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PubMed2003

Validation of the Clinical Learning Environment Inventory.

One hundred eight preregistration nursing students took part in this survey study, which assessed their perceptions of the clinical learning environment. Statistical data based on the sample confirmed the reliability and validity of the Clinical Learning Environment Inventory (CLEI), which was developed using the concept of classroom learning environment studies. The study also found that there were significant differences between students' actual and preferred perceptions of the clinical learning environments. In terms of the CLEI scales, students preferred a more positive and favorable clinical environment than they perceived as being actually present. The achievement of certain outcomes of clinical field placements might be enhanced by attempting to change the actual clinical environment in ways that make it more congruent with that preferred by the students.

Attitude of Health Personnel↗

PubMed2005

Nurse practice environments and outcomes: implications for oncology nursing.

PURPOSE/OBJECTIVES: To examine practice environments and outcomes of nurses working in oncology units or Magnet hospitals and to understand the association between the two. DESIGN: Secondary analysis of survey data collected in 1998. SETTING: Medical and surgical units of 22 hospitals, of which 7 were recognized by the American Nurses Credentialing Center Magnet program. SAMPLE: 1,956 RNs, of whom 305 worked in oncology units. METHODS: Chi-square tests compared nurse-reported outcomes by work setting, analysis of variance tested practice environment differences by setting, and logistic regression estimated the effects of practice environment, specialty, and Magnet status on outcomes. MAIN RESEARCH VARIABLES: Practice environments, emotional exhaustion, job satisfaction, and quality of care. FINDINGS: Oncology nurses had superior outcomes compared with nononcology nurses. Emotional exhaustion was significantly lower among oncology nurses working in Magnet hospitals. Scores on the Collegial Nurse-Physician Relations subscale were highest among oncology nurses. Outcomes were associated with Practice Environment Scale of the Nursing Work Index scores and Magnet status. Oncology nurses with favorable collegial nurse-physician relations were twice as likely to report high-quality care. CONCLUSIONS: Oncology nurses benefit from working in American Nurses Credentialing Center Magnet hospitals. Adequate staffing and resources are necessary to achieve optimal outcomes. Collegial nurse-physician relations appear to be vital to optimal oncology practice settings. IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING: In addition to pursuing American Nurses Credentialing Center Magnet recognition, nurse managers should assess practice environments and target related interventions to improve job satisfaction and retention. High-priority areas for interventions include ensuring adequate staff and resources, promoting nurse-physician collaboration, and strengthening unit-based leadership.

Adult↗

PubMed2006

Active commuting to school: Associations with environment and parental concerns.

PURPOSE: This study examined the association of objective and perceived neighborhood environmental characteristics and parent concerns with active commuting to school, investigated whether parental concerns varied by environmental characteristics, and compared the association of the perceived environment, parental concerns, and objective environment on the outcome active commuting to school. METHODS: Randomly selected parents of children (aged 5-18 yr), in neighborhoods chosen for their variability in objectively measured walkability and income, completed questionnaires about their neighborhood environment, concerns about children walking to school, and children's behavior (N = 259). Objective measures of the environment were available for each participant and each neighborhood. Logistic regression analyses were used to investigate the relationships among environment, parental concerns, and walking or biking to or from school at least once a week. RESULTS: A parental concerns scale was most strongly associated with child active commuting (odds ratio: 5.2, 95% CI: 2.71-9.96). In high-income neighborhoods, more children actively commuted in high-walkable (34%) than in low-walkable neighborhoods (23%) (odds ratio: 2.1, 95% CI: 1.12-3.97), but no differences were noted in low-income neighborhoods. Parent concerns and neighborhood aesthetics were independently associated with active commuting. Perceived access to local stores and biking or walking facilities accounted for some of the effect of walkability on active commuting. CONCLUSION: Both parent concerns and the built environment were associated with children's active commuting to school. To increase active commuting to school, interventions that include both environmental change and education campaigns may be needed.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2025

Competition and cooperation: The plasticity of bacterial interactions across environments.

