Development Committee Research Articles

Association for Nursing Profession Development's Committees and Task Forces.

Callicutt, Dale PhD, RN-BC, NPD-BC, CCRN-K; Walker, Mandi DNP, RN, CCRN-K, NPD-BC, NEA-BCEditor(s): Callicutt, Dale PhD, RN-BC, NPD-BC, CCRN-K Author Information

Community-based intervention in reducing flood impacts in Gambia

Flood has caused significant damage to the agricultural sector, which results in low productivity and causes famine in Kaba-kama community of Basse in the Upper river region of the Gambia. This study analyses the potential role of the community’s mitigation efforts to reduce the flood impact in the Gambia. The objective is to determine the influence of community-based intervention activities in reducing the flood impact at the community level. The primary data are obtained in this study from own previous experience by participating in the community work (“Te-setto”) to mitigate the impact of flood, and interviews in a form of questionnaires to the members of the VDC in Kaba-kama community. Literature reviews from journals, books, and the final report about the disaster in 2018 by NDMA has served as a secondary source of data for the study. Notifiable, the community-based organization (Village Development Committee -VDC), is the key pioneer of the initiative. This study exemplifies the successful collective efforts by the communities and government in different regions and the country at large in practicing flood adaptive and mitigation strategies, which has potential to be implemented elsewhere in other famine-prone countries in the world.

Can We Develop Evidence-Based Guidelines Without Research Expertise?

The development and implementation of clinical practice guidelines has flourished over the past two decades. Unfortunately, many studies have found that the quality of such guidelines is highly variable (Alonso-Coello et al. in Qual Safe Health Care 19:e58, 2010; MacQueen et al. in Can J Psychiatry 62:11-23, 2016); research suggests that some of the guidelines used in psychology have been developed using poor methods for guideline development (Bennett et al. in Depress Anxiety 35:330-340, 2018; Trepanier et al. in: Can Psychol 58: 211-217, 2017). While there remains a dearth of research in this area, typically, it is guidelines themselves that are examined by researchers, while too little attention is paid to the developers, and more specifically to how the guideline development groups are composed and the nature of the expertise of those involved in developing the guidelines. Given the importance of grounding guidelines in science, it is key that guideline development groups be comprised of research experts that will help ensure that this essential aspect be respected. In this brief paper, we provide findings from a recent study in which group composition as well as the expertise of guideline development committee members at the Order of Psychologists of Quebec (OPQ) was examined, as defined by academic research productivity. As results highlighted a clear imbalance between clinical and research expertise in these specific committees, with only a small percentage of researchers being represented, we conclude that major improvements need to be made for research to properly reach practitioners and make recommendations to facilitate this.

Role of local communities in forest landscape restoration: Key lessons from the Billion Trees Afforestation Project, Pakistan

The Billion Trees Afforestation Project (BTAP) was launched in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province of Pakistan to conserve existing forests and to increase the area under forest cover. It also aimed to restore environmental conditions, promote rural livelihoods and reduce poverty. To improve the effectiveness of afforestation projects, it is essential to know the role of various factors and their impacts on community participation in landscape restoration. However, these factors and their impacts remain unexplored for the BTAP. This study identifies the factors that influenced rural household participation in the BTAP in Pakistan. The data were collected from participants and nonparticipants in the BTAP as well as from various officials. We employed both qualitative and quantitative methods to analyze the data. The results of the focus group discussions and the professional evaluation of the BTAP revealed that participant farmers enjoyed all the benefits of the project at the individual and community levels. However, the project provided only partial benefits to nonparticipant farmers at both levels. The household-level results showed that age, income from forest resources, a friendly relationship with forest department staff, a risk-bearing attitude and membership or involvement in village development committee activities had positive and significant effects on farmer participation, while disputes over land and forest resources, household size and experience with/dependence on livestock farming had negative and significant impacts on farmer participation in the BTAP. Our results suggest that policymakers and project designers should pay more attention to the factors that hindered farmer participation in the BTAP. The participation of landless and disadvantaged groups in the 10-BTAP should be increased to ensure equal and widespread benefits for all users and to ensure a win-win situation of sustainable management of the forest, the environment and livelihood opportunities for all types of forest users.

