Father inclusive practice in a parenting and early childhood organisation: The development and analysis of a staff survey

Aim: The successful embedding of father inclusive practice (FIP) in parenting and early childhood organisations is relatively new and therefore challenging to assess. The purpose of this study was to describe the process of adapting an existing tool, the Knowledge about fatherhood checklist (KAFC), to suit the parenting service context and apply the modified survey to establish a baseline of attitudes and practice of all staff at an established parenting and early childhood service in Western Australia, Ngala. Method: Following the application of the KAFC at Ngala in 2016, feedback provided by the staff led to a reflective and iterative process of review to adapt the KAFC. In 2018, all staff were asked to complete the adapted survey – the 23-item Father inclusive practice survey (FIP survey) – in order to assess the attitudes and behaviours of everyone in the organisation. The FIP survey covers aspects of competency as well as knowledge and attitudes in relation to fatherhood or father engagement. Results: Results indicated generally high levels of appreciation of the fathering role by Ngala staff. However, a number of areas for improvement in staff knowledge and attitudes were identified, including the benefit of reflecting on personal experiences of fathering, the awareness of the gendered stereotyped view of men, and the importance of the influence fathers can make in the context of attachment and breastfeeding. Conclusions: The implementation of this FIP survey informs improvements to staff orientation and training in FIP, and provides insights into staff attitudes, beliefs and practice regarding acknowledgement of the important contribution fathers make to the development and wellbeing of their children

MS

thesis40 well neonates had blood glucose determinations made at birth, 3-4 hours after birth, 12-18 hours after birth and after 48 hours after birth. Maternal blood glucose was sampled by fingerstick within on half hour of delivery. All blood glucose determinations made using Dextrostix and Ames Reflectance Meter. A general pattern of mean blood glucose level changes for these samples was found. Some interesting variations were identified in relation to sex, time of first feeding and length of labor. A 10 per cent incidence of hypoglycemia was found

Evidence-Based Practice for Public Health Project: Final Report

There are numerous clinically based models for finding the “best evidence” for the diagnosis and treatment of disease. This process is called evidence-based medicine or EBM, which has been defined as the conscientious, explicit, and judicious use of current best evidence in making decisions about the care of individual patients. The practice of evidence-based medicine means integrating individual clinical expertise with the best available external clinical evidence from systematic research”.1 The need for improved access to high quality public health information has been echoed in various forums involving public health professionals, librarians, and information specialists since the mid 1990s.2-6 The information needs of the public health workforce have become all the more urgent with the increasing frequency of emergence of new infectious diseases such as severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and avian influenza, as well as the increasing concern about acts of bioterrorism, such as spreading anthrax spores via the US Postal Service in 2001. A major difficulty in meeting these needs is the great breadth of the public health discipline that makes it difficult to identify and collect a body of evidence-based literature to address the growing multitude of specific public health information needs. The public health workforce may be more diverse than any other group of health professionals7 and includes professionals trained in dozens of disciplines,4, 6 ranging from environmental health to veterinary medicine, from sanitary engineering to epidemiology. Access to evidence-based public health information has become a growing concern for medical librarians. In 1997, the National Library of Medicine (NLM) along with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO), the National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO), and other public health organizations formed the Partners in Information Access for the Public Health Workforce.8 The mission of Partners is to help the public health workforce find and use information effectively to improve and protect the public\u27s health. The Evidence-Based Practice for Public Health Project at the Lamar Soutter Library, University of Massachusetts Medical School, was initiated in 2001. At the start of this project there was little attention paid to best practices for population-based public health. The overall purpose of this project was to address the need for access to quality evidence-based public health information. In an effort to improve access to resources for evidence-based public health practice, the project has identified the knowledge domains of public health, public health journals and bibliographic databases, and evidence-based resources for public health practice. The project compared existing resources for locating, summarizing, synthesizing, and disseminating evidence-based information available to clinical medical practitioners with resources available to public health practitioners. We found that there were many more types of resources focused on clinical medical practice than on public health practice. The clinical medical resources were based on several different models of information search, summary, synthesis, and delivery, and some of most promising models had little or no presence in the public health arena. To explore and address this gap, the project sought to examine and classify the features of the clinical evidence-based medicine models, to assess their potential for improving access to evidence-based public health information, and to develop new models that could effectively address the unique needs of public health professionals. The project team undertook a qualitative study to determine the information needs of public health practitioners and to develop strategies to improve access to credible and relevant information. The study combined three objectives that previous investigators had generally pursued individually: (1) the characterization of information needs of public health practitioners, (2) the assessment of barriers to information access, and (3) the identification of typical information seeking behaviors. We have used the insights gained from the study to inform the construction of an extended classification of the types of information needed by public health professionals and of an information system model that could meet their needs for access to diverse credible sources

Improving Access to Public Health Information: A Study of Information Needs in a State Health Department

