Choosing Midwifery - The perceptions and experiences of Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic applicants to midwifery programmes: A mixed methods study.

Aim: to explore recruitment to UK midwifery programmes from the perspective of applicants from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) groups and describe the perceptions and experiences of the application process for these applicants and those from white backgrounds.

Background: Midwifery in the Global North is an overwhelmingly white profession. This lack of diversity has been cited as a factor in the poorer outcomes experienced by women from non-white backgrounds.

Pharmacists' perceptions on real-time prescription monitoring (RTPM) systems - a cross-sectional survey.

Background: Real-time prescription monitoring (RTPM) systems are an effective tool to help health practitioners monitor opioid use and reduce opioid-related harm but little has been reported about the support required by pharmacists to engage with them effectively in practice.

Objective: To evaluate the current understanding and perceptions of Western Australian pharmacists regarding RTPM systems and opioid-related harm, and investigate their self-reported training and support requirements prior to RTPM system implementation.

Methods: This cross-sectional, prospective study involved an online Qualtrics survey distributed to Western Australian community or hospital pharmacists involved in dispensing and patient-centred roles via local professional pharmacy newsletters and social media.

Factors Associated With Normal Physiologic Birth for Women Who Labor In Water: A Secondary Analysis of A Prospective Observational Study.

Introduction: Research to understand factors associated with normal physiologic birth (unassisted vaginal birth, spontaneous labor onset without epidural analgesia, spinal, or general anesthetic, without episiotomy) is required. Laboring and/or giving birth in water has been shown to be associated with a high proportion of physiologic birth but with little understanding of factors that may influence this outcome. This study explored factors associated with normal physiologic birth for women who labored in water.

Building Research Support Capacity across Human Health Biobanks during the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Human health biobanks are forms of research infrastructure that supply biospecimens and associated data to researchers, and therefore juxtapose the activities of clinical care and biomedical research. The discipline of biobanking has existed for over 20 years and is supported by several international professional societies and dedicated academic journals. However, despite both rising research demand for human biospecimens, and the growth of biobanking as an academic discipline, many individual biobanks continue to experience sustainability challenges.

Trends in Pediatric Candidemia: Epidemiology, Anti-Fungal Susceptibility, and Patient Characteristics in a Children's Hospital.

bloodstream infections (CBSIs) have decreased among pediatric populations in the United States, but remain an important cause of morbidity and mortality. Species distributions and susceptibility patterns of CBSI isolates diverge widely between children and adults. The awareness of these patterns can inform clinical decision-making for empiric or pre-emptive therapy of children at risk for candidemia.

Practice Improvement for Standardized Evaluation and Management of Acute Tracheitis in Mechanically Ventilated Children.

Unlabelled: There is no consensus definition for ventilator-associated tracheitis and limited evidence to guide diagnosis and treatment. To improve acute tracheitis evaluation and management, this quality improvement project aimed to (1) improve the appropriateness of tracheal aspirate cultures while decreasing the number of unnecessary cultures by 20% and (2) decrease antibiotic use for acute tracheitis not consistent with local guidelines by 20% over 12 months among pediatric patients requiring mechanical ventilation.

Methods: All patients admitted to the Medical Intensive Care Unit requiring mechanical ventilation via an artificial airway were included.

Central venous catheter bundle adherence: Kamishibai card (K-card) rounding for central-line-associated bloodstream infection (CLABSI) prevention.

Objective: To institute facility-wide Kamishibai card (K-card) rounding for central venous catheter (CVC) maintenance bundle education and adherence and to evaluate its impact on bundle reliability and central-line-associated bloodstream infection (CLABSI) rates.

Design: Quality improvement project.

Setting: Inpatient units at a large, academic freestanding children's hospital.

Predictors of obstetric anal sphincter injury during waterbirth: a secondary analysis of a prospective observational study.

Introduction And Hypothesis: Obstetric anal sphincter injury (OASI) during childbirth is associated with urino-genital pain and dysfunction. Waterbirth is a popular birth choice for women, but controversy remains around the risk of OASI during waterbirth. This study reports on the incidence of OASI, and factors associated with OASI, for a cohort of women who gave birth in water.

Toward a Synergistic Operating Model for Westmead Research Hub Biobanks: A Questionnaire Study.

Standardization and sustainability are ideals within the biobanking world, and the demand for high-quality well-annotated specimens is growing just as rapidly as the ever-increasing precision and throughput of today's high-tech scientific methods. In the state of New South Wales (NSW) in Australia, the state government has allocated significant funding toward this requirement in recent years, with the launch of the NSW Health Statewide Biobank in central Sydney in 2017, and the introduction of the voluntary NSW Biobank Certification Program, and Consent Toolkit. For new and established biobanks, the influence of these new resources has been twofold: first they have provided valuable guidance for moving toward standardized practices and raising the bar for biobanking quality standards; second, they have brought to the forefront the challenges of sustainability and transitioning to a certification standard of biobanking.

