Producing Reflective Practice Capability: a Textual Analysis of Practice learning and Assessment Portfolios

Within portfolios used by nurse education programmes of higher education for practice learning and assessment, reflective narrative accounts are considered evidence of practice learning outcomes. Evaluation research of portfolios used in nurse education programmes is for the most part based on student perceptions, which show that students are conflicted on the inclusion of reflective accounts in the portfolio. This paper examines how structural influences of the practice learning milieu shape the reflective practice capability of the learner based on an analysis of 15 reflective narrative accounts from five practice learning and assessment portfolios of an undergraduate professional development programme for specialist community nursing in the United Kingdom. Ethnomethodology provided an orientation for single case textual analysis of related interactional sequences. Findings from a case comparison take the form of a local practice learning scene showing two structural patterns of orientation: a learning practice and the formal programme. These orientations can be differentiated by the accomplishment of reflective thinking-for-action, reflective thinking-for-evaluation and reflective thinking-for-critical enquiry. Reflective practice capability as an accomplishment of how the local practice learning milieu constitutes the portfolio approach to practice learning and assessment is presented through a case comparison of some interactions, roles and outcomes. The analysis draws attention to theoretical sensitivity to client outcomes for enhancing the portfolio as an enquiry-based approach for the accomplishment of reflective practice capability and the need for further investigation into the role of the academic nurse tutor in the portfolio approach

Was Physical Education as bad as people remember it?

Observations of middle aged to retired clients in Personal Training practices in London UK, surfaced two themes; exercise-averse individuals with sedentary leisure and work pursuits reported poor experiences of physical education in secondary (high) school, whereas more active clients reported positive reflections. This instigated a systematic examination of contemporaneous documents and literature, which sought to explain the context of this reality. Five major themes emerged: The politico-educational environment from the 1960’s to the 1970’s, the parallel experience of maths anxiety, teaching practice, navigating failure, and economic implications. Evidence suggests why the behaviour of a generation has been impacted; a post-war hierarchical social order undergoing profound change, poor pedagogic practices in which the less able found themselves suffering everything from corporal punishment to physical embarrassment, and response models to failure predict clients’ later behaviours. The research findings substantiate the claims of clients’ memories of negative experiences with physical education at secondary school. The research concludes that the socio- economic costs associated with such past failures in PE are estimated to exceed £6 billion over the life of a contemporary five-year UK government and have clear social and economic implications for other developed democracies

Academic Resilience During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Triarchic Analysis of Education Policy Developments across Canada

This study employed a qualitative content analysis of provincial policy documents, following deductive methods, to examine academic resilience and education policy developments across Canada during the COVID-19 pandemic. More specifically, the study explicates the nature and scope of provincial policy responses to the global pandemic that address academic issues, physical health and well-being, and mental health issues for K–12 students. The pan-Canadian analysis revealed a total of 62 documents were issued between January 2020 and December 2021 that addressed one or more of the triarchic dimensions of academic resilience. The findings suggested greater attention was devoted to academic issues and there was a general lack of policy differentiation in terms of how specific resources and supports were to be directed within provincial educational jurisdictions.Cette étude a employé une analyse qualitative de contenu des documents de politiques provinciales, en suivant des méthodes déductives, pour examiner la ténacité scolaire et le développement des politiques d’éducation à travers le Canada pendant la pandémie de COVID-19. Plus précisément, l’étude détaille la nature et la portée des réponses politiques provinciales à la pandémie mondiale qui traitent des questions relatives à l’éducation, à la santé physique, au bien-être, et à la santé mentale des étudiants de la maternelle à la 12e année. L’analyse pancanadienne révèle qu’un total de 62 documents ont été publiés entre janvier 2020 et décembre 2021 qui abordaient une ou plusieurs dimensions triarchiques de la ténacité scolaire. Les conclusions mènent à penser qu’une plus grande attention est accordée aux problématiques scolaires et qu’il y a un manque général de différenciation dans les politiques quant à la façon dont les ressources et les soutiens seraient utilisés au sein des instances éducatives provinciales

An evaluation of an educational intervention (physical assessment module), for the non medical work force to provide unscheduled services across the primary and secondary sector in one SHA

