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Preparing teachers to work with children and families cultivates high-quality early learning. This study explored the impact of service-learning on early childhood pre-professional students (candidates) and community partners (CPs). Focus group transcripts illustrate connections between service and professional preparation standards. Service-learning and professional standards intersect through the experience of candidates and CPs. Findings support the use of Kolb's model as a foundation for service-learning in early childhood teacher education and can inform service-learning in other disciplines.

In the United States, only 2.2 percent of preschool and kindergarten teachers and 5 percent of child care workers are men. Other countries have much higher rates, but the percentage of men in U.S. early education has remained between 2 and 3 percent for the last several years. There are many reasons why so few men become early childhood educators. Most often cited are the low salaries in the field, the long history of the profession being dominated by females, and the negative stigma sometimes associated with a man working with young children. This article describes how preservice teachers in an early childhood education methods course captured the image of a male preschool teacher by observing Mr. K, a pre-K teacher who teaches 3-year-olds at Northview Early Learning Center, an early childhood program within a large urban school corporation in Michigan City, Indiana. Providing a portrait of one male teacher is just one small step in helping others understand the potential for males to work in the early childhood environment.

This article describes a learning experience designed for teachers of children in primary classrooms (K-3) who are taking graduate courses. The learning experience offers new insights into the different ways young children encounter math in their natural, playful environment. Through a hands-on workshop approach, the students engaged in firsthand experiences as active learners. This approach was based on the authors' work with the Connecting Mathematics for Elementary Teachers (CMET) project, which develops materials to help prospective teachers connect their learning of mathematics to how "children" understand and learn mathematics. CMET emphasizes mathematics from the child's perspective and directly relates it to the math content that will be taught to children. And what better way to explore how children learn mathematics than to return to children's earliest mathematical experiences with dolls, blocks, and puzzles.

A study compares the clinical performance of the Canadian Computed Tomography (CT) Head Rule (CCHR) and the New Orleans Criteria (NOC) for detecting the need for neurosurgical intervention and clinically important brain injury. Results show that for patients with minor head injury and a Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) score of 15, both decision rules have equivalent high sensitivities, but the CCHR has higher specificity for important outcomes and its use may result in reduced imaging rates.

The Canadian C-Spine Rule (CCR) is more accurate than the National Emergency X-Radiography Utilization Study (NEXUS) Low-Risk Criteria for identifying trauma patients who probably do not have an injured neck and therefore do not need a neck X-ray. This was the conclusion of a study of 8,283 patients. The CCR only missed one patient with a neck injury whereas the NEXUS criteria missed 16 patients with a neck injury. The CCR also reduced the number of neck X-rays that were done.

Active compression-decompression cardiopulmonary resuscitation (ACD CPR) does not appear to be more effective than regular CPR. During ACD CPR, the rescuer uses a suction device that allows the chest to expand, or decompress, following each compression. Research has suggested that this may improve blood flow and ventilation. Researchers followed 773 people who developed cardiac arrest in a hospital and 1,011 people who arrested in the community and were transported to a hospital. Approximately half of both groups received regular CPR and half received ACD CPR. ACD CPR did not improve survival rates at one hour or at hospital discharge. This was true for the groups overall and for subgroups with specific characteristics, such as age, type of arrhythmia that led to cardiac arrest or how soon they received CPR. Many of the rescuers found it very difficult to administer ACD CPR., Objective. - To compare the impact of active compression-decompression (ACD) cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and standard CPR on the outcomes of in-hospital and prehospital victims of cardiac arrest. Design. - Randomized controlled trial with blinding of allocation using a sealed container. Settings. - (1) Emergency departments, wards, and intensive care units of 5 university hospitals and (2) all locations outside hospitals in 2 midsized cities. Patients. - A total of 1784 adults who had cardiac arrest. Intervention. - Patients received either standard or ACD CPR throughout resuscitation. Main Outcome Measures. - Survival for 1 hour and to hospital discharge and the modified Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE). Results. - All characteristics were similar in the standard and ACD CPR groups for the 773 in-hospital patients and the 1011 prehospital patients. For in-hospital patients, there were no significant differences between the standard (n=368) and ACD (n=405) CPR groups in survival for 1 hour (35.1 % vs 34.6%; P=.89), in survival until hospital discharge (1 1.4% vs 10.4%; P=.64), or in the median MMSE score of survivors (37 in both groups). For patients who collapsed outside the hospital, there were also no significant differences between the standard (n=510) and ACD (n=501) CPR groups in survival for 1 hour (16.5% vs 18.2%; P=.48), in survival to hospital discharge (3.7% vs 4.6%; P=.49), or in the median MMSE score of survivors (35 in both groups). Exploration of clinically important subgroups failed to identify any patients who appeared to benefit from ACD CPR. Conclusions. - ACD CPR did not improve survival or neurologic outcomes in any group of patients with cardiac arrest.

