Implementing NMC standards for learning, and assessing in practice(2006): a demonstration of effective partnership between a higher education institution and NHS Trust placement partners

This paper provides an account of the collaborative approach taken to implement professional standards in teaching, learning and assessing in practice for nursing and midwifery. How challenges for effective partnership working between university and placement/practice education provider were overcome are presented. Processes and issues which arose when new national regulatory professional standards of practice education were introduced are highlighted. The partnership work ensured a robust process to locally interpreting and implementing the NMC Standards for Supporting Learning and Assessing in Practice (2006). This was achieved and resulted in a county wide agreed implementation of the Standards across NHS Oxfordshire and beyond. The key requirements of the Standards and the challenges identified are presented together with how issues were addressed. The approach taken by an established partnership working group is described and the products of the process are detailed, including listing 'top tips' for successful partnership working

A Second Grade Experiment with a New Reading-Language Process

Experimentation with innovative reading and language instructional processes is a vital necessity if teaching is to be effective and keep pace with our ever-changing society. 1 Pupils need to learn to read and read well if they are to become contributing citizens and since they learn best through various approaches, it seems logical that many reading instructional models should be made available for teachers to use. This implies that new programs should be discovered and also that they be tested in order to determine their viability with students in the classroom. Such is the nature of this report

The Octagon Values Model: community resilience and coastal regeneration

This paper considers efforts to build community resilience through bottom-up responses to socioeconomic and environmental change in coastal communities on the island of Ireland. The discussion adds to a growing body of research which suggests that regeneration initiatives which do not consider a community’s resilience to change will fail to catalyse the changes needed to put that place on a more sustainable trajectory. The Octagon Values Model is presented as a heuristic device for exploring this potentially complimentary and co-influencing relationship between regeneration and resilience building. When applied to two case studies of coastal Transition Towns, the Model illustrates how, in practical terms, resilience may be used to tap into personal concerns to mobilise civil engagement in specific local regeneration initiatives. The discussion highlights some of the perennial practical obstacles confronting voluntary-based, community-level activities which raise questions for the generation of proactive community resilience responses and modes of governance. In capturing environmental, economic, social and governance value domains, the Octagon Values Model illustrates that reconciling values and resource use is critical to both regeneration and resilience ambitions

Eye on the ID

The Gilbert family has ranched in northwestern South Dakota for over one hundred years. We run a commercial Angus cow herd of approximately 900 mother cows. Our emphasis is on replacement heifers and feeder steers. The hot iron brand has been and is the method of identification used on Gilbert Angus cattle within the brand inspection area of Western South Dakota. The first brand was registered in the late 1800’s according to the brand papers held by Frank Gilbert. The Cross J Bar brand was the identification used to distinguish Gilbert cattle then and is still used today. As the fifth generation enters the business, we have added other individual brands but use the original for the corporation cattle. In addition to hot iron brands, we ear tag every cow with individual numbers and ear tag their offspring with corresponding numbers on day of birth. This information is stored in a CowSense™ database. The replacement females retained within the herd receive an ear tag indicating year and genetic ID

Integration of primary health services: being put together does not mean they will work together

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited.Background This paper reports on an Australian experience of co-locating a range of different primary health services into one building, with the aim of providing integrated services. It discusses some of the early challenges involved with moving services together and reasons why collaborative and integrated working relationships to improve the clients’ journey, may remain elusive. Methods Ethnographic observational data was collected within a GP plus site as part of day-to-day interactions between the research officer and health professionals. This involved observations of team processes within and across teams at the site. Observations were thematically analysed using a social anthropological approach. Results Three main themes arose from the analysis: Infrastructural impediments to collaboration; Territorialism; and Interprofessional practice (IPP) simply not on the agenda. The experience of this setting demonstrates that dedicated staff and resources are needed to keep IPP on the agenda of health service organisations. This is especially important where organisations are attempting to implement new models of collaborative and co-located services. Furthermore, it shows that establishing IPP within newly co-located services is a process that needs time to develop, as part of teams building trust with each other in new circumstances, in order to eventually build a new cultural identity for the co-located services. Conclusions Co-located health service systems can be complex, with competing priorities and differing strategic plans and performance indicators to meet. This, coupled with the tendency for policy makers to move on to their next issue of focus, and to shift resources in the process, means that adequate time and resources for IPP are often overlooked. Shared interprofessional student placements may be one way forward

Impacting Maternal and Prenatal Care Together: A Collaborative Effort to Improve Birth Outcomes

Objectives To describe the development of a collaborative partnership to improve birth outcomes in Harris County, Texas. Methods State and city-level maternal and infant health data were re-analyzed and presented to stakeholders at the zip-code level to generate a renewed response to health issues in these populations, particularly infant mortality. Public and private sector stakeholders convened to form the Impacting Maternal and Prenatal Care Together (IMPACT) Collaborative, identifying four priority areas that required collaborative action. Results Priority area action groups are currently working on strategies to improve maternal and infant health outcomes. Collaborative strategies include: raising patient and provider awareness, campaign partnerships, advocating for legislative change, and implementing community based programs. As a collaborative, IMPACT received funding to implement an evidence-based health education intervention for women at risk of having poor birth outcomes. Conclusions Through the leveraging of resources, expertise, and leadership, collaborative partnerships are capable of formulating innovative ideas, developing sustainable solutions, and generating change at multiple levels

Suppression of acute proinflammatory cytokine and chemokine upregulation by post-injury administration of a novel small molecule improves long-term neurologic outcome in a mouse model of traumatic brain injury

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Traumatic brain injury (TBI) with its associated morbidity is a major area of unmet medical need that lacks effective therapies. TBI initiates a neuroinflammatory cascade characterized by activation of astrocytes and microglia, and increased production of immune mediators including proinflammatory cytokines and chemokines. This inflammatory response contributes both to the acute pathologic processes following TBI including cerebral edema, in addition to longer-term neuronal damage and cognitive impairment. However, activated glia also play a neuroprotective and reparative role in recovery from injury. Thus, potential therapeutic strategies targeting the neuroinflammatory cascade must use careful dosing considerations, such as amount of drug and timing of administration post injury, in order not to interfere with the reparative contribution of activated glia.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We tested the hypothesis that attenuation of the acute increase in proinflammatory cytokines and chemokines following TBI would decrease neurologic injury and improve functional neurologic outcome. We used the small molecule experimental therapeutic, Minozac (Mzc), to suppress TBI-induced up-regulation of glial activation and proinflammatory cytokines back towards basal levels. Mzc was administered in a clinically relevant time window post-injury in a murine closed-skull, cortical impact model of TBI. Mzc effects on the acute increase in brain cytokine and chemokine levels were measured as well as the effect on neuronal injury and neurobehavioral function.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Administration of Mzc (5 mg/kg) at 3 h and 9 h post-TBI attenuates the acute increase in proinflammatory cytokine and chemokine levels, reduces astrocyte activation, and the longer term neurologic injury, and neurobehavioral deficits measured by Y maze performance over a 28-day recovery period. Mzc-treated animals also have no significant increase in brain water content (edema), a major cause of the neurologic morbidity associated with TBI.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>These results support the hypothesis that proinflammatory cytokines contribute to a glial activation cycle that produces neuronal dysfunction or injury following TBI. The improvement in long-term functional neurologic outcome following suppression of cytokine upregulation in a clinically relevant therapeutic window indicates that selective targeting of neuroinflammation may lead to novel therapies for the major neurologic morbidities resulting from head injury, and indicates the potential of Mzc as a future therapeutic for TBI.</p