Disciplinary power and the process of training informal carers on stroke units

This article examines the process of training informal carers on stroke units using the lens of power. Care is usually assumed as a kinship obligation but the state has long had an interest in framing the carer and caring work. Training carers in healthcare settings raises questions about the power of the state and healthcare professionals as its agents to shape expectations and practices related to the caring role. Drawing on Foucault's notion of disciplinary power, we show how disciplinary forms of power exercised in interactions between healthcare professionals and carers shape the engagement and resistance of carers in the process of training. Interview and observational field note extracts are drawn from a multi‐sited study of a training programme on stroke units targeting family carers of people with stroke to consider the consequences of subjecting caring to this intervention. We found that the process of training informal carers on stroke units was not simply a matter of transferring skills from professional to lay person, but entailed disciplinary forms of power intended to shape the conduct of the carer. We interrogate the extent to which a specific kind of carer is produced through such an approach, and the wider implications for the participation of carers in training in healthcare settings and the empowerment of carers.     

Patient‐initiated recruitment for clinical research: Evaluation of an outpatient letter research statement

Background

UK Hospital Trusts are charged with increasing patients’ research awareness and willingness to take part in research. This includes implementing strategies to encourage patient‐initiated enquiries about participation.

Objectives

To evaluate the impact of a research statement inserted in outpatient letters in one clinical service, and to derive suggestions on potential steps towards increasing patient‐initiated recruitment.

Setting

A medical outpatient clinic of a research‐active hospital trust, serving an inner‐city multi‐ethnic population across two boroughs.

Methods

Pre‐intervention and post‐intervention questionnaires were administered face‐to‐face to new patients. Questionnaires included closed questions and one open comments section. Data were analysed for frequencies, with thematic coding of open‐ended responses.

Results

The response rates were 87% for the pre‐intervention survey and 92% for the post‐intervention survey. In the post‐intervention survey, 85% of patients did not notice the research statement in the letter. More than half found the statement “a little unclear,” whilst one‐third considered it “clear.” Three‐quarters of respondents perceived the statement to be “a little helpful.” Only one person enquired about participating in clinical research having read the statement in the outpatient letter.

Conclusion

The analysis suggests that simple, single‐solution approaches such as including research statements in outpatient letters are unlikely to be sufficient to significantly facilitate patient‐initiated recruitment. Recruitment efforts need to take into consideration the diversity of patient constituencies including the reasons they seek health care, and how patients can meaningfully access information (research literacy).     

Developing a novel peer support intervention to promote resilience after stroke

Stroke can lead to physical, mental and social long‐term consequences, with the incidence of stroke increasing with age. However, there is a lack of evidence of how to improve long‐term outcomes for people with stroke. Resilience, the ability to ‘bounce back’, flourish or thrive in the face of adversity improves mental health and quality of life in older adults. However, the role of resilience in adjustment after stroke has been little investigated. The purpose of this study is to report on the development and preliminary evaluation of a novel intervention to promote resilience after stroke. We applied the first two phases of the revised UK Medical Research Council (UKMRC) framework for the development and evaluation of complex interventions: intervention development (phase 1) and feasibility testing (phase 2). Methods involved reviewing existing evidence and theory, interviews with 22 older stroke survivors and 5 carers, and focus groups and interviews with 38 professionals to investigate their understandings of resilience and its role in adjustment after stroke. We used stakeholder consultation to co‐design the intervention and returned to the literature to develop its theoretical foundations. We developed a 6‐week group‐based peer support intervention to promote resilience after stroke. Theoretical mechanisms of peer support targeted were social learning, meaning‐making, helping others and social comparison. Preliminary evaluation with 11 older stroke survivors in a local community setting found that it was feasible to deliver the intervention, and acceptable to stroke survivors, peer facilitators, and professionals in stroke care and research. This study demonstrates the application of the revised UKMRC framework to systematically develop an empirically and theoretically robust intervention to promote resilience after stroke. A future randomised feasibility study is needed to determine whether a full trial is feasible with a larger sample and wider age range of people with stroke.     

A family support organiser for stroke patients and their carers: a randomised controlled trial

BACKGROUND: Previous trials of interventions to support stroke survivors and their families in the community have had contradictory and inconclusive results. Using the MRC Framework for Complex Interventions we developed a family support organiser (FSO) service and refined outcome measures for evaluation. We tested the effects of the intervention in a randomised controlled trial. METHODS: From 1 March 1999 to 1 April 2001 all first-in-a-lifetime strokes (n = 513) were identified and 340 (96%) of eligible strokes randomised to receive FSO or usual care. Patients and their carers were followed up at 3 months and 1 year post-stroke. Outcomes included satisfaction (main outcome) with hospital staff and outpatient services, use of social services, reintegration to normal living (RNLI) and feelings about life after the stroke. RESULTS: The mean number of contacts with the FSO was 15 (SD = 9.8) per patient. More intervention than control patients received some social services and had increased patient and carer satisfaction in most aspects, particularly with information about recovery and feeling that someone had listened. There was little evidence at 3 or 12 months of differences in RNLI. CONCLUSIONS: A meta-analysis of trials in this area is now needed along with further trials of interventions in subgroups of the stroke population to fully identify any benefits of the FSO role.     

ASO Author Reflections: Selective Nodal Staging and De-escalating Adjuvant Therapy

Annals of Surgical Oncology -     

Reactivity of antibodies from syphilis patients to a protein array representing the Treponema pallidum proteome

To identify antigens important in the human immune response to syphilis, the serum antibody reactivity of syphilitic patients was examined with 908 of the 1,039 proteins in the proteome of Treponema pallidum subsp. pallidum using a protein array enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Thirty-four proteins exhibited significant reactivity when assayed with human sera from patients in the early latent stage of syphilis. A subset of antigens identified were further scrutinized for antibody reactivity at primary, secondary, and latent disease stages, and the results demonstrate that the humoral immune response to individual T. pallidum proteins develops at different rates during the time course of infection.     

Hyalinization of the pyloric stomach in CD-1 mice following oral (dietary) administration of the corticosteroid agonists mometasone furoate, budesonide, and flunisolide

The purpose of this study was to compare the toxicity of three marketed corticosteroid receptor agonists (mometasone furoate, budesonide, or flunisolide) to the stomach of female CD-1 mice following oral administration via the diet for up to 52 weeks, with a 16-week recovery period (budesonide and flunisolide). A range of tissues was examined by light microscopy, accompanied by clinical pathology measurements to assess anticipated corticosteroid effects as a surrogate marker of systemic drug exposure. Microscopic changes seen in the stomach with each corticosteroid included pyloric hyalinization. This previously unreported finding was investigated using histochemical and immunohistochemical techniques and was found to consist of hyalinized collagen, in association with increased immunohistochemical signal for transglutaminase-2 and osteopontin. The significance of the osteopontin finding is unclear; however, the ability of transglutaminase-2 to facilitate the formation of degradation resistant protein bonds implies this protein may be involved in the pathogenesis of this change. Furthermore, published evidence that transglutaminase-2 may be induced by a corticosteroid agonist raises the possibility that pyloric stomach hyalinization may be a class effect of corticosteroids via the action of this enzyme.