Employment opportunities for technical communicators in East Tennessee, 2001

This study was initiated to reveal employment opportunities for technical communicators in the Knoxville-Oak Ridge, Tennessee area. Two methods were used to accomplish this goal: a telephone survey of area businesses to determine whether or not they hired or currently employed technical communicators; and an e-mail survey of practitioners to identify workplace realities for technical communicators in our geographic area. The results of the telephone survey suggest that there are fewer companies that employ technical communicators on a permanent basis when compared to a similar survey conducted ten years earlier, but more companies willing to hire technical communicators on a contract basis. The companies that do employ technical communicators tend to be scientifically or technologically based. Results from the e-mail survey indicate that technical communicators still need strong writing and editing skills, along with the ability to communicate effectively in group or task meetings to perform well in their positions. Technical communicators also perform well in their jobs if they have strong organizational skills and some background in science, technology or business. From the findings shown above, technical communicators in our area need to be able to fashion themselves as contract employees if necessary, and need to have strong writing, editing, and communication skills to thrive in the current business climate

Creating Inclusive 4-H Environments for People with Disabilities

The purpose of a 4-year 4-H Inclusion Project conducted in North Carolina was to create intentionally inclusive 4-H environments and engage communities to address the needs of people with disabilities. In year one an experiential curriculum, Shine Up and Step Out, was developed for youth ages 9 to 12 years. In the next 3 years, selected counties used the curriculum and developed training and resource opportunities. A summative evaluation showed how the county projects were successful and offered recommendations about the curriculum, statewide inclusion opportunities, program and policy, community involvement, and ongoing implementation and evaluation

Parents' experiences of initiation of paediatric advance care planning discussions: A qualitative study

Advance care planning enables parents to discuss their goal and wishes for the future treatment and care of their life-limited or life-threatened child. Whilst research has identified the barriers clinicians face to initiate such discussions, the views of the parents have received scant attention. This qualitative study, using reflexive thematic analysis, aimed to explore parents’ experience of the initiation of their child’s advance care planning discussions, to help provide an understanding to inform future practice. Single interviews were undertaken with 17 non-bereaved and bereaved parents. Parents reported they had engaged with future thinking but needed time before initiating this with clinicians. They identified the need for a trusted professional and time for private, thorough, non-judgemental discussion without feeling clinicians were ‘giving up’. Parents reported that advance care planning discussions were not always aligned to the dynamics of family life. They felt that health professionals were responsible for initiating advance planning conversations according to the families’ individual requirements. There was an apparent lack of standardised protocols to assist paediatric advance care planning discussion initiation. Conclusion: Initiating advance care planning is a complicated process that needs to be tailored to the specific parent and child situation. Health professionals need to appreciate that parents are key contributors to initiate engagement with advance care planning discussions but that they also require support and care, recognising this may facilitate the building of trust, identified as a key corner stone, of paediatric advance care planning initiation and engagement. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s00431-021-04314-6

Community acceptance and implementation of HIV prevention interventions for injection drug users

In 1997, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) reviewed evidence of the effectiveness of HIV prevention programs for injection drug users (IDUs) and recommended that three types ofinterventions be implemented to prevent transmission of HIV among IDUs: 1) community-based outreach, 2) expanded syringe access (including needle exchange programs [NEP] and pharmacy sales), and 3) drug treatment. Progress on increasing the acceptance and feasibility of implementing these programs has been made at the national level, but their implementation has been varied at the local level.Understanding the conditions under which communities accept and implement interventions can help guide effective strategies to foster the implementation of these interventions in areas where programs do not currently exist

Academic Libraries 2014: Understanding the Diverse Grant-seeking Needs of Our Faculty

With Federal and State governments divestment from higher education research expanding over the last decade and sequestration impacts hitting the funding streams of major Federal funding agencies this year, many faculty across all disciplines are scrambling to find alternative sources of funding. Who are the major stakeholders within our campus landscapes, and how can the Library collaborate with stakeholders to insure faculty have access to the necessary tools and resources to find funding for their research, programmatic efforts and creative endeavors? How can academic libraries facilitate effective access to and use of information around grant funding for faculty use across disciplines? During the summer and fall of 2013, two University of Michigan librarians conducted interviews with faculty from the health sciences, the arts and humanities, social sciences, sciences and engineering to better understand the changing grants landscape, its intersection with research at our university, and how faculty undertake their grant-seeking activities. Wanting to know more about how grant-seeking fits into the overall research life-cycle, what resources and tools faculty utilize, and who they talk with about their grant needs, the librarians found some interesting trends and some disturbing truths.This poster compares traditional and emerging trends in grant-seeking across the disciplines at the University of Michigan. We also present a model containing the funding stakeholders, and potential ways for librarians to more closely collaborate with faculty grant-seekers.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/107043/1/MLA2014PosterHandout.pdfhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/107043/2/MLA14_GrantsAssess_Poster v3.pd

Differences between mothers and fathers of young children in their Use of the internet to support healthy family lifestyle behaviors : Cross-sectional study

Background: In early life, both mothers and fathers are important influences on their children’s diet, active play, and obesity risk. Parents are increasingly relying on the internet and social media as a source of information on all aspects of parenting. However, little is known about the use of Web-based sources of information relevant to family lifestyle behaviors and, in particular, differences between mothers’ and fathers’ use and sociodemographic predictors. Objective: The objective of this study was to examine if mothers and fathers differ in their use of the internet for information on their own health and their child’s health, feeding, and playing and to examine sociodemographic predictors of the use of the internet for information on these topics. Methods: We conducted a secondary analysis on data collected from mothers (n=297) and fathers (n=207) participating in the extended Infant Feeding, Activity and Nutrition Trial (InFANT Extend) when their children were 36 months of age. The main outcome variables were the use of the internet for information gathering for parents’ own health and child health, feeding, and playing. Binary logistic regression was used to examine the sociodemographic predictors of outcomes. Results: Compared with fathers (n=296), a higher proportion of mothers (n=198) used the internet for information on their own health (230, 78.5% vs 93, 46.5%), child health (226, 77.1% vs 84, 42.4%), child feeding (136, 46.3% vs 35, 17.5%), and child play (123, 42.1% vs 28, 14.0%) and intended to use Facebook to connect with other parents (200, 74.9% vs 43, 30.5%). Despite the high use of the internet to support family health behaviors, only 15.9% (47/296) of mothers reported consulting health practitioners for advice and help for their own or their child’s weight, diet, or physical activity. Sociodemographic predictors of internet use differed between mothers and fathers and explained only a small proportion of the variance in internet use to support healthy family lifestyle behaviors. Conclusions: Our findings support the use of the internet and Facebook as an important potential avenue for reaching mothers with information relevant to their own health, child health, child diet, and active play. However, further research is required to understand the best avenues for engaging fathers with information on healthy family lifestyle behaviors to support this important role in their child’s life. Trial Registration: ISRCTN Registry ISRCTN81847050; http://www.isrctn.com/ISRCTN8184705