Conceptual certainty as fallen reality: St. Augustine of Hippo and the Natural Law Tradition

This thesis reinterprets the significance of the Doctrine of the Fall to Augustine’s relationship with the Natural Law Tradition by arguing that his literal reading of events in the Garden of Eden supports not just the traditional narrative of a fall from righteousness, but also the description of a move from one epistemic condition to another. From such beginnings it is concluded that political society is remedial not just in relation to sinful nature but also a metaphysical fact; and in this way the Fall's diagnostic potential is broadened, setting it up as the premise for an intellectually solvent meta-narrative account of the human condition

Plugging a hole and lightening the burden: A process evaluation of a practice education team

Aim: To investigate the perceptions of clinical and senior managers about the role of Practice Educators employed in one acute hospital in the UK. Background: Producing nurses who are fit for practice, purpose and academic award is a key issue for nurse education partnership providers in the UK. Various new models for practice learning support structures and new roles within health care institutions have been established. To sustain funding and policy support for these models, there is a need for evaluation research. Design: A process evaluation methodology was employed to determine the current value of a practice education team and to provide information to guide future direction. Methods: Data were collected through semi-structured telephone interviews using a previously designed schedule. All senior nurse managers (N=5) and a purposive sample of clinical managers (n=13) who had personal experience of and perceptions about the role of practice educators provided the data. Interview notes were transcribed, coded and a thematic framework devised to present the results. Results: A number of key themes emerged including: qualities needed for being a successful practice educator; visibility and presence of practice educators; providing a link with the university; ‘plugging a hole’ in supporting learning needs; providing relief to practitioners in dealing with ‘the burden of students’; alleviating the ‘plight of students’; and effects on student attrition. Conclusions: Findings provided evidence for the continued funding of the practice educator role with improvements to be made in dealing with stakeholder expectations and outcomes. Relevance to clinical practice: In the UK, there still remain concerns about the fitness for practice of newly registered nurses, prompting a recent national consultation by the professional regulating body. Despite fiscal pressures, recommendations for further strengthening of all systems that will support the quality of practice learning may continue to sustain practice learning support roles

Politics, Peace and Predestination

This chapter is intended to show that Augustine’s political philosophy can speak with a radical voice into situations of extreme ideological conflict today—most especially where these involve gross disparities of wealth. The key to allowing this radical Augustinian voice to speak, is first to spend a good deal of time identifying the exact coordinates into which it can speak. These coordinates may surprise us, and they are the chief innovation of this chapter. For convenience sake, I lever the search for these coordinates against the general idea of radical socialism, understood as a philosophy of history. The result of this approach is that it eventually brings us out on Augustine’s doctrine of predestination; and allows us to begin to see it as the practical touchstone of a new radical Augustinianism. This new radicalism does not need to make use of the device that liberation theology made use of, viz., a preferential option for the poor. Instead, it moves beyond all such class distinctions to direct itself against the very dynamics which have shaped political logic in the West since Plato

A Contact-Based Intervention for People Recently Discharged from Inpatient Psychiatric Care: A Pilot Study

People recently discharged from inpatient psychiatric care are at high risk of suicide and self-harm, with 6% of all suicides in England occurring in the 3 months after discharge. There is some evidence from a randomized trial carried out in the United States in the 1960s-70s that supportive letters sent by psychiatrists to high-risk patients in the period following hospital discharge resulted in a reduction in suicide. The aim of the current pilot study was to assess the feasibility of conducting a similar trial, but in a broader group of psychiatric discharges, in the context of present day UK clinical practice. The intervention was piloted on 3 psychiatric inpatient wards in southwest England. On 2 wards a series of 8 letters were sent to patients over the 12 months after discharge and 6 letters were sent from the third ward over a 6 month period. A total of 102 patients discharged from the wards received at least 1 letter, but only 45 (44.1%) received the full series of letters. The main reasons for drop-out were patient opt-out (n = 24) or readmission (n = 26). In the context of a policy of intensive follow-up post-discharge, qualitative interviews with service users showed that most already felt adequately supported and the intervention added little to this. Those interviewed felt that it was possible that the intervention might benefit people new to or with little follow-up from mental health services but that fewer letters should be mailed. © 2014 Copyright International Academy for Suicide Research