It Doesn\u27t Seem Like a Big Deal : A Media Ecology Analysis of Digital Teen Sexuality and Sexting Education

In the state of Illinois, any person in possession of sexually explicit photos of a minor, even if the subject is oneself, can be prosecuted as a felon for possession of child pornography and be required to registered as a sex-offender (705 ILCS § 405). Concurrently, the recent trend of ‘send nudes’ depicts humorous ways to request the transmission of sexually explicit photos, increasing this act as a normative practice for young people (Bradford, 2018; Thomas, 2017). This trend is incongruent with Illinois statue (705 ILCS § 405) and school administrative policy about transmitting sexually explicit photos of a minor. The clash of environments – adolescents’ use of digital media and adolescent romantic experiences, education, and state law– raises serious questions about tensions within our shifting digital age, particularly in relation to educational messages about sexting. Therefore, a media ecology approach is employed to explore the environments that compound to education related to adolescent digital interaction via smartphones. This study explores if students learn about sexting in school curriculum, and if so, what are the prevailing messages? A dual method approach triangulates a qualitative analysis of existing curriculum with student interviews. From this thematic analysis, themes emerged related to educational messages about sexting: social consequences, self-responsibility, avoidance, casual approach to education, and students’ desire for greater information about sexting. All of which serve to promote relevant, student-centered sexting curriculum development

Using Implementation Science to Translate Foundation Strategy

New strategies sometimes require foundations to shift their staffing, organizational structures, administrative processes, and, possibly, their culture. The field of implementation science offers guidance to foundations as they effectively implement strategies that depart from prevailing practice. This article focuses on two specific tools from implementation science: the practice profile and the Implementation Drivers Assessment. The practice profile answers the question, What does the strategy require of particular foundation staff? The implementation drivers analysis explores the broader question, What does the strategy require in the way of organizational change within the foundation?”. These two tools were used by the Kate B. Reynolds Charitable Trust in implementing its place-based initiative, Healthy Places NC. In the process the tools brought to light a number of fundamental misalignments, which were resolved by shifting the organization rather than retreating on the strategy

Appendix - Program Officer Practice Profile - Using Implementation Science to Translate Foundation Strategy

APPENDIX Program Officer Practice Profil

Getting Real With Strategy: Insights From Implementation Science

Foundations are increasingly coming to appreciate the importance of strategy. But simply having a strategy – even an explicit strategy – does not guarantee that a foundation will actually achieve its goals. To implement a strategy effectively, a foundation needs to operationalize it in the form of specific functions that staff will carry out and needs to create an organizational infrastructure that supports the strategy. The field of implementation science offers a set of tools for helping foundations address these tasks. After introducing some general principles of implementation science, this article describes in depth the concepts of practice profiles, which translate programs or strategies into specific activities to be carried out by implementation staff, and implementation drivers, which point to organizational factors that determine whether a program or strategy is implemented well enough to achieve its intended outcomes

A research protocol for studying participatory processes in the use of evidence in child welfare systems

This paper presents a protocol for a funded study of technical assistance strategies used to support the use of evidence, and, in particular, how participatory processes contribute to the use of evidence to improve outcomes for populations. Findings from the study will increase understanding of the relationships between technical assistance, stakeholder participation and evidence use in child and family services. The authors argue that publishing such a protocol can increase transparency between researchers and practitioners and raise awareness of the need for research on how stakeholder participation can strengthen evidence use in child welfare service settings. The authors also reflect on the potential value and limitations of published protocols. This study will systematically gather input from stakeholders with expertise in technical assistance to develop a compilation of strategies that can be used to support the use of evidence. The study will identify strategies that include stakeholder involvement and assess which strategies under what conditions facilitated the use of research evidence. The study will address four research questions: What technical assistance strategies are used to support the use of research evidence? What are the consensus-driven terms and definitions of identified strategies? To what extent do technical assistance strategies involve stakeholders and for what purpose

Empathy and Regard: Perspectives Held by Graduate Students of Rehabilitation Sciences

Purpose: Empathy and regard are understood to be critical to high-quality health care. The purposes of this study were: 1) to increase the representation of the rehabilitation sciences within the literature, 2) to refine the distinctions between empathy and regard, and 3) to examine the relation between empathy and regard within the context of two medical conditions with disparate amounts of associated stigma (cerebrovascular accident [CVA] and human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome [HIV/AIDS]). Method: Utilizing the Jefferson Scale of Empathy – Health Professions Student version and the Medical Condition Regard Scale, levels of empathy and regard were assessed twice in first-year graduate students of clinical doctoral programs in occupational therapy and physical therapy and a master’s speech-language pathology program, once each in the contexts of CVA and HIV/AIDS. Results: Findings indicate that students of the rehabilitation sciences have empathy levels similar to published levels for students in other health professions; empathy and regard are distinct characteristics, where when assessed in the context of a stigmatized condition, empathy was similar but regard ; and empathy and regard positively vary with one another in the context of a stigmatized medical condition Conclusions: This study suggests that there may be unmet potential for training in empathy and a need for increased education on stigmatized medical conditions to enhance regard

