17-producing T cells (Th17) have been observed during mycobacterial infections. Nevertheless, their contribution for the host immune response to mycobacteria as well as the signals triggering M. tuberculosis -specific Th17 cell differentiation and maintenance are not fully understood. We show that signaling via Toll-like receptor (TLR) 2 has a major impact on the regulation of p19 (IL-23) expression in response to M. tuberculosis and therefore on the establishment of Th17 cell responses to M. tuberculosis infection. Diminished Th17 responses in the lung of M. tuberculosis -infected TLR2-deficient animals were not caused by defective cell differentiation in the draining lymph node (LN) but rather by reduced maintenance at the site of infection. Consistent with the decreased numbers of Th17 cells in the lungs of infected TLR2-deficient animals, we observed reduced expression of CXCL9, CXCL10 and CXCL11, chemokines involved in recall responses to M. tuberculosis. Our data provides insights into the TLR2 role in infection with M. tuberculosis, with implications in pathophysiology of the disease and vaccine design.Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia, Portugal (Project Grants PTDC/SAU/70895/2006 to AGC and PTDC/BIA-BCM/102776/2008 to MS; and Personal Grants SRFH/BD/33034/2006 to MTC; SFRH/BPD/3306/2007 to AC; SFRH/BD/35981/2007 to JC; SFRH/BI/33456/2008 to CS and PTDC/SAU-MII/70895/2006 to DRP) and by the Health Service of Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian. MS is a Ciência 2007 Fellow

Evidence-based practice education for healthcare professions: an expert view

Internationally, evidence-based practice (EBP) is recognised as a foundational element of healthcare professional education. Achieving competency in this area is a complex undertaking that is reflected in disparities between ‘best EBP’ and actual clinical care. The effective development and implementation of professional education to facilitate EBP remains a major and immediate challenge. To ascertain nuanced perspectives on the provision of EBP education internationally, interviews were conducted with five EBP education experts from the UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Definitive advice was provided in relation to (1) EBP curriculum considerations, (2) teaching EBP and (3) stakeholder engagement in EBP education. While a considerable amount of EBP activity throughout health profession education is apparent, effectively embedding EBP throughout curricula requires further development, with a ‘real-world’ pragmatic approach that engenders dialogue and engagement with all stakeholders required