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Accessible Summary: What is already known about this topic?: Individuals with severe mental illness (SMI) have elevated risks for physical health problems and low screening rates.No previous studies have compared the physical health promotion needs of people with SMI using the same screening tool across different international settings. What this paper adds to existing knowledge?: It appears feasible to use the HIP to profile and compare physical health‐related risks in people with SMI across different international settings.The HIP tool identified significant differences in areas of risk across the four countries. What are the implications for practice?: The HIP could be used to identify unique clusters of health promotion needs in different countries.Use of HIP health checks may support implementation of individualized interventions. Introduction: To date, no studies have contrasted physical health profiles of people with severe mental illness (SMI) in different countries. Aim: To evaluate feasibility of using the Health Improvement Profile (HIP) to compare and contrast physical health and health behaviours of people with SMI from four countries. Method: An observational feasibility study using secondary analysis of pooled health state and lifestyle data. Physical health checks using modified versions of HIP were administered in four countries. Results: Findings suggest feasibility of HIP screening to profile and compare physical health and health behaviours of people with SMI across international settings. High overall numbers of risk items (red flags) were identified in all but the Thailand sample. Despite some commonalities, there were important differences in health profiles across countries. Discussion: This is the first study to demonstrate feasibility of the HIP to compare health risks in individuals with SMI across countries. Future multi‐national HIP studies should recruit a fully powered stratified random sample of people with SMI that is representative of each setting. Implications for practice: It appears feasible to utilize the HIP to identify specific areas of health risk in different countries, which may help to better focus nursing interventions and use of resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Drawing on survey data (N = 7,826) collected in the United Kingdom, Australia, and the United States, this paper examines whether sexual orientation is a differentiating factor in explaining relationship quality and maintenance. Previous research suggests that sexual orientation is not significant in determining relationship satisfaction; however, these analyses have used traditional variable driven approaches, which do not provide an holistic view of the relationship by considering the unique combination of characteristics. Method: In this study, latent profile analyses were used, which is a person-centered approach that allows for identification of different types of long-term relationships. Results: Data suggested that LGB individuals had marginally higher levels of relationship quality compared to their heterosexual counterparts, and sexual orientation was also associated with differing types of long-term relationships. Discussion: These findings are interrogated in more detail, in particular, how sexual orientation is associated with types of long-term relationships and how everyday practices are associated with relationship quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background/aim The successful development and maintenance of professional identity is associated with professional development and retention in the health workforce. This paper explores students' perspectives on the ways pre-entry experiences and curricula content shape professional identity. Methods An online cross-sectional survey was sent to students enrolled in the final year of entry-level programmes in five countries. Descriptive statistical analyses of data were completed. Results The results reflect the perceptions of 319 respondents from five countries. Respondents identified professional education (98%) and professional socialisation during placement (92%) as curricula components with the greatest influence on professional identity formation. Discipline-specific knowledge such as, occupation-focussed models and occupational science were ranked lower than these aspects of practice. The students' length of programme and level of entry-level programme did not impact on these results. Conclusion When designing curricula educators need to be mindful that students perceive practice education and professional socialisation have the greatest affect on professional identity formation. The findings reinforce the need for curricula to provide students with a range of practice experiences, which allow the observation and application of occupation-based practices. It highlights a need for educators to provide university-based curricula activities, which better prepare students for a potential dissonance between explicit occupation-based curricula and observed practice education experiences. The study indicates the need for further research into the role curricula content, and in particular practice education, plays in the multidimensional formation of professional development within entry-level programmes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims This study aimed to compare the findings of the quality of nursing doctoral education survey across seven countries and discuss the strategic directions for improving quality. Background No comparative evaluation of global quality of nursing doctoral education has been reported to date despite the rapid increase in the number of nursing doctoral programmes. Design A descriptive, cross-country, comparative design was employed. Methods Data were collected from 2007-2010 from nursing schools in seven countries: Australia, Japan, Korea, South Africa, Thailand, UK and USA. An online questionnaire was used to evaluate quality of nursing doctoral education except for Japan, where a paper version was used. Korea and South Africa used e-mails quality of nursing doctoral education was evaluated using four domains: Programme, Faculty (referring to academic staff), Resource and Evaluation. Descriptive statistics, correlational and ordinal logistic regression were employed. Results A total of 105 deans/schools, 414 faculty and 1149 students/graduates participated. The perceptions of faculty and students/graduates about the quality of nursing doctoral education across the seven countries were mostly favourable on all four domains. The faculty domain score had the largest estimated coefficient for relative importance. As the overall quality level of doctoral education rose from fair to good, the resource domain showed an increased effect. Conclusions Both faculty and students/graduates groups rated the overall quality of nursing doctoral education favourably. The faculty domain had the greatest importance for quality, followed by the programme domain. However, the importance of the resource domain gained significance as the overall quality of nursing doctoral education increased, indicating the needs for more attention to resources if the quality of nursing doctoral education is to improve. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Various models of intervention for caregivers of patients with dementia have been described. There has been little direct comparison of cultural differences between countries and the effect any differences may exert on the outcome of caregiver interventions. Aims: The aims of the three-country study (USA, Australia and the UK) were to assess whether caregiver interventions can still be successful when anti-dementia drugs are provided to patients, and whether a caregiver intervention can be successfully implemented using the same methods in three different English-speaking countries. In this paper, the cultural differences and similarities between the three countries are examined. Method: Randomised, controlled trial involving 158 patients and their caregivers (divided equally across three centres, New York, Sydney and Manchester) with all the patients receiving donepezil and the caregivers randomised to a caregiver intervention or treatment as usual. Results: There were few differences between countries in the main outcome measures, and no differences between the treatment-as-usual group and the intervention, but interesting cultural nuances were observed between groups. Despite these differences, the caregiver intervention was associated with positive results on caregiver depression across all the countries. Conclusions: This first multinational carer intervention study has emphasised the similarities between the three countries whilst highlighting crucial differences which may be important when planning cross-cultural studies in the future. The positive results achieved on caregiver depression were replicated across the three centres. Copyright © 2010 S. Karger AG, Basel [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]