Meetings of the Health & Medical Sciences Division of ATINER
Program (Athens Local Time)(In the program presentations are included from all the subjects scheduled to be presented in parallel)(Note: each presentation includes at least 10 minutes for questions and discussions if available)
12.30-13.00
Yelda Komesli, Assistant Professor, Altinbas University, Turkey. Title: Evaluation of the Side Effects of two Different Pharmaceutical Forms by Designing a Sustainable and Reproducible Celiac Rat Model that Can be Induced with Olmesartan Medoxomil.(PowerPoint)
Olmesartan Medoxomil (OM) is an angiotensin receptor blocker and has the adverse effect of celiac like enteropathy which was accepted by the FDA in 2013. This disease is characterized by severe diarrhea, weight loss and enteropathy. Although there are many case reports associated with olmesartan-related enteropathy in humans, it has not been described in a long-term animal model study so far. We developed a self-microemulsifying drug delivery system (OM-SMEDDS) in our previous study to reduce this side effect of drug and to enhance bioavailability. In this study, an artificial hypertension model was established with dose of 185 µmol /kg L-NAME (N ω-nitro-L-arginine methyl ester) twice in a day intraperitoneally in Wistar albino rats. To determine and compare side effects, the OM-Suspension and OM-SMEDDS were administered at 1.3 mg/kg therapeutic dose during one-month period to the rats. Tension of rats was recorded by measuring from their tails with non invasive blood pressure system. We observed celiac like enteropathy findings like villous atrophy and intraepithelial lymphocytosis and clinical changes like weight loss and severe diarrhea after the treatment with OM-Suspension during one-month experiment. It was also observed that the antihypertensive efficacy of the OM-SMEDDS formulation was higher than the suspension during the experiment and did not cause enteropathy, diarrhea and weight loss by reducing intestinal exposure. Hereby we evaluated the side effects of two different pharmaceutical forms by designing a sustainable and reproducible celiac rat model that can be induced with olmesartan medoxomil.
13:00-13:30 Mari Salminen-Tuomaala, Principal Lecturer, Seinäjoki University of Applied Sciences, Finland. Title: Developing Emotional Intelligence and Situational Awareness through Simulation Coaching.(PowerPoint)
This paper relates to an ESF-funded research and development project (August 2017 – December 2019), whose purpose was to provide simulation-based coaching to small and medium-sized enterprises, based on staff learning needs assessments. The project aims at increasing staff’s theoretical and practical competence in social and healthcare enterprises (n=20) in one region in Finland. In all, the participants number 230, including staff in mental health and child protection services.The novel simulation coaching concept developed for the project is mainly implemented in multiprofessional groups in the enterprises’ own facilities. This facilitates transfer to the company context and allows several professionals from the same enterprise to participate simultaneously. The facilitators or coaches work in pairs, another addition to the multiple professional perspectives, which together create a more complete overall picture of the simulated theme and situation.Those project participants, who work in mental health and child protection services, listed learning needs related to emotional intelligence, empathy skills and situational awareness. Emotional intelligence can be defined as the ability to recognize and manage one’s emotions, to recognize other people’s emotions and to use this information to guide one’s thinking and action. The term empathy is used to refer to the capacity to cognitively and affectively to place oneself in another person’s position. Situational awareness means that through selection and processing of information, an individual perceives and comprehends what is occurring in the environment, and knows how the situation might evolve and what the implications might include.
13:30-14:00 Min Zou, Nurse, Guizhou Provincial People’s Hospital, China. Title: Design and Application Analysis of a Special Oral Mask for Patients with Mouth Breathing.(PowerPoint)
At present, there is no continuous and effective protection for the oral cavity of patients with open mouth breathing. This study aims to solve the existing problems , such as patients’ uncomfortable , increased material consumption, heavy burden on patients’ care and heavy large workload of nurses. For this end , we have invented a special oral protective mask for patients with mouth-opening breathing, and used in the clinical practice to test its effect. To achieve the purpose of this study, we established the Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI) team. The CQI team used brainstorming method to develop countermeasures for the existing problems in oral care methods for patients with open mouth breathing, and designed initial samples for clinical application. Then continue to improve according to the problems in the application . Finally, a utility model patent was formed. An interventional study was conducted in China between 18 Mar. and 10 Sep. 2019.The study included 80 participants. The patients were divided into the routine care group and the improved care group, 40 cases in each group. We observed the rate of lip bleeding, oral ulcer rate, lung infection rate, hospitalization time, total cost of oral care, and patient oral care satisfaction during the application period. The results of practice analysis showed that patients in the improved nursing group were significantly lower than those in the conventional nursing group in terms of lip bleeding rate, oral ulcer rate, lung infection rate, length of hospital stay, and total cost of oral care (P<0.05) , and the patient’s oral care satisfaction was significantly improved (P<0.05). The results of this study indicate that the oral mouth mask for patients with mouth breathing can increase patient comfort, effectively moisturize and protect the patient’s mouth, and does not affect the patient’s head mobility. It can also reduce the burden on caregivers and the workload of nurses, improve the prognosis of patients, reduce the length of hospital stay, and reduce the total cost of hospitalization. It can provide reference for the care of patients with mouth breathing.
