ICN and IHTSDO extend collaboration to advance harmonisation of health terminology

Press Information   .   Communiqué de presse   .   Comunicado de prensa

Geneva, Switzerland & Copenhagen, Denmark, 1 September 2014

The International Council of Nurses (ICN) and the International Health Terminology Standards Development Organisation (IHTSDO) today announced an updated collaboration agreement to advance terminology harmonisation and foster interoperability in health information systems.  The new collaboration agreement signed today will be reviewed on completion of the work or in April 2016, whichever is earliest.

The overarching goals of this collaboration are to ensure that nurses worldwide have the tools they need to carry out their jobs effectively, that they are not disenfranchised from the global informatics infrastructure, and that they remain active in the collection of meaningful and useful health information.

As part of the collaboration agreement, ICN, owner of the International Classification for Nursing Practice (ICNP), and IHTSDO, owner of SNOMED CT, have agreed to undertake further work that defines the relations between SNOMED CT and ICNP to enable their interoperability in health information systems globally. It builds on work already undertaken to produce an equivalence table for nursing diagnoses.

In the coming years IHTSDO and ICN will focus on two key areas of work: joint publication of a completed equivalence table between SNOMED CT and ICNP for Nursing Diagnoses, and joint publication of a completed equivalence table between SNOMED CT and ICNP for nursing interventions.

“ICN is delighted to extend our collaboration with IHTSDO,” said David Benton, ICN’s Chief Executive Officer.  “This agreement will be of mutual benefit to both organisations as well as to patients and will improve the description and comparison of nursing practice locally, regionally, nationally and internationally.

“IHTSDO is pleased to be continuing its collaboration with the ICN”, said Jane Millar, Head of Collaboration at IHTSDO. “Our joint work in linking SNOMED CT and ICNP will be of benefit to the nursing profession worldwide to ensure a common understanding and interoperability, and also to support sharing with other members of the healthcare team.”

The first collaborative agreement between the two organisations was signed in 2010, and in January 2014 the cooperation was further advanced by the announcement of an equivalence table between ICNP concepts and SNOMED CT concepts.

Notes to the Editor:

ICN and IHTSDO are the developers of the International Classification for Nursing Practice (ICNP) and SNOMED Clinical Terms (CT), respectively. The ICNP terminology serves a critical role for ICN in representing the domain of nursing practice worldwide, thus providing nurses at all levels with data-based information used for practice, administration, education and research. SNOMED CT is a multidisciplinary healthcare terminology designed to support the entry and retrieval of clinical concepts in electronic record systems and the safe, accurate, and effective exchange of health information.

About ICN:
The International Council of Nurses (ICN) is a federation of more than 130 national nurses associations representing the millions of nurses worldwide. Operated by nurses and leading nursing internationally, ICN works to ensure quality care for all and sound health policies globally. (www.icn.ch).

About IHTSDO:
IHTSDO determines global standards for health terms, an essential part of improving the health of humankind. Its experts work collaboratively with diverse stakeholders to ensure that SNOMED CT, its world-leading terminology product, is accepted around the world as the common language for health (www.ihtsdo.org).

My source: Amy L Amherdt

HIFA Voices Database - launched 12 August 2014

The HIFA Voices database will bring together the experiential knowledge of HIFA members: more than 12,000 professionals from over 2500 organisations in 170 countries, ranging from senior executives at the World Health Organization in Geneva to community health workers in rural Gambia. Our common vision is a world where every person and every health professional has access to the information they need to protect their own health and the health of those for whom they are responsible. HIFA Voices will be launched on 12 August 2014.

HIFA Voices harnesses the practical expertise of providers and users of healthcare information, together with relevant health information sciences literature. This helps us to understand the healthcare information needs of different users in different contexts and how these needs can be more effectively addressed. Further information about HIFA Voices.

Read the blog about HIFA Voices on the ElsevierConnect website, and the press release from mPowering Frontline Health Workers and Intel Corporation.

We are currently seeking further financial and technical support to enable us to develop HIFA Voices through 2015 and beyond. Please contact us for details.

My source: HIFA2015 list.

Slides: Workshop on Hodges' model at 5th Threshold Concepts Conference Durham 11 July 2014

See also previous post:

http://hodges-model.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/h2cm-workshop-at-threshold-concepts.html

The Global Health Research Process Map

As a conceptual ready reckoner Hodges' model helps us locate, isolate and contextualise the commonly cited 4Ps. In the h2cm matrix below I have related the 4Ps, as before, to the four care domains:

individual
INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES

humanistic ------------------------------------------- mechanistic

SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL

group

PURPOSE	PROCESS
PRACTICE	POLICY

I raise this learning of a new process oriented resource for global research produced by The Global Health Network.

Processes are critical.  

Think of the relationship of purpose, practice and policy in relation to triage and emergency care? When I reflect on a situation even if the priority, context is process driven I am mindful of the bigger picture.

