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Background This feasibility study describes the often-underreported process of designing, testing, and refining a video simulation case study before implementing into coursework. Method The revised Medical Research Council Framework (2014) was used as a guide to develop a video simulation case study. It was evaluated using a systematic refinement strategy and the Simulation Design Scale. Ratings were analyzed using descriptive data. Nursing students also responded to an open-ended question to provide qualitative feedback to its design elements. Written comments by students were analyzed using the principles of qualitative content analysis. Results We used five best practice guidelines, a subject matter expert group, and nursing students to guide the video simulation case study's design process. During its refinement, descriptive statistics revealed a gradual increase in the mean scores of the Simulation Design Scale; the first iteration's mean score was 3.45 ± 0.17, and the third iteration's mean score was 4.85 ± 0.14. Conclusion(s) A best practice approach and a systematic refinement strategy improved its overall design elements and merited further investigation.

Background As simulation science continues to advance, the focus previously put on scenario creation and debriefing must now be applied to other components of the learning experience. There is a need to examine the effectiveness of pre-simulation activities and how they relate to the overall simulation experience and learning outcomes. However, few randomized controlled trials have been conducted comparing different approaches in the pre-simulation preparatory phase and the impact on learning outcomes. Methods A randomized controlled trial was conducted with undergraduate nursing students (n=83) who were randomized to a traditional paper case study (control group) or an interactive pre-simulation activity (intervention group). The use of the two-challenge rule and Satisfaction and Self Confidence in Learning (SSL) was evaluated. Results The proportion of students who utilized the two-challenge rule in the intervention group was significantly higher than the control group. Results from the two independent-samples Wilcoxon-Mann-Whitney test showed a significant difference in the median of the total score of the SSL W=2.5, p

The benefits of postsecondary education (PSE) are well documented and yet historic challenges have contributed to significant underrepresentation of students with disabilities. This paper presents the results of a survey study that explored students with disabilities’ experiences of transfer between PSE institutions in Canada. Data was collected using a survey questionnaire developed by the research team. Rating questions were analyzed using descriptive data. Students also answered open-ended questions that were analyzed using a qualitative content analysis approach. Sixty-nine of the 248 survey responses received indicated involvement in transfer between PSE institutions, mostly college to university. Four out of 5 of the transfer students self-identified as having psychiatric and mental health disabilities (e.g., anxiety, depression). Perceptions and experiences among successful and non-successful transfer students were mixed. Fully one-third of transfer students indicated that they felt that college-university transfer may be a better route for PSE for students with disabilities than going straight to university. Barriers to college-university transfer, among others, included a lack of information about who can assist with the process (62.5%) and inadequate information about disabilities and accommodation (56.3%). The results of this snapshot of PSE students with disabilities’ perceptions of college-university transfer may inform the design of evidence-based PSE transition interventions for this population. Additionally, given the under-representation of Indigenous and other racialized students in PSE, there is merit in further investigation focusing on their transfer experiences.

Undergraduate nursing education has a duty to make certain that the focus of both nursing practice with disabled people and nursing education are enabling, rather than disabling. However, depictions of disability in nursing education have been identified as inadequate and at times problematic, with insufficient attention paid to disability in curricula. In this paper, we provide an overview of representations of disability in nursing and examine the gaps and inadequacies in nursing education. We also support the argument that nursing educators must utilize critical perspectives on disability to challenge discrimination and address the gaps that currently exist. Finally, we focus on how nursing programs and educators can take action to support all nursing students to develop the knowledge, attitudes, and behaviours to meet the needs of disabled people in a more comprehensive and meaningful way. Practical and effective strategies are shared.

Simulation-based learning (SBL) is rapidly becoming one of the most significant teaching-learning-evaluation strategies available in undergraduate nursing education. While there is indication within the literature and anecdotally about the benefits of simulation, abundant and strong evidence that supports the effectiveness of simulation for learning and evaluation in nursing education is slow to emerge and has yet to be fully established. As the use of SBL increases in nursing education, the need to evaluate students appropriately, accurately, and in reliable ways intensifies. Furthermore, as nursing programs increasingly consider SBL as direct clinical replacement in the context of increased student enrolment and dwindling clinical placements, standardized evaluation must play a vital role. Our study investigated simulation utilization and simulation evaluation practices and approaches employed among undergraduate nursing educational programs in Ontario, Canada, using a mixed methods approach. Both quantitative and qualitative data were collected through a confidential online survey. The goal of our study is to establish a “picture” of current trends, practices, and approaches related to simulation that is employed within this entire province. An overview of the study findings and recommendations that have potential to make a substantial contribution to the growing evidence for best practices in the science of simulation will be discussed. Keywords: Simulation; Simulation-based Learning, Evaluation; Undergraduate Nursing Education

Concerns about academic honesty in higher education are widespread. To address this issue, faculty took part in a 3-year trial of a highly successful approach to academic honesty. Guiding this approach were an appreciation of student context, faculty orientation to student engagement, and available antiplagiarism technology.

