Eimear Burke and Bernard McCarthy
Only limited published research is available exploring the lifestyle practices of student nurses. The purpose of this paper is to explore the lifestyle behaviours and exercise…
Abstract
Purpose
Only limited published research is available exploring the lifestyle practices of student nurses. The purpose of this paper is to explore the lifestyle behaviours and exercise beliefs of Irish student nurses.
Design/methodology/approach
A descriptive survey design was used. First‐year and third‐year undergraduate student nurses (n=182) studying at one Irish university participated. Data were collected by administering self‐report questionnaires.
Findings
A total of 20 per cent of the students smoked, 95 per cent consumed alcohol and 19 per cent of the females reported that they exceeded the recommended weekly safe level for alcohol consumption. In total, 73 per cent of the students reported exercising two to five times per week, and walking was the most popular exercise undertaken. The male students reported significantly higher fitness levels and exercised more on a weekly basis than the females. The students identified a range of benefits of and barriers to exercising.
Research limitations/implications
There are a number of study limitations, including: only one university setting was used; a descriptive survey approach was employed; and data were collected using self‐report questionnaires. Further studies need to be conducted with additional data collection methods to explore students' lifestyle and physical activity behaviours.
Practical implications
The university, as a setting for health promotion, must increase awareness, facilitate and encourage student nurses to engage in healthy lifestyle behaviours.
Originality/value
This survey revealed the lifestyle and exercise behaviours of Irish student nurses. Lower levels of smoking and higher levels of physical activity were found amongst these student nurses than those reported elsewhere in the literature.
Martin McMahon, Carmel Doyle, Éilish Burke, Sandra Fleming, Michelle Cleary, Kathleen Byrne, Eimear McGlinchey, Paul Keenan, Mary McCarron, Paul Horan and Fintan Sheerin
People with intellectual disabilities are high users of acute hospital care. Given their varied and often complex health-care needs, they often experience health inequalities and…
Abstract
Purpose
People with intellectual disabilities are high users of acute hospital care. Given their varied and often complex health-care needs, they often experience health inequalities and inequities, contributing to poorer health outcomes. As nurses are the largest health-care workforce with a patient-facing role, they have an important responsibility in meeting this populations health needs. The purpose of this paper is to explore key issues relating to the role nurses play in providing equitable health care for people with intellectual disabilities.
Design/methodology/approach
This service feature draws upon relevant literature to examine key contextual issues highlighting the importance of nurses in providing equitable health care for people with intellectual disabilities.
Findings
The findings from this service feature highlight the importance of nurses taking a leadership role in advocating for, and actively supporting the health needs of people with intellectual disabilities. Nurses’ leadership role, along with implementing reasonable adjustments, should be underpinned by education and training relating to the bespoke health needs of people with intellectual disabilities. This should help nurses promote the health and well-being of this population.
Originality/value
Addressing this populations health needs is a collective responsibility of all nurses. There are many examples of how nurses can be supported through policy, education, training and advocacy and this needs to be considered by key stakeholders and addressed as a matter of priority.
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Jerzy Cieślik, Eimear Nolan, Martha O'Hagan-Luff and André van Stel
This study investigates entrepreneurial overconfidence (EOC) levels among solo entrepreneurs at the country level. Although transitions from solo to employer entrepreneur are…
Abstract
Purpose
This study investigates entrepreneurial overconfidence (EOC) levels among solo entrepreneurs at the country level. Although transitions from solo to employer entrepreneur are relatively rare, the solo self-employed have become an important source of potential job creation by virtue of the sharp increase in their numbers in the past two decades. When EOC levels are too high, job creation ambitions may be unrealistic and unrealised. Unrealised ambitions and business failure can lead not only to psychological and financial costs for the individual entrepreneurs involved, but at the societal level also to wasted government resources, and increased costs for the entrepreneurial ecosystem as a whole. Therefore, it is important to know more about the entrepreneurial overconfidence levels of solo entrepreneurs in different countries and their determinants.
Design/methodology/approach
Using Global Entrepreneurship Monitor data for 71 countries over the period 2013–2016, the authors construct a new measure of entrepreneurial overconfidence of solo entrepreneurs and relate this to three recently developed indicators of national culture.
Findings
The findings indicate that EOC levels are positively related to Joy (versus Duty), and negatively related to Trust (versus Distrust). Finally, no significant relationship between entrepreneurial overconfidence and Individualism is found in the study (versus Collectivism).
Research limitations/implications
Given the lack of literature examining the relationship between EOC levels and cultural variables hypotheses were developed using the existent body of knowledge in the area, which is at the early stage of development. The hypotheses derivation has used mostly theoretical arguments relating to the link between national culture and overconfidence of entrepreneurs in general, rather than relating specifically to solo entrepreneurs. The measure of EOC uses expectations of employment growth to proxy overconfidence, but other measures of entrepreneurial success may also be explored.
