The concept of social support as being directive or nondirective may help explain why helping can either boost or impede morale. The Inventory of Nondirective and Directive Instrumental Support (INDIS) was developed to investigate this question. The directive factor concerns others’ attempts to dominate coping and the nondirective factor concerns others’ attempts to facilitate but not dominate ...

How do comments on student writing from peers compare to those from subject-matter experts? This study examined the types of comments that reviewers produce as well as their perceived helpfulness. Comments on classmates’ papers were collected from two undergraduate and one graduate-level psychology course. The undergraduate papers in one of the courses were also commented on by an independent p...

OBJECTIVES To assess the prevalence of advance directives among nursing home residents before and after passage of the Patient Self-Determination Act (PSDA) and to identify factors associated with advance directive completion. DESIGN Prestudy and poststudy nursing home admissions using medical record reviews and a companion cross-sectional survey of alert and oriented residents. SETTING Six...

OBJECTIVES Advance directives have been implemented for years in western countries, but the concept is new to Asian cultures. According to traditional Chinese culture, family members usually play a decisive role in a patient's treatment plan. Thus it may be hard to implement an advance directive despite its importance to the treatment of patients. The objectives of this study were to assess the...

I n 2004 Member of the European Parliament (MEP) Liz Lynne was Shadow Rapporteur on a proposed European Union directive for what is now the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats in Europe. EU Directive 2004/40/EC aimed to regulate worker exposure to electromagnetic fields. “I did a lot of research work on it,” MEP Lynne said. “I contacted medical experts and consulted manufacturers to understand w...

In this article, we examine and discuss the current situation for noncommercial clinical trials in Europe—two years after a new legal framework entered into force. The Clinical Trials Directive, issued in 2001 [1], sought to regulate clinical research in a uniform way across Europe. The basic aims underpinning its development were to cut red tape, speed up research and development, enhance the ...

In less than nine months, manufacturers of medical devices containing certain types of tissues of animal origin will need to ensure that their products comply with newly mandated specifications. They should not wait until the last minute to begin this work. This article discusses the important issues that will need to be addressed to ensure effective compliance with the requirements.