14:00-14:30 Yildiz Denat, Associate Professor, Adnan Menderes University, Turkey. Title: The Manual Dexterity of Nurses and Factors that Affect It.(PowerPoint)
Aim. The purpose of this study was to define the manual dexterity of nurses and factors that affect it. Methodology. The sample for this descriptive and analytical study consisted of 96 nurses who worked in an education and research hospital in the south region of Turkey and were willing to participate in the study. The data collection tools were a survey and the Purdue pegboard test. The data were assessed using SPSS version 18.0. Since the data showed normal distribution, T-test for independent groups, One-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and Pearson Correlation Analysis were also used for data analysis. For the results, we accepted p <0.05 as statistically significant. Results. The mean age of the nurses who participated in the study was 27.48±4.52 years. The mean dominant hand dexterity score of the nurses who participated in the study was determined to be 18.82 ±1.37, the mean non-dominant hand manual dexterity score 17.14±1.42, the mean both hands dexterityscore14.64±1.30, the sum of the mean scores of the right hand, left hand and both hands phases 50.61±3.64 and the mean assembly dexterity score was determined to be 41.26±6.92. According to the results of the study, all manual dexterity scores of the female participants were found to be higher than their male counterparts; non-dominant hand, both hands, left hand+righthand+both hands, and assembly scores of the ones who did not have a hobby were found to be higher (p<0.05). A negative correlation was found between the dominant hand means scores and working durations as a nurse (r=-0.21), and Body Mass Index (BMI) (r=-0.35). No significant correlation was found between the non-dominant hand dexterity scores and age, working duration as a nurse, as well as BMI scores. A negative correlation was observed between both hand dexterity mean scores and age (r=-0.22), working duration as a nurse (r=-0.24), as well as BMI (r=-0.24) scores. A negative correlation was determined between right hand+lefthand+both hands mean scores and age (r=-0.22), working duration as a nurse (r=-0.24),as well as BMI (r=-0.28) scores. A negative correlation was found between assembly mean scores and age (r=-0.22), working duration as a nurse (r=-0.31),as well as BMI (r=-0.31) scores. Conclusion. The results of this study indicated that gender and lack of hobby affect hands dexterity; and that some types of manual dexterity decreased as age, years of working as a nurse, and BMI increased. The results of this study may constitute a normative data for future studies which would be conducted on this issue.
14:30-15:00 Emel Tugrul, Associate Professor, Adnan Menderes University, Turkey. Title: The Views of Nursing Students about the Purposes of Internet Use and the Effect of Technology on Educational Activities.(PowerPoint)
Introductıon: Today, technology is frequently used in all levels of education and teaching methods. The use of technology in education makes learning more effective and permanent. It has become compulsory to benefit from technology both in formal education and distance learning in educational environments in universities. Simulations, virtual reality environments, three-dimensional visuals are the technological developments used in nursing education. Many innovations such as showing videos about the subject, following the class with their own computers in the classroom, making internet connections during the course, sharing the lecture notes from the internet and watching the books and the lessons from the students’ phones enriched the education life in the university. Today, university students in the z generation consist of young people who are conscious, high in technology usage and have no limits in accessing information. Even though the opportunities of these students are very high, the aims of using the internet and how much they benefit from technology in their educational life are being discussed. Aim: The aim of study to examine the opinions of the students who received nursing education in the university about the use of internet and the effect of technology on educational activities. Method: This is an analytical cross-sectional study. The study was carried out with 145 students studying in a nursing faculty in 2018-2019 academic year and taking nursing innovation course given by the researcher. Simple random sampling method was used for sample selection. The data were collected by a questionnaire prepared by the researcher and a scale determining the purposes of internet use. The scale, which was used to determine the Internet use purposes of the students, was developed by Balcı and Ayhan in 2007 for university students. This scale consists of 46 items and is a five-point Likert type with six sub-dimensions. Questionnaire and scale were applied to the students in the classroom environment. Students were informed about the study and verbal consent was obtained. The data were evaluated with the help of SPSS 18 program. The suitability of the data for normal distribution was tested by Shapiro-Wilk test. Number, percentage and average tests were used to evaluate the data. For the results, we accepted p <0.05 as statistically significant. Results: The mean age of the students who participated in the study was 19.69 ± 1.24 and 73% of the students were female and 26.9% were male. 49.7% of the students had their own computers, 83.4% had 8 GB or more monthly internet usage, 36.6% had 3-4 hours a day and 17.2% had 6 hours or more a day spent on the Internet. The best technological facilities in the school were the library (49.7%) and the simulation laboratory (20.0%), but 60.7% stated that technology was not utilized in educational activities in the school. Students stated that opinions about the use of technology in the lessons; increased creative thinking skills (57.9%), enriched the course content (50.3%), increased the quality of education (48.3%), the use of video was effective in learning (48.3%), 5) and increased motivation (43.4%). Subscales of the Internet use purposes scale mean scores; social escape motivation 3.08 ± 0.27, information motivation 3.85 ± 0.20, leisure time activities 3.90 ± 0.24, economic benefit 3.67 ± 0.20, social interaction 3.93 ± 0 , 14 and entertainment size was determined as 3.82 ± 0.4. Conclusion: The results of this study that the students who participated in the study thought that the use of technology was effective in their learning activities, increased their motivation and developed their creative thinking skills. It was determined that students mostly used the internet for social interaction, free time activities and obtain information.
