A MULTIDISCIPLINARY PRACTICE MODEL FOR INDEPENDENT PRACTITIONERS WHO WORK WITH OLDER ADULTS IN THE COMMUNITY

This article presents a framework for the integration of community services for older adults. A model for multidisciplinary practice is introduced to teach students and professionals how independent practitioners can integrate their community practices. Practitioners from disciplines such as medicine, nursing, social work, psychiatry, psychology, finance, law, and religion can develop collaborative community practices to more effectively serve older adults. A generic multidisciplinary instrument for use with this model was developed for assessment and referral purposes. Collaboration has been the mark of professional behavior in institutional settings. This article applies these principles to the community practice setting. Reform efforts are necessary to advance from the current ways of thinking to more effective community practice strategies. Community efforts have not followed the lead of professional efforts in institutional settings in the development of collaborative, interdisciplinary planning for older adults. Educators can use this model to teach students and practitioners a new nontraditional method for community practice. It is imperative in this time of challenge in the field of gerontology that practitioners examine new ideas and adopt new models in their teaching and professional practices.     

Using Narratives in Healthcare Communication

Narratives convey feelings and communicate ideas that the listener needs to hear. As such, they make powerful tools in all endeavors of human interaction. The use of narratives has been especially successful in educational settings. The time has come for the patient narrative to take back its rightful place after having been displaced in the name of managed care and more efficient use of clinic visits. Modern medicine needs to learn to integrate the compassion and empathy gleaned from a patient's narrative with the knowledge and integrity needed to alleviate the patient's suffering and pain.     

A comparison of haemolytic responses in fore-foot and rear-foot distance runners

This study examined the haemolytic effects of an interval-based running task in fore-foot and rear-foot striking runners. Nineteen male distance runners (10 fore-foot, 9 rear-foot) completed 8 × 3 min repeats at 90% vVO_2peak on a motorised treadmill. Pre- and post-exercise venous blood samples were analysed for serum haptoglobin to quantify the haemolytic response to running. Vertical ground reaction forces were also captured via a force plate beneath the treadmill belt. Haptoglobin levels were significantly decreased following exercise (P = 0.001) in both groups (but not between groups), suggesting that the running task created a haemolytic stress. The ground reaction force data showed strong effect sizes for a greater peak force (d = 1.20) and impulse (d = 1.37) in fore-foot runners, and a greater rate of force development (d = 2.74) in rear-foot runners. The lack of difference in haptoglobin response between groups may be explained by the trend for fore-foot runners to experience greater peak force and impulse during the stance phase of their running gait, potentially negating any impact of the greater rate of force development occurring from the rear-foot runners’ heel strike. Neither type of runner (fore-foot or rear-foot) appears more susceptible to technique-related foot-strike haemolysis.     

The influence of content knowledge on teaching and learning in Traditional and Sport Education contexts: an exploratory study

Background: Our understanding of the role in which content knowledge (CK) can strengthen instructional models and how that knowledge matters for professional development is limited. It is contended that mere use of an instructional model is insufficient to impact psychomotor learning in meaningful ways.

Purpose: This study was conducted to investigate how a teacher's enacted pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) differed as a function of CK and Sport Education (SE), and to investigate the relative contribution of CK and Sport Education on student learning in terms of swimming performance.

Methods: Four intact classes comprising 88 secondary school students (age: 16–17 years) were randomly assigned to a Traditional, an Sport Education, a Traditional-CK, and a SE-CK group. All classes were taught by the same teacher during a 10-day unit of instruction in the front crawl.

Results: Results showed that the teacher's PCK differed as a function of improved CK. For verbal representations, the amount of cues in the Traditional-CK and SE-CK groups increased about sixfold compared to the Traditional and the SE group. For visual representations, more partially incorrect demonstrations were observed than correct demonstrations in the Traditional and the SE group. More mature and developmentally appropriate tasks were observed in the Traditional-CK and the SE-CK group compared to the Traditional and the SE group. Students in the Traditional-CK and SE-CK groups demonstrated a significant reduction of their amount of strokes on 50?m compared to the Traditional group. A significant interaction effect revealed a larger increase in swimming performance in the CK groups compared to the Traditional and the SE group. Finally, students in the SE group swam significantly more laps than their counterparts in the other groups.

