Sowing the Seeds of a Pre-Service Model of Teacher Education in the Early Twentieth Century.

Our article seeks to describe, analyse and assess the contribution of Margaret Hodge and Harriet C. Newcomb to the training of kindergarten, primary and secondary school teachers in New South Wales at a time of wide-ranging educational reform. These two English teacher educators were recruited to Sydney in 1897 for the purpose of establishing a new training scheme equivalent to the teaching diploma courses offered at the University of Cambridge. In their subsequent work for the Training Board of the NSW Teachers’ Association, reconfiguring training programs for teachers in private schools, as lecturers and examiners in the history and theory of education, and in founding Shirley School and Kindergarten to practically demonstrate their progressive educational philosophy, the pair were at the forefront of moves to abolish the outmoded pupil teacher system and institute a pre-service model of teacher education. Concurrently, they agitated for change by speaking authoritatively in various forums on the broader issue of improved schooling standards through the systematic training of teachers in the science and art of education. On the eve of their return to London after eleven years in Sydney, Margaret and Harriet aptly concluded that if their record was one of “the petty done, the vast undone”, and their appeal for the technical training of teachers so they might constitute themselves into a professional class “premature”, they had “at least sown the seed”.

Sowing the seeds of pre-service model of teacher education in the early twentieth century

Mt Lawley, W.

Development and Testing of an Instrument to Measure Informatics Knowledge, Skills, and Attitudes Among Entry-Level Nursing Students

Informatics competencies in nursing education have long been and continue to be a concern. This article reports on the development and psychometric testing of the Knowledge, Skills, and Attitudes towards Nursing Informatics (KSANI) Scale to measure these constructs among entry-level nursing students. A measurement instrument was developed based on the Quality and Safety Education for Nurses (QSEN) Institute informatics competencies for pre-licensure students (Cronenwett et al., 2007). Survey data were collected from a convenience sample of 300 undergraduate nursing students attending the 2014 Florida Student Nurses Association’s annual convention. The data were subjected to Cronbach’s test to estimate the level of reliability as internal consistency. At 0.90, the alpha for the overall scale exceeded the 0.70 benchmark for acceptability. The scale items were clustered into the intended three factors – knowledge, skills and attitudes – as well as into the added factor of opportunities. The instrument was found to be sound and appropriate for the target population. Nursing informatics combine the disciplines of nursing science, information science, and computer science (McGonigle & Mastrian, 2015). Ever since the time of Florence Nightingale, one of the critical roles of the registered nurse (RN) has been to collect and interpret data to provide safe and effective patient care. Since the early 1980s, informatics competencies in nursing education have been discussed in nursing literature (Staggers, Gassert, & Curran, 2001). In 1992, the American Nurses Association (ANA, 2015) recognized the importance of technology to nursing practice, identifying nursing informatics as a specialty practice. The 1999 Institute of Medicine (IOM) report calling for a safer health care system identified the use information technology (IT) as a key factor toward meeting this goal. In 2010, the IOM published The Future of Nursing, which recommended making technology an essential component of nursing education. Both the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN, 2008) and the National League for Nursing (NLN, 2008) emphasized that knowledge and skills in information management and patient care technology are critical components in nursing education and accreditation. Skiba, Connors, and Jeffries (2008) identified a lack of informatics competencies in nursing education prior to 2008. Since that time, the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) have partnered to support the Quality and Safety Education for Nurses (QSEN) Initiative (AACN, 2016). One of the components of the QSEN Initiative was the development of competencies in various areas including informatics. This research contributes to the development of a reliable and valid instrument based on the QSEN competencies to test the informatics knowledge, skills, and attitudes of current RN students in Florida

Development and Testing of an Instrument to Measure Informatics Knowledge, Skills, and Attitudes Among Entry-Level Nursing Students

