Alcohol, Tobacco and Pharmacy Students: Usage and Views on Professional Issues

Introduction/background: This study aimed to ascertain pharmacy students’ use and views on cigarettes and alcohol (including in relation to provision of health promotion advice) and to establish if alcohol intake affected academic performance. Within the United Kingdom (UK), there has been limited research conducted in this area
Methods: Following ethical approval, pharmacy students (n=581) were invited to participate in a pre-piloted electronic questionnaire, consisting of 21 questions on smoking and alcohol. Descriptive statistics and non-parametric tests were used for data analyses.
Results: A response rate of 64.5% (375/581) was obtained (69.9% female, 30.2% male). Many respondents (77.9%) reported that they drank alcohol; whereas only 3.7% stated they currently smoked cigarettes. Students who drank alcohol were more likely to fail elements of the program than those who did not. Less than half (47.8%) were in agreement that it was hypocritical for a pharmacist to give health promotion advice and then get drunk outside of work.
Discussion/conclusions: Students seem to consider that lifestyle recommendations are less relevant for themselves and also that a pharmacist’s responsibility centers on providing advice, rather than being a role-model. Alcohol consumption appears to negatively influence academic achievement.

Preparing medical students for normal birth: an interactive workshop by pre-registration midwifery students.

There is an increasing recognition of the need to improve inter professional relationships within clinical practice (DoH, 2001). Evidence supports the assertion that health care professionals who are able to communicate and work effectively together and who have a mutual respect and understanding for one another’s roles will provide a higher standard of care (McPherson et al, 2001; Begley, 2008). Providing inter professional education within a University setting offers an opportunity for a non-threatening learning environment where students can develop confidence and build collaborative working relationships with one another (Saxell et al, 2009).
An inter-professional education initiative was developed in Queen’s University Belfast within the Schools of Nursing and Midwifery and Medicine and piloted in 2014. The aim of the collaboration was to introduce concepts of normal labour and birth to fourth year medical students prior to their obstetric and gynaecological placement in hospital. The teaching staff felt this would be an excellent opportunity for final year pre-registration midwifery students to demonstrate their knowledge and understanding on normality in labour and birth by preparing interactive workshops with the medical students. The midwifery students were provided with an outline agenda in relation to content for the workshop, but then were allowed creative licence with regard to delivery of the workshop. The workshops consisted of approximately 4 midwifery students to 12 medical students. Resources such as birthing balls, birth mannequins, dolls and pelvises were available to the students to increase interactivity. Significant emphasis was placed upon the importance of relationship building with women in labour and the concept of being ‘with woman’ was core to all elements of teaching. Midwifery students undertook acting roles such as the labouring woman, partner or a midwife role and acted out mini scenarios such as contacting for advice about early labour; positions for labour or positions for birth. Medical students were prompted to vocalise about their feelings towards labour and birth and encouraged to think about their role within the birth setting.
Preliminary evaluations of the workshops have been extremely positive from both the midwifery students and the medical students. The midwifery students have commented on the enjoyable aspects of team working for preparing for the workshop and also the confidence gained from teaching the medical students. The medical students have evaluated the teaching by the midwifery students positively and felt that it lowered their anxiety going into the labour setting. A number of midwifery and medical students have subsequently worked with one another within the practice setting which has been recognised as beneficial. Both Schools have recognised the benefits of this form of inter professional education and have subsequently made a commitment to embed it within each curriculum.

Professional Negligence, Solicitors: Recent Case Law, 2014

In preparation for this talk I have reviewed cases of interest in the High Courts and Courts of Appeal of England and Wales and Northern Ireland from the past two years or so on professional negligence and liability and principally relating to solicitors.

There are six topics of interest: the general duty of care demanded of solicitors in the carrying out of their professional obligations; whether there is a specific duty on a solicitor to warn or advise a client of any implied risk in, say, a commercial transaction; what is the scope of the duty on a solicitor to explain the content of or clauses in a legal document; a recent case of interest applying the White v Jones principle to a disappointed beneficiary seeking to make a claim against a solicitor who negligently prepared a will; the practical, limitation issue of how to pinpoint in a professional negligence claim when the damage was first sustained by the claimant; and finally some case law here and in England and Wales on the (costs) implications for solicitors relating to any failure to adhere to case management protocols or related court directions.

A Gendered Profession

A Gendered Profession, RIBA Publications, Oct 2016

For a profession that claims to be so concerned with the needs of society, the continuing gender imbalance in architectural education and practice is a difficult subject. Difficult, because it’s been stagnant for some thirty years. This book seeks to change that.
Beyond the profession, the emergence of fourth wave feminism has broken a twenty-year drought in the discourse[1]. A new generation of feminist critique is emerging, characterised by a broader civic commitment, one fuelled by the recognition that time and again, women and minorities have been the first casualties of neo-liberalism.
Whereas after World War II the architectural profession rallied around its obligation to fulfil a social need, today architecture has all but capitulated its absolute servitude to capitalism. Recognising that feminist thinking is a meaningful response to the inequalities of capitalism, A Gendered Profession will be a forum for a discussion about the failure of our profession – one that is so explicitly concerned with the design of inclusive environments – to resolve its own inequalities. Contributions have been sought and responses elicited from all corners of the discipline to propose strategies, attitudes and solutions to this crisis in representation.
At stake is more than just the lack of female representation. Male architects suffer from the same ingrained mechanisms of gender stereotyping, obliged to place professional commitments above those to their family and children. And while three quarters of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transsexual architects report being comfortable about being open about their sexuality in the workplace, that number drops to just sixteen per cent when on the building site.
A Gendered Profession will aim to perform a diagnostic check of the architecture profession from one end of the spectrum to the other. Whereas much has been written on feminism and architecture, the majority is produced exclusively by women. A Gendered Profession has worked hard towards gender parity in both its contributions and editorial structure and therefore does not limit its understanding of gender to an either/or analogue. The chapters featured in the book are written by artists, academics, practitioners and students.
Through its diverse authorship, this book will provide the first ever attempt to move the debate beyond the tradition of gender-partitioned diagnostic or merely critical discourse on the gender and wider inclusivity debate towards something more propositional, actionable and transformative.

Cancer and serious mental illness – patient, caregiver and professional perspectives: study protocol

Aim: To explore the experience of serious mental illness and cancer from the perspective of patients, significant others and healthcare professionals involved in their care. Background: Serious mental illness is associated with poorer cancer outcomes. Those suffering from this comorbidity receive fewer specialist interventions and die earlier than the general population. Prior qualitative research in this area has comprised of a single study focussing on healthcare professionals and there is little evidence regarding the experiences of patients and caregivers.Design: A qualitative exploration using approximately 36 semi-structured interviews.Methods: Semi-structured digitally recorded interviews conducted with: adults living with serious mental illness and diagnosed with cancer; those providing them with informal support and care; and healthcare professionals. Questions will focus on the experience of having cancer and serious mental illness or caring for someone with this comorbidity, experiences of healthcare and priorities for patients and carers. Framework analysis will be used. Research Ethics Committee and Trust Research & Development approval was obtained. A steering group comprising six people with experience of either cancer or mental illness provided feedback and ratified the patient information sheets and interview schedules. Discussion: There is a paucity of research addressing stakeholder perspectives on the experience of cancer and of cancer services for people with serious mental illness. Dissemination of findings will inform practice relating to the care of an often neglected population, informing better support for their significant others and the professionals involved in their care.