Posts Tagged ‘cross’
Red Cross Offers Important Tips For Caring For Someone With The Flu
With the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reporting that the H1N1 (swine flu) virus has now spread throughout the United States, the American Red Cross has a set of tips for people who are sick or are taking care of someone who has the flu. Flu viruses spread from person-to-person in droplets of coughs or sneezes, and can also spread if a person touches droplets on another person or object and then touches their own mouth or nose before washing their hands.
Blue Cross Blue Shield Of Michigan Broadens Medicare Options With New Medicare Advantage PPO Product
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan announced a new Medicare Advantage PPO product that for many Michigan seniors provides benefits at lower premiums than Original Medicare coupled with Part D drug plans and supplementary coverage. “Our new Medicare Advantage PPO provides the comprehensive coverage seniors want, including prescription drugs and benefits Original Medicare doesn’t provide,” said Mark Owen, BCBSM vice president for federal programs and individual business.
The compensatory health beliefs scale: psychometric properties of a cross-culturally adapted scale for use in The Netherlands
This study assesses the psychometric properties of a measuring scale for compensatory health beliefs (CHBs), culturally adapted for use in the Dutch context. CHBs refer to the idea that people can compensate for unhealthy (mostly pleasant) behaviours with healthy behaviours, e.g. ‘It is OK to eat a chocolate bar, because I am going to the gym tonight’. We are critical towards such beliefs as they may also be an excuse to justify unhealthy behaviours. Before such effects can be studied, an appropriate tool to measure CHBs must be developed. We adapted a Canadian scale, consisting of four factors relating to beliefs about substance use, eating/sleeping habits, stress and weight regulation, translating it according to guidelines for cross-cultural adaptation and testing it among 145 Dutch students. Factor analysis showed that the structure was not entirely identical in the Dutch context, and the internal consistency of the four subscales was also low. The overall scale showed a high internal consistency ( = 0.78), indicating the existence of an underlying construct, and a high Pearson correlation between the first and second measurements (r = 0.82), showing good stability. We recommend using the overall scale and further studying its reliability among other subgroups as well as its validity.
Involvement in teaching improves learning in medical students; a randomized cross-over study
Background:Peer-assisted learning has many purported benefits including preparing students as educators, improving communication skills and reducing faculty teaching burden. But comparatively little is known about the effects of teaching on learning outcomes of peer educators in medical education.Methods:One hundred and thirty-five first year medical students were randomly allocated to 11 small groups for the Gastroenterology/Hematology Course at the University of Calgary. For each of 22 sessions, two students were randomly selected from each group to be peer educators. Students were surveyed to estimate time spent preparing as peer educator versus group member. Students completed an end-of-course 94 question multiple choice exam. A paired t-test was used to compare performance on clinical presentations for which students were peer educators to those for which they were not.Results:Preparation time increased from a mean (SD) of 36 (33) minutes baseline to 99 (60) minutes when peer educators (Cohen’s d = 1.3; p < 0.001). The mean score (SD) for clinical presentations in which students were peer educators was 80.7% (11.8) compared to77.6% (6.9) for those which they were not (d = 0.33; p < 0.01).Conclusions:Our results suggest that involvement in teaching small group sessions improves medical students' knowledge acquisition and retention.
Pediatric resident and faculty attitudes toward self-assessment and self-directed learning: a cross-sectional study
Background:The development of self-assessment and self-directed learning skills is essential to lifelong learning and becoming an effective physician. Pediatric residents in the United States are now required to use Individualized Learning Plans (ILPs) to document self-assessment and self-directed learning. A better understanding of resident and faculty attitudes and skills about self-assessment and self-directed learning will allow more successful integration of lifelong learning into residency education. The objective of this study was to compare faculty and resident attitudes, knowledge and skills about self-assessment, self-directed learning and ILPs. Methods:Survey of pediatric residents and faculty at a single institution. Respondents rated their attitudes, knowledge, and self-perceived skills surrounding self-assessment, self-directed learning and ILPs.Results:Overall survey response rate was 81% (79/97); 100% (36/36) residents and 70% (43/61) faculty. Residents and faculty agreed that lifelong learning is a necessary part of being a physician. Both groups were comfortable with assessing their own strengths and weaknesses and developing specific goals to improve their own performance. However, residents were less likely than faculty to continuously assess their own performance (44% vs. 81%; p<0.001) or continuously direct their own learning (53% vs. 86%; p<0.001). Residents were more likely than faculty to believe that residents should be primarily responsible for directing their own learning (64% vs. 19%; p<0.0001), but at the same time, more residents believed that assigned clinical (31% vs. 0%; p<0.0001) or curricular (31% vs. 0%; p<0.0001) experiences were sufficient to make them competent physicians. Interns were less likely than senior residents to have a good understanding of how to assess their own skills (8% vs. 58%; p=0.004) or what it means to be a self-directed learner (50% vs. 83%; p=0.04).Qualitative comments indicated that while ILPs have the potential to help learners develop individualized, goal-directed learning plans based on strengths and weaknesses, successful implementation will require dedicated time and resident and faculty development.Conclusions:These findings suggest that training and experience are necessary for physicians to understand the role of self-directed learning in education. Deliberate practice, for example by requiring residents to use ILPs, may facilitate self-directed, lifelong learning.