+++++++++++++++

The Global Health Network has launched a brand new, interactive Global Health Research Process Map, the first digital toolkit designed to enable researchers anywhere in the world to initiate rigorous global health research studies.

As the HIFA community know all too well, health research is often lacking in the regions where evidence to improve health is needed most. Crucial evidence is not being generated because doctors and nurses lack access to training, information, and support. Effort is also regularly duplicated or conducted using different criteria in different territories and studies, and sometimes it falls by the wayside from lack of simple resources and guidance on best practice. The Global Health Research Process Map (http://processmap.org/) is set to change this. It’s an open-access internationally-available online resource that guides every process and method needed to initiate a health research study. For each step researchers and their staff are provided with the information, support and training that they need to successfully run a health study. Researchers will also gain the opportunity to engage with their peers along the way, aiding collaboration and the spread of ideas.

The Process Map was released just over one week ago, and has already generated nearly 2,500 views from around the world. It is the product of four years of best practice gathered and refined by the research community who use the pioneering Global Health Network to guide and support their effort to conduct research in challenging settings. The Global Health Network works like an online science park for exchanging knowledge, sharing research methods and facilitating collaboration among global health professionals to fuel faster and better evidence to improve health. The Global Health Network facilitates global partnerships between researchers ­ allowing researchers in low-resource settings and those with more support to learn from each other ­ and conduct research studies in places where this is difficult and unusual.

The Process Map is a pioneering research tool that centralises the information and resources that researchers anywhere in the world need to develop and initiate rigorous and effective global health studies. It has the potential to revolutionise the current process, speeding the development of new drugs and vaccines, and improving how diseases are managed. With this toolkit, researchers can access the guidance, training and support that they need in order to run their own studies. This is important because there is much evidence that shows that locally-led research rarely happens in low-income settings because health workers lack research skills and any access to training and support. Therefore the Global Health Network is meeting that gap and the Global Health Research Process Map will take them through the process of conducting accurate research, step-by-step. 

Visit the tool today, and click on each node to access formally written information, links to eLearning courses, guidance articles, discussions, blogs, up-to-date news, and all sorts of tools and templates which will help you complete each step. As with everything else on the Global Health Network, it’s completely free and open-access, and always will be. Your feedback is always greatly appreciated, so feel free to have a look and leave comments, either here* or on the map itself.

Thank you!
Tamzin

Tamzin Furtado
Project Manager
The Global Health Network

*My source: HIFA2015
 

H2CM workshop at Threshold Concepts Conference 11th July 2014 Durham

Prior to the workshop I did not know how many people would be interested. In the end I had four attendees. With the session located in a large dining hall I had to improvise. I explained the model on paper sat in the middle. The presentation worked on the laptop, with a little swapping of seats for vision. As always with Hodges' model (I believe) the questions and discussion that ensues is primary engagement and this can mitigate environmental limitations. This is also why I believe Hodges' model is applicable to the global community.

I had twenty 2-sided A4 templates to hand-out. The format was as follows:

• What is Hodges’ model?
• A concept sorting exercise
• A case study exercise
• Some examples of links to threshold concepts
• Q & A - discussion
• Feedback

The exercises appeared to go very well, prompting, as hoped, people to think about the model as presented, their own work and threshold concepts. The case study seemed quite realistic and yet it is of course fictional.

Where did I slip up? In at least three ways: I did not have my own feedback form. This is frustrating as I've used these routinely in sessions delivered in residential and nursing homes. I did not complete all the slides. We ran for 85 minutes starting 5 minutes later than intended. On reflection I could have attended for the two days as there were, some really relevant presentations on the Thursday also. I'm really grateful to the people who took part in the workshop. Their work included computer science, law, migration and mathematics.

Durham from TC2014 website

They suggested I identify existing threshold concepts from the health and social care literature and relate these to Hodges' model. Another suggestion pointed to a pre-populated conceptual space using Hodges' model that can act a guide. I've wondered about this before in terms of how to avoid the care reduced to a checklist critique. Although lists play an evidence-based role in assuring safety and situational awareness, the check box mentality is viewed as undermining nursing and high quality personalised care? There is definitely scope for a paper combining #h2cm and threshold concepts.

The TEL course at Lancaster is proving a challenge as anticipated, because I do not have first-hand access to learning management systems and the more formal educational context. I am working on this with an ongoing secondment application, but I never hold my breath.  Doing the TEL course is (also) a test, it forces me to focus and produce small studies and very quickly too. I had wondered about using the workshop to this end, but in light of very helpful supervision and discussion with peers online I directed attention to a semi-structured questionnaire and the reflective content of LMSs used by local students.

Significantly, the four participants in Durham is more than needed for a 4000 word study, so the workshop is a great experience and further 'demonstrator'.

I am still reflecting on the workshop and will be in touch with several people as a result. I would also like to thank the organisers for my being able to contribute. The slides will also be posted online soon. I will add some notes to act as instructions.

In 2016 the conference will be in Nova Scotia, when available I will add the updated link in the sidebar.

