Percepção da equipe de saúde, discentes e usuários sobre a comunicação com indivíduos surdos na atenção primária

The study aimed to identify in the professionals and students of health courses that work in a health Basic Unit in the city of Natal/RN their perceptions of the care of deaf patients, and with the population's needs with hearing loss in relation to health care. This is a cross-sectional, exploratory, descriptive study, conducted between April to July 2014, with a population composed of 21 health professionals, 17 students and 8 deaf users. For data collection, we used a structured questionnaire with open and closed questions applied to groups composed of health professionals (doctors, dentists, nurses and health workers) and students of medical schools, nursing, physical education, nutrition and social service. The professionals/students answered a semi-structured questionnaire with open and closed questions concerning the possible difficulties the care of the deaf and hearing impaired. Data collection with deaf users was conducted through filmed interview for the Brazilian Sign Language (Libras) could be interpreted as to the Portuguese by the researcher. With the latter it was conducted a survey of their reactions when looking for a care in the health service. Regarding the profile of identification of the subjects, it was analyzed by simple descriptive statistics (absolute and relative frequencies). The open questions were analyzed through the content analysis technique which allowed the categorization process preserving all the points raised in the discussion so that the lines were representative of the whole. When asked about the professionals and students attitude used to communicate with deaf patients possible the following categories emerged: the "writing", the "gestures" and the "third party assistance". With regard of the deaf, when asked about their experiences in seeking care in health, the elucidated categories were: "quality of care to the hearing impaired", "communication with the hearing impaired adequacy" and "dependence on third parties." The closed questions were measured and adapted to the 5 degrees of variation Likert Scale, which comprised three of these issues: degree of difficulty in communication to meet a patient with hearing loss (minimum to great difficulty); feeling of comfort while using sign language (minimum to severe discomfort); and knowledge of the Law 10.436, which provides for the Brazilian Sign Language (Libras) (low knowledge to entirely clear). The data collected with professionals and students revealed some misunderstanding and discomfort in health care for deaf patients, reality also evidenced in the opinion of the deaf participants. This study revealed problems in communication, resulting in negative consequences in serving this population. This diagnosis may be relevant to public policy development and curriculum guidelines essential to the training of health professionals, inclusion and improving assistance to deaf.

A atenção à crise e o apoio matricial: analisadores da estratégia atenção psicossocial

The National Policy on Mental Health is characterized as a territorial - political community , and it has the Psychoso cial Care Strategy (Eaps) as guideline for the proposal and the development of their actions. In its design, CAPS is idealized to be a strategic equipment within the Psychoso cial Care Network/RAPS. Matricial support and at tention to the crisis constitute strategic areas of action of CAPS in its replacement mission , and as it is g uided by the scope of deinstitutionalization, those are essential to the success of these services. We argue that sustain crises in existential territories of life is a condition for the effectiveness of psychosocial care and, ultimately, to the sustainability of its Reform. In this direction, the matricial support tool reveals a territorial supporter, intercessory and powerful in building a psychosocial care to the crisis. Recognized as one of the major challenges by the Brazilian Ministry of Health, forward these fronts materializes for workers in their mi cropolitical crafts. Our research arises as an investment toward empower them , and aimed to understand the operationalization of attention to the crisis and matricial support in a CAPS II, in the view of its workers . Besides, it aims to examine such practi ces forward the principles and purposes of Psychosocial Care Strategy. Inspired by the research - intervention and by the political and social ideas of Institutiona l Analysis, we offer a space for reflection and exchange, by implicational interviews , enablin g workers to launch them in analysis of practices in the EAPs view. We have done a documentary consulting CAPS Technical Project, and a return stage to the institution, by organizing workshop and conversation groups with CAPS workers. The results have show n that there are institutional logics in competition on that service. When operating the logic risk, some difficulties in sustaining most intense crisis situations were identified, the psychiatric hospital internment is used as a facility, particularly in view of some cases, in which the aggressiveness of the person in crises becomes aggressive, and when the brackets SAMU, the CAPS III and Comprehensive Care Beds do not respond satisfactorily to their users requests. Order weaknesses were indicated in this thesis as macropolitical and micropolitical interfering in network support. The matricial actions were identified as a powerful intercessor resource in crisis care appeared weakened, and indicates little porosity in the relationship between the Service and the territory where it takes place. Noticed by the logic of home care, without operate primarily as a knowledge exchange device, we saw capture points in the logic of assistance with ambulatoriza tion production of CAPS, welfare practices and "ext empore " . T he E APs , although it emerge s as a guiding, it is not seen to workers as effective practice. On the one hand, the results signaled that the attention to the crisis and the matricial actions are developed without tenacious connection with the purposes of EA Ps, on the other hand, successful cases were indicated with the main leads to conducting wire of intersectoral actions to the powerful bonds and to the participation of user in their care process es , indicating insurgent forces tha t intend by traditional lo gic .

