Search PubMed⌕ Search

Biomedical subjects

Kim Walker

Publications and source records attributed to Kim Walker.

12 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2006

Why do work patterns differ between men and women GPs?

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to explore gender differences in contractual commitments, job satisfaction and spouses' occupation among GP principals in NHS Scotland. DESIGN/METHODOLOGY/APPROACH: This paper is based on data provided by a self-completion, postal questionnaire survey. The response rate was 50 per cent. FINDINGS: Males worked more hours than females and were more likely to work out-of-hours. Females reported greater job satisfaction but only when they worked fewer hours. Females earned less than males but there were no gender differences in total household income. Both genders planned to retire at 59 years. More males would delay retirement if they could work part-time. More females than males were in dual-doctor households. Male respondents in dual-doctor households were more likely to have modified their working hours or career aspirations than males in other households. PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS: The number of hours worked by GPs is in part determined by the occupation/earning power of their spouse. The number of women GPs is increasing and they are likely to continue to choose to work fewer hours than their male counterparts have done in the past. ORIGINALITY/VALUE: This study has attempted to incorporate spouse's occupation/income as a factor in the career choices of GPs in Scotland.

Adult↗
PubMed2006

Alert but not alarmed? The rhetoric of terrorism and life after 9/11.

Our contemporary times are marked by an ever-present regime of sporadic and seemingly escalating violence and counter-violence as terrorism never rests in its campaign to destroy life and property in virtually every corner of the globe. Since September 11, 2001 our political and cultural climate has become increasingly febrile as governments and their various agencies of control ramp up their rhetoric on terrorism with often devastating social and inter-subjective consequences. In this paper I explore the idea of terrorism as a strategic device deployed by a range of actors and entities to manipulate and undermine the Western 'way of life'. Drawing on a diverse range of scholarship I interrogate the politics of fear and anxiety terrorism is designed to propagate and in closing, suggest some tactics ordinary citizens might adopt in order not to be cowed by terrorism's relentless assault on our intellects and sensibilities.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed2005

Postmodern pedagogy and the nursing curriculum: collaborating for excellence.

Nursing in developed and developing countries alike has made, or is making, the move from apprenticeship and service-driven models of nurse education to those situated in and determined by the higher education sector. In Australia this move was made some twenty years ago. In this paper I present the epistemological and operational contours of a highly successful collaboration between the Tasmanian School of Nursing & Midwifery and St Vincent's Private Hospital, Sydney. In educational terms this collaborative curriculum is forged from a postmodern pedagogy. This means both student and teacher become reciprocal agents in the making of (new) knowledge arising out of a praxis-oriented curriculum whereby theory informs practice and practice mutually informs theory. Both the university and the hospital are significant beneficiaries of this professional/business partnership and as a result, the oft discussed 'theory/practice divide' is thwarted in its conceptualisation and articulation through the ways the university (theory) and the hospital (practice) amalgamate through their combined responsibility for the students' success.

Australia↗
PubMed2005

General practitioner non-principals benefit from flexible working.

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study is to explore non-principals' working patterns and attitudes to work. DESIGN/METHODOLOGY/APPROACH: The article is based on data provided by a questionnaire survey. Findings - Gender division was apparent among the non-principals. Males were more likely to work full-time, because their spouses modified their working hours. RESEARCH LIMITATIONS/IMPLICATIONS: It was impossible to identify all non-principals in Scotland or to compare responders and non-responders, due to the lack of official data. Hence, the results might not be representative. PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS: More flexible posts would enable GPs to more easily combine paid work with family commitments. It is anticipated that the new GP contract should deliver this. ORIGINALITY/VALUE: This was the first time a study of all non-principals in Scotland had been attempted. The findings provide a more comprehensive picture of GPs in Scotland and provide valuable information for policymakers.

Adult↗
PubMed2005

Who are your public? A survey comparing the views of a population-based sample with those of a community-based public forum in Scotland.