Discussion and conclusion: These results show the impact on student learning when CK was added to both Traditional and Sport Education conditions and contribute to the literature for pre- and in-service teachers. The Sport Education model did not contribute to students’ swimming performance. Students in the Traditional and the SE group did not get the same quality of instruction as students in the Traditional-CK and SE-CK conditions. The latter groups received content that was presented differently both as a presentation and in terms of the actual task. In short, students in the Traditional and Sport Education conditions experienced the content differently than those in the Traditional-CK and SE-CK conditions. These instructional differences resulted in students in the Traditional-CK and SE-CK conditions improving their swimming performances in terms of technical efficiency and in terms of 50?m times.     

Hospital Implementation of Patient-Centered Communication with Aging Minority Populations

The composition and needs of culturally diverse older populations should encourage hospitals to address the conflicting demands for access and delivery of ethnically sensitive services. Health communication that is patient-centered and provides culturally and linguistically appropriate care has the potential to reduce racial and ethnic health disparities. In order for ethnogerontological patient care to be translated into the adoption of treatment plans and services that meet culturally unique needs, hospitals need to develop, implement, and promote a written strategic plan that outlines goals, policies, and operational plans. This proposal becomes part of the hospital's mission for providing high-quality care that is reflected in training for knowledge, skill, and attitude change to meet these goals.     

Deviating glucose results in an international dual-center study. A root cause investigation

During a dual-center study on obese and normal weight children and adolescents, focusing on glucose metabolism, we observed a marked difference in glucose results (N = 16,840) between the two sites, Salzburg, Austria and Uppsala, Sweden (P < 0.001). After excluding differences in patient characteristics between the two populations as cause of this finding, we investigated other preanalytic influences. Finally, only the tubes used for blood collection at the two sites were left to evaluate. While the Vacuette FC-Mix tube (Greiner Bio-One, Kremsmünster, Austria) was used in Uppsala, in Salzburg blood collections were performed with a lithium heparin tube (LH-Monovette, Sarstedt, Germany). To prove our hypothesis, we collected two blood samples in either of these tubes from 51 children (Salzburg N = 27, Uppsala N = 24) and compared the measured glucose results. Indeed, we found the suspected bias and calculated a correction formula, which significantly diminished the differences of glucose results between the two sites (P = 0.023). Our finding is in line with those of other studies and although this issue should be widely known, we feel that it is widely neglected, especially when comparing glucose concentrations across Europe, using large databases without any information on preanalytic sample handling.     

Relationship between perceived acculturation expectations and Muslim minority youth's acculturation and adaptation

Acculturation strategies have frequently been used to describe how members of ethnic minorities reconcile their heritage culture with the culture of their society of residence. Recently, studies have started to pay increased attention to the fact that the choice of acculturation strategy does not take place in a social vacuum. In the present study, we test whether the perception of assimilation expectations held by the societal majority (PSAE) as well as separation expectations held by ethnic peers (PESE) may be related to individuals’ own acculturation strategy. Furthermore, we investigate whether these perceived expectations are directly related to stress and indirectly to adaptation, mediated by acculturation strategies. All relationships were investigated using multi-group structural equation modeling with members from three Muslim minority groups: 301 German-Turks, 302 French-Maghrebis and 262 British-Pakistanis. Across the samples, PSAE was associated with higher degrees of stress. PESE was negatively related to integration, while it was positively related to separation. In addition, PESE was indirectly and negatively related with self-esteem and/or socio-cultural adaptation in all samples. The impact of societal assimilation expectation appears to be limited in this regard. In all, the present study suggests that perceived acculturation expectations may influence ethnic minorities’ acculturation strategy. The results also suggest that perceived expectations that contrast with individuals’ personal acculturation preference could result in higher levels of stress and lower levels of psychological and socio-cultural adaptation, mediated by acculturation strategies.     

Physicists in the new era of electronic publishing

New electronic opportunities for scientific communication, and changes in how scientists use journals, are prompting a complete re-evaluation of the roles of scientific journals and of scholarly societies like the APS.