The role of the pharmacist and extemporaneous dispensing: The views of school children.

In: International Journal of Pharmacy Practice 18, Supplement 2, 19-20.

Measuring children’s experience of their right to participate in school and community: a rights-based approach

This paper discusses the development of a children’s rights-based measure of participation and the findings from its use in a survey of 10 to 11 year old children (n= 3773). The measure, which was developed in collaboration with a group of children, had a high reliability (Cronbach’s alpha = .89). Findings suggest that children’s positive experience of their participation rights is higher in school than in community, and higher for girls compared to boys. It is argued that involving children in the ‘measurement’ of their own lives has the potential to generate more authentic data on children’s lived experiences.

The Reliability and Validity of a Child and Adolescent Participation in Decision Making Questionnaire

Background
There is a growing impetus across the research, policy and practice communities for children and young people to participate in decisions that affect their lives. Furthermore, there is a dearth of general instruments that measure children and young people’s views on their participation in decision making. This paper presents the reliability and validity of the Child and Adolescent Participation in Decision Making Questionnaire (CAP-DMQ) and specifically looks at a population of looked-after children where a lack of participation in decision making is an acute issue.
Methods
The participants were 151 looked after children and adolescents between 10-23 years of age who completed the 10 item CAP-DMQ. Of the participants 113 were in receipt of an advocacy service that had an aim of increasing participation in decision-making with the remaining participants not having received this service.
Results
The results showed that the CAP-DMQ had good reliability (Cronbach’s alpha = .94) and showed promising uni-dimensional construct validity through an exploratory factor analysis. The items in the CAP-DMQ also demonstrated good content validity by overlapping with prominent models of child and adolescent participation (Lundy 2007) and decision making (Halpern 2014). A regression analysis showed that age and gender were not significant predictors of CAP-DMQ scores but receipt of advocacy was a significant predictor of scores (effect size d=.88), thus showing appropriate discriminant criterion validity.
Conclusion
Overall, the CAP-DMQ showed good reliability and validity. Therefore, the measure has excellent promise for theoretical investigation in the area of child and adolescent participation in decision making and equally shows empirical promise for use as a measure in evaluating services which have increasing the participation of children and adolescents in decision making as an intended outcome.

Desire and Divorce in Serglige Con Culainn

This paper examines the expression of ideas about love, marriage and divorce in Serglige Con Culainn. It is argued that the two versions of the tale, both of which are incomplete, exhibit distinctive approaches to love and the portrayal of the female characters. The earlier recension depicts male desire as a violent attack by Otherworld women that renders the man incapacitated. The later version provides a radically different view, offering a strikingly sympathetic portrait of the two female protagonists which may suggest a female audience. This version gives a remarkable insight into sexual mores and marital breakdown in a protracted and detailed negotiation involving the three main characters. It reveals tensions between male and female views of marriage and particularly of the practice of concubinage. It values loyalty between married partners over the fulfilment of desire and demonstrates the enduring and destructive effects of passion which are healed here only through magical interventions.

Perception of Filtered Speech by Children with Developmental Dyslexia and Children with Specific Language Impairments

Here we use two filtered speech tasks to investigate children’s processing of slow (<4 Hz) versus faster (∼33 Hz) temporal modulations in speech. We compare groups of children with either developmental dyslexia (Experiment 1) or speech and language impairments (SLIs, Experiment 2) to groups of typically-developing (TD) children age-matched to each disorder group. Ten nursery rhymes were filtered so that their modulation frequencies were either low-pass filtered (<4 Hz) or band-pass filtered (22 – 40 Hz). Recognition of the filtered nursery rhymes was tested in a picture recognition multiple choice paradigm. Children with dyslexia aged 10 years showed equivalent recognition overall to TD controls for both the low-pass and band-pass filtered stimuli, but showed significantly impaired acoustic learning during the experiment from low-pass filtered targets. Children with oral SLIs aged 9 years showed significantly poorer recognition of band pass filtered targets compared to their TD controls, and showed comparable acoustic learning effects to TD children during the experiment. The SLI samples were also divided into children with and without phonological difficulties. The children with both SLI and phonological difficulties were impaired in recognizing both kinds of filtered speech. These data are suggestive of impaired temporal sampling of the speech signal at different modulation rates by children with different kinds of developmental language disorder. Both SLI and dyslexic samples showed impaired discrimination of amplitude rise times. Implications of these findings for a temporal sampling framework for understanding developmental language disorders are discussed.

