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In the context of nursing in higher education, digital competencies are increasingly recognised as a necessary skillset, within a continuously evolving healthcare professional landscape. This study sought to explore nursing students’ digital competencies and to further understand the digital literacy gaps and barriers they encounter for both learning and future work.

The research involved a cross-sectional, discipline-based empirical study of nursing students’ self-assessed digital competencies via a questionnaire survey, which collected quantitative and qualitative data from a total of five hundred and fifty-three students. The study explored the role of demographics (age, urban/rural geographical location of growing up, study year, learning disabilities (neurodiversity)) and experiences of digital divides (e.g., access, contextual and behavioural barriers) play on students’ digital competencies and outcomes.

Students’ digital competencies were found at an intermediate level, with younger and first-year students self-assessing higher. Significant differences were identified between students who had encountered digital barriers/divides and those who had not, with the former, self-reporting lower digital competencies. Students with learning disabilities reported complex support needs for processing and organizing digital information and for productivity. Almost all the individual digital competencies items assessed had strong statistical correlations between them.

The research offers key recommendations for academic libraries for the ongoing, evolving exploration of students’ digital competencies and for the need to follow tailored, discipline-related, holistic, practice-based and curriculum-embedded approaches to students’ digital skills development and support. It provides novel insights into digital competencies development for nursing students, particularly those who experience digital divides.

Around a quarter of employees at UK bank Barclays now work part time – a figure which is rising all the time as a pioneering national job‐share register helps to match potential job‐share partners. Fiona Adams, Barclays equality and diversity manager, explained: “A dedicated equality and diversity survey was carried out among 10,000 employees in 2001. One overwhelming priority issue to emerge was the desire for better work‐life balance, an issue which was at least as important to male as to female employees surveyed.”

The purpose of this paper is to explore the issue of how best to develop teacher capacity in Cambodia. Since the 1990s the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport (MoEYS), with its development partners, has undertaken the tremendous task of rebuilding Cambodia’s shattered education system. Many of the policies and programmes that have been developed hinge on building teacher capacity. This paper investigates the extent to which the capacity of teachers in the schools in this study was developed under the current cascade model favoured by the MoEYS.

Using a case study methodology data were collected, primarily, through semi-structured interviews with teachers in three government primary schools located in different geographical areas, and ministry officials and advisors based in these locations.

The findings identified that the current cascade model of capacity development, apart from watering down what is taught as it filters along the system, is not developing the requisite capacity of teachers. The findings suggest that the current model limits what constitutes capacity and for whom.

An expanded model of capacity development is forwarded that includes: school-based training for all teachers on an ongoing basis; incremental training; and regular training for trainers and principals.

This paper offers valuable insights that contribute to the ongoing discussion of how best to develop teacher capacity in Cambodia. It may also offer insights on developing teacher capacity to those working in similar situations.

In forensic mental health wards, patients spend more time with healthcare assistants (HCAs) than qualified nurses. Despite this, there is no universally utilised standardised HCA training. The purpose of this paper is to assess the HCAs’ experiences in the HCA role in order to better understand how to build on the HCA role to ensure safe practice, and enhance staff well-being.

HCAs working on low and medium secure NHS forensic mental health units were recruited through purposive methods. HCAs engaged in a semi-structured interview, with questions surrounding their support needs, clinical decision making and perception of risks in the role. Template analysis was used, applying an a priori template based on the existing literature to interview transcripts.

The participants described the HCA experience to be defined by two master themes: “HCA factors” and “organisational factors”. HCAs valued a holistic patient view which prized patients’ experiences. The participants described a lack of role clarity which may be defined through ward expectations and professional experience.

HCAs seek a holistic view of the patient; however, some overlooked patient offences in order to do their job. Future research should address how looking past offences impacts security and HCAs’ well-being long term.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the barriers preventing women in prostitution from accessing co-ordinated health services in the Republic of Ireland. By examining the experiences of migrant women engaged in prostitution, the research contributes to knowledge pertaining to the psychosocial experiences of female sex workers’ access to healthcare.

The study interviewed migrant women across Ireland, using a biographical narrative approach and an adapted voice-centred relational model of analysis to determine the necessity for a health promotion strategy for this demographic.

The findings indicate migrant women work primarily indoors, hold precarious legal status and are in Ireland due to processes of globalisation, migration and economic necessity. The women discussed their entry into prostitution and their experiences within prostitution in the context of their psychosocial experiences.

While the findings are from a small qualitative sample confined to the Republic of Ireland, it is the first study to prioritise migrant sex workers’ psychosocial experiences in Ireland.

The research concludes education and service development that respects the various social determinants impacting women in prostitution is missing but remains necessary in Ireland. It finds a gendered reform of policies using an ecological framework for health that can address issues of poverty, migration and the global trends of the sex industry.

This means a national review of current services in health, social work and community development fields is timely.

This paper gives insight into the lives of migrant women involved in the sex industry and can make an important contribution to future research directions and practice in Irish and European prostitution contexts.