New: Journal of Critical Anti-Oppressive Social Inquiry (CAOS)

CAOS 

is an interdisciplinary peer reviewed journal that publishes original articles/art work/poetry that foreground critical forms of social inquiry, research and practice.  

More...

ICN International Conference 19-23 June 2015 Seoul, Republic of Korea - Global Citizen, Global Nursing

The International Council of Nurses is pleased to send you the link to the Call for Abstracts for the ICN Conference to be held in Seoul, Republic of Korea, 19-23 June 2015.  With the theme “Global Citizen, Global Nursing”, the ICN 2015 Conference will provide a global platform for the dissemination of nursing knowledge and leadership across specialities, cultures and countries.

The extensive ICN 2015 Conference scientific programme will feature keynote and main session invited speakers as well as a wide range of concurrent sessions including dynamic papers accepted through our highly competitive abstract selection process.

To share your ideas, research and expertise on how to provide quality care, improve populations’ equity and access to health care or contribute to further advance nursing knowledge and practice, you are invited to submit an abstract.

The Call for Abstracts provides you with all necessary information to enable you to actively contribute to the scientific and educational content of the ICN 2013 Congress by submitting an abstract on-line at www.icn2015.com

CALL FOR ABSTRACTS NOW AVAILABLE AT www.icn2015.com

Key dates

15 April 2014:	Online submission of abstracts opens
7 October 2014:	Online submission of abstracts closes (midnight GMT)
7 October 2014:	Registration opens
9 December 2014:	Applicants notified of abstract acceptance
11 February 2015:	Deadline for registration of abstract presenters

My source: PAHO

12th May Lancaster, Workshop: Patient knowledge and involvement in healthcare

An event I am looking forward to: 

Royal Institute of Philosophy Workshop
Storey Institute, Lancaster
Monday 12th May

In recent years great efforts have been made to listen to “patient voices” in healthcare practice, research, and policy, but such initiatives have met with mixed success and many patients continue to feel that their view are overlooked (sometimes despite the best efforts of health care professionals). In this workshop we consider whether and why patient views matter. We ask what factors act to limit the possibilities for communication between patients and professionals, and consider how they might be overcome.

• 10-10.40 Chaos, conflict and cooperation. Havi Carel, Senior Lecturer in Philosophy, Bristol University
• 10.40-11.20 Silencing the sick. Ian J. Kidd, Addison Wheeler Fellow in Philosophy, Durham University
• 11.50-12.30 On trusting and being trusted. Garrath Williams, Senior Lecturer in Philosophy, Lancaster University
• 2-2.40 Patient advocacy challenged: The case of ME/CFS. Nancy Blake, Patient activist and PhD candidate, Lancaster University
• 2.40- 3.20 Medical paternalism and the right not to know. Emma Bullock, Postdoctoral Fellow “Concepts of Health”, King’s College London
• 3.50-4.30 Negotiating as individuals and groups. Rachel Cooper, Senior Lecturer in Philosophy, Lancaster University

Organisers: Ian J. Kidd and Rachel Cooper

Free and open to all, but numbers are limited. To reserve a place please email
Rachel Cooper - on r.v.cooper AT lancaster.ac.uk

[ganm] International Journal of Africa Nursing Sciences - submit today to this exciting new journal!

Dear colleague,

The International Journal of Africa Nursing Sciences (IJANS) is a new, open access, international scientific journal published by Elsevier. The broad-based journal is founded on two key tenets, i.e. to publish the most exciting research with respect to the subjects of nursing and midwifery in Africa, and secondly, to advance the international understanding and development of nursing and midwifery in Africa, both as a profession and as an academic discipline.

The fully refereed journal will provide a forum for all aspects of nursing and midwifery sciences, especially new trends and advances. The journal calls for original research papers, systematic and scholarly review articles, and critical papers which will stimulate debate on research, policy, theory or philosophy of nursing as related to nursing and midwifery in Africa and technical reports, and short communications, all of which will meet the journal's high academic and ethical standards. Manuscripts of nursing practice, education, management, and research are encouraged. The journal values critical scholarly debate on issues that have strategic significance for educators, practitioners, leaders and policy-makers of nursing and midwifery in Africa.

The journal will seek to publish the highest quality scholarly contributions reflecting the diversity of nursing. It is also inviting international scholars who are engaged with nursing and midwifery in Africa to contribute to the journal.

The IJANS is an open access journal and in 2014 there will be no publication charges for any author.

The Editor, Dr Hester Klopper (CEO, FUNDISA and President, STTI), welcomes submissions at  http://ees.elsevier.com/ijans/

With kind regards,

Tewodros Seyoum Nigussie
Lecturer, Msc in Clinical Midwifery
University of Gondar
Department of Midwifery
PO.Box 196
Email Address : tedysha AT gmail.com

University website @ Gondar: http://www.uog.edu.et/

The GANM is part of the Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing PAHO/WHO Collaborating Center.

