Professional Responders Research Articles

Detección de violencia del compañero íntimo en atención primaria de salud y sus factores asociados

ObjectiveIntimate partner violence (IPV) against women is a significant public health and human rights problem. Primary care professionals play a key role in detecting and addressing this issue. The aim of this study is to determine the frequency of IPV and its associated factors in primary care by means of a screening questionnaire and to describe the main actions taken in identified cases. MethodsCross-sectional study in 15 health centres in four autonomous regions of Spain with a total of 265 health professionals. The information was collected through the self-administered PREMIS questionnaire (Physician Readiness to Manage Intimate Partner Violence Survey), which includes variables concerning screening questions, sociodemographic factors, level of training/knowledge about IPV, perceptions and actions. A descriptive and analytical study was conducted. Results67.2% of participants said they ask about IPV during consultations. The most frequent actions were: referring patients to other departments, individual counselling and information delivery. ≥21hours of training, an advanced training level, knowledge of policies and programmes and the implementation of an appropriate protocol and reference resources were all factors that increased the likelihood of investigating IPV. The asking of questions increases in line with professionals’ perceived level of training in IPV and the provision of a case management protocol. ConclusionsTwo thirds of health professional respondents said they inquire about IPV. Given the influence of training in IPV and awareness of the resources to address the issue, it is essential to continue investing in the IPV training of healthcare personnel.

Perceptions of Obesity and Management Practices in a UK Population of Leisure-Horse Owners and Managers

Obesity remains prevalent in the UK leisure sector of horses and ponies. An inability among horse managers to recognize obesity in their animal will exacerbate this and preclude weight-loss initiation. The aim of the current study was to evaluate horse manager's perceptions of obesity and report on management factors that may influence the high obesity prevalence. A two-tier, Internet-based questionnaire was developed using lateral photographic images of horses/ponies (assigned a body condition score in vivo by an experienced assessor; tier 1). Respondent data gathered included the following: involvement in the equine sector, ability to identify overweight animals, and scoring suitability of animals for participation in different disciplines. Tier 2 (option to participate at conclusion of tier 1) gathered horse-owner information regarding animal management practices. Tier 1: Of 539 respondents, 98% (n = 528/539; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 96.3%–98.9%) were female. Amateur respondents (81%; n = 435/539; 95% CI: 77.1–83.8) exceeded professional respondents (19%; n = 104/539; 95% CI: 16.2%–22.8%). Only 11% respondents (n = 60/539; 95% CI: 8.7–14.1) correctly identified all overweight animals (6/12). A sport horse, cob horse, and pony were rated significantly lower (toward underweight) for competing in showing compared to other disciplines, tier 2: 177 responses. Owners reported obesity prevalence: 4.5% (n = 8/177; 95% CI: 2.3%–8.8%). Seasonal changes in horse/pony weight and management routines were reported. In conclusion, horse managers vary in their ability to visually identify overweight animals and consider it appropriate that animals intended for the show ring should carry more weight. Tier 2 adds to epidemiologic literature regarding UK equine management practices.

Living through suicide loss with an Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD): an insider guide for individuals, family, friends, and professional responders

"Living through suicide loss with an Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD): an insider guide for individuals, family, friends, and professional responders." Bereavement Care, 36(1), p. 46

Improving situation awareness in crisis response teams: An experimental analysis of enriched information and centralized coordination

In responding to an emergency, the actions of emergency response teams critically depend upon the situation awareness the team members have acquired. Situation awareness, and the design of systems to support it, has been a focus in recent emergency management research. In this paper, we introduce two interventions to the core processes of information processing and information sharing in emergency response teams to analyze their effect on the teams’ situation awareness: (1) we enrich raw incoming information by adding a summary of the information received, and (2) we channel all incoming information to a central coordinator who then decides upon further distribution within the team. The effect of both interventions is investigated through a controlled experiment with experienced professional responders. Our results show distinctly different effects for information enrichment and centralization, both for the teams and for the coordinators within the team. While the interaction effects of both conditions cannot be discerned, it is apparent that processing non-enriched information and non-centralized information sharing leads to a worse overall team situation awareness. Our work suggests several implications for the design of emergency response management information systems.

