University of Galway Research Repository
Open access to publications, including peer-reviewed articles, conference papers, working papers, reports, and other scholarly communications by University of Galway researchers.
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Publication Drivers and facilitators of HIV-related stigma in healthcare settings in Ireland(Springer, 2024-09-13)People living with HIV who experience stigma in healthcare settings are at increased risk for engaging in health avoidance behaviours, suboptimal adherence to antiretroviral therapy, and viral non-suppression. HIV-related stigma erodes trust between patients and healthcare providers, thereby undermining both individual and public health. This study aimed to identify predictors of stigmatising attitudes, stigma practices, and fear of occupational transmission among healthcare workers in the Republic of Ireland. Data were collected from 295 healthcare workers using a standardised tool designed to measure HIV-related stigma. The outcomes examined were stigmatising attitudes, stigmatising practices (such as excessive infection precaution measures), and fear of occupational transmission. Multiple linear regression analyses were conducted to explore predictors at the individual, clinic, and policy levels. The results indicated that none of the models significantly predicted stigmatising attitudes. However, stigmatising practices were positively associated with never having worked in an HIV clinic, lack of knowledge or agreement with the concept of ‘undetectable equals untransmittable’ (U = U), and the presence of institutional policies, collectively accounting for 25.3% of the variance. Fear of occupational transmission was positively predicted by gender and lack of knowledge or agreement with U = U, explaining 23.8% of the variance. The findings highlight the critical role of U = U knowledge in reducing stigma-related behaviours and fears among healthcare workers. Enhancing knowledge and acceptance of U = U as part of comprehensive stigma interventions may help reduce the stigma experienced by people living with HIV in healthcare settings.Publication Evaluation of high-resolution video technology as a pedagogical approach for peripheral intravenous cannulation teaching and simulation in nursing education. A mixed action research project(University of Galway, 2024-09-13)The main objective in nurse education is to develop student nurses’ competencies as they progress and transition to become registered nurses. Nursing programmes identify core competencies which include knowledge, clinical decision making, attitudes, and clinical skills that student nurses are expected to acquire by the time they finish their educational studies. Registered nurses are expected to perform the skill of venepuncture and peripheral intravenous cannulation, yet few countries ensure this clinical skill is a learning outcome of the undergraduate curriculum. As a result of this phenomenon, the training of these skills is often left until students become graduates and registered professionals. In Ireland, the Office of Nursing and Midwifery Service Directive (2020) updated the Undergraduate Nursing and Midwifery Curriculum to include the teaching of the clinical procedures, venepuncture, and peripheral intravenous cannulation. The aim of the work presented in this thesis was to develop, implement and evaluate a technology-driven pedagogical approach to teach and assess students on these skills. Aligning with the goal to ensure adequately prepared, highly skilled nurses who provide high quality, safe care to patients, the intended outcome of this study was to improve the knowledge, skills, and attitudes of student nurses in performing these specific skills.Publication Frictions and coalitions: Findings from a European study of disabled women’s experiences in social movements(University of Galway, 2024-09-12)This thesis aims to understand and reflect on disabled women’s experience of participation in the disability and women’s movements, as well as disabled women organising in the disabled feminist movement. This was done by exploring the experience of disabled women’s participation in social movements within the existing literature and examining the legal and policy changes that have influenced participation. Understanding the lived experience of disabled women and their participation in these movements is vital work. Empirical research was conducted in line with an overarching framework, the human rights-based disability research methodology, and a guiding methodological approach of oral history. Data was gathered and analysed in line with these theoretical approaches from the combined views and perspectives of 53 disabled women from 23 European countries. There is limited literature available on disabled women and their participation in social movements, particularly on the disabled feminist movement; however, existing research, along with the empirical research conducted for this PhD, paints a clearer picture of disabled women and their experiences. The importance of reciprocal relationships was examined, and possibilities for mutual gain through reciprocal relationships were explored. For this to happen, cross-movement dialogues need to create a culture where differences are openly, honestly and constructively addressed using an intersectional analysis to surface how each community experiences issues differently and how struggles are interconnected. The analysis revealed that while acknowledging the existing challenges, there was hope that relationships could be strengthened further, and in turn, the voices of disabled women could be amplified to a greater extent.Publication Evolutionary origin of vertebrate cranial placodes(CRC Press, 2021-06-18)Chapter 6 addresses the question of how cranial placodes evolved as novel structures in vertebrates by redeploying pre-existing and sometimes evolutionarily ancient cell types. The chapter integrates insights from comparative studies with our knowledge on vertebrate placode development. After briefly summarizing the evolutionary history of sensory and neurosecretory cells, the chapter discusses how these cell types may have become concentrated in non-neural ectoderm adjacent to the neural plate and how they may have become segregated into an anterior and posterior proto-placodal territory in the last common tunicate-vertebrate ancestor. It is then discussed how an increase in progenitor expansion may have converted these proto-placodal territories into proper placodes, which give rise to larger and complex sense organs, in ancestral vertebrates. It is argued that rewiring of the gene regulatory network upstream and downstream of the transcriptional regulators Six1/2, Six4/5 and Eya probably played a central role for the evolution of placodes. A detailed scenario of placode evolution is then presented, which summarizes the proposed regulatory changes and links them to functional changes of life style during chordate and vertebrate evolution. The chapter ends with general conclusions on the evolution of novelties as illustrated by placodes and placodal cell types.Publication Evolution of neurosecretory cell types(CRC Press, 2021-06-18)Chapter 5 investigates the evolutionary history of the neurosecretory cells derived from cranial placodes in vertebrates. These comprise the hormone-producing cells of the adenohypophysis and the olfactory neuropeptidergic (GnRH) neurons. The chapter argues that specialized neurosecretory cell types evolved many times independently. Apart from an anteromedial population of neurosecretory cells (specified by Otp and other transcription factors), there is little evidence for neurosecretory cell types with a deep evolutionary history. The placodal neurosecretory cells probably originated as novel cell types only in vertebrates or the last common tunicate-vertebrate ancestor. Data from amphioxus suggest that in ancestral chordates neurosecretory cells were concentrated in rostral endomesodermal pouches (forming Hatschek’s pit in amphioxus). These probably secreted protein hormones allowing the regulation of metabolic and reproductive processes in response to environmental cues. A new regulatory environment was then established in the non-neural ectoderm anterior to the neural plate in the lineage leading to tunicates and vertebrates by the recruitment of transcription factors from the endoderm (FoxA, GATA2/3) and anterior neuroectoderm (FoxG, SP6-9, DMRT4/5). This facilitated the recruitment of neurosecretory cells (specified by Pitx, Lhx3/4, Islet, POU1f1, Six1/2, Eya) from the rostral endomesodermal pouches to this domain and the origin of a new type of neurosecretory (GnRH) neuron.
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