The thoughts, opinions and views that are posted on the GANM do not reflect those of either Johns Hopkins University or WHO.

Please visit the GANM webpage at: http://knowledge-gateway.org/ganm/

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18th Annual International Philosophy of Nursing Conference

in association with the International Philosophy of Nursing Society
(IPONS)
September 8th, 9th and 10th, 2014

Hosted by the School of Health Sciences, University of Nottingham, England, UK

Brave new world?
Health, technology and evidence based practice

Nurses have seen some fundamental changes in the way that healthcare is delivered. Body care is at the centre of nursing practice but the nature of that care has been extended beyond the personal, human-to-human contact, and is increasingly refracted through the medium of technological/scientific interventions. The way that these technologies interact with the human dimension does, and should, require critical analysis.This is particularly the case for nurses who are increasingly expected to adopt methods and approaches that change the nature of the nurse patient relationship.  Added to this is the way that clinicians/academics/researchers interact with health care issues, locally as well as globally.

There is an established debate and tension within the evidence based practice literature that illustrates a deep ambivalence about how a holistic approach to clinical practice relates to, enhances, or is undermined by the new health technologies. These include care pathways, systematic reviews of knowledge, the enabling/disabling effects of technology and the putative implication that there is an empiricist and dehumanising process involved in these developments. For example, what happens to the complexity of ethical debates when they are shaped in the form of arguments based on literature reviews? These may wittingly or unwittingly serve as a means of translating complex moral issues into usable clinical regimes that partially mimic meta-analyses. Furthermore we may ask what place narrative knowledge and qualitative experiences may have in this new world of implementation technologies? And how do the new interventions of telemedicine and other policy drivers that emphasise the “hospital-at-home” impact on the ways that nurses carry out health care?

This conference intends to examine these and other issues related to ‘Health, technology, and evidence-based practice’.

CONFERENCE DETAILS

Details of the Conference can now be found at the following link:
http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/conference/fac-mhs/healthsciences/aipnursingconference/index.aspx

These details include the list of Keynote speakers; the venue; a Call for Abstracts; conference registration and accommodation, and transportation. Abstracts of the Keynote speakers and the full Conference Programme will be available soon on the above link.

Any specific queries should be addressed to Dr Stuart Nairn
stuart.nairn AT nottingham.ac.uk

other IPONS posts on W2tQ

Call for contributions: 'Interpreting the Information Age' new avenues for research and display

November 24 – 26 2014

Science Museum, London

In autumn 2014, the Science Museum will open a new permanent gallery, Information Age. The gallery will expose, examine and celebrate how information and communication technologies have transformed our lives over the last 200 years. To mark this launch, the Museum is hosting a three day conference which will discuss how the history and material culture of information can be made relevant for today’s audiences.

From the development of global telegraph and computer networks, the creation of constellations of satellites that silently orbit our earth, and the growth of radio, telephony and cellular networks; each technology can be understood through a network of people, practices, devices and infrastructure. Approaches which focus on overly technical histories, individual innovation or inevitable progress fail to acknowledge the role of users in the history of technologies and marginalise a majority of readers or visitors who are engaged by human stories and social history. By contrast, Information Age has taken a user-centric approach, not only in the stories and objects selected for display, but in the way the gallery has been designed and developed. Participation with a diverse range of audiences has been at the heart of the process, providing new avenues for research, fresh perspectives on our collections and original ways to interpret the information networks of which we are all part. We invite papers that include insights from researchers, academics, museum professionals, community partners and participants.

The conference structure is proposed to include:

Day 1: New avenues in the history of information and communication technologies

Day 2: Interpreting and displaying the history of information and communication technologies

Day 3: Reflections on the process and practicalities of participatory practice

We are especially interested in papers that address the following themes, but are happy to consider other proposals. Please contact the organisers for guidance. 

New avenues in the history of information and communication technologies

• From devices to networks: taking a broader approach to the history of information and communication. How has historical analysis expanded our understanding of information networks as inherently social-cultural phenomena? How can museums move beyond displays of devices, to reveal how networks unite people, places and ideas?
• User-driven innovation: technological change does not only occur at the moment of invention, but in the hands of users, who adapt and appropriate new technologies. What tools and techniques can we use to reveal previously hidden user stories?
• Spaces and places of information: How are institutions celebrating the local and global stories in the history of information and communication technology? What partnerships are being formed to support this?

Interpreting and displaying the history of information and communication technologies

• Collecting information: what are the challenges of collecting the material culture of information and communication? How can opening collecting processes to wider audiences enhance understanding, and what are the benefits for both researchers and the wider public?
• Displaying information: innovative approaches to the history, present or future of information and communication technologies.
• Preserving information: the challenges for museums, libraries and archives in preserving our increasingly digital lives.
• Whose story? As institutions strive to tell the story of information and communication technologies from the perspective of users and co-producers, how can we ensure that we are representing a diverse range of voices? 

