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Government Reports (government + report)
Selected AbstractsAddiction research centres and the nurturing of creativity: Centre for Social Research on Alcohol and Drugs (SoRAD), Stockholm University, SwedenADDICTION, Issue 3 2010Kerstin Stenius ABSTRACT The Centre for Social Research on Alcohol and Drugs (SoRAD) was established as a national research centre and department within the Faculty of Social Science at Stockholm University in 1997, following a Government Report and with the aim to strengthen social alcohol and drug research. Initially, core funding came from the Swedish Council for Working Life and Social Research and from the Ministry of Health and Social Affairs for several long-term projects. Today, SoRAD, with 25 senior and junior researchers, has core funding from the university but most of its funding comes from external national and international grants. Research is organized under three themes: consumption, problems and norms, alcohol and drug policy and societal reactions, treatment and recovery processes. SoRADs scientific approach, multi-disciplinarity, a mix of qualitative and quantitative methods and international comparisons was established by the centre's first leader, Robin Room. Regular internal seminars are held and young researchers are encouraged to attend scientific meetings and take part in collaborative projects. SoRAD researchers produce government-funded monthly statistics on alcohol consumption and purchase, and take part in various national government committees, but SoRADs research has no clear political or bureaucratic constraints. One of the future challenges for SoRAD will be the proposed system for university grants allocation, where applied social science will have difficulties competing with basic biomedical research if decisions are based on publication and citation measures. [source] Systematic review of interventions in the management of overweight and obese children which include a dietary componentINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF EVIDENCE BASED HEALTHCARE, Issue 1 2007Clare E Collins PhD BSc Dip Nutr Diet Dip Clin Epi APD Background, The prevalence of overweight and obesity in children and adolescents is increasing at an alarming rate around the world and prevention has become a key public health objective. Treatment and management of those already overweight and obese must be aligned with the best available evidence on effectiveness, if the risk of obesity-related morbidity and mortality is yet be reduced. Diet plays a pivotal role in successful treatment of obesity but to date, there is limited evidence on which to base practice. Objectives, To identify and present the best available evidence on the optimal dietetic treatment and management of children and adolescent who are overweight or obese. Search strategy, Published English language literature was searched using the electronic databases CINAHL, MEDLINE, PRE-MEDLINE, DARE, COCHRANE, EMBASE, AUSTROM, Current Concepts and Dissertation Abstracts. The databases were limited to English Language from 1975 until 2003. Government reports from the UK, USA and Australian were also searched and a hand search performed for the Journal of the Dietitians Association of Australia, International Journal of Obesity and the Journal of Human Nutrition and Dietetics and the bibliographies of retrieved articles. Selection criteria, (i) Interventions that evaluated the effectiveness of nutrition or dietary interventions to treat or manage overweight and obesity; (ii) Children aged less than 18 years; and (iii) Participants were defined as overweight or obese by relative weight or a measure of body weight status, studies that reported body weight per se were excluded. Data collection and analysis, An experienced professional librarian searched the databases, and two trained research assistants independently identified studies for retrieval and assessed each article for inclusion. The included studies were critically appraised for methodological quality by two people independently. Data were extracted from the appropriate articles and when a discrepancy arose, a third party would arbitrate. Main results, There were 116 articles that met the inclusion criteria. While 49 articles described randomised controlled trials, they arose from 37 separate studies. There were 67 non-randomised trials. Meta-analyses were performed on eight studies that included both a dietary intervention component and an adequate control group and on four studies that had follow-up data. There was a high degree of heterogeneity between studies and this made comparisons between studies problematic. Interventions that include diet therapy generally result in significant weight loss, at least in the short term. Many studies were poorly designed and had no or only minimal follow up. The details of the dietary intervention were often inadequately described and dietary outcomes rarely reported, making repetition of the studies difficult. Reviewers' conclusions, There is an urgent need for high quality studies investigating the optimal dietary approach to management of paediatric overweight and obesity. These studies require adequate follow up to ascertain if weight loss can be sustained in the long term. Details of the dietary prescription, adherence to the dietary intervention and diet-specific outcomes need to be reported in order to inform best practice. [source] Clinical education facilitators: a literature reviewJOURNAL OF CLINICAL NURSING, Issue 6 2005Veronica Lambert BNS Aims and objectives., The aim of this literature review, set within an Irish context, is to present a broad overview of former and existing clinical support