Involving Engineering with In-Service K-4 Teachers

A strong workforce in science and engineering and literate citizens in a technology-based society depends on an educational system that prepares students in science, mathematics, and engineering. Unfortunately, many K-12 students lose interest in such topics early in their school years. Engineering applications can capture the imagination of students and illustrate the concepts in science and mathematics. Level-appropriate resources are as necessary for primary teachers and our young scholars as for teachers and students in higher grades. A model for interaction between engineers and K-4 teachers is proposed. The State of Missouri defines curriculum standards in each subject area and assesses student performance three times during a student\u27s education. The first assessment for science is in the third grade and for mathematics is in the fourth grade. These standards were examined from an engineering perspective. In addition, in-service primary teachers were surveyed to determine their background, needs, and attitudes regarding science, mathematics, and engineering. Early years of an effective technical curriculum must introduce the basic concepts and begin layering this understanding with detail and connectivity. Our model shows how engineering applications can provide hearing, seeing, and doing components, i.e. auditory, visual, and kinesthetic educational activities, within the recommended pedagogy. The approach involves in-service teachers throughout the development process, addresses state standards and testing criteria, and partners specialists in engineering content and teacher training

Overcoming myelosuppression due to synthetic lethal toxicity for FLT3-targeted acute myeloid leukemia therapy.

Activating mutations in FLT3 confer poor prognosis for individuals with acute myeloid leukemia (AML). Clinically active investigational FLT3 inhibitors can achieve complete remissions but their utility has been hampered by acquired resistance and myelosuppression attributed to a 'synthetic lethal toxicity' arising from simultaneous inhibition of FLT3 and KIT. We report a novel chemical strategy for selective FLT3 inhibition while avoiding KIT inhibition with the staurosporine analog, Star 27. Star 27 maintains potency against FLT3 in proliferation assays of FLT3-transformed cells compared with KIT-transformed cells, shows no toxicity towards normal human hematopoiesis at concentrations that inhibit primary FLT3-mutant AML blast growth, and is active against mutations that confer resistance to clinical inhibitors. As a more complete understanding of kinase networks emerges, it may be possible to define anti-targets such as KIT in the case of AML to allow improved kinase inhibitor design of clinical agents with enhanced efficacy and reduced toxicity

Zooming out to prioritise population health in nurse education

In this Editorial, we argue that zooming out to prioritise population health in nurse education can: (1) Redefine population health as praxis; (2) Reposition nursing as a significant part of the movement to address global health care challenges; (3) Reinforce the shift from illness care to health care. In doing so we suggest that nurse educators must embrace the potential of population health to radically reshape their educational praxis and awaken students to act justly to serve populations and drive progress towards health equity

Population health as a 'platform' for nurse education: A qualitative study of nursing leaders

Background: Challenges to the sustainability of global healthcare systems are prompting a shift towards more population-focused models of care. Nurse educators need to develop courses that prepare students for population health practice. However, the educational approaches that can support this shift are poorly understood. Publication of new standards for nurse education by the United Kingdom’s (UK) Nursing and Midwifery Council that place greater emphasis on population health presented an opportunity to seek nursing leaders’ views on population health in nurse education.Objectives: To assess the views of nursing leaders within a Scottish context on the connection between nurse education and population health for all students, evaluate what student nurses need to know to support population health practice, and draw insights from the UK for pre-registration programmes internationally.Design: Qualitative interview studyParticipants: Twenty-four nursing leaders from academic (n=15), practice (n=4) and regulatory (n=5) sectorsMethods: Semi-structured interviews were conducted face-to-face (n=21), by telephone (n=2) or Skype (n=1). Interviews were transcribed and analysed, using interview questions as structural themes, followed by thematic and content analyses.Results: Nursing leaders encouraged rebalancing nurse education towards population health, suggesting that population health concepts should sit at the core of spiral curricula to enable students to (re)view learning through a population health lens. Seven outcomes were identified to equip student nurses for practice in any setting. These formed the mnemonic FULCRUM: Find and interpret evidence; Understand the psychology of behavior and change; Link epidemiology to population health; Consider others and themselves in context; Recognise social determinants of health; Understand the impact of policy and politics on health; Motivate to encourage behaviour change.Conclusions: FULCRUM can guide nurse educators globally to support preparation of graduate nurses for the significant shifts in healthcare delivery and service organization toward improving population outcomes

Chronic Hospital Nurse Understaffing Meets COVID-19

A study of hospitals in New York and Illinois at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic found that most did not meet benchmark patient-to-nurse staffing ratios for medical-surgical or intensive care units. New York City hospitals had especially low staffing ratios. Understaffed hospitals were associated with less job satisfaction among nurses, unfavorable grades for patient safety and quality of care, and hesitance by nurses and patients to recommend their hospitals

Student nurses' attitudes to social justice and poverty: An international Comparison

