The Writing Series Project: A Model for Supporting Social Work Clinicians in Health Settings to Disseminate Practice Knowledge

Social work clinicians across health care settings are uniquely positioned to disseminate valuable practice experience, thereby contributing to knowledge development within their field of practice and across disciplines. Unfortunately, practitioners tend to shy away from writing and research, and are often reluctant to publicly disseminate their expertise through peer-reviewed journals and conference presentations. To better support health social workers in scholarly endeavors, we developed and implemented The Writing Series Project in southeast Queensland, Australia. This article reports on the development, programmatic challenges and practitioner feedback that offer insight into the benefits and pitfalls that we encountered.     

Why “What Data Are Necessary for This Project?” and Other Basic Questions are Important to Address in Public Health Informatics Practice and Research

Despite the likelihood of poor quality data flowing from clinical information systems to public health information systems, current policies and practices are pushing for the adoption and use of even greater numbers of electronic data feeds. However, using poor data can lead to poor decision-making outcomes in public health. Therefore public health informatics professionals need to assess, and periodically re-evaluate, the quality of electronic data and their sources. Unfortunately there is currently a paucity of tools and strategies in use across public health agencies. Our Center of Excellence in Public Health Informatics is working to develop and disseminate tools and strategies for supporting on-going assessment of data quality and solutions for overcoming data quality challenges. In this article, we outline the need for better data quality assessment and our approach to the development of new tools and strategies. In other words, public health informatics professionals need to ask questions about the electronic data received by public health agencies, and we hope to create tools and strategies to help informaticians ask questions that will lead to improved population health outcomes.     

Translating a Research Intervention into Community Practice: The Nurse Family Partnership

Public policy initiatives have begun to recommend that interventions have strong evidence of effectiveness before there is expenditure of restrained public funds. The Nurse Family Partnership (NFP), a home visiting program for low-income parents expecting their first child, has been identified as a preventive intervention program that meets high evidentiary standards based on results from three randomized trials. Strategies used to promote successful translation of the research intervention into clinical practice, findings from the evaluation of the replication of the NFP in 22 states, and challenges experienced in moving a research program to practice are discussed.Editors’ Strategic Implications: Policymakers, community public health officials, and researchers planning to disseminate their prevention programs will find many lessons in this example of bringing a model program (i.e., a prevention strategy that works) up to scale. Although results at replication sites are somewhat weaker than at model sites, the consistent positive outcomes are a testimony to the strength of the NFP model and the fidelity of its implementation across sites.     

Improving the roles of rural women in health and environmental issues

Safe water supply, sanitation facilities and safe environments are the priorities of the communities in the villages of Upper Egypt. However, personal hygienic behaviors need improvement for substantial promotion of family health. This cannot be met without the full participation of women in their various roles in their communities. Accordingly, 375 females belonging to rural villages of Egypt (VHVs) volunteered to have a role in health and sanitation aspects and disseminate hygienic messages to their communities. The objective of this study was to assess and upgrade the levels of awareness, attitude and practice of VHVs towards environmental sanitation, sanitary housing, personal hygiene, safe water, food safety, sanitary sewage and refuse disposals. Implementation of environmental health education courses resulted in significant improvement of VHVs' awareness, attitude and practice towards the majority of the environmental topics that were addressed. Similar extensive courses are recommended for the promotion of environmental sanitation in other communities.     

Scholarship of Practice in the Care of People with Dementia: Creating the Future Through Collaborative Efforts

ABSTRACT

A scholarship of practice approach sets the stage for collaborative partnerships across academic and clinical practice settings that result in positive gains for all stakeholders. These gains include an enhanced ability to generate and apply relevant evidence in practice, disseminate knowledge and innovation, and ensure best practice is relevant to and effective for, people receiving services and their caregivers.

?This paper discusses national and international examples of collaborative, research-based practice initiatives that have implemented a scholarship of practice approach. The exemplars described here are framed within the Model of Human Occupation, which addresses the importance of volition, habits, roles, environment, and performance capacities in facilitating engagement in occupation for people with dementia. Research that focuses on how therapists adopt and use evidence in practice, as well as the opportunities and challenges for supporting therapists and their use of theory and evidence are discussed.     

Learning issues for nurses in renal satellite centres

ABSTRACT: The introduction of 'satellite' dialysis centres has increased local access to renal services for patients living in rural and remote areas across Australia and is, therefore, consistent with rural health policies. Rural health strategies also aim to maintain and improve the skills of health professionals through regular review of the scope of their practice and evaluation of the education required. Yet, the results of the present national study of nurses working in satellite dialysis centres indicate that, for many, the context of practice influences their ability to access ongoing professional education to support and extend their nursing practice. The present study showed that there was a range of educational backgrounds among nurses working in rural 'satellite' centres with reportedly limited access to specific dialysis-related professional development. In the present paper we report on factors that influence the ability of nurses working in satellite dialysis centres to access ongoing professional education.     

