Biomedical subjects

A E Mackenzie

Publications and source records attributed to A E Mackenzie.

6 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed1996

An exploration of the carers' perceptions of caregiving and caring responsibilities in Chinese families.

This qualitative study carried out with 10 Chinese families in Hong Kong describes caregiving and caring from the perceptions of the primary carers. Semi-structured interviews were carried out to gain personal accounts of experiences of primary carers caring for dependent family members. The analysis resulted in categories identifying and explaining the needs of primary carers. Suggestions for practice are made.

Activities of Daily Living↗

PubMed1995

A review of the historical and social processes contributing to care and caregiving in Chinese families.

The purpose of this paper is to review the literature on caring and caregiving in Chinese families in relation to the contribution made by historical and social processes. The beliefs and traditions of care appearing in the professional and popular literature are explored to enable comparison with recent research from Hong Kong, China and the United Kingdom. Caring emerges as profoundly complicated and ambivalent, drawing on notions of morality, obligation, love, kinship and gender responsibility. Furthermore, caring in contemporary Chinese families in Hong Kong appears to have more similarities than differences with western families, possibly due to changing kinship networks. Such conclusions have particular relevance for nursing in the light of recent policy directives in Hong Kong promoting the role of the families in caring for their dependent members based on the assumption that families can and will care.

Aged↗

PubMed1995

Evaluating individual performance in higher education: a new challenge for nurse educators.

In response to the demands for more accountability and efficiency in higher education, of which nurse education is now a part, this paper explores the evaluation of individual performance. It considers the purposes of staff appraisal and draws upon a study of criteria for self-appraisal of teachers and upon experience gained in introducing teacher appraisal into schools. Different teaching environments are discussed and the additional demands upon academic staff in universities in terms of research are considered in the light of the recent Research Assessment Exercises. Particular consideration is given to the performance of nursing departments in the 1992 exercise and to the implications for staff appraisal. Successful procedures for evaluating individual performance in schools that might transfer to higher education are identified and strategies that might be adopted by nursing departments are suggested. This paper argues that evaluation of individual performance is a worthwhile departmental function which, when successful, may help to create an atmosphere more conductive to the eventual successful introduction of total quality management to the institution as a whole. It concludes that the extra substantial demands upon staff time and energy, at a time when nursing departments are trying to establish themselves in the higher education sector, might be alleviated if the groundwork already undertaken in schools is put to good use.

Education, Nursing, Baccalaureate↗

PubMed1994

Evaluating ethnography: considerations for analysis.

The informed evaluation of ethnographic reports is essential to the practitioner who is working towards research-based practice. It is also part of the process of developing and refining nursing knowledge. While there are features common to the critical examination of all research, an understanding of ethnographic design and, in particular, of issues of validity and reliability, is a prerequisite for evaluation of ethnographic research reports.

Anthropology, Cultural↗

PubMed1992

Learning from experience in the community: an ethnographic study of district nurse students.

This study seeks to gain an understanding of the learning experiences of district nurse students in the learning environment of the community, and to examine learning in the practice setting from the perspective of the student. Since the research depends upon the changing and differing interpretations of the individuals involved in the natural setting of the community, an ethnographic approach has been adopted. The experiences of students are monitored throughout the taught practice element of the district nurse course in both inner city and rural/urban locations. Data, collected through interview and observations, are analysed in the context of theory relating to adult learning and learning from experience. Three major categories are identified. Examples from these categories are identified and discussed. The categories are sequential and represent the learning process experienced by the students in the practice setting as they learn to fit into a new environment, test out their own ideas and compare the unreality of college with the reality of practice. Attention is drawn to the difficulties for students of fitting into new settings and trying out change, to the detrimental effect on learning of rigid practice routines and to the powerlessness of community practice teachers to exert a major influence on the learning environment. These issues are discussed in the context of changes in nurse education and evaluation of the community learning environment.

Community Health Services↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Simpson-Golabi-Behmel syndrome associated with renal dysplasia and embryonal tumor: localization of the gene to Xqcen-q21.

We report 6 affected males in a 5-generation family with x-linked Simpson-Golabi-Behmel (SGB) syndrome. All had pre- and postnatal overgrowth with 2 adult males attaining heights over 195 cm. Other features included "coarse" face with hypertelorism, broad nasal root, cleft palate, full lips with a midline groove of the lower lip, grooved tongue with tongue tie, prominent mandible, congenital heart defects, arrhythmias, supernumerary nipples, splenomegaly, large dysplastic kidneys, cryptorchidism, hypospadias, skeletal abnormalities and postaxial hexadactyly. All affected individuals were of normal intelligence. One boy died at age 19 months of a neuroblastoma. The putative origin of the gene in this family was the maternal great grandmother of the propositus. Eight carrier females, who showed varying manifestations of the gene, have been identified. Anthropometric analysis has identified preliminary characteristic craniofacial dimensions in this syndrome. Molecular studies have shown a maximal lod score of 2.81 with no recombinants observed for the SGB-DXYS68 pairing, mapping the disorder to Xqcen-Xq21.3.

Adolescent↗