Comfort Care Rounds: A Staff Capacity-Building Initiative in Long-Term Care Homes

This article reports a pilot evaluation of Comfort Care Rounds (CCRs)-a strategy for addressing long-term care home staff's palliative and end-of-life care educational and support needs. Using a qualitative descriptive design, semistructured individual and focus group interviews were conducted to understand staff members' perspectives and feedback on the implementation and application of CCRs. Study participants identified that effective advertising, interest, and assigning staff to attend CCRs facilitated their participation. The key barriers to their attendance included difficulty in balancing heavy workloads and scheduling logistics. Interprofessional team member representation was sought but was not consistent. Study participants recognized the benefits of attending; however, they provided feedback on how the scheduling, content, and focus could be improved. Overall, study participants found CCRs to be beneficial to their palliative and end-of-life care knowledge, practice, and confidence. However, they identified barriers and recommendations, which warrant ongoing evaluation.

Exploring molecular recognition pathways in one- and two-component gels formed by dendritic lysine-based gelators

This paper provides an integrated overview of the factors which control gelation in a family of dendritic gelators based on lysine building blocks. In particular, we establish that higher generation systems are more effective gelators, amide linkages in the dendron are better than carbamates, and long alkyl chain surface groups and a carboxylic acid at the focal point enhance gelation. The gels are best formed in relatively low polarity solvents with no hydrogen bond donor ability and limited hydrogen bond acceptor capacity. The dendrons with acid groups at the focal point can form two component gels with diaminododecane, and in this case, it is the lower generation dendrons which can avoid steric hindrance and form more effective gels. The stereochemistry of lysine is crucial in self-assembly, with opposite enantiomers disrupting each other's molecular recognition pathways. For the two-component system, stoichiometry is key, if too much diamine is present, dendron-stabilised microcrystals of the diamine begin to form. Interestingly, gelation still occurs in this case, and the systems with amides/alkyl chains are more effective gels, as a consequence of enhanced dendron-dendron intermolecular interactions allowing the microcrystals to form an interconnected network.

Building capacity in palliative care for personal support workers in long-term care through experiential learning

Background

Providing palliative care in long-term care (LTC) homes is an area of growing importance. As a result, attention is being given to exploring effective palliative care learning strategies for personal support workers (PSWs) who provide the most hands-on care to LTC residents.

The purpose of this intervention was to explore hospice visits as an experiential learning strategy to increase the capacity of PSWs in palliative care, specifically related to their new learning, and how they anticipated this experience changed their practices in LTC.

This study utilised a qualitative descriptive design.

Eleven PSWs from four Ontario LTC homes were sent to their local hospice to shadow staff for one to two days. After the visit, PSWs completed a questionnaire with open-ended questions based on critical reflection. Data were analysed using thematic content analysis.

PSWs commented on the extent of resident-focused care at the hospice and how palliative care interventions were tailored to meet the needs of residents. PSWs were surprised with the lack of routine at the hospice but felt that hospice staff prioritised their time effectively in order to meet family and client care needs. Some PSWs were pleased to see how well integrated the PSW role is on the community hospice team without any hierarchical relationships. Finally, PSWs felt that other LTC staff would benefit from palliative care education and becoming more comfortable with talking about death and dying with other staff, residents and family members.

This study highlighted the benefits of PSWs attending a hospice as an experiential learning strategy. Future work is needed to evaluate this strategy using more rigorous designs as a way to build capacity within PSWs to provide optimal palliative care for LTC residents and their family members.

PSWs need to be recognised as important members within the interdisciplinary team. PSWs who shadow staff at hospices view this experience as a positive strategy to meet their learning needs related to palliative care.

Building Trust in a Post-Conflict Society: An Integrative Model of Intergroup Contact and Intergroup Emotions.

Across one longitudinal and two cross-sectional surveys in Northern Ireland, we tested a model of intergroup relations in which out-group attitudes and behavioral tendencies are predicted by cross-group friendship and positive intergroup appraisals, mediated by intergroup emotions and out-group trust. In study 1, out-group friendship at time 1 predicted out-group trust at time 2 (one year later), controlling for prior out-group trust. In study 2, positive and negative intergroup emotions mediated the effects of friendship on positive and negative behavioral tendencies and attitudes. In study 3, a confirmatory factor analysis indicated that trust and emotions are distinct constructs with unique predictive contributions. We then tested a model in which cross-group friendship predicted intergroup emotions and trust through intimate self-disclosure in out-group friendships. Our findings support an integration of an intergroup emotions framework with research highlighting the importance of cross-group friendship in fostering positive intergroup outcomes.