Study of 9/11 Responders Continues to Unveil New Information on PTSD

Study of 9/11 Responders Continues to Unveil New Information on PTSD

Implementation of online opioid overdose prevention, recognition and response trainings for professional first responders: Year 1 survey results

BackgroundThis article reports on the first web-based implementation of an opioid-overdose prevention, recognition and response training for professional first responders. The training was disseminated nationally over one listserv in November 2014. The same year, following Act 139, which mandated the provision of an online training for police officers in Pennsylvania, the Pennsylvania Department of Health approved the training. It was subsequently adopted as the primary training tool for police and other first responders in Pennsylvania and has been used as a training tool by first responders nationally. MethodsAnalyses employed descriptive statistics to report characteristics of a sample of 387 professional first responders who completed a survey about their experience with the online training. Z-ratios were used to compare independent proportions related to overdose, naloxone, and satisfaction with the training between key subgroups, and paired t-tests were used to compare participant responses to a range of items pre- and post-participation in the training. ResultsBetween January–October 2015, 4804 first responders took the training; 1697 (35.3%) agreed to be contacted; of these, 387 (22.8%) completed a survey about the training and subsequent overdose response experiences. The majority (86.4%) were from Pennsylvania, with police representing over half of the sample. Analysis of the post-training survey indicates high satisfaction with content, format and mode of delivery, and high satisfaction with items related to confidence and overdose reversal preparedness. ConclusionsThis study demonstrates the feasibility and acceptability of implementing online training for first responders in overdose prevention, recognition and response.

Women's preferences and knowledge about the legal competences of midwives in Brussels, Belgium. A descriptive observational study

Objectiveto explore women's preferences with regard to their preferred health professional during labour and childbirth in case of an uncomplicated pregnancy, and to gain insight into women's knowledge of the legal competences of midwives. Designa descriptive observational study. SettingBrussels metropolitan region, Belgium. Participantswomen in their reproductive age, living in the Brussels metropolitan region, with Dutch or French as their first language (n=830). Measurementsa ten-item standardized questionnaire'Midwife Profiling Questionnaire' (MidProQ) was developed to determine which health professional respondents would prefer to assist them during labour and childbirth if there were no complications and to assess their knowledge about midwives’ legal competences during pregnancy, labour and childbirth. Descriptive statistics were used to report the findings. To identify relationships between the socio-demographic variables of the women and her preferences, knowledge and opinion Chi² analysis were used. FindingsFor 68.0% of the participants in an uncomplicated labour (n=564) and 66.3% of the participants with an uncomplicated childbirth (n=550), a midwife is the preferred health professional. Brussels women prefer an obstetrician in an uncomplicated labour (n=730, 88%) and for uncomplicated childbirth (n=756, 91.1%). Only 20.2% of the respondents (n=168) consider midwives to play a central role in an uncomplicated pregnancy. The knowledge of Brussels women about midwives’ legal competences during pregnancy, labour and childbirth is rather poor, especially in youngsters and women who have never given birth. Key conclusionsIn general, for Brussels women, midwives are not the first preferred health professional for an uncomplicated labour or for childbirth, and they do not consider midwives to play a central role in an uncomplicated pregnancy. The legal competences of midwives are not known very well, especially by youngsters and women who have never given birth. The Belgian medical model of maternity care and women's experiences affect their preferences and knowledge about the legal competences of midwives and their opinion about the central health professional in an uncomplicated pregnancy. Implications for practiceTo enhance more women-centred care and initiate change in the current maternity care culture in Belgium, public education, structural changes in maternity services and strategies to inspire public opinion to initiate cultural change are suggested. Involvement of midwifery organisations, other health professionals in maternity services and policy-makers with women's groups and potential service users is key.

Workload differences across command levels and emergency response organizations during a major joint training exercise.

This study reports on an initial test using a validated workload measurement method, the NASA Task Load Index (TLX), as an indicator of joint emergency exercise effectiveness. Prior research on emergency exercises indicates that exercises must be challenging, ie, result in high workload, to be effective. However, this is often problematic with some participants being underloaded and some overloaded. The NASA TLX was used to test for differences in workload between commanders and subordinates and among three different emergency response organizations during a joint emergency exercise. Questionnaire-based evaluation with professional emergency responders. The study was performed in conjunction with a large-scale interorganizational joint emergency exercise in Sweden. A total of 20 participants from the rescue services, 12 from the emergency medical services, and 12 from the police participated in the study (N=44). Ten participants had a command-level role during the exercise and the remaining 34 were subordinates. The main outcome measures were the workload subscales of the NASA TLX: mental demands, physical demands, temporal demands, performance, effort, and frustration. The results showed that the organizations experienced different levels of workload, that the commanders experienced a higher workload than the subordinates, and that two out of three organizations fell below the twenty-fifth percentile of average workload scores compiled from 237 prior studies. The results support the notion that the NASA TLX could be a useful complementary tool to evaluate exercise designs and outcomes. This should be further explored and verified in additional studies.

