bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
An evaluation of fitness for practice curricula: self‐efficacy, support and self‐reported competence in preregistration student nurses and midwives
Authors: Lauder William , Watson Roger , Topping Keith , Holland Karen , Johnson Martin , Porter Mary , Roxburgh Michelle , Behr Aga 
Published: June 2008

Aims and objectives.  This element of the larger Scottish evaluation aimed to explore differences between access routes, cohorts and higher education institutes (HEI) (universities and colleges) in levels of self‐efficacy, student support and self‐reported competence in a nationally representative sample of student nurses and midwives.Background.  This paper reports findings from the National Review of Pre‐Registration Nursing and Midwifery Programmes in Scotland. Fitness for practice curricula have been the heart of many recent developments in nurse and midwifery education. Fitness for practice set out to map out the future direction of preregistration nursing and midwifery education with the aim of ensuring fitness for practice based on healthcare need. There have been no national evaluations of the effectiveness of this strategic objective. Previous major evaluations in the 1990s suggested that students may not have had the skills needed to be fit for practice.Design.  The study design was a cross‐sectional survey of a stratified random sample of student nurses and midwives (n = 777). Data collected included demographic information, generalised perceived self‐efficacy, student support and self‐reported competency.Results.  Students reported high levels of self‐reported competency. There were no significant differences between two cohorts or between students with different access routes. Students rated support from family and friends highest and support from HEI lowest. There was a significant difference in support levels between HEI. Self‐efficacy scores were similar to other population means and showed small‐moderate correlations with self‐report competence. Similarly, self‐reported competency appears to be at the higher end of the spectrum, although older students may have a more realistic perception of their competence. However, support from HEI was seen as less satisfactory and varied from one institution to another.Conclusions.  This study portrays a relatively positive picture of preregistration fitness for practice curricula. Questions are raised about the relative value students place on support from educationalists and mentors and whether support from family and friends and from peers needs to feature more prominently in curricula. The study provides modest support for social cognitive theory.Relevance to clinical practice.  The major drivers for changes in preregistration curricula stemmed from fears about the competence of students. This study did not provide support for this viewpoint, and students’ self‐reports suggest that curricula are, in this respect, meeting their objectives. Nevertheless support from mentors and from educational institutes may need to be improved.
The first year as a graduate nurse – an experience of growth and development
Authors: Wangensteen Sigrid , Johansson IS , Nordström G 
Published: June 2008

Aim.  The aim of this paper was to illuminate how recently graduated nurses experience their first year as a nurse.Background.  Graduate nurses are expected to identify themselves as members of an interdisciplinary team, to feel comfortable in chaos and to make and defend decisions. By graduation nurses expect to have the necessary competence to perform nursing. Recently graduated nurses lack competence, especially relating to leadership.Design.  A qualitative design was chosen and 12 nurses working in hospitals and home care were individually interviewed.Method.  The interviews were transcribed verbatim and the texts were analysed using manifest and latent content analysis.Results.  The nurses gave descriptions covering numerous experiences, interpreted and categorised in the following eight subcategories: uncertainty and chaos; need for induction; need for a supportive environment; need for recognition; awareness of responsibility; need for positive experiences; becoming experienced; and managing challenges. These subcategories gave reason for the three categories: experience of being new; gaining nurse experience; and gaining competence. The nurses described a tough start as a nurse, but they most of all gave descriptions interpreted as an experience of growth and development, which constituted the theme in this study.Conclusions.  Recently graduated nurses have a positive attitude to the challenges of being a new nurse. Although the initial period as a nurse was tough, the nurses appreciated their experiences because they learnt from them.Relevance to clinical practice.  Recently graduated nurses should be spared from being the only nurse on duty. Employers both in hospital and home care should facilitate induction programmes for new graduate nurses.
Mentorship in contemporary practice: the experiences of nursing students and practice mentors
Authors: Myall Michelle , Levett‐Jones Tracy , Lathlean Judith 
Published: June 2008

