bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
An analysis of the concept of equity and its application to health visiting
Authors: Almond Palo 
Published: March 2003

An analysis of the concept of equity and its application to health visitingAims. The aim of this paper is to provide an in‐depth analysis of the concept of equity in the British health visiting service and thus facilitate understanding of the term. An attempt has been made to apply the analytical process to the context of health visiting.Background. Equity has been discussed at some length in the health literature. Much of this including the health visiting literature discusses inequality and inequalities in health at the same time as discussing equity. Increasingly, poverty and inequalities have become accepted as determinants in poor health. It seemed appropriate therefore to analyse these topical and seemingly related concepts.Methods. A well established method of concept analysis has been utilized to facilitate the process of analysis.Results. Confusion between the meaning and application of the concepts of equity and equality was found. Much of the health visiting and health care literature related to addressing the needs of groups who experience inequality in terms of service provision, and access to services. Following an in‐depth critical analysis of the literature three critical attributes of the concept were identified: equal opportunity of access to services; a high standard of service for everyone; and unequal distribution of services to meet unequal need. These relate to two distinct forms of equity: horizontal and vertical equity. A definition of equity has been proposed.Maxwell’s (1992)framework is suggested as a means to evaluate equity in service provision and uptake.Conclusions. Most of the literature examines equity at a macro level, that is service level. Nurses and health visitors are urged to examine the services that they are involved in to determine the level of equity that is achieved or not attained. Suggestions have been offered as to how this task may be undertaken. A definition has been proposed to stimulate debate and discussion about the concept within nursing contexts.
Supporting and policing mothers: an analysis of the disciplinary practices of health visiting
Authors: Peckover Sue 
Published: March 2003

Supporting and policing mothers: an analysis of the disciplinary practices of health visiting Aim. This paper draws on the notion of disciplinary power developed by Michel Foucault to discuss whether the professional practices inherent in British health visiting can be understood in terms of support or surveillance. Background. The notion of disciplinary power embedded within Foucault's writings has been widely applied to the sociological analysis of health care professions. While a number of studies have focused on nursing practice, there has been little empirical work developing these ideas in the context of British health visiting. Methods. A qualitative approach using interviews with 24 health visitors and 16 women who had experienced domestic violence was used. For reasons of confidentiality, the women were not matched to the health visitors. Data analysis was continuous with data collection and led to identification of a number of categories. The theoretical framework of feminist poststructuralism underpinned the analysis. Findings: The women who participated in this research described their engagement in a number of disciplinary practices. These included the discursive production of themselves as good mothers, subjects and objects of the health visiting gaze, as well as their practices of resistance to health visiting work. Analysis of the health visitors' interview data provided further evidence concerning the exercise of disciplinary power in their everyday work of providing support and health care to women and children. Conclusions. The paper highlights tensions within the health visitor's role between welfare and surveillance, as well as differences between lay and professional perspectives.
A discipline‐specific determination of high quality nursing care
Authors: Gunther Mary , Alligood Martha Raile 
Published: March 2003

A discipline‐specific determination of high quality nursing careAim. The purpose of this study is to establish a framework for defining quality of care based in nursing's unique body of knowledge through identification of nursing actions associated with high quality care.Rationale. Nurses are legally liable and morally responsible for the quality of the care they provide to patients. Yet the meaning of `high quality nursing care' remains ambiguous mainly because models used to define it are borrowed from other disciplines.Design. Two frameworks, quality and nursing knowledge, guided the selection and review of this literature review. The third framework of learning domains, an educational theory, assisted in organizing the data gathered from the literature.Findings. Attributes of high quality nursing care as perceived by both patients and nurses are described. Despite a professed philosophy of holism and humanism, nursing relies heavily on the industrially derived structure‐process‐outcome model with current emphasis on outcomes.Conclusions. Patient outcomes are the product of the service nurses deliver and are appropriate as defining criteria only when care is being evaluated from the patient's perspective. Defining quality from the nursing profession's frame of reference focuses on evaluating the services provided; that is, nursing actions and behaviours, linked to the use of nursing knowledge. High quality nursing equates with competence in the cognitive, affective, and psychomotor domains.
Confirmation and lucidity during conversations with a woman with severe dementia
Authors: Normann Hans Ketil , Norberg Astrid , Asplund Kenneth 
Published: March 2003