Bacteria live in diverse communities, forming complex networks of interacting species. A central question in bacterial ecology is whether species engage in cooperative or competitive interactions. But this question often neglects the role of the environment. Here, we use genome-scale metabolic networks from two different open-access collections (AGORA and CarveMe) to assess pairwise interactions of different microbes in varying environmental conditions (provision of different environmental compounds). By computationally simulating thousands of environments for 10,000 pairs of bacteria from each collection, we found that most pairs were able to both compete and cooperate depending on the availability of environmental resources. This modeling approach allowed us to determine commonalities between environments that could facilitate the potential for cooperation or competition between a pair of species. Namely, cooperative interactions, especially obligate, were most common in less diverse environments. Further, as compounds were removed from the environment, we found interactions tended to degrade towards obligacy. However, we also found that on average at least one compound could be removed from an environment to switch the interaction from competition to facultative cooperation or vice versa. Together our approach indicates a high degree of plasticity in microbial interactions in response to the availability of environmental resources.

Microbial Interactions↗

PubMed2002

Variance components models for gene-environment interaction in quantitative trait locus linkage analysis.

Gene-environment interaction (G x E) is likely to be a common and important source of variation for complex behavioral traits. Gene-environment interaction, or genetic control of sensitivity to the environment, can be incorporated into variance components twin and sib-pair analyses by partitioning genetic effects into a mean part, which is independent of the environment, and a part that is a linear function of the environment. An approach described in a companion paper (Purcell, 2002) is applied to sib-pair variance components linkage analysis in two ways: allowing for quantitative trait locus by environment interaction and utilizing information on any residual interactions detected prior to analysis. As well as elucidating environmental pathways, consideration of G x E in quantitative and molecular studies will potentially direct and enhance gene-mapping efforts.

Computer Simulation↗

PubMed2004

Growth hormone secretion and long-term growth data in children with psychosocial short stature treated by different changes in environment.

OBJECTIVES: We assessed auxological and endocrine data of 65 children (32 girls) from 51 families with an average age of 6.6 years (range, 0.9 to 16.5 years, all but five prepubertal) with psychosocial short stature. METHODS: Fifty-one patients had an assessment of growth hormone (GH) secretion. Thirty-four were subjected to repeated testing with the first test being performed when the child was still in the adverse environment and the next testing after the child was removed. Twenty-five out of those 34 were repeatedly tested during one uninterrupted hospital admission with limited parental access. Thirty patients had a definite, long-term change in their environment (13 were separated from their families) and were assessed concerning their auxological data. RESULTS: Of the 34 patients who had repeated endocrine testing, 11 (32%) showed reversible GH deficiency (GHD), nine (26%) increased their previously normal peak GH concentration, and six (18%) had apparently irreversible GHD. Patients who had a change in environment increased their mean height velocity SDS from -0.9 (SD 1.5) to +1.5 (2.3) (p < 0.0001). Accordingly, height SDS increased from -2.9 (SD 0.8) before to -2.6 (SD 0.8) after the change (p < 0.001). CONCLUSION: One of the diagnostic features of psychosocial short stature is reversible GH insufficiency, which usually normalises after the child is separated from the adverse environment. Catch-up growth is always found after a positive change in the environment, and may occur within the family. However, if a change in environment is not possible, GH therapy may be an option.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1998

Otitis media, the caregiving environment, and language and cognitive outcomes at 2 years.

OBJECTIVE: To examine the relationship between otitis media with effusion (OME) and associated hearing loss between 6 and 24 months of age and children's language and cognitive development at 2 years of age. STUDY DESIGN: A prospective cohort design in which 86 African-American infants who attended group child-care centers were recruited between 6 and 12 months of age. Between 6 and 24 months, assessments included serial ear examinations using otoscopy and tympanometry, serial hearing tests, two ratings of the childrearing environment at home and in child care, and language and cognitive outcomes at 2 years. RESULTS: Children experienced either unilateral or bilateral OME an average of 63% and reduced hearing sensitivity an average of 44% of the time between 6 and 24 months of age. Although proportion of time with OME or with hearing loss was modestly correlated with measures of language and cognitive skills, these relationships were no longer significant when the ratings of the home and child-care environments were also considered. Children with more OME or hearing loss tended to live in less responsive caregiving environments, and these environments were linked to lower performance in expressive language and vocabulary acquisition at 2 years. CONCLUSIONS: Both OME and hearing loss were more strongly related to the quality of home and child-care environments than to children's language and cognitive development. Study results might be explained either by suggesting that children in less responsive caregiving environments experience conditions that make them more likely to experience OME and/or by suggesting that it may be more difficult for caregivers to be responsive and stimulating with children with more OME.

