Millenium - Journal of Education, Technologies, and Health

The impact of Rett syndrome in the school environment: challenges and needs

Laura Armas Junco — 2024-06-24

Introduction: Rett syndrome is a genetic disease associated with neurological and developmental disorders typically caused by mutations in the MECP2 gene. It mainly affects females and can lead to severe physical and mental abnormalities.

Objective: To learn about the educational needs of a student with Rett Syndrome attending a mainstream school, from an early age and taking into account her family's perspective.

Methods: An intrinsic case study was conducted on a 9-year-old girl who was diagnosed with Rett syndrome at the age of 5 years and is in stage 3 (pseudo-stationary period). The child's school and medical reports, systematic observations, and the mother's testimony were used as data collection instruments.

Results: The results show the impact of the disease from an educational point of view, the educational, care, and social needs, and the main advantages and difficulties of inclusive education. The findings reveal concerns about the lack of coordination between the health and education systems, as well as the contradiction in the information provided, leading to confusion about the best practices for the holistic development of the affected persons and the differences between early intervention and later care which is scarce.

Conclusion: These findings underline the importance of addressing the education of individuals with Rett syndrome in a holistic manner, recognizing both their specific needs and the opportunities and difficulties associated with educational inclusion. Attention to needs must be interdisciplinary, continuous, and long-term.

Linguistic landscape in Macau: a comparative analysis before and during the COVID-19 pandemic

Jing Zhang — 2024-06-05

Introduction: The pandemic has had a broad and lasting impact on the Macau community, which has motivated many scholars to explore these effects from different perspectives. In our view, it would have special meaning to conduct a study from the perspective of the linguistic landscape.

Objective: Investigate how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected Macau's linguistic landscape.

Methods: Our research was essentially a quantitative study through a comparative analysis of specific data collected before and during the pandemic.

Results: The results showed that linguistic diversity in Macau was maintained, in parallel with the increase in the predominance of the Chinese mother tongue of the majority of inhabitants. Non-governmental organizations and institutions were less affected by language policy in disseminating messages related to the pandemic.

Conclusion: Macau's linguistic landscape transformed concomitantly with the changes caused by the pandemic, particularly in the demographic structure of the local community.

Health professionals' literacy about patient safety

Catarina Amaral — 2024-06-05

Introduction: Patient safety is a critical global public health issue, focused on a care delivery system that prevents errors and is built on a safety culture involving all healthcare professionals, organizations, and patients.

Objective: To evaluate the level of health professionals' literacy regarding patient safety at a hospital center in the central region of Portugal.

Methods: A quantitative, descriptive-correlational, cross-sectional study was carried out to assess the level of patient safety literacy among healthcare professionals. A sample of 300 professionals from a hospital center in central Portugal answered the World Health Organisation's ‘Questionnaire to Evaluate the Implementation of the Multiprofessional Guide.’ Most of the health professionals included in the study were female (76.3%), 50.3% were in the 36-50 age group and the majority were nurses (90%).

Results: 44.0% of the respondents demonstrated low literacy in the "Error and Patient Safety" dimension. Similarly, 44.7% exhibited low literacy in the "Health System Safety" dimension. Regarding the "Personal Influence on Safety" dimension, more than half of the sample (52.7%) showed high literacy. Lastly, the majority of respondents displayed low literacy (54.7%) in the "Personal Attitudes towards Patient Safety" dimension.

Conclusion: The findings indicate significant gaps in healthcare professionals' literacy concerning patient safety, predominantly in the "Personal Attitudes towards Patient Safety" dimension. Therefore, it is essential that healthcare professionals receive further training in patient safety to ensure the public's trust in their professional practices and confidence in the healthcare system. This translation is tailored for submission to a high-impact Q1 scientific journal, ensuring the use of precise and specialized technical English suitable for an academic audience.