Utilização de mapas conceituais como ferramenta de ensino para o desenvolvimento do raciocínio clínico no curso de medicina da Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte

BACKGROUND: Among the wide range of skills displayed by a medical doctor is undoubtedly the need to use cohesive and well grounded clinical reasoning in order for medical care to be indeed effective. It is in this respect that conceptual maps emerge; these are a methodological innovation that allows a comprehensive, panoramic and associative outlook of theoretical content, making it more practical and applicable to the reality of clinical observation. Promoting learning, learning resources and a feedback system between professor and students, as well as assessing and monitoring the performance of students during their academic training, are the main features of this tool. OBJETIVE: Assess the use of conceptual maps as a teaching-learning tool in the training of undergraduate medical students at Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN). METHODOLOGY: Interventional, randomized, cross-sectional study conducted with students from the 3rd and 5th periods of the medical course at UFRN, during the second semester of 2014, totaling 86 participants, divided into two groups: GI (intervention – clinical case resolution with a conceptual map) and GII (control – clinical case resolution without a conceptual map) in each period. RESULTS: The use of conceptual maps to teach liver failure syndrome resulted in a statistically significant cognitive gain for G1 students from the 5th period (GI: 6.8±1.6 and 8.0±1.5, p = 0.024; GII: 7.2±2.1 and 8.0±1.7, p = 0.125, pre and post-intermediate means, respectively), a result not observed in the period 3rd (GI: 7.7±1.3 and 8.0±1.4, p = 0.501; GII: 6.7±1.8 and 7.8±1.8; p=0.068, pre and post-intermediate means, respectively). Students in the 3 rd period gave better responses to the first clinical case, with a larger number of suitable concepts and crosslinks, when they used conceptual maps (GI: 91.3±13.15 and GII: 64.84±22.84, p=0,002). Students in the 5th period exhibited better clinical reasoning and more complete responses using the tool (p=0,01). Most of the students were not aware of the tool (53.8% from the 3rd period and 65.3% from the 5th period). Among those who knew about conceptual maps, most (59.3%) had only used them during high school, 14.8% had never used them and only seven students (25.9%) used them during the medical course. Analysis of open responses, obtained in process assessment showed clear satisfaction and enthusiasm with learning about the new tool, and frequent suggestions to use it at other moments in the course. Assessment of learning profile, using the VARK questionnaire, showed that most students from both periods exhibited a multimodal style. CONCLUSION: Despite their scant knowledge regarding the tool, good acceptability and understanding was observed in the study participants. The conceptual maps allowed cognitive gains, better responses and clinical reasoning in teaching liver failure syndrome to 5th period students.