Reflections on the process and practicalities of participatory practice

• Breaking down barriers: what approaches are being taken to ensure museum collections are accessible to wider audiences? What interpretation approaches can be adopted?
• Collaborative interpretation and design: how are institutions and audiences working together in exhibition development? What are the benefits to the museum, participant and ultimately the gallery visitor? What are the perceived risks to the museum’s authority?
• Ensuring legacy: how do museums capture the process of participatory practice in a meaningful way? What evaluation methodologies can be adopted? How can museums support partners and participants in the longer-term? 

How to contribute

To submit a proposal, please send a 250 abstract outlining the topic of your paper, along with a 100 word biography, to [ research AT sciencemuseum.ac.uk ] by Friday 28th March 2014.

We welcome proposals which could be delivered either as paper presentations or for consideration as panel discussions with other contributors, along with proposals for workshops which practically address the conference themes.

My source: HUMANIST list

Conference: Design as Caring in an Urban World - Final Call for Papers

Design as caring in an urban world: Royal Geographical Conference, London, Tuesday 26 to Friday 29 August 2014

In his essay, “Building, Dwelling, Thinking”, Heidegger considers the interrelationships between care and design by arguing that we are only capable of building well when we know how to dwell, that is, cultivating attachments to our environments and, through this cultivation, giving and receiving care. Recent work in areas such as urban and cultural geographies, and science and technology studies, has further elaborated on this connection between care and design by exploring the affective and relational work that goes into shaping and repairing the fragile attachments between the human and non-human materials that compose the urban world. At the same time, the materiality of urban environments is often found to be inattentive to human difference and diversity, and rarely shaped by, or exposed to, a caring design ethic.

In this session, we seek to bring concepts and practices of care and design into a closer dialogue with one another in order to develop new ways of thinking about the (co) production of urban environments. It is our belief that now, more than ever, a rethinking is required about the relationships between urban design and care, as issues such as sustainability and inclusivity ask for modes of designing and dwelling that convey the affective and relational sensibilities and values of caring.

We are interested in stimulating an exchange of ideas and inspirations between urban design and care by engaging with the ways in which caring skills and sensibilities can become expressed through design practice and thinking, and also the ways in which caring knowledge can be a resource for reconfiguring urban spaces. The questions explored in the session include, but are not limited to, the following:

• How is caring embedded and expressed in daily encounters between people and urban environments, including buildings, spaces and technologies?
• What kinds of skills and values of urban design do these encounters cultivate and what can be done to make public and support these?
• How can an ethics and politics of care and caring be instilled into the design of places and what does a caring design ethic refer to and entail for practice?
• What are the pedagogic and practical challenges in creating caring design values and practices?
• How could an ethics and politics of care be mobilised as a form of constructive critique of current urban design discourses where the sensibilities and values of care have often received less attention?

Session convenors: Charlotte Bates, Rob Imrie, and Kim Kullman

Please send a proposed abstract of 200-300 words to Charlotte Bates (c.bates AT gold.ac.uk) or Kim Kullman (k.kullman AT gold.ac.uk) by February 19th 2014.

CfP Visual In-Sights Conference, Newcastle University, June 2014

To: EUROPEAN-SOCIOLOGIST AT JISCMAIL.AC.UK
Sent: Monday, 30 December 2013, 10:24
Subject: CfP Visual In-Sights Conference, Newcastle University, June 2014

Call for Papers/Proposals
Visual In-Sights: Theory, Method, Practice 26-27 June 2014
Newcastle University, Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK
Deadline for Abstracts/Proposals: 31 January 2014

Keynote Speakers:
Marcus Banks (Oxford University)
David Campbell (http://www.david-campbell.org/ )
Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen (Amber Collective)

Organised by the Visualities Research Group at Newcastle University, this interdisciplinary conference aims to bring together an international community of established and emerging scholars, creative practitioners, visual artists and arts-based, community project leaders who research, use and work with visual materials and visual methods. Contributions are invited that demonstrate the cutting edge in research and practice around the multiple spaces of the visual, and which explore the porous boundary between the theory, method and practice of the visual.

We seek academic papers and/or proposals for multi-media presentations, break-out sessions using arts/performance/installation, contemporaneous fieldwork exercises and workshops, and exhibitive displays. Contributions may speak, but are not limited, to the themes of:

• Art and Aesthetics
• Visual Cultures
• Visualities and Ethics
• Visual Communication and Visual Practice

Please submit an abstract or artist proposal of up to 250 words to visual.insights AT ncl.ac.uk
by 31 January 2014.

Notifications of acceptance will be sent out on or before 28 February 2014.

Registration http://www.ncl.ac.uk/gps/research/groups/visualities/visual-insights/registration.htm will open on 31 March 2014. The conference fee is £80 (academics), £50 (artists), and £30 (students and unwaged)

For more information please visit:
http://www.ncl.ac.uk/visual-insights/
Enquiries: visual.insights AT ncl.ac.uk

Student engagement survey UK pilot – Year 2: HEA

Forwarded from the HEA

The National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) was designed to measure students’ participation in activities and practices that are known to relate to improvements in learning. It asks about the amount and quality of effort that students invest in their studies, as well as the extent to which their courses and institutions are supportive and encouraging. It was developed and first used in North America in 2000, and has now been adapted and implemented in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Ireland.