As alternate care levels are transferred from hospital to community settings, health care workers in long term care are caring for individuals where conditions are more medically complex. In response to this situation decision makers in long term care are pursuing the goal of practice based on the best evidence. Identifying the information needs of health care workers in this environment represents the first step towards cultivating a best practice culture in long term care. The purpose of this study was to identify what information resources staff need to improve clinical and managerial decision making. The perceptions of health care workers at two long term care organizations were investigated through quantitative and qualitative methods, using a questionnaire and focus groups. In each of the settings there were gaps in the availability of resources and perceived needs for education. The findings from both settings revealed the need for more information resources to assist staff to improve individual ca...

Objectives: Disabled people have a history of disadvantage, discrimination, and disempowerment that continues to present day. Despite strong critique and activism by disabled people, popular understandings of disability as necessarily tragic, medically based, and individualistic requiring ‘fixing’ persist among health professionals. Recent research demonstrates that health professional students often harbour negative attitudes that may directly affect their relationships with and care provided to disabled clients (Sabin & Akyol, 2010; Scullion, 1999). Further, personal accounts and research evidence suggests that the relationship between healthcare providers and disabled people is often unsatisfactory (Sabin & Akyol, 2010; Seccombe, 2007; Scullion, 1999).Methods: Nursing education has a responsibility to ensure that nursing practice with disabled people is enabling rather than disabling (Scullion, 1999a, 1999b, 2000; Sabin & Akyol, 2010). A key strategy is to imbed within curricula opportunities for students to engage in the processes of critical thinking towards and analysis of disability and the experiences of disabled people. This poster describes an approach to teaching-learning in which critique of ‘popular culture’ nursing literature is used to support student exploration of messaging about disability.Results and Conclusions: The purpose and description of the assignment, authors’ experiences, and outcomes for both teachers and learners will be presented. Application beyond nursing to other health professions will be described.ReferencesSabin, H. & Akyol, A. D. (2010). Evaluation of nursing and medical students' attitudes towards people with disabilities. Journal of Clinical Nursing, 19, 2271­2279.Scullion, P. A. (1999). Conceptualizing disability in nursing: Some evidence from students and their teachers. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 29, 648­657.Scullion, P. A. (2000). Enabling disabled people: Responsibilities of nursing education. British Journal of Nursing, 9(15), 1010-1015.Seccombe, J. A. (2007). Attitudes towards disability in an undergraduate nursing curriculum: A literature review. Nurse Education Today, 27, 459­465.

Several studies have examined the macro-economic impact and social costs of Structural Adjustment Programmes (SAPs) currently being implemented by many developing countries. Conspicuously lacking from the existing body of literature are reviews that explicitly ask and examine some pertinent geographical questions. The primary objective of this article is to assess the spatial implications of Ghana's economic recovery programmes that have been pursued since 1983 under the directions and dictates of the IMF and the World Bank. It argues that, in spite of the moderate successes recorded at the macro-economic level, a significant flaw of structural adjustment programmes is the neglect of the spatial dimensions of economic development.

Developed and developing countries are in the throes of environmental crisis. The planet earth is increasingly being literally choked by the waste by-products of development. Of major concern, especially to industrialized countries, is the problem of what to do with the millions of tons of waste materials produced each year. Owing to mounting pressure from environmental groups, the “not-in-my-backyard” movement, the close monitoring of the activities of waste management agents, an increasing paucity of repositories for waste, and the high cost of waste treatment, the search for dumping sites for waste disposal has, in recent years, extended beyond regional and national boundaries. The 1980s have seen several attempts to export hazardous wastes to third world countries. Africa, for example, is gradually becoming the prime hunting ground for waste disposal companies. This article seeks to examine, in the context of the African continent, the sources and destinations of this form of relocation-diffusion of pollution, factors that have contributed to international trade in hazardous wastes between developed and developing countries, the potential problems such exports would bring to African countries, and measures being taken to abolish this form of international trade.

