Paul Goldsmith, Jackie Moon, Paul Anderson, Steve Kirkup, Susan Williams and Margaret Gray
Error reporting by healthcare staff, patient-derived complaints and patient-derived medico-legal claims are three separate processes present in most healthcare systems. It is…
Abstract
Purpose
Error reporting by healthcare staff, patient-derived complaints and patient-derived medico-legal claims are three separate processes present in most healthcare systems. It is generally assumed that all relate to the same cases. Given the high costs associated with these processes and strong desire to maximise quality and standards, the purpose of this paper is to see whether it was indeed the case that most complaints and claims related to medical errors and the relative resource allocation to each group.
Design/methodology/approach
Electronic databases for clinical error recording, patient complaints and medico-legal claims in a large NHS healthcare provider organisation were reviewed and case overlap analysed.
Findings
Most complaints and medico-legal claims do not associate with a prior clinical error. Disproportionate resource is required for a small number of complaints and the medico-legal claims process. Most complaints and claims are not upheld.
Research limitations/implications
The authors have only looked at data from one healthcare provider and for one period. It would be useful to analyse other healthcare organisations over a longer time period. The authors were unable to access data on secondary staffing costs, which would have been informative. As the medico-legal process can go on for many years, the authors do not know the ultimate outcomes for all cases. The authors also do not know how many medico-legal cases were settled out of court pragmatically to minimise costs.
Practical implications
Staff error reporting systems and patient advisory services seem to be efficient and working well. However, the broader complaints and claims process is costing considerable time and money, yet may not be useful in driving up standards. System changes to maximise helpful complaints and claims, from a quality and standards perspective, and minimise unhelpful ones are recommended.
Originality/value
This study provides important data on the lack of overlap between errors, complaints and claims cases.
Details
Keywords
Medicalization is the increasing social control of the everyday by medical experts. It is a key concept in the sociology of health and illness because it sees medicine as not…
Abstract
Medicalization is the increasing social control of the everyday by medical experts. It is a key concept in the sociology of health and illness because it sees medicine as not merely a scientific endeavor, but a social one as well. Medicalization is a “process whereby more and more of everyday life has come under medical dominion, influence, and supervision” (Zola, 1983, p. 295); previously these areas of everyday life were viewed in religious or moral terms (Conrad & Schneider, 1980; Weeks, 2003). More specifically, medicalization is the process of “defining a problem in medical terms, using medical language to describe a problem, adopting a medical framework to understand a problem, or using a medical intervention to ‘treat’ it” (Conrad, 1992, p. 211). Sociologists have used this concept to describe the shift in the site of decision-making and knowledge about health from the lay public to the medical profession.
Jacquelyn Keaton, Kristen Jennings Black, Jonathan Houdmont, Emma Beck, David Roddy, Johnathon Chambers and Sabrina Moon
Community-police relations have gained increasing public attention during the past decade. The purpose of the present study was to better understand the relationship between…
Abstract
Purpose
Community-police relations have gained increasing public attention during the past decade. The purpose of the present study was to better understand the relationship between perceived community support and police officer burnout and engagement.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were gathered via online survey from 117 officers from a city police department in the Southeastern United States.
Findings
Community support was negatively correlated with burnout and positively correlated with engagement. Moreover, multiple regression analyses showed that community support explained significant incremental variance in most dimensions of burnout and engagement, above and beyond demographic factors and community stressors. Qualitative results showed that police officers had mixed perceptions of how they were viewed by the general public, with more negative than positive responses. However, officers felt more positively perceived in their own communities, but concerns were raised that national events affected the perceptions of officers even in positive relationships with their communities. Finally, officers felt that public perceptions impacted their job satisfaction, job performance and personal lives.
Practical implications
The results have practical implications for how to encourage positive interactions between officers and their community, with recommendations for both law enforcement leaders and civilians.
Originality/value
This study is one of the few that highlights the officers' perspective on how public perceptions affect their work. This is important in understanding how to maximize quality community interactions while minimizing conditions that would increase burnout.
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The purpose of this paper is to enable the reader to recognise that from each natural preference on the four Jungian dimensions flow opposite beliefs, behaviours and language;…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to enable the reader to recognise that from each natural preference on the four Jungian dimensions flow opposite beliefs, behaviours and language; that difference initially is perceived negatively; and to provide strategies that will create real value from difference, improving their ability to manage relationships and enhancing their career prospects.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper defines each preference on each of the four dimensions: extroverted or introverted preference for obtaining energy and focusing; practical or concept preference for gathering and using information; logical or harmony preference for taking decisions; and structured or flexible preference for operating in the outside world. It sets out the words and phrases used for each preference and proves that they are polar opposites. The paper highlights the importance of relationships to career prospects in large diverse organisations. It demonstrates that the most effective profile for career success in such organisations is ECLS. The study details how the use of the technique reflective listening enables the individual to calm down an angry boss and leave him/her with a perception of competence. The paper also indicates how, whatever the reader's profile, he/she can gain a competitive edge in career and relationship terms if he/she both follows a personal path to completeness in all the dimensions and develops empathy by adopting a matching strategy.
