Social media providing an international virtual elective experience for student nurses

The advances in social media offer many opportunities for developing understanding of different countries and cultures without any implications of travel. Nursing has a global presence and yet it appears as though students have little knowledge of the health and social care needs and provision outside their local environment. Our collaboration across three countries, New Zealand, United Kingdom, and the United States of America, brought the two themes together with the aim of senior student nurses having a communication channel to explore public health issues in each country. Using a closed Facebook™ page, third year undergraduate adult nursing students were invited to take part in a three month pilot study to test the feasibility of virtual collaboration through exchanging public health issues. Here we report upon the collaboration, operation of the social media, and main findings of the study. Three core areas will be reported upon, these being the student’s views of using social media for learning about international perspectives of health, seeing nursing as a global profession and recommendations for future development of this positively reviewed learning technique. To conclude consideration will be given to further development of this work by the collaborative team expanding the countries involved

Case report of sudden death in a child with Williams syndrome following administration of anaesthesia

Williams syndrome is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by distinctive personality traits, facial features (so called “elfin face”) and cardiac abnormalities, of which supravalvular aortic stenosis is the most common lesion found. The cause is a deletion of a group of genes on chromosome 7q11.23. Administration of anaesthesia to these patients carries a higher risk for sudden death due to the cardiac defects. The purpose of this case study is to demonstrate the entity in the South African population, to review the literature, to put emphasis on the multi-disciplinary approach in the pre-operative management, and to review the medico-legal investigation of intra-operative deaths. Furthermore, administration of anaesthesia in the remote location and to syndromic children will also be discussed.Keywords: deletion of genes on chromosone 7q11.23, intra-operative deaths, sudden death, supravalvular aortic stenosis, Williams syndrom

Anxiety, intolerance of uncertainty and restricted and repetitive behaviour: insights directly from young people with ASD

In order to investigate the experience of anxiety and restricted and repetitive behaviours (RRB) in young people with ASD, 19 families with young people with ASD aged between 13 and 20 years completed questionnaire measures of RRB, anxiety, and intolerance of uncertainty. Ten young people also completed a novel semi-structured interview exploring an individualised example of an RRB. Findings demonstrated that young people with ASD can self-report and show insight in to their RRB, and replicated previous findings based on parent report showing a significant positive relationship between RRB and anxiety. This is the first evidence of young person self-report using both quantitative and qualitative data and indicates a range of reasons why young people may engage in RRB

Hybrid Thermal Lance

The Hybrid Thermal Lance (HTL) is a device used to burn through landmines to destroy them safely. Designed for the team’s client, The HALO Trust, the HTL has proven to work well in destroying explosives, which has been demonstrated by field trials conducted in a number of countries including but not limited to Afghanistan and the Republic of Georgia. The HTL works by igniting acrylic burn tubes, which act as a fuel source and also focus the flame on a specific location on an explosive device. The system is controlled via a user-friendly, rugged control box that can run the HTL automatically and allow the device to burn for different lengths of time upon user command. The team was asked by HALO to make the HTL as user-friendly as possible. In order to do this, the team has been researching ways to make the ignition system as reliable as possible so the device works every time. The team plans to move forward in testing and refining the ignition system and the control circuit in order to give the client a trouble-free device. Future plans include designing a fixture that can be fitted over the end of the HTL burn tube which can focus the heat of the flame for a more concentrated burn.https://mosaic.messiah.edu/engr2020/1022/thumbnail.jp

The Role of the PAX8/PPARγ Fusion Oncogene in Thyroid Cancer

Thyroid cancer is uncommon and exhibits relatively low mortality rates. However, a subset of patients experience inexorable growth, metastatic spread, and mortality. Unfortunately, for these patients, there have been few significant advances in treatment during the last 50 years. While substantial advances have been made in recent years about the molecular genetic events underlying papillary thyroid cancer, the more aggressive follicular thyroid cancer remains poorly understood. The recent discovery of the PAX8/PPARγ translocation in follicular thyroid carcinoma has promoted progress in the role of PPARγ as a tumor suppressor and potential therapeutic target. The PAX8/PPARγ fusion gene appears to be an oncogene. It is most often expressed in follicular carcinomas and exerts a dominant-negative effect on wild-type PPARγ, and stimulates transcription of PAX8-responsive promoters. PPARγ agonists have shown promising results in vitro, although very few studies have been conducted to assess the clinical impact of these agents

Patients' internet use in New Zealand for information about medicines: Implications for policy and practice

BACKGROUND: The ubiquitous use of the internet sees patients increasingly look online for information about their medicines. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to understand the use of internet to meet medicine information needs of a sample of New Zealand patients. METHOD: Using a descriptive exploratory approach 60 mental health and general medical adult patients at one large urban were interviewed. These semi-structured interviews were audio recorded, transcribed and coded for inductive thematic analysis. FINDINGS: This study found that the internet is frequently used to meet the medicines information needs of patients. Despite the ease of access to information on the internet patients need guidance to locate credible and trustworthy online resources. CONCLUSIONS: Implications from this study relate to both practice and policy, and include the need for health professionals to have enhanced communication skills as they become information brokers who provide supplementary, reliable sources of patient-centric medicines information. Having a New Zealand specific website that includes an extensive section on medicines is a policy recommendation of this study, as is identifying tools to readily identify patients’ needs and preferences for medicines information