Is implementation research out of step with implementation practice? Pathways to effective implementation support over the last decade

Background: There is growing interest in the lived experience of professionals who provide implementation support (i.e., implementation support practitioners). However, there remains limited knowledge about their experiences and how those experiences can contribute to the knowledge base on what constitutes successful and sustainable implementation support models. This study aimed to examine pathways of implementation support practice, as described by experienced professionals actively supporting systems’ uptake and sustainment of evidence to benefit children and families. Methods: Seventeen individuals with extensive experience providing implementation support in various settings participated in semi-structured interviews. Data were analyzed using qualitative content analysis and episode profile analysis approaches. Iterative diagramming was used to visualize the various pathways of implementation support practitioners’ role reflection and transformation evidenced by the interview data. Results: Findings highlighted rich pathways of implementation support practitioners’ role reflection and transformation. Participants described their roots in providing implementation support as it relates to implementing and expanding the use of evidence-based programs and practices in child and family services. Almost all participants reflected on the early stages of their careers providing implementation support and described a trajectory starting with the use of “push models,” which evolved into “pull models” and eventually “co-creation or exchange models” of implementation support involving both technical and relational skills. Conclusions: Developing an implementation support workforce will require a deeper understanding of this lived experience to prevent repeated use of strategies observed to be unsuccessful by those most proximal to the work. The pathways for implementation practice in this study highlight impressive leaps forward in the field of implementation over the last 15 years and speaks to the importance of the professionals leading change efforts in this growth. Plain Language Summary Over the past few years, professionals in the field of implementation science have identified a growing gap between implementation research and implementation practice. While this issue has been highlighted informally, the field is lacking a shared understanding and clear way forward to reconcile this gap. In this paper, the authors describe how professionals providing implementation support have shifted their implementation practice over time through systematic observations of what works (and what does not work) for supporting and sustaining evidence use in service systems to improve population outcomes. The authors share the impressive leaps forward made in the field of implementation practice – from didactic training to responsive and tailored implementation strategies to co-created and relationship-based implementation solutions. The paper concludes with a call to action to the field for the creation of a virtuous learning cycle between professionals conducting implementation research and professionals providing implementation support to change practice as a way to produce a more robust and relevant science of implementation

Accommodating Students With Anxiety: A Personal Success Story

This Basic Course Forum highlights authors’ responses to the following topics: What curricular programs present the best opportunity for curricular connections to the basic course? Building upon conversations from the July 2018 Basic Course Institute (hosted by University of Dayton), what administrative successes and challenges do basic course directors face

Developing a practice-driven research agenda in implementation science: Perspectives from experienced implementation support practitioners

Background Attention is being placed on the “ironic gap” or “secondary” research-to-practice gap in the field of implementation science. Among several challenges posited to exacerbate this research-to-practice gap, we call attention to one challenge in particular—the relative dearth of implementation research that is tethered intimately to the lived experiences of implementation support practitioners (ISPs). The purpose of this study is to feature a qualitative approach to engaging with highly experienced ISPs to inform the development of a practice-driven research agenda in implementation science. In general, we aim to encourage ongoing empirical inquiry that foregrounds practice-driven implementation research questions. Method Our analytic sample was comprised of 17 professionals in different child and family service systems, each with long-term experience using implementation science frameworks to support change efforts. Data were collected via in-depth, semi-structured interviews. Our analysis followed a qualitative content analysis approach. Our focal conceptual category centered on the desired areas of future research highlighted by respondents, with subcategories reflecting subsets of related research question ideas. Results Interviews yielded varying responses that could help shape a practice-driven research agenda for the field of implementation science. The following subcategories regarding desired areas for future research were identified in respondents’ answers: (a) stakeholder engagement and developing trusting relationships, (b) evidence use, (c) workforce development, and (d) cost-effective implementation. Conclusions There is significant promise in bringing implementation research and implementation practice together more closely and building a practice-informed research agenda to shape implementation science. Our findings point not only to valuable practice-informed gaps in the literature that could be filled by implementation researchers, but also topics for which dissemination and translation efforts may not have yielded optimal reach. We also highlight the value in ISPs bolstering their own capacity for engaging with the implementation science literature to the fullest extent possible.Plain Language Summary In the field of implementation science, increasing attention is being placed on the “ironic gap” or “secondary” research-to-practice gap. This gap reflects a general lag or disconnect between implementation research and implementation practice, often stemming from knowledge generated by implementation research not being accessible to or applied by professionals who support implementation efforts in various service-delivery systems. Several explanations for the research-to-practice gap in implementation science have been offered in recent years; the authors highlight one notable challenge that may be exacerbating the research-to-practice gap in this field, namely that implementation research often remains disconnected from the lived experiences of implementation support practitioners. In this paper, the authors demonstrate the promise of developing a practice-drive research agenda in implementation science, with specific research question ideas offered by highly experienced implementation support practitioners. The paper concludes by expressing enthusiasm for future efforts to bring implementation research and implementation practice together more closely, empirically foreground practice-driven implementation research questions, translate and disseminate existing implementation research findings more widely, and build the capacity of implementation support practitioners to fully engage with the implementation science literature