Use of Mobile Devices, Social Media, and Crowdsourcing as Digital Strategies to Improve Emergency Cardiovascular Care: A Scientific Statement From the American Heart Association.

Cardiac arrest, acute myocardial infarction (AMI), and stroke affect millions of people in the United States annually.1 Despite significant advances in medical treatments for these conditions, they remain a major public health problem and a leading cause of morbidity and mortality.1 A critical common element in optimizing care and outcomes for these conditions is the timely recognition of symptoms and initiation of treatment. For example, rapid initiation of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) is associated with improved survival from cardiac arrest.2 Similarly, early recognition and presentation after onset of symptoms of AMI and ischemic stroke enable implementation of critical therapies such as primary angioplasty and thrombolysis, which are known to improve outcomes.1 Indeed, the “Chain of Survival” for emergency cardiovascular and cerebrovascular care (ECCC) starts with prompt identification of the condition and early activation of the healthcare system to rapidly initiate care.3 Unfortunately, despite national efforts that include public education initiatives and clinical practice guideline recommendations from entities such as the American Heart Association (AHA), major gaps remain in the timely identification of symptoms and initiation of ECCC.4–6 As one example, studies of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) have consistently noted delays in the initiation of bystander CPR.7 For AMI, there have been advances in the provision of timely primary angioplasty for ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI), as reflected by significant improvements in door-to-balloon times.8 However, the time from patient symptom onset to seeking care for possible myocardial infarction has not improved significantly.9,10 Similarly, for stroke, there continue to be advances in door-to-needle times, but stroke symptom recognition and seeking of treatment by patients and their families remain a major barrier to timely stroke care.11–16 Public and clinician education efforts alone are not sufficient to reduce gaps …

Daily hassles, their antecedents and outcomes among professional first responders: A systematic literature review.

Occupational groups such as firefighters, military officers, paramedics and police officers are exposed to a combination of acute, severe and accumulated everyday stress. Drawing on the daily hassles perspective on stress, the aim was to synthesize existing research on daily hassles in professional first responder settings into a theoretical model. A systematic mixed studies review with an integrated design was undertaken. The selection process resulted in 40 articles meeting the inclusion criteria. The selected papers represented two literature reviews, one qualitative study, eight longitudinal studies and 29 cross-sectional studies. Five superior categories emerged in the analysis: Individual antecedent and continuously framing factors, Environmental antecedent and continuously framing factors, Appraisal and coping processes, Daily hassles and Outcome. Suggestions for future research are presented.

AN ELECTRIC SHAKE TABLE SYSTEM FOR DISASTER AND EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS TRAINING

This study presents the design and development of an electric shake table system. The system was used to train civilians and professional responders for disaster preparedness and emergency training. The developed system can simulate actual ground shaking by combining both horizontal and vertical shaking motions produced by the two induction motors. Moreover, the table simulation can produce intensity ranging from III to VIII in accordance to the Philippine Volcanology and Seismology (PHIVOLCS) Earthquake Intensity Scale (PEIS). The table’s motion was tested using a wireless digital seismograph to measure its effectiveness in tracking different earthquake intensities.

