192 research outputs found
Palliative care in its own discourse: a focused ethnography of professional messaging in palliative care
Background
Despite 50 years of modern palliative care (PC), a misunderstanding of its purpose persists. The original message that PC is focused on total care, helping to live until the person dies, is being replaced and linked to feelings of fear, anxiety and death, instead of compassion, support or appropriate care. Society is still afraid to speak its name, and specialized units are identified as “places of death” as opposed to “places of life” meant to treat suffering. This issue is prohibitive to the implementation and development of PC policies worldwide. It is imperative to identify what message PC professionals are relaying to patients and other health care specialists and how that message may condition understandings of the right to access PC.
Methods
A qualitative study, employing focused ethnography and participant observation (PO) of the daily interaction of PC professionals with patients and family members in three different PC services. Two researchers independently conducted a thematic analysis, followed by member checking with participants.
Results
A total of 242 h of participant observation revealed the following messages sent by PC professionals in their daily interaction with patients and families: i) We are focused on your wellbeing; ii) You matter: we want to get to know you; iii) Your family is important to us.
Conclusion
The complexity of PC discourses contributes to the difficulty of identifying a clear universal message between PC professionals, patients and families. The PC professionals observed transmit a simple message focused on their actions rather than their identity, which may perpetuate some social/cultural misunderstandings of PC. It seems there is a common culture, based on the same values and attitudes, within the messages that PC professionals transmit to patients and their families. PC teams are characterised by their availability
Palliative care professionals’ message to others: an ethnographic approach
Introduction: Palliative care continues to be misunderstood within the world of healthcare. Palliative care professionals are key agents for promoting a greater understanding of their field. This study aims to examine the messages, both implicit and explicit, that palliative care professionals transmit about themselves and their work within their teams and to other health professionals. Methods: Focused ethnographic secondary analysis, exploring the interactions of palliative care professionals as it happens at everyday work. An inductive thematic analysis was developed from 242 h of observation of the daily work practices of palliative care professionals, focusing on their interactions with others. The data was coded without predefined categories, and the analysis was performed independently by two researchers. Results: Palliative professionals communicate that they are part of an active team working in an organized manner. They value and feel proud of their work. Despite the intensity of their work, these professionals are always available to others, to whom they demonstrate a clear professional identity. They convey their expertise in alleviating suffering, respectful behavior and collaborative ability. Conclusion: Professionals, in their daily work, communicate through their messages the essence of palliative care. It is essential that palliative care professionals perceive themselves as potential influencers and explicitly transmit the reasons for their intervention. Otherwise, others will perpetuate the myths, misunderstandings, and lack of a positive reputation for palliative car
Thermal Resonance in Signal Transmission
We use temperature tuning to control signal propagation in simple
one-dimensional arrays of masses connected by hard anharmonic springs and with
no local potentials. In our numerical model a sustained signal is applied at
one site of a chain immersed in a thermal environment and the signal-to-noise
ratio is measured at each oscillator. We show that raising the temperature can
lead to enhanced signal propagation along the chain, resulting in thermal
resonance effects akin to the resonance observed in arrays of bistable systems.Comment: To appear in Phys. Rev.
Understanding illnesses through a film festival: an observational study
Audio-visual materials play a fundamental role in the context of education, care and clinical treatment, as they seem to have a high impact on public awareness. This study aims to describe what messages are perceived by the society at an International Festival of Short Films and Art on Diseases that may help to understand difficult topics, such as illness, dying and suffering.
Through an observational, descriptive, cross-sectional study, using full participant observation and an open, self-administered questionnaire, 32 short films were analysed during a healthcare art festival. Categories were developed using inductive content analysis. The message perceived by the participants, after the viewing of the shorts and reflection of the debates among the attendees, were considered in four categories: i) creative and positive education is possible; ii) awareness of preconception and practical duties; iii) meaning of life changes the experience of illness; iv) family and caregivers also experienced suffering. The short films are considered as an excellent tool to generate social dialogue and debate. Public events can be understood as an opportunity to ac- quire, in an emotional and critical manner, other competencies for public awareness. Together, they are capable of communicating difficult messages through a fast, positive, and creative way
Reactive dynamics of inertial particles in nonhyperbolic chaotic flows
Anomalous kinetics of infective (e.g., autocatalytic) reactions in open,
nonhyperbolic chaotic flows are important for many applications in biological,
chemical, and environmental sciences. We present a scaling theory for the
singular enhancement of the production caused by the universal, underlying
fractal patterns. The key dynamical invariant quantities are the effective
fractal dimension and effective escape rate, which are primarily determined by
the hyperbolic components of the underlying dynamical invariant sets. The
theory is general as it includes all previously studied hyperbolic reactive
dynamics as a special case. We introduce a class of dissipative embedding maps
for numerical verification.Comment: Revtex, 5 pages, 2 gif figure
Enhanced Pulse Propagation in Non-Linear Arrays of Oscillators
The propagation of a pulse in a nonlinear array of oscillators is influenced
by the nature of the array and by its coupling to a thermal environment. For
example, in some arrays a pulse can be speeded up while in others a pulse can
be slowed down by raising the temperature. We begin by showing that an energy
pulse (1D) or energy front (2D) travels more rapidly and remains more localized
over greater distances in an isolated array (microcanonical) of hard springs
than in a harmonic array or in a soft-springed array. Increasing the pulse
amplitude causes it to speed up in a hard chain, leaves the pulse speed
unchanged in a harmonic system, and slows down the pulse in a soft chain.