Aim.  This paper explores the role of the mentor in contemporary nursing practice in the UK. It presents findings from a recent study which investigated the impact of a locality‐based nursing education initiative on students, practice mentors and academic staff and draws on another study, conducted in the same setting and two Australian sites, to examine the perceptions of nursing students and mentors.Background.  Within nursing, mentorship is integral to students’ clinical placement experiences and has attracted increasing interest among researchers. Despite a plethora of studies focussing on mentoring and its nature and application within the practice setting, limited attention has been paid to the extent to which guidelines provided by regulatory bodies for nursing inform and influence the practice of mentoring in contemporary health‐care settings.Design.  The study used a two‐phased design with data on mentorship being focussed on the second phase.Method.  Data were collected using an online survey questionnaire of pre‐qualifying students and a postal questionnaire for practice mentors.Findings.  The findings highlight the importance of mentorship for prequalifying students and emphasise the need to provide mentors with adequate preparation and support. They confirm previous research, but also highlight improvements in bridging the gap between rhetoric and reality for mentorship. Results are further strengthened when compared with those of the second study.Conclusions.  Findings provide new evidence of a narrowing of the gap between the theory and practice of mentoring and for the continuing implementation of national standards to clarify the roles and responsibilities of the mentor. They also suggest the benefits of developing such standards in countries with similar systems of support for nursing students.Relevance to clinical practice.  Mentorship is pivotal to students’ clinical experiences and is instrumental in preparing them for their role as confident and competent practitioners.
A temporary home to nurture health: lived experiences of older nursing home residents in Taiwan
Authors: Tsai Hsiu‐Hsin , Tsai Yun‐Fang 
Published: June 2008

Aim.  This study explored the lived experiences of older nursing home residents in Taiwan.Background.  With more long‐term care institutions in Taiwan, older people are more often placed in nursing homes than in the past. Increased understanding of their lived experience is essential to assess residents’ needs and determine the effectiveness of nursing interventions.Design.  A qualitative design was used to gain a deeper understanding of the lived experiences of older nursing home residents in Taiwan.Methods.  Focus groups, followed by in‐depth interviews, were used to gather information from 33 older residents at eight nursing homes in northern Taiwan. Participants were asked to describe what was important to them and what impressed them most in their daily lives in the nursing home. Participants (24 females and nine males) were on an average 75·3 years old. Verbatim transcripts of audiotaped focus groups and interviews were analysed by thematic analysis via ATLAS.ti software.Results.  The core theme of older residents’ nursing home experience was ‘a temporary home to nurture health’. This core theme was reflected in participants’ descriptions of their overall life in the nursing home as a temporary experience to nurture their health. Their everyday experience was characterised by four subthemes: highly structured lifestyle, restricted activities, safety concerns and social interactions.Relevance to clinical practice.  Our findings may enhance policy makers’ and healthcare providers’ understanding of the lived experience of older nursing home residents, thus guiding the evaluation and development of nursing home services to improve residents’ lives. For example, residents with the same characteristics could be placed in the same room or same floor, thus increasing their interactions with other residents. Residents’ interactions with family members could also be developed using the Internet or mobile telephones.
Planning: a necessary step in clinical care
Authors: Leach Matthew J 
Published: June 2008

Aim. The aim of this paper is to highlight the significance of care planning and to encourage the integration of a consistent and systematic planning process into nursing practice.Background. Many factors contribute to the successful achievement of clinical outcomes, including patient–practitioner rapport, comprehensive client assessment, accurate differential diagnosis, evidence‐based care and the objective evaluation of client progress. One element that is of equal importance to these aforementioned factors is the planning of patient care. However, there are concerns that some practitioners may not be adopting a planned approach to client care, possibly because of a lack of understanding, time, skill or interest in care planning.Method. This is a position paper on the planning of patient care.Results. The planning of patient care can be effectively implemented using a two‐stage process. In brief, the first step involves the construction of a general goal, which is the overall, desired outcome of care. The expected outcome, or specific goal, forms the second part of the planning process, which clearly directs clinical care by specifically indicating how and when an individual will achieve the general goal of treatment.Conclusion. This paper highlights the importance of care planning and that the use of a clear, systematic planning framework may help to deliver a more transparent and consistent approach to patient care, which may greatly improve patient health and well‐being by hastening the achievement of clinical outcomes.Relevance to clinical practice. The knowledge and strategies contained in this paper can be easily adopted by nurses and other clinicians to modify or build upon existing practice. This knowledge may help foster a more client‐centred, participative, individualised approach to care, which may lead to improvements in patient outcomes.
Spatio‐temporal dynamics and local hotspots of initial recruitment in vertebrate‐dispersed trees
Authors: Hampe Arndt , García‐Castaño Juan L. , Schupp Eugene W. , Jordano Pedro 
Published: June 2008

