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and Keogh, Brian (2019) Pedagogical principles and methods underpinning education of health and social care practitioners on experiences and needs of older LGBT+ people: findings from a systematic review. Nurse Education in Practice, 40 , 102625.

Background: Compassion is an important concept in healthcare, and in addition, care should be delivered in a culturally competent manner, taking into account the values, culture, and health beliefs of the individual. However, the training of nurses and other healthcare professionals may not adequately equip them to practice in a manner which is both compassionate and culturally competent. In this paper, we report on the development of three learning tools, designed to promote the skills and strengthen the capacity of nurses and healthcare professionals to provide culturally competent and compassionate care. Methods: The project involved the participation of six European countries in the development of three learning tools, covering culturally competent compassion, culturally competent courage, and intercultural communication. The principles which informed the methodology derive from the previous work on the Papadopoulos, Tilki and Taylor (PTT) model of transcultural nursing and cultural competence, and were also informed by the Intercultural Education of Nurses in Europe (IENE1 & IENE2) projects. Each partner country was required to produce one tool for each topic area, based on guidance provided by the project co-ordinator, leading to the development of eighteen tools in total. The tools were administered mainly to student nurses to test their feasibility.

SUMMARYThe relationship between epididymis ultrasonography (US) and infertility is poorly defined probably owing to lack of objective and reproducible criteria of US evaluation. Here, we evaluated US size of testes, caput and of corpus epididymis in infertile men: 165 with total sperm count ! 39 9 10 6 , 187 with total sperm count <39 9 10 6 and 75 azoospermic men. Blood levels of follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) and of total testosterone were also evaluated. US measures obtained using a high-frequency (12 MHz) linear array transducer, included the mean value of bilateral testicular volumes (mL) (Testes-M), of bilateral longitudinal diameter of caput epididymis (mm) (Caput-M) and of the bilateral antero-posterior diameter of the corpus measured on a longitudinal scan (mm) (Corpus-M). Testicular histology of azoospermic men was obtained and the percentage of seminiferous tubules with elongated spermatids (%T) was used to classify cases with normal spermatogenesis (obstructive azoospermia) (n = 17; %T ! 80), or with deranged spermatogenesis (n = 58; %T 33). Caput-M was correlated with Testes-M (p = 0.0003; r = 0.17) and with FSH serum levels (p = 0.024; r = À0.14) but not with semen parameters. Caput-M but not Corpus-M values resulted greater in obstructive azoospermia compared with other groups, but difference was not significant. Cut-off values of Testes-M, Caput-M and of FSH correctly classified cases of obstructive azoospermia (AUC > 0.5). A patient with FSH < 7.8 IU/mL had a 63.6% chance (CI 40.1-83.2%) of being affected by obstructive azoospermia. US Caput-M ! 10.85 mm, which represented the cut-off value with the highest combination of sensitivity (58.8%, CI 32.9-81.6%) and specificity (91.4%, CI 81.0-97.1%) applied in cases with FSH < 7.8 IU/mL increased the probability for obstructive azoospermia from 63.6% up to 92.3% . US evaluation of the caput epididymis diameter helped in predicting the obstructive origin of azoospermia when FSH was not increased, whereas it was not relevant in non-azoospermic men.

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