Parent`s gains knowledge and attitudes after taking a parenthood preparation course

Ana Sousa — 2024-06-05

Introduction: More and more parents are showing doubts, fears and a lack of experience, highlighting the need felt by pregnant women to attend parenting preparation courses in order to obtain more information about pregnancy, preparing the trousseau, childbirth, caring for the newborn and even involving the baby's father and the rest of the family.

Objective: To develop and test the content validity of an instrument for assessing the knowledge and attitudes of future parents after taking a parenthood preparation course. Design: Development and content validity of an instrument to measure knowledge and attitudes after taking a parenthood preparation course.

Methods: The instrument was developed based on a review of the literature and parenthood preparation programs and afterward submitted to an expert panel for content validity by calculating the Content Validity Index. The questionnaire was interspersed with controlled feedback to determine whether the items that composed the instrument were representative of the content domain they were intended to measure.

Results: In the Pregnancy and Puerperium sub-domain about the Knowledge and Attitudes domains, the relative consensus values varied between 15.3% and 16.6%. In the Newborn sub-domain, the relative consensus values ranged from 80.0% to 83.7% in both domains, meaning that most parenting preparation course programs have a significant basis for agreement on these issues.

Conclusion: This innovative study identifies gaps in knowledge in maternal health that need to be addressed in future research. Developing an assessment tool can guide health professionals in an evidence-based decision-making process when adjusting parenthood preparation courses to parent’s expectations and needs.

An unusual cause of pulmonary embolism following blunt chest trauma: a case study

Shweta Garg — 2024-06-17

Introduction: Chest injury resulting from thoracic trauma experienced by an individual is presented in this study. The results obtained from this analysis conducted retrospectively are anticipated to contribute to raising awareness of early diagnosis of embolism in the context of trauma.

Objective: Pulmonary embolism remains a disease that needs clinical suspicion to prevent mortality and morbidity. More so in young individuals, suspicion is very low as compared to old age individuals with multiple co-morbid conditions. There is a high risk of mortality associated with Pulmonary embolism in case of not detected and treated in the early stage.

Methods: This document outlines a case study involving a young male patient who exhibited sudden breathlessness after experiencing blunt chest trauma. The patient was diagnosed with pulmonary thromboembolism later on.

Results: The patient was discharged on the novel oral anticoagulant Rivaroxaban. It is one of the first available direct factor Xa inhibitors, recommended for use in venous thromboembolism. It allows predictable anticoagulation, and routine coagulation monitoring is not required, unlike warfarin.

Conclusion: The authors concluded that the development of a hypercoagulable state leads to the occurrence of pulmonary embolism triggered by epithelial injury following a traumatic event. In the case of submissive pulmonary embolism, catheter-directed thrombolysis is considered useful when systemic thrombolysis poses a potential risk of hemorrhage.

Parent training: a critical public health initiative

Michele Knox — 2024-03-12

Raising children is known to be an incredibly challenging yet enormously important undertaking. Children are highly sensitive to and affected by parents’ behaviors and parental characteristics, such as parental warmth and hostility. The substantial impact of parenting on both child and adult outcomes for offspring has important implications for social and public health issues such as delinquency, substance abuse, violence, and crime. In addition, parenting has a major impact on youths’ academic and occupational outcomes as well as social outcomes such as helping, sharing, and other kinds of prosocial behaviors. When we consider that parenting happens, for better or for worse, in every single family where children live, the enormity of the impact of this construct on entire populations becomes apparent. Despite this, parenting is rarely the focus of public health or educational initiatives. Parents simply are not taught how to parent. This is not because they do not need to be taught; in one study, 94.0% of parents reported at least one unmet need for advice, support, or guidance with parenting (Bethell et al., 2004). When we bear in mind the fact that the adverse effects of poor parenting persist for generations, the urgent need to address and improve parenting on a universal level becomes clear. This article makes the case that parent training programs are essential and can lead to substantial improvements on the individual, family, and societal levels.