UNLABELLED: This paper describes a questionnaire survey, carried out in the NHS Grampian area of NE Scotland. It compares responses from 84 members of a community-based public forum (39 of whom were sent questionnaires) and a random sample of 10,000 adults registered with general practices in Grampian (2,449 of whom were sent questionnaires). MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: differences in demographic profiles and opinions about different feedback mechanisms (patient representative, telephone helpline and NHS feedback website) and their likely effectiveness in three different scenarios. 46% of community forum members consented to take part compared to 24% of the population sample. Younger people and residents in more deprived areas were under-represented in both groups. Community forum members were older (only one under 40 years of age), more likely to be retired and not in employment. Internet access was similar in both groups. Opinions about different systems of feeding back views to the NHS varied but community forum members were more likely to be positive in their opinions about the value of different feedback mechanisms and less likely to think they were 'a waste of NHS money'. Responses to three scenarios revealed similar opinions, but on some issues, there were key differences in the responses from the two groups. Community forum members were more likely to consider writing a letter as a means of getting something done about a problem and were more likely to talk to their GP if experiencing a problem than respondents in the main group. In general their responses were more positive towards the NHS. There is a need to ensure a broad basis for membership of public forums and/or proactively seek the views of groups that are under-represented if public forums are to be used to represent the views of the wider population and inform decision making in the NHS.

Adult↗
PubMed2005

Reaching for the stars: career advancement and the registered nurse.

Clinical nursing has long struggled to secure the place of primacy it deserves in the profession's hierarchy of importance and worth. It is ironic that, even at the beginning of the 21st century, a clinical nurse is generally not as well-recognized, rewarded or remunerated as a colleague working in nursing management, education or research. Until the profession recognizes and takes serious action to remedy this situation, the crisis of recruitment and retention in nursing currently ravaging the globe is likely to continue. In this paper, I present a discursive account of an exciting initiative by a leading private, acute-care hospital which addresses this very problem. A new ladder for clinical nurse specialists (CNSs) introduces a rigorous and systematic approach to the appointment of three classifications of CNS, each requiring evidence of successively higher levels of competency, and which are accompanied by fiscal reward and stronger peer recognition.

Career Mobility↗
PubMed2004

'Double b(l)ind': Peer-review and the politics of scholarship.

Abstract The double-blind peer-review of manuscripts for potential publication is a longstanding tradition in the production of scholarship. Nursing has adopted this tradition to secure a place of legitimacy and authority for its scholarship amongst the other disciplines in the academy. However, despite its ubiquity and avowed utility, the peer-review has not generally been the subject of much research let alone intense philosophical scrutiny and debate. This manuscript attempts such an engagement with a view to uncovering specific concerns about the essentially conservative and sometimes restrictive effects the double-blind peer-review produces. Drawing on the deconstructionist writings of Derrida and his acolytes this paper attempts to dig beneath the surface mechanics of the double-blind peer-review and in so doing, expose its rather shaky philosophical foundations. It is written to open debate from others who too, have harboured doubts about its adequacy and supremacy as a technology in the production of (legitimate) knowledge.

Double-Blind Method↗
PubMed2003

Why evidence-based practice now?: a polemic.

Evidence-based practice (EBP) first appeared on the healthcare horizon just over a decade ago. In 2003 its presence has intensified and extended beyond its initial relation to medicine embracing as it does now, nursing and the allied health disciplines. In this paper, I contend that its appearance and subsequent growth and development are the effects of potent "regimes of truth", four of which bear the names: positivism, empiricism, pragmatism and economic rationalism. My aim is to show how EBP generates the controversy it does because its nature and methods are inextricably interwoven with the way it has become politicised and professionalised. This exegesis is an attempt to outline how the combined effects of the four forms of rationality mentioned above allow for both the methods and objectives of EBP to be constructed as they are, while at the same moment producing the particular effects of knowledge and power in terms of who sells and who buys the idea of EBP in the culture of contemporary healthcare.

Evidence-Based Medicine↗
PubMed2002

Project possibility: a model of care and the politics of change.

As a strategy to counter the current crisis of recruitment and retention in nursing a new model of care designed to introduce the second and third level of nurse into what was previously an almost exclusively registered nurse workforce, has been implemented in collaboration with clinicians, educators and managers, at a leading private hospital. This paper articulates the salientfeatures of the model, key processes involved in the model's introduction to the staff and explores the complex politics surrounding its implementation and ongoing evaluation.

Australia↗