Blue Cross And Blue Shield Of Florida Introduces BlueMedicare(SM) Group Supplement
To help employers save money when providing health care coverage to retirees, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Florida (BCBSF) is introducing BlueMedicare(SM) Group Supplement insurance plans. BlueMedicare Group Supplement is available to Medicare-eligible retirees, and their Medicare-eligible spouses who are 65 and older. “This new option will help groups manage the rising health care costs for retiree coverage,” said Barbara Benevento, group vice-president, Senior Markets, BCBSF.
Operating theatre related syncope in medical students: a cross sectional study
Background:Observing surgical procedures is a beneficial educational experience for medical students during their surgical placements. Anecdotal evidence suggests that operating theatre related syncope may have detrimental effects on students’ views of this. Our study examines the frequency and causes of such syncope, together with effects on career intentions, and practical steps to avoid its occurrence.Methods:All penultimate and final year students at a large UK medical school were surveyed using the University IT system supplemented by personal approach. A 20-item anonymous questionnaire was distributed and results were analysed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences, version 15.0 (Chicago, Illinois, USA). Results:Of the 630 clinical students surveyed, 77 responded with details of at least one near or actual operating theatre syncope (12%). A statistically significant gender difference existed for syncopal/near-syncopal episodes (male 12%; female 88%), p<0.05. Twenty-two percent of those affected were graduate entry medical course students with the remaining 78% undergraduate. Mean age was 23-years (range 20 - 45). Of the 77 reactors, 44 (57%) reported an intention to pursue a surgical career. Of this group, 7 (9%) reported being discouraged by syncopal episodes in the operating theatre. The most prevalent contributory factors were reported as hot temperature (n= 61, 79%), prolonged standing (n=56, 73%), wearing a surgical mask (n=36, 47%) and the smell of diathermy (n=18, 23%). The most frequently reported measures that students found helpful in reducing the occurrence of syncopal episodes were eating and drinking prior to attending theatre (n=47, 61%), and moving their legs whilst standing (n=14, 18%).Conclusions:Our study shows that operating theatre related syncope among medical students is common, and we establish useful risk factors and practical steps that have been used to prevent its occurrence. Our study also highlights the detrimental effect of this on the career intentions of medical students interested in surgery. Based on these findings, we recommend that dedicated time should be set aside in surgical teaching to address this issue prior to students attending the operating theatre.
The characteristics of depressive symptoms in medical students during medical education and training: a cross-sectional study
Background:Medical education and training can contribute to the development of depressive symptoms that might lead to possible academic and professional consequences. We aimed to investigate the characteristics of depressive symptoms among 481 medical students (79.8% of the total who matriculated).Methods:The Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) and cluster analyses were used in order to better describe the characteristics of depressive symptoms. Medical education and training in Brazil is divided into basic (1st and 2nd years), intermediate (3rd and 4th years), and internship (5th and 6th years) periods. The study organized each item from the BDI into the following three clusters: affective, cognitive, and somatic. Statistical analyses were performed using analysis of variance (ANOVA) with post-hoc Tukey corrected for multiple comparisons.Results:There were 184 (38.2%) students with depressive symptoms (BDI > 9). The internship period resulted in the highest BDI scores in comparison to both the basic (p < .001) and intermediate (p < .001) periods. Affective, cognitive, and somatic clusters were significantly higher in the internship period. An exploratory analysis of possible risk factors showed that females (p = .020) not having a parent who practiced medicine (p = .016), and the internship period (p = .001) were factors for the development of depressive symptoms.Conclusion:There is a high prevalence towards depressive symptoms among medical students, particularly females, in the internship level, mainly involving the somatic and affective clusters, and not having a parent who practiced medicine. The active assessment of these students in evaluating their depressive symptoms is important in order to prevent the development of co-morbidities and suicide risk.
An examination of the association between seeing smoking in films and tobacco use in young adults in the west of Scotland: cross-sectional study
The objective is to examine the association between the amount of smoking seen in films and current smoking in young adults living in the west of Scotland in the UK. Cross-sectional analyses (using multivariable logistic regression) of data collected at age 19 (2002–04) from a longitudinal cohort originally surveyed at age 11 (1994–95) were conducted. The main outcome measure is smoking at age 19. No association was found between the number of occurrences of smoking estimated to have been seen in films (film smoking exposure) and current (or ever) smoking in young adults. This lack of association was unaffected by adjustment for predictors of smoking, including education, risk-taking orientation and smoking among peers. There was no association between film smoking exposure and smoking behaviour for any covariate-defined subgroup. Associations have been found between film smoking exposure and smoking initiation in younger adolescents in the United States. In this study, conducted in Scotland, no similar association was seen, suggesting that there may be age or cultural limitations on the effects of film smoking exposure on smoking. The lack of association could be due to methodological issues or greater sophistication of older adolescents and young adults in interpreting media images or the greater ubiquity of real-life smoking instances in Scotland. If the latter, film smoking exposure could become a more important risk factor for smoking uptake and maintenants in older adolescents following the recent ban on smoking in public places in Scotland.
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