15:00-15:30 Shital Ghataliya, Associate Professor, Rajkot Saurashtra University, India. Title: Cardiovascular Responses to Autonomic Stressor in Young Adults Belonging to Hypertensive Family.(PowerPoint)
Hypertension is a mjor risk factor for cardiovascular disease as well as stroke. In present era, stress leads to autonomic dysfunctions; which act as aggravating factor for development of hypertension. The present study was carried out in 1st year medical students. To assess the effect of stressors, we have studied change in Mean Blood Pressure (MBP) and Heart Rate (HR) by inducing autonomic stressors by cold pressure test and valsalva maneuver in young healthy adults as indicator of autonomic dysfunction in hypertensive family as well as non-hypertensive family. On the basis of present study, the offspring of hypertensive parent may be advocated to change or bring modification in their lifestyle, to prevent or delay hypertension at a later stage in their life.
15:30-16:00 Lunch
16:00-16:30 Aleksandra Tryniecka, Adjunct Lecturer, Maria Curie-Skłodowska University, Poland. Title: Paradise Lost: Milton’s Portrayal of Satan and the Ethics of Moral and Readerly Choices.(PowerPoint)
According to John Deigh, “ethics is the philosophical study of morality. It is a study of what are good and bad ends to pursue in life that involve matters of morality” (7, An Introduction to Ethics). Ethics aims to, as Deigh observes, “establish conclusions about what a person ought to do” (7). The readers of John Milton’s Paradise Lost often feel torn in their ethical judgment when acquainted with the literary character of Satan. Milton’s Satan, in contrast to such a character as supposedly central yet unfortunately insipid Adam, possesses what Percy Shelley describes as “magnificence” (Defense of Poetry, 1821). Numerous readers find themselves drawn to Milton’s Satan, at the same time experiencing an ethical conflict between their readerly and moral choices. From a moral point of view, satan represents evil, yet, apparently, from a readerly perspective, Milton’s satan as a literary character apparently fails to appear as a personification of ruthless evil as such. Instead, Milton’s Satan takes on the role of a moral being who is inwardly conflicted and surprisingly torn between traditional notions of goodness and evil in a humanlike, imperfect way. Milton’s Satan, a vivid, multisided and endlessly tragic hero who faithfully persists in his purpose, aspires to nobility yet remains consumed by a self-annihilating pride and hatred, appears to be one of the most enigmatic and striking literary characters ever created. In my presentation I study the readers’ ethical perspectives on Satan regarded both as Milton’s character and an entity universally signifying evil. Moreover, I draw on the notion of conflicted readerly choices, which highlight the struggle between the recognition of Milton’s Satan as a moral being (readerly choices) and remaining faithful to one’s system of beliefs (moral choices). In my analysis I adhere to a classroom study which strongly points to this ethical conflict between sympathizing with Milton’s Satan as an empathic reaction and rejecting evil as a moral commitment.
16:30-17:00 Dimitrios Paparas, Senior Lecturer, Harper Adams University, UK. Title: Mentoring Culture in Small Specialist Universities.(PowerPoint)
Mentoring and coaching offer meaningful and significant ways in which academic staff can encourage and support each other in their professional development and ultimately go on to enhance the student experience. Mentoring can take on formal or informal relationships. Traditionally, at Harper Adams University, mentoring has been considered more of an informal relationship between senior individuals (mentor) who are paired with younger individuals (protégé). Formal mentoring is often initiated by an organization to assist with one or more of the following functions: new employee socialization/enculturation, complement established formal learning processes, improve performance, and/or realize potential (Gibb, 1999). The purpose of this study is to explore the research related to staff mentoring programs in Higher Education. The following are the research questions: 1. How does informal mentoring happen? 2. What are the benefits of mentoring programs? 3. How has the mentoring program helped participants to articulate their growth needs in Teaching, Research-Scholarship, and Service? 4. What are the barriers to developing mentoring programs in Higher Education? How can they be overcome? 5. How can mentoring in small specialist Institution be optimised? In order to ensure the validity and reliability of our results we will deploy a number of different data collection methods, the mixed methods research. Mixed methods research is a methodology for conducting research that involves collecting, analysing and integrating quantitative (e.g., experiments, surveys) and qualitative (e.g., focus groups, interviews) research. We will also deploy the Net-Map which is an interview-based mapping tool that helps people understand, visualize, discuss, and improve situations in which many different actors influence outcomes. By creating Influence Network Maps, individuals and groups can clarify their own view of a situation, foster discussion, and develop a strategic approach to their networking activities. More specifically, Net-Map helps players to determine what actors are involved in a given network, how they are linked, how influential they are, and what their goals are.
