‘Our surgeons want this to be short and simple’: practices of in-hospital medication review as coordinated sociomaterial actions

ABSTRACT

Medication review, a systematic assessment of a patient’s medicines by a health care professional, is intended to prevent medication-related harms. A critical element of medication review concerns whether medication review is conducted in a coordinated way. This article draws from a case example of implementing medication review in two surgical wards of a Swedish regional hospital and aims to analyse how medication review is being accomplished with respect to the coordination of its actions. Using a practice-based ethnographic approach, we present several coordination mechanisms by illustrating how practices are connected to materials involved in medication review. Also, we show how common orientations, ends, and understandings expressed in different medication review practices contribute to the coordination of the practices. In conclusion, this article highlights the complexity of establishing and sustaining medication review as a coordinated practice in routine health care. By closely examining sociomaterial connections, this article sheds new light on the neglected issue of artefacts and arrangements in constituting and transforming a highly complex medication practice.     

Individual Preference for Peer Interaction: Some Data on a Self‐Report Measure for Preschool Children

Seven target children in six different kindergartens who showed low levels of social involvement with peers were compared with 24 children randomly selected from within the same kindergarten settings using a self‐report measure of preference for peer interaction. At pre‐test target children differed from the comparison group in choosing to play with peers in fewer activities and to play alone more often, and in naming fewer friends. At post‐test 14 weeks later, following intervention designed to increase their peer involvement, target children were not significantly different from the comparison group on the self‐report measure.     

Generic Skills in the Context of Higher Education

The Higher Education Council Report Achieving Quality (October 1992) identifies ‘generic skills, attributes and values’ as the ‘central achievements of higher education as a process’. The account which the Report offers of those generic skills and of the graduate ‘attributes and values’ which, it claims, should accompany them is flawed, however, by a pervasive vagueness and inconsistency. Personal qualities, generalized capacities, individual attitudes, value systems, professional competencies, higher order generic skills and lower order technical ones are all lumped together in a general hodge‐podge of desirable graduate attributes. In the present paper the authors offer a more systematic, though still preliminary, analysis of higher order generic skills as they manifest themselves in thinking, research and communication, and of the way in which these skills assume a variety of different forms in their different disciplinary contexts. Definitional work of this kind, the authors argue, is currently neglected, but it remains a fundamental pre‐condition for any successful review or audit of Quality in undergraduate education.     

The Limitations of Behavioural Approaches to Teaching: Some Implications for Special Education

Behavioural strategies have made an important contribution to the development of programs for children with special needs. A review of theory and research suggests, however, that the behavioural task analysis, stimulus‐response approach is not an appropriate nor effective model for interactive teaching. Behavioural methods present problems because they emphasize the control of learning by the instructor, thus devaluing pupil initiation and its importance in an educational setting. Interactions between learners and teachers usually are more complex than those involved in behavioural instruction; i n particular, mainstream teaching strategies allow for some pupil control over learning. This paper compares approaches to teaching derived from behavioural technology with those used by effective teachers and examines some of the implications for educational programs for children with special learning needs, in particular those with severe multiple disabilities.     

The two faces of political science studies—junior and senior students’ thoughts about their education and their future profession

The article reports on an empirical small scaled interview study among junior and senior students in the political science programme in a Swedish University. The aim is to describe how students at various stages of their studies conceive of their education as well as their future professional life. Questions about their identity as students have also been posed. The results indicate that a programme with a major emphasis on political science appears to have two different faces as experienced by the students. The first half of the programme is experienced as traditional liberal arts studies, i.e., the students enrol in a ‘personal bildung project’ and conceive of political scientists as a kind of watchdog for democracy. Students in the latter part of their studies report an emerging identity as investigators and civil servants and an appreciation of the parts of the studies that enhance their generic skills.     

Understanding preservice teachers’ perceived preparedness to work with chronically ill young children

Many young children in the United States are faced with chronic illnesses that cause them unique challenges. It is imperative that all members of children’s support systems feel prepared to help meet those challenges. One integral component of this support team for children are their teachers. The purpose of this study was to assess preservice early childhood teachers’ perceived preparedness to work with chronically ill children. Additionally, the study explored preservice teachers’ ideas about the resources needed to effectively work with chronically ill children. Data were gathered from 32 preservice teachers pursuing a degree and licensure in Birth through Kindergarten (BK) education within a southeastern state university. A survey encompassing closed and open-ended questions related to perceived preparedness was utilized for the study. Results indicated that preservice BK teachers do not feel highly prepared to care for children who are chronically ill in their classroom. Preservice BK teachers suggested that additional classes, seminars, and experiences with chronically ill children would improve their feelings of preparedness. Implications regarding teacher education are discussed.     

Learning activities and interactive videodisc: an exploratory study

This article reports the findings of a small-scale study on pupil use of interactive videodisc. The types of learning activity in which the groups of pupils engaged are identified and the proportion of time spent on each is shown. Patterns in the data are analysed by ability of the pupil group and by the number of sessions in which the videodisc had been used. The discussion focuses on two interesting results: the high proportion of time spent on reading, watching and listening; and the greater statistical differences within groups than between groups of pupils.     

Reading Recovery in Context: implementation and outcome

Reading Recovery is a school‐based preventive strategy designed to reduce the number of children with reading and writing difficulties. This study evaluated the implementation of Reading Recovery in 12 New Zealand schools. Target (Reading Recovery) and Comparison pairs of children were identified through the Reading Recovery procedures operated by each school. Results indicated that very few schools adhered closely to all recommended entry and discontinuation criteria. Results for Target and Comparison children's reading progress up to the time of discontinuation are highly consistent with results reported by Clay (1985), with clear gains in favour of Target children. However, these gains had reduced considerably by the time of follow‐up. Data suggest that programme gains were greatest for children entering the programme at the lowest reading levels. Outcomes are discussed in terms of the need for better articulation between Reading Recovery teachers and regular classroom teachers.