PubMed Health⌕ Search

SEARCH · PubMed Health

Results for “Knowledge Sources”

Explore indexed PubMed citations for clinical trials, systematic reviews and public health research. Read source abstracts and follow each citation to its original PubMed record.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 343 records · Page 19Linked to original sources
PubMed2003

Making monitoring 'work': human-machine interaction and patient safety in anaesthesia.

This study aimed to explore the use of electronic monitoring within the context of anaesthetic practice. We conducted workplace observation of, and interviews with, anaesthetists and other anaesthetic staff in two UK hospitals. Transcripts were analysed inductively for recurrent themes. Whilst formal sources of knowledge in anaesthesia deal with the issue of monitoring in terms of theoretical principles and performance specifications of devices, anaesthetists in practice often 'disbelieve' monitoring information. They call on and integrate other sources of knowledge about the patient, especially from their clinical assessment. The ability to distinguish 'normal' and 'abnormal' findings is vital. Confidence in electronic information varies with experience, as does the degree to which electronic information may be considered 'redundant'. We conclude that electronic monitoring brings new dimensions of understanding but also the potential for new ways of misunderstanding. The tacit knowledge underlying the safe use of monitoring deserves greater acknowledgement in training and practice.

Anesthesia, General↗
PubMed2002

Evidence-based practice: implications for the practising oncology nurse.

While the premises of EBP seem highly appropriate on the surface, disquieting questions are raised when one examines the implications for the practising oncology nurse of attempting to implement EBP. There are clinical situations for which no empirical evidence exists on which to base nursing decisions. In some cases, empirical evidence is sparse and based on a mix of small, descriptive studies. Although guidelines exist for examining purely quantitative literature and are being developed for examining purely qualitative literature, no guidelines exist for evaluating a mixture. The process of operationalizing EBP is time-consuming and requires expertise which many oncology nurses lack. Does this mean that EBP is a laudable but impossible enterprise? I don't think so. Nurses will need to incorporate the empirical literature as well as other sources of knowledge to inform their clinical decision-making. In addition, oncology nurses need to apply and adapt models, such as Howell and Pelton's (2001), to make the best use of all sources of knowledge to facilitate excellent patient care.

Canada↗
PubMedDate not supplied

HIV/AIDS knowledge and attitudes amongst pharmacists in Zimbabwe.

OBJECTIVE: To examine the knowledge of HIV/AIDS amongst pharmacists in Zimbabwe. DESIGN: Cross sectional survey. SETTING: National survey of pharmacists in major urban areas and final year pharmacy students at the University of Zimbabwe. SUBJECTS: 250 pharmacists and 47 pharmacy students with 126 completed questionnaires returned (42.4%). INTERVENTIONS: The questionnaire asked for demographic details of the respondent, sources of knowledge about HIV/AIDS and measured knowledge (KW), fear of contagion (FC), negative emotions (NE) and professional resistance (PR) using a Likert scale of 1 to 5. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Computed scores of KW, FC, NE and PR and reported sources of knowledge on HIV/AIDS. RESULTS: All pharmacists scored highly on KW (mean [SEM] = 4.0 [0.0] with academics scoring the highest (4.2 [0.5]; n = 7) and private hospital pharmacists the lowest (3.7 [0.2]; n = 5). Medical books/journals and professional colleagues were the most important sources of information. Scores for FC (2.7 [0.1]), PR (2.4 [0.1]) and NE (2.1 [0.1]) were low. Government hospital pharmacists tended to have a higher KW score than those in private hospitals (4.1 [0.3] vs 3.7 [0.2] respectively). Most of the respondents believed that HIV/AIDS had increased their workload. However, they saw a role for pharmacists in the prevention and management of HIV/AIDS but felt there were important time constraints. CONCLUSION: Pharmacists can play an important part in the strategy to manage the national HIV/AIDS epidemic, but negative attitudes towards HIV/AIDS sufferers may adversely affect their efficiency.

