Applying Communication Ethics to Pharmacy Students' Education

This chapter addresses the problem of applying communication ethics to pharmacy students' education. The purpose of the chapter is to stimulate reflection about the importance of teaching and integrating communication ethics in their curricula in order to make pharmacists capable of professional counselling to the patients by pharmaceutical care. Existing literature refers mainly of the effectiveness of teaching ethics in medical education, engineering, accounting, psychology, and business. There is little evidence about using this concept in the pharmacist's activity and their communication with the patients. Consequently, this chapter tries to provide an overview of how communication ethics can be integrated in the educational curricula for pharmacy students. It is the responsibility of the higher education institutions to offer to pharmacy students a modern, adequate, and upgraded curricula program to increase the communication skills of the future pharmacists.

Motivational Essay - A Useful Tool in Career Choice?

The proposed study is based on a double causality, such as: the need to improve the counselling tools for high school students for the appropriate choice of a career development path; the existence of the category of disadvantaged students from an economic perspective, whose difficulties in choosing a training path for their career have been augmented during the pandemic. Our research provides an analysis of how the motivational essay can be substantiated as a useful tool in career counselling activities, as well as how it can be integrated into counselling approaches for the economically disadvantaged teenagers to choose the academic development path. We have used a mixed research methodology, which complements the peer review approach with the qualitative analysis of a set of motivation essays developed by the 11th and 12th Grade students. The research aims to identify the level of development of self-analysis, self-reflection and self-assessment of motivational factors, which may be decisive in choosing a future career. The essay analysis highlights a series of elements, which reflects the dynamics of the change of motivational resources in the context of the digitalisation acceleration, of the upheavals on the labour market generated by the new social and economic context. The obtained results allow the formulation of conclusions: confirming the need for such an approach; certifying the possibility and usefulness of integrating the motivational essay into the career counsellor’s methodological portfolio and professional counselling approaches; illustrating useful effects and limits of the reflective effort generated during the essay.

SCHOOL AND ENVIRONMENTAL ROLE TOWARD DEVELOPING TALENTED CHILDREN

Potential characteristic of a gifted and talented personality is influenced by social supports, environment, mentoring methods and educational structure. Children with exceptional talents need platforms and conducive vicinities to grow and develop these gifts. Proper education and professional counselling services could help talented children contribute to their respective communities. The absence of proper educational programs and professional counselling services may lead to loss of academic development, creative potential, appreciable performance, enthusiastic learning success, and substantial social contributions. The variety of services needed to meet the needs of talented children form an important basis of the current study. While there are numerous studies on talented children, no study combines the help of regular classrooms and community toward developing extraordinary talented children. The arguments that many talented children are assisted by school and community are reasonable but defeasible. The study attempts to weigh the contribution of both school and environment towards the development of talented children since a certain number of successful children use their skills, work ethics, and home training to perform excellently in various fields.

The preparedness of emergency care providers to deal with death, dying and bereavement in the pre-hospital setting in Dubai

Introduction This study sought to investigate how prepared emergency care providers are to deal with death, dying and bereavement in the pre-hospital setting in Dubai, and to make recommendations related to such events. Methods A quantitative descriptive prospective design was utilised. Data was collected using an online self-report questionnaire sent to all operational emergency care providers in the Dubai Corporation of Ambulance Services. The data was analysed using the IBM Statistical Package for Social Sciences version 25.0. Results Nearly 65% of participants (n=316) reported that they had not received any formal education or training on death, dying and bereavement. Those that did, reported that the training was conducted mainly by nursing (25.9%; n=124) and paramedic (13.6%; n=65) instructors. One-quarter of participants (25.4%; n=126) reported experiencing intrusive symptoms such as sleep loss, nightmares and missing work as a result of a work-related death or dying incident, but only 4.1% (n=20) had received professional counselling. Conclusion This study found that emergency care providers are underprepared to deal with death, dying and bereavement. A comprehensive death education program encompassing the unique challenges that emergency and pre-hospital setting presents should be implemented to reduce emotional anxiety and help emergency care providers cope better with death, and decrease abnormal grief reactions of the bereft. Abnormal grief reactions can include restlessness, searching for the lost person and disrupted autonomic nervous system functions.

Coping Mechanisms of Previously Diagnosed and New HIV-Discordant, Heterosexual Couples Enrolled in a Pilot HIV Self-Testing Intervention Trial in Central Uganda

Introduction: Learning that a couple has HIV-discordant results can create tensions in the relationship including separation. We explored the coping mechanisms of HIV-discordant, heterosexual couples enrolled in an HIV self-testing (HIVST) intervention trial in Central Uganda.Materials and Methods: This qualitative study was nested within a pilot HIVST intervention trial targeting pregnant women and their male partners in central Uganda. In-depth interviews were conducted with 18 individuals from 13 HIV-discordant couples between July and September 2018; 18 months after the end of the main trial. Data were collected on the couples' initial reactions after learning about their HIV-discordant status, mechanisms adopted by couples to cope with HIV-discordance, and suggestions on how couples in similar situations can be supported. Interviews were transcribed verbatim and analysed manually following a thematic framework approach.Findings: Of the 13 HIV-discordant couples, the female partner was HIV-positive (M–F+) in seven, while the male partner was HIV-positive (F–M+) in six. The mean (±SD) age of the participants was 32.6 (±6.4) years and participants had stayed together for an average of 5.5 (±3.6) years. Fourteen participants from nine couples already knew about their HIV-discordant status by the time they participated in the HIVST trial. After learning about their HIV-discordant status, most individuals (15) thought of abandoning their relationship; three (3) thought of committing suicide. To cope with HIV-discordance, some couples reported that they sought professional counselling support from healthcare providers, and this was particularly true for couples that were already aware of their HIV-discordant status by the time they participated in the HIVST trial. However, new couples that learnt about their HIV-discordant status after participating in the trial reported that they sought psycho-social support from friends or relatives. In the majority of cases, couples reported that they reduced the frequency of sex or abstained from sex. Some couples temporarily separated from their partners, while a few others resorted to using condoms to reduce HIV infection risk.Conclusion: Couples used a variety of approaches to cope with HIV-discordance. Study findings underscore the importance of ongoing professional counselling and psycho-social support in helping couples to cope with HIV-discordance.

