Account Of Personal Experience Research Articles

Neuropsychological and psychological dysfunctions associated with coronavirus disease 2019: a\xa0case report

BackgroundPatient’s account of personal experiences of having lived through coronavirus disease 2019 is important for understanding the magnitude of the debilitating impact of the infection. There is increasing recognition that the infection impedes multiple functional domains, but to date the evidence remains scarce. Moreover, to the author’s knowledge, there are no documented cases reporting on research data derived from self-reflective first-person experience.Case presentationThe patient was a 59-year-old female psychologist of White self-ascribed ethnicity who had coronavirus disease 2019. She had no history of medical, neurological, or psychiatric conditions and works in a neurosurgery clinic at a large hospital as a psychologist, specializing in neuropsychology. Using the introspective method, she captured the occurrence of neuropsychological and psychological dysfunctions she experienced in the acute stage of the illness, which took place in December 2020 and lasted for 17 days. Treatment of coronavirus disease 2019 was conducted in the home environment under medical supervision and followed a standardized protocol adopted at the time in the country.ConclusionsThe data derived from the first-person experience indicated that among the most salient cognitive functions impacted by the disease were: executive control, working memory, attention, concentration, and processing speed.Furthermore, emotional instability; mood swings; racing, repetitive, or intrusive thoughts; uncontrolled associations; dizziness; fatigue; disbalance; and sleep disturbances featured consistently throughout the illness. The overall profile of these dysfunctions suggests disruption in the overall operation of the brain and particularly in the functioning of the frontal lobes. Although less tangible than the physical symptoms, the neuropsychological and psychological dysfunctions associated with coronavirus disease 2019 form a distinct cluster that has a highly debilitating impact on a person’s well-being.

The Challenge of Distance Learning

This essay explores the sudden shift from residential higher education to remote learning in the United States, a consequence of the novel coronavirus. It is a personal account of experiences as a professor at a Midwestern university. Many instructors had no training in online teaching. For university faculty, Covid-19 meant having to transform courses from in-person instruction to a remote platform practically overnight. Among the student comments I received were that I managed the online transition well. Over the next academic year, 2020-21, universities face challenges in resuming on-campus teaching, and the possibility that a new outbreak of the virus might bring a repeat of the Spring 2020 semester. Although that possibility sounds dire, there is hope that the shift to remote learning may offer a silver lining in the form of expanding course offerings beyond geographic areas and reaching a wider audience. For liberal arts institutions that are struggling financially, a rise in the use of remote learning and online education may offer a new beginning, and for public universities, potential new revenue given declining state support, a silver lining.

The ghettoization of persons with severe mental illnesses

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to outline the reflections of a person with lived experience of a severe mental illness (SMI) and former peer support worker in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, who has also worked for seven years in mental health research. It describes a tendency of resources and services to create ghettos of people with SMIs by failing to support the integration of people with SMIs into the community at large or in exploring options for meaningful, fulfilling occupation, reinforcing social exclusion and ghettoization. Design/methodology/approach This paper shows a reflective and narrative account of personal experiences and observations of the ghettoizing tendency in mental health services. Findings Mental healthcare professionals tend to support people with SMIs in engaging activities within resources for the mentally ill, and not in carrying out activities in the community at large. The range of activities offered is limited, an obstacle to finding meaningful, fulfilling occupation. Harmful psychological effects include self-stigma, low self-esteem and a sense of marginalization, generating a ghettoized mentality. The difficulties encountered in an effort to leave the mental health ghetto are touched on with examples of how to overcome them. Practical implications The need for professional support for social integration of people with SMIs is identified, which could ultimately favor social inclusion of people with SMIs. Originality/value It is written from the perspective of a user and provider of mental health services, who also has seven years’ experience in mental health research.

From group analytic to systems-centered consulting: a comparison of experience

ABSTRACTThis article provides a personal account of experiences of consultation to staff working in residential child care. The paper starts with experiences of receiving consultation while working in a therapeutic community, then of providing consultation to children’s homes, firstly from a group-analytic perspective and subsequently using a systems-centred approach. The author considers the goal of consulting to staff teams who care for traumatised children and draws conclusions about the different approaches regarding which are most likely to achieve the stated goal. Functional subgrouping – the central method of systems-centred approach – is described in action.

