Paediatric traumatic brain injury: A review of pertinent issues

Children with traumatic brain injury (TBI), regardless of the severity of the injury, often face challenges when living in home, school and community. Their needs are often overlooked and recognition of the long-term consequences is not always central to the management of the child in the school or community. This article provides references to pertinent literature and suggestions for intervention from the clinical experiences of four individuals with extensive experience of the family stresses, educational, cognitive-communicative and behavioural challenges that occur after TBI in children. It provides information regarding these issues, particularly educational situations, and suggests methods that may be useful for service providers and family members.     

Relational psychophysiology: Lessons from mother–infant physiology research on dyadically expanded states of consciousness

Abstract

The authors illustrate how their work on mother–infant “relational psychophysiology” might inform psychotherapy research. They examined psychophysiology in 18 mother–infant dyads (infants' age: 5 months) during normal interaction and a still-face perturbation. They measured respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) as an index of emotion regulation and explored whether skin conductance (SC) concordance, previously linked to therapist empathy, occurs in mothers and infants. During the still-face episode, SC concordance correlated to infant negative engagement. Upon reengagement, when mothers often soothe their infants, concordance instead correlated to behavioral synchrony, an index of maternal sensitivity. Furthermore, maternal RSA became correlated to infant negative engagement. These findings suggest that a mother trying to calm her infant calms herself physiologically and her sensitivity on a behavioral level becomes coherent physiologically. Implications for psychotherapy research are discussed.     

Psychotherapy change process research: Realizing the promise

Abstract

Change process research (CPR) is the study of the processes by which change occurs in psychotherapy and is a necessary complement to randomized clinical trials and other forms of efficacy research. In this article the author describes and evaluates four types of CPR. The first three are basic designs and include quantitative process–outcome, qualitative helpful factors, and microanalytic sequential process; the fourth, the significant events approach, refers to methods such as task analysis and comprehensive process analysis that integrate the first three. The strengths and weaknesses of each design are described and summarized using both causal and practical criteria as part of an overall argument for systematic methodological pluralism.     

影响我国分级诊疗制度推进的关键问题研究

目的:从问题的重要性与可解决程度两个维度,评价影响我国分级诊疗制度推进的关键问题,为下一步的政策制定提供决策参考。方法:通过文献回顾,系统性收集和筛选了77篇相关文献,在此基础上归纳出影响我国分级诊疗制度推进的20个问题;同时运用德尔菲法和层次分析法,构建相应的评价指标体系;对这20个问题的重要性与可解决性进行评价,最后运用变异系数法确定影响我国分级诊疗制度推进的关键问题。结果:将全科医生急缺且服务能力不足、医师多点执业制度的不完善阻碍医生自由流动以及现行财政投入机制不利于分级诊疗的推行这三个问题列为关键问题。结论:建议通过改革全科医学教育,解除医师自由执业的政策束缚,大力支持基层民营医疗机构的发展,构建基层医疗机构与上级医院之间的协作制约关系等政策来解决当前分级诊疗制度所面临的关键问题。     

Organizational configuration of hospitals succeeding in attracting and retaining nurses

AIM: This paper contrasts structural and managerial characteristics of low- and high-turnover hospitals, and describes the organizational configuration of attractive hospitals. BACKGROUND: In countries facing nurse shortages and turnover, some hospitals succeed in recruiting and retaining nurses. In Magnet Hospitals, managerial practices and environmental characteristics increase nurses' job satisfaction and their commitment to the organization, which in turn decreases nurse turnover. Such an approach suggests that organizations are best understood as clusters of interconnected structures and practices, i.e. organizational configurations rather than entities whose components can be understood in isolation. METHOD: From a sample of 12 hospitals whose nurse turnover was studied for 1 year, structural and organizational features of hospitals in the first and fourth quartiles, i.e. attractive (turnover <3.1%) vs. conventional (turnover >11.8%) were contrasted. A questionnaire, including perceptions of health-related factors, job demands, stressors, work schedules, organizational climate, and work adjustments antecedent to turnover, was received from 401 nurses working in attractive hospitals (response rate = 53.8%) and 774 nurses in conventional hospitals (response rate = 54.5%). FINDINGS: Structural characteristics did not differentiate attractive and conventional hospitals, but employee perceptions towards the organization differed strikingly. Differences were observed for risk exposure, emotional demands, role ambiguity and conflicts, work-family conflicts, effort-reward imbalance and the meaning of work, all in favour of attractive hospitals (P < 0.001). Relationships with nursing management, work ability and satisfaction with working time, handover shifts and schedules were also better in attractive hospitals (P < 0.001). Job satisfaction and commitment were higher in attractive hospitals, whereas burnout and intention to leave were lower (P < 0.001). CONCLUSION: Organizational characteristics are key factors in nurse attraction and retention. Nurses face difficulties in their work situations, but some hospitals are perceived as healthy organizations. The concept of attractive institutions could serve as a catalyst for improvement in nurses' work environments in Europe.