In early 2013, nine UK institutions piloted a range of survey questions derived from NSSE. The questions were focused on four key areas:

• Critical thinking. Four questions asked students about the emphasis their coursework placed on a range of mental activities such as evaluating and applying information.

• Course challenge. Three questions focused on how their courses have encouraged them to work hard.

• Collaborative learning. Three questions asked students how often they had interacted with other students in a range of ways.

• Academic integration. Five questions explored students’ interaction with academic staff, participation in class and discussions with others outside class.

8500 students responded, and the report of the first year of the pilot will be published on 6 November 2013 and will be available at www.heacademy.ac.uk/surveys. The report contains analysis of the results, as well as findings from interviews with students about the questions used.

In order to allow more institutions to take part in this project, and to collect more data for research purposes, the project will run again in spring/summer 2014.

Participation in this project allows institutions to ask students about the extent to which they are investing effort in their studies, to identify areas where more encouragement and opportunities to engage may be required. Institutions will be able to benchmark their own results against the aggregate UK results, both at institutional and subject level, to better understand their students’ engagement.

For full information on the pilot and how to be involved, along with all related documentation please see our website at http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/resources/detail/engagement_survey/pilot_call_2014

Kind Regards

Celia

Dr Celia R Brigg

Academic Lead (Business Development)

 celia.brigg at heacademy.ac.uk

The Higher Education Academy, Innovation Way, York Science Park, Heslington, York, YO10 5BR

www.heacademy.ac.uk – Twitter @HEAcademy

Time, History, Technology, Institutions, Transparency and Reflective Practice

Despite the passing of time

refactored as
institutional history
 and
 technical solutions,

reflective practice

and
transparency

in care
remain aspirational.

Image: Sculpture at Prague Congress Center

Book review "Clinical Intuition in Psychotherapy: The Neurobiology of Embodied Response"

Clinical intuition is something that in formal learning terms is intangible, but in practice is earned and relied upon as a gift of experience. When I first received this book from the author Terry Marks-Tarlow, leafing through I thought the emphasis was on the neurobiology presaging a rather technical read. The references to brain structures, neocortex, brain waves ... seemed to suggest a reductive approach, remote from my conception of intuition in clinical practice. I need not have worried, the initial discussion on the brain and evolutionary development is not just a foundation for what follows but as the title suggests underpins and integrates the whole text. Despite the title and as the foreward advises you do not have to be a psychotherapist to read and appreciate this book. The stall is set from the outset in the introduction which explains that chapter one defines clinical intuition:

Clinical intuition is defined from a neurobiological perspective as a right-brain, fully embodied mode of perceiving, relating, and responding to the ongoing flows and changing dynamics of psychotherapy. (p.3)

The introductory material here is essential foundation reading for people starting a career in psychology and mental health related disciplines. The evolutionary development of the brain from reptile through to the mammalian brain is invaluable. Tying this to specific brain functions and circuits - care, fear, panic, play, lust, rage and seeking - helps integrate brain anatomy, perception, emotion, and behaviour. The advances in neurobiology to follow will no doubt demand that we all extend our understanding of this interdisciplinary fusion.

The book itself (hardback edition) is very well produced, the type face easy to read and the book well structured and with a well balanced mix of illustrations and photographs. The reference listing at the end runs over thirteen pages and is well grounded historically and in having regard to ongoing research. The index is comprehensive (fourteen pages) and a resource itself providing a look-up approach. The book's use of case studies, thirteen in total informs the text and provides some continuity through the book. Dialogue between therapist and client is easy to follow and illustrations are provided with ample explanation in situ. The references also utilize web-based resources.

I recall intuition coming up as a thread on several occasions on the psychiatric-nursing list especially between 1998 and 2004. Intuition is a central quality for all personnel working in health and social care. We must also recognise intuition as a human trait as when non-health professionals exercise the judgement that: "Wait a minute, we need a clinical opinion here." Self-care is also discussed. I had a Pythonesque moment - "Is this the right room for an argument?" - considering psychotherapy as a therapeutic modality within therapies as a whole. Here in the UK (and no doubt elsewhere) self, brief and solution based therapies rule economically. Even though the shortage of psychological intervention is recognised in the UK through IAPT improving access to psychological therapies, we need to ask: how does psychotherapy fare in the current (austerity) climate? To what extent can clinicians exercise intuition? Therapy relies on caseness, relationships and narrative, but to what extent can these be acknowledged and delivered within the economical time frames that frequently operate? 

Although there's no specific chapter on training for clinical intuition, Marks-Tarlow provides a list of how researchers have characterized clinical intuition (more recently in the 1980-1990s); five characteristics are proposed:

• Sudden recognition;
• Immediate knowledge;
• Emergent awareness;
• Non-verbal insight; and 
• Holistic integrative sensibilities. (pp.42-43).

