Personal digital assistant-based drug information sources: potential to improve medication safety.

OBJECTIVES: This study compared the potential for personal digital assistant (PDA)-based drug information sources to minimize potential medication errors dependent on accurate and complete drug information at the point of care. METHODS: A quality and safety framework for drug information resources was developed to evaluate 11 PDA-based drug information sources. Three drug information sources met the criteria of the framework: Eprocrates Rx Pro, Lexi-Drugs, and mobileMICROMEDEX. Medication error types related to drug information at the point of care were then determined. Forty-seven questions were developed to test the potential of the sources to prevent these error types. Pharmacists and physician experts from Creighton University created these questions based on the most common types of questions asked by primary care providers. Three physicians evaluated the drug information sources, rating the source for each question: 1=no information available, 2=some information available, or 3 = adequate amount of information available. RESULTS: The mean ratings for the drug information sources were: 2.0 (Eprocrates Rx Pro), 2.5 (Lexi-Drugs), and 2.03 (mobileMICROMEDEX). Lexi-Drugs was significantly better (mobileMICROMEDEX t test; P=0.05; Eprocrates Rx Pro t test; P=0.01). CONCLUSION: Lexi-Drugs was found to be the most specific and complete PDA resource available to optimize medication safety by reducing potential errors associated with drug information. No resource was sufficient to address the patient safety information needs for all cases.     

Book reviews

Journal Publishing By Gillian Page, Robert Campbell and Jack Meadows, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997, 420 pp £35.00, ISBN: 0 521 44137 4 Small Publishers A–Z: The guide to good publishing By Daphne Macara, West Molesey: Pandor House Publications, 1997, 44pp £6.50, ISBN: 1 871248 03 5     

Rethinking science literacy: Enhancing communication and participation in school science through affirmational dialogue journal writing

For many students the study of science can be very disaffirming. This may lead to passivity in class and a lifelong disaffection with science, outcomes which defeat the long‐term purpose of trying to achieve scientific literacy for all students. This article represents a new way of framing scientific literacy with a “science for all” goal, based on a nexus of psychological, sociological, and critical literacy theory. A science education researcher and a science teacher collaborated in trialing the use of affirmational dialogue journal writing with early adolescents in a high school situated in a low socioeconomic status area. The intervention was found to be successful on a number of fronts. An approach which affirms students' experience can lead to a deeper approach to learning for adolescent science students. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 36: 699–717, 1999     

Moving from outside to inside: High school students' use of apprenticeships as vehicles for entering the culture and practice of science

The purpose of this study was to investigate how research apprenticeships shaped students' views of the culture and practice of science. Twenty‐seven 11th and 12th graders from across the United States and American Samoa participating in a summer research program were interviewed individually three times over 7 weeks. Seven students were selected as a representative focus group, and in addition to interviews, their journals, entrance questionnaires, and exit questionnaires were analyzed for what they revealed about students' ideas of what constituted scientific work, of the research process, of the existence and importance of communities in which they participated, and of the roles they played in these communities. Based on the pattern of student comments and perspectives, we identified four dimensions of scientific practice and culture whose salience and complexity increased and became articulated over the 7‐week period. These dimensions included technical language, collaboration, uncertainty, and inquiry. The learning that took place with regard to these dimensions took place within three program‐embedded communities, which we identified as laboratory‐centered, program‐centered, and peer‐centered. The roles students played in these communities and the degree to which they could make use of resources within them contributed to students' view of scientific practice and culture, and to the development of the identity kits they began to construct of themselves as scientists. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 36: 677–697, 1999     

Comparison of Methods for Analyzing Global Positioning System and Accelerometer Data during School Recess

Several geospatial approaches have been used to characterize physical activity during recess using global positioning system (GPS) data. GPS and accelerometer data from 23 children collected during recess were analyzed using four previously used approaches: (1) dot map, (2) fishnet grid, (3) hot spot analysis, which determines clusters of high/low intensity values, and (4) zonal approach wherein the schoolyard was divided into zones to determine the time and intensity in each zone. Results from each method were compared to each other and to video observation. Hot spot analysis revealed clusters of high-intensity values, which were supported by dot and grid maps and video. However, the zonal approach revealedpatterns in where children play that were not always comparable tovideo, potentially due to missing GPS data. Recommendations for the use of these methods in future research are discussed.     

