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Impact of the Nursing and Midwifery Council (2018) future nurse: Standards of proficiency for registered nurses on children's nursing curriculum – A cross-sectional study
No full textAbstract
Background
Student nurses in the United Kingdom undertake field-specific pre-registration education. The implementation of the Nursing and Midwifery Council (2018) Future nurse: Standards of proficiency for registered nurses, has raised concerns that the increasingly generic component of pre-registration programmes is not adequately preparing newly qualified children's nurses to care for children safely.
Objective
To investigate how the introduction of the Nursing and Midwifery Council standards in the United Kingdom has impacted the structure and field specific content of pre-registration children's nursing programmes.
Settings
An online survey completed by 54 programmes, field, or professional leads linked to 76 pre-registration children's nursing programmes. This represents 80 % of higher education institutions with Nursing and Midwifery Council approved pre-registration children's nursing programmes across all four United Kingdom countries.
Methods
A survey to capture the current content and changes to curricula since the introduction of the Nursing and Midwifery Council (2018) Future nurse standards. The survey included closed-ended and open-ended questions. Closed-ended questions were statistically analysed using SPSS v.28 for Windows. Open-ended questions were thematically analysed using Quircos v.2.1.
Results
50 % of respondents reported changes to theoretical content. In 27 programmes (35.5 %) there was a decrease in child-specific content. Child specific teaching methods accounted for less than 30 % of the content of all programmes whereas cross-field teaching methods (Adult, Mental Health, Learning Disability and Child learners together) accounted for over 70 % of the taught content. Analysis of qualitative data identified three themes: genericism as the focus, the challenge to achieve the standards' proficiencies, and dilution of child specific content.
Conclusions
The survey responses show disparities in how United Kingdom higher education institutions have interpreted the Nursing and Midwifery Council standards highlighting academics concerns on the growing genericism within pre-registration children's nurse education nationally. These findings will inform the next stage of the project comparing the impact of greater or lesser degrees of genericism on the outcomes of the programme for newly qualified children's nurses
The Impact of Utilising the Amazon AWS Hybrid Deployment Model on Assuring a Secure Migration of a Commercial Web Application into the Cloud
No full textCloud computing has brought substantial changes to businesses, particularly small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), by streamlining IT resource procurement and reshaping IT management responsibilities and security. Many SMEs still rely on outdated physical data centres, servers, and hardware for their IT infrastructure and applications. This reliance often stems from prior investments in infrastructure, software, and hardware, coupled with concerns about upgradability and the high cost of adopting new technology. However, in today's competitive technological landscape, organisations must maintain an IT infrastructure that is scalable, highly available, cost-efficient, high-performing, adaptable, and secure. This research paper examines the case of Xcilent.com, a modest taxi company, and its decision to migrate to the cloud, with a specific focus on AWS as their chosen cloud service provider. This strategic migration is aimed at bolstering Xcilent.com's competitive stance within the ground transportation sector, particularly when facing formidable competitors like Uber. The migration plan emphasizes adherence to predefined business privacy and security standards while striving for an elevated service level. Despite the initial challenges associated with cloud migration, this transition presents a valuable opportunity for Xcilent.com to modernise its IT infrastructure, making it more secure, scalable, and cost-effective
‘I’m laughing to myself as I write this’: Speculations on an African Laughing Record in Henry Miller’s Tropic of Cancer (1934)
No full textThis presentation reflects on the process of writing a chapter about Henry Miller and racial masquerade (forthcoming, Palgrave Macmillan) that was inspired by a minor but, for me, piercing detail in Jay Martin’s biography of the author. Miller, says Martin, launched into writing Tropic of Cancer (1934) in his Paris hotel room in autumn 1931 amid the tumult of clattering typewriter keys and ‘Beethoven or jazz or an African laughing record blaring at full volume from the victrola.’1 Pursuing this intriguing reference to the African laughing record took me on a learning journey through an ever-expanding multimedia cultural archive of black laughter, which included phonograph recordings, films, cartoons, posters, poems, novels, essays, anthropological and psychological studies, and racialised minstrel performances. It provided an emerging context for attending to Miller beyond the frame of reference to largely American and European literary authors in which he is typically interpreted. One tantalising possibility that presented itself was that the ‘African laughing’ accompanying Miller’s percussive typing may have issued from the flipside of Louis Armstrong's jazz number ‘Blue, Turning Grey Over You,’ released in 1931. In this presentation, I speculate – using an approach which has a precedent in Miller criticism – that the contagious laughing record infected the text of Cancer, both sonically, as literal and figurative laughter, and visually, as free associations with the spinning shellac disc and the white light reflecting off its shiny black surface. I will suggest that reading Miller and other literary texts attentive to seemingly insignificant biographical, contextual, and descriptive details, and employing imaginative and multidisciplinary modes of interpretation can open gateways to experience differently and otherwise familiar authors and their works
Development of a Single-Item Physical Activity Intention Measure for Adults with Intellectual Disabilities: Evidence of Validity and Reliability
No full textBackground
Physical activity (PA) is important for overall health and well-being, but adults with intellectual disabilities often struggle to achieve adequate levels of PA. Therefore, it is necessary to understand their PA behaviour.