Peer-Assisted Lifestyle (PAL) intervention: a protocol of a cluster-randomised controlled trial of a health-coaching intervention delivered by veteran peers to improve obesity treatment in primary care

IntroductionAmong US veterans, more than 78% have a body mass index (BMI) in the overweight (≥25 kg/m2) or obese range (≥30 kg/m2). Clinical guidelines recommend multicomponent lifestyle programmes to promote...

Socio-Economic Study of Bote Community People - A Case Study of Darchha Village Development Committee of Palpa District

The expected solution of this research was to identification the level of socio-economic condition of Bote community in study area. The case study was made using narrative and content analysis and some quantitative data were analyzed using simple statistical tools. The study reflect from the community about economic components was not more optimistic. They are considered as Hindu ethnic groups because they worship the holy cow and use its urine (gaut). They have been celebrating all Hindu festival such as Dashain, Tihar, Maghe Sankranti etc. their socio-economic and cultural system is adopted from the Arians and they belong to Matawali caste in the low social hierarchy. They still believe in mystical things like Sikari Pooja, Bayu Pooja etc. and .wearing typical dress .The settlement patterns was found differ them from other ethnic group. The literacy rate is very low. More than 90% households have been suffering from alcoholism. It seems to be the root cause of their backwardness. Some of them even sell goods from their houses to get money of alcohol. As a result of alcoholism, they do not have saving habit and many of them are under debt.

Müzik öğretmeni yetiştirme programlarının analizi: Müzik alanı ders program tasarılarının yapısı

In this research, 2007 music teacher training program prepared by the Council Higher Education in Turkey and Education Faculty music teacher training program changed under adaptation, quality and accreditation to Bologna process in the field of 2018 European higher education were analysed. In this study characterised as a “field study” regarding the environment it was carried out, “descriptive” in terms of method and specifically “document analysis”, it was investigated to what extent music teacher training curriculum designs complied with program development principles, and relationships regarding courses defined within the scope of the program and the goals of the subject areas of music education. It has been found out that there were not sufficient number of members in the curriculum development committee based on “certain criteria” when amended Music Teacher Program Design was created, and there are contradictions between the scope of the curriculum and definition of courses, and there are significant number of theoretical courses in the curriculum. When examining the goals of courses specified related to the Music Teacher Field, allowing teachers to have in-depth understanding and knowledge on their field, in the four-year program, it was determined that the indicators related to “repeatability”, “permanence” and “progressivity” were very low/poor/insufficient. To conclude, suggestions were made related to the studies on reorganisation, update and amendment of the music teacher training curriculum (2018).

Standards Development and Education Committee (SDECom) Update: News for 2022!

The Standards Development and Education Committee (SDE-Com) is responsible for guiding the development of IEEE EMC Society Standards, the training of those involved in the standards making process, and the education of the EMC Society community on all aspects of EMC Standards. The current membership of SDECom consists of 20 individual experts in EMC standards and standards development. While membership in SDECom is limited to members of the IEEE EMC Society, SDECom meetings are open to the public so that any interested person may attend.

Foundation Leaps Over Barriers to Boost Practitioners Moving Forward

Foundation Leaps Over Barriers to Boost Practitioners Moving Forward

Establishment of Interdisciplinary Collaboration and New Field Development Committee

Establishment of Interdisciplinary Collaboration and New Field Development Committee

Deep Dive Identification and Evaluation of Critical Factors Responsible for Poor Routine Immunization Uptake in Oyo State