Summary

Initial recruitment, or the arrival and establishment of propagules, is the most variable period in the life cycle of long‐lived plants, and the extent to which studies of initial recruitment can be used to predict patterns of regeneration remains unresolved.
We investigated the spatio‐temporal dynamics of initial recruitment across five populations of three fleshy‐fruited tree species from contrasting environments. Among‐year variation in total seedfall, dispersed seedfall and seedling distributions was examined using analytical approaches that are new to the field and that explicitly incorporate space and allow comparisons among studies.
Observed patterns ranged from remarkable across‐year consistency in seedfall distributions and strong spatial coupling between seed and seedling stages to extensive variation and almost complete independence of stages. Spatial distributions of frugivore‐mediated seedfall were markedly more consistent than those of the total seedfall in two of the five populations. Seedling distributions were generally more variable among years than seedfall distributions.
All populations showed a positive relationship between the long‐term mean density of recruitment at a given microsite and its year‐to‐year consistency. This relationship remained valid when considering only microsites away from fruiting tree canopies (i.e. those receiving actually dispersed seeds), and was virtually independent of their distance to the nearest fruiting tree.
Synthesis. Our results point to the existence of some general rules behind the idiosyncratic recruitment dynamics of perennial plant populations, which should help with projecting spatial patterns of plant establishment in long‐lived species. In particular, those microsites that combine a great intensity with a high year‐to‐year consistency of recruitment should represent potential regeneration ‘hotspots’ whose identification and characterization can be of great use for the management and conservation of naturally regenerating tree populations.
Non‐random seed abscission, long‐distance wind dispersal and plant migration rates
Authors: Soons Merel B. , Bullock James M. 
Published: June 2008

Summary

In plants, long‐distance dispersal (LDD) is a widespread phenomenon of great importance, especially in spatial dynamics such as in metapopulations, invasions and migration. Much has become known about the mechanisms underlying LDD by wind, but selective release mechanisms have received little attention. Recent papers call for particular effort in clarification of the seed release stage of the dispersal process, which is our aim here.
We studied non‐random seed release at a range of spatial scales, from the individual plant to species’ spatial dynamics. We did this by combining wind tunnel experiments, field trap data and simulation and analytical models, using two common wind‐dispersed heathland plants (Calluna vulgaris and Erica cinerea) as study species.
In both species, seed release from the plant increases with increasing wind velocity. There is a minimum release threshold, above which the probability of seed release increases with increasing wind velocity. The drag caused by the wind is the motive force for seed release.
Simulations of seed dispersal with non‐random seed release match measured dispersal kernels better, especially in the tails, than ‘conventional’ simulations with random seed release. Seed release during gusts gives the most realistic kernel. This result matches previous findings that seeds are released primarily at the start of gusts and during turbulent wind flow.
Dispersal kernels assuming non‐random seed release had large impacts on analytically modelled population migration rates. Wavespeeds assuming seed release during gusts were, on average, more than double those assuming random seed release. Increases in wavespeeds under different seed release assumptions were due mostly to increases in the tail of the dispersal kernel.
Synthesis. This study shows how the small‐scale process of a seed being released from the plant could affect the large‐scale spatial dynamics of plant species in landscapes. The mechanism of non‐random seed release, i.e., seed release during gusts, is an important mechanism for attaining LDD by wind. As such, non‐random seed release influences landscape‐scale species dynamics such as invasions and migration.
Small seed size increases the potential for dispersal of wetland plants by ducks
Authors: Soons Merel B. , Van Der Vlugt Cornelis , Van Lith Bart , Heil Gerrit W. , Klaassen Marcel 
Published: June 2008

Summary

Long‐distance dispersal (LDD) is important in plants of dynamic and ephemeral habitats. For plants of dynamic wetland habitats, waterfowl are generally considered to be important LDD vectors. However, in comparison to the internal (endozoochorous) dispersal of terrestrial plants by birds, endozoochorous dispersal of wetland plants by waterfowl has received little attention. We quantified the capacity for endozoochorous dispersal of wetland plants by waterfowl and identified the mechanisms underlying successful dispersal, by comparing the dispersal capacities of a large number of wetland plant species.
We selected 23 common plant species from dynamic wetland habitats and measured their seed characteristics. We fed seeds of all species to mallards (Anas platyrhynchos), a common and highly omnivorous duck species, and quantified seed gut survival, gut passage speed and subsequent germination. We then used a simple model to calculate seed dispersal distances.
In total 21 of the 23 species can be dispersed by mallards, with intact seed retrieval and subsequent successful germination of up to 32% of the ingested seeds. The species that pass fastest through the digestive tract of the mallards are retrieved in the greatest numbers (up to 54%) and germinate best (up to 87%). These are the species with the smallest seeds. Seed coat thickness plays only a minor role in determining intact passage through the mallard gut, but determines if ingestion enhances or reduces germination in comparison to control seeds.
Model calculations estimate that whereas the largest seeds can hardly be dispersed by mallards, most seeds can be dispersed up to 780 km, and the smallest seeds up to 3000 km, by mallards during migration.
Synthesis. This study demonstrates the mechanism underlying successful endozoochorous dispersal of wetland plant seeds by mallards: small seed size promotes rapid, and hence intact and viable, passage through the mallard gut. Mallards can disperse wetland plant seeds of all but the largest‐seeded species successfully in relatively large numbers (up to 32% of ingested seeds) over long distances (up to thousands of kilometres) and are therefore important dispersal vectors.
Threat or invasive status in legumes is related to opposite extremes of the same ecological and life‐history attributes
Authors: Bradshaw Corey J. A. , Giam Xingli , Tan Hugh T. W. , Brook Barry W. , Sodhi Navjot S. 
Published: June 2008

