Paul Morrison

Problems of competence-based nurse education

The system of nurse education in the UK is undergoing a radical shake-up. Many new courses are being designed and implemented along the lines of the Project 2000 framework. New curricula and course structures are required to meet the changing role of the nurse of the future. Many curriculum design teams are adopting a competence-based model of curriculum to meet these needs. This approach is receiving central encouragement (UKCC 1986). In this paper it is argued that this strategy is faulty and ill-conceived; the inherent difficulties of the competence-based model of curriculum design are highlighted. These issues are of fundamental concern to nurse educators and students in the UK.

Discussing childhood overweight and obesity with parents: a health communication dilemma.

Childhood obesity has reached alarming levels and the problem has assumed great significance for health care staff who work with overweight children and their families. Anecdotal accounts of the difficulties that may emerge when health care providers communicate that a childs weight is outside of the normal range, were a key stimulus for this review. A local government health department commissioned a review of literature on communicating with parents about childhood overweight and obesity. Literature concerned with communicating a childs overweight to parents was limited and, as a result, this review draws upon a disparate body of literature to examine what is known and what might be helpful for health care providers when discussing a childs weight with the child and parents. This paper identifies a range of factors influencing communication between health care workers and parents and offers a number of practical approaches and strategies for facilitating successful communication between health practitioners and the parents of children.

Comparison of thermal sweeper and cryogenic modulator technology for comprehensive gas chromatography

The two current technologies for achieving comprehensive gas chromatography (GC x GC) - the thermal sweeper and the cryogenic modulator - are compared in an interlaboratory study using a multicompo ...

Influence of chromatographic conditions on separation in comprehensive gas chromatography

Comprehensive gas chromatography (GC x GC) is now established as a powerful technique, which offers unprecedented separation power. For complex samples, the distribution of peaks in the two-dimensional (2D) space still may need to be optimised. Since temperature (T) is a critical variable, and compounds can be shifted in relative positions on column 1 arising from temperature program rate (rT) changes, and since retention in the second dimension, D2 (2tR) is likewise affected by the prevailing T (elution temperature; Te), then any factors which alter Te will affect the extent of separation in D2. Since temperature program and carrier gas velocity rate will affect the Te of the solutes, these two factors are considered in this paper. Apart from these two parameters, results of different stationary phase choice for the second dimension column as well as the second dimension column length are reported. rT is found to have the most profound impact on the Te of solutes and will be more likely to cause an inversion of elution order if such behaviour can occur. Peak widths and 2tR increase with a decrease in Te. On the other hand, flow-rate has less impact on peak widths and 2tR although Te is affected by a change in flow-rate. Specific solute-stationary phase interactions will cause the elution order of certain solutes to be altered, and may be observed when a different stationary phase is employed as the second column, depending on the solute-stationary phase separation mechanism. Experiments conducted on different second dimension column length showed that although a longer column will lead to better separations, wrap-around may confound the separation process and may cause the solutes from sequential modulation events to co-elute. Thus a suitable second dimension column phase and length must be employed in order to obtain good separation. The factors investigated in this study will cause different extents of changes in the solute elution order and solute separations, and will affect the 2D contour presentation.

Six category intervention analysis

Six category intervention analysis (Heron, 1989) picks out six ways of responding in a therapeutic setting. This workshop helps people to discriminate between the six, identify their own strengths and weaknesses in the categories and practise the skills that they feel least competent in using.

Determination of volatile compounds in Brazilian distilled cachaça by using comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography and effects of production pathways.

Comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography (GCxGC) was applied to the study of cachaça production. Effects of bidistillation, and the use of charcoal filtration in the production of artisan cachaça, as well as the effects of multi-distillation on volatile products in commercial cachaça were investigated. Volatile compounds were collected and concentrated onto a polyacrylate solid-phase microextraction fibre, and analyzed using GCxGC on a non-polar (BPX5)-polar (BP20) column set. More than 100 compounds, comprising various homologous series were tentatively identified using MS library matching and comparison with retention indices. Phthalate organic contamination following the use of ion exchange resin for removal of copper ion was evident. Charcoal successfully removes this contamination product. Prediction of compounds within particular homologous series aids component identification.