Connection of each site to a thermal environment (canonical) affects these
results very differently in each type of array. In a hard chain the dissipative
forces slow down the pulse while raising the temperature speeds it up. In a
soft chain the opposite occurs: the dissipative forces actually speed up the
pulse while raising the temperature slows it down. In a harmonic chain neither
dissipation nor temperature changes affect the pulse speed. These and other
results are explained on the basis of the frequency vs energy relations in the
various arrays
Interdisciplinary discussions on palliative care among university students in Spain: giving voice to the social debate
Background: University students are the future professionals who will influence society. It is thus essential to improve students' understanding of palliative care (PC), especially those in the non-health field, to generate and encourage propitious opinions about PC. This study describes the perceptions of PC among university students from different disciplines.
Method: Qualitative exploratory study using virtual focus groups (FGs) and design thinking (DT) approach. An intentional sample of students from various disciplines, universities and cities from Spain were selected. Numerous researchers from different fields were involved in the discussion of the final thematic analysis.
Results: Four themes and seven subthemes were found: i) Students have an ambiguous understanding about PC; ii) PC is not a common issue for non-health students; ii) Students see PC as an important and necessary field; iii) Students build counter-narratives against PC myths, demonstrating PC brings key benefits into people's lives; iv) PC is a synonym of death.
Conclusion: Despite the fact that students do not know much about PC, the topic easily arouses reflection and positive discussion. Through the conversations they find positive values and arguments against misunderstand- ing. Students from different disciplines could be the target of innovative educational initia- tives and the social debate on PC
Nonlinearity-induced conformational instability and dynamics of biopolymers
We propose a simple phenomenological model for describing the conformational
dynamics of biopolymers via the nonlinearity-induced buckling and collapse
(i.e. coiling up) instabilities. Taking into account the coupling between the
internal and mechanical degrees of freedom of a semiflexible biopolymer chain,
we show that self-trapped internal excitations (such as amide-I vibrations in
proteins, base-pair vibrations in DNA, or polarons in proteins) may produce the
buckling and collapse instabilities of an initially straight chain. These
instabilities remain latent in a straight infinitely long chain, because the
bending of such a chain would require an infinite energy. However, they
manifest themselves as soon as we consider more realistic cases and take into
account a finite length of the chain. In this case the nonlinear localized
modes may act as drivers giving impetus to the conformational dynamics of
biopolymers. The buckling instability is responsible, in particular, for the
large-amplitude localized bending waves which accompany the nonlinear modes
propagating along the chain. In the case of the collapse instability, the chain
folds into a compact three-dimensional coil. The viscous damping of the aqueous
environment only slows down the folding of the chain, but does not stop it even
for a large damping. We find that these effects are only weakly affected by the
peculiarities of the interaction potentials, and thus they should be generic
for different models of semiflexible chains carrying nonlinear localized
excitations.Comment: 4 pages (RevTeX) with 5 figures (EPS
Smooth-filamental transition of active tracer fields stirred by chaotic advection
The spatial distribution of interacting chemical fields is investigated in
the non-diffusive limit. The evolution of fluid parcels is described by
independent dynamical systems driven by chaotic advection. The distribution can
be filamental or smooth depending on the relative strength of the dispersion
due to chaotic advection and the stability of the chemical dynamics. We give
the condition for the smooth-filamental transition and relate the H\"older
exponent of the filamental structure to the Lyapunov exponents. Theoretical
findings are illustrated by numerical experiments.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure
Combining interdisciplinarity and creative design - A powerful strategy to increase palliative care awareness within a university community
Society’s understanding of palliative care has room for improvement. Although the World Health
Organisation highlighted palliative care as a human right, many people still lack access to this
crucial form of treatment. The paucity of understanding and social discussion surrounding
palliative care has, moreover, negatively impacted its development and implementation. This
study therefore aims to construct a strategy that will empower a specific community to solve their
own palliative care-related misunderstandings. Using Participatory Action Research and Design
Thinking methodologies and adopting the strategy of Public Engagement in Responsible Research
and Innovation, a design group worked for three months through five virtual focus groups.
Moving through the phases of empathizing, defining, ideation, prototyping, and testing, the
design group generated 33 ideas to address palliative care-related problems. Ideas related to self-
learning, the use of technology, and the exchange of personal experiences are highlighted as
innovative ways to promote palliative care. The design group adopted a variety of strategies, used
disruptive tools, and created and tested rapid prototypes to discover novel solutions. This method
of working, centred on interdisciplinarity and creativity, presents an efficient way to involve the
members of a community in solving their own problems
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