Students Direct Inclusive School Development in an Australian Secondary School: An Example of Student Empowerment

This paper reports on processes employed at a secondary state high school in Australia, where students directed inclusive school development. The procedures used in the study were developed from the Index for Inclusion and included a student forum; a student presentation to parents, principal and teachers and a focus group interview with members of the school community. These procedures were designed to empower students to participate in school review and planning and evaluate the procedures developed from the Index for Inclusion. Samples of interview data from the school principal, staff, parents and the students illustrate a growing understanding of what inclusive education means for members of this school community. The research extends understandings of inclusive education in schools, from a focus on students with disabilities to a much broader philosophy that influences school culture, policy and practice for the diversity of students at the school. Discussion about feeling part of a ‘family’ in the school community and the description of the procedures linked to actions for change, provide evidence of a developing inclusive school culture that will inform educators interested in inclusive school development

The Experience of Friendship for Young Adults Severely Burned as Children: A Phenomenological Investigation

The goal of the present study was to understand the meaning of friendship to young adults who survived severe childhood burn injuries as generated through their descriptions of their experience. This was accomplished through a phenomenological exploration of the subjective experience of friendship as described by ten young adults who survived severe pediatric burn injuries. In-depth, non-directive interviews were conducted, transcribed verbatim, and analyzed using a phenomenological research methodology. Interpretive analysis revealed the following five interrelated themes of the experience of friendship: (a) How Society Looks At Me, (b) How I Deal With It, (c) They Understand or They Don\u27t Understand, (d) Making Friends, and (e) Friends. These themes were contextualized within the frame of two experiential grounds: (a) Who I Am and (b) Changes Over Time. The Ground of Who I Am reflected the participants’ sense of personal identity and permeated every aspect of the friendship experience they described. It included the participants’ statements about themselves as different or not different from the people around them and their rich descriptions of personal journeys through growth and change toward integration of their scars into their identities. The ground of Changes Over Time represented the temporal context in which the experience of friendship has occurred for these participants and became apparent through their many references to change. The first theme, How Society Looks At Me, reflected the participants’ awareness of others within their social worlds and how others, particularly strangers, reacted to their scars. They described both curious and cruel reactions people had to their visible scars as they lived their daily lives and the inevitability of these reactions. The second theme, How I Deal With It, encompassed the participants’ descriptions of the effects the reactions of others had on their emotional well-being and self-concepts and the various ways they coped with these effects. The third theme, They Understand or They Don’t Understand, conveyed the participants’ desires for people to understand their lives as burn survivors and as persons with visible disfigurements. They hoped to help people understand the idea that “my scars are me, but they are not all of me.” The fourth theme, Making Friends, captured key elements the participants identified regarding the process of making friends, including meeting new people, fitting into groups, and aspects of their experiences that made this process easier and more difficult. The fifth theme, Friends, reflected participants’ descriptions of the specific characteristics of their close friendships that were integral to making the overall experience of friendship positive and meaningful in their lives

What Drives Engagement in Professional Associations? A National Survey of Occupational Therapy Students

Exploring the factors that influence occupational therapy (OT) and occupational therapy assistant (OTA) students to join and participate in professional associations is critical to determine how to extend engagement after graduation. Previous research on health care student participation in professional associations has not included OT or OTA students. The researchers conducted an online quantitative national pilot survey to explore the perceptions of OT/OTA students and to identify supports and challenges for membership. The purposive sampling of currently enrolled students took place over three months in 2017, resulting in 251 responses representing all geographic regions in the United States. The researcher-developed survey evaluated student perceptions of professional membership challenges and supports at both the state and national levels. There was a statistically significant relationship between students participating in an organized student association and reporting membership in their state and national associations. Students sought out professional association memberships, even when their academic institutions did not provide support. A majority of students indicated that they planned to be American Occupational Therapy Association members after graduation. Students suggested that more economical membership, conference registration, and academic support could encourage active participation and engagement in their professional associations, extending beyond graduation. This study adds the OT student voice to the discussion about professional membership and engagement to the existing literature

A Journey from Patient Care to Jesuit Higher Education: How a Small Group of Healthcare Professionals Navigated the Transition into Academia

In the fall of 2015, four experienced healthcare clinicians met as strangers at an orientation at a Jesuit institution, Regis University. From the professions of occupational therapy, pharmacy, and physical therapy, we felt comfortable with our clinical practice in patient-centered care and our healthcare work environments. Eager to share our knowledge with our students, we needed guidance to perform the key roles of an educator such as creating a syllabus, writing test items, and advising students. As we began our careers in academia, we felt disoriented and chaotic. We directly sought structure to bridge knowledge gaps, establish a sense of community, and identify essential resources necessary for success in academia. We desired to explore our own interpretation of the Jesuit values before trying to infuse them into our teaching. Through the creation of a small professional learning group that combined emotional support and professional growth, we established a structured approach to learning the roles of a professor and found our identities as academicians. We aim to share our journey and provide recommendations for other healthcare clinicians who are inexperienced with academia in the hopes of easing the transition from clinician to educator at a Jesuit University

