What is Support to Relative Parents?

This article looks at a clinician’s perspective on how to best support relative caregivers. It discusses medications, family issues, programs with low-barrier services, and other resources for assistance. The components discussed in this article will hopefully allow for permanency and stability in the homes of kinship families

Improving management of student clinical placements: insights from activity theory

Open AccessThis article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.Background An approach to improve management of student clinical placements, the Building Teams for Quality Learning project, was trialed in three different health services. In a previous paper the authors explored in some detail the factors associated with considerable success of this approach at one of these services. In this paper, the authors extend this work with further analysis to determine if the more limited outcomes observed with participants at the other two services could be explained by application of activity theory and in particular the expansive learning cycle. Methods Staff at three health services participated in the Building Teams for Quality Learning project: a dental clinic, a community aged care facility and a rural hospital. At each site a team of seven multi-disciplinary staff completed the project over 9 to 12 months (total 21 participants). Evaluation data were collected through interviews, focus groups and direct observation of staff and students. Following initial thematic analysis, further analysis was conducted to compare the processes and outcomes at each participating health service drawing on activity theory and the expansive learning cycle. Results Fifty-one interview transcripts, 33 h of workplace observation and 31 sets of workshop field notes (from 36 h of workshops) were generated. All participants were individually supportive of, and committed to, high quality student learning experiences. As was observed with staff at the dental clinic, a number of potentially effective strategies were discussed at the aged care facility and the rural hospital workshops. However, participants in these two health services could not develop a successful implementation plan. The expansive learning cycle element of modeling and testing new solutions was not achieved and participants were unable, collectively to reassess and reinterpret the object of their activities. Conclusion The application of activity theory and the expansive learning cycle assisted a deeper understanding of the differences in outcomes observed across the three groups of participants. This included identifying specific points in the expansive learning cycle at which the three groups diverged. These findings support some practical recommendations for health services that host student clinical placements

The legal aspects of home instruction

This study is designed to identify and discuss major legal aspects of home instruction for school-aged children in the United States

Rethinking attitudes to student clinical supervision and patient care: a change management success story

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.Background The aim of this project was to explore the process of change in a busy community dental clinic following a team development intervention designed to improve the management of student supervision during clinical placements. Methods An action research model was used. Seven members of a community dental clinic team (three dentists, two dental therapists, one dental assistant and the clinic manager), together with the university clinical placement supervisor participated in the team development intervention. The intervention consisted of two profiling activities and associated workshops spread six months apart. These activities focused on individual work preferences and overall team performance with the aim of improving the functioning of the clinic as a learning environment for dental students. Evaluation data consisted of 20 participant interviews, fourteen hours of workplace observation and six sets of field notes. Following initial thematic analysis, project outcomes were re-analysed using activity theory and expansive learning as a theoretical framework. Results At project commencement students were not well integrated into the day-to-day clinic functioning. Staff expressed a general view that greater attention to student supervision would compromise patient care. Following the intervention greater clinical team cohesion and workflow changes delivered efficiencies in practice, enhanced relationships among team members, and more positive attitudes towards students. The physical layout of the clinic and clinical workloads were changed to achieve greater involvement of all team members in supporting student learning. Unexpectedly, these changes also improved clinic functioning and increased the number of student placements available. Conclusions In navigating the sequential stages of the expansive learning cycle, the clinical team ultimately redefined the ‘object’ of their activity and crossed previously impervious boundaries between healthcare delivery and student supervision with benefits to all parties

The Nurses’ Perception of Expressive Touch: An Integrative Review

Introduction: Nurses use physical touch to interact with patients and address their needs. Human touch benefits social development, stress/anxiety reduction, and rapport building. Touch has been a part of nursing care for centuries, however nurses’ perceptions of expressive touch are not easily ascertained from the literature. Literature currently offers one review on the perceptions of various medical professionals regarding touch of all kinds. No reviews specific to the nurses’ perception of expressive touch exist. This integrative review provides a greater understanding of nurses’ perceptions of expressive touch. Methods: Using Cooper’s steps for integrative review, CINAHL, Medline, Academic Search Premier, and Complimentary Index were searched from 2000-2022; using search term expressive touch or caring touch or compassionate touch and nurse/nurses/nursing and perception or perspective. Results: Of 283 articles identified, 22 articles remained for full-text review after duplicate removal and application of inclusion/exclusion criteria. Five topics on nurses’ perceptions of expressive touch were identified: Comfort with touch and job satisfaction, expressive touch as an essential part of nursing practice, expressive touch as a form of compassion and/or communication, the impact of expressive touch on the humanization of patients in the nurses’ perception, and nurse discomfort with expressive touch. Conclusion: This integrative review provides findings that assist in understanding nurses’ perceptions of expressive touch. Further research should examine the impact of gender, education, and experiences on nurses’ perceptions as they use expressive touch in nursing practice

Taking aim on empowerment research: On the distinction between individual and psychological conceptions

Empowerment theory need not remain a mystery. Efforts, such as those described in this special section, to outline more clearly the nomological network of empowerment at multiple levels of analysis will advance empowerment theory. Tough-minded rigorous research is needed to advance the concept of empowerment. Empowerment research requires us to shift our attention from a debate between the merits of research at one level of analysis versus another to building bridges between levels of analysis. We must integrate theories and methods from other disciplines and develop research strategies that incorporate qualitative procedures and the voices of the research participants. The papers in this special section take aim on these tasks and add to our understanding of empowerment.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/44024/1/10464_2004_Article_BF00922695.pd

Essential indicators for measuring site‐based conservation effectiveness in the post‐2020 global biodiversity framework

Abstract: Work on the post‐2020 global biodiversity framework is now well advanced and will outline a vision, goals, and targets for the next decade of biodiversity conservation and beyond. For the effectiveness of Protected areas and Other Effective area‐based Conservation Measures, an indicator has been proposed for “areas meeting their documented ecological objectives.” However, the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) has not identified or agreed on what data should inform this indicator. Here we draw on experiences from the assessment of protected area effectiveness in the CBD's previous strategic plan to provide recommendations on the essential elements related to biodiversity outcomes and management that need to be captured in this updated indicator as well as how this could be done. Our proposed protected area effectiveness indicators include a combination of remotely derived products for all protected areas, combined with data from monitoring of both protected area management and trends in species and ecosystems based on field observations. Additionally, we highlight the need for creating a digital infrastructure to operationalize national‐level data‐capture. We believe these steps are critical and urge the adoption of suitable protected area effectiveness indicators before the post‐2020 framework is agreed in 2021