Interprofessional identity development within a brief shadowing experience: An exploratory case study.

The Deans' Interprofessional Honors Colloquium (DIHC) is an honors-level interprofessional elective course that provides a seminar-based forum for students from eleven academic programs to explore the characteristics and implications of collaborative interprofessional practice around a contemporary health topic. This project-based course combines didactic presentations, interactive group learning, and an interprofessional shadowing experience with a corresponding written reflection paper. Ten semesters of Interprofessional Shadowing Reflections (n = 401) were studied via thematic and content analyses to examine the extent to which a brief interprofessional shadowing experience influenced interprofessional identity development. Interprofessional socialization framework was employed as a lens to refine themes and to track students' trajectory in developing a dual professional identity. This exploratory case study indicated that nearly all participants' reflections included content indicative of the second stage (interprofessional role learning) of the interprofessional socialization framework, and many progressed toward the third stage (dual identity development). Major themes included emergent role learning, increased differentiation among roles and care models, and increased appreciation for other professionals. The experience provided an opportunity for correction of misconceptions and improved understanding of the role and practice of other professions. Nearly all of the participating students (1) reflected on the benefits of interprofessional collaboration and (2) indicated a desire to work interprofessionally in the future, an early indication of dual identity formation. Findings indicated that the interprofessional shadowing experience and written reflection were highly valuable elements of the DIHC and provided a critical opportunity for interprofessional identity development.

Accuracy of children's self-reported adherence to treatment.

PURPOSE: To examine the relationship between self-reported and electronically monitored adherence to a recommended asthma treatment and to assess the accuracy of the diary data reported by school-age children. DESIGN: A randomized, controlled clinical trial of the effectiveness of an asthma self-management program. The relationship between self-reported and electronically recorded daily peak expiratory flow rate (PEFR) adherence was assessed in a sample of 42 children, ages 7 through 11 years with moderate to severe asthma in one community in West Virginia, USA. Cognitive social learning theory served as the framework for the intervention. METHODS: At-home adherence to PEFR monitoring during the 5-week study was evaluated using the self-report Asthma Diary and an electronic PEFR meter. Recommended twice daily (morning and evening) PEFR monitoring was measured. RESULTS: Self-reported and electronically recorded PEFR adherence were modestly correlated. Self-reported adherence was significantly higher than electronically monitored adherence during Week 5. Accuracy of the self-reported PEFR declined over time, and over half of the children fabricated at least one PEFR value during the final week of the study. CONCLUSIONS: Clinicians often evaluate the efficacy of prescribed treatment for children with chronic conditions based on the children's self-reported diary data. The findings indicate that these children's self-reported adherence behaviors contained errors. Parent education regarding supervision of children's adherence, including validating the accuracy of diary data, is critical for successful self-management in children with chronic conditions.

Health perceptions of mothers of children with chronic conditions.

This descriptive, inductive study was designed to identify health perceptions as described by mothers of children with chronic conditions. Qualitative data were collected in semistructured, open-ended interviews of 3 mothers in their homes. The interviews were audiotaped and transcribed verbatim. Each transcription was reviewed independently by the researcher and an impartial judge. Themes were derived from the rich descriptions of the mothers' perceptions of: (a) their experience of having a child with a chronic condition; (b) personal health; and (c) their child's health in chronicity.

The effects of an intramaze cue search rule on rat's spatial working memory.

Two groups of rats were trained in an elevated 8-arm radial maze consisting of four smooth and four hardware cloth covered (grid) arms. Rats in one group (Texture Relevant) had to enter four baited arms of one texture, Set A, before they could be rewarded for entering the second set of arms of the other texture, Set B. Rats in the other group (Texture Irrelevant) were not constrained in their pattern of arm selection. Rats in both groups were run in the maze until they had sampled all baited arms. Although Texture Relevant (TR) rats initially made more reentries than Texture Irrelevant (TI) rats during the first training phase, rats in both groups reduced reentries to equivalent, low asymptotic levels. TR rats also made many premature entries to Set B arms during initial training but reduced these errors with continued training. When adjacent arms became less spatially differentiated with reference to extramaze room stimuli in the second phase and in a replication of this experiment, TI rats increased reentries to earlier sampled arms more than TR rats. TR rats, however, increased premature entries into Set B when arms within each texture set became less spatially differentiated with respect to extramaze room stimuli. These results indicate that TR rats developed a stable hierarchical representation of the maze, which enhanced their retention of earlier visited arms in more difficult maze configurations.

NALL-1, an acute lymphoblastic leukemia cell line with peroxidase activity.

All cells examined from the non-B, non-T acute lymphoblastic leukemia cell line, NALL-1, stained positive both for terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase and for common ALL antigen. In addition, peroxidase activity was detected by light microscopy in 55 to 75% of cells and peroxidase-positive granules were detected ultrastructurally in greater than 80% of cells. Peroxidase activity in NALL-1 may result from derepression of peroxidase genes or clonal proliferation of a biphenotypic precursor cell.