Gasto com a internação de idosos em unidades de terapia intensiva

Introduction: Population aging in Brazil underscores the need to discuss the proper management of the budget allocated in health field, especially in the sectors of high complexity, where coexist costly procedures, limited resources and the need for cost containment. In the other hand, demand is growing in a way directly proportional to the increase in the number of elderly in country. Objective: In this way, this research had as main objective to analyze the costs resulting from the admission of elderly in intensive care units (ICU) and its associated factors. Methods: This is a cross-sectional study with a quantitative approach and featured as a descriptive and exploratory research. Data were collected from medical records of elderly hospitalized in ICU from a brazilian city called Natal-RN, between november first, 2013 and january, 31 of 2014. The variables collected relate to the socio demographic profile, morbidity framework and characterization of hospitalization. The dependent variable was categorized by quartile 75 in high and low expense of hospitalization and submitted to chi-square test with the independent variables of the survey. Associations with p value <0.20 in the bivariate analysis were submitted to the technique of multiple logistic regression. We opted for the construction of three regression models from the above algorithm: general regression model, composed by all 493 hospitalizations in the study, other made with 181 individuals admitted in health public system (SUS) and a third one related to 312 cases from private service in health area. Results: In the general regression model, the variables respiratory diseases, hospitalizations in the private system, disoriented patient and previous stroke were associated with greater probability of high spending in the ICU. In the other hand, in SUS kind of hospitalizations, this probability was associated with disoriented patient, 80 years old or more, sepsis and admission for clinical reason. In the cases from the private network health, the high expenditure was associated with respiratory disease, mechanical ventilation, hospitalization for clinical reason and disoriented patients. Conclusion: The increased expenditure on hospitalization of elderly in intensive care depends on the clinical conditions of individuals. This highlights the importance of avoiding hospitalizations due to diseases sensitive to primary care by health preventive actions and providing comprehensive care to the elderly. In addition, obtaining different explanatory models, according to kind hospital funding, demonstrates the importance of the organization in health services related to composition of costs of hospitalization among the elderly. Another question founded was the need that to improve the funding, we must use rationally the available resources by avoiding unnecessary hospitalizations of elderly people in the extremes of severity. On this kind of precarious funding, ICU hospitalization of elderly non-critical or in a terminal state can compromise the quality of services provided to those who really need intensive care.

Violência contra mulher: expressões da opressão às mulheres sob a égide do capitalismo e do patriarcado

This dissertation is the result of a research process that sought , from the speech of women in situations of violence , examine the difficulties these women to access the "network " of assistance to women victims of violence in the city of Natal/RN . Therefore , we made a critical analysis from the perspective of totality on the processual ontological " being a woman " and " be a man " , articulating the determinations of the subjective and objective dimensions in the lives of women at this juncture . Thus , also reflecting on the system of oppression of women through Capitalism / Patriarchate , articulated with other determinations of reality , as race / ethnicity , sexual orientation , generation and territoriality . Because of the oppression of women in all aspects of social life , the feminist movement led to the public domain claims against the oppressions of women and fight for Public Social Policies that aim to the particularities of women , among them, the social policies of coping violence against women . The speeches of the women interviewed show the contradictory aspect of work in women's lives . On the one hand , can become a means to financial independence ( with the possibility of exit from violent means). On the other , it can become "cause " of justification for the exercise of violence against women by their partners or former partners . Also show that despite legal advances , there is no effective implementation of policies aimed at women . This occurs as a result of capitalism / patriarchy and the context of neoliberal management of big capital . Thus , the feminist movement , as well as the social movement of the working class , must seek the empowerment of women through the struggle to end all forms of oppression , exploitation and domination among humans.

As ações em saúde mental nos Núcleos de Apoio à Saúde da Família - NASF

The National Police for Basic Care (PNAB), regulated by ordinance nº2488 from October 2011, restates the Family Health Strategy (ESF) as a priority to the expansion, consolidation and qualification of basic attention to health matters in Brazil. In order to bring it about, city counsellors along with other federal entities ought to ordinate their work process deepening principals, directions and fundaments of Basic Care (AB). Besides ESF, the new PNAB expatiates on the Family Health Support Centres (NASF), reaffirming their role on broadening the scope of basic care actions and their improvements, ratifying their ability to share knowledge and support Basic Care professionals. All this considered, the purpose of this work is to investigate how NASF is currently structured in João Pessoa and what has been achieved by it on what concerns to mental health. Its main objectives are to analyse the practices of mental health professionals that are part of NASF teams and if they differ from what has been developed by the other members of the teams; to discuss the articulation of NASF in managing mental health measures on what concerns to internal organisatio n and to the city health network; to identify strategies used to organise such measures on mental health in Basic Care. To reach such goals, individual interviews have taken place two city health managers and four of NASF professionals that participated on the Mental Health Office as representatives of their sanitary districts. Also a focal group formed by various supporters of NASF was created, contemplating the diversity of professional categories involved with the teams and sanitary districts. It was possible to identify in NASF, in João Pessoa, an organisation based by the matrix support in which both management and basic care demands reflect a series of actions developed alongside with ESF. Amongst such actions, matrixing, home visits and the Singular Therapeutic Project (PTS) stand out. These activities have been discussed on the focal group and integrate the daily work of all NASF supporters despite their professional categories. NASF presents itself as a powerful strategy to SUS proper qualification and support to strengthen Basic Care and broaden family health teams‟actions.