ON THE RECORD ABOUT WALT TAYLOR: A PERSONAL ACCOUNT

AbstractWalter W. Taylor, especially through his 1948 monograph A Study of Archeology, has been a major influence on the theory and methods of American archaeology. His contribution has recently been assessed in a book by a number of students and colleagues, but none of them had first-hand experience with Walt in a fieldwork setting. This is an account of personal experiences with Walt Taylor, beginning in the graduate program at Southern Illinois University (SIU), but focused on a summer National Science Foundation (NSF) project in Zacatecas in 1964 that was designed to study Chalchihuites/Chichimec interactions in a frontier area, and what that fieldwork experience revealed about Walt Taylor as an archaeologist and as a person.

Learning to lead: a practitioner perspective

This reflective essay presents a personal account of experiences and models that have shaped the development of the author as a leader in tertiary education. It is presented from the perspective of a practitioner whose career has led her through academic and administrative roles in Australian and UK institutions into her current position as academic registrar of a large, global university. The author concludes that, in learning to lead, the ideas that have been influential and which she has integrated into her practice are those that resonate with her own understanding of leadership and which are consistent with her values.

Paul's journey

PurposeThe authors of the previous paper “Staff and ex‐service user co‐working: a counselling service's enhanced response to multiple exclusion homelessness” feel that Paul's contribution and achievements can only be fully appreciated with reference to his own story. It is published here, to appear alongside the account of their joint experience of co‐working, as part of the series on personal perspectives on development work. It aims to give an account of one person's journey into homelessness and mental health problems in the context of multiple exclusion and homelessness.Design/methodology/approachThis paper is a biographical account, with personal reflections.FindingsThere are no findings as such; this is an account of personal experience. It speaks for itself.Originality/valueFully personal accounts are rare, in research journals. Yet personal experience is the bedrock of research, and of outcomes. This account is published here, as a necessary balance to more formal, objective and statistical measures.

Tackling the barriers to disabled parents’ involvement in their children’s education

Promoting parental participation plays a significant role in education policies across Britain. Previous research has identified various barriers to involving disabled parents. This paper reports findings from part of a study examining disabled parents’ engagement in their children’s education, which focused on good practice. Twenty‐four case studies were conducted with parents with a range of impairments. Common themes are drawn out, including the perceived importance and benefits of involvement, the need for effective communication and access, both to buildings and information, and the significance of an inclusive school ethos. The findings are discussed in the context of previous research. While some findings accord with the social model of disability, it is argued that more nuanced understandings of disability, which take more account of personal experience, offer a fuller explanation. Implications for policy and practice are discussed including staff training, facilitating disclosure of impairment and local authority responsibilities.

Asperger Syndrome and Alcohol--Drinking to Cope? By Matthew Tinsley and Sarah Hendricks

Jessica Kingsley Publishers, London, 2008, ISBN-13: 978-1843106098; Price: £13.99 (paperback). 144 pp. This small booklet describes the possible relationship between having an Asperger syndrome (AS) and the impact on this of co-morbid alcohol abuse. It is more an individual's account of personal experiences lasting over several years and the subsequent return from depths of despair to a degree of normal functioning. The account by Matt (one of the authors) is comprehensive, moving and lucid, and occupies almost half the book. …

The 1970s – A joint revolution

Summary This article considers how the nature of orthopaedics changed from a focus on immobilisation and nursing care to specialised surgery. Problems of infection and thromboembolism were already a matter for concern, which increased with the increase in technological interventions. This article considers the development of joint surgery in the 1970s particularly hip arthroplasty and how the precursors of minimally invasive surgery were born through a personal account of experiences at the time.

Limited value of physical examinations in upper respiratory illness: account of personal experience and survey of doctors’ views

Medical tradition considers a physical examination (PE) an essential part of the clinical encounter. In real medical practice, however, a full PE may not be necessary when the diagnosis is clear after anamnesis and general impression. We assessed the value of PEs in 500 diagnoses of upper respiratory infection (URI) and the attitudes of 123 doctors regarding the utility of PEs in virtual cases. Computerized files of consecutive cases with a diagnosis of URI over 8 months in two practices were reviewed and correlation studies between the extent of PE and clinical outcomes were performed. In addition, doctors' attitudes and declarations about PEs were compared. Five hundred paediatric and adult patients were included. Less than one-fifth underwent a full PE. More patients who underwent a full PE returned because they still felt unwell or their parents felt they were unwell. Fewer doctors declared actually having performed PEs than supported giving one in two virtual cases of URI. Specialized doctors were less inclined to perform PEs than doctors without a specialization. Our study suggests that in many cases presenting as URI, doctors may conduct limited PEs or even omit them entirely.