The uptake of Routine immunization services continues to decline in Oyo State despite best efforts to improve Routine Immunization (RI) services. This study aims to investigate the root cause of poor routine immunization uptake in the State using Ibadan north and Kajola Local Government Areas (LGAs) as sentinel study sites in Oyo state, Nigeria. A cross-sectional Community survey was conducted between 26^th-30^th November 2018 using structured questionnaires uploaded onto Open Data Kit-collect (ODK) mobile software in the 2 LGAs namely Kajola and Ibadan North LGAs, Oyo state. Majority of the respondents Local Immunization Officers, RI Focal Persons, Other Health Workers and Community Members were fully aware of RI services, its benefits/importance and were mostly satisfied with the services they received at their community health facility. However, 95% of the respondents stated that they were not part of the RI planning processes in their communities neither were they actively involved in selecting the date, time or venue for RI in their communities. Also 76% of the respondents stated that Health workers neither rescheduled RI sessions for missed children neither did they visit /track the missed children. Functional Village Development Committees (VDCs) and updated Reaching Every Ward (REW) micro-plan was not present in 67% and 62% of the visited facilities respectively. World Health Organization (WHO) was mostly responsible for funding of immunization activities. Funding and poor engagement with members of the communities have been discovered to be a major contributing factor to poor immunization uptake in these LGAs. We advise that this gap be bridged for the purposes of improved RI uptake in the state.

Online Faculty Development: An African Lusophone Ophthalmic Society Experience During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

PURPOSE:Faculty development for procedural specialists aims at developing both their medical education and surgical competence. This has been challenging during the COVID-19 pandemic, especially in under-resourced settings and African Lusophone ophthalmology community has been no exception. The Mozambican College of Ophthalmology (MOC) and the Continuing Professional Development Committee of the International Council of Ophthalmology (ICO) established a collaboration to enhance simulation-based clinical teaching competence in cataract surgery.METHODS:Ten Mozambican ophthalmologists experienced in teaching cataract surgery participated in a group mentoring assisted 6 month/11 flipped-learning online experience on curriculum design, which included practice-based and social learning strategies, continuous bidirectional feedback, individual and group reflection opportunities, and the demonstration of declarative and procedural competencies. Program evaluation consisted of pre and post-test knowledge assessment; individual homework, informed by curated reading and a recorded lesson; feedback surveys for each module and one month after the program's conclusion, and a longitudinal project on creating a simulation-based education session on one step of cataract surgery.RESULTS:Participants a) highlighted the opportunity to advance their scholarly teaching skills as facilitators; b) showed an increase in knowledge post-test, expressed commitment to improve their learning experiences´ design, include interactive educational methods, and provide constructive feedback; and c) formed a sustained community of practice of ophthalmologists educators (CoP).CONCLUSION:This online faculty development program, assisted by group mentoring, held during the COVID-19 pandemic, facilitated the development of a CoP and was effective in enhancing teaching competence in curriculum design to apply in simulation-based learning environments.

Pozycja polityki rozwojowej w pracach Parlamentu Europejskiego

The aim of the research, the results of which are presented in the article, was to determine the importance of development policy for the European Parliament. The analysis is focused on the last two terms of the EP (VII and VIII). The research uses the method of source analysis and statistical method, as well as elements of participatory observation. The research on the importance of development policy in the work of the Parliament took into account the quantitative dimension – the number of members of the Development Committee; the number of adopted reports as well as the qualitative dimension – the internal prestige of the Parliament’s bodies, the attractiveness of chairing these bodies, the degree of autonomy of development policy. The hypothesis of great importance of development policy in the work of the Parliament was not confirmed. Development policy does not occupy an important place – neither quantitatively or informally. It is less important to the majority of MPs than foreign and security policy, even though Parliament has less power in these areas than in development policy

Municipalities’ organisational capacity to support the implementation of the Multi-Sector Nutrition Plan in Burkina Faso

ABSTRACT The Government of Burkina Faso committed to the multi-sector approach on nutrition in 2014 and has conducted the development of a Multi-Sector Nutrition Plan 2020–2024. This study aims to understand and analyse the Nutrition organizational capacities at the municipal level to support the scaling up of interventions within the National Multi-Sector Nutrition Plan. A qualitative study was conducted at the end of 2017, based on the framework for nutrition capacity developed by the United Nations Network Secretariat in collaboration with five funding agencies, to assess the organizational capacity dimension. Data collection consisted of focus groups and information collection through workshops with key informants. In total, 22 rural municipalities were targeted and 152 key informants were involved, including mayors, municipal councillors, members of the village development committee, and local technical agents in charge of agriculture, livestock and health. The gaps identified were poor integration of nutrition into local development strategic plans, less evolved coordination on nutrition, weak development of nutrition community approaches and dependence on the state budget matched to a non-existent budget monitoring system. The findings showed an unequal distribution and limited number of technical agents to cover villages within a given municipality, inadequate skills to support services expansions such as water and sanitation, health, agriculture and livestock. In addition, no reference was made to monitoring and evaluation, accountability or sharing information. The main capacity needs on nutrition are the transfer of technical competencies from the regional to the municipal level, the strengthening of technical skills on nutrition, and the setting up of an integrated data collection system involving key players. The identification of needs and opportunities and the newly finalized guide on nutrition integration into local development plans and strategies are useful to drive change for multisectoral implementation.

Randomised controlled trial protocol for the PROTECT-CS Study: PROTein to Enhance outComes of (pre)frail paTients undergoing Cardiac Surgery

IntroductionIn the past 20 years, the increasing burden of heart disease in an ageing population has resulted in cardiac surgery (CS) being offered to more frail and older patients with...

Evaluation of an Emergency Treatment Unit – in a District General Hospital – Sri Lanka – A case Study

Emergency Treatment Unit of a hospital is the place where, acutely unwell patients admitted to the hospital, are given the immediate treatment in the critical stage. DGH – Gampaha – Sri Lanka is a tertiary care hospital with a bed strength of 795 with a well - recognized Emergency Treatment Unit. Objective of this study was to evaluate the Emergency Treatment Unit of District General Hospital, Gampaha, Sri Lanka. Data was collected through oobservations, key informant interviews and reviewing registers and records. Findings were subjected to SWOT analysis. 1) Identified strengths included accessibility, Infrastructure, ETU concept, 24 hour service, competent staff, availability of equipment and investigation facilities and Information management. 2) Some weaknesses identified were; shortage of staff, absenteeism, gaps in competency, shortage of equipment and inadequate quality management system. 3) Receiving priority attention by the provincial, regional and the hospital management, Administration Support Team, Hospital Management Committee, Hospital Clinical Society, Hospital Development Committee, Hospital Development Foundation and regular donations were recognized as opportunities. 4) Finally, Unnecessary transfers from peripheral hospitals, by pass of peripheral hospitals by patients, frequently changing of the management and delay in procurement, repairing and condemning processes were noted as threats. TOWS analysis using a TOWS matrix was performed and strategies were developed for further improvement.

Korean Clinical Imaging Guidelines for the Appropriate Use of Chest MRI

MRI는 방사선 위험이 없으며, 높은 연조직 대조도 및 기능 정보 획득의 장점을 가지고 있다. 과거 기술적 한계로 흉부 분야에서 MRI의 사용이 제한되었으나, 최근 기술 발전 및 흉부 MRI의 보험 적용 확대로 흉부 MRI의 적응증과 수요가 급증할 것으로 예상된다. 이에 대한 영상의학회는 한국의 의료 실정에 맞는 흉부 MRI의 적절한 활용과 관련된 지침의 개발이 필요하다고 보고 개발위원회, 실무위원회 및 자문위원회의 의견을 모아 한국형 흉부 MRI 정당성 가이드라인을 개발하였다. 5가지 문장형 핵심질문을 선정하고, 근거기반 임상영상 가이드라인 수용개작 방법론에 의거하여 권고안을 작성하였다. 권고 내용은 다음과 같다. 우연히 발견된 전종격동 병변 환자에서 비종양성 질환 진단을 위하여 흉부 MRI를 권장한다. 폐 종괴가 발견된 진폐증 환자에서 악성 종양과 진행성거대섬유증의 감별 진단을 위하여 흉부 MRI를 권장한다. 악성 흉막 중피종 또는 비소세포 폐암 환자에서 흉벽, 척추, 횡격막 또는 혈관 침범이 의심되는 경우 흉부 MRI를 권장한다. 임산부에서 임상적으로 폐색전증이 의심되나, 다른 검사가 불충분할 경우 비조영 흉부 MRI 혹은 중등도 또는 저위험군 조영제를 가능한 최소한의 용량으로 사용하여 조영증강 흉부 MRI를 고려할 수 있다. 폐첨부 폐암 환자에서 근치적 절제술을 고려할 경우 혈관 및 경막 외 공간의 종양 침범을 확인하기 위해 흉부 MRI를 권고한다.