Assistência em cuidados paliativos a pessoa idosa na atenção primária a saúde

This study aims to understand the significance of palliative care for the elder health care professionals working in primary health care. Descriptive study of qualitative approach. Conducted in three health units of the Family and a core of support for Health, the Felipe Camarão neighborhood, District of Natal Health West, RN. Of the 25 participants, 19 are professionals of the Family Health Strategy and six of the Center for Support to Health, the majority being women, with minimal professional work experience, a year in primary health care. The study was approved by the Ethics Committee of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte, under CAAE no. 43895815.4.0000.5537. There were individual interviews between July and September 2015, with the use of questionnaire containing open and closed questions on the topic of study. Our results were recorded in MP4 and transcribed into written language, and analyzed using the open coding process medium in which the categories were interpreted and identified, followed by axial coding, where categories were developed and systematically related. Three categories emerged: enhancement of elder health professionals in palliative care, behavioral health professionals across care in palliative care in primary care and disjointed Meaning between palliative care and health professionals. The categories were interpreted and analyzed by the theoretical framework of social phenomenology of Alfred Schütz. Regarding the valuation of subjective perception of professionals, it is clear the issue of the complexity of multiple relationships through various aspects of his central task: focus a philosophy of the world's reality, namely a phenomenology of natural attitude; Before the professional behavior were identified: the discovery and depth of assumptions through the structure, and meaning in a common sense, and at the meaning of the disconnection between the health professionals-including that reality imminent can be represented by individuality special interest of the experience. It follows that health professionals understand there is a difficulty facing the assistance in palliative care to the elderly in primary care, and this difficulty, characterized by the complexity of social interactions across the joint teamwork. Although, I believe that the articulation between the teams, work and family, is essential for the subsequent improvement of care in palliative care favoring the health context surrounding the Elder.

Assistência em cuidados paliativos a pessoa idosa na atenção primária a saúde

This study aims to understand the significance of palliative care for the elder health care professionals working in primary health care. Descriptive study of qualitative approach. Conducted in three health units of the Family and a core of support for Health, the Felipe Camarão neighborhood, District of Natal Health West, RN. Of the 25 participants, 19 are professionals of the Family Health Strategy and six of the Center for Support to Health, the majority being women, with minimal professional work experience, a year in primary health care. The study was approved by the Ethics Committee of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte, under CAAE no. 43895815.4.0000.5537. There were individual interviews between July and September 2015, with the use of questionnaire containing open and closed questions on the topic of study. Our results were recorded in MP4 and transcribed into written language, and analyzed using the open coding process medium in which the categories were interpreted and identified, followed by axial coding, where categories were developed and systematically related. Three categories emerged: enhancement of elder health professionals in palliative care, behavioral health professionals across care in palliative care in primary care and disjointed Meaning between palliative care and health professionals. The categories were interpreted and analyzed by the theoretical framework of social phenomenology of Alfred Schütz. Regarding the valuation of subjective perception of professionals, it is clear the issue of the complexity of multiple relationships through various aspects of his central task: focus a philosophy of the world's reality, namely a phenomenology of natural attitude; Before the professional behavior were identified: the discovery and depth of assumptions through the structure, and meaning in a common sense, and at the meaning of the disconnection between the health professionals-including that reality imminent can be represented by individuality special interest of the experience. It follows that health professionals understand there is a difficulty facing the assistance in palliative care to the elderly in primary care, and this difficulty, characterized by the complexity of social interactions across the joint teamwork. Although, I believe that the articulation between the teams, work and family, is essential for the subsequent improvement of care in palliative care favoring the health context surrounding the Elder.

Prevalência e fatores associados ao Near Miss Materno: inquérito populacional em uma capital do Nordeste Brasileiro

The scope of this study was to determine the prevalence of near misses and complications during pregnancy and the puerperal period, identifying the main clinical and intervention markers and socioeconomic and demographic factors associated with near misses. It involved a cross-sectional, population-based and probabilistic study with multi-stage complex sampling design conducted in Natal, State of Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil. A validated questionnaire was given to 848 women aged 15 to 49 identified in 8,227 households in 60 census sectors. In theanalysis of associations, the Chi-square test applied and calculated the prevalence ratio (PR) with Confidence Interval (CI) of 95% and 5% significance. The prevalence of maternal near misses was 41.1/1000LB, with hospitalization in an Intensive Care Unit (19.1/1000LB) and eclampsia (13.5/1000LB) being the most important markers. The prevalence of complications during pregnancy and the puerperal period was 21.2%. The highest prevalence of near misses was observed in older women, of black/brown race and low socioeconomic status. Conducting population surveys is feasible and may add important information to the study of near misses and the markers highlight the need for enhancing maternal care to reduce health inequality.

