MOVING QUICKLY: ONE STUDENT’S REFLECTIONS ON THE VALUE OF SECONDARY ACCELERATED LEARNING PROGRAMS

The purpose of this interpretive biography was to understand how college graduates perceive their experiences in secondary (high school) accelerated learning programs and the impact of that participation on their continued education. This inquiry was guided by the overarching question: What are college graduates’ perceptions and understandings of their experiences in secondary accelerated programs? Using a postmodern philosophy to review the empirical materials, this interpretive biography focused on the lived experience of a college graduate who participated in an accelerated secondary program and focuses on her reflections after graduating from a four-year university. The study finds that generally, secondary accelerated learning programs like concurrent enrollment are considered valuable for their academic preparation, but may be reinforcing societal notions that students should go through their schooling more quickly than is beneficial

Change in the European Court of Human Rights: Accession of Eastern and Central European Member States

The research idea originated as a result of interest in Russian human rights which then expanded to include all of Eastern and Central Europe. This work seeks to explore the effects of the Council of Europe’s (COE) Eastern and Central European member states on the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR or the “Court”). The in-depth publishings of ECHR itself provided the greatest source of information for this work. Part I provides a brief history of the ECHR up to 1989 when expansion to Eastern and Central European states first became possible. Parts II, III, and IV focus on three problematic consequences to the ECHR after extending membership to the emerging democracies of the former Soviet bloc: an overwhelming caseload, transformation in the nature of cases, and recurring patterns of human rights violations in certain member states. Together, Parts I through IV establish how the introduction of new members could so noticeably alter the character of the COE and the effectiveness of the ECHR. Part V uses these findings to draw broader lessons regarding proposals to expand membership of organizations like the European Union and NATO

Changes in inpatients' experiences of hospital care in England over a 12-year period: a secondary analysis of national survey data

Objectives Adult inpatient surveys generate approximately 70,000 responses per year about patients’ experiences of National Health Service hospital care in England. We examine historical data to assess change between 2002 and 2013 and consider the factors that may have stimulated any change. Methods: Archived national data from National Health Service Inpatient Surveys between 2002 and 2013 (comprising 840,077 patient responders) were obtained. Questions were selected for inter-year analysis if they had been replicated for at least seven years. The percentage of responses in the most positive category was compared for each question’s earliest and most recent year. The statistical significance of differences was tested using chi-square. Also, since such large sample sizes mean that even 1% differences are statistically significant, effect sizes were used to assess the practical significance of those differences. Results: There were statistically significant (p  0.1) and one ‘small’ decline, but differences were not meaningful for 42 questions. The greatest improvements were for patients receiving copies of doctors’ letters; single sex ward areas; clinicians’ hand washing; ward cleanliness and planned admission waiting times. The greatest decline was that fewer responders said their call bells were usually answered within 2 min. Conclusions: More aspects of care have improved than have deteriorated. This study highlights the need for a consistent repeated survey programme to detect changes over the long term, since year-to-year changes tend to be small. The greatest improvements are in areas that can be influenced by organisation-wide interventions and many are associated with top–down government policies, targets or media campaigns. Patients’ evaluations of many aspects of their interactions with clinicians are unchanged or have declined. Further research could test whether ward-specific facilitated communication of survey results to clinicians could drive improvements in clinician–patient interactions

Recruiting and Retaining Participants in Citizen Science: What Can Be Learned from the Volunteering Literature?

New citizen science projects are emerging all the time as scientists, policy-makers, and non-governmental organisations see the value of conducting research in this way. Understanding what factors influence people to take part in citizen science projects and why participants continue their involvement are important questions for the field. Here, we bring together key theories from the volunteering literature with examples from the environmental volunteering and citizen science literature to describe the factors that influence people to start and continue participating in citizen science projects. Good project organisation is key, and project organisers need to consider potential participants’ motivations; their personal attributes, circumstances and demographics; and how they will become aware of the opportunity. We discuss each of these factors with reference to both the academic and the grey (non-academic) literature, and based on this make general recommendations for those designing and running citizen science projects

Facilitated patient experience feedback can improve nursing care: a pilot study for a phase III cluster randomised controlled trial

BACKGROUND: England’s extensive NHS patient survey programme has not fulfilled NHS white paper promises of improvements in patients’ experiences. Impediments to the surveys’ impact may include: surveys not being specific to departments, so staff claim “that doesn’t happen here”; clinicians not knowing how to improve; insufficient understanding of survey methods; delays in communicating survey results; and over-emphasis on data collection per se, rather than using results to improve care. METHODS: Over two years, patient surveys were conducted at four-monthly intervals in 18 wards in two NHS Trusts in England. Wards were randomly allocated to Basic Feedback (ward-level patient survey results including patients’ written comments sent to nurses by letter); Feedback Plus (in addition to letters, ward meetings to discuss results and plan improvements) or Control (no active feedback of survey results). Patient survey responses to survey questions about nursing care were used to compute wards’ average Nursing Care Scores at each survey interval. RESULTS: 4,236 (47%) of the patients surveyed returned questionnaires. Nursing Care Scores improved more for Feedback Plus than Basic Feedback or Control (difference between Control and Feedback Plus = 8.28 ± 7.2 (p = 0.02)). Feedback Plus meetings were effective in engaging nurses, correcting methodological misunderstandings and challenging “excuses”. Patients’ written comments stimulated interest. CONCLUSION: Merely informing nurses of patient survey results in writing does not stimulate improvements, even if results are disaggregated by ward. The addition of ward meetings had a significant impact. Effective patient feedback can be achieved with: validated patient experience surveys; ward-specific results; information that includes a combination of numerical data and patients’ comments; and facilitated ward meetings. This study provides preliminary evidence that facilitated patient feedback can improve patients’ experiences such that a full trial is justified