Conceptualising elder abuse across local and global contexts: Implications for Policy and Professional Practice on the island of Ireland.

Social policy and professional practice across the island of Ireland is dominated by the WHO (2002) definition of elder abuse and national and professional interpretations of what constitutes elder abuse. Top down, generalist knowledge of the abuse of older people have facilitated paternalistic and protectionist policies and services designed to protect older vulnerable adults across the Republic of Ireland (ROI) and Northern Ireland (NI). However a qualitative study involving 58 older people in six focus groups held across Ireland highlights an alternative understanding of elder abuse grounded in the subjective experiences of older people across urban and rural communities on the island. Indigenous ways of knowing offer a broader and more inclusive understanding of the experience of elder abuse (Lafferty 2012; Dow and Joosten 2012) together with opportunities for the prevention of ageism and the empowering of older people across the jurisdictions.

Survey of challenges and best practice strategies for participant recruitment to research projects in northern ireland

Participant recruitment is understood to be one of the most difficult aspects of the research process. Researchers are now devoting increasing amounts of time and resources to understand how participants decide to take part in research and what researchers can do to make their work appeal to potential participants. The purpose of the study is to assess the problems experienced by researchers in Northern Ireland when recruiting human participants into trials and studies and to gain insight into how researchers handle and overcome these issues. The main research question being addressed by this research is to develop an understanding of the problems experienced by staff when recruiting human participants to research projects. Methods used to increase study recruitment were also examined. The participants in this research are investigators and other associated staff on research studies based in Northern Ireland. Potential participants were identified through contacts with research active organizations such as the academic researchers in Queen’s University Belfast and research physicians and clinical trialists employed by the Belfast Health and Social Care Trust. Each organization forwarded on the survey request via email or newsletters. Researchers willing to take part accessed the questionnaire through the Survey Monkey website. This study utilised a cross-sectional questionnaire design.

Relationships between Religion and Two Forms of Homonegativity in Europe—A Multilevel Analysis of Effects of Believing, Belonging and Religious Practice

This paper examines relationships between religion and two forms of homonegativity
across 43 European countries using a bivariate response binary logistic multilevel model. The model analyzes effects of religious believing, belonging and practice on two response variables: a) a moral rejection of homosexuality as a practice and b) intolerance toward homosexuals as a group. The findings indicate that both forms of homonegativity are prevalent in Europe. Traditional doctrinal religious believing (belief in a personal God) is positively related to a moral rejection of homosexuality but to a much lesser extent associated with intolerance toward homosexuals as a group. Members of religious denominations are more likely than non-members to reject homosexuality as morally wrong and to reject homosexuals as neighbors. The analysis found significant differences between denominations that are likely context-dependent. Attendance at religious services is positively related to homonegativity in a majority of countries. The findings vary considerably across countries: Religion is more strongly related to homonegativity in Western than in Eastern Europe. In the post-soviet countries homonegativity appears to be largely a secular phenomenon. National contexts of high religiosity, high perceived government corruption, high income inequality and shortcomings in the implementation of gay rights in the countries’ legislations are statistically related to higher levels of both moralistic homonegativity and intolerance toward homosexuals as a group.

Genetic provenance and best practice woodland management: a case study in native alder (Alnus glutinosa)

In recent years, the native woodlands of Europe, including those of Britain and Ireland, have increasingly come under threat from a range of biotic and abiotic factors, and are therefore a conservation priority demanding careful management in order to realise their inherent ecological and cultural benefits. Because the distribution of genetic variation across populations and regions is increasingly considered an important component of woodland management, we carried out a population genetic analysis on black alder (Alnus glutinosa) across Northern Ireland in order to inform “best practice” strategies. Our findings suggest that populations harbour high levels of genetic diversity, with very little differentiation between populations. Significant F IS values were observed in over half of the populations analysed, however, which could reflect inbreeding as a result of the patchy occurrence of alder in Northern Ireland, with scattered, favourable damp habitats being largely isolated from each other by extensive tracts of farmland. Although there is no genetic evidence to support the broad-scale implementation of tree seed zones along the lines of those proposed for native woodlands in Great Britain, we suggest that the localised occurrence of rare chloroplast haplotypes should be taken into account on a case-by-case basis. This, coupled with the identification of populations containing high genetic diversity and that are broadly representative of the region as a whole, will provide a sound genetic basis for woodland management, both in alder and more generally for species that exhibit low levels of genetic differentiation.

Preparing assessments and examinations. Common errors and good practice.

Assessment forms an important part of the student learning experience and students place a high value on the quality of feedback that they receive from academic staff on where they might improve on their examinations or assignments. However while feedback is important the quality of the actual assessment itself before students undertake an examination or commence writing an assignment is also important. It is imperative that students are clear in their understanding of what is expected of them in order to achieve a particular grade and that there is lack of ambiguity in examinations or assignments. Biggs (2003) highlighted the importance of clarity in what students are expected to be able to do at the end of a unit of study, and that intended learning outcomes should be clearly aligned to the assessment and communicated to students so that they can structure their learning activities to optimize their assessment performance. However as Rust (2002) highlighted there are often inconsistencies in assessment practices ranging from a mis-match of assessment and learning outcomes to the inclusion of additional learning criteria and lack of clarity in the instructions. Such inconsistencies and unacceptable errors in examination papers can undermine student confidence in the assessment process
In order to try and minimise such inconsistencies an internal assessment group was set up October 2013 within the School of Nursing and Midwifery at Queens University Belfast, consisting of representative academic staff from across the range of undergraduate and post graduate courses in nursing and midwifery. The assessment group was to be a point of reference for all school examinations with a particular remit to develop an assessment strategy for all nursing and midwifery programmes and to ensure that all assessments comply with current best practice and with Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) requirements.
Aim
This paper aims to highlight some examples of good practice and common errors that were found in assignments and examinations that were submitted to the assessment group for review.
References

Biggs. J. (2003) Teaching for Quality Learning at University – What the Student Does 2nd Edition SRHE / Open University Press, Buckingham.
Rust, C.( 2002) The impact of assessment on student learning, Active Learning in Higher education Vol3(2):145-158