An overview of the nature of the preparation of practice educators in five health care disciplines

Practice education is a core element of all educational programmes that prepare health care professionals for academic award and registration to practice. Ensuring quality and effectiveness involves partnership working between Higher Education Institutions (HEI’s) and health care providers, social care communities, voluntary and independent sectors offering client care throughout the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland. Clearly practitioners who support, supervise and assess learners for entry to their respective professions need to be well prepared and supported in their roles as practice educators. However it would appear that the nature of this support and preparation varies across disciplines and that good practice is not easily shared. With this in mind, the Making Practice Based Learning Work (MPBLW) project aims to make practitioners more effective at supporting and supervising students in the workplace across a range of health care disciplines namely Dietetics, Nursing, Occupational Therapy, Physiotherapy and Radiology. The Department of Employment and Learning (Northern Ireland) and the Higher Education Funding Council for England has funded this collaborative project involving staff from Ulster, Northumbria and Bournemouth Universities. The outcomes for each phase of the project are: Phase One: • Identify and document good practice on how practitioners are prepared for their educational role. Phase Two: • Develop and evaluate learning materials for use by practitioners across five health care disciplines. • Make learning materials available in a number of efficient media, e.g. paper, electronic, CD-ROM and web-based. • Develop a programme applicable to interprofessional and uniprofessional contexts. • Widen access for a multicultural workforce. Phase Three: • Embed best educational practice through the establishment of an academicpractitioner network. • Disseminate a range of materials and processes across the wider academic and health and social care communities

Nursing knowledge and practice

Background to Nursing Knowledge & Practice in contemporary health and social care system

Nursing knowledge and practice: foundations for decision making [3rd edition]

Nursing knowledge and practice is a comprehensive textbook which forms an ideal basis for foundation nursing students. The core emphasis in the organisation and presentation of knowledge in this third edition remains focused on the in-depth knowledge required by nurses to deliver care in the practice setting. The chapter contents encompass knowledge that applies to all branches of nursing e.g. Communication, Confusion, Aggression and Rehabilitation Safety and Risk, Infection Control, Medicines etc. The structure of all chapters is unique in integrating knowledge from subject areas often taught separately in the nursing curriculum. This enables the foundation student to integrate this range of knowledge in making decisions about the delivery of nursing care to patients/clients in all fields of nursing. Exercises are included to encourage reflection on practice and develop critical thinking skills. It also promotes the expansion of professional knowledge through the development of portfolio evidence. Building on the outstanding success of previous editions the authors have drawn extensively on current best evidence, including research, policy and substantial internet based resources, reflecting UK and international perspectives. Show More Show Les

Inspiring confidence in new nurses.

During the 1990s, a number of studies sought to identify outcomes of the Project 2000 diploma in higher education programmes (May et al, 1997). Findings suggested that although diplomates exhibited high levels of knowledge, they lacked confidence and ability in performing clinical skills during the early months of their first staff nurse posts (Runciman et al, 2000)

Targeted Genomic signature profiling with Quasi-alignment statistics

Genome databases continue to expand with no change in the basic format of sequence data. The prevalent use of the Classic alignment based search tools like BLAST have significantly pushed the limits of Genome Isolate research. The relatively new frontier of Metagenomic research deals with thousands of diverse genomes with newer demands beyond the current homologue search and analysis. Compressing sequence data into a complex form could facilitate a broader range of sequence analyses. To this end, this research explores reorganizing sequence data as complex Markov signatures also known as Extensible Markov Models. Markov models have found successful application in Biological Sequence analysis applications through small, but important extensions to the original theory of Markov Chains. Extensible Markov Model (EMM) offers a novel Quasi-alignment complement to the classic alignment based homologous sequence search methods like BLAST. EMM based BioInformatic analysis (EMMBA) incorporates automatic learning which allows the Markov chain creation dynamically. Oligonucletide or Genomic word frequencies form the core sequence data in alignment free methods. EMMBA extends the Karlin-Altschul statistics to bring forth an analogous E-Score statistical significance to the Quasi-alignment domain. By consolidating a community of sequences into a single searchable profile, EMM methodology further reduces the search space for classification. Through dynamic generation of the score matrix for each community profile, EMMBA fine tunes the score assignments. Each evaluation iteratively adjusts the profile score matrix to account for point probabilities of the query to ensure Karlin-Altschul assumptions are satisfied to derive meaningful statistical significance. The presence of multiple Quasi-alignments resembles multiple local alignments of BLAST. Quasi-alignments are scored based on a difference distribution of Gumbel scores. Species signature profiles allow for statistical validation of novel species identification. Working in EMM transformation space speeds up classification and generates distance matrix for differentiation. The techniques and metrics presented are validated using the microbial 16s rRNA sequence data from NCBI

Supporting the midwifery practice-based curriculum: the role of the link lecturer

BACKGROUND: It is essential that Approved Education Institutions (AEIs) support practice learning to the education standards required by the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC, 2009). Evaluating whether midwife lecturers bring a unique contribution to the outcomes of preregistration midwifery education programmes was investigated through a national research project (Fraser et al., 2011). The study task addressed in this paper was to establish which roles and responsibilities of lecturers have most impact on student learning and capability as midwives and provide best support for mentors' teaching and assessment decisions. METHODS: Data were collected through United Kingdom (UK) wide survey of Lead Midwives for Education, midwife lecturers and questionnaires and focus groups of student midwives from six case study sites. An activity analysis tool was completed by lecturers in these sites, as well as individual interviews with LMEs and Programme Leads. FINDINGS: The nature of midwife lecturers' engagement with practice is variable and is determined by the particular organisation model used. There is an overall agreement that midwife lecturers have a vital role in supporting the practice based curriculum. Key findings highlight the link lecturer role in supporting students, participating in assessments, supporting mentors and maintaining clinical credibility. Enhancements and deterrents to undertaking the link role are also outlined. These findings are relevant to health care programmes worldwide where clinical practice is an essential component. Implications: contribution to knowledge development about models to support and enhance practice-based learning