Student nurses' opinions regarding the clinical learning environment and supervision at Malamulo Hospital, Malawi

Student Number : 0317159E - MSc(Nursing) research report - School of Therapeutics - Faculty of Health SciencesThe learning environment and supervision in clinical placement play an important role in nursing education. The purpose of this study was to describe the opinions of student nurses with regard to the clinical learning environment and supervision at Malamulo Hospital, Malawi. A quantitative descriptive design was used. Data were collected from nursing students at Malamulo College of Health Science using the Clinical Learning Environment Scale (CLES) comprising structured questions. The questionnaire was administered to the total population of students (N=84) and the response rate was 87% (n=73). Descriptive statistics were used to analyze data. Relationships between variables were determined by using Fisher’s exact test and the t-test. The findings revealed that the majority of the participants were satisfied with their clinical learning environment and supervision in their latest clinical placement. Particularly, they were satisfied with the relationship that prevailed between students and members of nursing staff, feedback they received from their supervisors, the nursing care given to patients and the quality of learning opportunities. However, it was determined that nurse teachers did not regularly supervise students and also that some students were not clear about the nursing philosophy of their wards. Ward familiarization processes were not well planned as indicated by about a third of the participants. More than one third also indicated that the learning situations were not sufficient and not meaningful. While 73.98 % indicated that they received constructive feedback from their supervisors, about half of the participants indicated that the feedback was not given continuously.The majority (67.76%) of the participants experienced team supervision as opposed to individual supervision. Therefore it is recommended that nurse teachers increase the number of visits to the wards when students are in clinical placement to improve quality of clinical learning. The nursing college may need to have specific clinical instructors who are trained in clinical supervision and who will be available for students in the clinical placements regularly. The ward managers and the nursing staff need to clarify and display their ward nursing philosophy so that both nurses and students can have a common understanding and common goal in the provision of nursing care. It is also recommended that feedback be given to students continuously to enhance learning

does income level matter?

Thesis(Master) --KDI School:Master of Development Policy,2014OutstandingmasterpublishedKACHIWALA, Chipo Godfrey

The Lothian Birth Cohort 1936: a study to examine influences on cognitive ageing from age 11 to age 70 and beyond

BACKGROUND: Cognitive ageing is a major burden for society and a major influence in lowering people's independence and quality of life. It is the most feared aspect of ageing. There are large individual differences in age-related cognitive changes. Seeking the determinants of cognitive ageing is a research priority. A limitation of many studies is the lack of a sufficiently long period between cognitive assessments to examine determinants. Here, the aim is to examine influences on cognitive ageing between childhood and old age. METHODS/DESIGN: The study is designed as a follow-up cohort study. The participants comprise surviving members of the Scottish Mental Survey of 1947 (SMS1947; N = 70,805) who reside in the Edinburgh area (Lothian) of Scotland. The SMS1947 applied a valid test of general intelligence to all children born in 1936 and attending Scottish schools in June 1947. A total of 1091 participants make up the Lothian Birth Cohort 1936. They undertook: a medical interview and examination; physical fitness testing; extensive cognitive testing (reasoning, memory, speed of information processing, and executive function); personality, quality of life and other psycho-social questionnaires; and a food frequency questionnaire. They have taken the same mental ability test (the Moray House Test No. 12) at age 11 and age 70. They provided blood samples for DNA extraction and testing and other biomarker analyses. Here we describe the background and aims of the study, the recruitment procedures and details of numbers tested, and the details of all examinations. DISCUSSION: The principal strength of this cohort is the rarely captured phenotype of lifetime cognitive change. There is additional rich information to examine the determinants of individual differences in this lifetime cognitive change. This protocol report is important in alerting other researchers to the data available in the cohort

Neck muscle cross-sectional area, brain volume and cognition in healthy older men; A cohort study

BACKGROUND: Two important consequences of the normal ageing process are sarcopenia (the age-related loss of muscle mass and function) and age-related cognitive decline. Existing data support positive relationships between muscle function, cognition and brain structure. However, studies investigating these relationships at older ages are lacking and rarely include a measure of muscle size. Here we test whether neck muscle size is positively associated with cognition and brain structure in older men. METHODS: We studied 51 healthy older men with mean age 73.8 (sd 1.5) years. Neck muscle cross-sectional area (CSA) was measured from T1-weighted MR-brain scans using a validated technique. We measured multiple cognitive domains including verbal and visuospatial memory, executive functioning and estimated prior cognitive ability. Whole brain, ventricular, hippocampal and cerebellar volumes were measured with MRI. General linear models (ANCOVA) were performed. RESULTS: Larger neck muscle CSA was associated with less whole brain atrophy (t = 2.86, p = 0.01, partial eta squared 17%). Neck muscle CSA was not associated with other neuroimaging variables or current cognitive ability. Smaller neck muscle CSA was unexpectedly associated with higher prior cognition (t = −2.12, p < 0.05, partial eta squared 10%). CONCLUSIONS: In healthy older men, preservation of whole brain volume (i.e. less atrophy) is associated with larger muscle size. Longitudinal ageing studies are now required to investigate these relationships further

Soft tissue changes associated with first premolar extractions in adult females

The potential for premolar extractions to produce changes in the soft tissue profile after orthodontic treatment is controversial

Space closure using the Hycon device. A case report

Space closure can be a difficult and uncomfortable procedure. Appliances able to be activated by the patient may reduce the number of visits for adjustment