Economic development and population growth.
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Downsizing, manpower reductions, re-engineering, and resizing are used extensively in the United States to reduce cost and to evaluate the effectiveness and efficiency of various functions and processes. Published studies report that these managerial strategies result in a minimal impact on access to services, quality of care, and the ability to reduce costs. But, these approaches certainly alienate employees. These findings are usually explained by the significant difficulties experienced in eliminating nursing and other similar direct patient care-oriented positions and in terminating white-collar employees. Possibly an equally plausible reason why hospitals and physician practices react so poorly to these management strategies is their cost structure-high fixed (85%) and low variable (15%)-and that simply generating greater volume does not necessarily achieve economies of scale. More workable alternatives for health executives to effectuate cost reductions consist of simplifying prepayment, decreasing the overall availability and centralizing tertiary services at academic health centres, and closing superfluous hospitals and other health facilities. America's pluralistic values and these proposals having serious political repercussions for health executives and elected officials often present serious barriers in their implementation.
Industrial development in Africa has carried with it significant health costs. These costs are normally defined rather narrowly by those concerned about occupational or industrial health and safety and refer only to the health consequences of worker exposure to specific hazardous processes, materials or environmental conditions associated with the workplace. A more comprehensive measurement of industrial health costs, however, must also include an assessment of the impact which industrial development and the creation of an industrial workforce has on ecological relationships, environmental conditions and patterns of sickness and health in the areas surrounding industrial centers. Traditional definitions of occupational health also tend to focus attention on the immediate causal linkages which exist between the development of particular industrial processes and specific health hazards. Yet any attempt to fully understand the causes of industrial health problems in Africa must look beyond these immediate causal linkages and examine the wider political and economic forces which determine the shape of industrial development and the extent to which the health costs of this development are borne by industrial workers and their families, as well as by people who may not be directly or even indirectly connected to industrial development, but may, nonetheless, be exposed to its health risks. The paper surveys the direct and indirect health costs of mining, large scale agriculture, and manufacturing in Africa and examines the economic and political interests which have determined the distribution of these costs.
OBJECTIVE: To review the history and development of critical care nurses, the supply and demand issues related to critical care nursing, critical care nursing's contribution to patient outcomes, and recommendations to ensure a steady and strong workforce. DATA SOURCE AND SELECTION: Information presented in this article is based on a review of past and current literature including international and U.S. government reports, professional publications, monographs, newspapers, and journal articles identified by MEDLINE and CINAHL databases. The Internet was used to contact international and national professional organizations and specialists. DATA EXTRACTION AND SYNTHESIS: Original and selected review articles and guideline documents were reviewed for references to critical care nurses and their role on the multiprofessional critical care team. CONCLUSIONS: Critical care nurses are an essential and vital aspect of the critical care team. Nurses contribute to improved patient outcomes, reduced morbidity and mortality, reduced complications and errors, and reduced overall costs. More than 400,000 nurses practice in critical care, and additional opportunities exist and will develop. The challenge is to ensure an adequate supply of appropriately trained staff.
The differentiation of the workforce in dentistry is discussed in terms of its history, the development of the specialties, and advanced education. The differentiations in the general practitioner workforce, through general practice residencies and the proposed advanced educational programs in general dentistry, are discussed. The possibility of further differentiation in the workforce by drastic changes in Section 18 of the Principles of Ethics of the American Dental Association (ADA) is analyzed and evaluated. The differentiations in the dental auxiliary workforce are noted and some conclusions and recommendations in all of these areas are presented.
