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1 – 10 of 124Claire Grace and Alison Bremner
Purpose. This paper details initiatives used by the Open University Library in comprehensively evaluating its electronic information services (EIS). It sets the context within the…
Abstract
Purpose. This paper details initiatives used by the Open University Library in comprehensively evaluating its electronic information services (EIS). It sets the context within the Open University and details how the Library's performance measurement has developed since 1999, tools and systems used for capture of data and the use of quantitative and qualitative data within the Library for operational and strategic planning. Methodology/approach. A case study approach has been used to outline work undertaken within the Library. Findings. The findings of the report detail the dangers inherent in the gathering and use of data. Future issues and initiatives are outlined. Originality/value. The paper seeks to provide examples of innovations in evaluation systems and the use of data within the Open University that could serve as illustrations of the potential benefits of this type of work for other libraries.
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Claire O’Brien, Laura Hogan, Peter Ward, William Howard, Rebecca Mooney, Paul Bernard and Grace Corcoran
Emergency Department (ED) presentations in older people are associated with a wide range of adverse events, which increase the risk of lengthy hospitalisation and poor outcomes…
Abstract
Purpose
Emergency Department (ED) presentations in older people are associated with a wide range of adverse events, which increase the risk of lengthy hospitalisation and poor outcomes. Pathfinder is an inter-organisational initiative delivered in partnership between Beaumont Hospital Occupational Therapy and Physiotherapy departments and the National Ambulance Service. Pathfinder responds to non-serious and non-life-threatening emergency medical service (EMS) calls. This study aims to demonstrate how Pathfinder can safely treat a proportion of older people at home by using alternative care pathways (ACPs), therefore avoiding unnecessary ED presentations. Once a decision has been reached to treat the person at home, the Pathfinder follow-up team delivers functional rehabilitation and case management in the persons’ home over the subsequent days.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper outlines the Pathfinder assessment, management and interventions in one clinical case example. Outcome measures include the level of patient satisfaction obtained via routine telephone feedback questionnaire and re-presentation to Beaumont Hospital within 30 days.
Findings
This paper illustrates through a case example the benefit of a collaborative multi-disciplinary rapid response team for non-serious and non-life-threatening EMS calls in older adults. The patient in this case example had no further EMS calls or ED presentations for 30 days after Pathfinder intervention and reported a high level of satisfaction with the service.
Research limitations/implications
ED presentation was avoided through comprehensive multi-disciplinary assessment, including immediate access to intensive follow-up support in the person’s own home.
Practical implications
The Pathfinder service is improving access to ACPs for older people in the Beaumont Hospital catchment area. Pathfinder will now be spread nationally, with local adaptation, so that older people in other parts of Ireland will also benefit from this integrated model of care.
Originality/value
Patient feedback surveys confirm older adults want access to alternative care pathways.
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Through the use of digital methods, representation of peoples’ self-perception of experiences becomes possible. Digital imagery presents opportunities to expand the way it is…
Abstract
Through the use of digital methods, representation of peoples’ self-perception of experiences becomes possible. Digital imagery presents opportunities to expand the way it is possible to convey the diverse information gathered in the field. To enable some of the communication of various unseen experiences of the chronic illnesses Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Fibromyalgia, I created, what I have called, hypertextual self-scape digital photographs through collaboration with participants which use a layering of information gathered in the field, including both seen and unseen experiences to create sensory embodied dialogue about the lifeworld. I will expand on this in greater detail as we continue, but briefly this means the use of art forms being used as a way to gather information and then using digital techniques to communicate the self-talk of lived experience. Images have the potential to expand our access to peoples’ lifeworld and I will take this further in the chapter to look at how altering an image increases the information that can be communicated. Just as the bodies of my participants do not reveal the truth about their experiences, the objects chosen do not tell the whole story about what they really represent. As a part of this discourse I will show how digital technologies have the potential to expand representations of experience. Imagery is another way to “write up” information gathered during the research and by embracing images and symbols through our method and our writing up of the research expands on the information which can be gathered and later communicated about participants’ lifeworld. The images I am using here act “not as observational and objectifying tools, but as routes to multisensorial knowing” (Pink, 2010, p. 99) and expand on the existing representations of chronic illness in the literature. We also view and interpret images in a different way to text, as I believe images offer a potential to engage in dialogue with the body in sensory discourse. Therefore, the purpose of this chapter is to advocate the use of digital technologies alongside research methodologies when looking at hidden experience and interiorities (Hogan & Pink, 2010; Irving, 2013).
