Unintentional harm due to healthcare is common, especially in the operating theatre. Previous research, aiming to reduce harm to patients in the operating theatre, has not examined the non-technical skills of anaesthetic assistants. The aim of this project was to identify the essential non-technical skills required by anaesthetic assistants for safe and effective practice, and to develop a behavioural marking system to assess these skills. A literature review identified three articles which described anaesthetic assistants' non-technical skills. An interview study with anaesthetic assistants (n=22) and anaesthetists (n=23) described the use of situation awareness, teamwork and task management more commonly than leadership or decision making. This was corroborated by a critical incident database review of the Australian Incident Monitoring System from 2002 to 2008. The material identified in the interview study was considered by focus groups of anaesthetic assistants (n=6,7,3,4) to generate headings. These themes were considered by anaesthetic assistant lecturers (n=6) in a Delphi questionnaire, and positive and negative behavioural markers proposed. The Anaesthetic Non-Technical Skills for Anaesthetic Practitioners (ANTS-AP) behavioural marker system was completed by a research panel. The prototype ANTS-AP system had three categories: 'situation awareness', 'communication and teamwork', and 'task management', each with three elements. The reliability, validity and usability of the ANTS-AP system were evaluated by anaesthetic assistants (n=48) observing videos of simulated theatre work at a 3.5 hour workshop. The system had good internal consistency, and was able to discriminate good, average and poor behaviours. The element 'coping with pressure' was removed due to its poor inter-rater reliability. Future work will assess the inter-rater reliability of the ANTS-AP system, when observers have the opportunity for calibration. This project has provided anaesthetic assistants a means of structuring observation and feedback for training and reflection with the goal of improving patient care.

No description available.

No description available.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Michigan State University. Dept. of Psychology, 2008. / Title from PDF t.p. (viewed on July 6, 2009) Includes bibliographical references (p. 119-130). Also issued in print.

Thesis (Th. M.)--Dallas Theological Seminary, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 87-88).

Thesis (Th. M.)--Dallas Theological Seminary, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 87-88).

No description available.

The present study examined the effects of adult, film mediated models on the prosocial behavior of school children. Also the effect of congruency and incongruency between the model's response and the response the children were asked to perform was investigated. Thirty third-grade students, 19 female and 11 male, were randomly assigned to three groups. The first group observed a short film of an adult model providing helping (positive) feedback to a young boy who was playing a marble maze game. The second group was treated identically to the first except that the model provided coercive (negative) feedback. The third group observed a neutral (no feedback) model. Each of the three groups was then divided in half. Half of the students from each group were asked to give feedback to an unseen boy who was playing the marble maze game by speaking into a microphone (congruent with model). The other half of the students gave the unseen boy feedback manually by pressing levers (incongruent with model). The results indicated that the students who gave verbal feedback displayed significantly more imitation than those who gave motor feedback. The students who made verbal responses also made statements about the unseen boy's performance on the game that conformed more closely to the type of feedback (positive, negative, neutral) the model provided than those students who made motor responses.

Previous studies have reported that spontaneous startles occur most frequently in the quiet sleep states, and have posited an energy release model in which spontaneous startles occur to release energy which would otherwise wake the infant. An alternative suggestion is that startles serve a homeostatic function by increasing the activity of the infant during periods of low arousal. The purpose of the current study was to examine the function of spontaneous startles using the ongoing cardiac and respiratory activity as indices of arousal. Twenty-six newborn infants were assigned to two groups. The first group was exposed to auditory stimulation which previously had been shown to decrease heart rate and respiratory rate for the first half of the one hour observation period. To the extent that spontaneous startles are related to periods of low arousal, decreasing the ongoing activity via the auditory intervention was expected to increase the rate of startles. The second group received no auditory stimulation. The occurrence of spontaneous startles was preceded by periods of lower than average heart rate and decreasing respiratory rate. Startles were followed by periods of increasing heart rate and further decreasing respiratory rate. In addition, the auditory intervention group reliably showed both a lower heart rate and an increased number of startles while exposed to the auditory stimulation, while the nonintervention group showed comparable rates of startles and heart rates in both halves of the observation period. Further, regardless of group status, most infants had their higher rate of startles in the period in which they had their lower heart rate. Finding lower heart rate and decreasing respiratory rate preceding startles, and lower heart rate and increased number of startles when exposed to the auditory stimulation, suggests that spontaneous startles modulate periods of low arousal in newborn infants. / Ph. D.

Thesis (MSc (Psychology))--University of Stellenbosch, 2005. / Treatment adherence is a great problem in low socio-economic communities of South Africa. The failure to adhere to medication instructions has a negative impact on the patient’s health, social interaction, and on the economy of a nation. The primary aim of this study was to test the Theory of Planned Behaviour. The second aim was to test whether the inclusion of social support of family and friends, as well as psychological factors, improves the Theory of Planned Behaviour’s ability to predict intensions to adhere to treatment instructions. The third aim was to test the relationship between the involved variables and self-reported behaviour, as well as biological indicator that report treatment adherence. There were 79 hypertension patients, 24 diabetic patients, and 14 patients with both hypertension and diabetics, which completed a battery of questionnaires in primary care clinics in and around Stellenbosch.