Adult↗
PubMed1987

Philosophic analysis of a theory of clinical nursing.

Knowledge in nursing requires development of theories that address both the science and art of the professional practice discipline. "A Theory of Clinical Nursing" was analyzed to explicate the epistemologic dimensions within an historic perspective. Epistemologic dimensions defined by the philosophy of science--approaches to theory development, sources of knowledge, and methodology--were characterized from two perspectives, scientific inquiry and historicism. The major perspectives in the scientific mode, namely, mechanism, empiricism, logical positivism, and logical empiricism, were analyzed along the three dimensions of theory development, sources of knowledge, and methodology. Trends in theoretical developments in nursing were related to the scientific and historic perspectives and to the epistemologic dimensions. Juxtaposing the diversity of knowledge required for nursing science and practice, and the values systems of the practitioners, revealed the inadequacy of the scientific model. Nursing knowledge explication required several modes of inquiry to articulate the scientific basis of the discipline and the art of delivery of the practice. The historicist approach framed scientific work with the prevailing World View. The Rubin theory was located within the matrix of approaches to inquiry and perspectives in nursing science. Labeled by the theorist as both a nursing research and a nursing care model, "A Theory of Clinical Nursing" represented a transition model of nursing, undergirded by the major conceptualizations and methodologies of field, psychoanalytic, and social behaviorist traditions, but implicitly coalescing the art with the science of nursing. The theory addressed core concepts of person, situation, and nursing care, as well as major process themes of change and interaction. Nursing theories of a more narrow range, such as maternal role attainment and maternal identity, nested within the theory, while subsequent theoretical clarifications and expansions have been constructed by students of the theorist. In the hierarchy of knowledge conceptualizations, Rubin's theory represents a disciplinary matrix: ordering theories, methods, and exemplars; giving direction to the development of theories of nursing that address empirical problems of the discipline; and cohering to the metaparadigm of nursing. Philosophic analysis of theories of nursing can yield an articulated, clearly depicted framework of concepts and their relationships from which new understandings may emerge.

Cognition↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Comparing evidence-based practice of nurses and physiotherapists.

Evidence-based practice has become an ubiquitous concept within nursing. However, there is little comparative data of nursing with other professions on attitudes to evidence-based practice. This article reports on a survey of nurses' and physiotherapists' sources of knowledge and perceived barriers to evidence-based practice within a large teaching hospital. A total of 324 questionnaires were sent to nurses and physiotherapists. The results showed that both physiotherapists and nurses accessed a wide variety of sources of knowledge. However, nurses were more likely than physiotherapists to use policy and procedure manuals and discussions with medical staff. Both professions have problems with overcoming the barrier of time. Nurses were more likely than physiotherapists to rate themselves as having poor evidence-based practice skills.

Attitude of Health Personnel↗
PubMed1994

Coming to terms with advanced breast cancer: black women's narratives from eastern North Carolina.

This paper analyzes in-depth interviews with 26 black women who entered the medical system in rural North Carolina with advanced breast disease. In these narratives, women draw on multiple sources of knowledge in order to come to terms with the diagnosis of breast cancer--a biomedically-defined disease that they often refuse to acknowledge or accept. The analysis demonstrates how women relate the meaning of their individual episodes of illness to one or more of the following sources of knowledge: an indigenous model of health emphasizing balance in the blood, popular American notions about cancer, and particular biomedical conceptions about breast disease and its treatment. These narratives provide an important window into the processes involved when individuals attempt to adapt personal experience to pre-existing cultural models, modify such models in the light of new information, and confront conflicts in their own interpretations of the meaning of a single episode of illness.

Adult↗
PubMed2003

Implementing evidence-based nursing practice: a tale of two intrapartum nursing units.

