Peter Y. Johnson

Competency-based training “Helping Mothers Survive: Bleeding after Birth” for providers from central and remote facilities in three countries

To validate a new training module for skilled and semiskilled birth attendants authorized to provide care at birth—Helping Mothers Survive: Bleeding After Birth (HMS:BAB)—aimed at reducing postpartum hemorrhage, the leading cause of maternal mortality worldwide. BAB training involves single‐day, facility‐based training that emphasizes simulation of scenarios related to prevention, detection, and management of postpartum hemorrhage.

The 1999–2000 task analysis of American nurse-midwifery/midwifery practice

A master list of tasks, which contained 200 task statements, 23 professional issues statements, and 177 clinical conditions, was divided into three equivalent survey forms and distributed to those certified nurse-midwives (CNMs) and certified midwives (CMs) certified by the ACNM Certification Council, Inc. during the 5-year period from 1995 to 1999. Specific efforts were made to encourage the participation of CMs, because they represented a new professional cohort. A total of 627 valid responses were obtained. Reasonably similar numbers of respondents contributed data related to each of the three versions of the survey form. The responsibilities have expanded substantially within the domains of nonreproductive primary health care and gynecologic care of the well woman, including advances in assisted reproductive technology. A diminished emphasis on the CNM/CM role in the provision of newborn care was documented. The ACC Research Committee recommended the revision of the entry-level certification examination blueprint, and this was approved by the ACC Board of Directors. The specific recommendations included the development of a new primary care domain and the reconfiguration of content emphasis with percentage allocations as follows: Primary Care, 5-10%; Well-Woman/Gynecology, 15-20%; Newborn, 5-10%; Postpartum, 5-10%; Antepartum, 25-30%; Intrapartum, 25-35%; Professional Issues, up to 5%.

Designing and developing surveys on WWW sites

Using the Internet to conduct quantitative research presents challenges not found in conventional research. Some of our knowledge concerning the effective design and use of paper-based surveys does translate into electronic formats. However, electronic surveys have distinctive technological, demographic and response characteristics that affect how they should be designed, when they can be used and how they can be implemented. Survey design, subject privacy and confidentiality, sampling and subject solicitation, distribution methods and response rates and survey piloting are critical methodological components that must be addressed in order to conduct sound online research. This paper focuses on those distinctive characteristics. It reviews the current literature on the subject of electronic surveys and presents guidelines for designing, developing and implementing them, particularly web-based surveys. This paper argues that Web-based surveys are superior to email surveys in many aspects, but that email combined, perhaps with offline media, is an excellent vehicle for inviting individuals to participate in Web-based surveys. The application of these guidelines are demonstrated through the authors’ current research involving defining the nature of “non-public participation” (commonly referred to as lurking) in online discussion groups. Guidelines do not eliminate the many “trade-off” decisions required in the use of online surveys.

THE 1999 ACC TASK ANALYSIS OF NURSE-MIDWIFERY/MIDWIFERY PRACTICE PHASE I: THE INSTRUMENT DEVELOPMENT STUDY

The national certification examination (NCE) in nurse-midwifery and midwifery is developed, administered, and evaluated by the ACNM Certification Council (ACC). The blueprint for the NCE is based upon a comprehensive list of tasks that describe the knowledge, skills, and abilities expected of the midwifery practitioner at entry into the profession. In 1999, the ACC initiated the third in a series of task analysis studies to ensure the currency and relevance of the task list. This study was considered particularly timely, given that the professional organization, the American College of Nurse-Midwives, had approved pathways to midwifery for individuals whose first degree was not in nursing (the certified midwife) and also had expanded the core competencies for midwifery practice to include responsibilities in the domain of primary care. This manuscript reports the results of the pilot study, in which the specific list of tasks was developed. Three hundred and six ACNM members responded to a preliminary list of tasks, indicating their opinion about whether each specific task was relevant to entry-level midwifery practice. The task list finally derived consists of 219 tasks and 177 clinical conditions, dispersed among seven domains of practice (antepartum, intrapartum, newborn, postpartum, well-woman/gynecology, primary care/health assessment, and professional issues.) The task list represents a comprehensive profile of entry-level practice for nurse-midwives and midwives certified by the ACC.

Conformational analysis using a truth maintenance system

Abstract This paper describes Rotamer, a program we wrote to assist chemists in identifying the likely three-dimensional (3D) shapes (conformations) that a flexible molecule might assume. The search of the space of all possible conformations is approached as a constraint-satisfaction problem. The structure generator in Rotamer uses a simplified truth maintenance system (TMS) to cache information acquired in the course of exploring the conformation space. The computational benefits of using this TMS increase with the size of the problem.

The Reaction of Organozinc Reagents with Bis(N-Butoxymethyl)-t-Butylamine

Abstract In connection with our synthetic studies of new anticancer agents1 we required the hindered amino diester 1. Our recent success2 with dialkylation reactions involving bis(chloromethyl)ether and Reformatsky reagents, leading to the synthesis of the oxygen analog of 1, 2, suggested a similar approach might be successful if applied to the synthesis of 1. Since bis (chloromethyl)amines have never been isolated to our knowledge and related dichloroalkylamines exist only as highly reactive salts,3 a less reactive, but more easily obtainable alternative, bis(n-butoxymethyl)alkylamines, 3, were considered as potential bis alkylating reagents. These molecules have been shown to ionize in the presence of mild acids to give N, N-dialkylmethyl-eneimonium ions, 4, which are receptive to nucleophilic attack. Examples of monoalkylation of simple alkoxymethylamines by organo-metallic reagents have been reported.4

A novel photochemical approach to the synthesis of DL-pantothiolactone

A photochemical ring contraction reaction has been applied to the synthesis of pantothiolactone, a new analogue of pantolactone which is a critical intermediate in the synthesis of pantothenic acid.

Approaches to the synthesis of fused bicyclic N-acylaminoazetidin-2-ones

N-Acetamidoperhydrobenz[c]azetidin-2-one, a nuclear analogue of cephalosporin, has been prepared by two independent routes which should be potentially useful for the preparation of other analogues.

Synthesis and anticancer properties of a hindered amino-diester

A new synthesis of di-neopentyl-substituted amines is described and the anticancer properties of one of these compounds is discussed.