The wrong tool for the job: diabetes public health programs and practice guidelines

We surveyed state diabetes programs to determine whether they develop and disseminate diabetes guidelines. We found they largely disseminate clinical practice guidelines developed from subspecialty organizations, do not prioritize among the many recommendations contained in diabetes guidelines, and have not adapted guidelines to focus on population rather than individual health. An opportunity exists for state diabetes control programs to better align guidelines with public health goals.     

The occupational health field in the cochrane collaboration

It is the aim of the Cochrane Collaboration to gather, summarise and disseminate evidence of health care interventions. Recently, the Occupational Health Field has started to do so for occupational health interventions. In this article we would like to describe the organisation and the methods used by the Field. First, the use of research information to improve the quality of occupational health practice is explained. Next, the process and contents of Cochrane Reviews are described. The pros and cons of Cochrane Reviews are listed and what occupational health practitioners can learn from it. There is a great variety of occupational health interventions that requires flexibility in which research design to use. The Occupational Health Field will enhance our understanding of the effectiveness of occupational health interventions in the coming years.     

Assessing guidelines for use in family practice.

With more than 1000 new guidelines produced annually over the past decade, it is impossible for the practicing family physician to determine which ones should be adapted into their clinical practice. The Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care and the Ontario Medical Association formed the Guideline Advisory Committee (GAC) in 1997 to assess and disseminate guidelines that would improve the quality and utilization of health care services in the province. Over the past 3 years the GAC has developed a strategy to identify important topics, to rank order guidelines published on these topics based on the quality of their development, and to reformat guidelines as necessary to make them user-friendly for implementation in clinical practice. The GAC is currently assessing a number of strategies to enhance the dissemination of selected guidelines to improve the quality of care delivered in the province.     

A vision for doctoral research training in health behavior: a position paper from the American Academy of Health Behavior

OBJECTIVE: To establish and disseminate the position of the American Academy of Health Behavior (The Academy) on doctoral research training. METHODS: A collaborative process involving the Work Group on Doctoral Research Training with input from The Academy membership led to the development of the guidelines described herein. RESULTS: A set of guidelines is provided that describe the process of learning to be a scholar/researcher and the outcomes of learning the practice of health behavior research. CONCLUSIONS: The doctoral students who are to become the stewards of our field should be prepared to engage in scholarship that creates new knowledge, uses research to transform practice, and effectively communicates research findings.     

Converging paradigms for environmental health theory and practice

Converging themes from the fields of environmental health, ecology and health, and human ecology highlight opportunities for innovation and advancement in environmental health theory and practice. In this commentary we outline the role of research and applied programs that integrate biophysical and social sciences with environmental health practice in order to address deficiencies in each field when taken on its own. New opportunities for environmental health protection and promotion are outlined based on the three converging themes: integrated approaches to research and policy, methodological acknowledgment of the synergies between the social and biophysical environments, and incorporation of core ecosystem principles into research and practice. These converging themes are discussed in relation to their implications for new types of intervention to achieve health gains across different spatial and temporal scales at the interface between biophysical and social environments.     

Approaching health disparities from a population perspective: the National Institutes of Health Centers for Population Health and Health Disparities

Addressing health disparities has been a national challenge for decades. The National Institutes of Health-sponsored Centers for Population Health and Health Disparities are the first federal initiative to support transdisciplinary multilevel research on the determinants of health disparities. Their novel research approach combines population, clinical, and basic science to elucidate the complex determinants of health disparities. The centers are partnering with community-based, public, and quasi-public organizations to disseminate scientific findings and guide clinical practice in communities. In turn, communities and public health agents are shaping the research. The relationships forged through these complex collaborations increase the likelihood that the centers' scientific findings will be relevant to communities and contribute to reductions in health disparities.     

Pregnancy 101: A Call for Reproductive and Prenatal Health Education in College

The objective of the study was to demonstrate the effectiveness of a college course in preconception health and prenatal development at improving reproductive health awareness in college students. Students enrolled in the course completed pretest and posttest assessments and a course evaluation. Students’ self-perception of awareness of the positive and negative factors that can affect pregnancy increased from 13% at the beginning of the course to 89 and 93% at the end of the course, respectively. Correspondingly, students’ knowledge of course-related information improved across nearly all areas assessed. The average score among students increased from 67 to 90% correct from pretest to posttest. Course evaluation results indicated that over 94% of students found the course to be beneficial and informative. College courses are a practical way to disseminate reproductive and prenatal health information. Educating college students in these areas has clear benefits to both individual students and society and, as such, merits increased attention in college curricula.     