Aims to present a report of a conference held at London Metropolitan University in June 2006 that presented and discussed the findings of a two‐year research project, funded by the Higher Education European Social Fund. The project investigated the experiences of LGB workers following the introduction of the Employment Equality (Sexual Orientation) Regulation 2003 in the United Kingdom.

The research was a qualitative study carried out in 16 case study organisations, seen as representing “good practice” in the area of employment of LGB workers. The case studies involved: the analysis of company documentation and reports; interviews with 60 management, trade union and LGBT network group representatives, a short survey and in‐depth interviews with 154 LGB employees. The case studies were supplemented by a series of 25 national key informant interviews with individuals in UK organisations representing government, employers, employees, and LGB people charged with disseminating advice and promoting good practice.

Just over half (57.8 per cent) of the LGB respondents were out to everyone at work. A third (33.8 per cent) were out to some people, while 8.4 per cent said that they were out to very few people or nobody at work. The research indicated that equal opportunities and diversity policies which include sexual orientation; the establishment and promotion of same sex benefits; positive employer and trade union signals; the existence of LGBT groups, the presence of LGB colleagues and LGB senior managers can help LGB people come out. However, LGB people may be prevented from coming out by fears about career progression; lack of visible senior LGB staff; temporary employment status; previous negative experiences of discrimination and harassment; desiring privacy; “macho” or religious attitudes/behaviours of co‐workers.

Little research exists in the UK on the experiences of LGB workers, and this is one of the first studies to focus on the experiences of LGB workers following the introduction of legislation to protect workers against discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation in 2003.

This paper aims to investigate social influences on the UK integrated reporting (<IR>) adoption and implementation.

The study was based on in-depth semi-structured interviews with 36 senior executives actively involved in <IR> within 17 organisations.

Main social influences on adoption externally were reported design consultants and to a lesser extent, external auditors, primarily to legitimise <IR>. Internal influences were board support for <IR>, with the main driver being the mind-set of the CFO/Chairman to drive sustainability throughout the organisation or to regain trust in society. Social influences aiding further diffusion at the implementation stage came from three external sources: business networks; report design consultants; and external auditors. Internal influences in driving <IR> diffusion within organisations were identified in five functional areas, with finance, sustainability and communications functions exerting the greatest external influence on the diffusion of <IR>.

This research study was limited by the small sample of organisations that participated, although significant efforts were made to ensure that the sample incorporated the majority of early adopter UK organisations who demonstrated best practice in <IR>. Therefore, the findings are specific to the research context and do not represent statistical generalisations.

Empirical evidence identifying social influences from a practitioner perspective provides recommendations as to how <IR> may be further diffused in the future.

<IR> creates the potential to significantly improve the long-term health of corporations and the external environment they impact through consideration of the three indivisible and integrated dimensions of sustainable development, the economy, society and the environment and can contribute to a sustainable society by providing the opportunity for organisations to respond to the UN Sustainable Development Goals. This highlights the significance of the research, which aims to gain insights into <IR> social influences which can assist in the adoption and implementation of <IR>.

This is the first comprehensive study of social influences on the <IR> adoption and implementation practices in the UK. It incorporates recommendations to improve the likelihood of subsequent adoption and diffusion of <IR> based on the findings.

The authors provide three personal perspectives on personality disorder, based on their involvement in writing, directing and acting in a Resurgence Theatre Company production, Differentia, which provided a dramatic representation of personality disorder. The production was shown at the First National Personality Disorder Congress.

This paper aims to explore 15 UK adult social care workers’ experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic.

This paper’s 15 open-ended interviews with adult social care workers are complemented by digital ethnography in COVID-19 social media forums. This data set is taken from a global mixed-methods study, involving over 2,000 participants from 59 different countries.

Workers reported a lack of planning, guidance and basic provisions including personal protective equipment. Work intensification brought stress, workload pressure and mental health problems. Family difficulties and challenges of living through the pandemic, often related to government restrictions, intensified these working conditions with precarious living arrangements. The workers also relayed a myriad of challenges for their residents in which, the circumstances appear to have exacerbated dementia and general health problems including dehydration, delirium and loneliness. Whilst COVID-19 was seen as partially responsible for resident deaths, the sudden disruptions to daily life and prohibitions on family visits were identified as additional contributing factors in rapid and sudden decline.

Whilst the paper’s sample cohort is small, given the significance of COVID-19 at this present time the findings shed important light on the care home experience as well as act as a baseline for future study.

Care homes bore the brunt of illness and death during the first and second COVID-19 waves in the UK, and many of the problems identified here have still yet to be actioned by the government. As people approach the summer months, an urgent review is required of what happened in care homes and this paper could act as some part of that evidence gathering.

This paper offers revealing insights from frontline care home workers and thus provides an empirical snapshot during this unique phase in recent history. It also builds upon the preliminary/emerging qualitative research evidence on how the COVID-19 pandemic impacted care homes, care workers and the residents.