Cardiovascular Pathophysiology in Chronic Kidney Disease: Opportunities to Transition from Disease to Health

Background: Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is common, and is associated with a high burden of cardiovascular disease. This cardiovascular risk is incompletely explained by traditional risk factors, calling attention to a need to better understand the pathways in CKD contributing to adverse cardiovascular outcomes. Findings: Pathophysiological derangements associated with CKD, including disordered sodium, potassium, and water homeostasis, renin-angiotensin-aldosterone and sympathetic activity, anemia, bone and mineral metabolism, uremia, and toxin accumulation may contribute directly to progression of cardiovascular disease and adverse outcomes. Conclusion: Improving cardiovascular health in patients with CKD requires improved understanding of renocardiac pathophysiology. Ultimately, the most successful strategy may be prevention of incident CKD itself

Leading with heart: Academic leadership during the COVID-19 crisis

The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted every sphere of life. It has brought into sharp focus not only the critical role that leaders have to play in taking charge of their organisations and employees, but the complexity of that leadership role, too. The authors of this paper are both psychologists who occupy leadership positions in a university. The paper briefly explores the evolution of leadership theory, leadership in times of crises, generally, and leadership during the time of COVID-19. In addition, one of the authors offers a personal note on the leadership experience during COVID-19. What became clear during the reflections was that empathy, vulnerability, self-awareness and agility were some of the qualities needed during this crisis. In addition, the psychodynamic concept of containment appears very relevant in managing the affective intensity experienced by staff and students. Leaders were expected to not only fully understand the meaning of empathy and compassion, but to know how to sincerely demonstrate these qualities to staff and students alike

Evaluating the effectiveness of a radiation safety training intervention for oncology nurses: a pretest – intervention – posttest study

BACKGROUND: Radiation, for either diagnosis or treatment, is used extensively in the field of oncology. An understanding of oncology radiation safety principles and how to apply them in practice is critical for nursing practice. Misconceptions about radiation are common, resulting in undue fears and concerns that may negatively impact patient care. Effectively educating nurses to help overcome these misconceptions is a challenge. Historically, radiation safety training programs for oncology nurses have been compliance-based and behavioral in philosophy. METHODS: A new radiation safety training initiative was developed for Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) adapting elements of current adult education theories to address common misconceptions and to enhance knowledge. A research design for evaluating the revised training program was also developed to assess whether the revised training program resulted in a measurable and/or statistically significant change in the knowledge or attitudes of nurses toward working with radiation. An evaluation research design based on a conceptual framework for measuring knowledge and attitude was developed and implemented using a pretest-intervention-posttest approach for 15% of the study population of 750 inpatient registered oncology nurses. RESULTS: As a result of the intervention program, there was a significant difference in nurse's cognitive knowledge as measured with the test instrument from pretest (58.9%) to posttest (71.6%). The evaluation also demonstrated that while positive nursing attitudes increased, the increase was significant for only 5 out of 9 of the areas evaluated. CONCLUSION: The training intervention was effective for increasing cognitive knowledge, but was less effective at improving overall attitudes. This evaluation provided insights into the effectiveness of training interventions on the radiation safety knowledge and attitude of oncology nurses

Eliciting reflections on caring theory in elderly caring practice

Caring theories are the description and conceptualization of the care that is given in caring practise by nurses and other professional caregivers with the aim of verbalizing and communicating caring phenomena. Intermittently, a theory –practice gap is given expression- that theory does not go along with clinical practice in caring

Qualitative theory testing as mixed-method research

While the concept of mixed-methods research is more usually associated with combining quantitative and qualitative approaches, this paper outlines a study that mixed methods by undertaking qualitative theory testing and derivation when examining the relationship between health promotion theory and hospital nursing practice. Thus, it is concerned with relating the metatheoretical aspects of the debate and not with the pragmatic aspects of the research and concomitant methods. A deductive–inductive–deductive design, based on the theory–research–theory strategy of Meleis (1985), tested, revised and developed for nursing established health promotion theory using theory-testing criteria. To complement the methodological mix, the study also used the theory (i.e. a health-promotion taxonomy) as a framework to contextualise the findings rather than generate theory in the way associated with interpretative inquiry. While inconsistent with the traditional view linking theory testing with quantitative, objective epistemology, the process enabled a theoretically robust health-promotion taxonomy to be synthesised and advanced for use in nursing in relation to a paradigm of social thought