 Of the first two sudden recognition and immediate knowledge, I thought of the intuitive sense that is applied upon receiving a referral. That is the assumptions (not always helpful) that arise from the information provided (and missing) and where this leads you? But of course, is this clinical intuition? Intuition as the author makes clear (p.3 and) throughout the book is in psychotherapy. Intuition here (and for me) depends on interpersonal - therapeutic - interaction. What precedes is something else (data integration, hypothesizing, reasoning...?). I can however still see explanatory avenues in the above that can help us travel from the conceptual (reduced) to a holistic whole. I did wonder about the role of intuition in suicidal ideation and risk management, but this is also a question of referral criteria and caseness.

I would very much like to write myself about information and complexity and these themes recur in the text, especially the latter. Several 'spaces' are discussed too: social, physical and spatial schemas. The work of Buzsáki on the hippocampus, navigation and maps - landmark navigation - is fascinating in chapter 7 Navigating the Seas. I have likened Hodges' model to a cognitive periplus - an ancient maritime map. Over the next few months I'll post some quotes from the book.

This is an excellent book that I heartily recommend. The discussion of what is implicit in the brain and so in therapy, what is embodied and wisdom in mentoring invites re-reading. Finally but vitally there is much humour and humanity here too.

Many thanks to Terry Marks-Tarlow for the review copy.

Papers in progress, book reviews and volcanoes

There are three papers currently in process. There is some good and bad news; plus some similarity with volcanoes. This is in the sense of active, dormant and extinct.

The papers are - with no prizes for guessing the common feature:

1. The Scope of Nursing and Hodges' model
2. Case Formulation (Conceptualization), Diagrams and Hodges' model
3. Recovery and Hodges' model

Two papers are active, that's Case Formulation and Recovery. On the stove is Recovery and it's cookin. I've two co-authors providing invaluable input.

I've just read Terry Marks-Tarlow's Clinical Intuition in Psychotherapy The Neurobiology of Embodied Response and a review will follow my recommending this book right now.

There's a review copy of another book in the post that I believe can inform the recovery paper:

Values-Based Commissioning of Health and Social Care (thanks CUP)

I'm sure the concept of values-based commissioning is a gift to Hodges' model and the recovery paper. A theme to return to on W2tQ. The paper includes the Recovery STAR and relates this to Hodges' model.

The case formulation effort is with my co-author, and after a meeting in Manchester one early evening may incorporate risk formulation too.

The good news is none of these projects are extinct. The first nursing scope paper was rejected. The nursing scope paper is dormant, but is stirring following the symposium on person centredness in nursing early in May 2013.

There are two other books to get to grips with and a project that is in danger of extinction. The sight of Vesuvius next month may help: shift matters.

5th Qualitative Research on Mental Health Conference 2014

Practicing mental health: Qualitative approaches to investigating services and interventions
 
Crete, Greece, 2-4 September 2014

The Qualitative Research on Mental Health conference has been established as an international transdisciplinary forum for dedicated qualitative research on a range of topics in the field of mental health, using a variety of methodologies and approaches.

The 1st and 2nd Qualitative Research on Mental Health Conferences were held in Tampere, Finland, in 2006 and 2008, and the 3rd and 4th in Nottingham, U.K., in 2010 and 2012. Previous conferences attracted strong international interest with about 150 participants from a diversity of backgrounds, including service users, health and social care professionals, social scientists and health policy makers, and created a space for lively and enriching discussions. The 5th Qualitative Research on Mental Health Conference is due to take place from the 2nd to the 4th of September near the beautiful city of Chania, in Crete, Greece.

In several qualitative research trends, mental health is approached as a set of practices; these include the professional practices implicated in defining and treating mental distress, the practices through which individuals in distress live with, make sense of and manage their experiences, as well as the wider socio-cultural and institutional practices of understanding and dealing with human suffering. This conference invites qualitative studies, from a variety of disciplines, which describe these practices, their functions and their effects, examine the discourses associated with them, and explore how these practices are viewed and experienced by the parties involved. The conference aims to promote critical engagement with mental health practices through highlighting the personal and socio-cultural processes that underpin them, as well as their intersections with gender, culture and social position.

Submissions for symposia, individual presentations and posters are welcome.

Deadline for submissions 24th January 2014
For further information, please consult the conference website:
http://www.symvoli.gr/conference/qrmh2014/page/main

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I will try to submit and attend (being sure to also take snorkel and flippers).

My source and with thanks: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/psychiatric-nursing.html

Nursing Informatics 2014 - Call for Submissions

Please forward this message via to your own networks and contacts.

We are pleased to announce that NI 2014, the 12th International Congress on Nursing Informatics, will be held in Taipei, Taiwan, June 21-25, 2014.