Integrating unorganized volunteers in emergency response management

Purpose– When emergencies occur, ordinary members of the public are often the first to respond. However, their use and integration in emergency response remain a challenge. The purpose of this paper is to explore mechanisms and strategies for integrating unorganized volunteers in emergency response.Design/methodology/approach– This is a qualitative case study. A series of anonymized, semi-structured interviews were conducted with representatives of the key emergency response organizations – the police, ambulance service, fire and rescue service, and the Red Cross, located in the city of Tromsø. In addition, regulatory documents used by these organizations were examined, including laws, contingency plans, procedural handbooks and checklists.Findings– Professional responders acknowledge the resource unorganized volunteers may represent when additional capacity is needed. However, being uncertain about their availability and competence, professional responders find it hard to integrate unorganized volunteers through formal mechanisms as contingency planning and exercises, but rather rely on informal and individual case-by-case considerations. The local Red Cross, who are part of the established response system, are developing procedures to integrate unorganized volunteers through training, exercises and response operations. This provides an innovative hybrid approach to volunteer management.Originality/value– Available research provides limited information and advice on how to integrate unorganized volunteers effectively in emergencies. This study provides insights in formal and informal mechanisms of integrating unorganized volunteers in emergency response. It also provides lessons from a case of volunteer management through the Red Cross.

Brookes, G., Pooley, J. A., & Earnest J. (2015). Terrorism, Trauma and Psychology: A multilevel victim perspective of the Bali bombings. New York, NY: Routledge.

Dedicated to the victims of the 2002 Bali bombings, Terrorism, Trauma and Psychology: A multilevel victim perspective of the Bali bombings provides a comprehensive insight into the dimensionality of the effects experienced by those involved in terrorist attacks: victims, their family members, and volunteer and professional emergency responders. Intended as an essential reading for scholars in the fields of social and clinical psychology, victimology, and terrorist studies, this book is also a good background reading for those willing to learn how the Bali bombings of 2002 rank on the global scale of terrorist attacks.

Scalable and mobile context data retrieval and distribution for community response heterogeneous wireless networks

Recent studies have indicated that community response networks, locally grouping both professional emergency responders and residents by using mobile and social networking technologies, can significantly improve disaster response. In particular, community response networks formed by mobile users/devices communicating by using only heterogeneous wireless ad hoc links, called herein CRHWNs, can exploit context awareness, defined as the capability of providing applications with full awareness of execution context. In fact, the correct and timely distribution of the current situation, such as health state and position of injured people, can substantially improve community coordination, thus increasing the possibility of saving human lives. Unfortunately, real-world context-aware services in disaster area scenarios require efficient, reliable, and scalable context data distribution and retrieval, and these properties clash with the limited resources usually supported by mobile devices and wireless communications. Along that direction, this article presents our context data distribution infrastructure for CRHWNs, which achieves data distribution efficiency and reliability by also exploiting useful quality indicators, such as data retrieval time and trustworthiness. We also show how our solution increases context data distribution/ retrieval scalability by dynamically self-adapting (a limited number of) data distribution paths and optimizing context data pushing to interested consumers. Experimental results validate our main assumptions and demonstrate how our solution introduces a limited runtime overhead.

Integrating health insurance assessments into oncology care.

253 Background: Nearly 10% of the U.S. population lacks health insurance coverage. Healthcare professionals are often asked by their patients about health insurance options. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) has brought new health care options and consumer protections for people coping with cancer. Unfortunately, there is a plethora of misinformation about these changes. Healthcare professionals are uniquely positioned to provide patients with accurate, quality information, improving patient quality of life. Methods: The presentation will cover the implementation of the ACA at the federal and state levels and the impact of the ACA on the cancer community. Attendees will learn about new consumer protections and health insurance options, and receive concrete tools to conduct clinical assessments that address access to health insurance coverage and the subsequent impact on psychosocial needs. Results: Our surveys have found that 75% of oncology healthcare professional respondents were asked for guidance on how healthcare reform might affect their patients. However, only 7% of those surveyed felt “very comfortable” answering questions about the ACA. Therefore, there is an obvious gap between the knowledge level of healthcare professionals and what they are being asked by their patients. Oncology healthcare provider attendees will gain a better understanding of health insurance options available to their patients. Attendees will receive practical tools to answer questions and provide appropriate resources, thereby alleviating anxiety, and improving quality of life for patients. Conclusions: In order to effectively navigate patients through the cancer care continuum, oncology healthcare providers must be armed with up-to-date knowledge about health insurance options and protections, and given concrete tools for conducting clinical assessments that address a broad spectrum of psychosocial needs.

