Effects of a postqualification course in palliative care.

Contains fulltext : 47338.pdf (publisher's version ) (Closed access)AIM: This paper reports a study to determine the effectiveness of a postqualification course in palliative care in terms of increased knowledge, insight and self-efficacy among Registered and Licensed Practical Nurses. BACKGROUND: The importance of measuring the effectiveness of postqualification courses in palliative care for nurses is widely recognized. The benefits of such courses are often merely described in terms of satisfaction of the course participants. METHOD: A convenience sample of nurses was studied. The effect measurement comprised a pretest/post-test quasi-experimental design. Two instruments were used: a comprehensive variant of the Palliative Care Quiz for Nurses and an especially developed domain specific self-efficacy instrument for palliative care. These were used before and after the course. FINDINGS: The course had a positive effect on knowledge and insight level as well as on level of self-efficacy. The main improvements were related to pain and symptom management. Participants seemed to be able to increase the effects of the course by implementing certain products on the wards, such as clinical lessons, a pain assessment scale and relaxation massage. CONCLUSIONS: Palliative care courses can make a significant contribution to nurses' knowledge and insight, as well as their self-efficacy in providing palliative care

How states tighten control: a field theory perspective on journalism in contemporary Crimea.

This article contributes to denationalizing Bourdieu's field theory by analysing the relationship between a regional news media field, the state and transnational influences. The article seeks to answer the question of how a state can impose limits on the autonomy of the news media field during political transition. Field theory is applied to changes that have taken place in Crimean news media since Russia's annexation of the peninsula in 2014. Drawing on narrative interviews with journalists who worked in Crimea in 2012-17, expert interviews, and secondary sources, I demonstrate how Crimea's news media field went from being dominated by varied Ukrainian private news media owners to becoming dominated by the Russian state. I show that states can employ direct measures such as anti-press violence and ownership appropriation of news media outlets in order to increase concentration of state media ownership. In addition, states can reallocate capital in the news media field, disenfranchising some journalists and outlets while favouring others. The adaptive strategies of individual journalists, who, upon losing capital, can sometimes relocate or leave their jobs, also changes the composition of news media fields. Departing from a common view of social spaces as bounded within nation-states, I examine how the news media field of Crimea has been shaped by both transnational influences, and by the direct imposition of Russian state power through a reconstitution of national borders.Funding received from the Department of Sociology University of Cambridge, Newnham College Cambridge, and National Research University Higher School of Economics