17:00-17:30 Clément Labi, PhD Student, University of Luxembourg, Luxembourg. Title: On the Facelessness of Evil : How Board Mechanics Explain Unethical Decisions.(PowerPoint)
Why do we assign ethical intentions or mechanisms to certain businesses, which by design do not possess intentionality in the same way as actual business people do? Are said businesses entitled to ascribe to themselves codes of ethics? Are these only opportunistic shortcuts from the judges or the boards? On the contrary, the article will attempt to describe how the unethical aspect of some decisions could not be satisfactorily explained in terms of the intentions of individuals, but rather as being the products of collective choice at the level of the governing body of groups (for instance, but not only the board of directors of a corporation), notably because the sense of individual responsibility is diluted and scruples assuaged. Therefore, not only can businesses in themselves can be assessed in terms of ethics, but the reality of a literally faceless business is congruent to institutionalised wrongdoing.
17:30-18:00 Fernando Aguiar, Tenured Scientist, IFS-CSIC, Spain. Title: Fighting Disgust: How do Doctors and Nurses Manage Repugnance towards Illness and the Sick?(PowerPoint)
The things that produce most disgust include body substances (feces, urine, semen, saliva, mucus) and human body excrescences (warts, abscesses). However, disgust towards people is not limited to their body but it is usually extended to, or it symbolically contaminates, the whole person. Many people are not only disgusted by morbid obesity, but by fat people in general (Park et al 2007). We are not only disgusted by illness, but by an ill person as a whole, who sullies everything s/he touches (Oaten et al 2009). Disgust is thus an emotion with a great capacity to stigmatize, which implies rejection and more severe moral judgements (moral disgust) against those who are different, impure, undesirable, or ill (Nussbaum 2006; Haidt 2012). Our talk will focus on disgust toward illness and, therefore, toward the sick themselves among doctors and nurses. Although disgust and illness seem to be especially linked (disgust is a disease-avoidance emotion), hardly any empirical work focuses on how doctors and nurses manage both their possible disgust at the disease and the patient and what measures they take to manage that disgust. Quite the contrary, it is something usually hidden, which is not talked about. But it exists: “Protecting the Self from the unclean and polluted Other is a reaction that every nurse experiences, from the surgical ward to the care of homeless persons. But the social (as well as the professional) constructions of nurses, in a way, forbid the verbalization of emotions such as disgust and repulsion”. (Holmes, D., Perron, A., O´Byrne, A. (2006), Understanding disgust in nursing: Abjection, self, and the other, Research and Theory in Nursing Practice, 20, 4, p. 310). Thus, the questions we are going to ask are the following: To what extent do doctors and nurses feel disgusted by patients (in the case of diseases with disgusting abscesses)? Do they try to hide that disgust? What strategies do they follow? How does it affect them when they deal with the sick? Do they treat inappropriately them, lacking empathy, for example? To answer them we will present the data of an online survey to 800 Spanish doctors and nurses. Our work is framed in what can be considered as both empirical ethics and medical ethics.
18:00-18:30 Shawna Mudd, Associate Professor, Johns Hopkins University, USA. Title: Simulation Implementation Utilizing Telepresence Robots in an Online Nurse Practitioner Program.(PowerPoint)
Online nursing programs offer flexibility and access to students, but there is need for innovative ways to assess student progress and achievement of clinical competencies by faculty. The use of technology can provide an innovative way of student assessment of clinical competencies. Faculty at Johns Hopkins School of Nursing implemented the use of telepresence robots for formative and summative evaluation of students in a multiple scenario simulation setting for students in an online post master’s pediatric acute care nurse practitioner program. Simulation scenarios were developed with a focus on the required competencies of the acute care pediatric nurse practitioner and utilizing the Jeffries Simulation theory a simulation expert for their development. This cutting-edge technology allowed the student to participate from a distance in a simulation taking place on campus. Students participated remotely in a simulation that required acute management of multiple patients. The telepresence robot enabled students to obtain relevant histories, identify relevant physical exam assessment needs, order and interpret data (labs, imaging, vital signs), develop differential diagnosis, and develop and implement a management plan. Students were given the opportunity to demonstrate competency as a part of an interprofessional team as well as the ability to have professional engagement with family members and patients. This technology provides a multi-modal approach to an online curriculum and can provide a framework for implementation in other programs as an adjunct to student formative and summative assessment.