Enhanced central venous catheter bundle for pediatric parenteral-dependent intestinal failure.

Background: Central line-associated bloodstream infections (CLABSIs) cause substantial morbidity and increase antimicrobial use and length of stay among hospitalized children in the United States. CLABSI occurs more frequently among high-risk pediatric patients, such as those with intestinal failure (IF) who are parenteral nutrition (PN) dependent. Following an increase in CLABSI rates, a quality improvement (QI) initiative was implemented.

An Australian Biobank Certification Scheme: A Study of Economic Costs to Participating Biobanks.

Biobanks face increasing demands for research materials of consistent quality, which can be used in collaborative studies. Several countries and some international agencies have made formal efforts to standardize biobank operations and outputs. These include the establishment of best practice guidelines for collection management, and certification programs.

Reducing Redundant Anaerobic Therapy Through Spaced Education and Antimicrobial Stewardship Interventions.

Background: Decreasing the use of redundant anaerobic therapy is a key target for antimicrobial stewardship. Education techniques that optimize knowledge retention could be an important component of reducing these regimens.

Methods: We implemented a quality improvement project that incorporated spaced education to reduce the use of redundant anaerobic therapy.

Is Your Biobank Up to Standards? A Review of the National Canadian Tissue Repository Network Required Operational Practice Standards and the Controlled Documents of a Certified Biobank.

Ongoing quality management is an essential part of biobank operations and the creation of high quality biospecimen resources. Adhering to the standards of a national biobanking network is a way to reduce variability between individual biobank processes, resulting in cross biobank compatibility and more consistent support for health researchers. The Canadian Tissue Repository Network (CTRNet) implemented a set of required operational practices (ROPs) in 2011 and these serve as the standards and basis for the CTRNet biobank certification program.

Evaluation of Control Strategies for Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome (PRRS) in Swine Breeding Herds Using a Discrete Event Agent-Based Model.

The objective of this study was to develop a discrete event agent-based stochastic model to explore the likelihood of the occurrence of porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS) outbreaks in swine herds with different PRRS control measures in place. The control measures evaluated included vaccination with a modified-live attenuated vaccine and live-virus inoculation of gilts, and both were compared to a baseline scenario where no control measures were in place. A typical North American 1,000-sow farrow-to-wean swine herd was used as a model, with production and disease parameters estimated from the literature and expert opinion.

PALB2, CHEK2 and ATM rare variants and cancer risk: data from COGS.

Background: The rarity of mutations in PALB2, CHEK2 and ATM make it difficult to estimate precisely associated cancer risks. Population-based family studies have provided evidence that at least some of these mutations are associated with breast cancer risk as high as those associated with rare BRCA2 mutations. We aimed to estimate the relative risks associated with specific rare variants in PALB2, CHEK2 and ATM via a multicentre case-control study.

Identification of independent association signals and putative functional variants for breast cancer risk through fine-scale mapping of the 12p11 locus.

Background: Multiple recent genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP), rs10771399, at 12p11 that is associated with breast cancer risk.

Method: We performed a fine-scale mapping study of a 700 kb region including 441 genotyped and more than 1300 imputed genetic variants in 48,155 cases and 43,612 controls of European descent, 6269 cases and 6624 controls of East Asian descent and 1116 cases and 932 controls of African descent in the Breast Cancer Association Consortium (BCAC; http://bcac.ccge.

Identification of four novel susceptibility loci for oestrogen receptor negative breast cancer.

Common variants in 94 loci have been associated with breast cancer including 15 loci with genome-wide significant associations (P<5 × 10(-8)) with oestrogen receptor (ER)-negative breast cancer and BRCA1-associated breast cancer risk. In this study, to identify new ER-negative susceptibility loci, we performed a meta-analysis of 11 genome-wide association studies (GWAS) consisting of 4,939 ER-negative cases and 14,352 controls, combined with 7,333 ER-negative cases and 42,468 controls and 15,252 BRCA1 mutation carriers genotyped on the iCOGS array. We identify four previously unidentified loci including two loci at 13q22 near KLF5, a 2p23.

Descriptive analysis and spatial epidemiology of porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS) for swine sites participating in area regional control and elimination programs from 3 regions of Ontario.

The objectives of this study were to describe demographics, basic biosecurity practices, ownership structure, and prevalence of porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS) in swine sites located in 3 regions in Ontario, and investigate the presence of spatial clustering and clusters of PRRS positive sites in the 3 regions. A total of 370 swine sites were enrolled in Area Regional Control and Elimination projects in Niagara, Watford, and Perth from 2010 to 2013. Demographics, biosecurity, and site ownership data were collected using a standardized questionnaire and site locations were obtained from an industry organization.

Prediction of breast cancer risk based on profiling with common genetic variants.

Background: Data for multiple common susceptibility alleles for breast cancer may be combined to identify women at different levels of breast cancer risk. Such stratification could guide preventive and screening strategies. However, empirical evidence for genetic risk stratification is lacking.