Nurses' interpersonal skills: a study of nurses' perceptions

Six Category Intervention Analysis was used as the framework of a study which involved asking 117 trained nurses to rate their interpersonal skills along six dimensions. The findings suggested that the nurses viewed themselves as being more skilled in offering support, information and prescription in their dealings with patients and less skilled in being catalytic, cathartic and confronting in similar circumstances. The findings in this study were similar to those of previous studies in this field. The study has implications for the development of interpersonal skills training programmes for nurses.

Nest- and colony-mate recognition in polydomous colonies of meat ants (Iridomyrmex purpureus)

Workers of polydomous colonies of social insects must recognize not only colony-mates residing in the same nest but also those living in other nests. We investigated the impact of a decentralized colony structure on colony- and nestmate recognition in the polydomous Australian meat ant (Iridomyrmex purpureus). Field experiments showed that ants of colonies with many nests were less aggressive toward alien conspecifics than those of colonies with few nests. In addition, while meat ants were almost never aggressive toward nestmates, they were frequently aggressive when confronted with an individual from a different nest within the same colony. Our chemical analysis of the cuticular hydrocarbons of workers using a novel comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography technique that increases the number of quantifiable compounds revealed both colony- and nest-specific patterns. Combined, these data indicate an incomplete transfer of colony odor between the nests of polydomous meat ant colonies.

Dual NPD/ECD detection in comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography for multiclass pesticide analysis

A comprehensive 2-D GC (GC x GC) dual detection system, coupled to nitrogen-phosphorus detection (NPD) and electron capture detection (ECD) has been developed for multiclass pesticide analysis in vegetable sample matrices. The second dimension column was connected to the parallel detectors via a microfluidic splitting device. The sample set comprised 17 organochlorine pesticides, 15 organophosphorus insecticides and 9 N-containing fungicides. Selective detection of vegetable sample extracts provides increased information content through simultaneous, correlated GC x GC plots for both ECD and NPD, which demonstrated improved separation of pesticide standards from each other, and from the sample matrix. The efficiency of NPD and ECD modes was investigated and compared; the ECD produced broader peaks, with the ECD generating greater response as measured by S/N ratio. Accuracy and precision of the approach were determined as repeatability and reproducibility for selected pesticides. The RSDs of the intraday (n = 5) and interday (3 days) analyses of the selected pesticides are less than 2.5 and 10%, respectively. The relative ratio of the ECD/NPD response is proposed to offer additional identification of individual pesticides, in addition to the (1)t(R) and (2)t(R) retention coordinates; ratios vary from 19 to over 1000 for selected pesticides that also exhibit ECD and NPD activities.

Quantification of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons based on comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography-isotope dilution mass spectrometry

Comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography (GCxGC) offers favourable resolution and sensitivity compared with conventional one-dimensional gas chromatography (1D-GC), as reported in many studies. These characteristics are of major interest when analytes are in trace concentration, and are present in complex mixtures, as is the case of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in atmospheric particulate samples. Whilst GCxGC has been widely applied to identification of different types of analytes in several matrices, less seldom has it been used for quantification of these analytes. Although several quantitative methods have been proposed, they may be tedious and/or require considerable user development. Whereas quantification in 1D-GC is a routine and well-established procedure, in GCxGC, it is not so straightforward, especially where novel or untested procedures have yet to be incorporated into software packages. In the present study, it is proposed that a subset of the modulated peaks generated for each solute may be summed, based on the specific target ion mass of each compound present in a certified standard reference material (SRM) 1649a (urban dust). The ratio between a PAH and its corresponding deuterated (PAH-d) form showed that there is no statistical loss of sensitivity when this ratio is calculated based on whether the total sum of modulated peaks, or if only the two or the three most intense modulated peaks, are employed. Manual integration may be required, and here was found to give more acceptable values than automatic integration. Automated integration has been shown here to underestimate the modulated peak responses when low concentrations of PAHs were analyzed. Although for most PAHs good agreement with the certified values were observed, the analytical method needs to be further optimized for some of the other PAH, as can be see with those PAH with high variability in the range of urban dust analyzed.