Alien Registration- Hughes, Frances E. (Augusta, Kennebec County)

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An investigation of the views, understanding, knowledge, experience and attitudes of sixth form teachers in regard to the preparedness of their students for the transition to university

Research has identified that many students feel significantly unprepared for university life and study While much work has been done to identify ways in which universities can successfully support their students through transition, little attention has been paid, in the literature, to the preparation students receive in school. This report details a mixed methods study to better understand the role of 6th form teachers in preparing students for university and their perceptions of how prepared their students are for Higher Education A number of recurring themes emerged from the resultant transcripts and where supported by quantitative findings. The teachers in the study clearly believed that they had an important role to play in preparing their students for university. Much of this role is currently focussed on career planning, promoting university, helping students make choices and supporting them through the application process. While some work is taking place to help students develop personally and academically, most teachers indicated that they would like to be able to do more in this area. There were broad agreements and concerns about the personal growth and emotional resilience of students. Focus group participants, whose students are, in the main, from non-traditional university going backgrounds also indicated cultural barriers. Teachers in both phases of the research also indicated concerns that many of their students were unable to visualise the future or prioritise beyond immediate concerns and this was undermining planning and preparation. Academic concerns were not shared by all schools, although some indicated that they believed many of their students would struggle to integrate academically into higher education. Teachers in the qualitative phase also identified time, resources, culture and current student attitudes and behaviours as barriers to their ability to do more to prepare their students.Funded through the National Network for Collaborative Outreach, North East Midlands Collaborative Outreach Networ

Developing and Implementing Supervisor Training for Clinical Psychologists in the United Kingdom

Engagement in supervision is a professional requirement for clinical psychologists in the UK (Division of Clinical Psychology 2014). There is, however, little guidance regarding how psychologists should be taught the skills required to be a supervisor, or how these skills should be evaluated. This article starts by reviewing the development of national guidance for the training of clinical psychologists as supervisors. Nationally agreed learning objectives for supervisor training are presented. The article then describes how this guidance was operationalised within a region of the UK, and how this has been developed over a number of years. The training and its evaluation processes are outlined and mapped against the learning objectives, with suggestions for future developments

Principal Support is Imperative to the Retention of Teachers in Hard-to-Staff Schools

Teacher retention is an ongoing problem in hard-to-staff schools. This research examined the relationship between principal support and retention of teachers in hard-to-staff schools. The purpose of this study was to, (a) to determine the relationship between teacher retention and principal support, (b) to examine the perception of support between teachers and principals and how these perceptions affect teacher retention in hard-to-staff schools, and (c) to discover if there is a correlation between the principal’s supports and teacher retention. The participants were both administrators and teachers who are currently employed. A non-experimental correlational design was used in which principals and teachers in hard-to-staff schools were surveyed regarding the role of principal supports in the retention of teachers. Findings in this study posited, personal growth and the ability to receive support from administrators regarding emotional, environmental and instructional support had an impact on a teacher’s decision to stay or leave in hard-to-staff schools. Participant teachers provided insight as to which forms of support they valued most from their principals. The recommendations guide administrators working in hard-to-staff schools to reduce teacher attrition and are also intended to encourage leaders to look more closely at their programs and their own styles of leadership and support. Specific recommendations are made for administrators, institutions, and teachers

A New Era in Mental Health Care in Vanuatu

Inequity in health-care delivery for those with mental illness is widespread throughout low- and middle-income countries. In the Pacific Island countries there are many barriers to addressing the growing mental health burden. In an effort to address this problem, the WHO is coordinating the Pacific Islands Mental Health Network involving 18 countries in the Pacific region with the financial support of New Zealand Aid (NZAid). JB and DP have developed and presented mental health training to health professionals, community leaders, and social service personnel in an environment in Vanuatu that is very different from that of their usual Australian-based general practices. They discuss evidence for their work, an outline of the programme, some difficulties working across different cultures, and the enthusiasm with which the training has been greeted. Vanuatu is now well on its way to addressing the inequity of access to mental health care with a culturally appropriate and self-sustaining mental health workforce

Nursing Turnover and Staffing Practices in New Zealand's DHBs: A National Survey

Nursing turnover is critical issue as nurse shortages throughout the Western world are pulling a strain on health systems. New Zealand's nursing shortage is exacerbated by international recruitment efforts targeting nurses. New Zealand is a participating country in an international study, using an agreed study design and instruments, to determine the real direct and indirect costs of nursing turnover and the systemic costs by also determining the impacts of turnover on patient and nurse outcomes. The paper reports on two components of the study. First, a pilot study was conducted in six countries, including New Zealand, to identify availability of costs and suitability of the instrument. The results of the pilot, that found that many costs were not available, are reported. Second, as part of u national Cost of Nursing Turnover study, Directors of Nursing in the 21 District Health Boards (DHBs) throughout New Zealand were contacted to complete a survey on turnover and workplace practices: 20 participated. In 13 DHBs nursing turnover was a problem, with 5 reporting rates over 20%; 5 DHBs reported low turnover at 5-10%. The survey did not establish how turnover rates were determined. Notwithstanding the importance of attracting and retaining nurses, in every DHB except 5 there are tight controls over recruitment of new staff, and several DHBs reported a freeze on recruiting RNs except for 'specialist' nurse roles

