Using parent metaphors for learning about the neonatal care experience: an interpretive perspective

© 2019 The Author(s). The final, definitive version of this paper has been published in Journal of Child Health Care by Sage Publications Ltd. All rights reserved. It is available at: https://doi.org/10.1177/1367493519875853.This study focuses on how metaphors are used by parents who have had a premature baby to describe their neonatal care experience and how these can contribute to empathic learning of health professionals. In health, metaphors are commonly used to communicate and explain difficult topics. When patients tell their story, metaphor can be a means of expression from which we can learn about their experience of illness or hospitalisation. Limited research exits on how metaphor can improve our understanding of parent’s emotional experience in neonatal care and subsequently inform education in this field. Employing narrative inquiry within an interpretive, constructivist paradigm, 20 narrative interviews with 23 parents of premature babies were analysed using a process of metaphor identification. Findings revealed common metaphors used to describe experience. Metaphor clusters used by parents in order of frequency were journeying, altered reality, darkness, breaking, connections, fighting, salvation and being on the edge. Parents widely used compelling and emotive metaphors to describe and express both difficult and challenging times as well as progression forward. Metaphors serve as a powerful way for health professionals to learn about the emotional experiences of parents and potentially enhance their empathic understanding.Peer reviewe

The effect of a controlled manipulation of maternal dietary fat intake on medium and long chain fatty acids in human breast milk in Saskatoon, Canada

RIGHTS : This article is licensed under the BioMed Central licence at http://www.biomedcentral.com/about/license which is similar to the 'Creative Commons Attribution Licence'. In brief you may : copy, distribute, and display the work; make derivative works; or make commercial use of the work - under the following conditions: the original author must be given credit; for any reuse or distribution, it must be made clear to others what the license terms of this work are.Abstract Background Few studies in recent years have demonstrated the effect of maternal diet on fatty acid composition of human milk. Methods Fourteen free-living lactating women participated in a cross-over dietary intervention study, consuming a low fat diet (17.6% of energy as fat, 14.4% of energy as protein, 68.0% of energy as carbohydrate) and a high fat diet (40.3% of energy as fat, 14.4% of energy as protein, 45.3% of energy as carbohydrate) each for periods of 4 days, in randomised order. Each mother was her own control. Mature milk samples were collected during each period and analysed for medium and long chain fatty acids. Results The concentration of medium chain fatty acids (MCFA), was 13.6% in breast milk for the low fat diet compared to 11.4% for the high fat (p < 0.05). Arachidonic acid (C20:4n-6) levels were significantly higher in breast milk when women consumed the low fat diet. Increased dietary intake of stearic acid (C18:0) and alpha-linolenic acid (C18:3n-3) on the high fat diet significantly increased proportions of these fatty acids in breast milk (p < 0.05) in 4 days. Conclusions Changing maternal dietary fat intake has a rapid response in terms of changes to fatty acids in breast milk.Published versio

Systematic review of fatty acid composition of human milk from mothers of preterm compared to full-term infants

Background: Fatty acid composition of human milk serves as guidance for the composition of infant formulae. The aim of the study was to systematically review data on the fatty acid composition of human milk of mothers of preterm compared to full-term infants. Methods: An electronic literature search was performed in English (Medline and Medscape) and German (SpringerLink) databases and via the Google utility. Fatty acid compositional data for preterm and fullterm human milk were converted to differences between means and 95% confidence intervals. Results: We identified five relevant studies publishing direct comparison of fatty acid composition of preterm versus full-term human milk. There were no significant differences between the values of the principal saturated and monounsaturated fatty acids. In three independent studies covering three different time points of lactation, however, docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) values were significantly higher in milk of mothers of preterm as compared to those of full-term infants, with an extent of difference considered nutritionally relevant. Conclusion: Higher DHA values in preterm than in full-term human milk underlines the importance of using own mother's milk for feeding preterm babies and raises the question whether DHA contents in preterm formulae should be higher than in formulae for full-term infants. Copyright (c) 2008 S. Karger AG, Basel

Reflections on the Ethical Content of the IT Honours Program Project Module

Part 4: Syllabus DesignInternational audienceHonours programs in South African universities must include a research project module. There are external pressures from professional bodies and government that influences the nature of the project module. This paper presents a reflection on the process of managing the project module at a South African university taking into account internal and external demands. The focus for this paper is on the ethical content of the projects. Examples of projects are presented after which the ethical awareness of the students is discussed. Not all projects have ethical, legal or social issues, however ethical aspects need to be reflected upon and awareness of these issues is essential during the planning of the project. The awareness that students have on ethical, social and legal issues is investigated in this paper

Adapting to the digital age: a narrative approach

The article adopts a narrative inquiry approach to foreground informal learning and exposes a collection of stories from tutors about how they adapted comfortably to the digital age. We were concerned that despite substantial evidence that bringing about changes in pedagogic practices can be difficult, there is a gap in convincing approaches to help in this respect. In this context, this project takes a “bottom-up” approach and synthesises several life-stories into a single persuasive narrative to support the process of adapting to digital change. The project foregrounds the small, every-day motivating moments, cultural features and environmental factors in people's diverse lives which may have contributed to their positive dispositions towards change in relation to technology enhanced learning. We expect that such narrative approaches could serve to support colleagues in other institutions to warm up to ever-changing technological advances

Places of Practice: Learning to Think Narratively

In the lived practices of narrative inquiry, we honour our relational ontological commitments and responsibilities as narrative inquirers. In this paper, we link these ontological commitments with our practice, which is often tension-filled because the knowledge landscape on which we live as researchers is shaped by paradigmatic rather than narrative knowledge. It is easy to get swept into thinking paradigmatically and to sustain ourselves as narrative inquirers amidst knowledge landscapes that cast narrative inquirers as not knowing when seen from within dominant plotlines. We see that not to fall into these dominant plotlines requires wakefulness to shaping places where we can practice thinking narratively

Developing Preservice Elementary Teachers' Pedagogical Design Capacity for Reform‐Based Curriculum Design

Teachers use curriculum materials as a guide in their planning, critiquing and adapting them to address reform‐based goals and practices and specific contextual needs. To become well‐started beginners in planning lessons, novice teachers need opportunities to develop their pedagogical design capacity—that is, their ability to use personal and curricular resources in designing instruction for students. This study investigated the use of reform‐based criteria in supporting 24 preservice teachers enrolled in an elementary science methods course. In learning about and applying criteria, the preservice teachers developed aspects of their pedagogical design capacity by expanding their analysis ideas and refining their knowledge and beliefs about curriculum design. However, many struggled with analyzing lesson plans in a reform‐oriented way during student teaching. This occurred, in part, because the preservice teachers navigated different settings that conveyed conflicting ideas about the reasons why teachers make modifications. The methods course emphasized the importance of modifying materials to promote reform‐based science teaching, but few preservice teachers observed their mentor teachers make adaptations for this reason. These findings have important implications for theoretical models on curriculum materials use and the design of science teacher education.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/91354/1/j.1467-873X.2012.00599.x.pd