Professional development themes in strength and conditioning coaches

The purpose of this study was to explore professional development themes in experienced strength and conditioning coaches. Strength and conditioning coaches (N = 15, mean age = 34.3 years, SD = 5.2 years) with 11.4 (SD = 4.9) years experience working with elite, professional, or talented athletes were interviewed about their professional development. The interviews were transcribed verbatim and content analyzed. Over time, subjects' service-delivery practices became more flexible and client driven. Their role understanding also broadened to include various dimensions, such as the need to consider various stakeholders and the value of good relationships with athletes. The subjects shifted from relying on external justification for professional decision making to their experience-based knowledge. The subjects believed athlete work experience, interactions with senior strength and conditioning coaches and other colleagues, the professional literature, and nonprofessional experiences, such as their own athletic experience and sales or managerial training, were the primary influences on their professional development. Typically, the subjects experienced anxiety about their competence, both early in their careers and when working in new contexts or with new athlete groups, but over time, they developed increased confidence. In addition, the subjects experienced reduced narcissism over time about the control they had over athletes and their competitive results. The current results provide information about the characteristics of effective strength and conditioning coaches, the ways they develop their competencies to help athletes, and the emotions they experience throughout their careers. These results may help strength and conditioning practitioners in planning and optimizing their professional development and effectiveness with athletes.     

A Proposed Set of Ethical Practice Guidelines in the Assessment and Treatment of Pelvic Floor Disorders

The treatment of pelvic floor disorders using biofeedback, behavioral therapies, and other applied psychophysiological treatments has been well documented as effective. Practitioners must take due care to ensure that they practice within the boundaries of what is common practice for their discipline and within the scope of practice allowed by their professional license as outlined by the appropriate state licensing law(s), the ethical principles and practice guidelines and standards for their discipline, and those of the Association of Applied Psychophysiology and Biofeedback if using a biofeedback assessment or treatment. Being competent to provide a particular treatment does not necessarily make it legal and/or ethical. This paper provides a set of recommended practice guidelines for use in the assessment and treatment of pelvic floor disorders. Please note that they have not at this time been endorsed as an official position of the Association of Applied Psychophysiology and Biofeedback or any other professional organization.     

DOES PROFESSIONAL AUTONOMY PROTECT MEDICAL FUTILITY JUDGMENTS?

Despite substantial controversy, the use of futility judgments in medicine is quite common, and has been backed by the implementation of hospital policies and professional guidelines on medical futility. The controversy arises when health care professionals (HCPs) consider a treatment futile which patients or families believe to be worthwhile: should HCPs be free to refuse treatments in such a case, or be required to provide them? Most physicians seem convinced that professional autonomy protects them from being forced to provide treatments they judge medically futile, given the lack of patient benefit as well as the waste of medical resources involved. The argument from professional autonomy has been presented in a number of articles, but it has not been subjected to much critical scrutiny. In this paper I distinguish three versions of the argument: 1) that each physician should be free to exercise his or her own medical judgment; 2) that the medical profession as a whole may provide futility standards to govern the practice of its members; and 3) that the moral integrity of each physician serves as a limit to treatment demands. I maintain that none of these versions succeeds in overcoming the standard objection that futility determinations involve value judgments best left to the patients, their designated surrogates, or their families. Nor do resource considerations change this fact, since they should not influence the properly patient‐centered judgment about futility.     

Balancing science and family: tidbits of wisdom from those who've tried it and succeeded

There is a notion that combining parenthood with a career in academic science is problematic, yet academic science careers can provide an outstanding career choice for professional parents because they offer extraordinary flexibility and stability. Much has been written about the paucity of women in tenure track scientific positions and the general disparity between men and women in all professions. However, the status quo is changing as more women fill the ranks of academia and male professors share childcare and household duties with spouses who hold professional positions. Although combining any career with parenthood can be challenging, parenthood should not be considered an obstacle to a successful scientific career.     

Putting like a pro: the role of positive contagion in golf performance and perception

Many amateur athletes believe that using a professional athlete's equipment can improve their performance. Such equipment can be said to be affected with positive contagion, which refers to the belief of transference of beneficial properties between animate persons/objects to previously neutral objects. In this experiment, positive contagion was induced by telling participants in one group that a putter previously belonged to a professional golfer. The effect of positive contagion was examined for perception and performance in a golf putting task. Individuals who believed they were using the professional golfer's putter perceived the size of the golf hole to be larger than golfers without such a belief and also had better performance, sinking more putts. These results provide empirical support for anecdotes, which allege that using objects with positive contagion can improve performance, and further suggest perception can be modulated by positive contagion.     