Prevalência e fatores associados ao Near Miss Materno: inquérito populacional em uma capital do Nordeste Brasileiro

The scope of this study was to determine the prevalence of near misses and complications during pregnancy and the puerperal period, identifying the main clinical and intervention markers and socioeconomic and demographic factors associated with near misses. It involved a cross-sectional, population-based and probabilistic study with multi-stage complex sampling design conducted in Natal, State of Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil. A validated questionnaire was given to 848 women aged 15 to 49 identified in 8,227 households in 60 census sectors. In theanalysis of associations, the Chi-square test applied and calculated the prevalence ratio (PR) with Confidence Interval (CI) of 95% and 5% significance. The prevalence of maternal near misses was 41.1/1000LB, with hospitalization in an Intensive Care Unit (19.1/1000LB) and eclampsia (13.5/1000LB) being the most important markers. The prevalence of complications during pregnancy and the puerperal period was 21.2%. The highest prevalence of near misses was observed in older women, of black/brown race and low socioeconomic status. Conducting population surveys is feasible and may add important information to the study of near misses and the markers highlight the need for enhancing maternal care to reduce health inequality.

A crença sobre a morte e o coping religioso-espiritual em pacientes internados com doenças crônicas

The human being is understood as an integral being, complex, which has multiple dimensions: social, biological, psychological, anthropological, spiritual and others. As its biological dimension, the man presents the possibility of physical illness, which means that the body requires care. The sick away from humans in health and safety conditions, approaching them directly from the finitude and vulnerability condition, leading us to contact the major uncertainties of life: suffering of disease and death. Religiosity and spirituality are important coping strategy for human when faced with borderline situations. When people turn to religion to cope with stress is the religious and spiritual coping. The objective of this research was to evaluate the relationship between the views on death and the religious-spiritual coping in patients with chronic diseases hospitalized. The study included ten patients hospitalized for chronic disease complications Medical Clinic Unit of a public hospital in the city of Uberlândia/MG. two psychological scales were used: Scale Religious-Spiritual Coping Brief (CRE-Brief Scale) and Scale Brief Diverse Perspectives of Death and a structured interview (audiogravada) on the subject of death and religious and spiritual coping. The results indicated that 80% of the sample (N = 8) consisted of patients hospitalized due to chronic diseases, while 20% accounted for patients with AIDS complications. Analyzing the results of scale CRE-Brief, it emphasizes the use of strategies of religious and spiritual coping by participants as compared to CRE Total, all study participants had average or high scores for this index, with a low utilization CRE negative and average utilization CRE Positive. Regarding views on death, the results obtained by the Different Perspectives Quick Scale on Death suggest that this sample agrees with the view death as something that is part of the natural cycle of life (M8 - Death as a natural end) and features the prospect of death as uncertainty, mystery and ignorance (M4 - death as Unknown). The correlations between the measures the factors and items of CRE-Bref and dimensions of Short scales on different perspectives of Death notes the prevalence of correlations of M4 dimensions - Death as unknown and M8 - Death as a natural order to the creditor scale soon. In the interview analysis revealed a positive influence of religion/ spirituality on health, from the perspective of the respondent, highlighting the protection promoted by religion. It also noticed the use of prayer as a coping strategy of hospitalization and illness. Regarding the interview about the topic of death, there was a predominance of issues related to "afterlife", "unknown" and "abandonment", which are associated with the visions of death and mystery and death as a natural end. In the interviews there belief clues about death as a terrifying mystery connected, so the unknown and the feeling of fear on the same. The experience of illness can therefore be considered as a source of vulnerability, since it is present personal perception of danger (external) - own illness and possible death, especially in those patients undergoing ICU - and where control is insufficient for the sense of security, since the hospital providing care to the patient are delegated to third parties and patients assume a passive role. This fact is important and relevant to health professionals who deal daily with patients hospitalized for chronic diseases, since the recourse to religion and spirituality as a coping strategy that psychic movement was not constituted in a form of negative distance or even denial of health condition. On the contrary, it refers to a movement in search of comfort and security provided by the religion and spirituality.

