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Enabling education programs in Australia assist students, who would otherwise have been excluded from higher education, to transition into undergraduate study. These programs emerged independently in response to the needs of individual universities and the varying cohorts of students they serve. The exclusion of these programs from the Australian Qualifications Framework (AQF) has meant they remain unregulated, with no national framework for standards. The development of academic standards is a dynamic, consensus driven process, and benchmarking provides a method through which academics from across institutions can work in partnership to reach shared understandings and improve and align practices. This practice report outlines the results of the first comprehensive cross-institutional benchmarking project involving nine Australian universities and demonstrates there is shared understanding of the standards of enabling programs between institutions. These findings will contribute to the establishment of national standards for enabling programs in Australia.

The clinical impact of any therapy requires the product be safe and effective. Gammaretroviral vectors pose several unique risks, including inadvertent exposure to replication competent retrovirus (RCR) that can arise during vector manufacture. The US FDA has required patient monitoring for RCR, and the National Gene Vector Biorepository is an NIH resource that has assisted eligible investigators in meeting this requirement. To date, we have found no evidence of RCR in 338 pre-treatment and 1,595 post-treatment blood samples from 737 patients associated with 60 clinical trials. Most samples (75%) were obtained within 1 year of treatment, and samples as far out as 9 years after treatment were analyzed. The majority of trials (93%) were cancer immunotherapy, and 90% of the trials used vector products produced with the PG13 packaging cell line. The data presented here provide further evidence that current manufacturing methods generate RCR-free products and support the overall safety profile of retroviral gene therapy.

Newly arrived immigrant and refugee children are faced with significant physical and mental health issues and often rely on school nurses for care and connection to healthcare. The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to explore urban public school nurses' experiences caring for newly arrived children. Data were collected through one-time in-depth semistructured interviews with school nurses (n = 20). Three relational themes were identified: (1) Trials and Triumphs: Telling Stories About Newly Arrived Children; (2) Walk a Mile in My Shoes; and, (3) Being a Trusted Health Navigator. The Role of School Nurses in the Context of Trauma emerged as the constitutive pattern. The current study enhances our understanding of the unique role played by school nurses as they address the profound needs of newly arrived children and their families, many of whom have survived trauma and face a number of barriers to accessing care.

Objective: The purpose was to understand college students' motivations for the use and discontinued use of fitness related technology (FRT) in relation to their physical activity behaviors. Participants: Participants were undergraduate students (n = 22) who were eligible if they were between 18–24 years of age (emerging adulthood) and current or previous users of FRT. Methods: Qualitative descriptive design was used with semi-structured interviews conducted virtually. Thematic analysis was used to analyze the data. Results: Participants discussed four themes; (1) Motivations for physical activity, (2) Motivations for using FRT, (3) Social connection improves accountability for physical activity, and (4) The ups and downs of FRT goal setting and data display. Conclusions: Best practice guidelines need to be established for the use of FRT along with approaches to promote physical activity among this population. Additional research is needed to identify reasons for discontinuation of use and to develop potential interventions to promote sustained engagement with FRT. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary Infection presents a significant risk for immunocompromised patients. To reduce this risk, various precautions can be implemented and these may affect patients' quality of life. Such precautions are controversial, [...]