Comment: The Financial Times business schools ranking: What quality is this signal of quality?

Abstract This comment starts with a personal account of experiences with business school rankings, which provides an introduction and illustration to the main points that follow. The first point is that noise dominates real news in published rankings, accounting for at least half and possibly much more of observed ranking changes. Thus, while ranking innovations have very real consequences in terms of applications, giving, and stakeholder perceptions, they need to be heavily discounted as carriers of new information. The second main point is that Devinney et al.'s finding of stable rankings for top schools and volatile rankings for lower‐ranked schools is to be expected given what rankings measure and how they are constructed. Top schools reside in the thinly populated right tail of the school quality distribution, and therefore real differences in their quality are much more substantial and enduring than those for lower‐ranked schools residing in more densely populated regions of this distribution. Published rankings, however, project these varying real differences into uniformly spaced ordinal rankings, obscuring the fact that ranking differences mean very different things for top schools and lower‐ranked schools. The comment concludes with some ideas about how to improve the rankings.

Your little doorstep is my wall: A personal experience of living in a disabling society

This article is a personal account of experiences of living as a disabled person after a stroke. The theoretical basis is time geography, with an emphasis on restrictions and barriers encountered. The article is structured around the concepts of impairment (the physical and/or mental state of a person) and disability (the status conferred to a person on the grounds of this impairment). The article gives an account of the everyday life of an impaired/disabled person in Trondheim.

Learning to eat after radiation therapy for throat cancer

Purpose: The initial purpose was to find more expedient ways for learning to eat for personal rehabilitation. The secondary purposes were to inform other radiation therapy patients and to inform clinicians and therapists involved in rehabilitation of throat cancer patients.Method: This is an account of personal experiences of the author who is a throat cancer survivor. This rehabilitation engineer, and his social worker wife, systematically sought and found more effective ways for learning to eat again.Results: More effective approaches for discovering, preparing, presenting and consuming food by recovering throat cancer patients were identified.Conclusion: The rehabilitation process for patients with radiation damage to the throat can be enhanced through simple methods and dedicated efforts of the patients themselves.

The mentor's tale: a reflexive account of semi-structured interviews.

In this article, Helen Hand provides an account of personal experience as a novice researcher collecting data using semi-structured interviews. The data were collected as part of a study involving nurse mentors who had had the experience of mentoring and subsequently failing a student nurse. The paper emphasises the importance of reflexivity as a method of signposting to the reader 'what is going on' in the research process. In conclusion, it is suggested that creating the 'joint account' is a complex but worthwhile task, but that great skill is required by the researcher in order to participate in the construction of reality.

Path to the Superintendency

This article is a personal account of experiences of discrimination against an Asian American female educator as she attempted to obtain a county superintendency position. The concept of faultlines is used to address issues of social similarities and differences. Policy implications and practices intended to bring about change are explored.

Dampier, ou la relation des îles aux tortues

Gérard Blanc : Dampier or the account of tortoise island. When he visited the Galapagos Islands in April 1684, Dampier gave an impersonal account, typical of travellers of his time. The experience of reality was transformed by the way it was read. In his Grand dictionnaire géographique, La Martinière replaced the long description of the tortoises by frequently picturesque accounts taken from various other travellers. In his Histoire des voyages, Prévost also presents the text ; he manages to harmonize the geographical information and the account of personal experience, but he ignores the treatise on the tortoises. We try to throw light on this dark zone which the compilers have skirted around.

The Taiwan 2000 study—experiences and impressions

In September 1988 the final report on the Taiwan 2000 study is due to be published. 1 This article describes the background and reasoning behind the initiative to the study, and some aspects of the results and recommendations arising from the draft report. 2 Extracts from the report are not presented, as this can only be done after publication, and preferably by experts. Instead, the article is a personal account of experiences and impressions gained through the author's involvement in the setting up of the study.

Good Vibrations

This article is a personal account of experience in the use of therapeutic vibration techniques with mentally and physically handicapped people. The equipment is described and case studies provided. The author has found the techniques to be of practical use for many people with a combination of problems.

Makeshift medicine. Combating disease in Japanese prison camps.

Much has been written of the horrors experienced by prisoners of war at the hands of the Japanese, but little has been told of the ingenuity of these men in overcoming seemingly insuperable difficulties to improvise and devise ways of helping each other. This paper is a personal account of experiences in Changi, in jungle camps on the Burma-Thailand railway, and in camps in Japan.