Knowledge and Practice

Contraceptive methods are practiced by breastfeeding mothers of age between 21-25 years with moderate degree of education with most of them being housewives. Study showed that there is no association between education and profession with practice of contraception. However reversible contraception was mostly used by the primipara mothers. Most of the females’ attitude towards use of family planning method was satisfactory but it is their husbands or in laws’ who decide. They have no choice related to child birth and contraceptive use. There is disparity between the knowledge and practice of contraception. This could be because of social constraints. Given the heavy emphasis on sterilization, women tend to adopt family planning only after they have achieved their desired family size. Also, male child preference appears to have some effect on contraceptive use. There is KAP-GAP in our women. A very good antenatal and postnatal teaching on contraception is required to bridge this gap.

There were, however, limits to both the diversity of our learning community and our ambitions for the journey ahead. We were all primarily concerned with studying knowledge and practice in and between organisations (albeit these included public, private and not-for-profit organisations of varying scales and scopes). We were all based in the UK and this is reflected in the choice of settings investigated in Part B. Although many participants had experience of other national contexts, our focus was on ways of understanding knowledge and practice in organisations and societies shaped by a western intellectual tradition. We recognised that there would be additional insights to be gained from studying these issues in other settings and societies but this was a boundary that we did not plan to cross on this occasion. Nevertheless, through our UK focus we were joining international debates and conversations about knowledge and practice.

Nursing philosophy is fundamentally based on an ethos of holistic care. However, spiritual aspects of care are often neglected. There are questions about how spirituality is currently approached and to what extent student nurses feel competent in assessing and delivering spiritual care in practice. A literature review (1993 - 2017) was per- formed, using a systematic approach. From the themes identified in the literature re- view, five major knowledge and practice gaps were noted in nurse education. These were: lack of ontological integration; lack in phenomenological understanding; lack of support and environmental constraints; curriculum structure and unprepared Faculty. Developing competency to deal with spiritual issues in nursing education is still a challenge. Issues of conceptual clarity and articulation around the ontological and phe- nomenological aspects of nursing must be addressed to prepare nurses to provide truly holistic care, including spiritual and existential issues. Adequate preparation, environ- mental support for both nursing educators and students, and explicit representation of spirituality in the nursing curriculum will facilitate this. An emphasis on the philo- sophical underpinnings of nursing care is needed to rebalance existing nursing educa- tion to embrace caring for spiritual needs as part of holistic care.

the transdisciplinary teaching/learning model can be successfully applied to family considered as a community of practice (cop). the knowledge achievement process in such a family is working by “learning to learn to know by doing” through a mutual engagement that leads to a joint enterprise and a shared repertoire, as a extrinsic active approach in a balance with the “learning to understand to be by living with others” intrinsic reactive knowledge ap- proach, by promoting a high level of collaboration without compromising individuality. from the three kinds of family identified in the paper, assertive, behavioral and collective, only the assertive family is recognized to be a community of practice (cop). in a family as community of practice (cop) there is a symmetry between the children’s participation through communion and apprenticeship and the parents’ authority in authenticity, integrity and excellence, the fo- cus being on relationships and knowledge, on learning and understanding, in the end leading to a shared understanding and new resources, having a positive influence on action and crea- tivity by insuring a high performance through competition and adequateness in innovation in a synergistic communicational context.

of appropriate practice for the group. When the results of a collective combination process was internalized by the individual practitioner to become part of their own individual mindline or theory of practice, it would be subject to the influence of their own previous experience and knowledge; however, these personal representations remained within the accepted and agreed upon conven- tions of shared practice [22]. The social process of collective review, assessment and negotiation has the po- tential to combine knowledge from formal or research sources with practice-based experience. However, the resulting clinical mindline, theory of practice, or ac- cepted group norm in context may not represent a dir- ect operationalization of the best available empiric research or even the current best practice guideline [20, 22]. What is accepted as ‘normal practice’ may be con- sidered a negotiated truce; the potential for conflict exists amid the vast repertoire of knowledge and per- spectives that become apparent when elements of the practice change and conventions are reconsidered [41]. Thus, knowledge-in-practice that has emerged from in- dividual and collective processes of reflection, review, and co-negotiation for application in context might be considered evidence-informed (See Fig. 1 for further in- formation regarding communities of practice).