personnel, explore the concept of facilitation and examine what is known about the role of the clinical education facilitator. Background., The importance of providing a supportive clinical environment to enhance clinical teaching and learning is strongly portrayed in the literature. While the past two decades have borne witness to various clinical support personnel, the literature identifies conflicting demands that these personnel face. No suggestions are advanced as to how to overcome these difficulties, which inevitably influence the quality and quantity of their clinical teaching role. An identifiable gap exists over who has prime responsibility for clinical teaching. It is timely that alternative possibilities for organizing clinical teaching are investigated. A new post emerging in practice settings is that of the clinical education facilitator who is meant to be the key linchpin in clinical areas for reducing the theory,practice gap. Method., Relevant literature for this review was sourced using the computerized databases CINAHL, Medline and Synergy. Manual searching of relevant nursing journals and sourcing of secondary references extended the search. Government reports and other relevant documents were obtained through pertinent websites. Results., Papers that explicitly examined the concept of facilitation and explored the posts of clinical education facilitators were included; six research papers were accessed and reviewed. In addition seven non-empirical papers were included. Conclusions., It is clear that considerable lack of role clarity resides over what constitutes clinical facilitation and the role of the clinical facilitator. Thus, it is paramount to strengthen this support role with Irish empirical evidence. Relevance to clinical practice., A major advantage in having a ward-based clinical education facilitator is the benefit of having access to someone who can concentrate solely on clinical education and support with attempts to narrow the theory,practice divide. [source] Relationship marketing, audience retention and performing arts organisation viabilityINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF NONPROFIT & VOLUNTARY SECTOR MARKETING, Issue 2 2002Ruth Rentschler Marketing strategy in performing arts organisations has become particularly important in the increasingly competitive environment in which the arts operate. Since the late 1980s there has been a necessary shift in focus to audience development away from product development. This change in focus is being encouraged to ensure the long-term viability of performing arts organisations (PAOs) and micro-economic reform. While government reports have recommended strategies aimed at building audience-based recognition, this is an expensive approach for many PAOs and does not produce short-term returns. Little attention has been paid to building enduring relationships with existing audiences as a way of having a more dramatic impact on PAOs' long-term viability. This paper explores this theme through relationship marketing and the implication of retaining existing audiences. The paper identifies the changing cultural environment which has led to the importance of marketing. It then explains the concepts of relationship marketing and its pertinence to PAOs' viability by presenting a loyalty ladder. The structure is modelled as a dynamic conceptualisation of the relationships (audience and organisation) to assist arts managers to decide whether to focus their efforts on catching or keeping customers to maximise earned income. Copyright © 2002 Henry Stewart Publications [source] Environmental Nursing Diagnoses for Aggregates and CommunityINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF NURSING TERMINOLOGIES AND CLASSIFICATION, Issue 1 2001Pauline M. Green PhD PURPOSE. To describe the application of group-appropriate methods to derive actual nursing diagnoses for a community. METHODS. A triangulation method using multiple sources of data, including an environmental survey, fish consumption survey, government reports, publications, and community assessments FINDINGS. Three priority community environmental nursing diagnoses for aggregates within the community: Knowledge deficit among community residents related to lack of awareness of contaminants in the Anacostia River; "risk for adverse human health effects" among pregnant and nursing women and preschoolers related to consumption of chemically contaminated fish; and knowledge deficit among community residents related to lack of awareness of health effects of consuming chemically contaminated fish. CONCLUSIONS. The diagnoses serve as the basis for community education and other interventions. The methods are practical and useful for this type of research. PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS. The nursing profession is experiencing a growing awareness of the close relationship between environmental health and the health of individuals and communities. There is a need for diagnostic labels to describe the responses of aggregates and communities to environmental hazards and conditions. [source] Nursing competence 10 years on: fit for practice and purpose yet?JOURNAL OF CLINICAL NURSING, Issue 10 2008Ann Bradshaw PhD, Dip N Aims and objectives., This paper examines how nurses are prepared to be clinically competent and safe at registration, so that they are fit for practice and purpose. It follows up two papers on competence published in 1997 and 1998 and investigates subsequent developments. Background., In 1979, major changes in nursing affected nurse education and preparation for competence. In the following two decades, it became clear that nurses lacked clinical skills. This paper examines subsequent changes