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By Pauline Oo
Students consistently rank Bud Markhart as one of the best instructors in Horticulture at the University of Minnesota. His colleagues say, "he knows how to clearly explain complex scientific concepts in a way that is understood and recalled, synthesized and communicated."
One of his innovations is a scratch-off multiple-choice answer sheet for midterm exams, which offers students instant feedback — and partial credit for picking the answer on the second or third try.
"Bud's class engaged me…and proved to be the challenge I was looking for," said a former student. "He was the first teacher in many years who didn't let me get away with memorizing and regurgitating."
Markhart is equally in demand as an adviser. He's now advising 13 environmental horticulture majors and annually mentors an Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program student. He pioneered the University's organic horticulture curriculum and inspired students to create Cornercopia, a one-acre plot of certified organic land on the St. Paul campus and sell their organic produce at the university's popular summer Farmer's Market.
As the department's learning abroad adviser, he also provides international experiences. In spring 2006, he taught a course that culminated in a tour of organic crop production in Iceland and Germany.
"When we were revamping our undergraduate major, he was the one who asked, 'what will this change do for students?' Keeping students' interests front and center is a hallmark of Professor Markhart," his colleague said.
By Robert Kane, M.D.
The failure of our long-term care system is America’s best-kept embarrassing secret.
Almost every adult in this country will either enter a nursing home or have a parent or other relative who does. Demographic studies suggest that 40 percent of all adults who live to age 65 will enter a nursing home before they die. Even more will use some other form of long-term care.
Some people believe that the key to dealing with long-term care is adequate preparation, and that insurance and planning should suffice. Alas, even such steps are not sufficient. You simply cannot rehearse the trials that long-term care subjects you to. That is why the system has to change.
My sister and I learned this first-hand, while arranging long-term care for my mother. She suffered a debilitating stroke and spent the last years of her life in rehabilitation, assisted-living facilities, and finally a nursing home. Our experience taught us that if a researcher with a 30-year history of studying long-term care could not navigate this process, it is very likely broken.
Along the way, our family encountered some professionals who were kind and considerate, but also many frustrations: inadequate care and the need to hire private duty aides, as well as poor communication and lack of coordination throughout the system. Our long-term care experience proved far more difficult than it needed to be.
In preparing a book on this issue, we replicated our own experience, collecting stories from more than 700 other people around the country who had experienced similar frustrations trying to get the system to work. It’s clear that our long-term care system needs major revisions.
Our current system is essentially risk-averse and life-defeating. We put so much energy into trying to communicate rules for safety that we haven’t created incentives to create good lives for these people. When people actually do provide good care, we should pay them more for doing a better job.
We should also end the false marriage of services and living situation. People should not have to give up their autonomy and enjoyment of life in order to receive long-term care.
What can consumers do? First of all, it’s important to recognize that the people who work in the system – from hospital discharge planners to the people in long-term care – are first and foremost agents of the institution for which they work. They will keep that institution’s best interests in mind when they are dealing with you. When you purchase these kinds of services, you need to be as active and wary a consumer as you are when you buy a used-car.
The state of long-term care in the United States is a national crisis, a silent epidemic. We have an enormous stake in improving the system, yet this issue has not received the attention it warrants. As a nation, we need to rally together to create the long-term care system we deserve.
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Robert Kane, M.D., is a professor and endowed chair in Long-term Care and Aging, University of Minnesota School of Public Health, and author of the book, “It Shouldn’t Be This Way: the Failure of Long-Term Care” (Vanderbilt University Press). This column is an educational service of the University of Minnesota. Advice presented should not take the place of an examination by a health-care professional. For more health-related information, go to http://www.healthtalk.umn.edu.
By Kathleen Olson
It’s moving season and your child may be leaving for college or that first apartment to start a new job. Things in your family will be different from that point forward, even difficult, but in the next few weeks many parents will figure out how to make the transition for their family.
Parents can take the lead in the family to help with the transition by acknowledging that home life will be different. So what should parents expect to prepare for in the transition?
For many families, a child leaving home comes easily, but for some it is stressful and creates some conflict. As much as you hope you have prepared your teen, the reality is that some lessons are only gained by leaving home.
Parents play a significant and active role in facilitating the transition and preparing for a child to leave home. However, this takes planning, whether your child is heading off across the country to college or to an apartment across town.
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Kathleen Olson has spent her career focusing on parenting issues and believes that most issues we face in life go back to parenting. She is an Extension Educator in Family Relations for the University of Minnesota and has two children of her own.
Find more stories at: http://www1.umn.edu/news/features/index.htm