Training rugby athletes with an external attentional focus promotes more automatic adaptions in landing forces

Training to reduce landing forces is a common component of anterior cruciate ligament injury prevention programmes. The purpose of this study was to compare the effects of training incorporating instructions promoting an internal versus external attentional focus on landing forces in adolescent rugby athletes. Twenty-two rugby athletes were randomly allocated to groups that received instructions promoting an internal versus an external focus during a two week training programme. Landing forces were recorded before and after completion of the programme. During follow-up testing, landings were performed with and without a secondary cognitive task. Both groups exhibited a similar reduction in landing forces following training for trials performed without the secondary cognitive task. However, the groups responded differently when the secondary cognitive task was imposed. Athletes who were trained with an internal focus demonstrated a prominent increase in landing forces for trials that included the secondary cognitive task (vs. trials performed without the secondary cognitive task), whereas the secondary cognitive task had minimal influence for athletes who were trained with an external focus. It appears that training with an external focus may promote adaptations in landing mechanics that can be implemented more automatically.     

Mastery and exercise play interventions: motor skill development and verbal recall of children with and without disabilities

Background: Fundamental motor skill proficiency is essential for engagement in sports and physical play and in the development of a healthy lifestyle. Children with motor delays (with and without disabilities) lack the motor skills necessary to participate in games and physical activity, and tend to spend more time as onlookers than do their peers. As such, intervention programs are crucial in promoting motor skill development of children with motor delays. While mastery climate (MC) interventions have shown to positively impact children’s motor performance, what is unknown is the impact of cognitive strategies used by children within these climates. Furthermore, although vigorous play seems to be related to the development of gross motor skills, it is still unknown if children with and without disabilities would benefit from exercise play (EP) interventions.

Purpose: This study examined the effects of MC and EP interventions on the motor skill development and verbal recall (VR) of children with motor delays. The sample included children with and without disabilities.

Research designs: One hundred and thirty-eight children from 27 urban public schools were referred to the present study. Children were assessed using the Test of Gross Motor Development second edition (TGMD-2) and a VR checklist. Sixty-four children (18 with disabilities and 46 without) met the inclusion criteria, which was a score less than the fifth percentile on the TGMD-2. Participants were randomly assigned to the MC or EP 14-week interventions emphasizing gross motor skill practice.

Data collection and analysis: Children were assessed at pre- and post-intervention. A 2 (groups)?×?2 (disability) × 2 (time) analyses of variance with repeated measures on the last factor was conducted. Change scores, t-test comparisons on the delta scores and Cohen’s D were also calculated.

Results: The MC group demonstrated significant and positive changes over the intervention period. Further, the MC group showed superior locomotor and object control performance and higher recall of verbal cues (p?≤?.05) at post-intervention compared to the EP group. Children with and without disabilities within the MC showed similar patterns of improvement. The EP intervention did not demonstrate significant improvements.

Conclusion: Children with and without disabilities showed improvements in motor skills and VR when exposed to an MC, incorporating the six TARGET structures. These structures included (a) providing feedback and encouragement, providing opportunities for decision-making and establishing personal goals, (b) including parents in the recognition of children’s achievements, (c) creating opportunities to experience leadership and self-pacing, (d) guiding children to use verbal cues and modeling when practicing gross motor skills, and (e) providing demonstrations and teaching children to self-monitor their performance. Instruction is therefore seen as critical to learning gross motor skills, as demonstrated from the findings. Although there were opportunities for vigorous play within the EP intervention, the children did not show improvements in motor performance or VR. These findings suggest that new trends in teacher education physical education to prioritize physical activity over good motor skill instruction may not be advantageous for children in the early years, and should be reconsidered.     

Physical Education Students’ Ownership,Empowerment, and Satisfaction With PE and Physical Activity

Individuals experiencing a highly caring, task-involving, and low ego-involving exercise climate have reported greater ownership in exercise class and empowerment to exercise in general. Purpose: This study examined the relationship between ownership and empowerment in exercise, with 2 context-specific outcomes, satisfaction with physical education (PE) and physical activity, respectively. Given the mission of PE to foster individuals’ lifelong physical activity habit, the perceptions of high school students were collected for this study. Ownership in exercise was hypothesized to be significantly, positively correlated with students reporting satisfaction in PE more than their satisfaction in physical activity, whereas empowerment in exercise was hypothesized to be more strongly, positively correlated with students’ physical activity satisfaction. A second purpose of this study was to test the measurement quality of the updated Empowerment in Exercise Scale (EES; now 13 items). Method: High school students (N = 502, 43% female) in a Midwestern U.S. school district completed a survey. Results: Confirmatory factor analysis supported the internal measurement structure of the EES (λ = .62–.91; McDonald’s omega = .89) across student gender (strong invariance). Additionally, the structural equation modeling analysis revealed only 1 parameter moderated by the students’ gender (latent mean of ownership). The hypotheses were supported, such that ownership in exercise was more strongly correlated with PE satisfaction (r = .87) and empowerment in exercise had a stronger correlation with physical activity satisfaction (r = .92). Conclusion: These results support the beneficial effect a satisfying experience in PE can have on students’ satisfaction with physical activity outside of school.