Accelerometer and global positioning system measurement of recovery of community ambulation across the first 6 months after stroke: an exploratory prospective study

Objective: To characterize community ambulation and determine if it changes across the first 6 months after discharge from hospital after stroke

STRENGTH and the Health Care Team: changing interprofessional and client-centered practices

Background: Client-centered practice in stroke rehabilitation is strongly influenced by interprofessional team functioning and collaborative goal setting. The hospital context is problematic for client-centered practice and reduces the ability of the health care team and client with stroke to appreciate the impact of stroke on functioning within the home environment. Objective: The purpose of this study was to trial Stroke Rehabilitation Enhancing and Guiding Transition Home (STRENGTH), an approach to rehabilitation that provides clients, carers, and hospital-based therapists with weekly opportunities to develop goals and undertake therapy sessions in the home and community before hospital discharge. Methods: Nine participants, comprising 3 occupational therapists, 4 physiotherapists, and 2 speech pathologists, completed a custom-made survey and participated in a semi-structured focus group at the completion of the 6-month trial of STRENGTH. The survey and focus group questioned the participants on their experiences and impressions of STRENGTH. Results: Inductive thematic analysis of the focus group identified 2 themes: "influences of context on team functioning" and "experiences of the program." The quantitative data supported the value of STRENGTH for team functioning and client outcomes. Conclusions: The findings provide an overall endorsement for STRENGTH from the therapists' perspectives and highlight the positive impact of environmental context on team functioning, collaborative goal setting, and ultimately client-centered practice

Community Walking in People with Parkinson's Disease

People with Parkinson's disease often have walking difficulty, and this is likely to be exacerbated while walking in places in the community, where people are likely to face greater and more varied challenges. This study aims to understand the facilitators and the barriers to walking in the community perceived by people with Parkinson's disease. This qualitative study involved 5 focus groups (n = 34) of people with Parkinson's disease and their partners residing in metropolitan and rural regions in Queensland, Australia. Results found that people with PD reported to use internal personal strategies as facilitators to community walking, but identified primarily external factors, particularly the environmental factors as barriers. The adoption of strategies or the use of facilitators allows people with Parkinson's disease to cope so that participants often did not report disability

Erfahrungsbericht eines Blended-learning-Kurses zur Programmiergrundausbildung: Objektorientierte Entwicklung von Web-Anwendungen mit Smalltalkt/Seaside

Im Wintersemester 2011/2012 wurde erstmals das Modul 'Programmierung 1' im Bachelor-Studiengang 'Wirtschaftsinformatik' der NORDAKADEMIE nach einem im Rahmen des Projekts 'Westpol' entwickelten Konzepts unterrichtet. Die Wurzeln dieses Konzepts und die Rahmenbedingungen der Kursdurchführung werden in diesem Arbeitspapier erläutert. Ebenfalls wird über die dabei gemachten Erfahrungen berichtet, die auf wöchentlich festgehaltenen Feedbacks der Studierenden basieren. Dazu wurde von den Autoren die Vielzahl der Feedbacks gesichtet und versucht, nach verschiedenen Kriterien zu gruppieren, um damit eine ausreichende Grundlage für eine spätere Überarbeitung des Kurses zu erhalten