Despite concerns that the rise of evidence-based practice threatens to transform nursing practice into a performative exercise disciplined by scientific knowledge, others have found that scientific knowledge is by no means the preeminent source of knowledge within the dynamic settings of health-care. We argue that the contexts within which evidence-based innovations are implemented are as influential in the outcomes as the individual practitioners who attempt these changes. A focused ethnography was done in follow-up to an earlier trial that evaluated the effectiveness of a marketing strategy to encourage the adoption of evidence-based intrapartum nursing practice. Bourdieu's (1990, 1991) concepts of habitus, capital and social field were used in our refinement of the analysis of the ethnographic findings. Nursing leadership, interprofessional struggle with physicians, the characteristics of the community and the physical environment were prominent issues at all of the sites. Detailed descriptions of the sociohistorical context and of the experiences at two sites are presented to illustrate the complexities encountered when implementing innovations.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1991

Sexually transmitted diseases--knowledge and attitudes among young people. Developments in Sweden between 1986 and 1988.

Pupils aged 18 to 19 years at colleges and technical schools in a small town and a rural area filled in questionnaires concerning sexually transmitted diseases (STD) in May 1986 and May 1988. The questions covered knowledge and sources of information about STD. The influence of knowledge on attitudes and actual behavior was studied. Knowledge about STD was fairly good and increased between the two study periods. Schoolteachers and the media were important sources of information. Girls knew more than boys, and more often discussed STD with adults and friends. Small differences emerged between the urban and rural areas and between pupils attending theoretical and practical courses. Attitudes seemed to change with time but it is not clear whether this has resulted in changes in actual behavior.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1990

Sexual behaviour, contraceptive practice and knowledge of reproductive biology among adolescent secondary school girls in Nairobi, Kenya.

One thousand seven hundred and fifty one adolescent secondary school girls aged between 12 and 19 years were interviewed by means of self-administered questionnaire to determine their knowledge on reproductive biology, sexual behaviour and its relationship to contraceptive practice in late 1986. 23.8% of all the girls had been or were sexually active at the time of the study. 94.5% of the sexually active girls had not or were not using any method of contraception; while the rest, i.e. 5.5% were using mainly unreliable or risky methods of contraception. 1.7% of the sexually active girls admitted to have been pregnant at one time and had sought abortion. Majority of the girls displayed profound ignorance and misinformation regarding their reproductive biology and contraception. Their mothers played a very minor role in imparting this knowledge, their sources of information being fairly unreliable. While 77.8% of the girls were against school girls having sexual relationships, 90.7% of them felt that all women (including school girls) should be given contraceptives to protect themselves from unwanted pregnancies.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2006

Knowledge and attitudes towards attention deficit hyperactivity disorder among elementary school teachers.

OBJECTIVE: Attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is one of the most common psychiatric disorders in child and adolescent psychiatry. ADHD children are at risk for academic and psychological difficulties. Lack of cooperation between schools, parents and therapeutic institutions inhibits a multimodal treatment program. This study surveys teachers' knowledge and attitudes towards attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. METHOD: One hundred and ninety six elementary school teachers in Shiraz, Iran, anonymously completed a self-report questionnaire on ADHD. RESULTS: Knowledge about ADHD was relatively low. 46.9% of respondents agreed that ADHD is due to biological and genetic vulnerabilities and causation. 53.1%of all the teachers considered ADHD to be the result of parental spoiling. The attitude score towards ADHD children was also low. 64.8% agree that the same disciplinary rules used for all students should also be applied to ADHD children. 77.6% believe that ADHD students experience difficulties in their relations with their classmates. There was a significant correlation between teachers' knowledge of ADHD and their attitude. The main sources of knowledge about ADHD were: Television and radio; friends and relatives; periodical, newspapers and magazines. CONCLUSION: Knowledge about ADHD was sound to be very low. PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS: Health and/or Educational Ministry should promote a special course on ADHD for teachers and education should be part of the curriculum in faculty training. Providing these educational programs on television and radio may be highly effective as they were the most common source of information.

Adult↗
PubMed1992

How sources of health information relate to knowledge and use of cancer screening exams.