The Adequacy of Traveller Education in Northern Ireland

The issues facing Travellers, including those associated with education are often linked to social exclusion, widespread disadvantage and discrimination (Reynolds, McCartan, and Knipe 2003




). The Office for Standards in Education (Office for Standards in Education 1999




) referred to Gypsy Traveller pupils as ‘the most at risk in the education system.’ Within this article issues pertaining to Traveller education are discussed and in particular accessing education provision in Northern Ireland. The article focuses on the views of the statutory and voluntary sector to assess the adequacy and effectiveness of educational provision for Traveller children and young people and reviews the policies in place relating to the provision of education for Travellers in Northern Ireland. It also considers the issue of segregated education for the Traveller community and how for some this segregation can exacerbate social exclusion, disadvantage and discrimination.

Challenges and barriers in primary school education: The experiences of Traveller children and young people in Northern Ireland

Exclusion, discrimination and widespread disadvantage are issues common to the Traveller community. Children from the Traveller community are often seen as the most at risk within the education system in respect of attendance, attainment and bullying. In this article, we consider the views of Traveller children and parents with respect to primary level education in Northern Ireland and assess the level of support that exists to help Traveller children within the education system. The findings from the research are discussed with reference to institutional discrimination and the varying experiences of children and their families, including an identification of positive attitudes to education contrary to typical stereotypes.

Prescribing of Psychoactive Drugs for Older People in Nursing Homes: An Analysis of Treatment Culture

Background There is increasing interest in how culture may affect the quality of healthcare services, and previous research has shown that ‘treatment culture’—of which there are three categories (resident centred, ambiguous and traditional)—in a nursing home may influence prescribing of psychoactive medications. Objective The objective of this study was to explore and understand treatment culture in prescribing of psychoactive medications for older people with dementia in nursing homes. Method Six nursing homes—two from each treatment culture category—participated in this study. Qualitative data were collected through semi-structured interviews with nursing home staff and general practitioners (GPs), which sought to determine participants’ views on prescribing and administration of psychoactive medication, and their understanding of treatment culture and its potential influence on prescribing of psychoactive drugs. Following verbatim transcription, the data were analysed and themes were identified, facilitated by NVivo and discussion within the research team. Results Interviews took place with five managers, seven nurses, 13 care assistants and two GPs. Four themes emerged: the characteristics of the setting, the characteristics of the individual, relationships and decision making. The characteristics of the setting were exemplified by views of the setting, daily routines and staff training. The characteristics of the individual were demonstrated by views on the personhood of residents and staff attitudes. Relationships varied between staff within and outside the home. These relationships appeared to influence decision making about prescribing of medications. The data analysis found that each home exhibited traits that were indicative of its respective assigned treatment culture. Conclusion Nursing home treatment culture appeared to be influenced by four main themes. Modification of these factors may lead to a shift in culture towards a more flexible, resident-centred culture and a reduction in prescribing and use of psychoactive medication. 

Factors affecting transition to second year of an engineering degree

Much research has focused on students’ transition from secondary school to university. Less is known about the transition from first to second year of a university degree programme. Given the difficulties that many students face at this stage of their education, research into the relevant factors is required. Through questionnaires and focus groups, views of second- and third-year aerospace and mechanical engineering students in our university have been gathered. A large majority believed that both the volume and difficulty of work increased in second year. Many stated that first year was slightly too trivial and could have been made more challenging to prepare them better for second year. Different teaching and assessment styles in second year were considered to affect attendance and performance. The survey revealed that students were generally very well settled into university life by the end of first year and were happy with their choice of course and only 23% reported that financial responsibilities have had a negative effect on their academic performance. Differences were observed between male and female students. Male students believed that transition was helped by having regular assessments and by worked examples in lectures. Females found the teaching staff were the most helpful factor for a successful transition. The results indicate that males require more structure and guidance whereas females are more independent and settle in better.