Self-reported evaluation of competencies and attitudes by physicians-in-training before and after a single day legislative advocacy experience

BACKGROUND: Advocacy is increasingly being recognized as a core element of medical professionalism and efforts are underway to incorporate advocacy training into graduate and undergraduate medical school curricula. While limited data exist to quantify physician attitudes toward advocacy, even less has been done to assess the knowledge, skills, and attitudes of future physicians. The purpose of this study was to assess students’ experiences and attitudes toward legislative advocacy, cutting out using a convience sample. METHODS: A paper survey based on previously validated surveys was administered to a convenience sample of premedical and medical student participants attending a National Advocacy Day in Washington, DC, in March 2011, both before and after their advocacy experiences. Responses were anonymous and either categorical ( or ordinal, using a 5-point Likert scale. Data were analyzed statistically to evaluate demographics and compare changes in pre- and post-experience attitude and skills. RESULTS: Data from 108 pre-advocacy and 50 post-advocacy surveys were analyzed yielding a response rate of 46.3%. Following a single advocacy experience, subjects felt they were more likely to contact their legislators about healthcare issues (p = 0.03), to meet in person with their legislators (p < 0.01), and to advocate for populations' health needs (p = 0.04). Participants endorsed an increased perception of the role of a physician advocate extending beyond individual patients (p = 0.03). Participants disagreed with the statement that their formal curricula adequately covered legislative healthcare advocacy. Additionally, respondents indicated that they plan to engage in legislative advocacy activities in the future (p < 0.01). CONCLUSIONS: A one-time practical advocacy experience has a positive influence on students’ knowledge, skills and attitudes towards legislative advocacy. Practical experience is an important method of furthering medical education in advocacy and further research is necessary to assess its impact in a broader population

Demographic Characteristics Associated with the Presence of Recalled and Measured Prepregnancy Weights

Background: Gestational weight gain within prepregnancy BMI-specific Institute of Medicine (IOM) recommended ranges are associated with good outcomes for both mother and baby. Availability of measured prepregnancy weight, recalled prepregnancy weight or measured weight at first prenatal visit if the former two weights are not available, influences the accuracy of provider recommendations for gestational weight gain. Objective: The purpose of this study is to examine demographic characteristics associated with the presence of recalled prepregnancy weight and measured prepregnancy weight in the prenatal care medical record. Methods: Medical record review of 1,998 randomly selected pregnancies, of which 1,911 met inclusion criteria of delivery between January 2007 and December 2012 and receipt of prenatal care in faculty and resident clinic sites at UMass Memorial Health Care (UMMHC). Subjects\u27 paper prenatal chart and electronic record (AllScripts and QS prenatal EMR) were fully abstracted if available and contained both: (1) a recorded measured weight within one year of conception, and (2) a self-reported prepregnancy weight obtained at first prenatal visit. Additionally, exclusion criteria included those pregnancies with only prenatal weights recorded one year prior to conception for index pregnancy. For women with multiple pregnancies during the study time period, one pregnancy was randomly selected for inclusion in study analyses. Demographic data was abstracted for all available charts regardless of presence or absence of weights of interest. Demographic characteristics considered were age (15-29, 20-24, 25-29, 30-34, 35+ years), prepregnancy BMI calculated based on recalled height and weight (underweight: BMI2, normal weight: 18.5≤ BMI/m2, overweight: 25≤BMI/m2, and obese: 30 kg/m2≤BMI), race/ethnicity (non-Hispanic white vs. other race/ethnicity), marital status (not married vs. married), primary language (non-English vs. English), gravidity (1, 2, 3+), education (high school diploma or less, some college, 4 year college or more) and prenatal care site (faculty vs. resident obstetric clinic). Logistic regressions were performed to calculate crude and adjusted odds ratios (ORs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) and adjusted analyses controlled for demographics. Results: Of the 1911 pregnancies meeting initial inclusion criteria, 1711 (89.5%) had charts available for abstraction; fifty-three subjects had multiple pregnancies of which only one was included in analyses resulting in an analytic sample of 1656 pregnancies. Of these, 511 (30.9%) were missing a recalled prepregnancy weight at first prenatal visit, 711 (42.9%) had the recalled prepregnancy weight but did not have a measured weight; and only 434 (26.2%) had both weights of interest. Overweight women had decreased odds of having a recalled weight compared to women of normal weight (aOR 0.75; 95% CI 0.56-1.00). Additionally, women with ≥4 years of college compared to those with ≤ high school diploma (aOR 0.54; 95% CI 0.40-0.73), and those receiving care in the faculty compared to the resident clinics (aOR 0.48; 95% CI 0.35-0.65) had decreased odds of having a recalled weight available in the chart. Among women with available recalled prepregnancy weight (n=1101), 390 (35.4%) also had a documented measured weight within one year of conception and 711 (64.6%) did not. Women who were not married (aOR 0.54; 95% 0.39-0.76) had decreased odds of having a measured weight, whereas those receiving care in the faculty compared to resident clinics had greater odds (aOR 1.79; 95% CI 1.26-2.53) of having a measured weight within one year of conception available in their charts. Conclusions: Our results suggest that approximately 25% of women have both recalled weight at first prenatal visit and at least one weight measured within one year of conception in their medical records. Prepregnancy BMI, education, and prenatal care site were associated with presence or absence of recalled weight. Similarly, amongst those with recalled weight, martial status and prenatal care in faculty practice where associated with decreased and increased odds respectively of having a measured weight within one year of conception. We can use this information to help practitioners target women for which greater efforts are needed to provide accurate IOM-recommended BMI-specific gestational weight gain guidelines. This may be utilized to discern patterns of health care access in this patient population