Utilization of many screening procedures to detect cancer in early stages remains low. In order to design more effective strategies to increase utilization of these tests, we assessed the role and relative importance of different information sources on knowledge and use of cancer screening exams. Where individuals get useful information about disease prevention, and the relationship of information sources to cancer screening knowledge and behavior are reported using data from the 1987 National Health Interview Survey. Results indicate that physicians are perceived as important sources of information on how to prevent illness. However, persons who use print media as their most useful source of information are significantly more likely to have heard of cancer screening procedures than those who rely on the doctor as the source. Those who rely on electronic media tend to be less knowledgeable of all screening procedures examined. A strong and consistent association between doctor as the most useful source of information and actually having received the procedure was found. These results suggest that knowledge may not necessarily be a prerequisite to screening and indicate that reliance on the physician to recommend cancer screening may be critical in utilization of these services.

Family↗
PubMed2004

Monte Carlo source model for photon beam radiotherapy: photon source characteristics.

A major barrier to widespread clinical implementation of Monte Carlo dose calculation is the difficulty in characterizing the radiation source within a generalized source model. This work aims to develop a generalized three-component source model (target, primary collimator, flattening filter) for 6- and 18-MV photon beams that match full phase-space data (PSD). Subsource by subsource comparison of dose distributions, using either source PSD or the source model as input, allows accurate source characterization and has the potential to ease the commissioning procedure, since it is possible to obtain information about which subsource needs to be tuned. This source model is unique in that, compared to previous source models, it retains additional correlations among PS variables, which improves accuracy at nonstandard source-to-surface distances (SSDs). In our study, three-dimensional (3D) dose calculations were performed for SSDs ranging from 50 to 200 cm and for field sizes from 1 x 1 to 30 x 30 cm2 as well as a 10 x 10 cm2 field 5 cm off axis in each direction. The 3D dose distributions, using either full PSD or the source model as input, were compared in terms of dose-difference and distance-to-agreement. With this model, over 99% of the voxels agreed within +/-1% or 1 mm for the target, within 2% or 2 mm for the primary collimator, and within +/-2.5% or 2 mm for the flattening filter in all cases studied. For the dose distributions, 99% of the dose voxels agreed within 1% or 1 mm when the combined source model-including a charged particle source and the full PSD as input-was used. The accurate and general characterization of each photon source and knowledge of the subsource dose distributions should facilitate source model commissioning procedures by allowing scaling the histogram distributions representing the subsources to be tuned.

Algorithms↗
PubMed1983

Ocular hazards of light sources: review of current knowledge.

Retinal damage is the most important hazard from light. There are three types of retinal damage classified as structural, thermal and photochemical; damage type depends on wavelength, power level and exposure time. Photochemical damage from blue light produces solar retinitis and is postulated to accelerate aging which leads to senile macular degeneration. The lens protects the retina from blue light and near ultraviolet (UV) but at the expense of cataractogenesis. Lens removal exposes retina to near UV that is six times more dangerous than blue light. Filters are recommended to protect lens and retina from blue light and near UV.

Eye↗
PubMed1989

Introducing hypertext in primary health care: a study on the feasibility of decision support for practitioners.

A study on the feasibility of the introduction of hypertext systems for communication of medical knowledge in primary care is described. Shortliffe's constraints on areas for application of decision support are evaluated (i.e., theoretical barriers, observable and recognized needs among users, sources of usable knowledge, available system development method). Considering the barriers derived from the knowledge types and forms used by practitioners, hypertext was found suitable as support at 'breakdowns' in practice routines, to generate 'alarms', as well as for continued medical education. A survey of the a priori acceptance of decision support systems by general practitioners showed that 84% would use the computer support if it was available today and that full-text databases, such as hypertext, were given highest priority for introduction. Local specialist physicians were identified as knowledge sources for therapy advice. Implementation of prototype systems envisioned use of hypertext in primary care as the introduction of a communication medium for co-operative health care decision making. A model for the introduction into the work environment is described.

Attitude to Computers↗