Why Christians Are Afraid of Removing Artificial Nutrition and Hydration

On 31 March 2005, Terri Schiavo passed away, amidst the grief, consternation, and outrage of many Americans. In our desire to live forever and “be like God” (Genesis 3:5), human beings have created death-defying technologies. However, these technologies have led to many ethical dilemmas, in part because bioethics has been influenced insidiously by a cultural transhumanism that denies our fundamental human nature and mortality. Many Christians have embraced a transhumanist view of technology, leading to an unhealthy vitalism at the end of life. In this paper, I will demonstrate this flawed view, using the persistent vegetative states (PVS) as an example

Does the Sequence of Instruction Matter During Simulation?

Introduction: Instructional strategies must be balanced when subjecting students to full-immersion simulation so as not to discourage learning and increase cognitive overload. The purpose of this study was to determine if participating in a simulation exercise before lecture yielded better performance outcomes among novice learners. Methods: Twenty-nine participants were divided into 2 groups as follows: group 1 participated in simulation exercises followed by a didactic lecture and group 2 participated in the same learning activities presented in the opposite order. Participants were administered a multiple-choice cognitive assessment upon completion of a workshop. Results: Learners who participated in the simulated exercises followed by the didactic lecture performed better on post assessments as compared with those who participated in the simulation after the lecture. A repeated-measures or nested analysis of variance generated statistically significant results in terms of model fit F (α = 0.05; 4.54) = 176.07 with a P \u3c 0.0001. Despite their higher levels of increased performance, 76% of those who participated in simulation activities first indicated that they would have preferred to participate in a lecture first. Conclusions: The findings of this study suggest that differences occur among learners when the sequencing of instructional components is altered. Learners who participated in simulation before lecture demonstrated increased knowledge compared with learners who participated in simulation after a lecture

Magical and Illusory Thinking in Protestant College Students

Abstract Scrupulosity (SC) is a subtype of OCD that manifests in religious obsessions and compulsions. Scrupulosity is associated with poorer prognosis and higher levels of magical ideation (MI), defined as beliefs that go against culturally accepted laws of causality. A new measure called the Illusory Beliefs Inventory was created to measure MI in scrupulous populations. However, the items on the spirituality subscale may fail to discriminate between pathological thinking and normal religious beliefs. The current study contained two purposes. The first purpose was to examine the psychometric properties of the IBI. The second purpose of the study was to clarify the relationship between scrupulosity and magical ideation in Protestant Christians. Higher scores on MI measures may simply reflect normally elevated levels for religious individuals produced by the IBI’s misdiagnosis of normal spirituality as “magical thinking.” We hypothesized that magical ideation as measured by the IBI will be high in our Protestant sample when including factor 2 (spirituality), but scores that remain high with the removal of factor 2 will correlate with higher scores on measures of OCD and SC. The final sample size included 517 undergraduate students with a mean age of 20. Complete data analysis is in progress, but preliminary analysis reveals significant elevation of mean scores on the spirituality subscale as predicted. Final results will be presented

A system for rating the stability and strength of medical evidence

BACKGROUND: Methods for describing one's confidence in the available evidence are useful for end-users of evidence reviews. Analysts inevitably make judgments about the quality, quantity consistency, robustness, and magnitude of effects observed in the studies identified. The subjectivity of these judgments in several areas underscores the need for transparency in judgments. DISCUSSION: This paper introduces a new system for rating medical evidence. The system requires explicit judgments and provides explicit rules for balancing these judgments. Unlike other systems for rating the strength of evidence, our system draws a distinction between two types of conclusions: quantitative and qualitative. A quantitative conclusion addresses the question, "How well does it work?", whereas a qualitative conclusion addresses the question, "Does it work?" In our system, quantitative conclusions are tied to stability ratings, and qualitative conclusions are tied to strength ratings. Our system emphasizes extensive a priori criteria for judgments to reduce the potential for bias. Further, the system makes explicit the impact of heterogeneity testing, meta-analysis, and sensitivity analyses on evidence ratings. This article provides details of our system, including graphical depictions of how the numerous judgments that an analyst makes can be combined. We also describe two worked examples of how the system can be applied to both interventional and diagnostic technologies. SUMMARY: Although explicit judgments and formal combination rules are two important steps on the path to a comprehensive system for rating medical evidence, many additional steps must also be taken. Foremost among these are the distinction between quantitative and qualitative conclusions, an extensive set of a priori criteria for making judgments, and the direct impact of analytic results on evidence ratings. These attributes form the basis for a logically consistent system that can improve the usefulness of evidence reviews

Qualitative Analysis of Student Physical Therapist Reflective Writing: Does an Interprofessional Discharge Planning Simulation Increase their Understanding of the Role they play In Discharge Planning?

Purpose: The Core Competencies for Entry-Level Practice in Acute Care Physical Therapy provides an expectation of entry-level practice in acute care for physical therapists including discharge planning (DP). Physical therapists (PT), despite having appropriate clinical reasoning and unique skills for determining the functional abilities of patients, are less often a part of the DP process. The purpose of this study was to determine, by use of qualitative analysis of reflective writing, if an interprofessional discharge planning simulation will increase students’ understanding of the role of physical therapy in DP. Methods: Students from physical therapy (n=57), undergraduate nursing (n=36), graduate nurse practitioners (n=2), and social work (n=37) participated in a simulation enhanced interprofessional education (Sim-IPE) DP meeting utilizing simulated participants. DPT students were required to complete a reflection paper on this activity. Reflection papers were reviewed and analyzed to identify trends and main themes regarding the role of physical therapist in the discharge planning process. In addition, and sub-themes were then identified through secondary analysis. Results: Three main themes and seven sub-themes were established based on the direct responses to the reflective questions. The first main theme was that it is imperative to identify the main discharge issue particularly as it relates to patient safety and fall risk and to resolve this issue through the DP process. The second main theme was understanding the roles and responsibilities of an interprofessional DP team. The third theme was the identification of the gaps in knowledge with a lack of understanding of the DP process and insurance regulations. Conclusions: DPT students’ gained better understanding of the PT’s role on the healthcare team as it relates to DP; however, there was a belief that other professions were unaware of the PT’s role. The use of a Sim-IPE DP meeting may improve knowledge regarding the discharge process and the role of the PT