and asks the question whether this crucial shortcoming has now been remedied. This paper considers the background and context of change in nursing and nurse education in the 1980s. It looks at the new ideology, to prepare the ,knowledgeable doer' and examines the consequences of the change on nursing competency from the 1990s to the present day. Methods., This is a position paper. Professional policy documents from the English National Board for Nursing, Midwifery and Health Visiting, United Kingdom Central Council for Nursing, Midwifery and Health Visiting and Nursing and Midwifery Council, government reports and legislation on nursing and relevant nursing literature are examined and critically analysed and conclusions drawn. Conclusions., From 1923,1977, mandatory nursing syllabuses set by the General Nursing Council of England and Wales required the registered nurse to have acquired certain specific clinical skills. These were rigorously tested to an explicit standard set by the General Nursing Council before a nurse was awarded state registration. Twenty-five years later, the loss of this system for ensuring this competence and the implications of this loss, have been widely recognised. As a result, many nurse training institutions have introduced clinical skills laboratories, simulation of practice and the Objective Structured Clinical Examination. However, to the authors' surprise and contrary to their initial expectations, the Nursing and Midwifery Council has not made these systems uniform or mandatory and so still has no way of ensuring all nurse training is producing safe nurses in the United Kingdom. The authors conclude that the untested educational ideology that brought root and branch change to nurse training in 1983 and which failed to produce nurses ,fit for practice and purpose' may still prevail. Relevance to clinical practice., The present paper demonstrates that United Kingdom nurse training still has no uniform and mandatory system in place to ensure, as far as is possible, that all registered nurses are clinically competent and safe to practice. [source] Using surveillance data to promote occupational health and safety policies and practice at the state level: A case study,,AMERICAN JOURNAL OF INDUSTRIAL MEDICINE, Issue 2 2010Geoffrey M. Calvert MD Abstract Background Following the investigation of a birth defects cluster involving migrant farmworkers employed in North Carolina and Florida, it became clear that greater efforts were needed to protect agricultural workers from pesticide exposure. Methods Documentation is drawn from peer-reviewed published articles, government reports and news accounts. Results The birth defects cluster was identified and investigated by state and federal pesticide poisoning surveillance system staff. Following the investigation, efforts were initiated to highlight pesticides as an important public health issue needing more attention. A series of subsequent events led to the creation and passage of important legislation recently enacted in North Carolina. The legislation resulted in funding to promote various activities to prevent harm from pesticides including strengthening surveillance, improving the quality of pesticide compliance inspections, and increasing and improving pesticide safety training. The legislation also broadened the coverage of anti-retaliation rules to include agricultural workers, and increased recordkeeping requirements pertaining to pesticide applications. Conclusion The important and positive impacts that can occur through surveillance activities are highlighted. As such, it is important to continue to support and improve occupational illness and injury surveillance programs. Am. J. Ind. Med. 53:188,193 2010. Published 2009 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source] An overview of cancer and beliefs about the disease in Indigenous people of Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the USAUSTRALIAN AND NEW ZEALAND JOURNAL OF PUBLIC HEALTH, Issue 2 2009Shaouli Shahid Abstract Objective: Cancer among Indigenous populations in the developed world appears to have increased over past few decades. This article explores issues related to cancer among the Indigenous populations of Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the US and examines variations in the epidemiology, Indigenous peoples' perceptions about cancer and potential effects on care-seeking behaviour. Methods: A search of peer-reviewed journal articles, government reports, published and unpublished theses and other grey literature was undertaken using electronic databases and citation snowballing. Both epidemiological and qualitative studies were included. Results: Cancer in Indigenous populations in these four countries is characterised by high incidence and mortality rates for specific cancers and lower survival rates as a result of late diagnosis, lower participation and poorer compliance with treatment. A higher prevalence of many cancer risk factors occurs across these populations. Fear of death, fatalism, payback, shame and other spiritual and cultural issues are reported in the few qualitative studies examining Indigenous beliefs and understanding of cancer which undoubtedly influences participation in cancer screening and treatment. Conclusions and implications: The holistic approach (physical, mental, emotional and spiritual) to healing and well-being, and the concept that individual, family and community are inseparable underpin Indigenous care-seeking behaviour. Further community-based research is needed to increase understanding of the needs of Indigenous people with cancer, and to guide policy and practice towards more supportive and effective care. [source] | ||||||||||