Objective
To develop a Single-Item Physical Activity Intention Measure (SPAIM) to assess PA intentions of adults with intellectual disabilities and preliminarily analyse its psychometric properties in terms of validity and reliability.
Methods
The study had three phases: developing the SPAIM, assessing its validity and reliability evidence, and conducting a cross-sectional survey to analyse the relationship between PA intentions (measured by SPAIM) and PA levels. Participants were recruited between September 2016 and August 2017 from diverse settings in Oxford, UK, to ensure representation across the intellectual disability spectrum.
Results
There were 82 participants aged 20-68 (mean age 36 ± 13) years who had mild-profound intellectual disabilities. The study provided evidence of content- and response processes-related validity to ensure respondents' understanding. Additionally, test-criterion evidence was provided, showing a predictive correlation between PA intention and sedentary hours/day (12% of the explained variability). However, there was no correlation between PA intention and PA minutes/week. The study also provided adequate test-retest evidence (r = .78).
Conclusions
SPAIM may be a valuable tool for measuring PA intention in adults with intellectual disabilities. Modifying PA intentions could prove crucial in reducing sedentary behaviour and improving the health outcomes of this population. Future research and application of SPAIM in varied contexts will deepen our understanding of PA intentions and explore its predictive characteristics
"HOW TO" ……. Incorporating education for sustainable development within a radiography curriculum: A narrative review.
No full textThis narrative review aims to describe opportunities to embed sustainability as a core concept in radiography education by exploring teaching strategies to increase awareness about sustainability and its importance in radiography; encourage a culture of personal responsibility and investigate effective teaching methods to engage students in exploring sustainable radiography practices. Climate change can adversely affect the health of populations worldwide. Medical imaging and radiotherapy services are recognised as substantial contributors to the ecological impact of the healthcare industry. There is a need to address the inclusion of sustainability in radiography education due to its increasing relevance to complex cultural and environmental problems. Literature searches were conducted using CINAHL and Google Scholar, focusing on keywords such as "Sustainability," "Healthcare," and "Radiography Curriculum." A variety of teaching strategies are available to facilitate the instruction of sustainable healthcare practices. Many pedagogical methods promote emancipation and transformative learning, such as problem-based learning, case-study learning, debate, and participatory action research, contributing to a student-centred learning experience. Traditional lecturing and interprofessional teaching also enhance the learner experience by stimulating new ways of thinking. Communicating about climate change is important. The radiography curriculum should include education on sustainability for meaningful global health literacy, encourage active research involvement, and ensure that sustainable healthcare principles are incorporated into daily practice. Radiographers possess the ability to assess the various elements influencing a patient's health status and identify which aspects might affect their capacity for behaviour change. This empowers patients to effectively control their conditions within the framework of personalised care. Radiographers have the potential to motivate actions, shape policies, and drive transformation as advocates for environmental and health messengers. [Abstract copyright: Copyright © 2024 The College of Radiographers. All rights reserved.
Promoting students’ interest through culturally sensitive curricula in higher education
No full textPrevious studies have emphasized culturally sensitive curricula in the context of enhancing minoritized students’ education. We examined the relationship between second-year higher education students’ perceptions of the cultural sensitivity of their curriculum and both majoritized and minoritized students’ interest in their course. A total of 286 (228 F) students rated the cultural sensitivity of their curriculum on six scales using a revised version of the Culturally Sensitive Curricula Scales (CSCS-R), the perceived quality of their relationships with teachers, and their interest. The CSCS-R widened the construct with two new scales and showed better reliability. Ethnic minority students (n = 99) perceived their curriculum as less culturally sensitive than White students (n = 182), corroborating previous findings. Black students perceived their curriculum as less culturally sensitive than Asian students. There were no significant differences between ethnic minority and White students on interest or perceived quality of relationships with teachers. Five dimensions of cultural sensitivity (Diversity Represented, Positive Depictions, Challenge Power, Inclusive Classroom Interactions, Culturally Sensitive Assessments) and perceived quality of relationships with teachers predicted interest. Ethnicity did not. Ensuring curricula and assessments represent diversity positively, challenge power and are inclusive may support students’ interest while reflecting an increasingly diverse society
Audio-Driven Facial Animation with Deep Learning: A Survey
No full textAudio-driven facial animation is a rapidly evolving field that aims to generate realistic facial expressions and lip movements synchronized with a given audio input. This survey provides a comprehensive review of deep learning techniques applied to audio-driven facial animation, with a focus on both audio-driven facial image animation and audio-driven facial mesh animation. These approaches employ deep learning to map audio inputs directly onto 3D facial meshes or 2D images, enabling the creation of highly realistic and synchronized animations. This survey also explores evaluation metrics, available datasets, and the challenges that remain, such as disentangling lip synchronization and emotions, generalization across speakers, and dataset limitations. Lastly, we discuss future directions, including multi-modal integration, personalized models, and facial attribute modification in animations, all of which are critical for the continued development and application of this technology