Expertise is considered the highest level of skill acquisition and knowledge within professional practice, being based on experience and tacit understanding and an intuitive grasp and judgement of its processes and situations (Dreyfus & Dreyfus, 1986). Expertise is seen as “something practical—something based in what you can do” (Collins & Evans, 2009, p. 23) and largely operates without conscious effort. The tacit knowledge that sustains expertise is not generally made explicit nor is it easily articulated. Deliberate practice and extended experience result in automaticity and immediate intuitive response, e.g., a pianist’s hand movement, a designer’s choice of material, a radiologist’s instant diagnosis, and so forth. Being domain specific represents a constraint to the development of expertise as it is learned and practised in context. Nevertheless, experts in all disciplines seem to share common characteristics: “superior memory for information in their domain, better awareness of what they know and do not know, greater pattern recognition, faster and more accurate solutions . . . and deeper, more highly structured knowledge” (Lajoie, 2003, p. 21). These characteristics are not easily captured by the common mode of accreditation used in research because they are experience-based (Collins & Evans, 2009, p. 142). Instead, expertise, or the outcomes of expertise in the form of the work, in many areas has traditionally been evaluated through connoisseurship.

While organizations often place much of their efforts on acquiring, isolating and maintaining tangible resources that could serve as sources of competitive advantage, it is information, and the tacit nature of much information that has a unique potential to serve as sources of sustainable competitive advantage. To do so requires managers to better understand how to manage knowledge as it exists in a distributive network, rather than only focusing on capturing and storing explicit or codified knowledge that is more easily imitated or tradable. The connectionist view of information processing and the communities of practice construct provide complementary advice about how to do so. Together, they suggest that the task of the organization is to manage knowledge by developing and facilitating a set of communities of practice within the organization, each serving as separate neural networks focused around practice. Information is distributed throughout the community and activated through interaction among the members. Within the communities managers must focus on creating and strengthening the connections between members or nodes in the network through such things as stable, information-rich communication channels, developing trust and cohesiveness and creating a climate that values seeking and sharing information.

themselves. This philosophy of radiation protection is often referred to as the principle of ALARA (As low as reasonably achievable).The third principle is that of dose limitation. Dose limits are used for occupational and public exposures to ensure that no individuals are exposed to unacceptably high doses [1-5]. Radiation protection is the science and art of protecting people and the environment from the harmful effects of ionizing radiation. It is also described as all activities directed towards minimizing radiation exposure of patients and personnel during x-ray exposure [2,6]. The amount of exposure received by a patient or operator from dental radiography depends on the film speed, exposure parameters of collimation, technique, and protecting barriers used [2,4]. This demands the operator to have detailed knowledge towards radiation hazards and its protection procedures. Previous literature documented insufficient knowledge among medical students, doctors, paramedics and dentists about their understanding of ionizing radiation or the use of equipment involved in the imaging [7,8]. Thus a need arises to assess the knowledge, attitude and practice (KAP) of dental imaging and appropriate radiographic protection among Indian dental students. In the present study, the clinical years 3 rd and4 th of BDS (Bachelor of dental surgery) students and the interns (house surgeons) were selected as they are more prone to radiation risks because of their little knowledge on radiation effects.

Three inclusive design experts from an internationally renowned UK based design consultancy specialising in inclusive design took part in a workshop to discuss the potential development of the sports design process model in the context of inclusive design. The inclusive design centre is involved in design research and projects with industry that aims “to contribute to improving people’s lives”. As a long running centre for design research, the designers at the centre have an expert knowledge of inclusive design practice and in a position to provide valuable feedback on the potential application of the sports design process model within an inclusive design context. The three participants in this study were all highly experienced in inclusive design, having worked at the Centre for an average of seven years. The workshop was conducted at the inclusive design centre and lasted approximately three hours. The aim of the workshop was to identify the processes and activities carried out by the Centre, which would be indicative of “best practice” in inclusive design. Feedback was also sought on the applicability of the sports design process model to industry practice and ideas were generated on how the model could be developed further for implementation within industry.

