Nursing students' experiences and perceptions of an innovative graduate level healthcare grand challenge course: a qualitative study.

Nursing leaders are increasingly required to create and implement innovative solutions to address challenges in the workplace. However, the present-day education of graduate nurses may not adequately prepare them for entrepreneurial approaches to problem solving required in today's complex healthcare environments. To fill this gap, we designed, implemented, and evaluated a Healthcare Grand Challenge course for graduate nurses interested in developing their leadership skills.

Non-Invasive Prenatal Diagnosis of Retinoblastoma Inheritance by Combined Targeted Sequencing Strategies.

Retinoblastoma, the most common childhood eye cancer, presents in two forms: heritable or sporadic. Heritable retinoblastoma is caused by a germline mutation in the gene. Early diagnosis of children at risk of inheriting an mutation is crucial to achieve optimal clinical outcome.

Patient understanding of genetic information influences reproductive decision making in retinoblastoma.

Background: Retinoblastoma is the most common malignant tumour of the eye in childhood, with nearly all bilateral tumours and around 17% to 18% of unilateral tumours due to an oncogenic mutation in the RB1 gene in the germline. Genetic testing enables accurate risk assessment and optimal clinical management for the affected individual, siblings, and future offspring.

Material And Methods: We carried out the first UK-wide audit of understanding of genetic testing in individuals with retinoblastoma.

The Undergraduate Medical and Health Sciences Admissions Test: what is it measuring?

Background: The Undergraduate Medical and Health Sciences Admissions Test (UMAT) is used to select medical students in Australia and New Zealand but empirical evidence of its construct validity has never been reported.

Aims: To identify the underlying constructs assessed in each of the three sections of the UMAT. Based on conclusions from an early qualitative study (Mercer & Chiavaroli 2006), it was expected that Section 1 scores would correlate with scores obtained from standard measures of cognitive ability (verbal and numeric reasoning), Section 2 scores would correlate with emotional intelligence, and Section 3 scores would be most strongly related to abstract or non-verbal reasoning ability.

The effect of commercial coaching on selection test performance.

Aim: To investigate whether commercial coaching affects performance in the Undergraduate Medical and Health Sciences Admission Test (UMAT).

Method: The effect of coaching on the UMAT scores of 402 final high school students applying for medicine was examined using t-tests and multiple regression analyses that controlled for academic performance, high school type and gender.

Results: Over half (56.

Predicting curriculum and test performance at age 11 years from pupil background, baseline skills and phonological awareness at age 5 years.

Background: Phonological awareness tests are amongst the best predictors of literacy and predict outcomes of Key Stage 1 assessment of the National Curriculum in England at age 7. However, it is unknown whether their ability to predict National Curricular outcomes extends to Key Stage 2 assessments given at age 11, or also whether the predictive power of such tests is independent of letter-knowledge. We explored the unique predictive validity of phonological awareness and early literacy measures, and other pupil background measures taken at age 5 in the prediction of English, Maths, and Science performance at age 11.

Phoneme manipulation not onset-rime manipulation ability is a unique predictor of early reading.

Background: Phonological awareness is known to be an excellent predictor of later reading acquisition. It remains unclear, however, whether phoneme manipulation alone best explains this association or whether an additional direct contribution of onset-rime awareness is predictive. This issue is explored here.

Predicting curriculum and test performance at age 7 years from pupil background, baseline skills and phonological awareness at age 5.

Background: Phonological awareness tests are known to be amongst the best predictors of literacy; however their predictive validity alongside current school screening practice (baseline assessment, pupil background data) and to National Curricular outcome measures is unknown.

Aim: We explored the validity of phonological awareness and orthographic measures, the Infant Index baseline assessment (Desforges & Lindsay, 1995), gender, free school dinners, and SEN status taken at age 5 in the prediction of English, Maths, and Science performance in Key Stage 1 of the National Curriculum in England.

Sample: 435 children from nine schools in one Local Educational Authority (LEA) were screened at entry aged 4 or 5, and at 5:8, and age 7.