Biases in Race and Social Desirability within Jury Simulations

This study examined how the defendant’s race and the victim’s social desirability influence sentencing. Participants were randomly assigned to read one of four crime scenarios, featuring either a Black or White defendant or a socially desirable or undesirable victim. For each scenario the defendant’s race was manipulated and participants were shown a picture of either a Black or White male. Data were collected at two different time periods, because of potential influence of media coverage of racial bias in jury decisions. Therefore, the effects of defendant race, victim social desirability, and time period were tested through an experiment using a 2x2x2 design. The predicted main effect was that Black defendants would receive a harsher sentence than White defendants. It was also predicted that crimes against a socially desirable victim would lead to greater sentencing than for a socially undesirable victim. The predicted interaction was that the defendant’s race would influence sentencing less for the socially desirable victim, because the crime of hurting someone who is good is uniformly negative. However it was predicted that the defendant’s race would influence sentencing more for the socially undesirable victim, because the crime of hurting someone who is bad is more ambiguous. While there was a significant three-way interaction, results did not map on to predictions. Future research should continue to examine the effect of racial bias on jury decisions

The Working-Class as Portrayed in the \u3cem\u3eRougon-Macquart\u3c/em\u3e Series by Emile Zola

The purpose of this thesis is to examine the portrayal of the working-class by Emile Zola in his Rougon-Macquart and to present the working-class as Zola saw it. For this study, all twenty novels of Les Rougon-Macquart were examined, although they have not all been dealt with in detail here because many of them do not focus on the working-class

An Introduction to Quantitative Research Design for Students in Health Sciences

Financé par le gouvernement de l’Ontario.1. Overview of Research Designs2. Types of Quantitative Research Designs3. Selecting the most appropriate Research Design4. Levels of EvidenceAn Introduction to Quantitative Research Design for Students in Health Sciences was developed to promote evidence-informed practice for healthcare professionals and students. The chapters of this book focus on Research Design. We believe that understanding Research Design can enhance confidence in reading research, and subsequently, help students become better consumers of research. By the end of this module, learners will be able to: identify the purpose of the Research Design, distinguish between the three main Research Designs – experimental, quasi-experimental, and non-experimental, determine which design to use, and apply level of evidence based on the Research DesignThe views expressed in this publication are the views of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect those of the Government of Ontario or the Ontario Online Learning Consortium (eCampusOntario)

Exploring the Influence of Clinical Externships on Newly Graduated Nurses’ Transition to Practice