Health help‐seeking by men in Brunei Darussalam: masculinities and ‘doing’ male identities across the life course

Using data collected through semi‐structured interviews and focus group discussions with 37 adult men living in Brunei Darussalam, this paper explores how masculinities and expectations about male roles across the life course influence men's perceptions, of and attitudes towards health and health help‐seeking behaviour. Bruneian men gave accounts that consistently spoke of a series of masculine roles and associated attributes and behaviours, which mapped across the life course. Men described health and the steps that they had taken to protect their health in terms of responsibilities associated with being a breadwinner, provider of support for parents, role model and leader of the family. Whilst adherence to Bruneian norms about masculinity could obstruct men's engagement with health help‐seeking, we also found that men mobilised their understanding of Bruneian masculinity such that it provided culturally legitimate way of engaging in health help‐seeking. We conclude by considering implications for further development of conceptualisations of masculinities, particularly responding to the call to consider Connell's theory of ‘hegemonic masculinity’ in the context of the Global South. We also consider the implications of the findings of this research for policy and practice in provision of health promotion and services in Brunei.     

If patient‐reported outcome measures are considered key health‐care quality indicators,who is excluded from participation?

Patient‐reported outcome measures have received increasing attention with regard to ensuring quality improvement across the health service. However, there is a risk that people with disabilities and low literacy are systematically excluded from the development of these measures as well as their application in clinical practice. This editorial highlights some of these risks and the potential consequences of exclusion for these groups.     

What can rural agencies do to address the additional costs of rural services? A typology of rural service innovation

There is a national commitment to ensuring that, regardless of where patients live, they should be provided with an acceptable level of service in terms of quality, effectiveness and accessibility. Because of differences in the distributions of their populations, rural and urban areas present quite different challenges for the optimal design of health services and social care. However, this has not been fully acknowledged in the development of national policies to unify service standards. The problems of providing services in sparsely populated areas are not new. However, until the case for a rural premium in English health resource allocation is accepted, rural agencies must either tolerate lower levels of services (an option made difficult by the introduction of national service standards) or develop very different approaches to service delivery. To date, there has been little systematic knowledge about the extent of innovative rural practice, a paucity of evaluation of such initiatives and few opportunities to disseminate learning from one area to another. The present paper begins to address this deficit. Drawing upon a review of the formal literature and a comprehensive evaluation of projects developed within a rural Health Action Zone, it presents a typology of innovative responses at the health/social care interface. Examples of service innovations which fall into six broad categories are provided. These not only suggest possibilities for the transfer of good practice, but also the potential for future research.     

Using Business Plan Development as a Capstone Project for MPH Programs in Canada: Validation Through the Student Perspective

Master of Public Health (MPH) programs have been developed across Canada as a response to the need for adequately trained individuals to work in the public health sector. Educational institutions that deliver MPH programs have a responsibility to ensure that graduates of their program have the essential knowledge, skills and attitudes to begin a successful career in public health. The Public Health Agency of Canada has created the core competencies for public health to guide the development, delivery and evaluation of MPH programs. In Canada, a capstone project is the recommended method of evaluating the MPH graduate’s ability to demonstrate proficiency in the public health core competencies. A business plan that develops the framework for a public health program is an ideal capstone project currently used in practice within the University of Guelph MPH program. This group assignment incorporates all 36 of the public health core competencies while providing students with a real-world public health experience, and should be considered for inclusion within MPH programs across Canada. Business planning provides students the opportunity to engage in practice-based learning, applying theoretical knowledge to practice. Further, the ability to develop realistic but financially feasible public health problems is an invaluable skill for MPH graduates. As the development of programs becomes more restricted and the continuation of other programs are under constant threat, the ability to develop a sound business plan is a required skill for individuals entering the public health sector, and will ensure students are able to maximize outcomes given tight fiscal budgets and limited resources.     

headspace: National Youth Mental Health Foundation: making headway with rural young people and their mental health

Mental health is the number one health issue affecting young people in Australia today, yet only one in four of these young people receive professional help. Approximately 14% of 12- to 17-year-olds and 27% of 18- to 25-year-olds experience mental health problems each year. However, many do not have ready access to treatment or are reluctant to seek that help. These issues might be exacerbated in the rural and remote regions of Australia where sociocultural barriers such as stigma, lack of anonymity and logistic difficulties including cost and availability of transport can hinder young people accessing mental health services. headspace: the National Youth Mental Health Foundation has been funded to address these issues. headspace will provide funding for the establishment of communities of youth services across Australia, provide national and local community awareness campaigns and plans, establish a centre of excellence that will identify and disseminate evidence-based practice in addressing youth mental health issues, and translate findings into education and training programs that are targeted at service providers to work with youth mental health. The communities of youth services will build the capacity of local communities to identify early, and provide effective responses to, young people aged 12-25 years with mental health and related substance use disorders. Specific approaches in rural, regional and remote areas will be developed as well as specific programs to involve young Indigenous people.