Black People↗

PubMed2001

Genotype-by-environment interaction and the fitness of plant hybrids in the wild.

Natural hybrid zones between related species illustrate processes that contribute to genetic differentiation and species formation. A common viewpoint is that hybrids are essentially unfit, but they exist in a stable tension zone where selection against them is balanced by gene flow between the parent species. An alternative idea is that selection depends on the environment, for example, by favoring opposite traits in the two parental habitats or favoring hybrids within a bounded region. To determine whether selection of hybrids is environment dependent, we crossed plants of naturally hybridizing Ipomopsis aggregata and I. tenuituba in the Colorado Rocky Mountains and reciprocally planted the seed offspring into a suite of natural environments across the hybrid zone. All types of crosses produced similar numbers and weights of seeds. However, survival of the offspring after 5 years differed markedly among cross types. On average, the F1 hybrids had survival and growth rates as high as the average for their parents. But hybrid survival depended strongly on the direction of a cross, that is, on which species served as the maternal parent. This fitness difference between reciprocal hybrids appeared only in the parental environments, suggesting cytonuclear gene interactions that are environment specific. These results indicate that complex genotype-by-environment interactions can contribute to the evolutionary outcome of hybridization.

Colorado↗

PubMed2005

[Family environment and child's cognitive development: an epidemiological approach].

OBJECTIVE: To assess the association between quality of stimulation in the family environment and child's cognitive development considering the impact of mother's schooling on the quality of stimulation. METHODS: A cross-sectional study comprising 350 children aged 17-42 months was carried out in central and peripheral areas of Salvador, Northeastern Brazil, in 1999. A socio-economic questionnaire was used, along with the Home Observation for Measurement of the Environment Scale (HOME Inventory), and the Bayley Scale for Infant Development. Bivariate and multivariate analyses were carried out through linear regression at 5% level of significance. RESULTS: There was a positive (beta=0.66) and statistically significant association between quality of stimulation in the family environment and child's cognitive development. Part of the effect was mediated by the mother's working circumstances and educational level. It was verified that a better quality of stimulation is provided for those who come early in the birth order in family, and live with only a few others under five years of age. This pattern of stimulation is better among children who live with their parents and whose mothers have better education, have a job and a partner involved in the family environment. CONCLUSIONS: Quality of stimulation in the family environment is crucial for child's cognitive development, besides the significant role of the available resources and family dynamics. The study findings show the pertinence to cognitive development of interventions which improve the quality of the environment and the child-caregiver relationship.

Adult↗

PubMed1974

Open environment design for infant and toddler day care.

Group care settings for dependent people must be organized to facilitate delivery of responsive care and to prevent inadvertant neglect or deliberate abuse. Accordingly, in an infant and a toddler day-care center, an open environment was examined as a means to increase the visibility of children to staff and of staff-child interactions to the supervisor, and to investigate potential adverse effects of the open environment on infants' and toddlers' activities. These studies demonstrated that: (1) an open environment markedly decreased the amount of time a child could not be seen by any adult and the amount of time staff members' activities were not visible to the supervisor, and markedly reduced the effort required to supervise those who were not immediately visible; (2) an open environment did not adversely affect the sleep of either infants or toddlers; and (3) an open environment is as conducive to small group pre-academic activities with toddlers as is a separate room. These studies convinced us that infant and toddler day care can and should be accomplished in an open environment.

Child Day Care Centers↗

PubMed1996

Behavioral variability in SHR and WKY rats as a function of rearing environment and reinforcement contingency.

The spontaneously hypertensive rat (SHR) may model aspects of human attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). For example, just as responses by children with ADHD tend to be variable, so too SHRs often respond more variably than do Wistar-Kyoto (WKY) control rats. The present study asked whether behavioral variability in the SHR strain is influenced by rearing environment, a question related to hypotheses concerning the etiology of human ADHD. Some rats from each strain were reared in an enriched environment (housed socially), and others were reared in an impoverished environment (housed in isolation). Four groups--enriched SHR, impoverished SHR, enriched WKY, and impoverished WKY--were studied under two reinforcement contingencies, one in which reinforcement was independent of response variability and the other in which reinforcement depended upon high variability. The main finding was that rearing environment did not influence response variability (enriched and impoverished subjects responded similarly throughout). However, rearing environment affected body weight (enriched subjects weighted more than impoverished subjects) and response rate (impoverished subjects generally responded faster than enriched subjects). In addition, SHRs tended to respond variably throughout the experiment, whereas WKYs were more sensitive to the variability contingencies. Thus, behavioral variability was affected by genetic strain and by reinforcement contingency but not by the environment in which the subjects were reared.

