Theory-based communication skills training for medicine counter assistants to improve consultations for non-prescription medicines

Context: Medicine counter assistants (MCAs) supply the majority of non-prescription medicines (NPMs) to consumers. Suboptimal communication during consultations between consumers and MCAs has been identified as a major cause of inappropriate supply. Evidence from medical consultations suggests that training in specified communication skills can change professional behaviour. Methods: A feasibility study was conducted to evaluate the effect of theory-based communication skills training for MCAs. Thirty MCAs were recruited from 21 community pharmacies in Grampian, Scotland. The intervention comprised 2 4-hour training sessions, held 1 month apart. The sessions were informed by results from previous studies and the Calgary−Cambridge evidence-based model of communication skills training. Strategies for guiding individuals through change were adopted from cognitive behavioural therapy techniques. The theory of planned behaviour was used to assess potential pathways to behaviour change. Recorded data were collected during covert visits to the pharmacies by simulated patients at baseline and 1 month after each training session. Communication performance was measured as the number and type of questions asked. Results: Compared with baseline measures, the total number of questions asked increased in the intervention group at both timepoints. No change was shown in the control group between baseline and follow-up 1, and a decrease was shown in the total number of questions from follow-up 1 to 2. The intervention appeared to have greater effect on consultations involving advice, compared with those concerning product requests. Discussion: Communication performance improved following training. Increased information exchange is associated with guideline-compliant supply of NPMs. A substantive randomised, controlled trial is now planned to assess the intervention.This study was funded by the Chief Scientist Office, Scottish Executive Health Department

Satirical expectations: Shakespeare’s Inns of Court audiences

This article considers the relationship between two plays and their late 1590s audiences. After establishing the influence of the men of the Inns of Court as an audience “segment” in this period, it argues that both Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night and Marston’s What You Will respond to some of the shared experiences and interests of this group. Both plays were performed during the Poetomachia, the stage aftermath of the 1599 Bishops’ Ban on Juvenalian satire, and the Innsmen’s famous connection with the satiric genre is influential on playhouse production at the end of Elizabeth’s reign. After Jonson’s Every Man Out of his Humour (for which he adopted the epithet “satirical comedy”) the plays of the War of the Theatres engaged in the fashion for satire, but I argue that both Marston and Shakespeare responded in more than simply generic terms to wider issues which engaged an audience segment of Innsmen. Thus in their focus on an aspirant man’s appearance, on the connection between performance on and off stage, on the role of education and on the place of women, both Twelfth Night and What You Will show the importance of this segment to the late Elizabethan playhouse repertoire.Cet article envisage le rapport entre le public élisabéthain et deux pièces de la fin des années 1590, La Nuit des Rois de Shakespeare et What You Will de Marston. Une fois établie l’influence des hommes des Inns of Court en tant que « segment » de public à cette époque, l’argument avancé est que ces deux pièces répondent à des expériences et des intérêts communs aux membres de ce groupe. Toutes deux jouées durant la « Poétomachie », qui porta sur les scènes de théâtre la satire juvénalienne après le décret de 1599 la frappant d’interdit dans les textes imprimés (« Bishops’ Ban »), elles témoignent de l’influence du genre satirique associé aux membres des Inns sur la production dramatique de la fin du règne d’Élisabeth. Si, à la suite d’Everyman Out of His Humour de Jonson (que l’auteur qualifiait de « comédie satirique »), les pièces de la Guerre des Théâtres adoptèrent la mode de la satire, Marston et Shakespeare semblent réagir au-delà des enjeux génériques à des questions plus larges qui concernent le segment du public représenté par les membres des Inns. En mettant l’accent sur l’apparence de personnages rêvant d’ascension sociale, sur le lien entre le spectacle sur scène et hors scène, sur le rôle de l’éducation et sur la place des femmes, La Nuit des Rois et What You Will montrent l’importance de ce « segment » dans l’élaboration du répertoire dramatique élisabéthain

An Investigation of the Relationship Between Personality and the Use of Learning During the Life Transitions of Adults

In a three stage investigation the relationship between personality type and the use of learning as a coping device during the life transitions of adults was studied. Based on the assumption that a paper and pencil device could be constructed to achieve the same or nearly the same results that have been achieved through interviews with adult learners, the first two stages of this investigation involved the construction and validation of an instrument, the Adult Development Learning Inventory (ADLI), to measure the use of learning during life transitions of adults. The inventory has five subsections: a demographic profile, Life Events, Coping Strategies, Learning Activities, and Adulthood Tasks. Content validity of the ADLI was established through both the theory based in adult learning and developmental psychology and the panel of experts. Construct validation tools included principal component factor analysis and the Kruskal-Wallis ANOVA with age as the variable of discrimination. The instrument was capable of differentiating among age groups' perception of the tasks in the adult life cycle. For internal consistency, reliability estimates ranged from .83 to .94 for the subsections of the ADLI. Stage III of the investigation explored the relationship between the ADLI and personality as measured by the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) which was based on the typology suggested by Carl Jung. The findings suggested only limited relationships between personality and the extent of learning activities. Specifically adults with the dominant function of Intuition can be categorized as high activity learners. The results of limited relationships between learning and personality type can perhaps be attributed to the fact that overwhelmingly (98%) these adult samples were involved in some type of learning not in spite of their life circumstances but because of them

