Many Items (many + item)

Distribution by Scientific Domains


Selected Abstracts


Validation of core medical knowledge by postgraduates and specialists

MEDICAL EDUCATION, Issue 9 2005
Franciska Koens
Background, Curriculum constructors and teachers must decide on the content and level of objectives and materials included in the medical curriculum. At University Medical Centre Utrecht it was decided to test relatively detailed knowledge at a regular level in study blocks and to design a progress test aimed at the medical core knowledge that every graduating doctor should possess. This study was conducted to validate the level of knowledge tested in this progress test. Aim, We designed a questionnaire to investigate whether postgraduate trainees and experienced specialists agree with item writers on what is required core knowledge. Methods, Postgraduates and specialists received a questionnaire with 80 items designed to test core knowledge. Respondents were asked to indicate to what extent the items actually represented the core knowledge required of a recently graduated medical student. Results, Of the clinical questions, 82.4% were judged to reflect core knowledge, whereas only 42.4% of the basic science questions were judged to reflect core knowledge. There was a strikingly high correlation on the mean judgements per item of postgraduate trainees versus medical specialists (r = 0.975). Conclusion, Many items, written to reflect core knowledge, appear to be judged by postgraduates and clinicians as pertaining to non-core knowledge. Postgraduate trainees appear to be as capable as experienced specialists of making judgements regarding core knowledge. Fewer basic science items are regarded as core knowledge than clinical items. This may suggest that, specifically, basic science teachers do not agree with physicians on what is to be considered medical core knowledge for graduating doctors. [source]


Ratio estimators in adaptive cluster sampling

ENVIRONMETRICS, Issue 6 2007
Arthur L. Dryver
Abstract In most surveys data are collected on many items rather than just the one variable of primary interest. Making the most use of the information collected is a issue of both practical and theoretical interest. Ratio estimates for the population mean or total are often more efficient. Unfortunately, ratio estimation is straightforward with simple random sampling, but this is often not the case when more complicated sampling designs are used, such as adaptive cluster sampling. A serious concern with ratio estimates introduced with many complicated designs is lack of independence, a necessary assumption. In this article, we propose two new ratio estimators under adaptive cluster sampling, one of which is unbiased for adaptive cluster sampling designs. The efficiencies of the new estimators to existing unbiased estimators, which do not utilize the auxiliary information, for adaptive cluster sampling and the conventional ratio estimation under simple random sampling without replacement are compared in this article. Related result shows the proposed estimators can be considered as a robust alternative of the conventional ratio estimator, especially when the correlation between the variable of interest and the auxiliary variable is not high enough for the conventional ratio estimator to have satisfactory performance. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]


Research use in the care of older people: a survey among healthcare staff

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF OLDER PEOPLE NURSING, Issue 3 2006
Anne-Marie Boström MSc
Background., Sweden has one of the largest proportions of older people in the world. To manage the healthcare needs of an aging population, there has been an alteration from hospital care to community-based care. In these settings, the majority of staff is enrolled nurses (EN) and nurse aides (NA) without university education. Aim and design., The overall aim of this cross-sectional survey was to explore staff perceptions of factors related to research utilization in the care of older people. Method., Questionnaires covering research utilization and demographics were sent to all staff (n = 132) working in seven units in older people care. The response rate was 67% (n = 89). The respondents consisted of ENs/NAs (n = 63), Registered Nurses (RN) and rehabilitation professionals (RP) as physiotherapists and occupational therapists (RN/RP n = 26). Results., Most of staff reported positive attitudes towards research. The RNs/RPs stated more often than the ENs/NAs that they wanted to base their practice on research (81% vs. 25%; P = 0.001). The RNs/RPs also reported a greater extent of research use in daily practice (54% vs. 17%; P = 0.001). Support from colleagues (77% vs. 22%; P < 0.001) and unit managers (73% vs. 10%; P < 0.001) for implementing research findings was also more frequently reported by the RNs/RPs compared with the ENs/NAs. The majority of the ENs/NAs stated Do not know on many items concerning attitudes towards research, support for research utilization and actual use of research. Conclusions., Despite overall positive attitudes towards research, the majority of staff did not use research findings in daily practice. This was particularly valid for the EN/NA group. Relevance to clinical practice., There is an urgent need for managers and others in the care of older people to develop strategies for implementing evidence-based practice that involves the EN/NA group. [source]


What Defines a Transplant Surgeon?

AMERICAN JOURNAL OF TRANSPLANTATION, Issue 3 2010
A Needs Assessment for Curricular Development in Transplant Surgery Fellowship Training
This study compares the perceptions of transplant surgery program directors (PDs) and recent fellowship graduates (RFs) regarding the adequacy of training and relevancy to practice of specific curricular content items in fellowship training. Surveys were sent to all American Society of Transplant Surgery approved fellowship PDs and all RFs in practice <5 years. For operative procedures, the RFs considered the overall training to be less adequate than the PDs (p = 0.0117), while both groups considered the procedures listed to be relevant to practice (p = 0.8281). Regarding nonoperative patient care items, although RFs tended to rank many individual items lower, both groups generally agreed that the training was both adequate and relevant. For nonpatient care related items (i.e. transplant-related ethics, economics, research, etc.), both groups scored them low regarding their adequacy of training although RFs scored them significantly lower than PDs (p = 0.0006). Regarding their relevance to practice, while both groups considered these items relevant, RFs generally considered them more relevant than PDs. Therefore, although there is consensus on many items, significant differences exist between PDs and RFs regarding their perceptions of the adequacy of training and the relevance to practice of specific curriculum items in transplant surgery fellowship training. [source]


Analysts' Perceptions of Intellectual Capital Information

AUSTRALIAN ACCOUNTING REVIEW, Issue 3 2010
Shigeki Sakakibara
This study is based on a survey of 324 financial analysts in Japan. The survey concerns analysts' perceptions of intellectual capital (IC) information and its links to the evaluation of companies. The value relevance of and the access to IC-related information reveals a large gap on many items. The analysis further shows that the lack of access to information hampers analysts' use of IC in their evaluation of companies, particularly in their use of human capital measures. Attitudes towards more disclosure and standardisation are mainly driven by perceptions of what generates value in companies. [source]


Comparison of the play of children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder by subtypes

AUSTRALIAN OCCUPATIONAL THERAPY JOURNAL, Issue 2 2010
Reinie Cordier
Background:,Studies have found differences in the nature and severity of social problems experienced by children with different subtypes of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Given that play is often the context for acquiring social skills, there is surprisingly limited research examining whether these differences distinguish the play of children within the groups. Methods:,Using the Test of Playfulness (ToP), we examined the similarities and differences in play between children (aged 5,11 years) diagnosed with the threeDSM-IV ADHD subtypes: inattentive (I-subtype;n = 46), hyperactive-impulsive (HI-subtype;n = 28) and combined subtypes (C-subtype;n = 31). Results and conclusions:,Bias interaction, an item-by-item analysis, revealed that the hierarchy of ToP items was similar for children with the HI- and C-subtypes, but differed for children with the I-subtype. Specifically, children with the I-subtype found it more difficult to become intensely engaged in play and to take on playful mischief and clowning; however, they found social play items to be easier. Conversely, whereas mischief and clowning were relatively easier for children with the HI- and C-subtypes, many items reflecting social interaction were more difficult. These findings suggest that interventions can be tailored to these differing presentations. However, further research is needed to confirm the findings. [source]