Should health professionals screen women for domestic violence? : systematic review

Objective To assess the evidence for the acceptability and effectiveness of screening women for domestic violence in healthcare settings. Design Systematic review of published quantitative studies. Search strategy Three electronic databases (Medline, Embase, and CINAHL) were searched for articles published in the English language up to February 2001. Included studies Surveys that elicited the attitudes of women and health professionals on the screening of women in health settings; comparative studies conducted in healthcare settings that measured rates of identification of domestic violence in the presence and absence of screening; studies measuring outcomes of interventions for women identified in health settings who experience abuse from a male partner or ex­partner compared with abused women not receiving an intervention. Results 20 papers met the inclusion criteria. In four surveys, 43­85% of women respondents found screening in healthcare settings acceptable. Two surveys of health professionals' views found that two thirds of physicians and almost half of emergency department nurses were not in favour of screening. In nine studies of screening compared with no screening, most detected a greater proportion of abused women identified by healthcare professionals. Six studies of interventions used weak study designs and gave inconsistent results. Other than increased referral to outside agencies, little evidence exists for changes in important outcomes such as decreased exposure to violence. No studies measured quality of life, mental health outcomes, or potential harm to women from screening programmes. Conclusion Although domestic violence is a common problem with major health consequences for women, implementation of screening programmes in healthcare settings cannot be justified. Evidence of the benefit of specific interventions and lack of harm from screening is needed

Continuous Improvement Using Balanced Scorecard In Healthcare

The success of any organization depends on its ability to maintain profits while the landscape of its operations changes. Organizations must be able to use available resources to identify changes in their daily operations and have the ability to address them in a timely manner. Operational dashboards provide a tool for managers to easily monitor employee performance and to coach their staff in order to achieve improvements. These stoplight type metric displays provide visual representations in near real-time. Consequently, the use of dashboards is particularly crucial to healthcare because it prompts management to respond to the changing needs of HCO departments, which ultimately affect its quality of care and impact its overall performance measurements. To meet these challenges, it is recommended that the administration of a large acute care HCO develop a dashboard in order for it to monitor the results and evaluate the progress of its busy nursing department which is responsible for handling Inpatient and Outpatient service care

Agricultural Technology Assessment for Smallholder Farms in Developing Countries: An Analysis using a Farm Simulation Model (FARMSIM)

The rural population in developing countries depends on agriculture. However, in many of these countries, agricultural productivity remains low with episodes of famines in drought-prone areas. One of the options to increase agricultural productivity is through adoption and use of improved agricultural technologies and management systems. Being a relatively high risk business due to factors related to production, marketing and finance, agriculture requires to devise risk mitigating strategies. Several models used to evaluate the adoption of agricultural technologies focus mainly on assessing the ex-post impact of technology without necessarily quantifying the profit and risk associated with the adoption of technologies. This paper introduces a farm simulation model (FARMSIM) that attempts to evaluate the potential economic and nutritional impacts of new agricultural technologies before they are adopted (ex-ante). FARMSIM is a Monte Carlo simulation model that simultaneously evaluates a baseline and an alternative farming technology. In this study, the model is used to analyze the impact of adoption of small scale irrigation technologies and fertilizers on the farm income and nutrition of smallholder farmers in Robit kebele, Amhara region of Ethiopia. The farming technologies under study comprise water lifting technologies (pulley and tank, rope and washer pump, gasoline/diesel motor pump and a solar pump) and use of fertilizers. The key output variables (KOVs) are the probability of positive annual net cash income and ending cash reserves, probability of positive net present value and a benefit cost ratio greater than one. For nutrition, the KOVs relate to the probability of consumption exceeding average daily minimum requirements of an adult for calories, protein, fat, calcium, iron, and vitamin A. The application of recommended fertilizers on grain and vegetable crops, alongside the use of irrigation to grow vegetables and fodder using a motor pump had the highest net present value compared to other scenarios. Similar results were observed for the net cash farm income and the ending cash reserves. However, the most feasible and profitable scenario is the one under the pulley system which had the highest benefit cost ratio. Solar pump system had the lowest benefit cost ratio due most likely to high initial investment cost. As for the nutrition, the simulation results show an increase in quantities available to the farm family of all nutrition variables under all alternative scenarios. However, the daily minimum requirements per adult equivalent were met only for calories, proteins, iron and vitamin A but deficiencies were observed for fat and calcium