Clinical prediction rules are decision-making tools that incorporate three or more variables from the history, physical examination or simple tests. They help clinicians make diagnostic or therapeutic decisions by standardizing the collection and interpretation of clinical data. There is growing interest in the methodological standards for their development and validation. This article describes the methods used to derive the Canadian C-Spine Rule and provides a valuable reference for investigators planning to develop future clinical prediction rules. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: To describe the findings in cerebrospinal fluid from patients with acute headache that could distinguish subarachnoid hemorrhage from the effects of a traumatic lumbar puncture., Design: A substudy of a prospective multicenter cohort study., Setting: 12 Canadian academic emergency departments, from November 2000 to December 2009., Participants: Alert patients aged over 15 with an acute non-traumatic headache who underwent lumbar puncture to rule out subarachnoid hemorrhage., Main Outcome Measure: Aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage requiring intervention or resulting in death., Results: Of the 1739 patients enrolled, 641 (36.9%) had abnormal results on cerebrospinal fluid analysis with >1 × 10(6)/L red blood cells in the final tube of cerebrospinal fluid and/or xanthochromia in one or more tubes. There were 15 (0.9%) patients with aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage based on abnormal results of a lumbar puncture. The presence of fewer than 2000 × 10(6)/L red blood cells in addition to no xanthochromia excluded the diagnosis of aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage, with a sensitivity of 100% (95% confidence interval 74.7% to 100%) and specificity of 91.2% (88.6% to 93.3%)., Conclusion: No xanthochromia and red blood cell count <2000 × 10(6)/L reasonably excludes the diagnosis of aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage. Most patients with acute headache who meet this cut off will need no further investigations and aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage can be excluded as a cause of their headache., (© Perry et al 2015.)

Objective: To measure the sensitivity of modern third generation computed tomography in emergency patients being evaluated for possible subarachnoid haemorrhage, especially when carried out within six hours of headache onset., Design: Prospective cohort study., Setting: 11 tertiary care emergency departments across Canada, 2000-9., Participants: Neurologically intact adults with a new acute headache peaking in intensity within one hour of onset in whom a computed tomography was ordered by the treating physician to rule out subarachnoid haemorrhage., Main Outcome Measures: Subarachnoid haemorrhage was defined by any of subarachnoid blood on computed tomography, xanthochromia in cerebrospinal fluid, or any red blood cells in final tube of cerebrospinal fluid collected with positive results on cerebral angiography., Results: Of the 3132 patients enrolled (mean age 45.1, 2571 (82.1%) with worst headache ever), 240 had subarachnoid haemorrhage (7.7%). The sensitivity of computed tomography overall for subarachnoid haemorrhage was 92.9% (95% confidence interval 89.0% to 95.5%), the specificity was 100% (99.9% to 100%), the negative predictive value was 99.4% (99.1% to 99.6%), and the positive predictive value was 100% (98.3% to 100%). For the 953 patients scanned within six hours of headache onset, all 121 patients with subarachnoid haemorrhage were identified by computed tomography, yielding a sensitivity of 100% (97.0% to 100.0%), specificity of 100% (99.5% to 100%), negative predictive value of 100% (99.5% to 100%), and positive predictive value of 100% (96.9% to 100%)., Conclusion: Modern third generation computed tomography is extremely sensitive in identifying subarachnoid haemorrhage when it is carried out within six hours of headache onset and interpreted by a qualified radiologist.

Objective: To evaluate the effectiveness of an active strategy to implement the validated Canadian C-Spine Rule into multiple emergency departments., Design: Matched pair cluster randomised trial., Setting: University and community emergency departments in Canada. Participants 11 824 alert and stable adults presenting with blunt trauma to the head or neck at one of 12 hospitals., Interventions: Six hospitals were randomly allocated to the intervention and six to the control. At the intervention sites, active strategies were used to implement the Canadian C-Spine Rule, including education, policy, and real time reminders on radiology requisitions. No specific intervention was introduced to alter the behaviour of doctors requesting cervical spine imaging at the control sites., Main Outcome Measure: Diagnostic imaging rate of the cervical spine during two 12 month before and after periods., Results: Patients were balanced between control and intervention sites. From the before to the after periods, the intervention group showed a relative reduction in cervical spine imaging of 12.8% (95% confidence interval 9% to 16%; 61.7% v 53.3%; P=0.01) and the control group a relative increase of 12.5% (7% to 18%; 52.8% v 58.9%; P=0.03). These changes were significant when both groups were compared (P<0.001). No fractures were missed and no adverse outcomes occurred., Conclusions: Implementation of the Canadian C-Spine Rule led to a significant decrease in imaging without injuries being missed or patient morbidity. Final imaging rates were much lower at intervention sites than at most US hospitals. Widespread implementation of this rule could lead to reduced healthcare costs and more efficient patient flow in busy emergency departments worldwide., Trial Registration: Clinical trials NCT00290875.