Self-made lawyers? Pathways of socially mobile descendants of migrants from Turkey in Europe

ABSTRACT

This study is based on narratives of successful lawyers in Europe who are descendants of migrants from Turkey. I will discuss the main mechanisms whereby social actors have a significant impact on the professional pathways of these upwardly mobile professionals. The findings provide two insights. The relevance of significant others found in literature on educational mobility of descendants of migrants can be extended to professional pathways. Some respondents became acquainted with the middle-class culture of the majority group through peers and school during their youth. This was instrumental in adjusting to the specific white-collar professional environments of corporate law firms. Others who grew up and attended schools in disadvantaged neighbourhoods had more difficulties adjusting. However, they became accustomed to middle- and upper-class norms and behaviour at university or on the job by observing and learning along the way.     

Standard of Care,Professional Obligations,and Distributive Justice

The problem of standard‐of‐care in clinical research concerns the level of care that investigators ought to provide to research subjects in the control arm of their clinical trials. Commentators differ sharply on whether subjects in trials conducted in lower income countries should be provided with the same level of care as subjects in trials conducted in higher income countries. I consider an argument that commentators have employed on both sides of this debate: professional role arguments. These arguments claim to justify a conclusion to the standard‐of‐care problem solely by appeal to the professional obligations that investigators possess. I argue that prominent versions of professional role arguments cannot justify a solution to the problem of standard‐of‐care that is both determinate and reasonable simply by appeal to the professional obligations of investigators. Instead, to do so, one must also (1) determine the level of care or types of treatment that individuals are entitled to as a matter of distributive justice, and (2) identify which agents possess the duties that correspond to these entitlements. The level of care that investigators owe to subjects in the control arm of their clinical trials is thus in part dependent on the level of care that these subjects are entitled to as a matter of distributive justice, and whether it is the investigators who possess the corresponding distributive obligation to provide them with the care that they are entitled to.     

Continuing professional development systems for medical physicists: A global survey and analysis

Continuing professional development (CPD) and continuing professional education (CPE) are seen as being necessary for medical physicists to ensure that they are up-to-date with current clinical practice. CPD is more than just continuing professional education, but can include research publication, working group contribution, thesis examination and many other activities. A systematic way of assessing and recording such activities that a medical physicist undertakes is used in a number of countries. This can be used for certification and licensing renewal purposes. Such systems are used in 27 countries, but they should be implemented in all countries where clinical medical physicists are employed.A survey of the CPD systems that are currently operated around the world is presented. In general they are quite similar although there are a few countries that have CPD systems that differ significantly from the others in many respects. Generally they ensure that medical physicists are kept up-to-date, although there are some that clearly will fail to achieve that.An analysis of what is required to construct a useful medical physics CPD system is made. Finally, the need for medical physicist professional organizations to cooperate and share in the production and distribution of CPD and CPE materials is emphasized.     

Explanatory models of major depression and implications for help-seeking among immigrant Chinese-American women

This study explores the explanatory models of major depression in a group of 40 recently immigrated Chinese-American women, and demonstrates the significant relationship between problem conceptualization and help-seeking behavior. Respondents are presented a vignette depicting major depression, from which they are asked to conceptualize the problem described and answer questions regarding its cause, impact and potential sources for help-seeking. Those who provide a psychological conceptualization are likely not to suggest professional services, but to turn to themselves and family and friends for assistance. On the other hand, those who hold a physical conceptualization are likely to seek out medical services. Implications for effective mental health service delivery to this population are discussed.     

青年教师如何在医学微生物教学中提高教学水平

青年教师是高等院校未来的主力军,学校可持续发展的后备力量,是学校事业发展的希望,因此,提高青年教师的教学水平至关重要。大学青年教师在专业技能、思想政治素质、业务水平、掌握阅读专业书刊能力、自身的教学经验和反思等方面具有良好的基础,但在教育学、心理学、一般教学方法、学习情况分析等方面不够深入了解,因此需要对大学青年教师进行严格系统性培养,本文针对青年教师一对一导师制专业技能培训、观摩教学、继续教育培训等方面进行阐述,旨在为青年教师早日进入角色,尽快胜任教育教学工作提供参考。     

Outcome of Cats Adopted From a Biomedical Research Program

Animals in the laboratory need the legally required "empty space" to meet their basic spatial requirements for postural adjustment, but they also deserve functional-structured-space for species-typical locomotor behavior and dynamic interaction with their physical environment. Primary enclosures of these animals traditionally are unfurnished, and there is no reason to believe that the biomedical research industry will change the status quo on its own accord. Rather than counting on the professional judgment of attending veterinarians, investigators, and facility administrators, the U.S. Department of Agriculture should explicitly require primary enclosures of laboratory animals to provide not only a specific volume of space, but also species-appropriate space structured for optimal use by the confined subject.     