18:30-19:00 Olgica Ceric, Veterinary Medical Officer, US FDA, USA. Title: How Two United States Veterinary Laboratory Networks Are Collaborating to Advance Animal and Public Health via A One Health Initiative to Obtain Antimicrobial Resistance Data From Animal Pathogens.(PowerPoint)
Antibiotic resistant bacteria are a major concern for human and animal health. The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) are both charged with enhancing their efforts to identify emerging resistance in animal pathogens with the ultimate goal of increasing stewardship. This report provides initial findings of this unique study. In 2018, FDA’s Veterinary Laboratory Investigation and Response Network (Vet-LIRN) continued a pilot project with twenty “source” laboratories to conduct antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST) of S. pseudintermedius and E. coli from dogs and Salmonella sp. from any host. These are collectively called “SES” isolates. For 6 months laboratories also tested 12 additional “other” bacteria per month, non-targeted isolates obtained from any host. FDA received AST data from a total of 2974 isolates (724 S. pseudintermedius, 716 E. coli, 576 Salmonella, and 958 “Other”). Concurrently, USDA APHIS’ National Animal Health Laboratory Network (NAHLN) initiated the first year of the NAHLN AMR pilot project, covering the time period of January 1, 2018 to December 19, 2018. Nineteen laboratories provided AST data to the NAHLN from 3213 veterinary bacterial isolates. Four livestock species (cattle, swine, poultry and horses), and two companion animal species (dogs and cats) were covered. Bacterial isolates surveyed were Escherichia coli (E. coli) (1700 isolates across all animal species), Salmonella enterica spp. (584 isolates across all species), Mannheimia haemolytica (380 isolates from cattle), and Staphylococcus intermedius group (548 isolates from dogs and cats). This is a joint report of information from these two studies, highlighting the collaborations between FDA, USDA and all participating laboratories. The datasets do not overlap; the thirteen laboratories that provided data to both networks collected the first 4 SES isolates per month for Vet-LIRN, and subsequent isolates for NAHLN. Both networks followed Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI) AST testing methods. In the NAHLN study, E. coli and Salmonella were most frequently associated with enteric infections in cattle, swine, and poultry, while urinary tract infections were the primary source of E. coli from dogs and cats. However, in horses, E. coli was correlated with reproductive tract infections. Similarly, the E. coli in dogs isolated by the Vet-LIRN laboratories came predominantly from urinary tract infections. As expected both networks found that the S. intermedius group isolates were most commonly associated with skin/wound infections in both dogs and cats. Similarly, certain Salmonella serotypes appear to be correlated with enteric infections and septicemia in cattle (serotypes Cerro, Dublin and Typhimurium), and enteric infections in swine (serotype 4,5,12:i:-).
19:00-19:30 Bonnie Robeson, Senior Lecturer, Johns Hopkins University, USA. Title: Strategic Health Care Management Education Utilizing Project-Based Experiential Learning.(PowerPoint)
This paper will discuss the Health Care Client Strategy Consulting Practicum course, one of three Experiential Learning courses in the MS Health Care Management degree. At the Carey Business School, project-based experiential learning (EL) is the process of applying business knowledge and skills in real-world environments while embracing the complexity of teaming, partner engagement, context, and creative problem solving. The experiential learning model includes feedback and reflection, enabling students to strengthen a set of core competencies–identified by the school as the “Carey Competencies”. Carey Business Schools believes the competences of (a) empathy, (b) growth mindset, (c) resilience, (d) innovative perspective, and (e) leadership are critical in today’s evolving marketplace.
The learning objectives for the Health Care Strategy are:
Size up, quickly and accurately, complex and unstructured situations by identifying the core problems and issues in a healthcare setting
Analyze quantitative and descriptive data to identify strategies which are appropriate to each situation, evaluate alternatives, and recommend specific courses of action for creative solutions to problems/issues
Select and apply the appropriate business tools, such as SWOT, PESTEL, Financial Analysis, etc. to a health care analysis.
Analysis Case studies in the Health Care space to hone critical thinking skills.
The course objectives are to prepare the students in the MS Health Care program either to be a consultant or to be a successful leader in the health care field. The course presents a systematic approach to analyze a healthcare business by first understanding the position within the health care network. The environment in which health care is nested is a dynamic complex external environment ruled by polices and regulations and a vibrant internal environment with advancing technologies and changing demographics. Therefore, the approach is to develop a strategy to prepare for future possibilities. Developing a clear understanding of the: (a) direction of the relationship of technologies to medical therapies, (b) trends in demographics to predict the services required, (c) predict the changes in policy and regulations pertaining to health care insurance and (d) financial considerations of integration and mergers in the health care space. The course material provides a framework for the teams to place their particular client within. The teams’ projects provide a context on which the course knowledge content is applied. Teams select the most appropriate methods for analyzing the situational analysis and for plotting a course forward. Therefore, the content learning objectives are similar to any traditional health care strategy course. The Health care Client Consulting Practicum is designed as a two sequential courses, each having eight-week sessions. The numerous elements are carefully and systematically designed into the courses and circles back to review and advance the learning.
To date, projects have included a marketing plan for a startup kidney care company, process improvement in a methadone clinic, employee motivation at for-profit hospital, marketing and pricing model for a Patient Engagement Program, and employee retention at a home care company to name a few.
