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PSYCOMETRIC VALIDATION OF AN INSTRUMENT TO MEASURE PERSON-CENTRED TEAMWORK IN HOSPITAL SETTINGS
Get PDFAim: To validate an instrument for measuring healthcare workers' perceptions of person-centred teamwork in hospital units. Design: Quantitative cross-sectional descriptive design. This approach collected numerical data to explore and describe the characteristics of the instrument items, with the goal of generating insights as to the validity and reliability of the items. Methods: The target population included healthcare workers who worked in hospital settings. Total sampling was used to identify healthcare workers. Convenience sampling was used to select the participants. The participants completed the instrument. The data were captured and analysed using the software IBM SPSS Statistics Version 28 and RStudio 2023.06. Results: A 38-item instrument measuring the perceptions of healthcare workers of person-centred teamwork was tested psychometrically. A total of 388 healthcare workers working in private (n = 160) and public (n = 228) hospitals completed the instrument. Confirmatory factor analysis was used, indicating that the items were significant and that the constructs were well measured. Factor loading was present, and bifactor analysis confirmed the multidimensionality of each construct. The Cronbach's α confirmed the reliability of each of the 38 items. Conclusion: The person-centred teamwork instrument was reliable and validated as a multidimensional scale comprising 38 items. The instrument is psychometrically suitable for measuring person-centred teamwork in hospital settings. Implications: The person-centred teamwork instrument provides the ability to measure person-centred teamwork efforts to improve practice. As a measurable concept, person-centred teamwork can be improved by distinguishing areas for improvement. Link to Practice: The 38 item person-centred teamwork instrument indicated good fit for measuring the constructs, and the instrument was validated. Each of the items was reliable for measuring person-centred teamwork. The instrument can be applied internationally to assist in the measurement of person-centred teamwork practices to improve clinical outcomes
A scoping review of research about women in sport: a perspective from the island of Ireland
Get PDFWomen remain under-represented in many sport settings, including as research participants. Additionally, there is often a lack of collective thinking and action across universities and the sport sector in research about women in sport, including on the island of Ireland. To support the strategic development of research within this region, we conducted a scoping review to systematically identify, analyse, and synthesise existing literature about women in sport on the island of Ireland. Following searches of electronic databases (APA PsycINFO, MEDLINE, SportDiscus, SocINDEX with Full Text) and manual searches up to December 2024, we included 274 peer-reviewed outputs. Research about women in sport in Ireland has grown significantly over the last five years, with 57.7 % of included studies published in print or online in the five years prior to the search (2020–2024). Following analysis of each study, we organised primary topics investigated into five main areas: injury (k = 86), sport performance (k = 72), sport, health and wellbeing (k = 65), society and culture (k = 38), and coaching and professional practice (k = 13). We identified numerous trends, including the dominance of cross-sectional research designs and quantitative methods, tendency to conduct research through a monodisciplinary lens, and inconsistent reporting of sex/gender in published literature. While this review highlights research priorities specific to the island of Ireland, it offers a template for other regions to replicate and some relevant learning for researchers worldwide in their respective and collective efforts to improve the experiences of women in sport.</p
Beach Clean 2.0: a transdisciplinary, civic approach to tackling marine plastic pollution in Northern Ireland (NI)
Get PDFEarly identification of the use of potent benzylbenzimidazoles (nitazenes) through wastewater analysis: Two years of data from 22 countries.