Informatics competencies in nursing education have long been and continue to be a concern. This article reports on the development and psychometric testing of the Knowledge, Skills, and Attitudes towards Nursing Informatics (KSANI) Scale to measure these constructs among entry-level nursing students. A measurement instrument was developed based on the Quality and Safety Education for Nurses (QSEN) Institute informatics competencies for pre-licensure students (Cronenwett et al., 2007). Survey data were collected from a convenience sample of 300 undergraduate nursing students attending the 2014 Florida Student Nurses Association’s annual convention. The data were subjected to Cronbach’s test to estimate the level of reliability as internal consistency. At 0.90, the alpha for the overall scale exceeded the 0.70 benchmark for acceptability. The scale items were clustered into the intended three factors – knowledge, skills and attitudes – as well as into the added factor of opportunities. The instrument was found to be sound and appropriate for the target population. Nursing informatics combine the disciplines of nursing science, information science, and computer science (McGonigle & Mastrian, 2015). Ever since the time of Florence Nightingale, one of the critical roles of the registered nurse (RN) has been to collect and interpret data to provide safe and effective patient care. Since the early 1980s, informatics competencies in nursing education have been discussed in nursing literature (Staggers, Gassert, & Curran, 2001). In 1992, the American Nurses Association (ANA, 2015) recognized the importance of technology to nursing practice, identifying nursing informatics as a specialty practice. The 1999 Institute of Medicine (IOM) report calling for a safer health care system identified the use information technology (IT) as a key factor toward meeting this goal. In 2010, the IOM published The Future of Nursing, which recommended making technology an essential component of nursing education. Both the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN, 2008) and the National League for Nursing (NLN, 2008) emphasized that knowledge and skills in information management and patient care technology are critical components in nursing education and accreditation. Skiba, Connors, and Jeffries (2008) identified a lack of informatics competencies in nursing education prior to 2008. Since that time, the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) have partnered to support the Quality and Safety Education for Nurses (QSEN) Initiative (AACN, 2016). One of the components of the QSEN Initiative was the development of competencies in various areas including informatics. This research contributes to the development of a reliable and valid instrument based on the QSEN competencies to test the informatics knowledge, skills, and attitudes of current RN students in Florida

On-Line Diffusion Profile of a Lipophilic Model Dye in Different Depths of a Hair Follicle in Human Scalp Skin

In skin and hair research, drug targeting to the hair follicle is of great interest in the treatment of skin diseases. The aim of this study is to visualize on-line the diffusion processes of a model fluorophore into the hair follicle at different depths using fresh human scalp skin and confocal laser scanning microscopy. Up to a depth of 500 μm in the skin, a fast increase of fluorescence is observed in the gap followed by accumulation of the dye in the hair cuticle. Penetration was also observed via the stratum corneum and the epidermis. Little label reached depths greater than 2000 μm. Fat cells accumulated the label fastest, followed by the cuticular area and the outer root sheath of the hair follicle. Sweat glands revealed very low staining, whereas the bulb at a depth of 4000 μm was visualized only by autofluorescence. From this study, we conclude that on-line visualization is a promising technique to access diffusion processes in deep skin layers even on a cellular level. Furthermore, we conclude that the gap and the cuticle play an important role in the initial diffusion period with the label in the cuticle originating from the gap

PhenoMeter: A Metabolome Database Search Tool Using Statistical Similarity Matching of Metabolic Phenotypes for High-Confidence Detection of Functional Links

This article describes PhenoMeter, a new type of metabolomics database search that accepts metabolite response patterns as queries and searches the MetaPhen database of reference patterns for responses that are statistically significantly similar or inverse for the purposes of detecting functional links. To identify a similarity measure that would detect functional links as reliably as possible, we compared the performance of four statistics in correctly top-matching metabolic phenotypes of Arabidopsis thaliana metabolism mutants affected in different steps of the photorespiration metabolic pathway to reference phenotypes of mutants affected in the same enzymes by independent mutations. The best performing statistic, the PhenoMeter Score (PM Score), was a function of both Pearson correlation and Fisher’s Exact Test of directional overlap. This statistic outperformed Pearson correlation, biweight midcorrelation and Fisher’s Exact Test used alone. To demonstrate general applicability, we show that the PhenoMeter reliably retrieved the most closely functionally-linked response in the database when queried with responses to a wide variety of environmental and genetic perturbations. Attempts to match metabolic phenotypes between independent studies were met with varying success and possible reasons for this are discussed. Overall, our results suggest that integration of pattern-based search tools into metabolomics databases will aid functional annotation of newly recorded metabolic phenotypes analogously to the way sequence similarity search algorithms have aided the functional annotation of genes and proteins. PhenoMeter is freely available at MetabolomeExpress (https://www.metabolome-express.org/phenometer.php)

Coaching Older Adults and Carers

BackgroundFrail older people who are considering movement into residential aged care or returning home following a hospital admission often face complex and difficult decisions. Despite research interest in this area, a recent Cochrane review was unable to identify any studies of interventions to support decision-making in this group that met the experimental or quasi-experimental study design criteria. AimsThis study tests the impact of a multi-component coaching intervention on the quality of preparation for care transitions, targeted to older adults and informal carers. In addition, the study assesses the impact of investing specialist geriatric resources into consultations with families in an intermediate care setting where decisions about future care needs are being made. Method This study was a randomised controlled trial of 230 older adults admitted to intermediate care in Australia. Masked assessment at 3 and 12 months examined physical functioning, health-related quality of life and utilisation of health and aged care resources. A geriatrician and specialist nurse delivered a coaching intervention to both the older person and their carer/family. Components of the intervention included provision of a Question Prompt List prior to meeting with a geriatrician (to clarify medical conditions and treatments, medications, ‘red flags’, end of life decisions and options for future health care) and a follow-up meeting with a nurse who remained in telephone contact. Participants received a printed summary and an audio recording of the meeting with the geriatrician.ConclusionThe costs and outcomes of the intervention are compared with usual care. Trial registration: Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry (ACTRN12607000638437)

Blood transfusion requirements for patients with sarcomas undergoing combined radio- and chemotherapy.

