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Abstract Background Three types of central venous access devices (CVADs)—peripherally inserted central catheters (PICCs), skin-tunnelled central catheters (Hickman-type devices), and implantable chest wall Ports (Ports)—are routinely used in the intravenous administration of anti-cancer treatment. These devices avoid the need for peripheral cannulation and allow for home delivery of treatment. Assessments of these devices have tended to focus on medical and economic factors, but there is increased interest in the importance of patient experiences and perspectives in this area. The aim of this systematic review is to synthesise existing research regarding patient experiences of these CVADs to help clinicians guide, prepare, and support patients receiving CVADs for the administration of anti-cancer treatment. Method A systematic search of MEDLINE, Embase, and CINAHL research databases will be carried out along with a supplementary reference list search. This review will include quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods studies published in peer-review journals, reporting some aspect(s) of patient experiences or perspectives regarding the use of PICC, Hickman, or Port CVADs for the administration of anti-cancer drugs. The methodological quality and risk of bias of included papers will be assessed using the Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool (MMAT). Relevant outcome data will be extracted from included studies and analysed using a thematic synthesis approach. Discussion The results section of the review will comprise thematic synthesis of quantitative studies, thematic synthesis of qualitative studies, and the aggregation of the two. Results will aim to offer an account of current understandings of patient experiences and perspective regarding PICC, Hickman-type, and Port devices in the context of anti-cancer treatment. Confidence in cumulative evidence will be assessed using the Confidence in the Evidence from Reviews of Qualitative research (CERQual) approach. Systematic review registration This systematic review protocol is registered with the International Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews (PROSPERO). Registration number: CRD42017065851. This protocol was prepared using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses for Protocols checklist (PRISMA-P) (Shamseer et al., BMJ 349: 2015).

If you have been reading, to date, in the Journal of Applied Hermeneutics, Dr. John Williamson’s PhD thesis-come-novel serialized, then you have read, more or less, four texts: • Guest Editorial: Preface to “A Strange and Earnest Client” Part One of the Case of the Disappearing/Appearing Slow Learner: An Interpretive Mystery by W. John Williamson [January 11, 2016]; • The Case of the Disappearing/Appearing Slow Learner: An Interpretive Mystery. Part One: A Strange and Earnest Client [January 11, 2016]; • Invited Guest Editorial. Lives Worthy of Life: The Everyday Resistance of Disabled People by Nick Hodge [February 22, 2016], and • The Case of the Disappearing/Appearing Slow Learner: An Interpretive Mystery. Part Two: Cells of Categorical Confinement [February 22, 2016]. My name is Jim Paul. I am the Invited Guest Editorial provider for the third installment of John’s work titled - Part Three: All Hell Could Break Loose.

This writing presents our views, as university teacher educators and scholars, concerning some issues pertaining to the readiness of contemporary Canadian education to move forward, well, with confidence and competence, into the mid-21st Century. We posit that all which is possible, educationally, lives in the give and take between Canadian education‘s geo-political, economic and linguistic past, the current functioning of contemporary schools as contested learning and teaching sites, and the increasing impacts of globalisation. We draw from guiding adult education principles in support of an enriched and expanded commitment to teacher professional development as a pathway to sustainable education reform.

Patient–health care practitioner communication is riddled with complexities. In this article the authors initially describe how careful listening to another, the patient, within the context of today's health care system has drifted from being an integral part of the “art” of medicine toward a methodological checklist of standard questions designed to support the “science” of medicine. Then they offer a way and a means for today's biomedically trained health care practitioner to rethink or reimagine the value of authentic listening. They conclude with a critical exploration of a pedagogic speaking-listening relationship located within an understanding of dialogue as a means of gaining health-related, patient-specific evidence. By attending to a patient's story through the health care practitioner's attentive listening, the health care practitioner together with the patient create a place whereby a dialogue exchange actually becomes an indispensable and health-related element fostering a process of mutual learning, knowing, and being.

Binge-like ethanol exposure during adolescence has been shown to produce long lasting effects in animal models including anxiety-like behavior that can last into young adulthood and impairments in cognition that can last throughout most of the lifespan. However, little research has investigated if binge-like ethanol exposure during adolescence produces persistent anxiety-like behavior and concomitantly impairs cognition late in life. Furthermore, few studies have investigated such behavioral effects in both female and male rats over the lifespan. Finally, it is yet to be determined if binge-like ethanol exposure during adolescence alters microglia activation in relevant brain regions late in life. In the present study female and male adolescent rats were exposed to either 3.0 or 5.0 g/kg ethanol, or water control, in a chronic intermittent pattern before being tested in the elevated plus maze and open field task over the next ∼18 months. Animals were then trained in a spatial reference task via the Morris water maze before having their behavioral flexibility tested. Finally, brains were removed, sectioned and presumptive microglia activation determined using autoradiography for [3H]PK11195 binding. Males, but not females, displayed an anxiety-like phenotype initially following the chronic intermittent ethanol exposure paradigm which resolved in adulthood. Further, males but not females had altered spatial reference learning and impaired behavioral flexibility late in life. Conversely, [3H]PK11195 binding was significantly elevated in females compared to males late in life and the level of microglia activation interacted as a function of sex and brain regions, but there was no long-term outcome related to adolescent alcohol exposure. These data further confirm that binge-like ethanol exposure during adolescence produces alterations in behavior that can last throughout the lifespan. In addition, the data suggest that microglia activation late in life is not exacerbated by prior binge-like ethanol exposure during adolescence but the expression is sex- and brain region-dependent across the lifespan.