Get PDFBackground and Aims: The use of new synthetic opioids, such as the highly potent 2-benzylbenzimidazoles (i.e. nitazene) drugs, is a global health concern because of their increased risk of fatal overdose. In the early 2020s, nitazene analogues were linked to significant numbers of overdoses in the United States. Their reach is now worldwide, with nitazene overdose deaths reported in Europe, Australia and New Zealand. The aim of this study was to measure quantities of nitazenes in wastewater samples collected from 68 locations in 22 countries, covering six continents, to understand and estimate their use.Methods: Untreated influent wastewater samples were collected over a one-week period that included the New Year period in 2022–2023 and 2023–2024. Samples were collected from 22 countries: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Cyprus, Czechia, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Italy, New Zealand, Nigeria, Republic of Korea, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom and United States. Samples were loaded onto solid-phase extraction cartridges in the country of collection and sent to Australia for elution and analysis using sensitive liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry methods.Results: A total of 683 individual wastewater samples were analysed across the two years:339 in 2022–2023 and 344 in 2023–2024. Two nitazene analogues—protonitazene and N-pyrrolidino etonitazene (etonitazepyne)—were found in five separate sites in the United States and Australia. In the 2022–2023 period, protonitazene was found in two sites in the United States. The following year, protonitazene was detected in two further sites in the United States, while both protonitazene and etonitazepyne were found in one site in Australia. Protonitazene mass loads ranged between 0.3 mg/day/1000 people and 100 mg/day/1000 people. Etonitazepyne was also found at mass loads between0.2–2 mg/day/1000 people).Conclusions: A very high mass load of protonitazene was calculated, using wastewateranalysis, for the day of 30 December 2023 in one site in Australia. Etonitazepyneshowed the same trend from a lower base. Wastewater-based nitazene surveillanceshows promise as a form of both drug early warning and ongoing monitoring of trends inuse, especially as a complementary tool to existing surveillance methods
Wellbeing of Family Carers of Adults With Intellectual Disabilities During the COVID‐19 Pandemic in the UK: Longitudinal Study
Get PDFBackground: Longitudinal studies of family carers of people with intellectual disabilities during the COVID-19 pandemic have been very rare. This study investigated trajectories of family-carer wellbeing and the impact of the caring role on carers' health over four time points measured during the COVID-19 pandemic and after all public health restrictions had been lifted (between December 2020 and late 2022) across the United Kingdom. Methods: Family carers of adults with intellectual disabilities participated through a co-designed, online survey at four time points across the pandemic (2020–2022). Growth models were used to determine the change in family-carer wellbeing (n = 312) and the impact of the caring role on carers' health across the pandemic and what factors were associated with these outcomes. We explored associations between profound and multiple intellectual disabilities (PMID), the cared-for person's individual wellbeing, the cared-for person's age, whether the cared-for person lived with their family and family-carer wellbeing and impact of caring trajectories. Results: Overall, family-carer wellbeing improved, and the impact of the caring role on carers' health reduced across the time period. If the cared-for person had PMID was associated with greater degrees of depression and stress for caregivers and thus increased the impact of the caring role on carers' health, but it was not associated with carer wellbeing. Similarly, the reduction in individual wellbeing of the cared-for person and the caregiver's perception of this person's wellbeing was also significantly associated with increased impact of the caring role on carers' health and carer wellbeing. There was no evidence that age of cared-for person was predictive of either outcome, and there were mixed findings on whether living at home was an associated factor for either outcome. Conclusions: Overall, family-carer wellbeing improved, and the impact of the caring role on carers' health reduced across the time period, but the cared-for persons' poorer wellbeing and complex needs (indexed by the presence of PMID) were associated with negative impacts on family carers during the pandemic period.</p
Non-invasive vestibular nerve stimulation (VeNS) reduces visceral adipose tissue: results of a randomised controlled trial
Get PDFAcross multiple species, chronic vestibular stimulation activates hypothalamic regions involved in energy homeostasis and reduces body fat. This first-in-human randomised controlled trial evaluated the efficacy and safety of electrical vestibular nerve stimulation (VeNS) as a means of reducing excess body weight and fat. Overweight and obese adults were randomised 1:1 to receive 60 min of daily VeNS (n = 117) or sham stimulation (n = 124) for 6 months, together with a hypocaloric diet. The primary endpoints were weight loss based. Secondary endpoints included reduction in visceral adipose tissue (VAT). It is VAT, more than subcutaneous fat depots, which is particularly associated with the risks associated with obesity. The weight loss based primary endpoints were not met. However, mean change in VAT was significantly greater in the active (− 12.6%) versus the sham (− 4.7%) group (p = 0.03). This suggests that regular VeNS may cause a clinically meaningful reduction in VAT
Device-based measurement of physical activity and sedentary behaviour after critical illness: A Scoping Review
Get PDFIntroduction: Measuring and promoting physical activity could support rehabilitation and recovery after critical illness. In recent years, there has been an emergence of the use of devices to measure both physical activity and sedentary behaviour in this population. Understanding device selection and processes for data analysis could be helpful for future research and practice when used with this population.Aims: The aim of this review was to explore the current use of device-based physical activity instruments to measure physical activity and sedentary behaviour during and following critical illness.Methods: A scoping review was conducted which followed the Arksey and O’Malley (2005) framework. A comprehensive search of four electronic databases (Medline, ProQuest, Scopus and CINAHL) was conducted using pre-agreed search terms. Screening and data extraction was conducted by two independent reviewers. Data were analysed descriptively by summarising and describing results that linked to the review questions.Results: Twenty-two studies were included; the majority were observational (n=12), with one randomised control trial. Studies covered the continuum from intensive care admission to 18 months post-hospital discharge. A total of 11 devices were used to assess physical activity and sedentary behaviour, and many different processing decisions were used for data analysis. Physical activity levels were low in the intensive care unit and remained low following discharge from intensive care.Conclusion: The use of device-based measurement of physical activity and sedentary behaviour after critical illness is an emerging research area. While several devices are available, this review highlights the need for agreed and standardised protocol(s) to guide the processing and analysis of data. Investment is also needed to support the recovery of physical activity and the reduction of excessive sedentary behaviour following discharge from the hospital
Validation of an experimental system for testing monopiles
Get PDFMonopiles remain the most versatile and popular way of supporting offshore wind turbines. Most of the existing information on the performance of monopiles is based on 1g testing. However, a better response of such a system can be obtained if the stresses acting along the monopile can be varied to represent in situ conditions. The work reported in this article attempted to achieve this using elevated stress gradients acting along the length of a soil bed (thus still using the 1g model testing hypothesis). The results obtained through preliminary research are presented herein as a proof-of-concept for the suggested test method. The observations suggest that progressive displacements ceased after a significantly low number of loading cycles as opposed to thousands of loading cycles reported when the tests were conducted under 1g conditions (i.e. natural stress gradient) as reported by previous researchers
The MIND diet, cognitive function, and well-being among healthy adults at midlife: A randomised feasibility trial.