PURPOSE: The development and realization of a production-orientated education and training system for mentally disabled people in sheltered employment in the course of the project PIONIER. It focuses on the metal and electronic branches of a workshop with a mentally disabled workforce in Alsdorf, Germany. METHODS: For the development of the modules an assessment tool called MELBA was used to determine the abilities of the disabled people and the requirements of the tasks. Methods for the collection of this information was: observation, questionnaires and documents. RESULTS: Three months after the introduction of educational measures the improvements of the capacity for learning and education of disabled persons was visible. In the same way the development of their self-reliance and social abilities was recorded. The metal working branch was capable of fulfilling every task with respect to quality issues and within set delivery times. The electro working branch was accomplished enough to create new workplaces and to get orders from the computer industry. CONCLUSIONS: By the use of a qualification system like PIONIER the tasks of the disabled employees have been enlarged and enriched. In order to cope with the increase competition sheltered workshops have to realize new ways of vocational training for mentally disabled employees.
OBJECTIVE: To provide second- and third-year pediatric residents with practical teaching skills for precepting third-year medical students in the outpatient clinic. DESIGN: Educational intervention with 3-month follow-up of participants. SETTING: University teaching hospital. PARTICIPANTS: Second- and third-year pediatric residents. INTERVENTION: A curriculum for a half-day workshop to provide residents with 6 key clinical teaching skills. Residents participated in the workshop and then were observed by trained faculty as they precepted third-year medical students in the pediatric clinic. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: Direct observation of resident-student precepting encounters, noting the presence or absence of their use of clinical teaching skills taught in the workshop. RESULTS: Twenty-one of 23 pediatric residents participated in the workshop. Observation of 56 resident teaching encounters before and after the workshop showed that the residents improved their clinical teaching skills. Residents valued the workshop, and many suggested it should also be considered for faculty development. CONCLUSIONS: Residents can be taught clinical teaching skills in a half-day workshop. These skills also are applicable in various clinical venues. With the increasing interest in using community-based primary care physicians for student and resident education, this curriculum is well suited for training practicing clinicians to teach in their own practice sites.
INTRODUCTION: Few studies have examined how peer coaching is an effective educational and development technique in contexts outside the classroom. This research focused on peer coaching as a platform to study the process of professional development for physicians. The purpose was to identify perceived benefits coaches received from a coaching encounter and how this relates to their own process of professional development. METHODS: Critical incident interviews with 13 physician coaches were conducted and tape recorded. Themes were identified using a thematic analysis technique. RESULTS: Themes emerged clustering around two distinct benefit orientations. Group 1, reflection and teaching coaches, tended to focus on others and discuss how positively they experienced the encounter. Group 2, personal learning and change coaches, expressed benefits along more personal lines. DISCUSSION: Peer coaching contributes to physicians' professional development by encouraging reflection time and learning. Peer coaching affords positive impact to those who coach in addition to those who receive the coaching. The two clusters of benefits support the performance, learning, and development theory in that there are multiple modes to describe adult growth and development. Programs of this type should be considered in medical faculty development activities associated with medical education.
There is periodic support in the mental health literature for increased training opportunities in the area of management and leadership. The purpose of this study was to verify the need for such training as perceived by state directors of mental health and mental retardation/developmental disabilities programs and to explore related issues. The results confirmed a perception of need and provided insights into ways that such training might be successfully provided to states.
The concept of a team approach in primary health care (PHC) is an integral part of the overall PHC strategy and is advocated at many occasions. Its theoretical advantages are multiple, even though very few sound studies exist on the effectiveness of PHC team. The viability of the concept of PHC teams is affected by two groups of factors. The first group is related to (health) manpower problems in developing countries with its underlying economic causes. The second group of factors is associated with the viability of the PHC concept in general. This pertains to decentralization, intersectoral collaboration and community participation which all affect the viability of the concept of PHC teams.