Findings
The paper finds that there is a difference in the dimensions results in difficult relationships with opposite profiles. In modern, large, diverse organisations, the ECLS profile has a competitive edge in career terms. This natural edge can be overturned by individuals who are prepared to pursue a personal path to completeness and use an effective empathetic approach to managing relationships.
Originality/value
The paper provides a demonstration of how the distribution of introverted and extroverted preferences in the chain of command can have a major impact on career prospects. It also shows how individuals, who use a positive approach to managing differences, can maximise relationship and career success, whereby they themselves follow the path to completeness in the four dimensions, and others adopt a strategy where they match the other person's (particularly the boss's) beliefs, behaviours and language.
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Michelle Bauml and Sherry L. Field
Notable Social Studies Trade Book (NSSTB) lists include books selected annually by the Book Review Committee of the National Council for the Social Studies in conjunction with the…
Abstract
Notable Social Studies Trade Book (NSSTB) lists include books selected annually by the Book Review Committee of the National Council for the Social Studies in conjunction with the Children’s Book Council. These lists are excellent resources for teachers who use children’s literature to support social studies instruction in their classrooms. We report our analysis of award-winning titles for primary grades published from 2001-2011. Biographies and books that address topics about families are featured as a starting place for primary grades teachers to begin incorporating NSSTB into their social studies instruction. We conclude by suggesting ways for primary grade teachers to utilize the book lists each year.
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Elizabeth Mackinlay and Brydie‐Leigh Bartleet
The purpose of this paper is to explore the individual music research projects the authors were working on in Borroloola, Northern Territory of Australia, and the ways in which…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the individual music research projects the authors were working on in Borroloola, Northern Territory of Australia, and the ways in which the lived and inter‐subjective concepts of sisterhood and friendship strengthened the authors’ shared experiences in the field and became the foundations of their method.
Design/methodology/approach
Through an auto‐ethnographic and inter‐subjective narrative approach, the authors consider how the intertwined notions of relationship as research and “friendship as method”, underpinned what was being researched, how the research was enacted, and finally how the authors came to further appreciate and understand the role that music‐making plays in facilitating this process.
Findings
The authors’ independent and shared experiences during this research were stark reminders that it is indeed the quality of field relationships and friendships, rather than clever theoretical ideas or fancy methodological frameworks, which ultimately determine the quality and depth of their musicological and ethnographic research.
Originality/value
This paper presents original, feminist‐based research which places concepts of sisterhood, friendship and relationships at the centre of music research practice in Australia. More specifically, this research highlights the complexities of such research practice across the boundaries of race, with and in collaboration with, Indigenous Australian women.
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Keywords
This paper aims to show how an Academic Literacies lens can contribute to a deeper understanding of writing for a professional doctorate (PD) by focusing both on the language of…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to show how an Academic Literacies lens can contribute to a deeper understanding of writing for a professional doctorate (PD) by focusing both on the language of supervisors’ written feedback and on student and supervisor perspectives on feedback throughout Year 1 (Y1).
Design/methodology/approach
Firstly, written feedback summaries on formative assessments across two Y1 cohorts on a UK PD programme were analysed thematically to identify patterns in feedback practices. Secondly, two longitudinal, detailed student/supervisor case studies were developed, drawing on multiple data sources.
Findings
Supervisors’ written feedback enacted an encouraging dialogue around assessed writing, discursively constructing a sense of solidarity on the doctoral journey, focusing on the “long view”. Case study analysis, however, revealed tensions centred around jarring discontinuities in students’ feedback experience as they transitioned from formative to summative assessment at the end of Y1.
Research limitations/implications
The paper demonstrates that an Academic Literacies approach can offer valuable insights into the specific, situated context of writing for a distance learning PD and makes the case for greater attention to writing in contexts of partly taught doctorates.
Practical implications
Findings suggest that PD programmes should work towards providing continuity of feedback experience, through supervisor and examiner training and through assessment arrangements which support students to navigate challenging transitions between formative and summative phases of assessment.
Originality/value
This paper reports on an innovative research design which combined a textual “snapshot” of supervisory feedback, paying close attention to language, with detailed longitudinal case studies exploring perspectives on feedback over time. It contributes to doctoral writing research by throwing light on the relatively underexplored domain of writing in the taught phase of the PD. It contributes to doctoral education studies by highlighting the central role of feedback on writing in shaping the experience of PD researchers.