Animals↗

PubMed2004

Nursing students' perceptions of hospital learning environments--an Australian perspective.

Clinical education is a vital component in the curricula of pre-registration nursing courses and provides student nurses with the opportunity to combine cognitive, psychomotor, and affective skills. Various studies have suggested that not all practice settings are able to provide nursing students with a positive learning environment. In order to maximize nursing students' clinical learning outcomes, there is a need to examine the clinical learning environment. The purpose of this study was to assess pre-registration nursing students' perceptions of hospital learning environments during clinical field placement. Quantitative and qualitative methodology was used. One hundred and eight students provided quantitative data through completion of the survey instrument, the Clinical Learning Environment Inventory (Actual and Preferred forms). Each form is a 5-point Likert-type questionnaire, made up of 35 items consisted of 5 scales with 7 items per scale. Qualitative data, obtained through semi-structured interview of 21 students from the same cohort, were used to explain and support the quantitative findings. There were significant differences between students' actual and preferred perceptions of the clinical learning environments. Generally students preferred a more positive and favourable clinical environment than they perceived as being actually present. Since participants consisted of nursing students from just one university nursing school in South Australia, the findings may not be representative of all nursing students in general with respect to their clinical placement. However, the value of this study lies in the resulting implication for nursing education and future research. A better understanding of what constitutes quality clinical education from the students' perspective would be valuable in providing better educational experiences.

Clinical Competence↗

PubMed2001

Construction of optimum index to maximize overall response across countries in the presence of genotype x environment interaction.

Sire effect is partitioned into two parts: constant effect unaffected by environments and interaction effect specific to each environment and responsible for genotype x environment (GE) interaction. Response to selection for constant effect is the same across environments, thus increasing genetic stability, whereas response to selection for interaction effect would vary depending upon environments. The conventional measure of GE interaction based on genetic correlation (gammaG) considers both constant and interaction components even though the constant component plays no role in GE interaction. In contrast, the proposed measure of GE interaction based on interaction correlation (gammaI) deals only with interaction component responsible for GE interaction and thus indicates the intensity of GE interaction generated by responsible genes. Constant and interaction effects with different economic weights were combined into optimum index to improve both genetic stability and overall response across countries (countries represent environments). Optimum index was more efficient than the unpartitioned index which was more efficient than selection in a single country except when economic weights between constant and interaction effects were equal. Optimum index and unpartitioned index were the same when these economic weights were equal. The advantage of optimum index over the other selection methods increases as the intensity of GE interaction increases. When the relative economic weights are equivalent among countries and between constant and interaction effects, selection in a country with a larger sire variance is more effective than selection in a country with a smaller sire variance.

Animals↗

PubMed2005

The northern physical environment and the well-being of the elderly aged over 65 years.

OBJECTIVES: The purpose was to describe the significance of the physical environment in supporting the well-being of the elderly aged over 65 years. The aim was to produce knowledge that will complement the knowledge-base of gerontologic nursing. STUDY DESIGN: The study was qualitative. Thirty-nine home-dwelling elderly persons aged over 65 were interviewed. METHODS: The interviews (n = 39) were conducted with the thematic method. The data were analysed with methods of inductive content analysis. RESULTS: The main threats of the northern physical environment to the well-being of the elderly are seasonal variation, temperature, snow, light variation and distances. The supportive characteristics of the northern environment are the natural environment, space, familiarity with the physical space, cleanliness and safety. CONCLUSION: The characteristics of the northern physical environment seem to be significant for both urban and rural elderly people living in the northern part of Finland. The different aspects of the natural environment provide opportunities to relax, meet other people and do physical exercise, all of which are important factors of health promotion.

Aged↗

PubMedDate not supplied

The association of corporate work environment factors, health risks, and medical conditions with presenteeism among Australian employees.