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Maggie Boyraz and Rosemarie Gilbert
This study explores the topic of remote work and the changing motivations to working from home after the COVID-19 pandemic-induced exposure to working from home. It examines the…
Abstract
Purpose
This study explores the topic of remote work and the changing motivations to working from home after the COVID-19 pandemic-induced exposure to working from home. It examines the effects of that forced work from home (WFH) experience on subsequent motivations for continuing part or all of that changed mode of working. In this study, the authors examine the perspective of front-line knowledge workers regarding the motivation to WFH based on their lived experiences.
Design/methodology/approach
Self-determination theory (SDT) provided the theoretical basis for the study (Ryan and Deci, 2000, 2017). The authors employed semi-structured individual and group interviews (with 28 participants) and explored the following questions: How has the competence aspect of motivation to WFH changed due to the shift that occurred during the pandemic? How has the relatedness aspect of motivation to WFH changed due to the shift that occurred during the pandemic? How has the autonomy aspect of motivation to WFH changed due to the shift that transpired during the pandemic?
Findings
The findings show that there was a change from an extrinsic motivation based on external factors to one that is more intrinsic, or internal, in nature for knowledge workers who experienced the switch to working from home during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study makes an important contribution by developing a theoretical model based on SDT (Ryan and Deci, 2000, 2017) in the context of WFH. In the first phase (Phase 1), workers experienced many transitional challenges due to the suddenness and intensiveness of the shift. However, over time workers adapted and adjusted (we refer to this as Phase 2 in our model). Ultimately, all three aspects of SDT – competence, relatedness and autonomy – increased motivation to work from home. However, we also found some factors that act as demotivators to knowledge workers for embracing remote work such as those involving career advancement and the expectation of voice. Despite these moderating factors, the overall progression toward the desire to WFH, at least on a hybrid basis, has continued after adjusting to the forced experience of telecommuting during the pandemic.
Originality/value
The contribution of this study is to disaggregate the short-term effects of the sudden transition, to the longer-term effects after adaption and adjustment occurred, and to connect that to a new perspective on work by employees. It does this by extending SDT to the context of motivation regarding work from home. The COVID-19 pandemic provided experience of and opportunities for telework to more employees and changed many of their expectations and motivations. By looking at front-line knowledge workers’ expectations and motivations related to home-based work, we can better understand the increased demand by workers for hybrid work schedules.
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Vanessa Pinfold, Ceri Dare, Sarah Hamilton, Harminder Kaur, Ruth Lambley, Vicky Nicholls, Irene Petersen, Paulina Szymczynska, Charlotte Walker and Fiona Stevenson
The purpose of this paper is to understand how women with a diagnosis of schizophrenia or bipolar disorder approach medication decision making in pregnancy.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to understand how women with a diagnosis of schizophrenia or bipolar disorder approach medication decision making in pregnancy.
Design/methodology/approach
The study was co-produced by university academics and charity-based researchers. Semi-structured interviews were conducted by three peer researchers who have used anti-psychotic medication and were of child bearing age. Participants were women with children under five, who had taken anti-psychotic medication in the 12 months before pregnancy. In total, 12 women were recruited through social media and snowball techniques. Data were analyzed following a three-stage process.
Findings
The accounts highlighted decisional uncertainty, with medication decisions situated among multiple sources of influence from self and others. Women retained strong feelings of personal ownership for their decisions, whilst also seeking out clinical opinion and accepting they had constrained choices. Two styles of decision making emerged: shared and independent. Shared decision making involved open discussion, active permission seeking, negotiation and coercion. Independent women-led decision making was not always congruent with medical opinion, increasing pressure on women and impacting pregnancy experiences. A common sense self-regulation model explaining management of health threats resonated with women’s accounts.
Practical implications
Women should be helped to manage decisional conflict and the emotional impact of decision making including long term feelings of guilt. Women experienced interactions with clinicians as lacking opportunities for enhanced support except in specialist perinatal services. This is an area that should be considered in staff training, supervision, appraisal and organization review.