`Baby Doe' Rulings—Review and Comment

The recent controversy over the “Baby Doe” regulations issued by the Department of Health and Human Services represents the culmination of a dilemma that has faced the medical and legal professions for more than a decade. Although they have not been upheld by the courts, the regulations express the position that withholding treatment from defective newborns may constitute discrimination on the basis of handicap and advocate mechanisms for the reporting of such practices. Legislation regarding this issue is pending at both the national and state levels. The rulings have been disputed by many medical and professional groups, which are working to provide acceptable alternatives.     

Why not Commercial Assistance for Suicide? On the Question of Argumentative Coherence of Endorsing Assisted Suicide

Most people who endorse physician‐assisted suicide are against commercially assisted suicide – a suicide assisted by professional non‐medical providers against payment. The article questions if this position – endorsement of physician‐assisted suicide on the one hand and rejection of commercially assisted suicide on the other hand – is a coherent ethical position. To this end the article first discusses some obvious advantages of commercially assisted suicide and then scrutinizes six types of argument about whether they can justify the rejection of commercially assisted suicide while simultaneously endorsing physician‐assisted suicide. The conclusion is that they cannot provide this justification and that the mentioned position is not coherent. People who endorse physician‐assisted suicide have to endorse commercially assisted suicide as well, or they have to revise their endorsement of physician‐assisted suicide.     

Legal Space Requirement Stipulations for Animals in the Laboratory: Are They Adequate?

Animals in the laboratory need the legally required “empty space” to meet their basic spatial requirements for postural adjustment, but they also deserve functional-structured-space for species-typical locomotor behavior and dynamic interaction with their physical environment. Primary enclosures of these animals traditionally are unfurnished, and there is no reason to believe that the biomedical research industry will change the status quo on its own accord. Rather than counting on the professional judgment of attending veterinarians, investigators, and facility administrators, the U.S. Department of Agriculture should explicitly require primary enclosures of laboratory animals to provide not only a specific volume of space, but also species-appropriate space structured for optimal use by the confined subject.     

Realities for change in child health care: existing patterns and future possibilities.

In assessing some of the existing patterns and future possibilities in child health care it was found that the continuing large social class differences in morbidity and mortality may be attributed to continued poverty, both of income and therefore of diet, and also to environmental deprivation. The absence of safe places for children to play, for example, is related to the high accident rates experienced by children. Doctors admit to awareness of these social and environmental causes of unnecessary morbidity and mortality among children but have failed to address the causes directly. While the causes are outside the immediate professional provenance of doctors, it is argued that, aware as they are of this aetiology, they have a moral and professional responsibility to act collectively as a pressure group urging improvements on the relevant authorities (as they have done in the case of smoking and clean air, for example).     

Generation of anti-allogeneic cytotoxic T lymphocytes depends upon a signal, not delivered by tumor cells, that can be provided in trans in the presence of exogenous interleukin-2

We have reported that, while immune responses were generated initially against CMS5 tumor cells, they were lost with time. In the present work, we asked whether the tumor cells contributed to this by delivering an inhibitory signal or whether a positive signal, delivered in the form of tumor-derived interleukin-2 (IL-2) or the presence of professional antigen-presenting cells (APC) would be sufficient to enable a sustained response. We observed that the presence of tumor cells did not inhibit the generation of anti-(class I) cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL), suggesting that the tumor cells were not directly suppressive. In addition, the lack of a response could not be attributed to insufficient levels of IL-2 alone, since even tumor cells that secreted IL-2 failed to stimulate anti-(class I) CTL. Finally, we observed that professional APC were necessary to deliver an essential signal, but only in the presence of IL-2-secreting tumor cells. Thus, CMS5 cells failed to provide essential signals necessary for CTL generation, but were not directly suppressive.     

