ABSTRACT
Background There is a strong imperative to include patients and the public in palliative care research, but the literature is dominated by discussion of the methodological, practical and ethical difficulties (van der Steen, Bloomer, & Martins Pereira, 2022. Palliat Med. 36:4). The concerns raised are complex and varied but they include sensitivities surrounding talk on death and dying, the presumed vulnerability of people at endof- life, research burden, the role of gatekeepers, and the perceived potential of doing harm (Crowhurst, 2013. Int J Soc Res Methodol. 16:463;Blum, Inauen, Binswanger et al., 2015. Prog Palliat Care. 23:75;Turner & Almack, 2017. Int J Soc Res Methodol. 20:485). Aims The study investigated the unintended consequences of pandemic control measures during the first wave of the Coronavirus pandemic in the UK. Methods We draw on an inclusive qualitative research study informed by constructivist grounded theory methodology (Charmaz, 2006) on the experiences of young adults (aged 18-40) with life-limiting or life-shortening conditions. The project was led by a multi-disciplinary team of researchers including co-researchers with lived experience. Twenty-eight young adults participated in in-depth online interviews and were asked to reflect on their involvement in the study;this paper explores some of the methodological implications of this. Results Findings highlight the opportunities for participants of being involved in palliative care research, even at a time of crisis, when the possibility of doing harm might reasonably be heightened. Four themes were identified that address this including the opportunity to: (1) help others and influence change, (2) talk about private, seldom-discussed issues, (3) receive therapeutic benefit and, (4) reciprocity and exchange. Conclusions Our study shows that within inclusive qualitative research, participants are not the passive, vulnerable actors that they are assumed to be. In contrast to the view that participating in research is distressing and harmful, this study shows that it can give individuals the opportunity to share hidden, often painful stories in a context that can be experienced as positive and enriching. This project has explored the experiences of an under-researched group and considered the importance of bearing witness to their experiences through research.
ABSTRACT
Housing and the City explores housing histories, theories, and projects in diverse geographies. It presents a geographically dispersed history of the twentieth-century modern housing project and its social diagram, juxtaposed with case studies from the past and the present that suggest that we can live and work differently. While the contributions are diverse in their theoretical approach and geographical situation, their juxtaposition yields transversal connections in the conception of the home and the city and highlights the diversity of architectural solutions in the formation of housing and its communities. The collection also reveals architecture’s contribution to the construction of the self and communities, the individual and the collective-as both urban spatial entities and socio-political concepts. Housing and the City provides essential reading for students, academics, and practitioners interested in the history, theory, or current design of housing. At a time when cities are witnessing new ways of working, changing social demographics, increased geographical mobility, and mass migrations, as well as the pervasive threat of the climate crisis-all trends exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic-Housing and the City presents a historical and theoretical reflection on the question: what does it mean to be at home in the city in the twenty-first century?. © 2022 selection and editorial matter, Katharina Borsi, Didem Ekici, Jonathan Hale, and Nick Haynes;individual chapters, the contributors.
ABSTRACT
The COVID-19 pandemic has fundamentally altered the pedagogical approach to education at every level of training, including at the undergraduate level and graduate or professional level. These unprecedented times have tested academic resilience, agility, creativity, and adaptability in all aspects, including inventive alternative teaching methods. With an increasing reliance on virtual instruction, self-directed learning, and hybrid models of instruction, certain approaches of hands-on training, practice-based learning, and evaluation have had to evolve. The University of Minnesota's Master of Medical Device Innovation students are typically immersed in clinical environments through physician shadowing in the operating room, evaluating unmet needs and untapped areas of potential innovation. Engineers who can immerse themselves in surgical education, shadowing, and frontline medical experience can better appreciate, recognize, and enhance current medical technologies and processes. With the OR case restrictions in the era of COVID-19, these learners were faced with limited clinical exposure and thus limited familiarity with the dynamics and processes of clinical practice. As such not only education, but the functioning of the entire industry is stunted. From an instructive perspective, this creates a challenge for students attempting to generate relevant and feasible practicum ideas, accurate prototypes, and offers fewer opportunities to develop these ideas alongside the experts and medical professionals - the target audience. Simulation education provides a means for students to engage with clinical practice in a meaningful way that bridges the gap between clinical exposure and virtual learning. A hands-on approach in which students were able to practice fundamental surgical skills of suturing, knot-tying, and the basics of laparoscopy. Learners were offered three didactic workshop sessions that introduced these skills and then were given opportunities to perform with supervision from expert educators. Low-cost, low-fidelity models of pertinent anatomy and physiology provided students an immersive experience that allowed them to develop a deeper understanding of interventional skills. Three two hour-long sessions of guided skills practice on low-cost simulators were attended by the 2022 Masters of Medical Device Innovation cohort and subjective measures of their understanding of the fundamental concepts were evaluated. High-level findings of these workshops suggest that simulation education is an effective tool in advancing the baseline understanding of surgical principles as opposed to virtual instruction and may offer some further benefit, not possible even through clinical shadowing itself. © 2022 by ASME
ABSTRACT
Two days after the University of Utah Seismograph Stations (UUSS) staff were required to leave campus and work remotely, an Mw 5.7 earthquake struck the Salt Lake Valley near the town of Magna, Utah. This event was the largest instrumentally recorded earthquake in the Salt Lake Valley and the largest earthquake ever felt by most residents. The timing of this event-at the start of a lockdown in response to the COVID-19 pandemic-made the UUSS response to this earthquake an extra challenge. Other factors such as a toxic plume caused by the ground shaking, inclement weather, and a mountain lion also impacted the work. The response tested the continuity of operations plan that had been in place since 2007, response protocols, and communications with partners and the public. Overall, the UUSS earthquake response was successful: A valuable and arguably unprecedented dataset of strong ground motions from normal faulting was generated, magnitudes and locations of thousands of earthquakes were shared in a timely fashion, unfounded rumors and general questions were promptly responded to via traditional and social media, and initial scientific results were submitted for publication. © Seismological Society of America