19:30-20:00 Anne Bruce, Professor, University of Victoria, Canada. Title: Holding Secrets while Living with Life-Threatening Illness: Normalizing Patients’ Decisions to Reveal or Conceal.(PowerPoint)
Communicating openly and directly about illness comes easily for some patients, while for others fear of disclosure keeps them silent. In this paper, I will present findings about the role of keeping secrets regarding health and illness. These findings were part of a larger project on how people with life-threatening illnesses re-story their lives. A narrative approach was used drawing on Frank’s dialogical narrative analysis and Riesman’s inductive approach. Interviews were conducted with 32 participants from three disease populations: chronic kidney disease, HIV/AIDS, and cancer. Findings include case exemplars, which suggest keeping secrets is a social practice that acts along continuums of connecting-isolating, protecting-harming, and empowering-imprisoning. Keeping secrets about illness is a normative practice that is negotiated with each encounter. Findings call nurses and other healthcare providers to rethink the role of secrets for patients by considering patient privilege, a person’s right to take the lead in revealing or concealing their health and illness experience.
20:00-20:30 Vickie Hughes, Assistant Professor, School of Nursing, Johns Hopkins University, USA. Title: Trouble-making, Transformation, and Tradition: A Transcultural Review of Nurse Leaders’ Perspectives in the Republic of Ireland.(PowerPoint)
Objective: The purpose of this study was to understand nurse leadership development within the Irish context. Background: Limited literature is published related to nursing leadership development within small island countries. Methods: Explorative semi structured interviews, underpinned by a phenomenology philosophy, were conducted to understand the ascribed meaning of nurse leadership development experiences within the Irish context. Findings: The major themes from this study included: leadership strategies, political acumen, cultural influence, and gender norms. Conclusion: The Republic of Ireland nurse leaders used participatory leadership styles, assertive communication, and political acumen to influence the advancement of national policies, nursing education and advanced practice opportunities.
21:00-22:30 Greek Night (The event did not take place due to the limited number of attendance. Those who paid and were not able to attend will be offered a free voucher according to our policy: https://www.atiner.gr/coronavirus)
Tuesday 5 May 2020
08:00-11:00 Urban Walk (The event did not take place due to the limited number of attendance. Those who paid and were not able to attend will be offered a free voucher according to our policy: https://www.atiner.gr/coronavirus)
11:00-11:30
Najla J. Alhraiwil, Head of Impact Measurement Unit, Deputyship of Public Health, Ministry of Health, Saudi Arabia. Title: Promoting Safe Sunlight Exposure among School Students in Saudi Arabia: A National Comparative Study.(PowerPoint)
Background: Skin exposure to solar ultraviolet B radiation is the major source of vitamin D in our bodies and only a small proportion is derived from dietary intake. This is of particular interest to students with accelerated childhood and adolescence growth phases for whom safe sunlight exposure (SSE) knowledge, attitudes and practices (KAP) may be limited. Many international studies have been conducted to assess KAP of the public toward SSE, including school-based studies; however, there are scarce data on these factors among students from the Middle East. This study was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of a Saudi Ministry of Health (MOH) educational campaign about SSE on the KAP of Saudi students. Methods: A national comparative study was conducted on two stratified random samples of governmental school students in the five geographical regions of Saudi Arabia (central, eastern, northern, southern, and western). Students were divided into two groups, the first of which attended the educational campaign while the other was a control group. Data were collected four weeks after the campaign (between April and May 2018) using a specially designed self-administered questionnaire. For knowledge pertaining to SSE, correct answers were coded as one while wrong answers and don’t knows were coded as zero. The total knowledge score ranged from 0 to 4. SSE attitude and practice were assessed using a Likert scale. Results: The questionnaire was distributed to 3125 students in the two groups. A total of 3032 questionnaires were completed, returned, and included in the data analysis (1611 in the interventional group and 1421 in the control group), giving a response rate of 97%. A significantly higher level of knowledge about SSE was recorded among students who had attended the educational program compared to the control group (Median score 3, IQR 2:4 vs 3, 2:3 respectively; p value < 0.001). Attitudes towards SSE were significantly better among students who had attended the educational program with 49.8% thinking that they receive sufficiently healthy sun exposure time compared to 44.1% for the control group (p value = 0.001). 96.0% vs 93.5% respectively thought that sun exposure is essential for their health (p value = 0.008), and 60.6% vs 51.6% had the intention to increase their sun exposure in the future (p value < 0.001). However, no significant difference in practice was detected between the two groups. Conclusion: Educational campaigns among school-aged children could be effective in improving students’ knowledge and attitudes about safe sunlight exposure.