High resolution monitoring of surface morphological change of building limestones in response to simulated salt weathering

A salt weathering simulation using a mix of sodium chloride (5%) and magnesium sulphate (5%) in a salt corrosion cabinet and five granular limestones is described. Progressive surface loss from vertical exposed faces was mapped using a high resolution (sub-millimetre) object scanner (Konica Minolta Vi9i). Patterns of loss are related to surface porosity/permeability measurements obtained using a hand-held gas permeameter. Introduction of this spatial dimension into damage assessment is seen as essential for understanding the initial conditions that allow surface loss to be triggered, and changes in surface characteristics as weathering proceeds which dictate subsequent decay in space and time. Preliminary observations suggest that scanning at this high resolution is particularly valuable in quantifying very subtle trends and distortions that are pre-cursors to material loss, including surface swelling and pore filling.

Sustainable Building Materials in Kerala – An Overview

Kerala, God’s own country is blessed with immense natural resources. It’s high time that the state’s natural resources being utilized effectively. While sustainable development is the need of the hour, we have to take lead in initiating activities that would minimize the exploitation of our natural resources resulting in their effective utilization. This paper narrates an overview of innovative building materials especially using natural fibres available in Kerala and discusses the feasibility of utilising such fibres in the context of sustainable building materials in Kerala. The paper also discusses how these materials can be effectively utilized to reduce the huge investment in the construction industry

Struggling readers at key stage 2 : building success in reading and writing.

La investigación sobre las posibles causas de dificultades para la lectura es probablemente el más estudiado en materia de educación. Las razones para el fracaso son tan diversas como los propios niños, pero no son debidas a dificultades específicas de aprendizaje sino a problemas de carácter general. La dislexia se señala como una de las dificultades para el aprendizaje del lenguaje. Se dan recomendaciones a los profesores para que, antes de iniciar el programa de recuperación para la lectura, realicen una observación del niño y una evaluación de las habilidades ya adquiridas en su alfabetización básica. Con esta información, el profesor tiene que trabajar, descubrir lo que el niño hace bien y qué estrategias utilizar.

Text : building skills in english. Book 1.

Se adapta al curriculum nacional inglés y desarrolla las habilidades esenciales de este idioma para la etapa 3 (key stage 3) de secundaria. Su contenido comprende seis unidades cada una de las cuales presenta sus propios objetivos respecto a los niveles de lectura, composición, hablar y escuchar, y comprensión y utilización de la lengua. También, se incluyen en cada una de las unidades enlaces intercurriculares a otras materias como historia y ciudadanía.

Text : building skills in english. Book 1. Teacher guide.

Cumple con los objetivos fundamentales del nuevo programa de estudios para la lengua inglesa en la etapa 3 (key stage 3) de secundaria, para lo cual ayuda a profundizar y ampliar los conocimientos, capacidades y comprensión, y proporciona a los estudiantes los conceptos clave que necesitan entender, los cuales son: competencia, creatividad, entendimiento cultural y comprensión crítica. También, cubre los objetivos de aprendizaje fijados, que requieren el desarrollo de unas las habilidades imprescindibles con el idioma, como son hablar y escuchar, lectura y escritura.

Text : building skills in english. Book 2.

Se adapta al curriculum nacional inglés y desarrolla las habilidades esenciales de este idioma para la etapa 3 (key stage 3) de secundaria. Su contenido comprende seis unidades cada una de las cuales presenta sus propios objetivos respecto a los niveles de lectura, composición, hablar y escuchar, y comprensión y utilización de la lengua. También, se incluyen en cada una de las unidades enlaces intercurriculares a otras materias como historia y ciudadanía.

Text : building skills in english. Book 2. Teacher guide.

Cumple con los objetivos fundamentales del nuevo programa de estudios para la lengua inglesa en la etapa 3 (key stage 3) de secundaria, para lo cual ayuda a profundizar y ampliar los conocimientos, capacidades y comprensión, y proporciona a los estudiantes los conceptos clave que necesitan entender, los cuales son: competencia, creatividad, entendimiento cultural y comprensión crítica. También, cubre los objetivos de aprendizaje fijados, que requieren el desarrollo de unas las habilidades imprescindibles con el idioma, como son hablar y escuchar, lectura y escritura.

Text : building skills in english. Book 3.

Se adapta al curriculum nacional inglés y desarrolla las habilidades esenciales de este idioma para la etapa 3 (key stage 3) de secundaria. Su contenido comprende seis unidades cada una de las cuales presenta sus propios objetivos respecto a los niveles de lectura, composición, hablar y escuchar, y comprensión y utilización de la lengua. También, se incluyen en cada una de las unidades enlaces intercurriculares a otras materias como historia y ciudadanía.

Text : building skills in english. Book 3. Teacher guide.

Cumple con los objetivos fundamentales del nuevo programa de estudios para la lengua inglesa en la etapa 3 (key stage 3) de secundaria, para lo cual ayuda a profundizar y ampliar los conocimientos, capacidades y comprensión, y proporciona a los estudiantes los conceptos clave que necesitan entender, los cuales son: competencia, creatividad, entendimiento cultural y comprensión crítica. También, cubre los objetivos de aprendizaje fijados, que requieren el desarrollo de unas las habilidades imprescindibles con el idioma, como son hablar y escuchar, lectura y escritura.