Background: Public health challenges can be better addressed if credible information about health risks and effective public health practices is readily available. The need for improved access to evidence-based public health information has been recognized by public health practitioners, researchers, policy makers, and librarians. Objective: To understand the information needs of the public health workforce and to improve access to credible and relevant information for public health practice. Methods: A qualitative study identified how public health professionals currently access information, what barriers they face, and what improvements they need. Nineteen individual interviews were conducted in two state health bureaus – communicable disease control and community health promotion. Follow-on focus groups were conducted to gather additional data on preferences for accessing information. Results: Public health professionals interviewed have a wide variety of needs and use different information sources depending on the areas of public health they work in and the diverse nature of their work. The types of information they use can be arranged in an information needs continuum ranging from early reports of disease outbreaks needed by those dealing with emerging diseases, to published reports, journal articles, systematic reviews, and evidence-based guidelines needed by those working on the prevention and control of well-known diseases and health threats. Information sources used by the participants include news resources, listservs, alert services, journal articles, conference proceedings, and email. The study revealed that public health practitioners face several barriers and limitations to accessing quality information for public health practice. These include lack to time and knowledge to find quality information; feeling bombarded with unfiltered and often duplicative information from listservs; and limited access to grey literature, systematic reviews, and full-text journal articles. Conclusion: Both groups expressed the need for access to information targeted towards their specific public health areas of interest and desired a way to filter information for more efficient access to relevant information. The research team developed a hypothetical model for the delivery and organization of credible and relevant public health information. Some of the participants were not aware of evidence-based public health resources currently available. An outcome of the project that is particularly beneficial to the public health workforce and information professionals is the project’s website, http://library.umassmed.edu/ebpph, which provides free online access to public health journals, databases, and evidence-based public health resources identified by the research team. Presentation at the 2006 Medical Library Association Annual Meeting, Phoenix, AZ

Identifying evidence-based best practices in Maternal and Child Health

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Information Center has funded a medical library project to develop an electronic resource of current, evidence-based public health best practices identified in the journal literature. This resource will assist university faculty and federal, state and local public health department personnel in identifying evidence-based best practices in maternal and child health. The results to date include a project website; lists of public health journals and bibliographic databases; a chart of public health sources, knowledge domains, and sub-domains; current evidence-based best practices identified in maternal and child health; and a table of public health journals matched with each knowledge domain and sub-domain. This methodology for developing resources related to a specific knowledge domain such as maternal and child health can also be used in other areas of public health. The description of the criteria presently used for defining evidence-based best practices can be used in reviews of the public health literature. Presented at the 131st Annual Meeting of the American Public Health Association

Enhancing access to parenting services using digital technology supported practices

Background: Early parenting services (EPS) in Australia provide a range of expanding and rapidly changing services, including innovative digital technologies to improve service access for metropolitan and rural families. Aim: This research aims to provide comprehensive information required for the planning, implementation and evaluation of the use of digital technologies for service delivery with parenting/child and family services in Australia and New Zealand in metropolitan and rural settings. Methods: An interpretive descriptive approach was applied using semi-structured interviews from 23 EPS practitioners and managers in five sites. Findings: These are presented as five main themes – preparing the way, practitioner qualities, benefits of using technology, presenting challenges, and management and professional development requirements. The findings have provided recommendations for the ongoing work in this area, the recruitment of new employees, and ongoing professional development and planning of services using digital supported technologies. Conclusion: This study has explored the experiences of both practitioners and managers, with a positive response despite navigating the initial and ongoing challenges that can occur with technology and internet capabilities. The use of digital technologies has significant benefits for rural and remote families due to many not having easy access to parenting services locally

Evidence-Based Resources for Public Health Project

Introduction Evidence-Based Medicine (EBM) for clinical medicine involves using the best evidence to care for individual patients. Evidence-based public health (EBPH) involves using the best evidence to develop public health policies and intervention programs. There are various EBM resources available to help clinicians sort through the vast amount of medical literature to find the best evidence for their practice needs, yet few resources are available to assist public health practitioners find high quality information relevant to their practice needs. Purpose This project is identifying and cataloging existing electronic evidence-based resources in public health and assessing possible models for effectively and efficiently delivering current, evidence-based practices identified in the journal literature to public health practitioners. This resource will assist federal, state and local health department personnel in identifying evidence-based practices. Links to existing resources are being organized for easy access and searching on a website. Methodology To inform the processes of identifying resources we first developed a working definition of the field of public health. We examined public health associations, government health agencies, national health objectives, and other public health sources to identify the knowledge domains of public health (e.g. epidemiology, maternal and child health). We then sought to identify journals, databases, and other resources containing content relevant to these domains and subdomains. To guide the process of selecting journals we used sources from the CDC Information Center, the Healthy People 2010 Information Access Project, MLA’s Core Public Health Journals Project, and ISI’s Journal Citation Reports. The selected journals were matched with the identified public health knowledge domains and subdomains. We then systematically identified existing public health and clinical medical models for organizing, summarizing, synthesizing, and disseminating evidence-based knowledge in the public health and medical fields. These ranged from electronic journal search services to comprehensive knowledge bases that select, summarize and critique health literature in specific domains. Results Results to date include a project website (http://library.umassmed.edu/ebpph); lists of public health journals and bibliographic databases; a chart of public health sources used to identify 17 knowledge domains, and 143 subdomains of public health; a table of public health journals matched with each knowledge domain and subdomain; and an annotated listing of medical and public health models of literature summarization, synthesis and dissemination. Discussion/Conclusion We believe that our methodology for identifying domain-specific evidence-based resources was effective and efficient in accomplishing the project goal. Our methodology for identifying information resources related to a specific knowledge can be used to enhance collection development in a specific discipline. Many different sophisticated approaches are being used by government, non-profit and for-profit organizations in the United States to summarize, synthesize, organize and disseminate evidence-based health information, primarily to clinical medical practitioners. Study of the structure, content, and usability of these existing models may offer important lessons for developing new and improved models aimed at serving a similar purpose for public health practitioners. In the next year of the project we will be exploring through focus groups with public health practitioners the feasibility, usability and acceptability of several models for providing evidence-based information. Support The Evidence-Based Practice for Public Health Project is funded through a cooperative agreement with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Information Center and the Association of Teachers of Preventive Medicine. Presented at the 2003 Medical Library Association Annual Meeting, San Diego, CA