Rationale.  Patients with severe dementia sometimes surprise the care providers because they seem to be much more aware of their situation and function much more adequately than usual. Such episodes are labelled ‘episodes of lucidity’ (ELs). The aim of this study was to describe the characteristics of the particular conversations with a woman with severe dementia when ELs occurred as compared with conversations when she was not lucid. Methodological design.  A woman with a probable diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease (AD) was selected. Her Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE) was estimated as 3. The first author met the woman for 4 hours five times over a period of 2 weeks. Research methods.  The conversations were tape‐recorded and transcribed verbatim. The text was divided into 278 content units and analysed. Findings.  Lucidity is promoted by supporting the patient in various ways, that is sharing the patient's view, repeating and reformulating the patient's utterance, reinforcing the patient by using positive utterances, not emphasizing errors and supporting the patient's language in various ways, and avoiding making demands. The relation between the patient and her conversation partner during ELs is characterized by confirmation and communion. Conclusions.  This case study indicates that a supportive attitude in conversation with the patient with severe dementia promotes lucidity. A supportive attitude includes the avoidance on the part of the conversational partner making demands on the patient, confirming the patient as an important, unique and valuable person and creating communion. The connection between supporting and avoiding demands and lucidity/nonlucidity during conversation needs further study.
Exploring participation: older people on discharge from hospital
Authors: Roberts Kathryn 
Published: March 2003

Background and aim.  User participation has been a widely researched and debated phenomenon in the formulation and implementation of health and social care policy and indeed wider public sector policy in the United Kingdom (UK), yet there remains a vast array of definitions of the term and great variety in the findings of empirical studies. The aim of this paper is to discuss the main findings of an empirical study in order to build upon existing evidence and interpretation relating to user participation in health and social care. Method.  The study reported here was carried out in the UK and explored the extent to which older people were able and willing to assume an active role in the process of using health and social care. Hospital discharge and the period shortly afterwards was the process under investigation. This study used a multi‐method approach incorporating both quantitative and qualitative approaches; data from 260 questionnaires and 30 interviews were included. Findings.  The majority of respondents felt that they had been involved in decisions regarding their discharge from hospital. All welcomed advice from professionals and some preferred service providers to make decisions on their behalf. Discussion.  Arnstein's ladder of citizen participation is drawn upon in analysing the findings and notions of ‘partnership’, ‘relationship’, ‘communication’ and ‘paternalism’ are discussed.
Patterns of natal and breeding dispersal in birds
Authors: PARADIS EMMANUEL , BAILLIE STEPHEN R. , SUTHERLAND WILLIAM J. , GREGORY RICHARD D. 
Published: March 2003

1.  Dispersal is of critical ecological and evolutionary importance for several issues of population biology, particularly population synchrony, colonization and range expansion, metapopulation and source–sink dynamics, and population genetic structure, but it has not previously been possible to compare dispersal patterns across a wide range of species or to study movement outside the confines of local study areas. 2.  Using resampling methods, we verified that statistically unbiased estimates of average dispersal distance and of intraspecific variance in dispersal distance could be extracted from the bird ringing data of the British Trust for Ornithology. 3.  Using data on 75 terrestrial bird species, we tested whether natal and breeding dispersal were influenced by a species’ habitat requirements, diet, geographical range, abundance, morphology, social system, life history or migratory status. We used allometric techniques to ascertain whether these relationships were independent of body size, and used the method of phylogenetically independent contrasts to ascertain whether they were independent of phylogeny. 4.  Both natal and breeding dispersal distances were lower among abundant species and among species with large geographical ranges. Dispersal distances and life‐history variables were correlated independent of phylogeny, but these relationships did not persist after controlling for body size. All morphometrical variables (wing length, tarsus length and bill length) were not significantly correlated with dispersal distances after correcting for body size or phylogenetic relatedness. 5.  Migrant species disperse further than resident ones, this relation was independent of body size but not of phylogeny. A significant positive relation was observed between breeding dispersal distance and long‐term population decline among migrants, but not among residents. 6.  The species living in wet habitats disperse further than those living in dry habitats, which could be explained by the greater patchiness of wet habitats in space and/or time. This relationship was observed only for breeding dispersal, suggesting that this habitat variable does not impose the same constraint on natal dispersal.
The benefit of large broods in barnacle geese: a study using natural and experimental manipulations
Authors: Loonen Maarten J. J. E. , Bruinzeel Leo W. , Black Jeff M. , Drent Rudi H. 
Published: March 2003