The theme of the conference is “eSmart + ” where “e” stands for eHealth, “S” implies simplicity, “m” represents mobility and meaningful use, “a” denotes advanced leadership, “r” indicates revolution, “t” means translational technologies, and “+” symbolizes People Leading uCare Safely. The acronym is also used to convey the idea of adopting smart technology to help health providers deliver higher quality care.

The online submissions system is now open and will remain open until mid-September 2013. Decisions on manuscripts will be made by mid-December 2013.

You can find more information at the conference website: www.ni2014.org

We very much look forward to seeing your submissions and to meeting you in Taiwan next year.

With best wishes

Nick Hardiker & Heimar Marin

Co-Chairs, Scientific Programme Committee, NI2014

Review: Philosophical And Theoretical Perspectives For Advanced Nursing Practice

http://www.jblearning.com/catalog/9780763765705/

If you are a miner for insight, a pearl diver for knowledge or seeking blue sky wisdom this book can deliver and sign-post in plenty through its references. In summary: this book is a history book that nods at futurology.

I had high expectations for the text, also anticipating an exacting read. After all, as a 5th edition this is a well established text. The expectations were not wholly realized, however; many of the papers are quite dated being published originally in the 1990s.

The book is an important collection and can certainly be regarded as essential reading for advanced nursing practitioners and those pursuing post-graduate nursing studies. Several chapters hail from the same journal publisher and perhaps - as a positive - this contributes to the readable and accessible style throughout the book. The text format and size are also easy to read. I found one spelling mistake within the index entry for 'diagnosis' p.387. In addition to the historical development in part 1 the book's division into five parts - 31 chapters in total - acknowledges the reliance on the past and from it appears from a previous edition the arrival of the 21st century. Apart from the current date of issue 2013 I cannot accurately place the most recent additions to the volume. The contents listing and preface are limited in this respect. Judging from the references they are not that recent. 2010 is one of the most recent references I could find, and this, the 75ed of Toby & Mariner.

Many of the papers are seminal and include an overview of particular aspects of nursing thought - analysis and synthesis. Unsurprisingly, there is philosophy and ethics in great abundance, together with ecocentricism, several forms of feminism, aboriginal peoples and their world views, evidence, health, beliefs, art, professionalism, research, patterns, advanced practice, theory and much more. The distinction between evidence based theory and evidence based practice is something of which all nurse students should be aware.

There is specific reference to Advanced Nursing Practitioners. There could obviously be some variation in how this professional group are considered as opposed to Advanced Nursing Practice. Having just returned from Belfast and the University of Ulster there is ongoing currency in McCormack's chapter 17 A Conceptual Framework for Person Centered Practice with Older People. While dated 2003 McCormack's work was emphasized at a recent conference in Ulster I was able to attend (and there are plans for another). I am sure other chapters may be enlivened by such reviewer found co-incidences as this.

I wonder if the scope of the book and acknowledgement of the passing of time seems to shout for a two-volumed approach. As suggested above, the previous acknowledgement of the future seems to have hailed from the 20th century and got lost. We are now after all more than a 1/10 of the way into the 21st century.

Having started my nursing career in the RN, chapter 22 on military metaphor in nursing and the need for another. A researcher contacted me several years ago about using Hodges' model (a conceptual framework) in a study on bullying in nursing. I've never heard anything since, but Hodges' can help in such research in two respects. The inclusion of a political domain and the organization of groups of people, emphasizes process, procedure, protocol, routine, and may proceed to regimentation, discipline, hierarchy so to a degree language games will follow. As this chapter notes, several professions, including nursing are said to eat their young. A commentary after the chapter provides a useful balance and makes this point. The chapter is nonetheless a reminder of the role of language and how professionalism arises and is sustained (disciplines too?). The proposal of frontier as a new metaphor is fitting as Hodges' model identifies five conceptual fronts - frontiers that must be integrated. 

As a frontier - Chapter 21 on rapture and suffering with technology in nursing holds many lessons and insights. Heidegger's "standing reserve", the human-technology interface, what it means to live like a human being and the distinction of being a human being. Mobile technology, m-health, e-health are making a huge contribution to global health and need a place here. I found Macurdy's four principles 326-327 on what patients need to assume power and control over their care very illuminating, especially in highlighting information access and the importance of health literacy.

In the text and the index I could not find specific reference to capacity, as in mental capacity, informatics, global health, information (access), justice, law, legal, management, human rights, literacy, mental, political, psych-, long-term medical conditions and recovery. While the book would become incoherent if a disease/diagnosis-based approach was adopted, we might ask: does dementia deserve specific inclusion? This is an interesting (and potentially vociferous) debate in itself - to what extent should such a book record change through several decades? Of course the book is not an encyclopedia and it is easy to critique according to omission. These are pressing times demographically, however; while there is a population focus: global communities and aboriginal communities in chapter 23 and 24, this merely scratches the surface of very large world.

This book is a valuable asset and has stimulated many ideas here (and potential blog posts). I am very pleased to have read it and would recommend it to students and practitioners alike. I am grateful to the publishers for the review copy.