Preferences for a Professional Doctorate in Philanthropy Program

To date, there are 42 PhD programs (Mirabella, n.d.) within the United States in which people can focus on advancing knowledge in nonprofit management and/or philanthropic studies. Focusing on nonprofit and philanthropic studies in a PhD program involves students taking one to two nonprofit foundational courses at the master’s degree level along with the rest of their doctoral level courses and then writing a dissertation in their desired subject area. However, most nonprofit-focused PhD programs involve earning the entire PhD in another subject area, such as public administration or political science. Only one program in the United States at Indiana University, Purdue University, Indianapolis (IUPUI), allows students to pursue a PhD in philanthropic studies. However, because of the scarcity of research on doctoral level education in nonprofit and philanthropic studies, it is unknown if these PhD programs advance students for their intended careers in the academic or professional realm. Professional doctorates focused in philanthropy may be one option to advance students in their nonacademic careers. In this study, I report findings from a survey of 552 nonprofit and philanthropic professionals about their preferences for doctoral level education. Findings show that respondents wanted to pursue a professional doctorate rather than a PhD. For professional doctorate respondents, the traditional in-person classes incorporating case studies, discussion, and individual projects were the most preferable program format. Respondents also indicated that they would be like to be part-time doctoral students and commit 2 years to their doctoral studies. The final product that they would prefer to work on is an applied project or applied research. These findings suggest challenges and opportunities to implementing a professional doctorate program focused in nonprofit management and/or philanthropic studies.

Designing for Networked Community Resilience

Communities have been described to be at the heart of the preparedness for and the response to disasters. The increasing connectedness has made communities more vulnerable for their dependence on a complex network of critical infrastructures. At the same time, this very connectedness has the potential to enable communities to self-organise, engage, and connect with other communities to improve their resilience. While the pathway to more resilience is promising and has many advocates, the response to crises and disasters, time and again reveals the challenges related to (i) ad-hoc switching from preparedness to response; (ii) ad-hoc connecting professional responders, communities, volunteers, and local authorities; and (iii) designing systems and tools that are tailored such that the feedback from local communities can be taken into account for coordination and planning. Therefore, a paradigm shift is needed in designing crisis and disaster management information systems linking ad-hoc response to longer-term planning, in which networks of communities are at the core of the process. This paper sets out to provide a critical review on community-resilience literature. From there, it develops a research design principles for information systems to improve community resilience.

Internet Panels, Professional Respondents, and Data Quality

Abstract. Most web surveys collect data through nonprobability or opt-in online panels, which are characterized by self-selection. A concern in online research is the emergence of professional respondents, who frequently participate in surveys and are mainly doing so for the incentives. This study investigates if professional respondents can be distinguished in online panels and if they provide lower quality data than nonprofessionals. We analyzed a data set of the NOPVO (Netherlands Online Panel Comparison) study that includes 19 panels, which together capture 90% of the respondents in online market research in the Netherlands. Latent class analysis showed that four types of respondents can be distinguished, ranging from the professional respondent to the altruistic respondent. A profile of professional respondents is depicted. Professional respondents appear not to be a great threat to data quality.

Is a strategy of bio-socio-ethic necessary?

The aim of this paper is to assess the need for a common ethics strategy shared by 2 of the cornerstones of human welfare: the healthcare and social services sectors. An observational cross-sectional descriptive study was performed by surveying social services and healthcare professionals. A purposive sampling technique was used. The questionnaire consisted of 10 questions about ethical conflicts in professional practice and respondents' views on a proposed shared approach to bioethics and ethics in social intervention. 124 professionals completed the questionnaire, 56% of the health sector and 44% of the social services sector. About 90% professionals surveyed had had to make difficult ethical decisions in their work and would welcome a common approach to ethics in the social services and healthcare sectors. 75% said that conflicts are occurring more frequently in both sectors simultaneously and that they were resolved preferably individually and independently. The survey respondents believe that a common approach to tackling ethical conflicts in professional practice is required. Nevertheless, it is still rare for ethics committees to intervene in the conflict resolution process and for decision-making support and evaluation tools to be used.

Drowning - An update on prehospital and intrahospital treatment strategies

500000 people die from unintentional drowning each year worldwide. Drowning accidents occur to humans of every age, while fatal drowning is the leading cause of death among boys 5 to 14 years of age. In Germany, however, most drowning victims are elderly people. Considering the multitude of accident settings, ranging from bathing accidents in lakes to shipwrecks at sea, professional first responders need to adapt to various scenarios. This article summarizes the pathophysiology of drowning, particular features of prehospital life support and current knowledge on the further therapy of victims of near fatal drowning accidents.