The report called for the biology community to mobilize around teaching the core concepts of biology. This essay describes a collection of resources developed by several different groups that can be used to respond to the report's call to transform undergraduate education at both the individual course and departmental levels. First, we present two frameworks that help articulate the core concepts, the and the Conceptual Elements (CE) Framework, which can be used in mapping the core concepts onto existing curricula and designing new curricula that teach the biology core concepts.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThis study aimed to discover whether 2-year-olds can socially learn to think divergently. Two-year-olds (N = 22) who saw an experimenter model a high level of divergent thinking on the Unusual Box Test (modelling 25 different actions, once each) went on to demonstrate a higher level of divergent thinking themselves than (N = 22) children who saw a low level of modelling (five different actions, once each), where divergent thinking was measured by the number of different actions children produced that had not been modelled by the experimenter. Additionally, all children in both High and Low Divergence conditions had higher divergent thinking than imitation scores, where imitation involved copying the experimenter's previous actions.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Despite clinical practice guidelines recommending the provision of smoking cessation care to all smokers in hospital, the provision of such care can be sub-optimal. A study was conducted to assess the impact of an intervention on the provision of smoking cessation care to nicotine-dependent smokers across a network of hospitals.
Methods: A 4-year interrupted time series study was undertaken in a single health district in New South Wales, Australia.
Objectives: This study identified smokers' intended use of new quitline features aimed at improving smoking cessation such as having the same quitline advisor for each call, longer-term telephone counselling and provision of additional cessation treatments.
Methods: Smokers who had previously used quitline counselling completed a computer-assisted telephone interview examining intended use of potential quitline enhancements.
Results: The majority of smokers (61.
The implementation of smoke-free policies in inpatient psychiatric facilities, including patient adherence, mental health nursing staff support, and provision of nicotine-dependence treatment to patients, has been reported to be poor. The extent to which the quality of smoke-free policy implementation is associated with patient views of a policy is unknown. We conducted a cross-sectional survey of 181 patients (53.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Although primary care nurse and allied health clinician consultations represent key opportunities for the provision of preventive care, it is provided suboptimally.
Purpose: To assess the effectiveness of a practice change intervention in increasing primary care nursing and allied health clinician provision of preventive care for four health risks.
Design: Two-group (intervention versus control), non-randomized controlled study assessing the effectiveness of the intervention in increasing clinician provision of preventive care.
In the award-winning memory services at Cumbria Partnership NHS Foundation Trust in Carlisle, assistant practitioners are an essential part of the team.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Persons with a mental disorder smoke at higher rates and suffer disproportionate tobacco-related burden compared with the general population. The aim of this study was to determine if a smoking cessation intervention initiated during a psychiatric hospitalization and continued postdischarge was effective in reducing smoking behaviors among persons with a mental disorder.
Methods: A randomized controlled trial was conducted at an Australian inpatient psychiatric facility.
The new patient support assistant role showed one ward how much they had been missing, says Jenny Knight.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: Smoke-free policies have been introduced in inpatient psychiatric facilities in most developed nations. Such a period of supported abstinence during hospitalization may impact smoking behaviours post discharge, yet little quantitative evidence exists. The aim of this review was to provide the first synthesis of the research evidence examining the impact of a smoke-free psychiatric hospitalization on patients' smoking-related behaviours, motivation, and beliefs.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMarch 3 marks the second NHS Change Day, which aims to inspire and encourage staff and the public to pledge to do something to improve care.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRhiannon Beaumont-Wood was appointed the first ever director of nursing for Public Health Wales in April. She hopes the role will raise the profile of nurses and midwives, highlighting their contribution to improving health outcomes for the people of Wales.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: People with a mental illness experience substantial disparities in health, including increased rates of morbidity and mortality caused by potentially preventable chronic diseases. One contributing factor to such disparity is a higher prevalence of modifiable health risk behaviors, such as smoking, inadequate fruit and vegetable intake, harmful alcohol consumption, and inadequate physical activity. Evidence supports the effectiveness of preventive care in reducing such risks, and guidelines recommend that preventive care addressing such risks be incorporated into routine clinical care.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Understanding the characteristics of smokers who enroll in a trial of quitline support and those who decline could guide recruitment approaches and service delivery to better engage smokers and increase successful quitting. However, it is unknown whether factors such as smokers' perceived effectiveness of using quitting aids or self-exempting beliefs are associated with quitline uptake. We compared the sociodemographic characteristics, smoking behaviours, perceived effectiveness of using quitting aids, and self-exempting beliefs of participants and nonparticipants who were actively telephoned and offered quitline support as part of a randomized controlled trial.
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