The early interviews with midwives revealed a tendency to think in terms of differential diagnoses, rather than providing us with any articulation of their thinking, reflection, elabora- tion of their experiences or tacit knowledge. In light of this experience, we decided upon a semi-structured approach working through a skeleton case scenario in a sequential manner to simulate a midwife–client interview, with a series of questions included with each part of the unfolding case. These questions were designed to elicit and unpack reasoning behind comments. Is this a realistic/common presentation/problem? What are your thoughts about this situation? Why? What other experiences do you have that relate to that? What are the implications for practice? After discussion of the cases, the expert practitioners were asked about the key messages associated with the case. Experts did explain their rules of thumb used in daily practice and talked about their experiences with tricky clients. These included ways in which to probe the client to distinguish between genuine and non-genuine social issues (e.g., lack of money for transport versus disinterest), and how to conduct phone inter- views to distinguish between different symptoms which may or may not be of significance (e.g., pain from intercourse versus Braxton Hicks contractions) and other good practice tips (e.g., never hang up on a client in a phone interview unless you are completely sure they are safe). Whilst considerable tacit knowledge was uncovered, it was not easily applied or relevant to the case under discussion. Indeed, there was much less useable tacit knowledge than we expected.

CONCLUSIONS. The clinicians in this study had limited explicit knowledge of the concept of assent for medical treatment and were largely unaware of the recom- mendations from the American Academy of Pediatrics. Their attitudes and practice reflected implicit acceptance of the importance of including children in discussions about their medical care and reluctance to give children decision-making author- ity. A model of medical decision-making for children that includes education but does not allow children to share decision-making authority may be more appli- cable to clinical practice than the current American Academy of Pediatrics–sup- ported model of assent.

significance is the fact that care is often based in an interdisciplinary context, so that tacit knowledge is multifaceted, impacted upon by power relations and positional leadership (Chuang et al, 2016). There is also a distinct difference between the concepts of intellectual capacity and knowledge, which is linked to how credible people are in practice as when knowledge becomes an integrated part of functional performance then applied practice is more highly valued (Sousa et al, 2017). Tacit skills harness the implicit knowledge that people working in the context of healthcare possess, regardless of their position in the organisational hierarchy, so that it can be effectively applied in practice. Central to this is the capacity to effectively communicate and work as an integral part of a team.

In interpreting the relationship between KM practices and the factors (such as culture, strategy and so on mentioned in the earlier section), it can be seen that KM is not utilized in the organization as a defined area of management, except the practices mentioned above performed by the Health Education Department (HED). The use of KM in the HED does not seem to be a planned practice of KM. Though there is a working culture in SHE, it doesn’t implement any KM related issues. KM is also not practiced or implemented at the level of developing strategy in SHE. This phenomenon is evident by the findings such as where almost all the items regarding strategy had a scale of 3 and above, indicating either very few times, rarely or never. Though systems are used to provide service in SHE, it is seen that IT is not used as a KM tool. The findings indicate that SHE uses technology to provide service and information whereas it lacks of proper databases and management of information. SHE does not recognize IT as a tool to manage, codify and disseminate knowledge. Mostly the training given or arranged by SHE is not relevant to KM skill.

In the past, only large organisations have predominantly adopted CoPs as a major element of their KM strategy [12][45]. World Bank, an international financial institution involved in global partnership for fighting poverty worldwide, has successfully used CoPs as a sustainable solution. They have successfully tapped into the vast knowledge that already exists within the organisation, rather than trying to discover new knowledge [46-47]. Similarly, some of the leading multinational companies such as IBM have been supporting and acknowledging their CoPs for their success [48]. In healthcare, it is more common to create CoPs to facilitate sharing of knowledge and learning among healthcare professionals to improve medical practice [49-50]. However, with the proliferation and advancement of Internet, CoPs can be adopted by any firm irrespective of their size and type of industry. Importantly, future CoPs are required to adopt different strategies for KM as they have the ability to operate anywhere and anytime with no physical or geographical barriers. In order to reap the full benefits of these CoPs that exist virtual over the Internet, they need to be properly understood, deployed and supported. CoPs cannot be conceived and supported in the same way as other organisational initiatives as they lack formal structure, standardized protocols and performance measurements. Organisations have to create conducive environments for employees to voluntarily participate and include other members of the community in their pursuit for knowledge sharing and organizational learning.