Agricultural Technology Assessment for Smallholder Farms in Developing Countries: An Analysis using a Farm Simulation Model (FARMSIM)

The rural population in developing countries depends on agriculture. However, in many of these countries, agricultural productivity remains low with episodes of famines in drought-prone areas. One of the options to increase agricultural productivity is through adoption and use of improved agricultural technologies and management systems. Being a relatively high risk business due to factors related to production, marketing and finance, agriculture requires to devise risk mitigating strategies. Several models used to evaluate the adoption of agricultural technologies focus mainly on assessing the ex-post impact of technology without necessarily quantifying the profit and risk associated with the adoption of technologies. This paper introduces a farm simulation model (FARMSIM) that attempts to evaluate the potential economic and nutritional impacts of new agricultural technologies before they are adopted (ex-ante). FARMSIM is a Monte Carlo simulation model that simultaneously evaluates a baseline and an alternative farming technology. In this study, the model is used to analyze the impact of adoption of small scale irrigation technologies and fertilizers on the farm income and nutrition of smallholder farmers in Robit kebele, Amhara region of Ethiopia. The farming technologies under study comprise water lifting technologies (pulley and tank, rope and washer pump, gasoline/diesel motor pump and a solar pump) and use of fertilizers. The key output variables (KOVs) are the probability of positive annual net cash income and ending cash reserves, probability of positive net present value and a benefit cost ratio greater than one. For nutrition, the KOVs relate to the probability of consumption exceeding average daily minimum requirements of an adult for calories, protein, fat, calcium, iron, and vitamin A. The application of recommended fertilizers on grain and vegetable crops, alongside the use of irrigation to grow vegetables and fodder using a motor pump had the highest net present value compared to other scenarios. Similar results were observed for the net cash farm income and the ending cash reserves. However, the most feasible and profitable scenario is the one under the pulley system which had the highest benefit cost ratio. Solar pump system had the lowest benefit cost ratio due most likely to high initial investment cost. As for the nutrition, the simulation results show an increase in quantities available to the farm family of all nutrition variables under all alternative scenarios. However, the daily minimum requirements per adult equivalent were met only for calories, proteins, iron and vitamin A but deficiencies were observed for fat and calcium

No evidence for a loss of genetic diversity despite a strong decline in size of a European population of the Corncrake Crex crex

The preservation of genetic diversity is an important aspect of conservation biology. Low genetic diversity within a population can lead to inbreeding depression and a reduction in adaptive potential, which may increase extinction risk. Here we report changes in genetic diversity over 12 years in a declining population of the Corncrake Crex crex, a grassland bird species of high conservation concern throughout Europe. Despite a twofold demographic decline during the same period, we found no evidence for a reduction of genetic diversity. The gradual genetic differentiation observed among populations of Corncrake across Europe suggests that genetic diversity is maintained in western populations by constant gene flow from the larger and more productive populations in eastern Europe and Asia. The maintenance of genetic diversity in this species is an opportunity that may help the implementation of effective conservation actions across the Corncrake's European range

National research on the postgraduate student experience:Case presentation on postgraduate student diversity (Volume 2 of 3)

This is volume two of a set of three case studies that explore the postgraduate student experience. The theme of this case study is postgraduate student diversity and is based on experiences derived from student engagement breakfasts, interviews, and focus groups with 366 people across the stakeholder groups of postgraduate students, educators, and university executives from 26 institutions. The case studies constitute part of the output from the project, Engaging postgraduate students and supporting higher education to enhance the 21st century student experience

Developing and Supporting the Diversity of Chairperson Roles

A monthly Chair Professional Development program at Augusta University provides opportunity to mentor new chairpersons and foster collegiality amongst all chairpersons at a university with both liberal arts and health sciences programs. The merits and challenges of this program that addresses needs of such a diverse group will be highlighte