The paper seeks to examine links between ecosystems and the practice of ethnomedicine. The objective is to discuss the interrelationships between the current ecological crisis and the changes occurring in the practice of ethnomedicine. The paper first explores the extent to which ethnomedicine depends on the natural environment. This is followed by a discussion of the impact that ecological degradation and destruction has had on ethnomedical practices. The rest of the paper is devoted to an examination of how the practice of ethnomedicine contributes, on the one hand, to ecological degradation and, on the other hand, to ecological conservation and preservation.

The lack of landfill space, public perceptions, the escalating costs of disposal, and other factors have created a controversial environment for the disposal of healthcare waste. In the province of Ontario, a proposal has been made that aims to make Ontario self-sufficient in its management of healthcare waste through the use of regional incineration facilities. This article examines this proposal as well as other available options for Ontario's healthcare facilities.

Many years of ethno-medical research in Africa have increased our knowledge of different aspects of indigenous medical systems. Like any other cultural system, indigenous medical systems have been undergoing changes over the years as African countries continue to experience tremendous alterations in their ecological systems, socio-economic activities, political and cultural life. These changes have had some impact on the practice of indigenous medicine in many parts of Africa. Compared with bio-medical services, ethno-medicine is usually characterized as more available, accessible, acceptable, and adaptable. This paper seeks to draw attention to the need to re-examine these attributes as applied to ethno-medical practices in contemporary Africa in view of the present rate of social change in most African countries.

In assessing whether the number of practitioners of traditional medicine has been increasing or declining, the best method of analysis would have been to compare series of data over several years. The problem, however, is that such data are non-existent. In the absence of such useful information, an index number technique was employed to gain some insights into how the population of healers is changing in two study areas in Ghana (1987a). In interpreting the results derived from the index number technique, consideration of the impact of such factors as migration, mortality of healers, and abandonment of the "medical profession" as raised by James Ahiakpor is pertinent. Before commenting on the influence of these factors in the study areas, it must be reiterated that it is essential to disaggregate the practitioners of traditional medicine when accounting for changes in the practice of indigenous medicine. This affords the opportunity to find out exactly how the different types of healers have responded or are responding to the forces of change. In his comments, Ahiakpor mistakenly attributes the reasons given by some herbalists and cult-healers to all the various categories of healers. As implied in my article, in view of the fact that recruitment of herbalists and culthealers is voluntary, the recruitment level of these practitioners is more likely to fall in the future because of the reasons I cited. Priests and priestesses usually have almost no choice when they are "called." In spite of recent attempts to disobey such "calls" by would-be priests and priestesses for reasons also cited in my article, quite often, they are compelled to undergo training to be ushered into the priest-hood. The cultural belief that the "gods never die" when their priests and priestesses pass away appears to be a logical explanation for the continuous recruitment of priest-healers. With regard to faith-healers, their increase in the study area is not surprising in view of the continent-wide phenomenon of proliferation of Independent African churches (Ujanga 1979; Oosthuizen 1985). To comment more directly on the factors identified above, the question is to what extent has the process of migration affected the increase or decline of the healers' population in the study area? Healers were asked to indicate former places in which they had lived and practised medicine (Anyinam 1987b, 158-164). More than two-thirds (sixty-eight percent) in the rural survey had

ResumeCet article examine l'hypothese que la pratique de la medecine traditionnelle en Afrique devient moins seduisante et que les guerisseurs ne semblent pas exister en nombres suffisants pour faire face aux services de sante. D'une part, il semble y avoir une augmentation considerable des pretres-guerisseurs ruraux, des guerisseurs spirituels ruraux et urbains, et des herbalistes urbains. D'autre part, on semble remarquer un processus d'attenuation dans le recruitement des herbalistes ruraux et des guerisseurs spirituels ruraux et urbains. Bien que les medecins naturels soient une nouvelle addition a la “profession” medicale traditionnelle au Ghana, leur nombre reste tres limite. L'introduction de l'education occidentale et de la bio-medicine, les activites des missionaires, la transformation d'une economie de subsistance en une economie monetaire, les croyances et les systemes de valeur indigenes, et le changement des modes de vie sont des facteurs importants qui ont contribue, seuls ou ensemble, a inf...