The importance of recovery and staffing on midwives’ emotional wellbeing: a UK national survey

© 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY), https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Background: There is currently a gap in the evidence on how working practices, such as the ability to take rest breaks, finish on time or intershift recovery influence outcomes. Aim: The aim of this study was to explore the association of individual characteristics, work-related factors and working practices on emotional wellbeing outcomes of UK midwives. Methods: An online cross-sectional survey collated data between September and October 2020. Outcomes explored were work-related stress, burnout, being pleased with their standard of care, job satisfaction and thoughts about leaving midwifery. Univariate analysis identified the explanatory variables to be investigated using multivariable logistic regression. Findings: A total of 2347 midwives from the four UK nations completed the survey. No standard approach in monitoring safe staffing or in-shift or intershift recovery was found. There were high levels of work-related stress, burnout and thoughts about leaving midwifery, and low levels of job satisfaction, with just half of midwives reporting they were satisfied with the standard of care they could provide. Multivariable regression revealed that working practices variables, generally related to impeded recovery or compounded by staffing issues, had a significant association with poorer emotional wellbeing outcomes. Conclusion: This research has demonstrated an association between impeded recovery, including a lack of formal methods to monitor this, and poorer emotional wellbeing outcomes, and that staffing levels are highly influential in determining outcomes. There is a need to re-evaluate current approaches to job design and how midwives are expected to work.Peer reviewe

Leveraging the Dissemination of Scholarly Works

The objective of this research was to analyze the marketing and economic outcomes and benefits from the dissemination of the data from the Airline Quality Rating (AQR) (http://airlinequalityrating.com) over the past 27 years, including the newer distributive avenues such as social media and open access venues online. Industry standards are set by the AQR, providing consumers and industry watchers objective performance-based data to compare performance quality among different U.S. airlines. The AQR weighted average formula highlights criteria including baggage handling, customer complaints, denied boarding and on-time arrivals. The scholarly publication of the AQR was first released in 1991; the authors were interviewed on Good Morning America, gaining national media attention for the authors as well as their university. The annual media release of this report grew in reputation over the first three years to a national media event as a valid rating/ranking of the major airlines’ quality; this was validated by an advertising value of over two million dollars. In 2016, the release of the AQR report reached over 1.2 billion people globally, with an advertising and publicity value of twelve million dollars. Today, faculty members can and should utilize the newer distributive platforms for dissemination of their research and scholarly works; some examples of these avenues include: (1) research and scholarly publications being uploaded to Google Scholar for scholarly as well as general public use, (2) taking advantage of social media’s global market, (3) utilizing media venues, including media releases, (4) using online open-access repositories for scholarship submissions. The dissemination of data from the AQR is just one example of the limitless topics that could be applied to other scholarship efforts, benefitting faculty members and their associated universities by effectively leveraging the distribution of their research and associated publications beyond only being published as an obscure journal article

The Future of Social Media Usage for Scholarly Research

The research method for this project – examining the dissemination of research artifacts through social media as well as the impact social media can have on scholarly research – originated with Dr. Brent Bowen of Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University at the Prescott, Arizona campus and Dr. Dean E. Headley of Wichita State University. Drs. Bowen and Headley introduced the Airline Quality Rating (AQR) in early 1991 as an objective method for comparing and scoring airline performance in areas deemed to be important for consumers. Scores are calculated by defining 15-elements in four major areas, focusing on airline performance and the significance the factors to consumers of air travel in a given calendar year. The report is a summary and evaluation of month-by-month ratings for U.S. airlines, based on domestic performance data which these companies are required to publish. The general case study focus of this research is the AQR as it relates to the news of the AQR’s release as disseminated through social media platforms, the subsequent utilization of and references to the research by social media users, and the global reach of social media. We will examine social media metrics, based on traditional news releases. These news releases, when amplified by social media platforms, assist in broadening the viewership and the utilization of research. The AQR’s Visibility Reports evaluate four aspects of online traffic - Total Pickup, Traffic flow, Audience, and Engagement. We will discuss how the Airline Quality Rating has helped to facilitate a worldwide discussion on U.S. airlines and domestic air travel within the U.S