Medical students' views about an undergraduate curriculum in psychiatry before and after clinical placements

BACKGROUND: It has been suggested that medical students wish to focus their learning in psychiatry on general skills that are applicable to all doctors. This study seeks to establish what aspects of psychiatry students perceive to be relevant to their future careers and what psychiatric knowledge and skills they consider to be important. It is relevant to consider whether these expectations about learning needs vary prior to and post-placement in psychiatry. To what extent these opinions should influence curriculum development needs to be assessed. METHODS: A questionnaire was distributed to medical students before they commenced their psychiatry placement and after they had completed it. The questionnaire considered the relevance of psychiatry to their future careers, the relevance of particular knowledge and skills, the utility of knowledge of psychiatric specialties and the utility of different settings for learning psychiatry. RESULTS: The students felt skills relevant to all doctors, such as assessment of suicide risk, were more important than more specialist psychiatric skills, such as the management of schizophrenia. They felt that knowledge of how psychiatric illnesses present in general practice was important and it was a useful setting in which to learn psychiatry. They thought that conditions that are commonly seen in the general hospital are important and that liaison psychiatry was useful. CONCLUSION: Two ways that medical students believe their teaching can be made more relevant to their future careers are highlighted in this study. Firstly, there is a need to focus on scenarios which students will commonly encounter in their initial years of employment. Secondly, psychiatry should be better integrated into the overall curriculum, with the opportunity for teaching in different settings. However, when developing curricula the need to listen to what students believe they should learn needs to be balanced against the necessity of teaching the fundamentals and principles of a speciality

Water Quality Assessment of River Elemi and Ureje in Ado Ekiti, Nigeri

Water treatment plant is collectively the industrial scale process that makes water more potable or useful by the use of some processes according to the tests and experiments carried out on the water. This project involves the use of surface water. Surface water could be regarded as all inland water permanently or intermittently occurring on the earth surface. The two sources of surface water used are ‘Elemi’ and ‘Ureje’ River. The objectives of this project is to find out the quality of water based on BOD, COD, DO, pH and other water quality parameters and to provide information for engineers to execute the project. The process involved in making these water sample potable are; pretreatment, coagulation, flocculation, sedimentation, filtration and disinfection. In comparing the quality of water from the Elemi River and Ureje River, it can be concluded that Elemi River is better to use for domestic purposes than Ureje River

Auditory verbal hallucinations in first-episode psychosis: a phenomenological investigation

Background In dimensional understanding of psychosis, auditory verbal hallucinations (AVH) are unitary phenomena present on a continuum from non-clinical voice hearing to severe mental illness. There is mixed evidence for this approach and a relative absence of research into subjective experience of AVH in early psychosis. Aims To conduct primary research into the nature of subjective experience of AVH in first-episode psychosis. Method A phenomenological study using diary and photo-elicitation qualitative techniques investigating the subjective experience of AVH in 25 young people with first-episode psychosis. Results AVH are characterised by: (a) entity, as though from a living being with complex social interchange; and (b) control, exerting authority with ability to influence. AVH are also received with passivity, often accompanied by sensation in other modalities. Conclusions A modern detailed phenomenological investigation, without presupposition, gives results that echo known descriptive psychopathology. However, novel findings also emerge that may be features of AVH in psychosis not currently captured with standardised measures

Effectiveness of university-based extension outreach for maize production in southwestern Nigeria

The study was conducted with the purpose of assessing the effectiveness of maize management practices by University-based extension outreach (UBEO) in southwestern Nigeria. 165 outreach beneficiaries were interviewed for the study via structured and pre-tested interview schedule, in the two purposively selected UBEOs using a multistage sampling technique. Data collected were analyzed using descriptive statistical tools such as frequency counts, percentage, mean and standard deviation while inferential statistics such as Chi Square and Pearson Product Moment Correlation were used to test the hypotheses. The mean age of the respondents was 52.4±19.8 and their maize farming experience was 16.4±13.6. Besides, the mean of years in formal education of beneficiaries was 7.4±4.6. Also, 75.6 percent got information about the outreach through their community leaders and they participated to better their lot in life. Many (51.2%) of the respondents have been benefiting for the past 10 years. Besides, maize management practices by UBEOs were appropriate land preparation, seed selection, timely planting and appropriate seed rate among others. The maize yields before and after the management practices were 3.4±1.3 and 4.2±2.1 tons/ hectare respectively, and majority (92.3%) of the maize farmers indicated that the management practices by UBEOs were effective in improving the yield. The findings revealed that at p<0.01, reasons for participation (χ2=31.612) of the respondents had significant association with effectiveness of production technologies. Furthermore, at p<0.01, farming experience (r= 0.503) and years as beneficiaries (r= 0.501) had significant relationship with effectiveness of the management practices; also at p<0.05, age (r=0.322) and years of formal education (r=0.389) of respondents had significant relationship with effectiveness of the management practices. The study concludes that the maize management practices by UBEOs in the study area were effective in improving the capabilities of the beneficiaries. It was recommended that UBEOs be sustained and expanded to cover more rural communities. Keywords: Effectiveness, management practices, university-based extension outreache