Patterns and correlates of patient‐reported helpfulness of treatment for common mental and substance use disorders in the WHO World Mental Health Surveys

Patient‐reported helpfulness of treatment is an important indicator of quality in patient‐centered care. We examined its pathways and predictors among respondents to household surveys who reported ever receiving treatment for major depression, generalized anxiety disorder, social phobia, specific phobia, post‐traumatic stress disorder, bipolar disorder, or alcohol use disorder. Data came from 30 community epidemiological surveys – 17 in high‐income countries (HICs) and 13 in low‐ and middle‐income countries (LMICs) – carried out as part of the World Health Organization (WHO)’s World Mental Health (WMH) Surveys. Respondents were asked whether treatment of each disorder was ever helpful and, if so, the number of professionals seen before receiving helpful treatment. Across all surveys and diagnostic categories, 26.1% of patients (N=10,035) reported being helped by the very first professional they saw. Persisting to a second professional after a first unhelpful treatment brought the cumulative probability of receiving helpful treatment to 51.2%. If patients persisted with up through eight professionals, the cumulative probability rose to 90.6%. However, only an estimated 22.8% of patients would have persisted in seeing these many professionals after repeatedly receiving treatments they considered not helpful. Although the proportion of individuals with disorders who sought treatment was higher and they were more persistent in HICs than LMICs, proportional helpfulness among treated cases was no different between HICs and LMICs. A wide range of predictors of perceived treatment helpfulness were found, some of them consistent across diagnostic categories and others unique to specific disorders. These results provide novel information about patient evaluations of treatment across diagnoses and countries varying in income level, and suggest that a critical issue in improving the quality of care for mental disorders should be fostering persistence in professional help‐seeking if earlier treatments are not helpful.     

Monitoring Matters: Examining the Potential of Locally-based Approaches

Monitoring of biodiversity and resource use by professional scientists is often costly and hard to sustain, especially in developing countries, where financial resources are limited. Moreover, such monitoring can be logistically and technically difficult and is often perceived to be irrelevant by resource managers and the local communities. Alternatives are emerging, carried out at a local scale and by individuals with little formal education. The methods adopted span a spectrum, from participatory monitoring where aims and objectives are defined by the community, to ranger-based monitoring in protected areas. What distinguishes these approaches is that local people or local government staff are directly involved in data collection and (in most instances) analysis. In this issue of Biodiversity and Conservation, 15 case studies examine whether these new approaches can address the limitations of professional monitoring in developing countries. The case studies evaluate ongoing locally-based monitoring schemes involving more than 1500 community members in 13 countries. The papers are based on a symposium held in Denmark in April 2004 (www. monitoringmatters.org). Here, we review how the case studies shed light on the following key issues concerning locally-based methods: cost, sustainability, their ability to detect true local or larger-scale trends, their links to management decisions and action, and the empowerment of local constituencies. Locally-based monitoring appears to be consistently cheap relative to the costs of management and of professional monitoring, even though the start-up costs can be high. Most local monitoring schemes are still young and thus their chances of being sustained over the longer term are not yet certain. However, we believe their chances of surviving are better than many professional schemes, particularly when they are institutionalised within existing management structures, and linked to the delivery of ecosystem goods or services to local communities. When properly designed, local schemes yield locally relevant results that can be as reliable as those derived from professional monitoring. Many management decisions emanate from local schemes. The decisions appear to be taken promptly, in response to immediate threats to the environment, and often lead to community-based actions to protect habitats, species or the local flow of ecosystem benefits; however, few local schemes have so far led to actions beyond the local scale. Locally-based monitoring schemes often reinforce existing community-based resource management systems and lead to change in the attitude of locals towards more environmentally sustainable resource management. Locally-derived data have considerable unexplored potential to elucidate global patterns of change in the status of populations and habitats, the services they provide, and the threats they face, but more effort is needed to develop effective modalities for feeding locally-derived data up to national and international levels.     

Video laboratories for the teaching and learning of professional ethics in exercise physiology curricula

Student researchers in physiology courses often interact with human subjects in classroom research but may be unfamiliar with the professional ethics of experimenter-subject interactions. This communication describes experiences related to an interactive video used in exercise science and general biology courses to help students become aware of, sensitive to, and comfortable with implementing professional ethics into their own thinking and behavior as researchers before entering the laboratory. The activity consisted of a filmed exercise physiology experiment complemented with interactive question sheets followed by small- and large-group discussion and culminating with individual student reflections. Student written responses from multiple courses indicated that students were able to 1) identify and consider the ethics of experimenter-subject interactions from the movie, 2) generalize broader ideas of professional ethics from those observations, and 3) consider their observations in terms of future experiments they would be conducting personally and how they should interact with human subjects. A majority of students indicated a positive reaction to the video and identified specific aspects they appreciated. It is hoped that this report will encourage other instructors to consider the use of interactive videos in the teaching and learning of professional ethics related to their courses.