PURPOSE: To investigate the impact of selected corporate environment factors, health risks, and medical conditions on job performance using a self-reported measure of presenteeism. DESIGN: A cross-sectional survey utilizing health risk appraisal (HRA) data merging presenteeism with corporate environment factors, health risks, and medical conditions. SETTING: Approximately 8000 employees across ten diverse Australian corporations. SUBJECTS: Employees (N = 1523; participation rate, 19%) who completed an HRA questionnaire. MEASURES: Self-reported HRA data were used to test associations of defined adverse corporate environment factors with presenteeism. Stepwise multivariate logistic regression modeling assessed the relative associations of corporate environment factors, health risks, and medical conditions with increased odds of any presenteeism. RESULTS: Increased presenteeism was significantly associated with poor working conditions, ineffective management/leadership, and work/life imbalance (adjusting for age, gender, health risks, and medical conditions). In multivariate logistic regression models, work/life imbalance, poor working conditions, life dissatisfaction, high stress, back pain, allergies, and younger age were significantly associated with presenteeism. CONCLUSIONS: Although the study has some limitations, including a possible response bias caused by the relatively low participation rate across the corporations, the study does demonstrate significant associations between corporate environment factors, health risks, and medical conditions and self-reported presenteeism. The study provides initial evidence that health management programming may benefit on-the-job productivity outcomes if expanded to include interventions targeting work environments.

Absenteeism↗

PubMed1999

The role of the ward manager in creating a conducive clinical learning environment for nursing students.

Ward sisters/managers are without doubt the professional gate keepers of the ward environment yet there are activities in that environment for which they do not seem to take full responsibility, namely that of the clinical learning of nursing students. The aim of this study was to investigate the role of the ward manager in creating a conducive clinical learning environment for nursing students. An explorative descriptive research method was employed. Findings reveal that the ward managers are generally satisfied with the way in which they handle the important role they play in facilitating teaching and learning for nursing students. They feel strongly, however, that the nursing students themselves need to be active in the learning process. While acknowledging the efforts of the ward managers in creating and maintaining the learning environment, nursing students were dissatisfied about several aspects that appeared to be lacking in the clinical environment, such as good interpersonal relations, support, exposure to practice administrative skills (for example, problem-solving and decision-making) and lack of feedback about their performance. There appears to be a need to develop more effective support structures within the learning environment so that nursing students can obtain sufficient exposure to learning opportunities.

Attitude of Health Personnel↗

PubMed2000

[Genetic effect of panicle traits of intersubspecific crosses of rice (Oryza sativa.) and its interaction with environment].

The models of genetic effects and genotype x environment interaction for Additive-Dominant-Additive x Additive epistasis were used to analyze the panicle traits of intersubspecific crosses of rice (Oryza sativa.) in different environments. It was found that significant additive, dominant and additive x additive epistatic effects and genotype x environment (GE) interaction were observed in main panicle length, spikelet density, primary branches, total lengths of primary and secondary branches, but the numbers of main panicle and secondary branches showed no significant additive x environment (AE) interaction and dominant x environment (DE) interaction. The seven traits studied were mainly controlled by dominant effects, but branches traits were more obviously affected by DE interaction. Heritabilities analysis showed that the general heritability in broad sense (HG2) was much larger than other heritabilities. To certain extent, the interaction heritabilities showed their effects in seven panicle traits tested. Heterotic prediction indicated a positive heterosis in all panicle traits except the numbers of primary and secondary branches. GE only influenced the expression extents of heterosis, but was not able to change their directions. According to the predicated genetic effects, IR66158-37, IR65600-85, Minhui63 and R669 were better than other parents in the tactics of breeding for improving panicle traits, because the progenies from these crosses always showed that panicle traits were slightly affected by environment.

Ecosystem↗

PubMed2000

[Environment capacity of eco-tourism resort].

The results of quantitative analysis on the amount of tourist, service-environment capacity, eco-environment capacity, and their relations in Five-finger Mountain eco-tourism resort indicate that the amount of tourist in common situation and in its extreme was 1918 and 2301 visitor-hour per day, and the service-environment capacity and eco-environment capacity were 6000 and 2400 visitor-hour per day, respectively. The eco-environment capacity was smaller than its service-environment capacity, and would become the first limiting factor to the increase of tourist amount, which was mainly due to the ecological fragility of resort, the lower resistance of biological communities to the disturbance, and the slower speed of ecosystem restoration after its being destroyed.

Ecosystem↗