Prehospital emergency care in a humanitarian environment: an overview of the ethical considerations.

Recent history has demonstrated that UK Defence personnel can be used, potentially with little notice, in humanitarian disaster zones. The provision of prehospital emergency care (PHEC) in a humanitarian environment requires an innovative approach to overcome the technical challenges of a resource-limited setting. In addition to technical challenges, prehospital practitioners working in a humanitarian environment can expect to be faced with ethically testing situations that they are not familiar with in their usual practice. The organisational and individual ethical decision-making burden can result in significant harms. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to discuss the ethical considerations relevant to providing PHEC during a humanitarian disaster in order that personnel can be more prepared to optimally deliver care. This is a paper commissioned as a part of the Humanitarian and Disaster Relief Operations special issue of BMJ Military Health.

Accidental sulfur mustard exposure from explosive ordnance in a UK military service person.

Chemical warfare presents a continuing threat to military personnel as a result of both direct hostile action and the indirect exposure to chemical weapons that remain as a legacy from previous conflicts. This paper will discuss the presentation and medical management of an indirect exposure to sulfur mustard in a UK military service person.

Older adults' views and experiences of doll therapy in residential care homes.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: The mechanisms underlying the success of doll therapy are poorly understood. The aims of this study were to explore how people in care, doll users and non-users, make sense of doll use in their settings. METHODOLOGY: A grounded theory approach was used, recruiting participants from three residential care homes involving four male and 12 female residents. Data collection occurred in two phases; five participants took part in a focus group and later 11 participants were interviewed individually. Eight of the 11 participants had dementia, and four participants were actively using dolls. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: The results are presented as themes, and sub-themes, consisting of four main categories (intrapersonal features, interpersonal features, behavioural benefits, ethical and moderating factors). This thematic analysis shows that residents generally support the use of dolls, believing that dolls can have a positive impact on some users. The mechanisms by which this impact is achieved are discussed together with the ethical concerns.

Confirmatory factor analysis for the Eating Disorder Examination Questionnaire: Evidence supporting a three-factor model.

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this investigation was to compare the goodness-of-fit of a one factor model with the four factor model proposed by Fairburn (2008) and the three factor model proposed by Peterson and colleagues (2007) for the Eating Disorder Examination Questionnaire (EDE-Q 6.0) (Fairburn and Beglin, 1994). METHOD: Using a cross-sectional design, the EDE-Q was completed by 569 adults recruited from universities and eating disorder charities in the UK. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was carried out for both the student and non-student groups. RESULTS: CFA indicated that Peterson et al.'s (2007) three factor model was the best fit for both groups within the current data sample. Acceptable levels of internal reliability were observed and there was clear evidence for a hierarchical factor of eating disorder. DISCUSSION: The results of this study provide support for the three factor model of the EDE-Q suggested by Peterson and colleagues (2007) in that this model was appropriate for both the student and non-student sample populations.