11:30-12:00 Ciro Clemente De Falco, Research Fellow, University of Naples Federico II, Italy. Title: A Mixed Content Analysis Design in the Study of the Italian Perception of the Covid-19 on Twitter.(PowerPoint)
The digital era and the boom of social, user-generated and freely available and usable content on the Net has brought to the fore a classic technique, accused too often of being highly subjective and requiring a large amount of intellectual work. This is Content Analysis which has seen an unprecedented explosion in recent years. In addition to the incessant flow, speed of diffusion and high volume of today’s big data, the attention of social researchers – as well as of anyone interested in drawing information from this enormous proliferation of data – is shifting to new possibilities. Among these we find that of having a notion of the contents conveyed, of the feelings expressed, of the polarities of big data, but also the chance to extract other information that indirectly speaks of the tastes, opinions, beliefs and transformations behind the behavior of the users of the Net. In fact, secondary data available on the Net, collectable through sophisticated query systems with API or with web scraping software, make it possible to accumulate huge amounts of this dense social data, from which it is possible to try to extract not only trends but real knowledge, in a quantitative as well as in a qualitative manner. This enriches the value of the results that can be produced with Content Analysis and limits, until disappearing, all the critical horizons that have classically left this technique in the shadows, allowing it to find new applicative dignity, validity and reliability (Hamad et al., 2016). In order to explain this evidence, the contribution that we will present attempts to prove that the return of Content Analysis techniques is not only due to the change in the scenario and in the data analyzed, but also to the ability of this technique to innovate and evolve, leading to open analytical perspectives beyond contingent changes. This can be demonstrated through the application of digital mixed content analysis to the recent Covid-19 outbreak and its development of the perception of the Italian population on a specific digital social platform, Twitter.
12:00-12:30 Giuseppe Luca De Luca Picione, Assistant Professor, University of Naples Federico II, Italy. Lucia Fortini, Adjunct Professor, University of Naples Federico II, Italy. Domenico Trezza, Research Assistant, University of Naples Federico II, Italy. Title: A Mixed Research Model to Study Local Welfare Systems. The Case of Territorial Areas in Campania Region. (PowerPoint)
In recent years, there was an increasing use of mixed methods designs in applied research, especially in welfare policies research (Brookes et al. 2018, Mason et al. 2019, Mertens 2018, Niedzwiecki and Nunnally 2017, Punziano 2016). These findings have often supported the utility of a systematic integration of qualitative and quantitative methods. It is not our intention to enter the debate about different mixed method approaches (Amaturo and Punziano 2016, Bazeley 2008, Tashakkori et al. 2015) but it is certainly a purpose to show the interesting implications coming from policy research combining different methods, techniques and tools. This contribute presents the principal method steps of a study about the municipalities association in Campania (i.e. Territorial Areas, thereafter TA) in the context of implementation and management welfare policy. The starting point is that TA with strong normative structure would positively affect the performance of local services. In order to decline the starting hypothesis, we have identified four semantic areas: the structure of the TA, the ways of consultation, the social services and the performances. We have adopted a perspective integrating two different methods: one more formalized that responds to context data building; the other less formal to investigate informal relational networks and the meanings of the actors involved in decision-making processes. An emerging mixed analytical model declines the performance of the areas such as the outcome both of a pragmatist process (for example, performance indicators), and of a constructivist background (i.e. satisfaction, perceived success, etc.). Under these premises, this work tries to develop an instrument that allows to understanding not only the TA context but also, more generally, to construct an interpretative model of development trajectories and integration processes relating to emerging welfare systems.
12:30-13:00 Giuseppe Masullo, Professor, Università degli Studi di Salerno, Italy.
Marianna Coppola, PhD Student, Università degli Studi di Salerno, Italy. Title: Psychological, Social and Imaginary Dimensions of LGB People who use Dating Apps: A Netnography Approach. (PowerPoint)
The increasing use of social networks and dating apps’ usage represent – especially in the actual decade- a new and alternative way to meet people, compared to the traditional face to face communication. Virtual platforms constitute an opportunity properly aimed to respond to people’s needs, in order to create emotional bonds, romantic links or sexual purposes. The existing social networks are quite diversified, according to people who is using each of them; in fact gay men are using Grindr, while Lesbians are using Wapa. Those apps are a represent an alternate way to meet new people, especially for themselves and because of the social stigma related to the emotional and erotic orientation of each, that has not so many chances to meet or that has simply a problem to make clear his sexual orientation. The investigation has the goal to respond to the partial default of the Italian research between virtual media and homosexuality, to underline the methods of communication and the relational approaches – through which, gay and lesbian people (and partially also bisexuals) relate each other through the interactive tools of social networks. The first section -where part of the scientific literature has been described and well connected to the relation among new media, affectivity and sexuality – will explain the sexual identity notion and will talk about its dimension, an essential epistemological preamble that ensures the comprehension of the possible phenomenology, through which people relate to their own sexuality. Instead, the second one will explore the social mechanism of the apps’, showing gay’s and lesbians’ trends related to the emotional, sentimental or sexual approach, to report the results of the research, that had seen the involvement of a group of people’s from Campania, in southern Italy. The purpose aims to verify the existence of a different gay or lesbian approach in both applications (in the purpose of its usage and in some of the imaginary dimensions) or if differently those apps proceed to modify the sexual behaviour, producing in this way, new forms of social and relational homologation. The research will analyse the aspects considered above – through the mixed methods approach, which sees – as the first step – the study of user’s profiles, in both dating apps. A second phase will – on the other hand – regard the qualitative interviews (both performed individually or collectively), which have the goal to rebuilt the psychological (with emotional and affective dynamics) and social (sexual script) dimension of the imaginary, on which on line interactions are based
