This thesis provides a report on research aimed at enhancing treatment of patients with bipolar disorder. We describe various aspects of treatment of bipolar disorder. The central study reported in this thesis is an effect study of a multicomponent intervention, Collaborative Care. Chapter 1 describes …

BACKGROUND: After graduation, nurse practitioner students are expected to be capable of providing complex, evidence-based nursing care independently, combined with standardized medical care. The students who follow work-study programs have to develop their competencies in a healthcare environment dominated …

Purpose of review: To summarize the latest research on the risks and consequences of the burden that may be imposed on informal carers of persons living and dying with advanced heart failure. Recent findings: A systematic search in PubMed over the period 2013–2014 ultimately revealed 24 original articles …

This research paper explores the role of women talk (schmoozing) and the gender gap in urban sociology. In the discussions concerning the changing face of the Dutch inner cities, there is an increasing tendency for attention to be paid to ethnicity, without a concomitant analysis of the impact of gender …

In this paper the focus is on professional development through informal learning. People learn a lot while performing tasks and doing their jobs, but they are not always aware of these processes. Encouraging the awareness for informal learning is a first step towards acknowledgement of informal learning …

The attention for teacher educators as professionals and their professional development is indeed increasing. While much of the attention has been directed to novice teacher educators little has been paid to experienced teacher educators and their particular developmental activities. This paper presents …

Higher education learning and teaching methods have changed while most educational buildings are still rather traditional. Yet, there is an increasing interest in whether we can educate todays higher education students in yesterdays buildings. This paper aims to contribute to this debate by studying …

Background: The population ageing in most Western countries leads to a larger number of frail older people. These frail people are at an increased risk of negative health outcomes, such as functional decline, falls, institutionalisation and mortality. Many approaches are available for identifying frailty …

This paper describes the Care4Balance (C4B) system for better facilitating communication and task coordination between formal and informal caregivers, and older adults as care receivers. Field-tests with older adults (n=3) and user studies (n=9) were conducted to evaluate the system and the perceived …

In the wake of increasing and seemingly inexorable waves of migration to the developed countries of the world, one of the greatest challenges of our time is to preserve social cohesion in the host societies. To achieve this, the integration of immigrants in the host society is essential; however, too …