Essays on the Role of Government Incentives in the Private Provision of Social Goods

The economic rationale for public intervention into private markets through price mechanisms is twofold: to correct market failures and to redistribute resources. Financial incentives are one such price mechanism. In this dissertation, I specifically address the role of financial incentives in providing social goods in two separate contexts: a redistributive policy that enables low income working families to access affordable childcare in the US and an experimental pay-for-performance intervention to improve population health outcomes in rural India. In the first two papers, I investigate the effects of government incentives for providing grandchild care on grandmothers’ short- and long-term outcomes. In the third paper, coauthored with Manoj Mohanan, Grant Miller, Katherine Donato, and Marcos Vera-Hernandez, we use an experimental framework to consider the the effects of financial incentives in improving maternal and child health outcomes in the Indian state of Karnataka.

Grandmothers provide a significant amount of childcare in the US, but little is known about how this informal, and often uncompensated, time transfer impacts their economic and health outcomes. The first two chapters of this dissertation address the impact of federally funded, state-level means-tested programs that compensate grandparent-provided childcare on the retirement security of older women, an economically vulnerable group of considerable policy interest. I use the variation in the availability and generosity of childcare subsidies to model the effect of government payments for grandchild care on grandmothers’ time use, income, earnings, interfamily transfers, and health outcomes. After establishing that more generous government payments induce grandmothers to provide more hours of childcare, I find that grandmothers adjust their behavior by reducing their formal labor supply and earnings. Grandmothers make up for lost earnings by claiming Social Security earlier, increasing their reliance on Supplemental Security Income (SSI) and reducing financial transfers to their children. While the policy does not appear to negatively impact grandmothers’ immediate economic well-being, there are significant costs to the state, in terms of both up-front costs for care payments and long-term costs as a result of grandmothers’ increased reliance on social insurance.

The final paper, The Role of Non-Cognitive Traits in Response to Financial Incentives: Evidence from a Randomized Control Trial of Obstetrics Care Providers in India, is coauthored with Manoj Mohanan, Grant Miller, Katherine Donato and Marcos Vera-Hernandez. We report the results from “Improving Maternal and Child Health in India: Evaluating Demand and Supply Side Strategies” (IMACHINE), a randomized controlled experiment designed to test the effectiveness of supply-side incentives for private obstetrics care providers in rural Karnataka, India. In particular, the experimental design compares two different types of incentives: (1) those based on the quality of inputs providers offer their patients (inputs contracts) and (2) those based on the reduction of incidence of four adverse maternal and neonatal health outcomes (outcomes contracts). Along with studying the relative effectiveness of the different financial incentives, we also investigate the role of provider characteristics, preferences, expectations and non-cognitive traits in mitigating the effects of incentive contracts.

We find that both contract types input incentive contracts reduce rates of post-partum hemorrhage, the leading cause of maternal mortality in India by about 20%. We also find some evidence of multitasking as output incentive contract providers reduce the level of postnatal newborn care received by their patients. We find that patient health improvements in response to both contract types are concentrated among higher trained providers. We find improvements in patient care to be concentrated among the lower trained providers. Contrary to our expectations, we also find improvements in patient health to be concentrated among the most risk averse providers, while more patient providers respond relatively little to the incentives, and these difference are most evident in the outputs contract arm. The results are opposite for patient care outcomes; risk averse providers have significantly lower rates of patient care and more patient providers provide higher quality care in response to the outputs contract. We find evidence that overconfidence among providers about their expectations about possible improvements reduces the effectiveness of both types of incentive contracts for improving both patient outcomes and patient care. Finally, we find no heterogeneous response based on non-cognitive traits.

An Ethical and Legal Framework for Physicians as Surrogate Decision-Makers for Their Patients.

In Western industrialized countries, it is well established that legally competent individuals may choose a surrogate healthcare decision-maker to represent their interests should they lose the capacity to do so themselves. There are few limitations on who they may select to fulfill this function. However, many jurisdictions place restrictions on or prohibit the patient's attending physician or other provider involved with an individual's care to serve in this role. Several authors have previously suggested that respect for the autonomy of patients requires that there be few (if any) constraints on whomever they may appoint as a proxy. In this essay we revisit this topic by first providing a survey of current state laws governing this activity. We then analyze the clinical and ethical circumstances in which potential difficulties could arise. We take a more nuanced and circumspect view of prior suggestions that patients should have virtually unfettered liberty to choose their healthcare proxies. We suggest a strategy to balance the freedom of patients' right to choose their surrogates with fiduciary duty of the state as regulator of medical practice. We identify six domains of possible concern with such relationships and suggest straightforward methods of mitigating their potential negative effects that could be plausibly be incorporated into physician practice.