1.In precocial birds, where the young feed themselves, the costs and benefits of brood size are still poorly understood. An experimental manipulation of brood size was employed to examine the effects of brood size on both parents and young in a wild population of barnacle geese [Branta leucopsis(Bechstein)] during brood‐rearing on Svalbard.2.Social dominance of the family unit, the amount of vigilance behaviour of the parents, the growth of the goslings in the family unit and an index of body condition for female parents during moult were all positively correlated with brood size.3.When brood size changed as a result of natural events (i.e. predation or adoption) or experimental manipulation, rates of dominance, parental vigilance, gosling growth and female parent condition changed in a similar direction to the observed relation between the variable and brood size in unchanged broods.4.After fledging, the fast‐growing goslings in large broods survived better during autumn migration, while there was no apparent net cost in survival or next‐year breeding for the parents.5.Via a direct effect of brood size on dominance of the family unit, large broods were beneficial for both parent and young in a situation where there was strong intraspecific competition for the available food resources.6.This study provides a clear demonstration of a causal relationship between brood size and various components of both gosling and adult fitness and is of direct relevance to the phenomenon of adoption and the evolution of brood size in this species.
A simulation model of foraging behaviour and the effect of predation risk
Authors: Ward Jane F. , Austin Roger M. , Macdonald David W. 
Published: March 2003

Summary 1. The effect of predation risk on the distribution of animals foraging in a patchy environment was explored using a simulation model based on the work of Bernstein, Kacelnik & Krebs (1988, 1991), extended to incorporate predation risk. 2. Modelled foragers consume prey within patches, having different prey densities, at a rate that depends only on prey density and interference from other foragers in the patch. Prey density remains constant (no depletion). A forager leaves a patch if its intake rate drops below its estimate of the average intake rate available in the environment. This estimate is continually updated by taking a weighted average of current intake and the previous estimate, giving a simple learning process. Decisions on whether to leave are made at regular intervals and a forager leaving a patch may arrive at random at any other patch. 3. Simulation results were sensitive to the computational scheme used to represent estimates of average intake rate in the environment and to the way in which foragers’ decisions were distributed over time, illustrating the need for careful formulation of such models. 4. Predation risk was modelled as a cost that reduced effective intake, and could be distributed uniformly or skewed to patches of high prey density. The effects of different levels and distributions of predation risk on distribution of foragers were examined using model parameters broadly appropriate to hedgehogs (Erinaceous europaeus L.) foraging for earthworms (Lumbricus spp.) and risking opportunistic predation by badgers (Meles meles L.). The distribution of foragers with respect to prey density took an ‘ideal free’ form for zero or uniform risk, and was domed when cost of predation risk was relatively high and concentrated in the richer patches, as might be the case when predators and foragers share a common food resource.
Searching for mechanisms of synchrony in spatially structured gamebird populations
Authors: Cattadori Isabella M. , Merler Stefano , Hudson Peter J. 
Published: March 2003

1. Time series data on five species of gamebird from the Dolomitic Alps were used to examine the relative importance of dispersal and common stochastic events in causing synchrony between spatially structured populations.2. Cross‐correlation analysis of detrended time series was used to describe the spatial pattern of fluctuations in abundance, while standardized time series were used to describe both fluctuations and the trend in abundance. There were large variations in synchrony both within and between species and only weak negative relationships with distance.3. Species in neighbouring habitats were more likely to be in synchrony than species separated by several habitats. Species with similar density‐dependent structure were more likely to be in synchrony.4. In order to estimate the relative importance of dispersal and environmental stochasticity, we modelled the spatial dynamics of each species using two different approaches. First, we used estimating functions and bootstrapping of time series data to calculate the relative importance of dispersal and stochastic effects for each species. Second, we estimated the intensity of environmental stochasticity from climatic records during the breeding season and then modelled the dispersal rate and dispersal distance for each species. The two models exhibited similar results for rock ptarmigan, black grouse, hazel grouse and rock partridge, while contrasting patterns were observed for capercaillie.5. The results suggest that environmental stochasticity plays the dominant role in synchronizing the fluctuations of these galliform species, although there will also be some dispersal between populations.
Increased risk of predation as a cost of high growth rate: an experimental test in a butterfly
Authors: Gotthard Karl 
Published: March 2003