Assessment Of The Use Of Autocad Package For Teaching And Learning Engineering Drawing In Afe Babalola University Ado-Ekiti

Drawing is the language of engineers. Drawings encompass the architectural, civil, structural, and mechanical professions, and they are the means of conveying diagrammatic detailed aspects of the design components of a structure. This Study intends to investigate an assessment of the use of AutoCAD package for teaching and learning engineering drawing in Afe Babalola University, Ado-Ekiti in Ekiti State. The investigation was carried out by administering (100) questionnaires to engineering drawing lecturers and Students of the college of engineering in the university. The Findings revealed that there are positive impacts created by AutoCAD package on teachers and Students towards the teaching and learning of AutoCAD package to teach engineering drawing in all the seven programmes in the college. Engineering drawing is done in Nigerian universities, polytechnics and colleges that offer courses in the areas of technical and vocational education (TVE), Architecture, urban and regional planning and engineering. The traditional teaching and learning of technical drawing in most Nigerian universities has been characterized by the use of such manual equipment and materials part of drawing board, dividers, compasses, set-squares, protractors, drawing paper, drawing pen, pencil, scales, and eraser among others. These manual tools and materials make drawing to be more time and energy consuming. Thus, the arrival of the 21st century information and communication technological facilities or technologies presented a more interesting and efficient facilities for the teaching and learning of technical drawing in institutions in Nigeria. The information and communication technologies that are utilized in the teaching and learning of technical drawing include computer hardware and software, computers, projectors, interactive broad, internet, scanners and so on. These are also known as computer assisted drafting/design tools. The details of these technological facilities /technologies are: Hardware : desktop and laptop computers with complete parts as key board, mouse, UPS, digitizing graphic tablet, plotter, digitizing pen, icons, scanners, projector, satellite and V-sat Software: AutoCAD, micro station, solid work, solid edge, Alibre, CATIA, NX, GTX5000, Power point, VRML, CorelDraw, spreadsheet ,graphics, database

Assessment Of The Use Of Autocad Package For Teaching And Learning Engineering Drawing In Afe Babalola University Ado-Ekiti

Drawing is the language of engineers. Drawings encompass the architectural, civil, structural, and mechanical professions, and they are the means of conveying diagrammatic detailed aspects of the design components of a structure. This Study intends to investigate an assessment of the use of AutoCAD package for teaching and learning engineering drawing in Afe Babalola University, Ado-Ekiti in Ekiti State. The investigation was carried out by administering (100) questionnaires to engineering drawing lecturers and Students of the college of engineering in the university. The Findings revealed that there are positive impacts created by AutoCAD package on teachers and Students towards the teaching and learning of AutoCAD package to teach engineering drawing in all the seven programmes in the college. Engineering drawing is done in Nigerian universities, polytechnics and colleges that offer courses in the areas of technical and vocational education (TVE), Architecture, urban and regional planning and engineering. The traditional teaching and learning of technical drawing in most Nigerian universities has been characterized by the use of such manual equipment and materials part of drawing board, dividers, compasses, set-squares, protractors, drawing paper, drawing pen, pencil, scales, and eraser among others. These manual tools and materials make drawing to be more time and energy consuming. Thus, the arrival of the 21st century information and communication technological facilities or technologies presented a more interesting and efficient facilities for the teaching and learning of technical drawing in institutions in Nigeria. The information and communication technologies that are utilized in the teaching and learning of technical drawing include computer hardware and software, computers, projectors, interactive broad, internet, scanners and so on. These are also known as computer assisted drafting/design tools. The details of these technological facilities /technologies are: Hardware : desktop and laptop computers with complete parts as key board, mouse, UPS, digitizing graphic tablet, plotter, digitizing pen, icons, scanners, projector, satellite and V-sat Software: AutoCAD, micro station, solid work, solid edge, Alibre, CATIA, NX, GTX5000, Power point, VRML, CorelDraw, spreadsheet ,graphics, database