Use of Temporary Nurse Mechanisms by New Zealand's District Health Board

Nursing shortages is a concern globally, and in this context has emerged a research focus on reasons and costs of turnover and retention. A national study on the costs of nursing turnover in New Zealand public hospitals was conducted between 2005-2006, with 12 month’s data collected per randomly selected unit. Annual turnover rates were found to be high at average 39.16%, with a range between 13.83% and 73.17%. Budgeted nurse staffing per unit in is expected to be sufficient to deliver nursing work for the patient population (occupancy, acuity and complexity) and provide for leave (annual, sick, study, family, bereavement etc). In the context of study it was assumed that temporary cover mechanisms were mainly to cover vacancies and occasional unplanned contingencies such as influenza affecting staff, and higher than normal demands for nursing work. The cost of temporary cover would therefore be a cost of turnover. An unexpected finding of the study was that temporary cover mechanisms were widely used, including when actual staff numbers were equal to or exceeded budget, and no consistent relationship within vacancies was evident. It was concluded that management of nursing resource was driven by cost, no strategic, considerations. Published research on use of temporary cover and the effect of such practices on turnover of nurses provided a perspective to critique the funding

Core Health Outcomes In Childhood Epilepsy (CHOICE):Protocol for the selection of a core outcome set

This is the final version of the article. Available from BioMed Central via the DOI in this record.BACKGROUND: There is increasing recognition that establishing a core set of outcomes to be evaluated and reported in trials of interventions for particular conditions will improve the usefulness of health research. There is no established core outcome set for childhood epilepsy. The aim of this work is to select a core outcome set to be used in evaluative research of interventions for children with rolandic epilepsy, as an exemplar of common childhood epilepsy syndromes. METHODS: First we will identify what outcomes should be measured; then we will decide how to measure those outcomes. We will engage relevant UK charities and health professional societies as partners, and convene advisory panels for young people with epilepsy and parents of children with epilepsy. We will identify candidate outcomes from a search for trials of interventions for childhood epilepsy, statutory guidance and consultation with our advisory panels. Families, charities and health, education and neuropsychology professionals will be invited to participate in a Delphi survey following recommended practices in the development of core outcome sets. Participants will be able to recommend additional outcome domains. Over three rounds of Delphi survey participants will rate the importance of candidate outcome domains and state the rationale for their decisions. Over the three rounds we will seek consensus across and between families and health professionals on the more important outcomes. A face-to-face meeting will be convened to ratify the core outcome set. We will then review and recommend ways to measure the shortlisted outcomes using clinical assessment and/or patient-reported outcome measures. DISCUSSION: Our methodology is a proportionate and pragmatic approach to expediently produce a core outcome set for evaluative research of interventions aiming to improve the health of children with epilepsy. A number of decisions have to be made when designing a study to develop a core outcome set including defining the scope, choosing which stakeholders to engage, most effective ways to elicit their views, especially children and a potential role for qualitative research.This study is part of Changing Agendas on Sleep, Treatment and Learning in Childhood Epilepsy (CASTLE), which is funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Programme Grants for Applied Research RP-PG-0615-20007

Maternal depressive symptoms and young people's higher education participation and choice of university: Evidence from a longitudinal cohort study

Background: Participation in higher education has significant and long-lasting consequences for people's socioeconomic trajectories. Maternal depression is linked to poorer educational achievement for children in school, but its impact on university attendance is unclear. // Methods: In an English longitudinal cohort study (N = 8952), we explore whether young people whose mothers experienced elevated depressive symptoms are less likely to attend university, and the role of potential mediators in the young person: educational achievement in school, depressive symptoms, and locus of control. We also examine whether maternal depressive symptoms influence young people's choice of university, and non-attendees' reasons for not participating in higher education. // Results: Young people whose mothers experienced more recurrent depressive symptoms were less likely to attend university (OR = 0.88, CI = 0.82,0.94, p < 0.001) per occasion of elevated maternal depressive symptoms) after adjusting for confounders. Mediation analysis indicated this was largely explained by educational achievement in school (e.g., 82.7 % mediated by age 16 achievement) and locus of control at 16. There was mixed evidence for an impact on choice of university. For participants who did not study at university, maternal depressive symptoms were linked to stating as a reason having had other priorities to do with family or children (OR: 1.17, CI = 1.02,1.35). // Limitations: Lack of data on the other parent's depression, loss to follow-up, possibly selective non-response. // Conclusions: Young people whose mothers experience elevated depressive symptoms on multiple occasions are less likely to participate in higher education; educational achievement in secondary school, but not the young people's own depressive symptoms, substantially mediated the effect

Reliability of Addenbrooke's Cognitive Examination III in differentiating between dementia, mild cognitive impairment and older adults who have not reported cognitive problems.

Diagnosing dementia can be challenging for clinicians, given the array of factors that contribute to changes in cognitive function. The Addenbrooke’s Cognitive Examination III (ACE-III) is commonly used in dementia assessments, covering the domains of attention, memory, fluency, visuospatial and language. This study aims to (1) assess the reliability of ACE-III to differentiate between dementia, mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and controls and (2) establish whether the ACE-III is useful for diagnosing dementia subtypes. Client records from the Northern Health and Social Care Trust (NHSCT) Memory Service (n = 2,331, 2013–2019) were used in the analysis including people diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease (n = 637), vascular dementia (n = 252), mixed dementia (n = 490), MCI (n = 920) and controls (n = 32). There were significant differences in total ACE-III and subdomain scores between people with dementia, MCI and controls (p  73%) and thus the differences are not clinically relevant. The results suggest that ACE-III is a useful tool for discriminating between dementia, MCI and controls, but it is not reliable for discriminating between dementia subtypes. Nonetheless, the ACE-III is still a reliable tool for clinicians that can assist in making a dementia diagnosis in combination with other factors at assessment