Purpose: In 2021, the Ontario government began funding clinical externships to help hospitals faced with significant human health resource issues during the COVID-19 pandemic. Clinical externships provide students an opportunity to work alongside nurses as unregulated health care workers in hospitals. Limited research is available related to clinical externship programs in Ontario, with most research focusing on programs in the United States, measuring retention, and studying how students felt during or immediately after the completion of the programs. The aim of this study was to explore how newly graduated nurses (NGNs) felt their participation in a clinical externship program influenced their transition from student to nurse. Methods: This study used interpretive description as its research methodology. Exploring associations, relationships, and patterns within a phenomenon while borrowing elements from the more traditional qualitative techniques, interpretive description was chosen to generate an understanding of participant experiences that would be relevant and useful to clinical practice. Using social media and purposive sampling, nurses in their first year of practice who worked as a clinical extern while in nursing school were recruited to participate. Eight NGNs completed interviews. Interviews were transcribed verbatim, and data analysis used a constant comparative approach. Results: Three main themes emerged: developing self-efficacy, developing a professional identity, and being on the inside. Clinical externships gave participants exposure to the clinical setting over and above those offered by clinical placements and consolidations in the nursing program. This exposure provided participants the opportunity to develop self-efficacy in skills, assessments, and communication; start to develop a sense of themselves as nursing professionals; and gain an insider glimpse into the realities of nursing. Conclusion: This study contributes to the knowledge of how clinical externships may influence the transition to practice of NGNs in Ontario and has several implications for various relevant groups. Nursing educators must advocate for adequate clinical exposure and hands-on experiences, integrating more experiential learning opportunities into nursing curriculum. Researchers, policy makers, and practice leaders must also collaborate to evaluate externship programs to help inform continued programs and opportunities for improvement. Résumé Objectif : En 2021, le gouvernement de l’Ontario a commencé à financer les externats en milieu clinique pour soutenir les hôpitaux confrontés à des problèmes importants de ressources humaines en santé pendant la pandémie de COVID-19. Les externats en milieu clinique donnent l’occasion aux étudiantes et étudiants de travailler aux côtés d’infirmières et infirmiers à titre de travailleuses et travailleurs de la santé non réglementés dans les hôpitaux. Peu d’études sont disponibles en lien avec les programmes d’externat en milieu clinique en Ontario. La plupart d’entre elles portent sur des programmes aux États-Unis, examinant la rétention et les impressions des étudiantes et étudiants pendant et immédiatement après leur externat. Cette étude vise à explorer la perception d’infirmières et infirmiers nouvellement diplômés de l’influence que la participation à un externat en milieu clinique a pu avoir sur leur transition des études à la profession. Méthode : La méthodologie de recherche de description interprétative a été utilisée pour cette étude. Comme elle explore les associations, les relations et les patterns d’un phénomène, tout en empruntant des éléments aux méthodes qualitatives plus traditionnelles, la description interprétative a été choisie pour élaborer une compréhension des expériences des personnes participantes qui pourra être pertinente et utile à la pratique clinique. Afin de créer l’échantillon intentionnel, les infirmières et infirmiers dans leur première année de pratique qui ont participé à un externat en milieu clinique pendant leur formation infirmière ont été recrutés par l’entremise des médias sociaux. Des entrevues ont été réalisées auprès de huit infirmières et infirmiers nouvellement diplômés. Elles ont été transcrites, puis les données ont été analysées en faisant appel à une méthode de comparaison constante. Résultats : Trois thèmes principaux ont été identifiés : le développement d’une auto-efficacité personnelle, la construction d’une identité professionnelle et l’expérience de l’intérieur. L’externat en milieu clinique a exposé les participantes et participants au milieu clinique bien au-delà des stages en milieu clinique et des stages d’intégration du programme en sciences infirmières. Les personnes participantes ont ainsi eu l’occasion de développer leur sentiment d’efficacité dans leurs habiletés, leurs évaluations de la santé et leur communication, de commencer à se considérer comme des professionnels et d’avoir un aperçu de l’intérieur des réalités de la profession infirmière. Conclusion : Cette étude contribue au corpus de connaissances sur la façon dont les externats en milieu clinique peuvent influer sur la transition vers la pratique des infirmières et infirmiers nouvellement diplômés en Ontario. De plus, elle a plusieurs retombées pour différents groupes concernés. Les formatrices et formateurs en sciences infirmières doivent plaider en faveur d’une exposition suffisante en milieu clinique et d’expériences pratiques appropriée en intégrant davantage d’occasions d’apprentissage par l’expérience dans les programmes de sciences infirmières. Les chercheuses et chercheurs, décideurs politiques et leaders en milieux de pratique doivent également collaborer pour évaluer les programmes d’externat afin d’informer de manière continue les programmes sur les occasions d’amélioration

Disrupting Inequitable Practices in Special Education: Privileging Student and Family Voices

Black, Latinx, and other minoritized students have long been overrepresented in the high-incidence, subjective, disability classifications including Learning Disability, Speech and Language Impairment, Emotional Disturbance, and Intellectual Impairment. Special education places these students on trajectories that deny them access to quality education and the same postschool outcomes and opportunities as their nondisabled peers. Using Disability Critical Race Theory (DisCrit), and grounded theory analysis this study foregrounds the voices of minoritized middle school students receiving special education under high-incidence classifications. DisCrit allowed for an investigation of how student’s intersecting marginalized identities impacted their experiences as special education students. Further, Education Journey Mapping was used to explore the experiences of Jason, a Black middle school student labeled with a Speech and Language Impairment, as he coped with life at the general-special education divide. Finally, additional research questions for this study were designed to facilitate understanding of how families of these students conceptualized special education and disability as it related to their children. Findings demonstrated the varied ways families supported and advocated for their children. Implications for teachers and school leaders include rejecting deficit views of minoritized families, creating programming that invites families\u27 strengths into classrooms, and building more inclusive programming in general education settings