The purpose of this research was to establish how an educational intervention (the physical assessment module) enabled practitioners, drawn from the non medical workforce, to meet the modernising agenda of new ways of working, notably, to provide unscheduled care and to contribute to the transformation of chronic care provision in the acute care sector and Community.To gauge the impact of the physical assessment module on the evolution of competencies to fulfil the demands of new roles in practice a responsive evaluation model was used. Data were gathered from face to face interviews, analysis of relevant documents, and direct observation of working practises. Importantly the approach sought to report findings back into the communities from which these data have arisen to verify the findings but also to enrich and update issues in a rapidly changing context. Therefore, feedback via stakeholder conferences was a critical element in the process.Data were analysed using the constant comparative method. Data analysis ran concurrently with data collection and as emergent issues arose they were abstracted and the topics explored in subsequent interviews.Key findings are presented in three tiers: from theory to practice (learning physical assessment skills and techniques and applying these in practice; from policy to practice (tracking the way in which policy was transmitted from the central government through to organisations and how this impacted on the context in which the practitioners were required to use their skills; and finally from policy to users of the service (examining the evaluation of patients and their relatives about the services provided by nurses undertaking advanced physical assessment skills

Highly Sulfated K5 Escherichia coli Polysaccharide Derivatives Inhibit Respiratory Syncytial Virus Infectivity in Cell Lines and Human Tracheal-Bronchial Histocultures.

Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) exploits cell surface heparan sulfate proteoglycans (HSPGs) as attachment receptors. The interaction between RSV and HSPGs thus presents an attractive target for the development of novel inhibitors of RSV infection. In this study, selective chemical modification of the Escherichia coli K5 capsular polysaccharide was used to generate a collection of sulfated K5 derivatives with a backbone structure that mimics the heparin/heparan sulfate biosynthetic precursor. The screening of a series of N-sulfated (K5-NS), O-sulfated (K5-OS), and N,O-sulfated (K5-N,OS) derivatives with different degrees of sulfation revealed the highly sulfated K5 derivatives K5-N,OS(H) and K5-OS(H) to be inhibitors of RSV. Their 50% inhibitory concentrations were between 1.07 nM and 3.81 nM in two different cell lines, and no evidence of cytotoxicity was observed. Inhibition of RSV infection was maintained in binding and attachment assays but not in preattachment assays. Moreover, antiviral activity was also evident when the K5 derivatives were added postinfection, both in cell-to-cell spread and viral yield reduction assays. Finally, both K5-N,OS(H) and K5-OS(H) prevented RSV infection in human-derived tracheal/bronchial epithelial cells cultured to form a pseudostratified, highly differentiated model of the epithelial tissue of the human respiratory tract. Together, these features put K5-N,OS(H) and K5-OS(H) forward as attractive candidates for further development as RSV inhibitors

Activation of protein kinase Cδ leads to increased pancreatic acinar cell dedifferentiation in the absence of MIST1

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) has a 5 year survival rate post-diagnosis of \u3c 5%. Individuals with chronic pancreatitis (CP) are 20-fold more likely to develop PDAC, making it a significant risk factor for PDAC. While the relationship for the increased susceptibility to PDAC is unknown, loss of the acinar cell phenotype is common to both pathologies. Pancreatic acinar cells can dedifferentiate or trans-differentiate into a number of cell types including duct cells, β cells, hepatocytes and adipocytes. Knowledge of the molecular pathways that regulate this plasticity should provide insight into PDAC and CP. MIST1 (encoded by Bhlha15 in mice) is a transcription factor required for complete acinar cell maturation. The goal of this study was to examine the plasticity of acinar cells that do not express MIST1 (Mist1 -/-). The fate of acinar cells from C57Bl6 or congenic Mist1 -/- mice expressing an acinar specific, tamoxifen-inducible Cre recombinase mated to Rosa26 reporter LacZ mice (Mist1CreERT/- R26r) was determined following culture in a three-dimensional collagen matrix. Mist1CreERT/- R26r acini showed increased acinar dedifferentiation, formation of ductal cysts and transient increases in PDX1 expression compared to wild-type acinar cells. Other progenitor cell markers, including Foxa1, Sox9, Sca1 and Hes1, were elevated only in Mist1-/- cultures. Analysis of protein kinase C (PKC) isoforms by western blot and immunofluorescence identified increased PKCε accumulation and nuclear localization of PKCδ that correlated with increased duct formation. Treatment with rottlerin, a PKCδ-specific inhibitor, but not the PKCε-specific antagonist εV1-2, reduced acinar dedifferentiation, progenitor gene expression and ductal cyst formation. Immunocytochemistry on CP or PDAC tissue samples showed reduced MIST1 expression combined with increased nuclear PKCδ accumulation. These results suggest that the loss of MIST1 is a common event during PDAC and CP and events that affect MIST1 function and expression may increase susceptibility to these pathologies. Copyright © 2012 Pathological Society of Great Britain and Ireland. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd