Professional Knowledge Research Articles

Management of Pediatric Elbow Fractures and Dislocations.

Pediatric elbow fractures and dislocations have always been a challenge from a diagnostic and therapeutic point of view, primarily due to the complex nature of the pediatric elbow, especially its developmental anatomy. They must be diagnosed and treated on time to prevent numerous complications with long-term consequences. With the development of radiology and pediatric surgery and orthopedics, as well as the development of modern osteosynthesis materials, concerning current scientific and professional knowledge, the outcomes are getting better, with fewer acute and chronic complications. This comprehensive review aims to provide clinicians current knowledge about pediatric elbow fractures and dislocations so that in daily practice they have as few doubts as possible with the best possible treatment outcomes.

Exploring Digital Learning Opportunities and Challenges in Higher Education Institutes: Stakeholder Analysis on the Use of Social Media for Effective Sustainability of Learning–Teaching–Assessment in a University Setting in Qatar

The use of social media (SM) platforms in higher education has seen significant growth since the global pandemic disrupted traditional learning methods and forced stakeholders to explore alternatives. This trend is expected to continue with the rise of newer digital learning platforms, tools, programs and pedagogies, particularly within the context of the Fourth Industrial Revolution and the evolution towards Education 4.0 and Education 5.0. Despite a significant level of research into SM’s role in informal learning, there has been limited exploration of its integration into pedagogical practices, particularly regarding assessment challenges and innovations in university settings. Additionally, there is scarce research on mobile applications in academics, hindering the effective integration of SM platforms into curricula. This study addresses these gaps by examining stakeholder perceptions of using SM for educational purposes in a university setting in Qatar. Following a comprehensive and comparative literature review and analysis, a thematic analysis of interviews with 20 stakeholders revealed that SM platforms go beyond communication, serving as tools to enhance professional identity, reputation, research profiles, knowledge dissemination, and social practices, but they lack methodologies to integrate effective learning, either independently or in formal learning/teaching/assessment settings. This study proposes a framework to optimize the use of SM platforms, with a particular focus on sustainability, for lifelong learning and knowledge-based societies leading to more sustainable and prosperous economies. The findings encourage the reconsideration of digital assessment and the expansion pedagogical practices in alignment with modern social learning through an expansive array of SM tools and platforms.

The attitudes, knowledge and confidence of healthcare professionals about cannabis-based products

BackgroundUse of cannabis-based products is becoming more frequent, and it is important that healthcare professionals are informed and confident about them when making evidence-based decisions about their use. This study aimed to gain an international perspective on the attitudes, knowledge, and confidence of healthcare professionals about cannabis-based products.MethodsAn online questionnaire regarding these products was completed by 1580 healthcare professionals (neurologists, psychiatrists, general practitioners, pharmacists and nurses) from 16 countries across Asia, Europe, Oceania, South America, and the Middle East.ResultsRespondents expressed a high level of interest in cannabis-based products (median score 9 out of 10) and reported that they felt knowledgeable about them (median score 6 out of 7). They reported a high level of confidence when providing patients with information on cannabis-based products, returning median scores of 6 and 5 out of 7 for their legality and regulations, and their benefits and risks, respectively. Despite this, healthcare professionals sought further information on cannabis-based products across areas including legality, neurobiology, and scientific evidence. Finally, 59% (n = 930) of respondents considered robust clinical trial evidence as the most important factor to ensure patient safety in the context of these products. Few nominally significant differences emerged between healthcare professionals from different specialities or regions.ConclusionIn conclusion, this large survey of attitudes held by healthcare professionals towards cannabis-based products revealed a high level of interest and a demand for more information. Limitations of this study include potential sample bias and limited external validity.

LIVER ULTRASOUND IMAGING LESION DETECTION BASED ON YOLO

The liver is a silent organ with no pain-sensing nerves. When the body's functions begin to appear abnormal, it may have entered the trilogy of liver diseases: "hepatitis, cirrhosis, and liver cancer." An abdominal ultrasound is a powerful tool for checking liver health. With the rapid development of ultrasound technology, ultrasound machines are gradually developing in the direction of miniaturization and cheapness, transforming from hospital-specific equipment to home medical equipment. However, ultrasound diagnosis requires professional knowledge, which has also become the threshold for the popularization of ultrasound diagnosis. This article uses artificial intelligence and machine learning technology to take the liver ultrasound images marked by professional doctors as a data set. After training of image object detection model YOLO, it can be used to detect tumors, hepatic hemangioma, radiofrequency cautery, abscess and metastatic, the accuracy can reach 98%.

Navigating the integration of knowledge and research evidence in clinical practice for children's foot health: A multi-professional survey.

Access to clinical services for children with foot and ankle problems are important, but unravelling the complexity of practice and service delivery can be challenging. The pursuit and implementation of research evidence is critical for driving positive change in practice, but little is understood about the approaches to knowledge and research acquisition in children foot health. The aim of the study was to: (1) explore multi-professional habits of knowledge and research evidence acquisition in children's foot health; and (2) understand how clinicians integrate information for children and their families into their practice. This was a descriptive, cross-sectional online survey. Participants were included if they worked in the UK and had experience of working within paediatric services. There were complete responses from 247 health professionals, representing physiotherapists (n=160), podiatrists (n=50), orthotists (n=25), nurses and specialists in community public health nurses (health visitors) (n=12). Three main themes were generated from the data: (1) Factors that influence knowledge and inform clinical practice. (2) The role of Professional Bodies in informing professional knowledge. (3) Health Professionals' views on managing health information for parents and caregivers. This work advances understanding of the value health professionals' place in the development of materials for informing professional knowledge, as well as highlighting some of the challenges with translation of knowledge into clinical practice. The findings offer a national perspective of health professionals working on children's foot health and have highlighted that some of the most valued influences on clinical practice come from peer-to-peer networking.

HEREDITARY CONGENITAL NEPHROTIC SYNDROME IN CHILDREN: FEATURES OF THE COURSE, MODERN PROSPECTS FOR LIFE AND HEALTH

Every pediatrician-nephrologist repeatedly have to deal with cases of the birth of childrenwith early onset of nephrotic syndrome, which is characterized by a severe course, persistent progression ofsymptoms, resistance to standard immunosuppressive therapy, questionable and, often, unfavorable prognosesfor life and health, which requires constant improvement of existing professional knowledge, diagnostic andtherapeutic skills. The article presents a review of the scientific literature of domestic and foreign authors,which allows changing the perception of the disease, improving outcomes, giving chances to the patient andhis family in conditions of modern and timely diagnosis and the correct choice of patient management strategy.

Developing a module on the care of LGBTQIA+ individuals for health professionals: Research protocol.

Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex and Asexual (LGBTQIA+) people struggle to identify a healthcare service that understands their problems and needs. Additionally, healthcare professionals also find it difficult to care for LGBTQIA+ as very little is studied or heard about management. The article presents a protocol for a pilot study aimed at the development of an LGBTQIA+ care curriculum for health science professionals. The study includes Phase I: The development of a curriculum based on a literature review and focus group discussion among LGBTQIA+ individuals, and Phase II: Pilot testing of LGBTQIA+ care curriculum. The study outcome will reflect the improvement in the knowledge of healthcare professionals on LGBTQIA+ care.

Hidden flaws behind expert-level accuracy of multimodal GPT-4 vision in medicine

Recent studies indicate that Generative Pre-trained Transformer 4 with Vision (GPT-4V) outperforms human physicians in medical challenge tasks. However, these evaluations primarily focused on the accuracy of multi-choice questions alone. Our study extends the current scope by conducting a comprehensive analysis of GPT-4V’s rationales of image comprehension, recall of medical knowledge, and step-by-step multimodal reasoning when solving New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) Image Challenges—an imaging quiz designed to test the knowledge and diagnostic capabilities of medical professionals. Evaluation results confirmed that GPT-4V performs comparatively to human physicians regarding multi-choice accuracy (81.6% vs. 77.8%). GPT-4V also performs well in cases where physicians incorrectly answer, with over 78% accuracy. However, we discovered that GPT-4V frequently presents flawed rationales in cases where it makes the correct final choices (35.5%), most prominent in image comprehension (27.2%). Regardless of GPT-4V’s high accuracy in multi-choice questions, our findings emphasize the necessity for further in-depth evaluations of its rationales before integrating such multimodal AI models into clinical workflows.

The reality of epilepsy in primary care in Rio de Janeiro: the importance of educational projects for better patient care.

The Basic Health Unit (Unidade Básica de Saúde - UBS, in Portuguese) is the first point of contact in the public healthcare system for people with epilepsy. Primary care professionals need to appropriately diagnose, treat, and refer, if necessary, to tertiary services. To evaluate the knowledge of UBS professionals on the management of patients with epilepsy in Rio de Janeiro. Online questionnaires were performed on the topic of epilepsy before and after exposure to classes taught by epileptologists. A total of 66 doctors participated, 54.5% of whom were residents or trained in family medicine. The majority had from 1 to 3 years of practice. Insecurity prevailed in the management of pregnant women and the elderly. Around 59.1% of the participants referred patients with seizures without examinations. A total of 78% of the participants did not correctly classify seizure types, and 2/3 did not define drug-resistant epilepsy. Induction and broad-spectrum drugs were common. The therapeutic decision depended on availability in the basic health unit (UBS) (81.8%), dosage (60.6%), side effects (34.8%), and age (36.4%). Comorbidities and sex influenced 1/4 of the sample. For 23% of the participants, the type of crisis did not affect the choice. Regarding typical non-pharmacological options, 75% of the participants were aware of cannabidiol, 40.9% of surgery, 22.7% of ketogenic diet, and 22.8% of deep brain stimulation/vagus nerve stimulation (DBS/VNS). A total of 90.2% indicated the need for training. There are deficits in the knowledge of UBS professionals in the management of epilepsy. Specialized training is imperative to optimize the care offered within SUS.

Examining the professional development of hungarian teachers in Romania

This study presents the partial results of a comprehensive research on the professional development of Hungarian teachers in Romania which were gained through adapting and complementing the questions related to the professional development of the 2018 OECD TALIS (Teaching and Learning International Survey). From 15 counties of Romania, 500 Hungarian primary and secondary school teachers completed the online questionnaire. The forms and topics of professional development were studied on a 5-year research period, before and during the COVID-19 pandemic (2017–2021). The results show that the most popular forms of professional development were attending training courses, reading professional literature, and visiting online professional social networking sites. Among the topics of professional development activities subject-specific knowledge and the development of competences necessary for the teaching of the subject were dominated. Teachers found those training courses the most efficient that were coherent and provided opportunities for the practical implementation of new ideas, for active learning and cooperation. In only a few cases were found differences between the opinions of primary and secondary school teachers, and between groups according to teaching experience.

Educator wellbeing and family engagement in Australian early learning settings: perspectives of early childhood educators and families

AbstractWhile the COVID-19 pandemic brought with it multiple challenges for families and the Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) workforce, it also highlighted the essential role of ECEC in the lives of children and families and presented unique opportunities for innovation and learning. The current study sought to explore learnings from this uniquely challenging period, including the factors and strategies that best supported educator wellbeing and family engagement in ECEC settings, from the perspectives of families, centre directors and educators. In 2021, 104 Centre Directors/Educators and 102 families completed online surveys exploring wellbeing and educator–family relationships. Correlations suggest that robust professional wellbeing and resilience are potential enabling factors for strong family engagement, and that supportive organisational structures in ECEC settings are a protective factor for both educator wellbeing and family engagement. In addition, five effective family engagement strategies were derived from the qualitative data: (1) drawing on personal and professional knowledges to enrich children’s learning at home; (2) prioritising regular and reliable communication with families; (3) maintaining familiar relationships and a sense of community; (4) providing person-centred support and a bridge to other services; and (5) nurturing mutually supportive educator–family relationships. Learnings provide important insights that may inform ongoing quality improvements across different ECEC contexts, and to help safeguard against the negative impacts of future global crises.

Research on the Educational Needs of Long-term Hospitalized Children

This study discussed the parents' educational needs and expectations of a university-affiliated hospital in the neonatal and oncology departments in a semi-structured interview survey. Parents generally pay close attention to their children's learning environment in the hospital, the allocation of educational resources, and the organization and implementation of educational activities. At the same time, the parents also put forward clear requirements for the professional quality and attitude of the education volunteers, hoping that the volunteers will have solid professional knowledge, personalized teaching ability, and warm and caring emotional attitude. In addition, parents emphasized the importance of educational support in enriching children's lives, promoting physical and mental growth, focusing on mental health and behavioral management, and expected hospitals to provide more flexible and diverse ways of educational support.

Multiple factors-based damage level assessment method of concrete structures based on evidential reasoning and particle swarm optimization

Previous damage prediction methods of concrete structures usually fall into subjective and unreasonable assessments, which are usually limited to the special application scene with complex physical modeling depending on professional knowledges and experience. To overcome the above limitations, a multiple factors-based damage level assessment method of concrete structures is proposed based on evidential reasoning and particle swarm optimization. According to the method, multi-source data can be integrated for damage rules generation and quantitative damage level assessment automatically. The number and types of the used multi-source data can be chosen freely according to the special application scene. Finally, multi-source data including the normal strain in X-direction, normal strain in Y-direction, and the corresponding shear strain of two concrete structures under cyclic loads are utilized to verify the developed method. The results show that the damage level assessment results match well with the corresponding experimental results, which has a high reliability index based on the developed method. The ability of the method with good generality and flexibility is verified, which shows that the method can be used to achieve the reasonable damage level assessment of concrete structures.

The utopia of transdisciplinary palliative care

Palliative care is a strategy to provide comprehensive care to people with chronic, advanced and incurable diseases, care that demands holistic care that integrates the knowledge of different professionals not only in salud, but in other areas of training, to achieve an articulated way to respond to the needs of the sick person and their close relatives, leaving aside the traditional hegemonic model that is based on the search for healing, from a single knowledge; In the search for this ideal, various concepts such as multidisciplinarity and interdisciplinarity have been used, which, although not yet fully internalized, are advancing towards transdisciplinary palliative care. This article presents a reflection on transdisciplinarity from the perspective of the author Castro Gómez, this concept from university education and the impact on the work reality of professionals regardless of the discipline to which they belong, accompanied by a reflection of the transdisciplinary concept in palliative care and the possible impact on the resolution of palliative needs of the sick person and his family, revealing one of the biggest challenges for health professionals who provide care in this area

Empowering and educating the next generation of pharmacists through children’s books: A quality assurance initiative

ObjectiveThe objective of this quality assurance initiative was to internally measure children’s perceptions of the book, “All Aboard the Rx-Express!” and knowledge gained from its content. MethodsThis pharmacy-focused children’s book was read to elementary-age youth at a rural, Pennsylvania elementary school in the Spring of 2022. A brief, optional, anonymous prepost survey was administered to the youth before and after the reading to measure the book’s impact on third through fifth graders’ perceptions and knowledge of the pharmacy profession. Descriptive statistics, chi squared analysis, independent samples t-tests, and one sample proportions tests were used to analyze survey responses. ResultsOne hundred ninety-one students participated in the presurvey to assess baseline knowledge about the pharmacy profession before the book was read. One hundred eighty-five students answered the postsurvey. Prepost respondent demographics were collected in aggregate and were not significantly different between the pre- and postcohorts. Survey results demonstrated an increase in all questions that asked about students’ perceptions of pharmacists and the profession, and students reported favorable perceptions of the book itself. ConclusionEarly interventions such as this can increase elementary-age youth’s perceptions and knowledge of the roles of pharmacists. Future work in early intervention will be needed to increase interest in the profession and admissions to pharmacy schools.

On the Issue of the Erosion of the Social Stratum of Engineering and Technical Workers During the Years of Socio-Economic Transition (1987–1999)

The author explores the issue of the erosion of the social stratum of engineers and technicians, which occupied a significant place in the structure of Soviet society, under the influence of the transformation processes of the late 1980s–1990s. Using the materials of in-depth interviews, ego-documents, “digital footprint”, and archival sources, with the use of digital methods (analytical platform PolyAnalyst), the author studies the processes of adaptation of engineering and technical intelligentsia to the realities of the transition economy, traces the change of value attitudes of engineers and technicians. The author identifies three key strategies of post-Soviet engineers’ adaptation to so-called “savage capitalism”: cooperative entrepreneurship, application of professional knowledge and skills in the sphere of private household services, and leaving the profession for private trade. She analyses factors that contributed to the choice of this or that strategy, favored and hindered adaptation in general. She concludes that the loss of socio-professional identity led to the deterioration of social well-being of former soviet ITRs, regardless of their former specialization and acquired material status, and, more broadly, led to the crisis of social and civic identity in post-soviet Russia, the consequences of which are still being felt today.

Development of advanced practice nursing core competencies in Saudi Arabia: A modified Delphi study

BackgroundAdvanced practice nursing requires a diverse set of competencies that define what advanced practice nurses need to know and be able to do to deliver safe, effective, and high-quality healthcare. Given the lack of evidence regarding core competencies and the evolution of advanced practice nursing roles in Saudi Arabia, it is becoming increasingly important to develop core competencies to standardize educational and clinical training programs. ObjectiveTo define the core competencies of advanced practice nursing in Saudi Arabia. DesignUtilizing a modified Delphi design and snowball sampling technique, data were collected between April and July 2023 using an online questionnaire consisting of 28 core competencies that was developed based on an in-depth literature review and a critical analysis of advanced practice nursing core competencies published by leading professional organizations. Two rounds of Delphi surveys were conducted. SettingsThe study was set in clinical and academic settings in Saudi Arabia. ParticipantsNursing experts with graduate degrees as advanced practice nurses. ResultsIn Round 1, 34 advanced practice nursing experts reached full consensus on 24 of the 28 core competencies, and four core competencies reached partial consensus. Based on suggestions and feedback from the experts, the investigators revised ten core competencies to reflect the improvement suggestions and created three new core competencies. A total of 26 core competencies were used in Round 2, which achieved a full consensus among the 34 advanced practice nursing experts, under the following six core competency domains: knowledge of advanced practice nursing, person-centered care, professional improvement, professionalism, communication and interprofessional partnership, and leadership and system-based practice. ConclusionsGiven the need for a standardized competency framework, the 26 core competencies proposed in our study have the potential to guide education and training in academic programs and facilitate the implementation of advanced practice nursing in clinical settings.

Knowledge of female genital cutting among health and social care professionals in Francophone Belgium: A cross-sectional survey.

The provision of optimal, equitable and gender-sensitive health-care to women and girls with FGM/C is challenging. Research indicates that health-professionals in receiving countries lack knowledge, confidence and competence in managing FGM/C. In order to develop policies that are suitable to the wide heterogeneity of women from FGM/C practising groups, it is paramount to identify what appropriate care might consist of and what are the knowledge gaps of health and social-care providers. The study-objective was to gain an understanding of the knowledge and practices of professionals working in the area of health in Francophone Belgium where no previous KAP has been done. An anonymous questionnaire with 24 questions was developed targeting healthcare and social-care professionals. The questionnaire was distributed between 6 May and 30 August 2021 via professional organisations for midwifery, social work, GPs, infectious disease specialists, paediatricians and gynaecologists. The results are presented as frequencies, differences in proportions between groups were tested with Pearson's Chi-square, when applicable. Correlations were tested by the Pearson correlation coefficient. The threshold of statistical significance is 5%. Four-hundred-and-sixty individuals filled in the questionnaire of which 42% were medical-doctors, 6% nurses, 27% midwives and 25% non-medical professionals (social-workers and psychologists). 55% of non-medical professionals had provided support for women with FGM/C. Almost 40% of health-professionals knew that there were 4 types of FGM and were able to correctly describe them, 15% were unable to correctly describe any of the 4 types. Those who had already provided care for women with FGM/C were more numerous to know that there were 4 types (52%). Two health-professionals had received requests to perform FGM/C. Twenty-seven midwives and medical-doctors had received requests for re-infibulation. Growing numbers of health and social-care professionals are providing care for women with FGM/C. However, knowledge of FGM/C is suboptimal. Continuous professional training is crucial.

Using English as a Language of Instruction in Rural Schools in Thailand: Key Challenges for Teaching and Learning

Primary school teachers in Thailand are encouraged to use English as a language of instruction across all curriculum areas in their classrooms, not just in English lessons. However, many non-English major teacherswho teach in rural schools struggle to deliver lessons in English due to the lack of professional knowledge and ongoing support for English language usage. This paper considers the experiences of non-English major teachers working in rural schools in Thailand who participated in a coaching and mentoring program to support their motivation and confidence to use English as a language of instruction. A participatory case study research design was used for this study, which included classroom observations and semi-structured interviews with teacher–participants before, during and after the coaching and mentoring program. Some of the key challenges that arose included the use of Thai as a language of instruction, lack of resources and support for the use of English as a language of instruction, lack of clarity in school policies and the limited availability of professional learning for teachers in rural schools.There is an urgent need for additional professional learning support for teachers, especially those working in rural schools, to ensure success of the Thai government’s policy aim to make English available as a language of instruction in all primary schools.

Healthcare professionals' perceptions of digital care in clinical practice for patients with non-cardiac chest pain

Abstract Background Healthcare professionals’ attitudes and perceptions of digital care are crucial for successful introduction of a new digital form of treatment in the workplace. Purpose This study aimed to describe healthcare professionals’ perceptions of digital care in clinical practice for patients with non-cardiac chest pain. Methods A qualitative descriptive study design with individual semi-structured interviews, analyzed using inductive thematic analysis based on Braun and Clarke (2006). Study data were collected by individual digital (15) and face-to-face (2) interviews with licensed healthcare professionals (doctors and nurses) working in emergency care or cardiology. Results The results illustrate healthcare professionals’ perceptions of digital care within clinical settings in emergency and cardiology care for patients with non-cardiac chest pain. Four themes and eleven subthemes were identified. The first theme "New ground to walk on" describes healthcare professionals' experiences of digital care. The second theme: "A challenge to current healthcare system" depicts how digital care was seen as a challenge for the current healthcare system. The third theme: "Digital care has its potential" shows that a majority believed healthcare can gain valuable insights from embracing digital care. The last theme: "Prerequisites for use in clinical practice" describes factors that can facilitate the adoption of digital care in clinical practice. Conclusions The findings delineate the diverse knowledge and experiences of healthcare professionals in digital care. The perception of digital care ranged from skepticism to trust, illustrating challenges in implementing digital solutions in clinical care. Healthcare professionals expressed concerns about potential errors, the reliability of digital solutions, and concerns regarding resistance to change among colleagues. Nevertheless, they also recognized benefits and identified several factors that can facilitate the implementation of digital care into clinical practice and expressed cautious trust in digital care.