To our knowledge this is the first KAP study in Ethi- opian teachers. The objective of this study is to assess and understand the social and demographic determi- nants of knowledge, attitude and practice of teachers to- wards PWE in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The findings of this study would hopefully serve as a stepping stone for future large scale community based educational inter- vention programs that focus on teachers. This is espe- cially true for Ethiopia where the burden of epilepsy is highest among school age children and teenagers, and where there is improving nationwide access to modern education.

Abstract Vaccine preventable diseases are the commonest cause of mortality in children under five years of age. Therefore, immunizing a child significantly reduces cost of treating diseases and subsequently provides a healthy childhood. The objective of this study was to assess the knowledge, attitude and practice of caregivers to immunization of children under five years of age. This study was conducted over a period of four weeks with four hundred interviewer-based questionnaires given to our respondents, in a College Hospital at the North Eastern region of Nigeria. A cross sectional descriptive study was carried out using convenience sampling method. The data obtained was analyzed using Epi info software. The result of the study showed that 63% of children were fully immunized while 27% were either partially vaccinated or not vaccinated at all. It also showed that 72.9% of children delivered in the hospital were fully vaccinated as against the 35.2% of children who were delivered at home. A major concern that affects vaccination practices is the requirement for good storage and transportation of vaccines. Implementation of policies that will encourage both hospital delivery and strict adherence to the immunization schedule is an important step towards achieving adequate immunization.

The effectiveness of a knowledge sharing activities in organization has the potential of improving customer services, bringing new product to market and reducing cost of business operations. Recently, Information Technologies are often used in knowledge management in informing customers and employees of the latest innovation or development as well as sharing knowledge among the employees. In knowledge management, effective knowledge sharing is considered to be one of the most vital components of KM success. Knowledge sharing practice helps organization to improve performance and achieve their mission. However, many researchers and authors agree and disagree with each others about embedding knowledge sharing practice in workplace. Therefore, this paper discusses generally about knowledge sharing practices in organization to investigate whether knowledge sharing is practiced and embedded sufficiently in organization.

The project conduct will test the knowledge sharing framework to identify the suitable framework or model for the community of practice which is single mothers in Malaysia. According to the Siti Fatimah Abdul Rahman (2006), in her article title “Single Mothers: Everybody Responsibilities”, definition of single mother is mother that responsible to raise their children without any support from their father. The definitions to labeling any individual as single mothers depend on each country definition.

The effectiveness of a knowledge sharing activities in organization has the potential of improving customer services, bringing new product to market and reducing cost of business operations. Recently, Information Technologies are often used in knowledge management in informing customers and employees of the latest innovation or development as well as sharing knowledge among the employees. In knowledge management, effective knowledge sharing is considered to be one of the most vital components of KM success. Knowledge sharing practice helps organization to improve performance and achieve their mission. However, many researchers and authors agree and disagree with each others about embedding knowledge sharing practice in workplace. Therefore, this paper discusses generally about knowledge sharing practices in organization to investigate whether knowledge sharing is practiced and embedded sufficiently in organization.

ABSTRACT: Pharmacy profession has responsibility for ensuring the safe, effective and rational use of medicines. Effective pharmacy practice requires an understanding of the social context which is practiced, innovative and informative. The aim of the study was to find out the Knowledge towards digital library and innovation in pharmacy practice by Questionnaire based Prospective study on pharmacy-medical professionals. The participant subjects to enrolled in study and asks self prepared 30 questions. The information's were obtained on special form and data was analyzed by SPSS software. The result were found that 66.6% of participants were agrees that digital library makes treatment better where as 33.34% were not able to say about digital library role in better treatment outcomes. 53.33% thought that through 40 % slightly agreed. 56.66% study population positive to say the importance of electronic application of digital library minimize adverse drug reaction, 6.66% were not thought so and contents is increasing day by day in health care profession, 43.33% had negative thinking on the same. 73.33% said and agree to say that this digital library were great innovation of digital library and 66.66% agree to say this digital library is one of the best media for drug information. Our conclusion that more awareness required for application of digital library and in better innovation of pharmacy practice so, society will take more benefit in health care managements, minimizing adverse drug reaction, choose the better choice of drug and in minimizing cost of treatment.