Biomedical subjects

Karen A Whittaker

Publications and source records attributed to Karen A Whittaker.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2006

Evaluating health visitor parenting support: validating outcome measures for parental self-efficacy.

Parenting support has become an increasing feature of child health services within the United Kingdom but typically, outcome measures available for testing the effectiveness of parenting interventions have been developed and validated elsewhere. This article reports the results of a feasibility study testing the Parenting Self-Agency Measure (PSAM) and subscales from the Self-Efficacy for Parenting Tasks Index (SEPTI) as outcome measures for UK-based parenting support programmes. Forty-six mothers and 10 fathers accessing routine health visitor and school nurse services participated in the test-re-test of the scales and commented separately on the acceptability of scale questions. Very large intra-class correlation results indicated good repeatability but alpha coefficient scores and factor analysis results suggest that UK respondents may not recognize SEPTI subscales items as measuring single dimensions. The PSAM was a more stable measure of parenting self-beliefs than the SEPTI subscales when tested with a UK sample of parents.

Adult↗

PubMed2004

Learning from the experience of working with consumers in educational developments.

AIM: The aim of this paper is to report the experience of working with local parents as collaborators in an educationally focussed research study. This work subsequently led to the development of a new module aimed at professionals providing parenting support. The ensuing discussion centres on the involvement of healthcare consumers in the development of educational programmes. METHODS: Focus group interviews were held with local parents to identify their various experiences of parenting support services. In addition the interviews were used as a means of recruiting local parent volunteers willing to join the research advisory group. This group had the task of guiding both the research and development of the educational programme. FINDINGS: Involvement of the parents introduced fresh insights to both the understanding of the content of parent education module and the necessary ingredients needed for effective consumer involvement. CONCLUSION: Lecturers have gained first hand experience of working collaboratively with parents in carrying out a research study and curriculum development. Three key issues emerged from this experience. These included the identification of who the consumer is, the approaches and skills required by professionals and lastly the importance of resources to support this commitment.

Attitude of Health Personnel↗

PubMed2002

Experiences of problem-based learning: issues for community specialist practitioner students.

In this paper, the findings from a descriptive study exploring community practitioner students' experiences of Problem-Based Learning are presented. The study was completed as part of an extended evaluation of a core module included in a post-registration community specialist practitioner programme. Data were collected via a self-completion questionnaire. The findings identify issues relating to the learning process and its influence on the knowledge gained. They illustrate that whilst the journey taken to acquire new knowledge had been difficult for students, they had benefited from the opportunity to learn with others. The findings from this small survey are discussed in conjunction with experiential learning theory and the particular needs of students being prepared for specialist practitioner roles in the community setting where collaborative practices are increasingly understood as essential for quality care.

Community Health Nursing↗