The Accuracy of Recalled versus Measured Pre-Pregnancy Weight for the Calculation of Pre-Pregnancy Body Mass Index

Background: In 2009, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) published gestational weight gain (GWG) guidelines with the goal of optimizing maternal and fetal outcomes. GWG recommendations are specific to pre-pregnancy body mass index (BMI): 28-40 lbs for underweight (UW; BMI2), 25-35 lbs for normal weight (NW; 18.5≤BMI/m2), 15-25 lbs for overweight (OW; 25 ≤BMI/m2), and 11-20 lbs for obese (OB; BMI≥30 kg/m2) women. With upwards of 50% of pregnancies in the U.S. unplanned, measured pre-pregnancy weight is often unavailable in clinical and research settings. Evaluating the accuracy of recalled pre-pregnancy weight early in prenatal care is important in order to establish accuracy of pre-pregnancy BMI calculations in order to counsel about GWG accurately. Objective: To examine differences in recalled versus measured pre-pregnancy weight and to examine factors associated with accuracy of recalled weights. Methods: Medical record review of 1,998 randomly selected pregnancies. Eligible women received prenatal care in faculty and resident clinics at UMass Memorial Health Care (UMMHC), delivered between January 2007 and December 2012, and had available both: (1) a measured weight within one year of conception and (2) a pre-pregnancy weight self-reported at first prenatal visit. Data were obtained from the UMMHC paper or electronic prenatal record and the Allscripts EMR. We calculated the difference in weights as recalled pre-pregnancy weight minus most recent measured weight within one year of conception. Subjects were excluded if they received care at a non-faculty or non-resident practice, charts not available after three separate retrieval attempts, both weights of interest not available, or if measured weight occurred at a prenatal visit for a prior pregnancy. For women with more than one pregnancy during the study time frame, one was randomly selected for inclusion in the analytic data set. Results: Of the 1,998 pregnancy charts reviewed, 400 records met eligibility criteria and were included in this analysis. Women were mean age 29.7 (SD: 6.2) years, 69.3% multigravida, 64.4% non-Hispanic white, 65.2% married, and 62.4% had a college or greater education. Based on recalled weight, 3.3% of women were underweight, 46.6% were normal weight, 25.9% overweight, and 24.2% obese. 63% received care in the faculty obstetric clinic. Recorded recalled weights were mean 2.4 (SD: 11.1) pounds lower than measured pre-pregnancy weight. This difference did not differ by age, location of care, pre-pregnancy BMI, marital status, race/ethnicity, primary language, gravity, education, or time between measured weight and conception, in unadjusted and adjusted models. For 88.7% of women, calculating pre-pregnancy BMI based on weight measured up to a year prior to conception or based on recalled pre-pregnancy weight reported at the first prenatal visit resulted in the same classification of pre-pregnancy BMI. Conclusion: Prenatal care providers may calculate pre-pregnancy BMIs using recalled pre-pregnancy weights early in prenatal care and use such calculated BMIs to accurately provide GWG recommendations regardless of demographic variables, gravity, or location of care

Healthcare Reform and the Next Generation: United States Medical Student Attitudes toward the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act

CONTEXT: Over one year after passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), legislators, healthcare experts, physicians, and the general public continue to debate the implications of the law and its repeal. The PPACA will have a significant impact on future physicians, yet medical student perspectives on the legislation have not been well documented. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate medical students' understanding of and attitudes toward healthcare reform and the PPACA including issues of quality, access and cost. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: An anonymous electronic survey was sent to medical students at 10 medical schools (total of 6982 students) between October-December 2010, with 1232 students responding and a response rate of 18%. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Medical students' views and attitudes regarding the PPACA and related topics, measured with Likert scale and open response items. RESULTS: Of medical students surveyed, 94.8% agreed that the existing United States healthcare system needs to be reformed, 31.4% believed the PPACA will improve healthcare quality, while 20.9% disagreed and almost half (47.7%) were unsure if quality will be improved. Two thirds (67.6%) believed that the PPACA will increase access, 6.5% disagreed and the remaining 25.9% were unsure. With regard to containing healthcare costs, 45.4% of participants indicated that they are unsure if the provisions of the PPACA will do so. Overall, 80.1% of respondents indicated that they support the PPACA, and 78.3% also indicated that they did not feel that reform efforts had gone far enough. A majority of respondents (58.8%) opposed repeal of the PPACA, while 15.0% supported repeal, and 26.1% were undecided. CONCLUSION: The overwhelming majority of medical students recognized healthcare reform is needed and expressed support for the PPACA but echoed concerns about whether it will address issues of quality or cost containment