Originality/value
This paper uses data collected in a co-produced research study including peer researchers.
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Pour tenter de faire une synthèse claire du travail intensif, ce rapport se divisera en trois parties:
Existing research has established that women drop out of engineering careers in part because of a dissatisfaction with their career development, but women's understanding of…
Abstract
Purpose
Existing research has established that women drop out of engineering careers in part because of a dissatisfaction with their career development, but women's understanding of career development in engineering has been as yet largely unexplored. This paper aims to explore female engineers' experiences of navigating their careers and their perceptions of barriers to career development, through the lens of the intelligent career framework (ICF).
Design/methodology/approach
The in-depth interviews of this study were conducted with female engineers in the UK and analysed using template analysis.
Findings
The authors identified three structural barriers that participants felt hinder women's career development in engineering: (1) promotions are more likely to be given to people who are widely known – more often men; (2) promotions are more likely to be given to people on whom high status is conferred in this context – more often men and (3) promotions are more likely to be given to people who conform to the ideal worker ideology – more often men. The women also offered a series of counter-narratives in which they reframed the behaviour they witnessed as something other than sexism.
Originality/value
The findings highlight the significant and systemic bias against women's career development through gender stereotypes in workplaces and an implicitly gendered organisation that hinders the development of the three competencies needed for career advancement. The authors describe a range of counter-narratives that the participants use to help them to make sense of their experiences. Finally, the authors illustrate the application of the intelligent career framework (ICF) as a lens to view the career development culture of an organisation.
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Kirk Heilbrun, Sarah Fishel, Claire Lankford and Mina Ratkalkar
The conviction of innocent individuals has emerged as an international concern, resulting in substantial attention to the legal needs that stem from exoneration. However, many…
Abstract
Purpose
The conviction of innocent individuals has emerged as an international concern, resulting in substantial attention to the legal needs that stem from exoneration. However, many other challenges can also arise in the aftermath of an exoneration, including financial, psychosocial and mental health needs. Relatively little has been written about the particular reentry needs of individuals who are exonerated of their charges, and even fewer studies have considered the effectiveness of various treatment approaches. The purpose of this paper is to reviews the available literature, identifies gaps and provides clinical recommendations for the development of treatment interventions for exonerees.
Design/methodology/approach
The research addressing the needs and challenges that arise in the aftermath of exoneration is reviewed and analysed for implications that can guide treatment-planning in this area.
Findings
This paper reviews key finds from the literature and provides recommendations for developing a semi-structured approach to treating exonerees.
Practical implications
Practical applications for the development of effective therapeutic interventions for exonerated individuals are identified and discussed.
Originality/value
Currently, there is very limited literature addressing the specific reentry needs and effective therapeutic interventions for exonerated individuals.
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Jennifer Shelby, Georgia Lindsay and Claire Derr
Iconic buildings, especially museums, are often enrolled in creating an identity for cities, yet cities and museums have been sometimes uneasy partners in using architecture to…
Abstract
Purpose
Iconic buildings, especially museums, are often enrolled in creating an identity for cities, yet cities and museums have been sometimes uneasy partners in using architecture to shape city identity. This paper examines the negotiations of place identity amid the conflicting influences of global design trends and local cultural nostalgia through the case of a single development in Aspen, Colorado.
Design/methodology/approach
In this case study, using discourse analysis and grounded theory methods, the authors analyzed interviews, planning documents and critical opinions in the press to reveal the ways in which complex identities and contradictory planning directives shape a single building in a hyper-glocal Western town.
Findings
This analysis presents a place with complex and at times conflicting identities: residents have intense local concerns in parallel with global allegiances. The Aspen Art Museum building by Shigeru Ban similarly reflects a complex and contradictory identity with its bold design which confronted notions of local identity expressed in the built environment. Despite engaged citizenry and carefully crafted planning directives, the resulting design did not reflect locally produced culture but instead revealed the influence of international capital in the urban fabric.
Originality/value
This study examines the tension between hyper-local concerns and international status enacted on a single site in a small yet metropolitan place in the American West offering insights regarding the emplacement of buildings and the subsequent impacts on a place. As cities and institutions move beyond placeless iconic architecture, architecture and urban planning practice will need to adapt to the new paradigm where buildings can be at once global yet also local, drawing on innovative design practices and local culture in the construction of place.
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