Patients with bony and soft tissue sarcomas may require intensive treatment with chemotherapy and radiotherapy, which often leads to a fall in haemoglobin levels, requiring blood transfusion. There may be advantages in predicting which patients will require transfusion, partly because anaemia and hypoxia may worsen the response of tumours to chemotherapy and radiotherapy. Between 1997 and 2003, a total of 26 patients who received intensive treatment with curative intent were identified. Transfusions were given to maintain the haemoglobin at 10g/dl or above during chemotherapy, and at 12 g/dl or above during radiotherapy. Eighteen (69%) required a transfusion, the majority as a result of both the chemotherapy and RT criteria. There were 78 transfusion episodes, and 181 units of blood given. In the 18 patients who required transfusion, the average number of units was 10.1, but seven patients required more blood than this. The most significant factor influencing blood transfusion was choice of intensive chemotherapy. Intensive chemotherapy and presenting Hb less than 11.6 g/dl identified 13 out of 18 patients who needed transfusion. Adding a drop in haemoglobin of greater than 1.7 g/dl after one cycle of chemotherapy identified 16 out of 18 patients who required transfusion. The seven patients who had heavy transfusion requirements were identified by age 32 or less, intensive chemotherapy and a presenting Hb of 12 g/dl or less. Erythropoietin might be a useful alternative to transfusion in selected patient groups, especially those with heavy transfusion requirements.Peer Reviewe

Prospects for progress on health inequalities in England in the post-primary care trust era : professional views on challenges, risks and opportunities

Background - Addressing health inequalities remains a prominent policy objective of the current UK government, but current NHS reforms involve a significant shift in roles and responsibilities. Clinicians are now placed at the heart of healthcare commissioning through which significant inequalities in access, uptake and impact of healthcare services must be addressed. Questions arise as to whether these new arrangements will help or hinder progress on health inequalities. This paper explores the perspectives of experienced healthcare professionals working within the commissioning arena; many of whom are likely to remain key actors in this unfolding scenario. Methods - Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 42 professionals involved with health and social care commissioning at national and local levels. These included representatives from the Department of Health, Primary Care Trusts, Strategic Health Authorities, Local Authorities, and third sector organisations. Results - In general, respondents lamented the lack of progress on health inequalities during the PCT commissioning era, where strong policy had not resulted in measurable improvements. However, there was concern that GP-led commissioning will fare little better, particularly in a time of reduced spending. Specific concerns centred on: reduced commitment to a health inequalities agenda; inadequate skills and loss of expertise; and weakened partnership working and engagement. There were more mixed opinions as to whether GP commissioners would be better able than their predecessors to challenge large provider trusts and shift spend towards prevention and early intervention, and whether GPs’ clinical experience would support commissioning action on inequalities. Though largely pessimistic, respondents highlighted some opportunities, including the potential for greater accountability of healthcare commissioners to the public and more influential needs assessments via emergent Health & Wellbeing Boards. Conclusions - There is doubt about the ability of GP commissioners to take clearer action on health inequalities than PCTs have historically achieved. Key actors expect the contribution from commissioning to address health inequalities to become even more piecemeal in the new arrangements, as it will be dependent upon the interest and agency of particular individuals within the new commissioning groups to engage and influence a wider range of stakeholders.</p

MICL controls inflammation in rheumatoid arthritis

Acknowledgments We thank G Milne, D MacCallum, S Hardison, G Wilson, C Wallace, S Hadebe and A Richmond for assistance; H. El-Gabalawy for tissues and the animal facility staff for the care of our animals. Flow cytometry was undertaken in the Iain Fraser Cytometry Centre, University of Aberdeen. Funding: GDB was funded by the Wellcome Trust and MRC (UK). AA and CDB are supported by the Arthritis Research UK Tissue Engineering Centre (grant 19429). This study makes use of data generated by the Wellcome Trust Case Control Consortium. A full list of the investigators who contributed to the generation of the data is available from http://www.wtccc.org.uk, and was funded by the Wellcome Trust (076113). MJGF was funded by The Arthritis Society and the Canadian Arthritis Network and J-ML by a scholarship from the Canadian Arthritis Network.Peer reviewedPublisher PD