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Biomedical subjects

L McClain

Publications and source records attributed to L McClain.

12 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1997

Job descriptions and performance appraisals: perceptions of staff occupational therapists and their supervisors.

OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to survey pediatric hospital-based staff occupational therapists and their supervisors to determine if they are satisfied when accurate staff job descriptions are reflected in the staff performance appraisals. METHODS: Satisfaction Surveys were completed by 22 sets of staff occupational therapists and their supervisors. The supervisors also completed Department Surveys for demographic information. Correlational and t-test analyses were completed. Descriptive information was also reported. RESULTS: Both staff occupational therapists and supervisors appear generally satisfied with the job descriptions and performance appraisals they utilize. Only staff therapists' responses were found to indicate relationships between job description accuracy and performance appraisal satisfaction and job description-performance appraisal correspondence and satisfaction with the performance appraisal. CONCLUSION: Staff satisfaction with job descriptions and performance appraisals was high. Data regarding content of these documents may provide useful information to department directors who wish to revise their documents and increase employee satisfaction.

Attitude of Health Personnel↗
PubMed1993

Restaurant wheelchair accessibility.

This study was designed to determine the compliance of restaurants to the wheelchair accessibility standards set forth in the Uniform Federal Accessibility Standards. The standards that were operationalized in this study are also found in Title III of the Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990. The data were collected at 120 sites in three midwestern states. For one who uses a wheelchair, parking the car is often an obstacle to eating out. Only 53% of the restaurants surveyed provide handicapped parking. Entering the building may also be a problem. Of the restaurants that required a ramp, only 66% provided them. Inside the restaurant, the key problems were accessible rest-rooms and the height of tables. The study provided comparisons between restaurants in rural and urban settings, as well as comparisons between conventional restaurants and fast food restaurants. No notable differences emerged for these comparisons.

Architectural Accessibility↗
PubMed1992

Occupational therapists in private practice.

Although increasing numbers of occupational therapists are choosing to work in private practice, little data exist describing this sector of the profession. In the present study, experienced occupational therapists were asked about their moves into private practice, including (a) their motivation, (b) their preparation, and (c) their perceptions of the move's risks and benefits before and after the move. A survey was sent to a national random sample of 105 occupational therapists, 74 of whom responded. According to the survey, autonomy was the most important motivating factor for occupational therapists moving into private practice. However, once they were in private practice, the occupational therapists noted that increased income was a major benefit. These occupational therapists had planned for the risks of reimbursement, referral sources, and overhead but had not anticipated problems with staffing shortages. Incomes increased for occupational therapists who moved into private practice. The survey compared the incomes of occupational therapists before and after they entered private practice. It also compared their income and educational levels. Other comparisons included income and work experience, income and work role, and income and geographic location. Autonomy and financial considerations appear to be the overriding issues for occupational therapists choosing careers in private practice. Almost unanimously, the survey respondents said that private practice was a good career choice.

Adult↗
PubMed1991

Human fetal response to vibroacoustic stimulation as a function of stimulus duration.

The effect of stimulus duration on the initial fetal heart rate (FHR) acceleration response was evaluated by assessing its amplitude and span following a single vibroacoustic stimulation with durations of 0 (sham), 1, 3, or 5 seconds. Statistically significant differences were observed in the mean amplitude and duration of acceleration in groups 3 and 5 when compared with groups 0 and 1 (P less than .05). In addition, groups 3 and 5 demonstrated significantly greater fetal reactivity than group 0 and a decrease in testing time over groups 0 and 1 (P less than .05). Our results suggest that the magnitude of the FHR acceleration response is dependent on the duration of the stimulus. Furthermore, a 3-second sound stimulus appears to be adequate for a shift to the fetal behavioral "awake" state.

Acoustic Stimulation↗
PubMed1990

Food store accessibility.

Although occupational therapists try to help their wheelchair-bound clients reenter the community or maintain independence, many facilities' noncompliance with accessibility standards makes such planning difficult. In the present study, a survey was used to investigate the wheelchair accessibility of 20 grocery and convenience stores. The results of the survey indicated that types of stores with greatest accessibility, in descending order, were (a) rural grocery stores, (b) urban grocery stores, (c) urban convenience stores, and (d) rural convenience stores. No overall differences were found between the urban and rural stores. The types of deficiencies found and their effects on clients' shopping are described. A follow-up study was conducted to see if the store managers, who were sent letters notifying them of their stores' deficiencies, would correct these problems. Six months after notification, the survey was repeated. Five of the 20 managers made changes in specific deficient areas, whereas the remaining 15 made no changes. The survey results and the fact that 25% of the stores made changes after receipt of a letter indicate that occupational therapists can be effective advocates for accessibility and thus provide a vital link to productive living for persons in wheelchairs.

Activities of Daily Living↗
PubMed1990

Evaluation of blunt abdominal trauma in the third trimester of pregnancy: maternal and fetal considerations.

With the active life-style of today's pregnant women, the effects of trauma have become an important obstetric concern. A protocol was developed to monitor pregnancies complicated by major blunt abdominal trauma in the third trimester, looking specifically for delayed placental and/or fetal problems. Of the 84 pregnancies studied, the most serious complication was placental abruption. Although abruption occurred in only two cases, one case was associated with a ruptured uterus and fetal death. There were no cases of delayed abruption or delayed fetal compromise. The most common complication was preterm labor, occurring in 28% of cases when the traumatic insult happened before 37 weeks' gestation. Of these 17 patients, 15 were successfully treated with tocolysis. There were no cases of direct fetal injury or Rh-isoimmunization. A revised protocol is recommended for limited outpatient observation with nonstress testing and screening ultrasonography to rule out preterm labor and placental abruption and to document fetal well-being.

Abdominal Injuries↗
PubMed1983

Encoding and retrieval in schizophrenics' free recall.

It was hypothesized that schizophrenics' typically poor free recall performance resulted from their failure to adopt the efficient encoding and/or retrieval strategies routinely used by college students. Process schizophrenics, reactive schizophrenics, and students learned 18-item lists containing words from three taxonomic categories. Blocking was used to induce categorical encoding and cues were used to induce categorical retrieval. In the absence of these strategy control manipulations, schizophrenics' recall was low and significantly worse than students' recall. Efficient encoding improved the recall of both process and reactive schizophrenics, but their performance was equivalent to students' performance only when explicit retrieval cues were provided. The role of retrieval cues in improving schizophrenics' performance was discussed.

Adult↗
PubMed1983

Color priming affects Stroop interference.

The effect of prior word and/or color activation on subsequent color naming was examined in a discrete-trials Stroop task. Both word and color primes increased color-word interference, and the magnitude of the priming effect increased as the number of priming dimensions increased. The maximal interference usually produced by incongruent Stroop stimuli was reduced when such stimuli were preceded by primes which activated both word and color dimensions. The results were discussed in terms of models which attribute color-word interference to the relative speed of word reading and color naming.

Adult↗
PubMed1983

Effects of response type and set size on Stroop color-word performance.

The effect of several procedural variables was investigated in a discrete-trials Stroop task. Undergraduate students identified the color of four types of stimuli (asterisks, words unrelated to color, and incongruent and congruent Stroop stimuli) using verbal responses, buttons labeled with color words, and buttons labeled with colors. Set size was manipulated by presenting 2, 3, 4, or 5 different colors in a given trial block. A significant Stroop effect occurred in the verbal response condition, the size of the Stroop effect was reduced in the word-button condition, and the Stroop effect was eliminated in the color-button condition. Increases in set size produced linear increases in response time but did not influence the size of the Stroop effect.

Color Perception↗