CHOICE: Choosing Health Options In Chronic Care Emergencies

Background Over 70% of the health-care budget in England is spent on the care of people with long-term conditions (LTCs), and a major cost component is unscheduled health care. Psychological morbidity is high in people with LTCs and is associated with a range of adverse outcomes, including increased mortality, poorer physical health outcomes, increased health costs and service utilisation. Objectives The aim of this programme of research was to examine the relationship between psychological morbidity and use of unscheduled care in people with LTCs, and to develop a psychosocial intervention that would have the potential to reduce unscheduled care use. We focused largely on emergency hospital admissions (EHAs) and attendances at emergency departments (EDs). Design A three-phase mixed-methods study. Research methods included systematic reviews; a longitudinal prospective cohort study in primary care to identify people with LTCs at risk of EHA or ED admission; a replication study in primary care using routinely collected data; an exploratory and feasibility cluster randomised controlled trial in primary care; and qualitative studies to identify personal reasons for the use of unscheduled care and factors in routine consultations in primary care that may influence health-care use. People with lived experience of LTCs worked closely with the research team. Setting Primary care. Manchester and London. Participants People aged ≥ 18 years with at least one of four common LTCs: asthma, coronary heart disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and diabetes. Participants also included health-care staff. Results Evidence synthesis suggested that depression, but not anxiety, is a predictor of use of unscheduled care in patients with LTCs, and low-intensity complex interventions reduce unscheduled care use in people with asthma and COPD. The results of the prospective study were that depression, not having a partner and life stressors, in addition to prior use of unscheduled care, severity of illness and multimorbidity, were independent predictors of EHA and ED admission. Approximately half of the cost of health care for people with LTCs was accounted for by use of unscheduled care. The results of the replication study, carried out in London, broadly supported our findings for risk of ED attendances, but not EHAs. This was most likely due to low rates of detection of depression in general practitioner (GP) data sets. Qualitative work showed that patients were reluctant to use unscheduled care, deciding to do so when they perceived a serious and urgent need for care, and following previous experience that unscheduled care had successfully and unquestioningly met similar needs in the past. In general, emergency and primary care doctors did not regard unscheduled care as problematic. We found there are missed opportunities to identify and discuss psychosocial issues during routine consultations in primary care due to the ‘overmechanisation’ of routine health-care reviews. The feasibility trial examined two levels of an intervention for people with COPD: we tried to improve the way in which practices manage patients with COPD and developed a targeted psychosocial treatment for patients at risk of using unscheduled care. The former had low acceptability, whereas the latter had high acceptability. Exploratory health economic analyses suggested that the practice-level intervention would be unlikely to be cost-effective, limiting the value of detailed health economic modelling. Limitations The findings of this programme may not apply to all people with LTCs. It was conducted in an area of high social deprivation, which may limit the generalisability to more affluent areas. The response rate to the prospective longitudinal study was low. The feasibility trial focused solely on people with COPD. Conclusions Prior use of unscheduled care is the most powerful predictor of unscheduled care use in people with LTCs. However, psychosocial factors, particularly depression, are important additional predictors of use of unscheduled care in patients with LTCs, independent of severity and multimorbidity. Patients and health-care practitioners are unaware that psychosocial factors influence health-care use, and such factors are rarely acknowledged or addressed in consultations or discussions about use of unscheduled care. A targeted patient intervention for people with LTCs and comorbid depression has shown high levels of acceptability when delivered in a primary care context. An intervention at the level of the GP practice showed little evidence of acceptability or cost-effectiveness. Future work The potential benefits of case-finding for depression in patients with LTCs in primary care need to be evaluated, in addition to further evaluation of the targeted patient intervention

The Lived Experience of Orchestral String Musicians with Playing Related Pain

OBJECTIVE: Rates of pain are high among musicians, and string musicians may be particularly at risk. The aim of the study was to investigate the lived experience of orchestral string musicians with playing-related pain. METHODS: The study used a Heideggerian phenomenological approach. Five professional and university-level string musicians were interviewed about their experience of playing-related pain, and transcriptions of their interviews were analysed using thematic analysis. RESULTS: Participants engaged in a variety of types of musical performance, however they described orchestral playing as contributing the most to their pain. Pain led to increased focus on the body and less engagement in the music. They experienced a sense of loss in multiple domains of their lives, yet also described personal growth as a result of their pain. Participants were more likely to disclose their pain in student orchestras than in professional ones. CONCLUSION: Pain impacts multiple domains of musician’s lives, and therefore must be addressed holistically by healthcare providers. While musicians are finding that it is becoming more acceptable to discuss their pain, pain is still not adequately addressed. Understanding the experience of musicians with playing-related pain could help healthcare professionals to better serve this unique population.</jats:p

Prevalance of E coli O157 in dairy cows presented for slaughter in Victoria

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