13:00-13:30 Valentina D’Auria, PhD Student, Università degli Studi di Salerno, Italy. Title: Defining and Measuring Digital Capital. Results from an Italian Study.(PowerPoint)
This paper discusses the methodological challenges in developing, measuring and validating a complex and multifaceted concept, like Digital Capital. Digital Capital is a relatively new concept in academic literature: it emerged within the digital divide research strand , with the aim to analyze the ‘set of dispositions’ developed by people when they get in touch with new technologies, especially the digital and the ICT ones (Park 2017; Ragnedda 2018). Although there have been several theoretical definitions of Digital Capital (Hamelink 2000; Seale et al. 2006; Morgan 2010; Prieur and Savage 2013), very few attempts were made to operationalize and measure it so far. One of the first effort to provide a measure of Digital Capital was made by Ragnedda and Ruiu (2019), relying on the following definition : “’a set of internalised abilities and aptitudes’ (digital competencies) as well as ‘externalised resources’ (digital technology) that can be historically accumulated and transferred from one arena to another” (Ragnedda 2018). Ragnedda, Ruiu and Addeo (2019) have recently operationalized this definition through a research carried out on a representative sample of UK citizens. The results proved the construct validity of the operational definition, thus showing that Digital Capital could be empirically measured. However, a measurement model needs to be tested and validated over time and in different sociocultural context in order to be refined and strengthened. This is the reason why this paper will show the results of a research carried out to test the validity of the Digital Capital measure in a different country, i.e. Italy. Our research design strictly followed the operational definition and the methodological path provided in the original paper (Ragnedda, Ruiu and Addeo 2019). Thus, the data were collected with an online survey carried out on a sample of Italian people and analyzed with bivariate and multivariate statistics. By testing the validity of the Digital Capital measurement model, results will discuss the challenges and the pitfalls in operationalizing complex concept in social research.
13:30-14:00 Giuseppe Michele Padricelli, PhD Student, University of Naples Federico II, Italy. Title: Virtual Methods and Digital Methods: Examples of Netnography and Digital Ethnography for a Comparison between Methods for Analyzing the Digital Scenario in Tourism Studies. (PowerPoint)
Starting from the observation «Web-mediated research […] is already transforming the way in which researchers practice traditional research methods transposed on the Web» (Amaturo, E., and Punziano, G., 2016:35-36), with this contribution we intend to retrace the main differences that substantiate the strands of virtual methods and digital methods. We recover the vison of Hine (2000), about the virtual methods. He affirms that the classic techniques of social research can be transposed on the web and theorizes that the web can be interpreted as an object of study. This is how the survey becomes web survey or the interview becomes web-interview or, again, the participant observation becomes netnographic practice. To this vision, that keeps the object of study separate from the methodological practice, we intend to contrast a vision, linked to digital methods, in which the object of study and the methodological practice come to merge into an integrated whole, so as to coin the motto follow the medium as a cognitive and methodological imperative together. This is Roger’s vision (2009), for which classical techniques cannot be of help in their only transposition, but it is necessary to hybridize the techniques with the means (the Net) to find the methodological key that allows to produce a deeper, dynamic and truly fitted knowledge on the digital environment. And here, the classic techniques, with which there were directly produce data (survey, interview, observation), leave room for techniques that make use of the data already existing on the net, the natural metrics inherent in digital platforms and the information that indirectly cover the spectrum knowledge that moves the interest of the social researcher in the digital age. To formalize these differences of approach and highlight limits and advantages in the use of the two perspectives, examples of research related to the study of tourism (Mkono, Markwell, 2014) will be examined. In particular, the attention will be focused on a netnographic study (following the approach of Kozinets, 2010 for whom netnography suggest immediately an approach adapted from the authentic and traditional ethnography technics to the virtual communities studies in the idea of a «Social aggregation that emerge from the Net when enough people carry on […] public discussion long enough, with sufficient human feeling to forms webs of personal relationships in cyberspace», p. 8) and one calibrated on the digital ethnography approach (following, this time, the approach of Murthy, 2008, for whom digital ethnography suggest a fully digital approach, sometimes covered, but at all linked to the use of already existing information treated with the help of other specific techniques, such as, content or network analysis). Then, the methodological reflection will space for a broader reflection linked to ontological and epistemological questions upstream of the separation of the two presented approaches.
14:00-15:00 Lunch
20:00-21:30 Dinner (The event did not take place due to the limited number of attendance. Those who paid and were not able to attend will be offered a free voucher according to our policy: https://www.atiner.gr/coronavirus)
Wednesday 6 May 2020Educational Islands Cruise
(The event did not take place due to the limited number of attendance. Those who paid and were not able to attend will be offered a free voucher according to our policy: https://www.atiner.gr/coronavirus)
Thursday 7 May 2020Delphi Tour
(The event did not take place due to the limited number of attendance. Those who paid and were not able to attend will be offered a free voucher according to our policy: https://www.atiner.gr/coronavirus)
