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Community Practitioners (community + practitioner)

Distribution by Scientific Domains

Medical Sciences	50%

Selected Abstracts

Quality of Life and Disability: An Approach for Community Practitioners

JOURNAL OF APPLIED RESEARCH IN INTELLECTUAL DISABILITIES, Issue 2 2005
Jon Perry
[source]

Emergency Medicine Practitioner Knowledge and Use of Decision Rules for the Evaluation of Patients with Suspected Pulmonary Embolism: Variations by Practice Setting and Training Level

ACADEMIC EMERGENCY MEDICINE, Issue 1 2007
Michael S. Runyon MD
Abstract Background Several clinical decision rules (CDRs) have been validated for pretest probability assessment of pulmonary embolism (PE), but the authors are unaware of any data quantifying and characterizing their use in emergency departments. Objectives To characterize clinicians' knowledge of and attitudes toward two commonly used CDRs for PE. Methods By using a modified Delphi approach, the authors developed a two-page paper survey including 15 multiple-choice questions. The questions were designed to determine the respondents' familiarity, frequency of use, and comprehension of the Canadian and Charlotte rules. The survey also queried the frequency of use of unstructured (gestalt) pretest probability assessment and reasons why physicians choose not to use decision rules. The surveys were sent to physicians, physician assistants, and medical students at 32 academic and community hospitals in the United States and the United Kingdom. Results Respondents included 555 clinicians; 443 (80%) work in academic practice, and 112 (20%) are community based. Significantly more academic practitioners (73%) than community practitioners (49%) indicated familiarity with at least one of the two decision rules. Among all respondents familiar with a rule, 50% reported using it in more than half of applicable cases. A significant number of these respondents could not correctly identify a key component of the rule (23% for the Charlotte rule and 43% for the Canadian rule). Fifty-seven percent of all respondents indicated use of gestalt rather than a decision rule in more than half of cases. Conclusions Academic clinicians were more likely to report familiarity with either of these two specific decision rules. Only one half of all clinicians reporting familiarity with the rules use them in more than 50% of applicable cases. Spontaneous recall of the specific elements of the rules was low to moderate. Future work should consider clinical gestalt in the evaluation of patients with possible PE. [source]

Building strong communities: an evaluation of a neighborhood leadership program in a diverse urban area

JOURNAL OF COMMUNITY PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 8 2009
Cecilia Ayón
The purpose of this study was to describe and evaluate an intervention used to train neighborhood leaders about community organizing and to enhance leadership skills. A mixed-method design was used which included (a) a pre- and posttest assessment of 83 participants, and (b) qualitative descriptive interviews of 33 participants. Over half of the participants in the study were from ethnic minority groups (Latino or Cambodian). At posttest assessment, the participants improved in leadership skills (p=.001) and experience (p=.001) subscales. The qualitative interviews revealed that participants continued to be active in their communities by implementing neighborhood programs or starting community organizations. It is recommended that community practitioners and activists support neighborhood leadership programs to foster growth and enrichment in communities, and researchers/practitioners evaluate these projects with multiple methods to broaden scholarship in this important arena. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [source]

L'ajustement mutuel dans le fonctionnement organique du système multiorganisationnel d'aide et de services aux sans-abri de Montréal

CANADIAN PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION/ADMINISTRATION PUBLIQUE DU CANADA, Issue 1 2009
Alain Dupuis
Sommaire : Notre étude de l'organisation du secteur de l'aide et des services aux sans-abri à Montréal Centre met en lumière un système multiorganisationnel de services de santé et de services sociaux qui n'est pas intégré hiérarchiquement dans son ensemble et qui n'est pas soumis à une « entente de gestion et d'imputabilité» globale propre à une gestion fondée sur la normalisation des résultats. L'étude présente un système d'ensemble de type « organique » plutôt que bureaucratique, largement fondé sur des ajustements mutuels entre les nombreux acteurs publics et « communautaires » de ce secteur. La coordination des services se réalise alors essentiellement dans les interactions entre les intervenants alors qu'ils accomplissent leur travail, et ce avec le soutien des gestionnaires. À l'aide de nombreux extraits d'entrevues, nous étudions le fonctionnement de ce système « organique » sous la forme de trois catégories de processus d'ajustement mutuel qui se superposent et se complètent pour assurer la valeur des services : disjoint unilatéral, conjoint bilatéral et conjoint multilatéral. Selon les sciences de l'organisation, un tel système est potentiellement mieux adaptéà composer avec la complexité des connaissances et des valeurs caractéristiques des services humains, qu'un à système formellement intégré et contrôlé par des règles, des indicateurs et des cibles quantifiables. Abstract: This study of the organization of the sector dedicated to providing aid and services to the homeless in Central Montreal reveals a multiorganizational health and social services system that is neither hierarchically integrated as a whole nor subject to a comprehensive "management and accountability agreement" specific to standardized results-based management. The study details a comprehensive system that is "organic," rather than bureaucratic, and broadly organized based on mutual adjustments among the numerous public and "community" practitioners in this sector. The coordination of services is therefore essentially achieved through the interaction of the workers as they perform their jobs, with the support of management. This study draws on a number of extracts from interviews to examine how this "organic" system operates, in the form of three distinct processes of mutual adjustment that are superimposed and complementary to ensure the value of the services: "unilateral disjoined,""bilateral joined" and "multilateral joined." According to organizational science, this type of system is potentially more likely to address the complexities inherent in the knowledge and values that are characteristic of human services than a formally integrated system that is controlled by rules, indicators and quantifiable targets. [source]