Evaluation of the SPARK Child Mentoring Program: A Social and Emotional Learning Curriculum for Elementary School Students

Journal of Prevention - Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) programs seek to enhance social and emotional competencies in children, including self-awareness, self-management, social awareness,...     

Monkeypox DNA levels correlate with virus infectivity in clinical samples,Israel, 2022

The current monkeypox virus global spread and lack of data regarding clinical specimens’ infectivity call for examining virus infectivity, and whether this correlates with results from PCR, the available diagnostic tool. We show strong correlation between viral DNA amount in clinical specimens and virus infectivity toward BSC-1 cell line. Moreover, we define a PCR threshold value (Cq ≥ 35, ≤ 4,300 DNA copies/mL), corresponding to negative viral cultures, which may assist risk-assessment and decision-making regarding protective-measures and guidelines for patients with monkeypox.     

Healthcare practitioners’ personal and professional values

Personal and professional values of healthcare practitioners influence their clinical decisions. Understanding these values for individuals and across healthcare professions can help improve patient-centred decision-making by individual practitioners and interprofessional teams, respectively. We aimed to identify these values and integrate them into a single framework using Schwartz’s values model. We searched Medline, Embase, PsycINFO, CINAHL and ERIC databases for articles on personal and professional values of healthcare practitioners and students. We extracted values from included papers and synthesized them into a single framework using Schwartz’s values model. We summarised the framework within the context of healthcare practice. We identified 128 values from 50 included articles from doctors, nurses and allied health professionals. A new framework for the identified values established the following broad healthcare practitioner values, corresponding to Schwartz values (in parentheses): authority (power); capability (achievement); pleasure (hedonism); intellectual stimulation (stimulation); critical-thinking (self-direction); equality (universalism); altruism (benevolence); morality (tradition); professionalism (conformity); safety (security) and spirituality (spirituality). The most prominent values identified were altruism, equality and capability. This review identified a comprehensive set of personal and professional values of healthcare practitioners. We integrated these into a single framework derived from Schwartz’s values model. This framework can be used to assess personal and professional values of healthcare practitioners across professional groups, and can help improve practitioners’ awareness of their values so they can negotiate more patient-centred decisions. A common values framework across professional groups can support shared education strategies on values and help improve interprofessional teamwork and decision-making.     

The personal and social context of planning for end-of-life care

OBJECTIVES: To examine the potential facilitators of or deterrents to end-of-life planning for community-dwelling older adults, including personal (health-related and sociodemographic) and social (physician and family) influences. DESIGN: In-person interviews with older adults, telephone interviews with physicians and family members. SETTING: Cleveland, Ohio. PARTICIPANTS: Two hundred thirty-one adults aged 65 to 99 who were aging in place, 99 of their primary care physicians, and 127 of their family members. MEASUREMENTS: Questions assessing older adults' discussions with others about end-of-life plans, implementation of advance directives, and physical (Older American Resources and Services) illness index and mental (Short Portable Mental Status Questionnaire) health status. RESULTS: Just fewer than half of older adults had executed an advance directive and discussed their wishes with others. Only personal characteristics of elderly individuals were related to end-of-life plans, with whites, unmarried individuals, and younger adults more likely to have made preparations. Older adults' health status, as evaluated by the patient, physician, and caregiver, did not relate to the tendency to have made advance care plans. Older adults' family members were much more likely to report knowledge of advance care plans than were physicians. CONCLUSION: These findings suggest that many physicians are not talking with their patients about their end-of-life wishes. Furthermore, the propensity to have such discussions may relate more to the personal preferences and level of comfort of patients, physicians, and family members than on the health status of the older adult.