Evaluating a preceptorship programme in South West Ireland: perceptions of preceptors and undergraduate students

Aim  The study sought to evaluate stakeholder perspective of preceptor preparation and attributes.
Background  In Ireland, undergraduate students are supported by a named preceptor on clinical placement. A preceptor is a registered nurse who has completed a teaching, assessment and preceptorship programme. Preceptor preparation is costly in terms of facilitation and staff release/replacement. To date, in Ireland, research has not explored the effectiveness of preceptor preparation.
Method  An utilization-focussed approach was adopted incorporating a two-phase research process; Phase 1 being exploratory while Phase 2 aimed to validate inductions derived from the previous stage.
Results  The programme is effective in meeting its learning outcomes. The findings are categorized into four theme areas: the importance of preceptor characteristics, the demonstration of these characteristics, knowledge demonstrated by the preceptors and the skills demonstrated by the preceptor.
Conclusion(s)  Preceptors, to be effective within the preceptor/student relationship, need to integrate both their professional and personal attributes to effectively socialize students to the profession of nursing.
Implications for nursing management  The preceptor role is invaluable within nurse education. This study supports the release of registered nurses to attend preceptor preparation programmes. It highlights the importance of nursing management in preceptor selection, release, support and monitoring in order to create an effective clinical learning environment.     

Bioactive Glass Granules for Regeneration of Human Periodontal Defects

Purpose: A comparative study which evaluated the effectiveness of bioactive glass granules of uniform size (300–335 μm) for the regenerative treatment of interproximal intrabony periodontal defects was conducted.
Materials and Methods: Twelve pairs of advanced periodontal lesions in 12 patients (6 males and 6 females) were treated in a split-mouth design with open flap débridement in the control sites and open flap debridement with bioactive glass particles placed in the test sites.
Results: At 6 months post-treatment, both treatment modalities demonstrated a gain in clinical attachment level (CAL), with the test sites having a significantly ( p < .01) greater gain in CAL than the control sites. Reentry procedures were performed to assess the amount of hard tissue fill. The test sites demonstrated significantly ( p < .001) more gain in hard tissue fill than the controls.
CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE
The use of bioactive glass granules of uniform size in human interproximal intrabony periodontal defects resulted in significantly better hard tissue fill and clinical attachment gain than surgical debridement alone.     

Use of an in-shoe pressure system to investigate the effect of two clinical treatment methods for metatarsalgia

Most of the clinical treatments used to alleviate the symptoms of metatarsalgia are placed directly inside a patient's footwear. Therefore, to objectively evaluate these treatment methods, an in-shoe pressure system is the most appropriate measurement tool. The authors can find no published studies which assess the treatment modalities for metatarsalgia using an in-shoe foot pressure system. The vast majority of previous studies which investigated the use of orthoses in metatarsalgia have been carried out using barefoot measuring systems.In this study, an in-shoe pressure measurement system, GaitScan, has been used to evaluate two treatment modalities for metatarsalgia: a Foam-o-felt U-shaped pad and a metatarsal dome/button.30 asymptomatic subjects were studied. From each subject 3 sets of pressure data were collected whilst the subject was wearing: (1) Orthofit shoes (control); (2) Orthofit shoes with a Foam-o-felt pad; and (3) Orthofit shoes with a dome/button insole.The results obtained indicated a more effective and significant pressure reduction (P<0.05) and redistribution using a dome/button when compared to the Foam-o-felt pad.