Efectividad del currículo de la carrera de Medicina. Diseño y validación de instrumentos para valorar la función de investigación

Normal 0 21 false false false ES X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 Normal 0 21 false false false ES X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Tabla normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} Introducción: La formación actual de médicos en Cuba responde a las necesidades de salud de la población del nuestro país y de otros lugares necesitados del mundo. El Área de Docencia e Investigación del Ministerio de Salud Pública creó un grupo de investigación, el cual diseñó el proyecto Efectividad del Currículo de Medicina. Uno de los cortes de valoración del currículo evalúa la correspondencia entre el modelo del profesional declarado para las cinco funciones descritas en el currículo y el profesional en formación. Una de las cinco funciones que se describe en el modelo es la función de investigación. Objetivo: Diseñar un instrumento para evaluar la correspondencia entre el modelo del profesional declarado para la función de investigación en el currículo y el profesional en formación. Material y métodos: Se realizó una investigación de desarrollo tecnológico en tres etapas: primera: diseño del instrumento evaluativo; segunda: ejecución de los ejercicios teóricos y prácticos; tercera: valoración del instrumento. Resultados: Mediante el instrumento diseñado se demostró que con el actual currículo la función de investigación se cumple en 80.8%. La totalidad de los profesores y la mayor parte de los estudiantes se proyectaro

Efectividad del currículo de la carrera de Medicina. Diseño y validación de instrumentos para valorar la función docente educativa

Introducción: La formación actual de médicos en Cuba responde a las necesidades de salud de la población de nuestro país y otros lugares necesitados del mundo. El Área de Docencia e Investigación del Ministerio de Salud Pública creó un grupo de investigación, el cual diseñó el proyecto Efectividad del Currículo de Medicina. Uno de los cortes de valoración del currículo evalúa la correspondencia entre el modelo del profesional declarado para las cinco funciones descritas en el currículo y el profesional en formación. Una de las cinco funciones que se describe es la función docente educativa. Objetivo: Diseñar un instrumento para evaluar la correspondencia entre el modelo del profesional declarado para la función docente-educativa en el currículo de la carrera de Medicina y el profesional en formación. Material y Métodos: Se realizó una investigación de desarrollo tecnológico en tres etapas: primera, diseño del instrumento evaluativo; segunda, aplicación de la encuesta y ejecución del ejercicio teórico-práctico; tercera, valoración del instrumento. Resultados: El instrumento diseñado demostró que con el actual currículo la función docente educativa se cumple en 75.6%. La totalidad de los profesores y la mayor parte de los estudiantes se proyectaron correctamente, al focalizar sus opiniones en los aspectos requeridos para la validación. Conclusiones: El instrumento permite evaluar la correspondencia entre el modelo del profesional declarado para la función docente-educativa en el currículo y el profesional en formación. Las acciones de validación aplicadas apoyan la validez del instrumento en cuanto a su contenido y operatividad en la práctica. Palabras clave: Función docente educativa, instrumento evaluativo, medicina, currículo, diseño, validación.ABSTRACTIntroduction: Current medical training in Cuba responds to the health needs of the population of our country and others in need around the world. The Department of Teaching and Research of the Ministry of Health created a research group, which designed the project Curriculum Effectiveness of Medicine. One of the cuts curriculum assessments evaluates the correspondence between the professional model declared for the five functions described in the curriculum and professional training. One of the five functions described in the model is the educational teaching function. Objective: To design a tool to assess the correspondence between the professional models declared for educational teaching role in the curriculum and professional training. Material and methods: An investigation of technological development was performed in three stages: first: design assessment instrument; Second: implementation of the survey and implementation of theoretical exercise - practical; Third: assessment instrument. Results: Using the designed instrument was demonstrated that with the current educational curriculum teaching function is fulfilled in 75.6%. All the teachers and most students were projected correctly, to focus their opinions on the aspects required for validation. Conclusions: The instrument allows evaluating the correspondence between the professional model declared for education teaching role in the curriculum and professional training Shares applied validation support the validity of the instrument in terms of content and functionality in practice. Keywords: Educational teaching function, assessment instrument, medicine, curriculum, design, validation.</p