Computer-Assisted 3D Kinematic Analysis of All Leg Joints in Walking Insects

High-speed video can provide fine-scaled analysis of animal behavior. However, extracting behavioral data from video sequences is a time-consuming, tedious, subjective task. These issues are exacerbated where accurate behavioral descriptions require analysis of multiple points in three dimensions. We describe a new computer program written to assist a user in simultaneously extracting three-dimensional kinematics of multiple points on each of an insect's six legs. Digital video of a walking cockroach was collected in grayscale at 500 fps from two synchronized, calibrated cameras. We improved the legs' visibility by painting white dots on the joints, similar to techniques used for digitizing human motion. Compared to manual digitization of 26 points on the legs over a single, 8-second bout of walking (or 106,496 individual 3D points), our software achieved approximately 90% of the accuracy with 10% of the labor. Our experimental design reduced the complexity of the tracking problem by tethering the insect and allowing it to walk in place on a lightly oiled glass surface, but in principle, the algorithms implemented are extensible to free walking. Our software is free and open-source, written in the free language Python and including a graphical user interface for configuration and control. We encourage collaborative enhancements to make this tool both better and widely utilized

Enhancing evidence-based information access to inform public health practice

It is clear from the trend towards evidence-based practices in many fields that public health (PH) practice can be better informed if credible information about effective practices is accessible. Comparing sources of evidence-based information in clinical medicine to what is available for PH, we found fewer examples of readily accessible sources in PH. This project was conceived to identify enhancements to evidence-based information accessing needs of PH professionals. A qualitative study identified how PH professionals currently access information and what enhancements they need. Nineteen individual interviews were conducted across two state health department bureaus – communicable disease control and community health promotion. Follow-up focus groups were conducted to gather additional data on preferences for information accessing models and features. An information maturity continuum emerged ranging from fast-breaking news about emerging health threats to evidence-based practice guidelines. Needs within this continuum varied somewhat across bureaus, but both groups expressed needs for improved information access such as better organizing/filtering of information, access to systematic reviews and/or summaries as well as full text of articles, one portal access with a good search engine, and broader access to best practice information. Both groups identified a need for PH-specific filters to create more efficient access to relevant information either delivered to their desktops via listservs or sought via search engines. Informants stated a preference for making enhancements to systems with which they were already familiar such as PubMed. Oral presentation at the 133rd Annual Meeting of the American Public Health Association; Abstract 108127, Session 5134. Philadelphia, PA

Improving Access to Credible and Relevant Information for Public Health Professionals: A Qualitative Study of Information Needs in Communicable Disease Control

In order to understand the information needs and the current and ideal approaches to information access in one major area of public health, semi-structured key informant interviews were conducted with 12 communicable disease control public health professionals in Massachusetts at their worksite. Examples of the types of information they commonly accessed and how it was accessed were solicited and/or observed where feasible. The interviews were transcribed and analyzed thematically. Information needs ranged from breaking news (e.g. epidemiology of emerging disease outbreaks) and untested programmatic ideas (e.g. how to handle prevention and treatment of West Nile Virus and SARS) to the need for published evidence-based information about better known diseases (e.g. tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS). Current preferences for information delivery mechanisms varied according to the type of information sought. Information about emerging diseases and programmatic interventions to address these were more often obtained from email alert systems and from informal local and national networks of colleagues via telephone, teleconference or special interest listservs. Information about more well-known diseases was often obtained via websites, general or specific journal search engines, or from listservs providing citations to new or updated sources of information about these diseases. Informants identified improvements to the existing information access and delivery systems that could meet their needs more effectively. This session will review areas for improvements identified by informants and suggest models that can be implemented to help public health professionals access credible and relevant information. Oral presentation at the 2004 American Public Health Association Annual Meeting, Washington, DC