Mindful Hand Hygiene and Self-guided Training Using a Mobile Phone App

This paper presents a preliminary concept for a ‘Mobile Phone App’ providing training in mindful hand hygiene integrated with the WHO hand hygiene protocol. A range of human factors action research methods were used to specify the preliminary concept. This includes stakeholder interviews, workshops, and participatory co-design/evaluation sessions. Mindfulness enables HCW to focus on the correct procedure for HH, along with addressing the need for self-care. The proposed Mobile Phone App enables training in mindful HH, from home. Mindful HH training forms parts of a wider learner journey which includes addressing self-care and training in PPE donning and doffing. Mindfulness is an inexpensive strategy to reduce stress and improve the quality of the working lives of healthcare workers. However, it is not a substitute for professional counselling services.

To What Extent the Social Counselors Use Theoretical Approaches in Practicing Counselling at Schools?

This study aimed to investigate the extent of practicing counselling techniques based on theoretical background by the social counselors in the Jordanian schools. In addition, the study targeted to investigate the impact of experience, gender and educational qualification variables on the counselling process. The researchers used a questionnaire consists of 37 items in three different components; theoretical background and knowledge, integration and practical skills, and challenges. The researchers examined the reliability and validity of the questionnaire by conducting a pilot study of a small sample that contained 15 social counsellors from the study’s population. The study’s sample consisted of 347 participants from 22 directorates, which are located in the northern, the central and the southern of Jordan. The SPSS statistical package Edition 23rd was used to analyze the quantitative data in this study, and the method of analysis which is used in this analysis is descriptive statistical analysis and One and Two Way ANOVA. The results indicated that there is a lack of knowledge and understanding of counselling theories, the educational level was significant in reflecting the practicing of counselling theories and techniques. In addition, the study indicated that there are some obstacles hindering the social counsellors from practicing professional counselling skills at schools due to lack of workshops in addition to the big gap between theories and practice.

Teaching Counselling Amid the Evolving Evidentiary Landscape

Historically, professional counselling has been mired by “theory wars” involving proponents going to great lengths to prove (either through research or through rhetoric) that their approach was superior to others. This, not surprisingly, led to rancour and division within professional counselling and a form of camp mentality among model adherents. This paper offers an innovative approach to teaching models of counselling that counters such tendencies. The impetus for this approach stems from a robust and growing body of research indicating that counselling models, although often revered among model adherents and assumed to be the sine qua non of effective counselling, now appear to play a smaller role within the therapeutic enterprise. While few (including the present authors) would argue that counselling models are unnecessary, the various lines of research outlined in this paper compel counsellor educators to rethink how counselling models ought to be taught to graduate-level counselling students.

Professional Guidance and Counselling Services for Open and Distance Learning Students in Nigeria Authors

Counselling services are common features in conventional school settings and are designed to help students resolve personal and academic issues, explore career options and attend to their social needs. It is of great concern that these services are absent in Open and Distance Learning (ODL) programmes, although the peculiar nature of the programmes reveals the urgent need for them. ODL students should be able to access guidance and counselling services just as their counterparts in the conventional school setting. The main focus of this article is to point out the relevance of professional guidance and counselling services in ODL programmes in Nigeria. An in-depth description of these services and the benefits ODL students can derive from accessing them is presented. In addition, the authors adapted a conceptual model to accentuate the expected output of professional counselling services. The purpose of this model is to present a clear explanation of the fact that adequate provision of professional counselling services will lead to the improved school, workplace and family environment. It is expected that this will lead to good behaviour and improved academic performance, invariably creating a safe school, out of school and workplace environment for ODL students. Recommendations include the creation of awareness programmes through online seminars and workshops to educate ODL students on various ways to access guidance and counselling services.

Ethical Consideration for Counsellor Practice as Perceived by Student Counsellors in Nigerian Universities

The paper examined the perception of student counsellors studying Guidance and Counselling in various Nigerian Universities on ethical codes which should guide and protect the counselling profession. Four research questions were raised to guide the study and two corresponding hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance. The study adopted the descriptive survey design, with a sample of 1,500 students, drawn from selected Nigerian universities using the multistage sampling technique. The instrument used to gather data for the study was a 50 item questionnaire constructed by the researcher. The psychometric properties were determined and found adequate for use. The test-re-test method was applied to determine reliability which yielded r = 0.88. Senior lecturers in the Department of Guidance and Counselling ascertained content and construct adequacy of the instrument. Data collected were analysed using mean and standard deviation to answer research questions and t-test to test the hypotheses. The study found out that respondents perceived counselling codes highly irrespective of their gender and religious beliefs although male respondents showed stronger agreement. It was therefore recommended that the Counselling Association of Nigeria should develop counselling ethical codes for professional counselling practice in Nigeria without considering any bias for gender and religion.