Measurement of nurses\u27 perceived responsibilities and skills for healthcare quality

Nurses’ professional responsibilities encompass practices and behaviours that are critical to the provision of high quality and safe healthcare. An instrument was developed to measure changes in nurses’ perceptions of their roles in healthcare quality when undertaking postgraduate education. Findings inform curricula and professional programs designed to develop quality related knowledge, skills and attitudes

The VLSI implementatoin of a GaAs GIC switched capacitor filter

Presented is the initial step for the eventual implementation of a programmable GIC switched capacitor filter in a GaAs process. This thesis is the initial engineering effort in the accomplishment of this goal. The focus of this thesis is to design, fabricate, and test all necessary components for the construction of a GIC switched capacitor filter. All components will be stand alone so that future testing of each component may be accomplished. VLSI implementation will be accomplished using the Magic Cad package and the Vitesse HGaAs3 fabrication process. The simulation of the components will be accomplished using HSpicehttp://archive.org/details/vlsiimplementato00oldlMajor, United States Marine CorpsApproved for public release; distribution is unlimited

Decrease in use of manual vacuum aspiration in postabortion care in Malawi : a cross-sectional study from three public hospitals, 2008-2012

OBJECTIVES: To investigate the use of manual vacuum aspiration in postabortion care in Malawi between 2008–2012. METHODS: A retrospective cross-sectional study was done at the referral hospital Queen Elisabeth Central Hospital, and the two district hospitals of Chiradzulu and Mangochi. The data were collected simultaneously at the three sites from Feb-March 2013. All records available for women admitted to the gynaecological ward from 2008-2012 were reviewed. Women who had undergone surgical uterine evacuation after incomplete abortion were included and the use of manual vacuum aspiration versus sharp curettage was analysed. RESULTS: Altogether, 5121 women were included. One third (34.2%) of first trimester abortions were treated with manual vacuum aspiration, while all others were treated with sharp curettage. There were significant differences between the hospitals and between years. Overall there was an increase in the use of manual vacuum aspiration from 2008 (19.7%) to 2009 (31.0%), with a rapid decline after 2010 (28.5%) ending at only 4.9% in 2012. Conversely there was an increase in use of sharp curettage in all hospitals from 2010 to 2012. CONCLUSION: Use of manual vacuum aspiration as part of the postabortion care in Malawi is rather low, and decreased from 2010 to 2012, while the use of sharp curettage became more frequent. This is in contrast with current international guidelines.The study was partly funded by the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad) and the Kamuzu College of Nursing.http://www.plosone.orgam201

Students perceive Team-Based Learning facilitates development of graduate learning outcomes and professional skills

In tertiary education, generic professional skills should be developed along with discipline-specific knowledge and skills. Team-Based Learning (TBL), an active learning strategy, creates deep learning and enhanced student engagement; however, its effects on the development of generic learning outcomes are unknown. The aim of this study was to evaluate postgraduate specialty nursing students’ perspectives of how TBL impacts the acquisition of skills defined by the university’s eight Graduate Learning Outcomes (GLOs). A descriptive exploratory design was used in this study. Postgraduate nursing students in 2016-2017 at one university were invited to participate. Data were collected via demographic survey, a ranking tool, and written reflections. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics and content analysis. The response rate was 97.2 per cent (172/177). Participants were mostly females (n=152, 88.4%) aged 25–34 years (n=115, 66.9%). Student (n=156) rankings showed TBL contributed to the acquisition of critical thinking (n=90, 57.7%) and problem solving skills (n=56, 35.9%) the most. Students (n=144) made 2719 comments regarding how TBL led to the acquisition of GLOs in written reflections. Almost 98 per cent (n=2657) of all reflective comments were positive. All students mentioned at least one GLO positively due to TBL. Most positive reflections related to self-management (n=520, 19.6%) and communication (n=434, 16.3%).Postgraduate specialty nursing students perceived TBL classes contributed to the acquisition of their university’s GLOs, particularly critical thinking, problem solving, and self-management skills. The active learning strategy of TBL facilitates learning and engagement, and the attainment of essential professional attributes which are highly valued by employers

Non-invasive intraventricular pressure differences estimated with cardiac MRI in subjects without heart failure and with heart failure with reduced and preserved ejection fraction

Objective Non-invasive assessment of left ventricular (LV) diastolic and systolic function is important to better understand physiological abnormalities in heart failure (HF). The spatiotemporal pattern of LV blood flow velocities during systole and diastole can be used to estimate intraventricular pressure differences (IVPDs). We aimed to demonstrate the feasibility of an MRI-based method to calculate systolic and diastolic IVPDs in subjects without heart failure (No-HF), and with HF with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF) and HF with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF). Methods We studied 159 subjects without HF, 47 subjects with HFrEF and 32 subjects with HFpEF. Diastolic and systolic intraventricular flow was measured using two-dimensional in-plane phase-contrast MRI. The Euler equation was solved to compute IVPDs in diastole (mitral base to apex) and systole (apex to LV outflow tract). Results Subjects with HFpEF demonstrated a higher magnitude of the early diastolic reversal of IVPDs (-1.30 mm Hg) compared with the No-HF group (-0.78 mm Hg) and the HFrEF group (-0.75 mm Hg; analysis of variance p=0.01). These differences persisted after adjustment for clinical variables, Doppler-echocardiographic parameters of diastolic filling and measures of LV structure (No-HF=-0.72; HFrEF=-0.87; HFpEF=-1.52 mm Hg; p=0.006). No significant differences in systolic IVPDs were found in adjusted models. IVPD parameters demonstrated only weak correlations with standard Doppler-echocardiographic parameters. Conclusions Our findings suggest distinct patterns of systolic and diastolic IVPDs in HFpEF and HFrEF, implying differences in the nature of diastolic dysfunction between the HF subtypes