Summary

The urgency and scale of the global biodiversity crisis requires the application of generalized predictors of a species’ likelihood of going extinct or becoming invasive in non‐native areas. A common approach is to correlate species’ ecological and life‐history characteristics (attributes, traits) with the probability of becoming either threatened (responding negatively to human activity), or invasive (responding positively). The limitation of previous studies is that the fates of becoming threatened or invasive have generally been treated in isolation.
Here we consider the problem of threat and invasiveness in unison based on analysis of one of the largest‐ever species attributes data bases (8906 species) compiled for a single plant family (Fabaceae). We used generalized linear mixed‐effects models (using taxonomic grouping to control for within‐family phylogenetic relationships) to correlate species’ life‐history and ecological traits to three response variables: probability of being (i) threatened or not, (ii) invasive or not, and (iii) threatened or invasive.
We found that tall, annual, range‐restricted species with tree‐like growth forms, inhabiting closed‐forest and lowland sites are more likely to be threatened. Conversely, climbing and herbaceous species that naturally span multiple floristic kingdoms and habitat types are more likely to become invasive.
Synthesis. These results support the idea that at least for one of the richest plant families, species’ life‐history and ecological traits correlate with a fate response to anthropogenic global change. Our results show that species do demonstrate particular susceptibility to either fate based on their evolved traits, and that traits generally correlated with invasiveness are also those that correlate with a reduced probability of becoming threatened.
Differential expression of Bordetella pertussis iron transport system genes during infection
Authors: Brickman Timothy J. , Hanawa Tomoko , Anderson Mark T. , Suhadolc Ryan J. , Armstrong Sandra K. 
Published: June 2008

SummaryTemporal expression patterns of the Bordetella pertussis alcaligin, enterobactin and haem iron acquisition systems were examined using alcA–, bfeA– and bhuR–tnpR recombinase fusion strains in a mouse respiratory infection model. The iron systems were differentially expressed in vivo, showing early induction of the alcaligin and enterobactin siderophore systems, and delayed induction of the haem system in a manner consistent with predicted changes in host iron source availability during infection. Previous mixed infection competition studies established the importance of alcaligin and haem utilization for B. pertussis in vivo growth and survival. In this study, the contribution of the enterobactin system to the fitness of B. pertussis was confirmed using wild‐type and enterobactin receptor mutant strains in similar competition infection experiments. As a correlate to the in vivo expression studies of B. pertussis iron systems in mice, sera from uninfected and B. pertussis‐infected human donors were screened for antibody reactivity with Bordetella iron‐repressible cell envelope proteins. Pertussis patient sera recognized multiple iron‐repressible proteins including the known outer membrane receptors for alcaligin, enterobactin and haem, supporting the hypothesis that B. pertussis is iron‐starved and responds to the presence of diverse iron sources during natural infection.
Galactic clusters with associated Cepheid variables – VII. Berkeley 58 and CG Cassiopeiae
Authors: Turner D. G. , Forbes D. , English D. , Leonard P. J. T. , Scrimger J. N. , Wehlau A. W. , Phelps R. L. , Berdnikov L. N. , Pastukhova E. N. 
Published: June 2008

Abstract
Photoelectric, photographic and CCD UBV photometry, spectroscopic observations and star counts are presented for the open cluster Berkeley 58 to examine a possible association with the 4.37 d Cepheid CG Cas. The cluster is difficult to separate from the early-type stars belonging to the Perseus spiral arm, in which it is located, but has reasonably well-defined parameters: an evolutionary age of ∼108yr, a mean reddening of E(B−V) (B0) = 0.70 ± 0.03 s.e. and a distance of 3.03 ± 0.17 kpc (V0−MV= 12.40 ± 0.12 s.d.). CG Cas is a likely cluster coronal member on the basis of radial velocity, and its period increase of +0.170 ± 0.014 s yr−1 and large light amplitude describe a Cepheid in the third crossing of the instability strip lying slightly blueward of strip centre. Its inferred reddening and luminosity are E(B−V) = 0.64 ± 0.02 s.e. and 〈MV〉=−3.06 ± 0.12. A possible K supergiant may also be a cluster member.