Risk factors for visceral leishmaniasis in selected high endemic areas of Morang, Nepal: A case control study

Background: Visceral leishmaniasis is a major public health concern in Nepal. During the last few years, several Kala-azar outbreaks have been reported from Terai region including Morang district, Nepal.
 Objectives: The aim of this study is to determine the risk factors associated with Kala-azar at individual and household levels in selected highly endemic areas of Morang district of eastern Nepal.
 Methodology: A case control study was conducted in five endemic village development committees of Morang district with 62 cases already treated from B.P. Koirala Institute of Health Sciences and Koshi Zonal Hospital. Two hundred and forty eight controls were selected randomly from the same village at the ratio of 1:4. Data was collected between September and November 2013 using structured questionnaires. Bivariate and multivariate analysis were done and the final model was selected using the backward elimination strategy.
 Results: This study showed that the majority of cases (29.0%) were from the 13-25 years age group, males are more than females and indigenous caste (74.2%) were affected more than other caste. Living in thatched house (OR 4.57, 95% CI 1.91-10.93), ownership of animal (OR 3.95, 95% CI 1.87-8.37), sleeping on the ground floor (OR 3.90, 95% CI 1.83-8.31), history of migration to India and proximity to other Kala-azar cases within 50 metres distance of household were significant risk factors for visceral leishmaniasis. The association with socioeconomic status remained significant and there was a clear dose – response effect. 
 Conclusion: Living in thatched house, ownership of animals, sleeping on the ground floor, history of migration to India, proximity to other Kala-azar cases within 50 metres distance and poverty are the main risk factors associated with visceral leishmaniasis transmission.

Impact of Bridge Construction for Improved Livelihood in Rural Area

Nepal has thousands of rivers flowing over its terrain. It needs many bridges for smooth transportation. In this background, this study highlights impact of road bridges like infrastructures on rural livelihood and importance of the local participation in such infrastructure development programme. The study area as the Zone of Influence of ChirdiKhola is ward no. 7 and 10 of Phalebas Municipality which has 1026 households and 4423 populations. Household survey, focus group discussion, key informant interview, observation techniques were used for collecting primary data whereas secondary data were generated from district profile and table review. This study reveals that the bridge has directly or indirectly played crucial role in increasing the freight volume, decreasing the freight cost, increase in number of peoples seeking health facilities through health centers. Local peoples participated to identify the need of bridge and cooperated during the construction of bridge for effective implementation. Motorable Bridge plays vital role in social upliftment and generating the new ideas of income generations. This study also put some light on how Motorable Bridges are constructed in local levels through different programmes, Departments of Nepal Government and the role of District Development Committees in Motorable Bridge projects.

Interrogating the role of parents in promoting improved science, technology, engineering and mathematics education in rural day secondary schools in Zimbabwe

Since the establishment of the School Development Committees (SDCs), Zimbabwe has seen increased participation by parents in the governance of schools. The purpose of this study is to examine the role of parents in promoting improved science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education in rural day secondary schools in Zimbabwe. Drawing on a qualitative inquiry, data were gathered by means of five interviews, five focus group discussions and document analysis of minutes of SDC meetings, schools strategic plans and school budgets. The study concludes that parental involvement helped decentralize school decision making, improved school accountability to their communities, provided the avenue for parents to question decisions, and helped accelerate infrastructural development. The study further concludes that inadequate funding in the wake of economic challenges bedevilling the country and low levels of literacy among SDC members militated against effective participation of SDC members in the governance of schools. The study recommends capacitating SDCs executive members through training, empowering them to raise funds for capital development in these schools, and clear delineation between SDC roles and the instructional roles of school principals and teachers.