Using action research to develop midwives' skills to support women with perinatal mental health needs.

Aims And Objectives: The aim of the research was to identify and develop midwives' skills to support women with mental health needs during pregnancy, using an action research approach.

Background: A review of perinatal mental health services in a large Dublin maternity unit revealed a high number of referred women who 'did not attend' the perinatal mental health service with few guidelines in place to support midwives in identifying and referring women for specialist help.

Design: Action research using cooperative inquiry involved a mental health nurse specialist and a team of midwives, who were drawn to each other in mutual concern about an area of practice.

Human resources: a common-sense discipline.

Being able to hire the right team members, keeping them engaged ina professional and productive environment, and avoiding litigation help keep the team functioning and meeting the everyday goals of providing quality patient care. Although these topics may seem complex, medical providers and professionals have resources available to them, such as the Human Resources department, the Medical Director, senior management,and legal counsel. Hiring the right people, creating a positive work environment, and avoiding litigation are all common sense principals that are relevant regardless of profession, industry, or company.

Integrating observational and experimental approaches to demonstrate causation in stream biomonitoring studies.

Routine biomonitoring of aquatic ecosystems generally is performed with the intent of demonstrating a causal relationship between stressors and responses. However, because it is impossible to eliminate other potential explanations for observed spatiotemporal correlation between stressors and responses, demonstrating causal relationships is highly tenuous in descriptive studies. In this research we show how results of descriptive and experimental approaches can be integrated to demonstrate a causal relationship between heavy metals and benthic community responses in a Rocky Mountain stream (CO, USA).