Training Occupational Therapy Managers

There is a need for occupational therapists to become competent managers in a diverse range of health care settings. In this paper, the author's continuing education course on management which they have conducted at the West Australian Institute of Technology (now Curtin University of Technology) over the past four years. Details of participants, their reasons for attending and their comments on the course are included. The authors emphasise the need for more continuing education in management and the provision of skills for coping with organisational life, in particular in a female dominated profession such as occupational therapy.     

Productive Aging: A Quality of Life Agenda

Although the fact that, in general, the US population is living longer is said to be the public health success story of the 20th century, the boom in the population aged 65 years and older is having and will continue to have major implications for all age groups as well as for the nation's health, social, and economic institutions. The concept of productive aging can provide guidance in addressing these implications. The assumptions of productive aging reflect today's reality that older people are repositories of wisdom and experience and important assets for society; relatively healthy, with the potential for maintaining that condition until late in life; capable of making economic and social contributions that benefit themselves, their families, and their communities; and in need of purposeful and meaningful roles and activities in life. A productive aging activity model emphasizes involvement in paid work, volunteerism, education, fitness and exercise, leisure and travel, advocacy and political action, and consumerism. This article discusses the concept of productive aging, a related activity model, and qualitative focus group research undertaken in conjunction with the 1995 White House Conference on Aging. J Am Diet Assoc. 1998;98:1445–1448.     

Massive gastrointestinal hemorrhage following internal drainage of pancreatic pseudocysts]

In operative treatment of pancreatic pseudocysts by inner drainage there is a risk of massive gastrointestinal bleeding particularly following an anastomosis to the stomach. In 10 patients in whom cystogastrostomy or cystoduodenostomy had been performed elsewhere a second laparotomy was necessary because of acute bleeding. In one patient a cystadenoma of the pancreas had been anastomosed to the duodenum by mistake at the previous operation. The leak of obliteration of the cyst is suggested to be the most important factor in the pathophysiology of bleeding. Inner pseudocyst drainage in a disconnected small bowel loop therefore principally should be performed at the lowest point of the cyst. The indication for an inner cyst drainage, however, must be closely examined since simultaneous pathologic changes in the pancreas often justify a resection to remove the origin of the cyst and, further, averting the complications of an inadequate inner pancreatic cyst drainage.