Addressing Opioid Misuse and Abuse through Interprofessional Engagement and Education

Purpose: The purpose of this initiative was to develop and implement an interprofessional panel aimed to expose a university audience to the magnitude of opioid misuse and abuse, as well as demonstrate each health professional’s role in curbing the epidemic. Further, this experience was to provide a platform for interprofessional discussion and to share with attendees tangible action items to begin combatting the opioid epidemic. Methods: An interdisciplinary committee of healthcare professionals collaborated to initiate a dialogue around opioid misuse and abuse to highlight the power of interprofessional (IP) collaboration in addressing the opioid epidemic. Each panel member shared a personal vignette about his or her professional experience with the epidemic, then the audience members were asked to participate in a question and answer session. Primary outcomes from this IP experience were derived from an eight-item satisfaction survey. The event was held in April 2016. The interdisciplinary committee marketed this event to all students, faculty, and staff in the Rueckert-Hartman College of Health Care Professionals one month before the event through electronic emails and posters. Results: Forty-four (63%) of participants completed the satisfaction survey of which 88.6% were students of healthcare professions. The satisfaction survey evaluative results were positive and referenced the panel as being an excellent IP event that was helpful, informative, and enjoyable. The results support that the initiative successfully increased understanding of the magnitude of the opioid epidemic for the attendees of this pilot event. The target audience of students expressed a greater awareness of the magnitude of the problem (43.2%) and an increased appreciation of the IP aspects of opioid management strategies (36.4%). Attendees also identified the need for ownership of their role as existing and future health care professionals and the need to work as an IP team to address the problem. Conclusion: An interprofessional panel format as an optional extracurricular event is an effective way to communicate key educational messages about opioid misuse and abuse to a target audience of graduate students at a mid-sized college of health professions

Association between the ACCN1 Gene and Multiple Sclerosis in Central East Sardinia

Multiple genome screens have been performed to identify regions in linkage or association with Multiple Sclerosis (MS, OMIM 126200), but little overlap has been found among them. This may be, in part, due to a low statistical power to detect small genetic effects and to genetic heterogeneity within and among the studied populations. Motivated by these considerations, we studied a very special population, namely that of Nuoro, Sardinia, Italy. This is an isolated, old, and genetically homogeneous population with high prevalence of MS. Our study sample includes both nuclear families and unrelated cases and controls. A multi-stage study design was adopted. In the first stage, microsatellites were typed in the 17q11.2 region, previously independently found to be in linkage with MS. One significant association was found at microsatellite D17S798. Next, a bioinformatic screening of the region surrounding this marker highlighted an interesting candidate MS susceptibility gene: the Amiloride-sensitive Cation Channel Neuronal 1 (ACCN1) gene. In the second stage of the study, we resequenced the exons and the 3′ untranslated (UTR) region of ACCN1, and investigated the MS association of Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs) identified in that region. For this purpose, we developed a method of analysis where complete, phase-solved, posterior-weighted haplotype assignments are imputed for each study individual from incomplete, multi-locus, genotyping data. The imputed assignments provide an input to a number of proposed procedures for testing association at a microsatellite level or of a sequence of SNPs. These include a Mantel-Haenszel type test based on expected frequencies of pseudocase/pseudocontrol haplotypes, as well as permutation based tests, including a combination of permutation and weighted logistic regression analysis. Application of these methods allowed us to find a significant association between MS and the SNP rs28936 located in the 3′ UTR segment of ACCN1 with p = 0.0004 (p = 0.002, after adjusting for multiple testing). This result is in tune with several recent experimental findings which suggest that ACCN1 may play an important role in the pathogenesis of MS

The ethics of ‘Trials within Cohorts’ (TwiCs): 2nd international symposium - London, UK. 7-8 November 2016

On 7-8 th November 2016, 60 people with an interest in the ‘ Trials within Cohorts ’ (TwiCs) approach for randomised controlled trial design met in London. The purpose of this 2 nd TwiCs international symposium was to share perspectives and experiences on ethical aspects of the TwiCs design, discuss how TwiCs relate to the current ethical frame- work, provide a forum in which to discuss and debate ethical issues and identify future directions for conceptual and empirical research. The symposium was supported by the Wellcome Trust and the NIHR CLAHRC Yorkshire and Humber and organised by members of the TwiCs network led by Clare Relton and attended by people from the UK, the Netherlands, Norway, Canada and USA. The two-day sympo- sium enabled an international group to meet and share experiences of the TwiCs design (also known as the ‘ cohort multiple RCT design ’ ), and to discuss plans for future research. Over the two days, invited plenary talks were interspersed by discussions, posters and mini pre- sentations from bioethicists, triallists and health research regulators. Key findings of the symposium were: (1) It is possible to make a compelling case to ethics committees that TwiCs designs are ap- propriate and ethical; (2) The importance of wider considerations around the ethics of inefficient trial designs; and (3) some questions about the ethical requirements for content and timing of informed consent for a study using the TwiCs design need to be decided on a case-by-case basis