Get PDFBackground: The Mediterranean and Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) diets have been shown to slow cognitive decline. However, these diets were not originally developed with dementia prevention as their primary focus. In contrast, the Mediterranean-DASH Intervention for Neurodegenerative Delay (MIND) diet was specifically designed based on evidence linking individual dietary components to brain health and the prevention of cognitive decline. The aim of this research was to test the effectiveness of the MIND diet on cognitive function, mood, and quality of life using the Behaviour Change Wheel, and to design an intervention using the COM-B model to promote the MIND diet at midlife. Methods: An online pilot randomised control trial (RCT) was conducted. Forty-one participants (aged 40–55 years, male and female) were randomised into a MIND diet with support group (n = 15), MIND diet group with no support (n = 14) or control group (n = 12) for 12 weeks. Baseline and follow-up measures of cognitive function, mood, quality of life (QOL) and adherence to MIND diet was assessed in each group. Capability, opportunity, and motivation (COM-B) towards MIND diet behaviour were also assessed pre and post intervention. Results: A repeated measures ANOVA showed that in comparison to the control group, both intervention groups significantly improved mood, quality of life, MIND diet score and all COM-B components at follow-up (p < 0.05). No significant differences or interactions in cognitive function were found between groups. Conclusion: There are only two RCT’s that test the effectiveness of the MIND diet on cognitive function, and this is the first RCT to assess the usefulness of the COM-B in increasing adherence to the MIND diet. Future interventions with longer duration are needed to establish an association with MIND diet and cognitive function in adults at midlife. This study recommends using less Behaviour Change Techniques (BCTs) with a focus on self-monitoring, goal setting and education on diet as an effective strategy for promoting adherence to the MIND diet. Trial registration: Trial registered at ClinicalTrials.gov Protocol Record NCT04654936, May 2019.</p
The role of prejudice and prior contact in support for evidence-based interventions to reduce drug-related deaths: A mixed methods study.
Get PDFBackground: Stigmatized attitudes, opinions on opioid use, and prior contact with people who use drugs (PWUD) contribute to what policies are publicly supported and implemented to reduce drug-related deaths. This study examined how these variables relate to policy support for implementation of supervised injection sites, laws protecting bystanders at the scene of an overdose, and over-the-counter naloxone.Methods: An opportunity sample of 472 adults across the Island of Ireland completed an online survey. Hierarchical linear regression was performed to examine associations between respondent attitudes and policy support. Mediation analysis explored how stigma mediated the relationship between prior contact and policy support. Open-ended questions explored attitudes further and were analysed using codebook Thematic Analysis.Results: The final model accounted for 29% of the variance in policy support. Unsympathetic attitudes towards people who use opioids predicted less policy support (β=- .18) and agreement that PWUD were not criminals predicted more policy support (β=.14). Medium or high levels of familiarity with PWUD (compared to low) reduced social stigma, avoidance, and disgust which increased levels of policy support. Medium familiarity (compared to low) showed a small indirect effect via sympathetic attitudes and condemnation. Meta-inferences from the qualitative analysis evidenced mechanisms of stigma and prior contact.Conclusion: Stigma reduction programs should consider the role of prejudice and target negative emotional reactions such as lack of sympathy towards PWUD. Stigma reduction programs should be informed by the lived or living experience of PWUD, families and carers, to help increase social acceptance, understanding, and policy support