1,721,076 research outputs found
Development and refinement of patient care recommendations in brachytherapy for locally advanced cervical cancer using nominal group technique workshops
Full text linkPurpose: Patient experiences of brachytherapy for locally advanced cervical cancer (LACC) are widely variable, with reports of difficult and traumatic experiences and aspects of care requiring improvement. The aim of this study was to develop patient care recommendations and consult with key stakeholders to review, refine and prioritise recommendations. Methods: Phase 1: Patient care recommendations were developed from qualitative exploratory study data. Phase 2: Service users and providers with recent experience of brachytherapy for LACC were recruited to online nominal group technique (NGT) workshops. Four NGT stages were followed: (1) initial voting and silent generation; (2) round robin; (3) clarification; and (4) prioritisation. Voting data were summed across the workshops, deriving inter-group scores. Qualitative data were analysed through content analysis. Results: Phase 1: Fifty-one patient care recommendations were developed. Phase 2: Thirteen participants took part in three online NGT workshops, with a combination of service users and providers. Initial recommendations were voted on; four new recommendations were added; minor changes were made and second voting was undertaken. Recommendations were positively received with 25 recommendations scoring maximum points from all participants. An importance score above 90% was given to 46 recommendations. The remaining recommendations received scores between 74 and 90%. Conclusions: NGT workshops facilitated collaboration between key stakeholders, discussing, refining and prioritising patient care recommendations, leading to verification of achievable and relevant recommendations. These provide a foundation for future development of guidelines and subsequent implementation into clinical practice, aiming to improve consistency of care and patient experiences of brachytherapy for LACC
Psychological and self-management support for people with vasculitis or connective tissue diseases: UK health professionals' perspectives
Full text link© The Author(s) 2020. Objectives. CTD and systemic vasculitis impact on health-related quality of life. Treatment can be complex, involving multiple medical specialities. The aim of this study was to investigate psychological and self-management support for patients in secondary care. Methods. An online survey of health professionals in the UK, including 45 multiple-choice and freetext questions, was analysed descriptively. Free-text survey responses were analysed thematically to identify health professionals' perceptions of best practice and unmet needs. Results. The online survey included 120 health professionals (34% specialist nurses, 51% doctors and 12% allied health professionals), predominantly working in rheumatology (52.9%) and nephrology (21.5%) departments. Access to self-management programmes or clinics for people with CTD or vasculitis was available in 23% of rheumatology and 8% of nephrology departments. In response to 'How well is your team providing self-management support to people with CTD or vasculitis?', 38% of respondents reported 'not very well' or 'not well at all'. Direct access to psychological support was available in 76.9% of nephrology and 32.8% of rheumatology departments. More than 80% of respondents would like additional training. Key themes from the qualitative data (free-text survey responses) included the importance of: Dedicated psychological support and self-management programmes for people with CTD and vasculitis, a whole-team approach (specialist teams empowering people to manage their own care), staff training (e.g. brief psychological interventions) and signposting to resources, including patient charities. Conclusion. People with CTD and vasculitis have complex needs, and improvements in selfmanagement and psychological support are required in UK rheumatology and nephrology departments
Caregiving for older people living with chronic pain: analysis of the English longitudinal study of ageing and health survey for England
No full textBackground: chronic pain is a disabling condition. Many people with chronic pain seek informal support for everyday activities of daily living (ADL). However, there remains uncertainty on the type of people with chronic pain who access this support, what types of support they need and who provides such support. The purpose of this analysis was to answer these uncertainties.Methods: data from the Health Survey for England (HSE) and English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA) were accessed. People who reported chronic pain (moderate or above for minimum of 12 months) were identified. From these cohorts, we determined if individuals self-reported receiving informal care. Data on caregiver profiles and caregiving activities were reported through descriptive statistics. Logistic regression analyses were performed to compare health status outcomes between people with pain who received and who did not receive informal care.Results: 2178 people with chronic pain from the ELSA cohort and 571 from the HSE cohort were analysed. People who received care were frequently female, older aged with several medical morbidities including musculoskeletal diseases such as arthritis. People with chronic pain received informal care for several diverse tasks. Most frequently these related to instrumental activities of daily living (IADL) such as shopping and housework. They were most frequently provided by partners or their children. Although they reported greater disability and symptoms (p < 0.001), people who received care did not report differences in health status, loneliness or wellbeing (p = 0.27; p = 0.46).Conclusions: whilst it may be possible to characterise people living in chronic pain who receive informal care, there is some uncertainty on the impact of informal caregiving on their health and wellbeing. Consideration should now be made on how best to support both care recipients and informal caregivers, to ensure their health and quality of life is promoted whilst living with chronic pain
Acceptability of a brief fatigue intervention for inflammatory arthritis: A qualitative process evaluation
Full text linkObjectives: We developed a brief cognitive behavioural, one-to-one intervention to reduce fatigue impact for patients with inflammatory arthritis. This qualitative process evaluation explored intervention acceptability and potential refinements from the perspective of patients who attended sessions and rheumatology health professionals (RHPs) who delivered the intervention. Methods: Interviews were conducted with patients and RHPs from five National Health Service (NHS) sites. Data were analysed using inductive thematic analysis. Results: Twenty-two patients and 11 RHPs participated. Patient themes: Collaborative, non-judgemental consultations: patients valued having space to reflect, where their fatigue was validated. Relevant content, but not ground-breaking: patients appreciated the opportunity to tailor content to individual priorities. Daily diaries were useful to visualize fatigue. Self-awareness: patients reported increased acceptance, sense of control, and confidence to manage fatigue. Degrees of openness to change: sessions prompted patients to engage in behaviour change. For some, complicated lives made it difficult to plan for change. RHP themes: Engagement with intervention: RHPs liked training face to face, and sessions were more enjoyable with experience of delivery. Research vs clinical practice: RHPs expressed concern about fitting sessions into NHS clinic appointments. It was difficult to offer follow-up sessions within 2 weeks. Collaborating with patients: RHPs reported that patients engaged with the tools and strategies. Some RHPs followed the manual in a linear way, whereas others used it flexibly. Conclusion: There is potential for this brief fatigue intervention to benefit patients. Future research will focus on flexibility to fit with local services and creating educational resources to use in a range of contexts
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Full text linkWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
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