Le mariage forcé de femmes immigrantes au Québec

Cette thèse a pour objet de comprendre la question du mariage forcé vécu par des femmes immigrantes vivant au Québec et, les réponses politiques, législatives et sociales qu’on y apporte. De façon plus spécifique, il s’agit de mettre à jour la diversité des situations et des significations que recouvre la notion de mariage forcé pour tenter d’en dégager des éléments de définition et de compréhension. La thèse vise également à identifier les conséquences spécifiques qui découlent d’un mariage forcé pour les femmes immigrantes vivant au Québec, et enfin, d’analyser les réponses politiques, législatives et sociales visant le mariage forcé au Canada et au Québec afin de prévenir, dépister et d’en protéger ses victimes en contexte interculturel. S’appuyant sur un corpus de dix entrevues avec des femmes immigrantes vivant, ayant vécu ou menacées d’un mariage forcé et de dix-huit informateurs clés intervenant auprès d’elles et provenant de différents milieux de pratique (police, justice, santé services sociaux et communautaires), une analyse intersectionnelle a permis de révéler toute la complexité des mariages forcés due notamment aux interrelations entre des systèmes d’oppression et des vulnérabilités multiples. La recension des écrits et nos résultats indiquent que certains éléments caractérisent les mariages forcés. Premièrement, la préservation de l’honneur patriarcal qui problématise et contrôle le comportement des femmes en ce qui à trait notamment à leur vie sexuelle, mais aussi sociale. Deuxièmement, le fait que le mariage forcé soit un moyen de poursuivre des intérêts plus souvent collectifs qu’individuels. Dimension collective qui devra nécessairement être prise en considération lors des solutions à apporter à cette problématique. Troisièmement, le rôle des femmes (mères, belles-mères et autres femmes de la communauté culturelle d’appartenance) dans l’arrangement des mariages, mais également dans la surveillance et le contrôle de tous les faits et gestes des autres femmes. i Quatrièmement, le potentiel d’agresseurs multiples, y compris la communauté elle-même, dans les actes de violence commis avant, pendant et, le cas échéant, après le mariage. Une autre dimension qui devra elle aussi être prise en compte lors de l’inter- vention. Cinquièmement, le potentiel d’exploitation sexuelle (viol conjugal, grossesses forcées), physique (mauvais traitements, blessures), psychologique (pressions, manipulations) ou encore économique (travail forcé, privation d’autonomie financière). L’ensemble de ces résultats a permis de cerner certains besoins liés à l’intervention, en terme de prévention, de dépistage et de protection des victimes de mariage forcé.

Breeding success and traits of equal and unequal pairs of little penguins (Eudyptula minor) on Phillip Island during 2001-2008

According to life-history theory, individuals optimize their decisions in order to maximize their fitness. This raises a conflict between parents, which need to cooperate to ensure the propagation of their genes but at the same time need to minimize the associated costs. Trading-off between benefits and costs of a reproduction is one of the major forces driving demographic trends and has shaped several different parental care strategies. Using little penguins (Eudyptula minor) as a model, we investigated whether individuals of a pair provide equal parental effort when raising offspring and whether their behavior was consistent over 8 years of contrasting resource availability. Using an automated identification system, we found that 72% of little penguin pairs exhibited unforced (i.e., that did not result from desertion of 1 parent) unequal partnership through the postguard stage. This proportion was lower in favorable years. Although being an equal pair appeared to be a better strategy, it was nonetheless the least often observed. Individuals that contributed less than their partner were not less experienced (measured by age), and gender did not explain differences between partners. Furthermore, birds that contributed little or that contributed a lot tended to be consistent in their level of contribution across years. We suggest that unequal effort during breeding may reflect differences in individual quality, and we encourage future studies on parental care to consider this consistent low and high contributor behavior when investigating differences in pair investment into its offspring. Key words: attendance patterns, individual quality, meal size, parental care, reproductive costs, seabirds.