Political violence is distressingly widespread in many parts of the world. This paper reviews the forms and effects of political violence and devotes particular attention to experiences from Central America and Southern Africa. The forms of violence vary from those which are extensive such as civil unrest and war, to those which are intensive, such as assassinations, disappearances and torture. The effects of violence on health may be direct, such as deaths, disabilities, psychological stress and the destruction of health services, or indirect such as the erosion of innovative health policies in favour of increased military expenditure. Health workers have a role to play in opposing political violence, providing care for those affected by violence, and documenting and analysing its impact on health. Research needs include documenting the impact of different forms of violence on health, and analysing the social and political factors which promote and support political violence. It is hoped that increasing recognition of political violence and man-made violence as being of major public health concern will play a part in promoting a more peaceful world.
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The number of nursing faculty experienced and skilled in research and scholarship is declining because of retirement and insufficient numbers of new scholars entering academia. This trend, alone, puts the future development of the nursing profession at risk. In addition, the increasing expectations placed upon the existing professoriate in the teaching and essential institutional service arenas necessitated by this shortage limit both the time and energy of senior faculty who are most qualified to advance the profession. The historical development of nursing as a profession is grounded in its affiliation with institutions of higher education that provided the support and opportunities for nursing scholarship. The viability of any profession is dependent upon the ongoing generation and dissemination of knowledge. In the current and predicted environments, nursing academic institutions and individual faculty must acknowledge the fundamental role of research and scholarship in the advancement of the profession and seek methods by which they can provide support. Strategies for institutional and individual action are offered so that the knowledge base of the profession will continue to develop.
OBJECTIVE: To investigate the influence of acute injury characteristics on subsequent return to work in traumatic brain injury (TBI) patients. DESIGN: Descriptive statistics were performed in a comparative study of 49 TBI patients who were competitively employed at 1-year follow-up and 83 unemployed patients. Independent t tests were then performed to examine the differences between the two groups on specific measures including the Disability Rating Scale (DRS), Functional Assessment Measure (FIM), Rancho Los Amigos Scale (RLAS), Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS), Neurobehavioral Rating Scale (NRS), and neuropsychological test results. SETTING: Four medical centers in the federally sponsored Traumatic Brain Injury Model Systems Project that provide emergency medical services, intensive and acute medical care, inpatient rehabilitation, and a spectrum of community rehabilitation services. PARTICIPANTS: Patients were selected from a national database of 245 rehabilitation inpatients admitted to acute care within 8 hours of TBI and seen at 1-year follow-up. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: Return to work at 1-year follow-up. RESULTS: Persons employed at 1-year follow-up obtained significantly better scores on specific acute measures of physical functioning (Admission FIM, Admission DRS, Discharge DRS), cognitive functioning (Logical Memory Delay), behavioral functioning (Admission RLAS, Discharge RLAS, NRS Excitement factor), and injury severity (Admission GCS, Highest GCS, Length of Coma, Length of PTA) than their unemployed counterparts. CONCLUSIONS: Persons obtaining better scores on certain acute measures (e.g., Admission GCS) are more likely to return to the workforce. Future research should focus on developing a standardized tool to assess a patient's ability to return to work, as well as an operational definition for successful employment.
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BACKGROUND: The articles in the Microsystems in Health Care series have focused on the success characteristics of high-performing clinical microsystems. Realization is growing about the importance of attracting, selecting, developing, and engaging staff. By optimizing the work of all staff members and by promoting a culture where everyone matters, the microsystem can attain levels of performance not previously experienced. CASE STUDY: At Massachusetts General Hospital Downtown Associates (Boston), a primary care practice, the human resource processes are specified and predictable, from a candidate's initial contact through each staff member's orientation, performance management, and professional development. Early on, the new employee receives materials about the practice, including a practice overview, his or her typical responsibilities, the performance evaluation program, and continuous quality improvement. Ongoing training and education are supported with skill labs, special education nights, and cross-training. The performance evaluation program, used to evaluate the performance of all employees, is completed during the 90-day orientation and training, quarterly for one year, and annually. CONCLUSION: Some health care settings enjoy high morale, high quality, and high productivity, but all too often this is not the case. The case study offers an example of a microsystem that has motivated its staff and created a positive and dynamic workplace.