Increasingly, women simultaneously balance the roles of mother, parental carer and worker. However, individual role balance strategies among these working ‘sandwich’ generation women have not been thoroughly explored. Eighteen women combining these three roles were interviewed about their individual role balance strategies. Findings were identified through the framework analysis technique, underpinned by the Model of Juggling Occupations. Achieving and maintaining role balance was explained as a complex process accomplished through a range of strategies. Findings revealed the women used six within-role balance strategies: living with integrity, being the best you can, doing what you love, loving what you do, remembering why and searching for signs of success. The women also described six between-role balance strategies: maintaining health and wellbeing, repressing perfectionism, managing time and energy, releasing responsibility, nurturing social connection and reciprocating. These findings provide a basis for health care providers to understand and potentially support working ‘sandwich’ generation women.

Background: Peripheral intravenous cannula insertion is the most common invasive healthcare procedure, however failure rates remain unacceptably high, particularly in patients with difficult intravascular access. This leads to treatment delays and increased complication risk, causing poorer outcomes among this patient subset. Ultrasonographic guidance reduces these risks and is therefore becoming a competency required of health professionals. However, there is no consensus on how to design teaching sessions to achieve this competency. Methods: Systematic review was conducted to identify characteristics of effective teaching sessions for current and training health professions to achieve ultrasound guided peripheral intravenous cannulation competency. Secondary outcomes included defining competency and to assess benefits to patients and healthcare systems. Eligibility for inclusion required description of teaching of ultrasound guided peripheral intravenous cannulation to qualified or training health professionals who went on to perform it in human patients or volunteers with reported outcomes or success rates. Studies were excluded if not accessible in full, not peer-reviewed or presented research that had been presented elsewhere previously. Of the 1085 records identified on review of 6 databases, 35 were included for final review based on eligibility criteria. Results: Almost all (97.1%) used mixed modality teaching comprising of didactic and simulation portions, although time allocated varied widely. A median of 5 proctored procedures was required for competency. Competency was independent of previous experience or staff seniority. Mean reported insertion attempts was 1.7, success rate was 82.5% and first-time success rate was 75.5%. All included studies described improvement in their participants or healthcare system including significantly reduced midline insertion rates, central venous catheter insertion rates and associated bacteremia and sepsis, self-reported cannulation difficulty, specialist input, therapy delays and premature catheter failure rates. Further, there was significantly improved procedural confidence, knowledge and competence. Conclusion: Simple teaching interventions can lead to competent ultrasound guided peripheral intravenous cannula insertion by novices, resulting in numerous positive outcomes for patients and healthcare systems.

A diagnosis of an autism spectrum condition (autism) provides limited information regarding an individual’s level of functioning, information key in determining support and funding needs. Using the framework introduced by Arksey and O’Malley, this scoping review aimed to identify measures of functioning suitable for school-aged children on the autism spectrum and evaluate their overall utility, including content validity against the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) and the ICF Core Sets for Autism. The overall utility of the 13 included tools was determined using the Outcome Measures Rating Form (OMRF), with the Adaptive Behavior Assessment System (ABAS-3) receiving the highest overall utility rating. Content validity of the tools in relation to the ICF and ICF Core Sets for Autism varied, with few assessment tools including any items linking to Environmental Factors of the ICF. The ABAS-3 had the greatest total number of codes linking to the Comprehensive ICF Core Set for Autism while the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales (Vineland-3) had the greatest number of unique codes linking to both the Comprehensive ICF Core Set for Autism and the Brief ICF Core Set for Autism (6–16 years). Measuring functioning of school-aged children on the spectrum can be challenging, however, it is important to accurately capture their abilities to ensure equitable and individualised access to funding and supports.

Women combining paid employment with dual caring responsibilities for children and aging parents, otherwise known as the sandwich generation, experience both benefits and costs related to role participation and quality of life. However, previous literature is inconclusive regarding the impact of this role combination on role balance. In the context of these mixed findings on role balance for working sandwich generation women, this study aimed to explore how within role characteristics and between role interactions are related to role balance for these women. This aim was achieved through the use of a questionnaire administered to 18 Australian working sandwich generation women. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and correlation coefficients, with findings suggesting the women studied tended to experience neither role balance or role imbalance. Within-role characteristics, particularly within the mother and family member roles, were related to role balance. In addition, between-role conflict and role interactions involving either the home maintainer or family member roles had the greatest impact on role balance.

Content validity describes the extent to which a measure represents, and is relevant to, the construct it aims to assess. The International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health and derived Core/Code Sets (Sets) for autism, attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder, cerebral palsy and early developmental delay and disability are adequate to establish the content validity of measures aiming to assess functioning in young children with neurodevelopmental conditions (NDCs). This article aimed to assess the content validity of comprehensive assessments of functioning for young children with NDCs against these standards. Twenty-two common measures of functioning were evaluated for content validity against the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health at a domain level, with 10 measures analysed at the item-level and compared to the Sets relevant to young children with NDCs. Measures covered between 21% and 57% of the combined Set codes and 19% to 63% of codes from specific Sets. Much of this variation was between measures, with some variation due to differences between individual Sets. The percentages reflect that measures heavily focus on activities and participation areas, with environmental factors rarely assessed. These findings are useful for clinicians, policymakers, and researchers in identifying the most appropriate measures for assessing functioning in young children with neurodevelopmental conditions. Lay Young children who have developmental delay, autism, or other neurodevelopmental conditions can have difficulties doing things in different areas of their life. What they can and cannot do is called their level of functioning. There are lots of assessment measures that aim to assess functioning. But, we are not sure if these measures assess all the things we need to know about these children’s functioning. Other research has identified lists of items (codes) that need to be assessed to understand functioning for young children with different neurodevelopmental conditions fully. These lists include body functions (the things a child’s body or brain can do), activities and participation (the activities and tasks a child does) and environmental factors (parts of the environment that can influence functioning). In this study, we looked at the items from these lists assessed by different functioning measures to see how they compared to what should be assessed. The measures that we looked at covered 21%–57% of all the codes and 19%–63% of the codes for lists specific to different conditions. Most of the measures focused on activity and participation codes, and they rarely assessed environmental factors. Knowing which codes and how much of the lists the measures assess can help researchers, clinicians and policymakers to choose measures that are more appropriate for young children with neurodevelopmental conditions.