Immigration and the Common Profit: Native Cloth Workers, Flemish Exiles, and Royal Policy in Fourteenth-Century London

Drawing on a wide variety of published and unpublished sources, this article reconstructs a crucial episode in the relationship between the English Crown, its native subjects and the kingdom’s immigrant population during the later Middle Ages. Determined that their presence would boost the development of the local textile industries, Edward III encouraged high numbers of skilled Flemish cloth workers who had been exiled from their home county at the start of the 1350s to settle in the realm. Most of them took up residence in London, where they produced higher-quality cloth for the domestic market and, probably, for export. Soon, however, the immigrants’ activities conflicted with the privileges that had structured the capital’s economic life for centuries. Their work was contested by London’s native weavers who, since the middle of the twelfth century, had enjoyed the sole right to produce cloth in the city. Hoping that the control over the immigrants’ activities would help them to overcome the crisis in the market for lower-quality textiles they were struggling with, the natives petitioned the king to obtain the incorporation of the Flemish weavers into their guild for over twenty-five years. Yet, arguing that the Flemings’ contribution benefited the common profit of the whole kingdom in a way that transcended the interests of any particular group, the Crown rejected all their requests and avoided every attempt at discussion. Each time political communication broke down, the native weavers took out their frustrations by physically attacking their Flemish counterparts. These incidents became increasingly violent during the years leading up to the Peasants’ Revolt in 1381 and came to a dramatic conclusion during the rebellion itself

Transition from clinical manager to university lecturer : a self-reflective case study

This paper is a case study exploring the author&rsquo;s use of reflective practice to facilitate the transition in role from a clinical manager with teaching responsibilities in a critical care unit to university lecturer. The similarities and differences in the roles with respect to learner characteristics, teaching contexts and effective teaching strategies are discussed. Brookfield&rsquo;s model provides the methodological framework for the process of critically reflective practice undertaken to support and inform the transition. This case study describes a novice academic&rsquo;s reflection through the four lenses of autobiography, the theoretical literature, student feedback and the perspectives of colleagues as she seeks to optimise student engagement and learning using the large lecture as the teaching and learning activity. The author suggests that the use of a framework such as Brookfield&rsquo;s model that supports critical reflection may be of significant benefit to accelerate the personal and professional growth of new academic staff in their teaching practice.<br /

Acoustic performance of repurposed University learning environments

Es ist unbestritten, dass es derzeit einen Mangel an Lern- / Arbeitsräumen an Universitäten weltweit und insbesondere an der TU Wien gibt. Da die Anzahl dieser Räume konstant bleibt, wurden daher verschiedene Räume an der TU Wien zu multifunktionalen Lern- / Arbeitsräumen umgewidmet, um den räumlichen Bedürfnissen der Studierenden gerecht zu werden, z. B. für Vorlesungen, Besprechungen und/oder Arbeitsräume. Im Fall dieser umfunktionierten multifunktionalen Lernbereiche sind jedoch die Störungen und andere Faktoren, die die Sprachverständlichkeit beeinträchtigen, recht hoch, wodurch sie sich akustisch schlecht als Lernumgebung für Studenten eignen. Darüber hinaus ist erwiesen, dass übermäßige Lärmstörungen und lange Nachhallzeiten die Sprachverständlichkeit verringern, was die Lernfähigkeit und das Wohlbefinden der Studierenden erheblich beeinträchtigen kann. Die Hauptziele dieser Masterarbeit sind daher die Evaluierung von Räumen an der TU Wien, die als multifunktionale Vorlesungs-, Besprechung- und Arbeitsräume adaptiert wurden, indem die vor Ort gemessenen akustischen Leistungsergebnisse mit zwei raumakustischen Simulationstools, Odeon und Pachyderm Acoustical Simulation, verglichen werden. Abschließend werden die Endergebnisse mit den in den Akustiknormen DIN 18041 und ÖNORM B 8115-3 definierten optimalen Nachhallzeiten verglichen, um festzustellen, ob die in der Fallstudie untersuchten Universitätsräume für ihre aktuelle Nutzung geeignet sind. Abschließend werden die verschiedenen Akustiksimulationsprogramme und deren Ergebnisse dargestellt und erläutert.It is indisputable that there is currently a shortage of learning / workspaces at universities worldwide, in particular at the TU Wien. Though the number of these spaces remains constant, various spaces at the TU Wien have been repurposed to function as repurposed multifunctional learning / workspaces to accommodate students’ spatial needs such as for lectures, reviews and /or workspaces. However, in the case of these repurposed multifunctional learning areas, disturbances and factors that affect speech intelligibility are quite high; making them acoustically perform poorly as an educational environment for students. Furthermore, it has been proven that excessive noise disturbances and long reverberation times reduce speech clarity, which can significantly affect students’ learning ability and wellbeing. Thus, the main objectives of this master thesis are to evaluate spaces at the TU Wien that have been adapted as repurposed multifunctional lecture rooms, review spaces, and workspaces by comparing on-site measured acoustic performance results to two room acoustic performance simulation tools, Odeon and Pachyderm Acoustical Simulation. Conclusively, the final results are compared to optimal reverberation times defined in the acoustics standards DIN 18041 and ÖNORM B 8115-3, which determine whether the university spaces assessed in the case study are suitable for their current use. Finally, the different acoustic simulation programs and their results are outlined and discussed.11