Background: In both the United Kingdom (UK) and the United States (US), health inequities are proving resistant to improvement. Nurses are ideally placed to advocate for social justice. It is therefore important that nurse education encourages awareness of the social determinants of health and equips students to act to address health inequity. However, little is known about student nurses’ attitudes to social justice and poverty and the impact of pedagogical strategies used to teach the determinants and patterns of health inequities.Objectives: To assess and compare UK and US student nurses’ attitudes toward social justice and poverty before and after learning about social determinants of health and health inequities.Design: Cross-sectional study with embedded before and after design using validated measures.Setting: Two universities: one urban UK university and one US university with urban and rural campuses.Participants: 230 student nurses in the UK (n=143) and US (n=87) enrolled in courses teaching content including health inequities and social determinants of health.Results: Student nurses generally disagreed with stigmatizing statements about people living in poverty and mostly agreed with statements promoting social justice. However, US studentswere significantly more likely to have positive attitudes towards both social justice (p=0.001) and poverty (

West Nile Virus–infected Mosquitoes, Louisiana, 2002

Culex quinquefasciatus was identified as probable vector

Overcoming myelosuppression due to synthetic lethal toxicity for FLT3-targeted acute myeloid leukemia therapy

Activating mutations in FLT3 confer poor prognosis for individuals with acute myeloid leukemia (AML). Clinically active investigational FLT3 inhibitors can achieve complete remissions but their utility has been hampered by acquired resistance and myelosuppression attributed to a 'synthetic lethal toxicity' arising from simultaneous inhibition of FLT3 and KIT. We report a novel chemical strategy for selective FLT3 inhibition while avoiding KIT inhibition with the staurosporine analog, Star 27. Star 27 maintains potency against FLT3 in proliferation assays of FLT3-transformed cells compared with KIT-transformed cells, shows no toxicity towards normal human hematopoiesis at concentrations that inhibit primary FLT3-mutant AML blast growth, and is active against mutations that confer resistance to clinical inhibitors. As a more complete understanding of kinase networks emerges, it may be possible to define anti-targets such as KIT in the case of AML to allow improved kinase inhibitor design of clinical agents with enhanced efficacy and reduced toxicity.published_or_final_versio

Population health and nurse education – time to step-up

Highlights•Contemporary trends in population health threaten the sustainability of current approaches to care delivery.•Health care professionals inevitably confront social injustices in their day-to-day work.•Nurses are ideally placed to make a critical impact on the health of populations.•Nurse educators need to create curricula which meaningfully integrate population health.•We outline three exemplars of innovative pedagogical approaches to spark the thinking of educators as to how they can enable nurses to make connections between practice and population health

Assessing the effectiveness and observing fidelity of a psychosocial support program for Rohingya refugee mothers and their children in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh

Introduction: Despite the well-recognized risk poor maternal mental health poses to early child development, it is still rarely addressed in global health programming, especially in humanitarian settings where access to health and mental health infrastructures may be limited. Recognizing the critical role of maternal psychosocial wellness in addressing the health and development of children in conflict, Action contre La Faim/Action Against Hunger (ACF) developed the Baby Friendly Spaces (BFS) program. BFS is a holistic, evidenced-based psychosocial support program that aims to enhance mothers’ wellbeing, internal resources, and child caring skills in order to create a buffer against the deleterious health and developmental impacts of conflict on children. Objectives: In Bangladesh, we sought to evaluate the effectiveness of a psychosocial support program for Rohingya refugee mothers and their malnourished children under two years old living in Cox’s Bazar’s camps. Methods: For this study, we used a matched pair randomization, where ten BFS program sites were allocated to either continue providing services “as usual” or to an “enhanced BFS program” after re-training and providing continuous supportive supervision of the BFS staff throughout the trial period. 600 mothers and their children were enrolled in the study and attended psychosocial stimulation activities related to child care practices and care for women. Data were collected at baseline and 8-week follow-up. Primary outcomes included maternal distress and wellbeing, functioning, and coping. For implementation purpose, a survey was administered on confidence at work for all BFS staff and a fidelity observation assessment was conducted. Results: Relative to “as usual” sites, mothers in enhanced implementation sites reported greater reductions in distress (B=-.30) and improvement in wellbeing (B=.58). These differences were small, but marginally significant (p=.058; p=.038) with standard estimation; There was no significant difference between the two groups for daily functioning and coping. BFS providers in “enhanced BFS program” reported higher confidence in service delivery than their colleagues (p=.01). Fidelity varied widely across different components, with some very high and some very low adherence. There tended to be better adherence to procedures in group versus individual sessions and for some specific activities across domains, for enhanced versus standard BFS. Conclusions: Findings highlight the value of innovative study approaches for real-world evidence generation. Small but feasible adjustments to implementation can both improve program delivery for maximizing impact. Consequently, low-intensity psychosocial support activities holds potential for reducing distress and improving subjective well-being of conflict affected mothers