Intermedial Relationships of Radio Features with Denis Mitchell’s and Philip Donnellan’s Early Television Documentaries

Writing of the closure in early 1965 of the Radio Features Department, Asa Briggs identifies one of the reasons for the controversial decision as ‘the incursion of television, which was developing its own features.’ ‘[Laurence] Gilliam and his closest colleagues believed in the unique merits of “pure radio”. The screen seemed a barrier’ (The History of Broadcasting in the United Kingdom, Vol. 5, p. 348). Rather than the screen being ‘a barrier’ for them, a number of the creators of the emerging television documentary were from the late 1950s onwards able to transfer and transform distinctive techniques of ‘pure radio’ into highly effective visual forms. Two key figures were the producers of ‘poetic’ documentaries Denis Mitchell and Philip Donnellan, who employed layered voices, imaginative deployments of music and effects, and allusive juxtapositions of sound and image, to develop an alternative (although always marginal) tradition to the supposedly objective approaches of current affairs and, later, verité filmmakers. And a dozen years after the dismemberment of the Features Department, Donnellan paid tribute to it in his glorious but little-seen film Pure Radio (BBC1, 3 November 1977). Taking important early films by Mitchell and Donnellan as case studies, this paper explores the impact of radio features on television documentaries in the 1950s and early 1960s, and assesses the extent to which the screen in its intermedial relationships with ‘pure radio’ was a barrier or, in the work of certain creators, an augmentation

The Uses of Stance in Media Production: Embodied Sociolinguistics and Beyond

While many conversation analysts, and scholars in related fields, have used video-recordings to study interaction, this study is one of a small but growing number that investigates video-recordings of the joint activities of media professionals working with, and on, video. It examines practices of media production that are, in their involvement with the visual and verbal qualities of video, both beyond talk and deeply shaped by talk. The article draws upon video recordings of the making of a feature-length documentary. In particular, it analyses a complex course of action where an editing team are reviewing their interview of the subject of the documentary, their footage is being intercut with existing reality TV footage of that same interviewee. The central contributions that the article makes are, firstly, to the sociolinguistics of mediatisation, through the identification of the workplace concerns of the members of the editing team, secondly showing how editing is accomplished, moment-by-moment, through the use of particular forms of embodied action and, finally, how the media themselves feature in the ordering of action. While this is professional work it sheds light on the video-mediated practices in contemporary culture, especially those found in social media where video makers carefully consider their editing of the perspective toward themselves and others

The effect of explicit convection on couplings between rainfall, humidity and ascent over Africa under climate change

The Hadley circulation and tropical rain belt are dominant features of African climate. Moist convection provides ascent within the rain belt, but must be parameterized in climate models, limiting predictions. Here, we use a pan-African convection-permitting model (CPM), alongside a parameterized convection model (PCM), to analyze how explicit convection affects the rain belt under climate change. Regarding changes in mean climate, both models project an increase in total column water (TCW), a widespread increase in rainfall, and slowdown of subtropical descent. Regional climate changes are similar for annual mean rainfall but regional changes of ascent typically strengthen less or weaken more in the CPM. Over a land-only meridional transect of the rain belt, the CPM mean rainfall increases less than in the PCM (5% vs 14%) but mean vertical velocity at 500 hPa weakens more (17% vs 10%). These changes mask more fundamental changes in underlying distributions. The decrease in 3-hourly rain frequency and shift from lighter to heavier rainfall are more pronounced in the CPM and accompanied by a shift from weak to strong updrafts with the enhancement of heavy rainfall largely due to these dynamic changes. The CPM has stronger coupling between intense rainfall and higher TCW. This yields a greater increase in rainfall contribution from events with greater TCW, with more rainfall for a given large-scale ascent, and so favors slowing of that ascent. These findings highlight connections between the convective-scale and larger-scale flows and emphasize that limitations of parameterized convection have major implications for planning adaptation to climate change

Relatório de estágio em farmácia comunitária

Relatório de estágio realizado no âmbito do Mestrado Integrado em Ciências Farmacêuticas, apresentado à Faculdade de Farmácia da Universidade de Coimbr