Practical implications
As the hiring of employees can be a costly process (Coad et al., 2017), it is important that entrepreneurs have realistic expectations of what it requires to hire employees. This is especially the case for solo entrepreneurs since they do not have experience of hiring their own employees. This paper addresses such issues at an aggregate level by exploring what factors explain country differences in overconfidence levels of solo entrepreneurs.
Social implications
It is worthwhile to distinguish between solo and employer entrepreneurs when studying their EOC levels, as the ambitions of these two types of entrepreneurs are different. Empirically, this study introduces a new measure of EOC tailored towards the solo self-employed.
Originality/value
This study contributes to entrepreneurship literature by expanding current knowledge on entrepreneurial overconfidence at the country level. Past research has studied EOC at the individual level, however limited research exists on the phenomenon of EOC from a country level perspective. This is important as unrealised entrepreneurial ambitions may not only create substantial costs for the individual entrepreneurs involved, it may also lead to substantial societal costs, including waste of government resources.
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Padraig Collins, Zara Walsh, Aimee Walsh, Amy Corbett, Roisin Finnegan, Sinead Murphy, Lisa Clogher, Eimear Cleary and Sinead Kearns
This paper aims to evaluate the effectiveness of a stepped-care primary care psychology service through triangulating clinical outcome data, service user satisfaction ratings and…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to evaluate the effectiveness of a stepped-care primary care psychology service through triangulating clinical outcome data, service user satisfaction ratings and feedback from referrers.
Design/methodology/approach
A mixed method approach including a repeated measures design (pre- and post-clinical data on standardised psychometrics) for clinical outcomes and an online and postal survey with quantitative and qualitative elements offered to all service users and referrers to the service.
Findings
In total, 125 service users completed a full intervention with the service with 56% treatment completers demonstrating a reliable reduction in the symptoms of low mood and 49.6% in anxiety. Of those within the clinical range for depression at assessment, 66.67% achieved clinical recovery following an intervention. Of those within the clinical range for an anxiety disorder at assessment, 62.03% achieved clinical recovery following an intervention. Service users reported high levels of satisfaction with the service specifying particular interpersonal qualities of the therapists and the individualisation of service provision as crucial positive factors. Referrers similarly reported high levels of overall satisfaction with the service, specifying that the speed of response to referral and length of intervention was of greatest importance to them.
Practical implications
Stepped-care psychological interventions reduce psychological distress in treatment completers with mild to moderate symptoms of anxiety and low mood. The overall interpersonal experience may be of greater importance to service users in their evaluation of a service than clinical outcomes. In their relationship to a Psychology service, referrers value speed of response and ongoing feedback. Building a robust, highly valued service may require the triangulation of evidence from all key stakeholders.
Originality/value
This paper provides a pragmatic template of how a rigorous evaluation of a primary care psychology service requires evidence from multiple stakeholders.
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De/uncolonizing educational visions in the context of insistent and persistent ecological violence is an urgent task, one requiring profound shifts in thinking, being and knowing…
Abstract
De/uncolonizing educational visions in the context of insistent and persistent ecological violence is an urgent task, one requiring profound shifts in thinking, being and knowing. Meraki is a Greek word denoting something done or undertaken with all of one's soul. Metanoia is also a Greek word signifying a deep shift in one's way of life resulting from a profound change of heart and worldview. Metis is a figure in Greek mythology known for wisdom and deep thought, but the word has also been used to mean a deeper spiritual awareness or consciousness. This chapter, written by a Greek educator on Turtle Island, explores the imaginaries of ancient Greek ways of knowing with her responsibilities to support decolonizing processes in the place in which she now lives. The author identifies the process of regeneration, of replacing or restoring damaged or missing dimensions of life as a call to which our educational systems must respond. Regeneration is synonymous with rebuilding, restoration, rehabilitation, revival, rebirth, redemption, renewal, recovery, and reconstruction. Her recognition that metanoia (a profound transformative shift) resulting in regeneration done with meraki (soul) and grounded in metis (wisdom and spiritual knowing) forms the basis of her revisioning of schooling and community. In reclaiming hidden structures of Greek wisdom, the author dives below the often incomplete frames of “western” ways of knowing and discourses to redeem deeper ontological frequencies hidden beneath the surface, joining these in constellation with other de/uncolonizing discourses and movements to redeem a “wholeness of being” that must be regenerated for planetary survival. This chapter traces a vision for leadership that reclaims the depth of Spirit and soul that are the basis upon which we can heal the traumas of the legacies of fragmentation, division and violence and remake/regenerate our educational systems.