Nurse students’ competences in interprofessional pharmaceutical care in Europe: Cross-sectional evaluation

BackgroundSafe pharmaceutical care requires competent nurses with specific knowledge, skills and attitudes. It is unclear whether nursing students are adequately prepared to perform pharmaceutical care in practice. Mapping their pharmaceutical care competences can lead to a better understanding of the extent to which curricula fit expectations of the labour market.ObjectivesTo assess pharmaceutical care competences of final-year nursing students of different educational levels.DesignA cross-sectional survey design.SettingsIn 14 European countries, nursing schools who offer curricula for level 4 to 7 students were approached.ParticipantsThrough convenience sampling 1741 final-year student nurses of level 4 to 7 were included. Sampling strategies were country-specific.MethodsA web-platform was developed with an assessment of the level in which students mastered pharmaceutical care competences. Knowledge questions, case studies (basic/advanced level), self-reported practical skills and attitudes were evaluated.ResultsMean scores for knowledge questions differed significantly (p < 0.001) between level 5 (56/100), level 6 (68/100) and level 7 students (72/100). For basic cases level 5 students reached lower scores (64/100) compared with level 6 (71/100) and level 7 (72/100) students (p = 0.002 and p = 0.005). For more advanced cases no difference between levels was observed (overall mean 61/100). Most students (63–90 %) considered themselves skilled to perform pharmaceutical care and had positive attitudes towards their participation in pharmaceutical care (65–97 %).ConclusionsRelatively low knowledge scores were calculated for final-year student nurses. In some domains, lower levels of students might be insufficiently prepared to take up responsibilities in pharmaceutical care. Our assessment can be used as a tool for educators to evaluate how prepared nursing students are for pharmaceutical care. Its further implementation for students of different educational levels will allow benchmarking between the levels, both within and between countries.     

Pregnant women’s use and attitude toward herbal,vitamin, and mineral supplements in an academic tertiary care center,Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Background

Herbal medicine has been widely utilized by pregnant women despite the limited available evidence regarding the safety and efficacy of that practice. The current available studies, from different countries, estimated that the use of herbal medicine during pregnancy range from 7% up to 96%. The aim of this study is to determine the prevalence, attitude, source of information, and reasoning behind the use of herbal medicine among pregnant women in Saudia Arabia.

Attitudes Toward Transplantation in U.K. Muslim Indo-Asians in West London

The worldwide shortage of organs for transplantation makes it important to understand why some oppose donation. Attitudes vary with religion and ethnicity. Accordingly, we undertook a qualitative study of the attitudes of 141 U.K. Muslim Indo-Asians to organ donation. Participants were observed, focus group discussions held and in-depth individual interviews conducted. We identified a high level of alienation from the health care system in general. With respect to organ donation in particular, its importance was generally discounted, often in deference to authority figures within the community who appeared negatively disposed. The culture-specific issues arguing against donation included a sense of the sacredness of the body, a fatalistic approach to illness, a belief that organs took on an independent role as 'witnesses' to an individual's life on Judgement Day and an anxiety that the donor would have no control of the probity of the recipient of an organ. We believe these data suggest a need to improve in a culturally sensitive fashion the provision of health information provided to this community.     

医护人员对术后痛和术后止痛态度的调查

目的 调查了解医护人员术后痛和术后止痛的认识和态度。方法 用问卷式调查表采取面对面方式调查了本院130名医护人员。结果 ①128人（98.5%）完成答卷。②绝大多数认为应控制术后痛，但约40%不知道术后痛可致并发症。③有20%-50%的人对术后止痛有误解。④仅半数人了解术后止痛用药现状。⑤认为术后止痛应主要由外科医师和麻醉医师负责者分别占55.5%和35.9%。⑥绝大多数认为术后止痛宣传力度不够。⑦对本院术后镇痛工作评价良好。⑧非手术科室人员在某些方面不如手术科室更了解。结论 医护人员术后止痛意识较好，但仍有许多不足之处。有必要进一步加强医护人员术后止痛意识的教育。     

CONSISTENCY OF PERFORMANCE CHANGE AND AUTONOMIC RESPONSE AS A FUNCTION OF EXPRESSED ATTITUDE TOWARD A SPECIFIC STRESS SITUATION

A persistent problem in stress research has been that some individuals may show impairment, while others show improvement or no change in performance under stress. Attempts to relate this variance in performance to general anxiety or other personality variables have generally not been too successful. Based upon responses to a fear of shock item in an attitude questionnaire, Ss were classified as “high fear of shock” or “low fear of shock” types. Half of the Ss in each group were assigned a perceptual-motor task; the others were assigned a cognitive-interference task. After training, all Ss were informed that they would be required to maintain their training performance levels in a situation in which they would be shocked if performance declined. Performance and heart rate measures taken during training were compared with the same measures taken under the threat-of-shock conditions. Results indicate significant differences between groups in both performance and physiological activity with “high fear of shock”Ss exhibiting relatively greater performance impairment and increased heart rate.     

大学生寻求专业性心理帮助态度的预测因素研究

目的:探讨大学生寻求专业性心理帮助态度的预测因素。方法:选取700名不同年级、不同专业的大学生作样本,进行问卷调查。结果:以寻求专业性心理帮助态度为因变量,进行性别(2)×专业(2)的方差分析。结果发现,性别的主效应显著,F(1,615)=3.294,P=0.050。专业的主效应显著,F(1,615)=20.896,P=0.001。性别和专业的交互效应没达到显著性水平,F(1,615)=1.890,P=0.170。以寻求专业性心理帮助态度为因变量,回归分析结果得出R=0.636,R2=0.405,F=29.641,P=0.001,说明建立的回归方程是有意义的。结论:①对寻求专业性心理帮助态度有显著预测作用的变量按预测作用大小排序依次是:是否求助过、依赖的自我结构、自我隐藏度、专业、内控性和性别。②女生的寻求专业性心理帮助的态度比男生积极。③文体艺术类学生的寻求专业性心理帮助的态度比非文体艺术类学生积极。④自我结构是相互依赖的人寻求专业性心理帮助的态度积极。⑤自我隐藏度高的人寻求专业性心理帮助的态度消极。⑥内控者寻求专业性心理帮助的态度消极。     

Social contact,social attitudes,and twin similarity

The nature of the relationship between social contact and attitude similarity between twins was investigated using longitudinal data from a sample of Australian twins. Earlier research has suggested that social attitudes are not explained solely by shared environment; rather there are both genetic and environmental components that explain variance in social attitudes. Using three types of analyses we investigated the magnitude of the relationship and the direction of causation between attitude similarity and social contact. Longitudinal analysis of within-pair variance by level of contact suggests that attitude similarity leads to contact among the females and that similarity is both genetically and environmentally based. Analyses using a crosslag regression model suggest that similarity causes contact among MZ females. Biometrical analyses indicate differences in direction of causation for males and females. Among females, both genetic and shared environmental parameter estimates could be equated across contact groups, suggesting little relationship between contact and similarity. Among males, findings of smaller estimated heritability in the high-contact group suggest that similarity causes contact. However, an increased estimate of the contribution of shared environmental variance in the high-contact males could additionally suggest that contact leads to similarity.