Evidence-based practice: beliefs, attitudes, knowledge, and behaviors of physical therapists.
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BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Little research has been done regarding the attitudes and behaviors of physical therapists relative to the use of evidence in practice. The purposes of this study were to describe the beliefs, attitudes, knowledge, and behaviors of physical therapist members of the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA) as they relate to evidence-based practice (EBP) and to generate hypotheses about the relationship between these attributes and personal and practice characteristics of the respondents. METHODS: A survey of a random sample of physical therapist members of APTA resulted in a 48.8% return rate and a sample of 488 that was fairly representative of the national membership. Participants completed a questionnaire designed to determine beliefs, attitudes, knowledge, and behaviors regarding EBP, as well as demographic information about themselves and their practice settings. Responses were summarized for each item, and logistic regression analyses were used to examine relationships among variables. RESULTS: Respondents agreed that the use of evidence in practice was necessary, that the literature was helpful in their practices, and that quality of patient care was better when evidence was used. Training, familiarity with and confidence in search strategies, use of databases, and critical appraisal tended to be associated with younger therapists with fewer years since they were licensed. Seventeen percent of the respondents stated they read fewer than 2 articles in a typical month, and one quarter of the respondents stated they used literature in their clinical decision making less than twice per month. The majority of the respondents had access to online information, although more had access at home than at work. According to the respondents, the primary barrier to implementing EBP was lack of time. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: Physical therapists stated they had a positive attitude about EBP and were interested in learning or improving the skills necessary to implement EBP. They noted that they needed to increase the use of evidence in their daily practice. (+info)
"AND GLADLY TEACH": THE AMERICAN HOSPITAL ASSOCIATION'S EXPERIENCE IN CONDUCTING INSTITUTES ON HOSPITAL LIBRARIANSHIP.
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As part of its overall educational program, the American Hospital Association has since 1959 conducted three institutes on hospital librarianship to meet the demand for more competent librarians in medical, nursing school, and patients' libraries. The purpose of such institutes is to teach the basic elements of library science to untrained personnel in hospital libraries. Discussed are steps in initiating an institute; factors determining length, date, and place; financing; publicity; choice and responsibility of local advisory committee; program content; qualifications of instructors; characteristics of registrants; materials for distribution; evaluations. Details of the most recent institute are outlined. A summary of problems still facing this type of educational program and suggestions for future improvements conclude the paper. (+info)
PROBLEMS OF MEDICAL LIBRARIES IN JAPAN.
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Reference service in medical libraries should be considered more seriously by the members of the Japan Medical Library Association, as their interest so far has been focused mainly on interlibrary loan service, compilation of union lists and union catalogs, and the business side of library administration. The Association does not have enough funds to be very active, and its membership is limited to the libraries of medical and of some large dental schools. It should open its membership to other medical libraries, such as those of hospitals and medical laboratories, and eventually to individuals. Many of the member libraries do not have complete control of their own budget, as each department of the school earmarks part of its budget for the library while it still holds the right of deciding which books and journals are to be bought and keeps a large part of them in its departmental library. Lack of proper library school education among the library staff is one of the major problems. There are some training courses for medical librarians in the library schools and also some workshops held by the Association, but they are limited in their usefulness by the fact that there are not enough library school graduates who can take advantage of them. (+info)
The accuracy of the CGMS in children with type 1 diabetes: results of the diabetes research in children network (DirecNet) accuracy study.
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The accuracy of the Continuous Glucose Monitoring System, CGMS (Medtronic MiniMed, Northridge, CA) was assessed in children and adolescents with type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) when compared with reference serum glucose levels during spontaneous fluctuations in glucose levels over 24 h and during acute hyper- and hypoglycemia. Ninety-one subjects with type 1 diabetes (3.5-17.7 years old) wore one or two CGMSs while blood samples were obtained for serum glucose determinations (made at a central laboratory) hourly during the day, every 30 min overnight, and every 5 min during meal-induced hyperglycemia and insulin-induced hypoglycemia tests, resulting in 6778 CGMS-reference glucose pairs. CGMS function was assessed on each of the 3 days of sensor life. The median relative absolute difference (RAD) between the CGMS and reference values was 18% (25th, 75th percentiles = 8%, 34%). Similar results were obtained on each of the 3 days of sensor life. Accuracy was worse during hypoglycemia than during hyperglycemia. Modified sensors that first became available in November 2002 were more accurate than were the original sensors (median RAD = 11% vs. 19%) and had better precision (r = 0.92 vs. r = 0.77) during time periods in which two CGMSs were simultaneously used. The CGMS sensors that have been in clinical use until recently are often inaccurate in quantifying glucose values in children with T1DM. However, recent modifications to the sensor have resulted in substantially better accuracy and reliability. This improved function, if confirmed by additional data, may enhance the clinical utility of the CGMS. (+info)
A pan-Canadian health informatics education strategy.
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Despite the fact that health informatics (HI) educational opportunities in Canada have increased by 40% over the last 3 years, there are few opportunities for advanced research or credentialing at the MSc and PhD levels. Existing programs are also not easily accessible to working health care professionals, who require flexible, non-traditional delivery options for basic to advanced HI training. This strategy report proposes an overall vision, 3 goals, 4 tactical initiatives and a set of action items to improve the effectiveness of HI education in Canada (+info)
From genes to societies.
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Research on model organisms has substantially advanced our understanding of aging. However, these studies collectively lack any examination of the element of sociality, an important feature of human biology. Social insects present a number of unique possibilities for investigating social influences on aging and potentially detecting new mechanisms for extremely prolonged, healthy life spans that have evolved naturally. Social evolution has led to life spans in reproductive females that are much longer (up to over 100-fold) than those of males or of nonreproductive worker castes. These differences are particularly dramatic because they are due to environmental influences, as all individuals develop from the same genomes. Social insect colonies consist of semi-autonomous individuals, and the relationship between the colony and the individual creates many interesting predictions in the light of the common theories of aging. Furthermore, the variety of lifestyles of social insects creates the potential for crucial comparative analyses across distinct social systems. (+info)
Happy birthday: forty years of FEBS.
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The 2004 Federation of European Biochemical Societies (FEBS) Congress in Warsaw marks the 40th Anniversary of FEBS. To celebrate this event, the Executive Committee decided to publish a memoir, which chronicles the foundation of FEBS and its early development as well as presents an overview of FEBS activities and contributions that support the ever growing disciplines of biochemistry, molecular cell biology and molecular biophysics throughout Europe [Forty Years of FEBS Horst Feldmann (Ed.), Blackwell Publishers, Oxford 2003, on behalf of FEBS]. This paper summarizes some of the most important aspects of this compilation. (+info)
The discovery of microorganisms by Robert Hooke and Antoni Van Leeuwenhoek, fellows of the Royal Society.
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The existence of microscopic organisms was discovered during the period 1665-83 by two Fellows of The Royal Society, Robert Hooke and Antoni van Leeuwenhoek. In Micrographia (1665), Hooke presented the first published depiction of a microganism, the microfungus Mucor. Later, Leeuwenhoek observed and described microscopic protozoa and bacteria. These important revelations were made possible by the ingenuity of Hooke and Leeuwenhoek in fabricating and using simple microscopes that magnified objects from about 25-fold to 250-fold. After a lapse of more than 150 years, microscopy became the backbone of our understanding of the roles of microbes in the causation of infectious diseases and the recycling of chemical elements in the biosphere. (+info)