Summary 1. Life history theoreticians have traditionally assumed that juvenile growth rates are maximized and that variation in this trait is due to the quality of the environment. In contrast to this assumption there is a large body of evidence showing that juvenile growth rates may vary adaptively both within and between populations. This adaptive variation implies that high growth rates may be associated with costs. 2. Here, I explicitly evaluate the often‐proposed trade‐off between growth rate and predation risk, in a study of the temperate butterfly, Pararge aegeria (L). 3. By rearing larvae with a common genetic background in different photoperiods it was possible to experimentally manipulate larval growth rates, which vary in response to photoperiod. Predation risk was assessed by exposing larvae that were freely moving on their host plants to the predatory heteropteran, Picromerus bidens (L.). 4. The rate of predation was significantly higher in the fast‐growing larvae. An approximately four times higher relative growth rate was associated with a 30% higher daily predation risk. 5. The main result demonstrates a trade‐off between growth rate and predation risk, and there are reasons to believe that this trade‐off is of general significance in free‐living animals. The results also suggest that juvenile development of P. aegeria is governed by a strategic decision process within individuals.
Spatial patterns of diversity in the sea: bryozoan species richness in the North Atlantic
Authors: Clarke Andrew , Lidgard Scott 
Published: March 2003

Summary 1. We have examined large‐scale geographical patterns in species richness for continental shelf bryozoan assemblages in the North Atlantic. Bryozoans are common and often abundant benthic organisms, but they have not previously been examined at this scale of resolution. 2. Assemblage species richness was estimated by sample species richness. This was highest at intermediate depths (10–75 m) at all latitudes where there were sufficient data, but there was no statistically significant variation with depth for the overall data set (all latitudes pooled). Mean assemblage species richness showed no significant variation with latitude, although the highest individual values were generally from lower latitudes. There is thus as yet no convincing evidence for a latitudinal cline in the alpha diversity of North Atlantic bryozoans. 3. Pooling of data into bins of 10 degrees of latitude, or into biogeographic provinces, to estimate regional species richness revealed significant undersampling. Two independent techniques to correct for this undersampling revealed a latitudinal cline in the regional species richness of North Atlantic bryozoans, with a peak around 10–30°N, and a steady decrease in richness north to 80°N. 4. Two measures of beta diversity (Whittaker and Jaccard) revealed relatively high turnover, presumably related to habitat heterogeneity within regional bins or to significant environmental variation across bins. There was a tendency for beta diversity to be higher at lower latitudes, as would be expected from a combination of a latitudinal cline in regional diversity with a mean assemblage species richness invariant with latitude. Null models were used to clarify the expected relationship between the two measures of beta diversity, and these indicated a strong influence of species‐abundance structure in the North Atlantic bryozoan data.
Dispersal sinks and handling effects: interpreting the role of immigration in common brushtail possum populations
Authors: Clinchy Michael , Krebs Charles J. , Jarman Peter J. 
Published: March 2003

Summary

An evaluation of the potentially adverse effects of measurement must be made before concluding that one is dealing with a ‘dispersal sink’.
We conducted a spatially and temporally replicated removal experiment on common brushtail possums (Trichosurusvulpecula) in uniformly suitable old‐growth eucalypt forest in south‐eastern Australia, that was designed to address the question: does immigration ‘rescue’ populations from extinction?
Despite taking precautions to minimize potential harm, analyses indicated some evidence of an adverse effect of handling on the survival of pouch‐young and strong evidence of effects on adult survival. In addition, symptoms of stress associated with handling observed at our site, corresponded to symptoms reported in connection with the long‐term (15 + years) trapping study on possums conducted by Efford et al. in the Orongorongo Valley (OV) of New Zealand.
Initial projections from a demographic model indicated that the resident population at our site was not replacing itself (births < deaths), suggesting that the site was a dispersal sink. This was inconsistent with the fact that the site was in prime habitat. Moreover, the measured rate of true immigration in response to experimental removals was not sufficient to maintain the population density. Using data from Efford (1998), our model confirmed his suggestion that the OV site also appears to be a dispersal sink for possums, despite being in prime habitat.
When otherwise undiagnosable deaths among adults were assumed to be due to handling and ‘right‐censored’ (excluded), the projection was that the resident population at our site was stable (r ≅ 0), and therefore not in need of ‘rescue’ by immigration. Similarly, when survival estimates for the OV site were corrected by the same amounts, the projection was that the population at that site was also stable.
Most vacancies created by our experimental removals were filled by neighbouring residents that expanded their ranges into the removal areas. We suggest that the artificial ‘removal’ of residents as a consequence of deaths due to handling, may often induce an influx of such apparent immigrants, thereby giving the impression that immigration is ‘rescuing’ populations from extinction.