Nurses' perspectives on pharmacology: why, what and at which point of the curricula should education be delivered?

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: the study aimed to capture the views of nursing students and qualified nurses about pharmacology education and at which point the subject should be taught. BACKGROUND: drug errors are common in clinical practice. However, the presence of pharmacology education in nursing curricula varies, with few higher education institutes focusing on the topic in pre-registration years. DESIGN: a cross-sectional survey was carried out with 46 pre-registration, 18 post-qualification and 15 post-qualification nurse prescribing course students. RESULTS: most agreed that pharmacology education was crucial for practice. Post-qualification participants ranked the topics of ethics and law as applied to pharmacology higher than pre-registration students. Qualified nurses ranked the topic of pharmacokinetics statistically higher than pre-registration students. Equal numbers of qualified participants favoured having pharmacology education as part of pre- and post-qualification programmes, either as a discrete module or incorporated in core modules. Pre-registration participants thought pharmacology education should be integrated throughout the programme. Most participants thought it should be taught face to face in the classroom. CONCLUSION: pharmacology education is valued by all nurses. Respondents mostly favoured a gradual integration of the subject in a programme of study, face to face.

Study of indoor radon concentrations and associated health risks in the five districts of Hazara division, Pakistan.

A total of 200 indoor air samples were collected to measure radon concentration levels and its contribution to the mean effective doses during different seasons of the period 2009-2010 at different sites of the five districts of Hazara division, Pakistan. The major portion of the region is mountainous and is full of thick forests which receives heavy snow fall in winter. The need for conducting the present survey relied on the fact that occupants spend their lives in poorly ventilated indoor environments of the region, especially in the winter season when they use wood fire inside their residences. The measurements of indoor air samples were taken with RAD-7, a solid state α-detector. Radon concentrations in the whole region range from 41 Bq m(-3) to 254 Bq m(-3) with a geometric mean of 128 Bq m(-3). Radon progenies were measured with a surface barrier detector through alpha spectroscopy from which the Equilibrium Factor (EF) for radon and Radon Decay Products (RDPs) for the smoke-bearing as well as smoke-free indoor environments were deduced. The respective mean values of EF were calculated as 0.49 ± 0.08 and 0.40 ± 0.07. The mean effective doses from indoor air of Abbottabad, Mansehra, Haripur, Battgram and Kohistan districts were calculated as 3.5 ± 1.2, 3.7 ± 0.7, 3.9 ± 1.0, 3.6 ± 1.1 and 3.9 ± 0.7 mSv a(-1) respectively, with the maximum value of 5.1 ± 1.8 mSv a(-1) in Kohistan district during winter and the minimum value of 2.9 ± 1.0 mSv a(-1) in Abbottabad district during summer. The annual exposure dose to the inhabitants of the locality lies below the upper bound of 10 mSv a(-1), as recommended by ICRP-65, and may not pose any significant threat to the public health.

Implications of Confucian learning on nurse education in the UK: a discussion.

This paper explores and discusses the increasing presence of international recruitment in higher education in the UK with a particular focus on nurse education and the implications of this growth in student population with regards to teaching and learning. It draws attention to the noted differences in learning styles of Confucian learners from the East to that of Socratic learners in the West. Addressing these two dimensions and cultural differences in learning for international students is important if educators are to fully understand the student learning behaviours. Owing to a lack of information regarding these learning behaviours in the nursing domain, comparisons have been drawn from other disciplines. Recurrent themes are presented and analysed in terms of the educational paradigm and their possible influence on the educational interaction is postulated. From this analysis it is apparent that although quite disparate, both learning behaviours could benefit from each other's intellectual tradition. Emic differences between learning styles have been highlighted in this paper, it would in future be useful to identify etic commonalities within learning groups and use those as a foundation for further research, so that the full potential of confusion learners can be achieved within a Westernised academic arena.

Drug resistance in epilepsy: the role of the blood-brain barrier.

The blood-brain barrier (BBB) is formed by the endothelial cells lining the brain microvessels. Complex tight junctions linking adjacent endothelial cells make brain capillaries around 100 times tighter than peripheral capillaries to small hydrophilic molecules. As a result, drugs required to act in the brain, including anti-epileptic drugs (AEDs), have generally been made lipophilic, and are thus able to cross the brain endothelium via the lipid membranes. However, such lipophilic drugs are potential substrates for efflux carriers of the BBB, particularly P glycoprotein (Pgp), predominantly located on the endothelial luminal membrane. It is estimated that up to 50% of drug candidates may be substrates for Pgp. The barrier phenotype of the brain endothelium is induced and maintained by chemical factors released by brain cells, particularly perivascular astrocytic end feet. In several neuropathological conditions, the BBB is disturbed, either as a result of pathology of the endothelium, or of the cells responsible for barrier induction and maintenance. During epileptic attacks, there may be transient BBB opening in the epileptogenic focus. There is evidence that under such pathological conditions, 'second line defence' mechanisms in perivascular glia may be up-regulated, including expression of Pgp and other drug efflux transporters. This complicates interpretation of drug resistance in epilepsy, and therapeutic strategies.