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The impact of passive design and solar energy use in a housing development on the electrical grid
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National implementation of standards of practice for non-prescription medicines in Australia
No full textIn Australia, there are two categories of nonprescription
medicines: pharmacy medicines and pharmacist
only medicines. Standards were developed to define
and describe the professional activities required for the
provision of these medicines at a consistent and measurable
level of practice. Objective Our objective was to implement
nationally a quality improvement package in relation to the
Standards of Practice for the Provision of Non-Prescription
Medicines. Methods Approximately 50% of Australian
pharmacies (n = 2,706) were randomly selected by local
registering authorities. Trained pharmacy educators audited
each community pharmacy in the study three times,
7 weeks apart on Standards of Practice for the Provision of
Non-Prescription Medicines, Visit 1 involved the educator
explaining the project and conducting an assessment of the
pharmacy’s level of compliance. Behaviour of community
pharmacists and their staff in relation to these standards
was measured by conducting pseudo-patron visits.
Pseudopatron visits were conducted at Visit 2, with the
educator providing immediate feedback and coaching and a
compliance assessment. Visit 3 involved a compliance
assessment, and a second pseudo-patron visit for those
pharmacies that had performed poorly at the first visit.
Results At Visit 1, the lowest levels of compliance were to
the standards relating to the documentation process (44%)
and customer care and advice (46%). By Visit 2, more than
80% of pharmacies had met most criteria. At Visit 3,
compliance had significantly improved compared to Visits
1 and 2 (P\0.001). The lowest levels of compliance were
to criteria which required written operating procedures for
specific tasks, but these also improved significantly over
time (P\0.001). Conclusions Professional practice in
relation to the handling of pharmacist only and pharmacy
medicines improved considerably as measured by the
auditing process, and the results indicate that Australian
pharmacies are well-equipped to provide high quality service
to consumers of these medicines. The acceptability of
national implementation of these standards of practice in
Australia indicates that such an approach could be taken
internationally.
Corporate brand reputation and the adoption of innovations
No full textOriginality/value – An indication of the scale of the CB effect on innovation adoption is given. CB is indicated to have two components: emotive and factual. Those managing the potential launch of an innovative service and who may have several corporate brands to choose from to use would be aided by this research.
No evidence for an enhanced role of endothelial nitric oxide in the maintenance of arterial blood pressure in the IUGR sheep fetus
No full textThe fetus makes a number of physiological adaptations to a restriction of placental substrate supply, including a decrease in body growth and an increase in peripheral vasoconstriction which maintains mean arterial pressure (MAP) and supports a redistribution of cardiac output to key fetal organs. It is not known, however, whether chronic restriction of placental substrate supply results in an enhanced or diminished role for vasodilators such as endothelial nitric oxide in the regulation of MAP. We hypothesised that there is an increased contribution of NO to blood pressure regulation in growth restricted fetuses and that a 2 h infusion of a nitric oxide synthase inhibitor, N(omega)-nitro-L-arginine methyl ester (L-NAME) would result in an augmented rise in MAP in chronically hypoxemic, placentally restricted (PR, n ¼ 8) fetuses compared to controls (n ¼ 6) in late gestation. There was no difference in the increase in fetal MAP and decrease in HR during L-NAME infusion between Control and PR fetuses. In the PR group, fetuses with lower mean gestational PaO2 had a lower increase in MAP during L-NAME infusion. Thus we have found no evidence for an enhanced role of NO in the maintenance of MAP in the chronically hypoxemic IUGR fetus.
Application of power spectral density to recognize the important factors creating tractor-subsoiler vibrations
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Experiential placements and scaffolding for reflection
No full textReflection is a cognitive process for organizing ideas and building theory from observations and experiences. Learning within work-integrated and clinical placements is increasingly required for professional accreditation approval of allied health and other university programmes. Through clinical placements students can develop the knowledge and the practical skills and personal attributes needed for entry into their professions. Relevant to communities of practice, in experiential placements learners actively build on their own life experiences within realistic work-oriented contexts. Supervising practitioner feedback and guidance potentially accelerate the learning through a process of feedback and skilful questioning to encourage deep reflection. However, there has been little research into the role of reflection within experiential placements, particularly with respect to the preparation of students for the Australian pharmacy profession.
A 2007 Australian Learning and Teaching Council-funded research study was conducted regarding pharmacy experiential placements. The purpose was to map Australian university programmes, analyse handbooks and also consult with about 250 stakeholders from a range of backgrounds in relation to issues and quality indicators.
This paper focuses on reflection as one aspect of the Australian pharmacy experiential placement research. It highlights the importance of more comprehensively planned approaches to learning and reflection within experiential placements. This includes university and clinical educator scaffolding and feedback at the pre-placement, during placement and post-placement stages.