Arsalan Gharaveis, Mardelle M. Shepley, Kirk Hamilton, Debajyoti Pati and Susan Rodiek
The purpose of this study is to explore the potential impacts of visibility on face-to-face communication among medical staff in community hospital emergency departments (EDs)…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to explore the potential impacts of visibility on face-to-face communication among medical staff in community hospital emergency departments (EDs). Also, the researchers investigated how different types of visibility can increase/decrease the efficiency of EDs’ medical staff.
Design/methodology/approach
This study used an exploratory approach to investigate the role of visibility in enhancement of medical staff communication in four EDs within the same hospital system. Overall, 12 semi-structured interviews and 48 h of observation were manually conducted.
Findings
The findings suggest that communication among medical staff can be improved by enhancement of different types of visibility (general and staff-to-staff) in EDs. Also, visibility facilitates patient assessments, overall supervision, comfort and asking for help while reducing stress and distractions.
Practical implications
The results of this investigation can inform hospital managers and healthcare designers about one of the important ways to improve registered nurses and physicians’ performance through environmental architectural design in the enhancement of communication.
Originality/value
Understanding the importance of visibility as a design element would provide a crucial principle for future ED designs. Although research has been conducted with different focuses and methods in other hospital departments, nothing similar to the current study in EDs was available in the healthcare design published literature.
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Alex Douglas, David Kirk, Carol Brennan and Arthur Ingram
This paper reports on the findings of qualitative fieldwork aimed at exploring the motives, financial implications and the perceived benefits of achieving the Investors In People…
Abstract
This paper reports on the findings of qualitative fieldwork aimed at exploring the motives, financial implications and the perceived benefits of achieving the Investors In People Standard. It examines perceptions of IIP at three different organisational levels. The research found differences between the motivation for, and perceptions of, IIP at all three levels as well as differences in the perceived benefits of the Standard. The views of senior management regarding the benefits of IIP were not generally shared at the other levels of the organisation. Indeed front‐line staff felt that IIP made little difference to them personally, the way they performed their jobs, or to the levels of satisfaction of their customers. This presents a major problem for senior management of local authority services if they are to achieve all the benefits attributed to IIP and so get beyond the “plaque on the wall”.
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Tourism in developing countries has grown rapidly in the past 20 years to the point where a fresh look at its underpinnings appears overdue. The industry itself realizes that the…
Abstract
Tourism in developing countries has grown rapidly in the past 20 years to the point where a fresh look at its underpinnings appears overdue. The industry itself realizes that the quality of growth is as important as quantity. Inevitably, growth and globalization have brought about a change in tourism's structure, driven by competition, consolidation among the main economic players and the revolution in information and technology. The recent Sommets du Tourisme, now in its third year, promoted by the Geneva/ Chamonix/ Mont Blanc tourism industry, took up these issues in December 5–7, 2001. This paper is a result of a presentation made at that Sommets du Tourisme on tourism, poverty and the World Bank Croup's role. The Bank Croup addresses tourism through its regular channels, including poverty reduction strategy papers (PRSP) and country assistance strategy process (CAS). Its interventions focus on public good issues, market failures, and gaps not filled by others. In this framework, this article reviews tourism as a sector that can contribute to sustainable development, including its economic, financial, social and environmental aspects. It argues that developing countries can compete favorably in world markets — they often have the framework conditions which give them a good opportunity to create the new products and services that consumers seek, often in as yet unspoiled areas. Growth and poverty are addressed, as are the policy conditions for making markets work, and assuring the sustainability of tourism's often all too fragile assets. Local communities are often left out of the decision‐making process that determines their future, leading to disenchantment with tourism; similarly, local communities may have difficulty dealing effectively with the burgeoning international travel industry. The paper underscores the importance of institutions, particularly the respective roles of government and industry, and partnership as a source of mutual inspiration. Some examples are offered here as illustrations of types of investment in sustainable tourism.
Yelda Durgun Şahin, Osman Metin Yavuz and Erol Kesiktaş
This study discusses that the necessary criteria and the solution approach taken to resolve the main spatial infection problems with a burn center design should be evaluated…
Abstract
Purpose
This study discusses that the necessary criteria and the solution approach taken to resolve the main spatial infection problems with a burn center design should be evaluated holistically to achieve spatial infection control in a burn center. The burn center design plays an important role in protecting severely burned patients from infection because the microbial flora of the hospital can affect the infection risk. In hospitals, sterilization and disinfection are the basic components of infection prevention; however, the prevention and control of infection for burn patients also requires the design of burn centers that adhere to a specific set of criteria that considers spatial infection control in addition to appropriate burn treatment methods and treatments. In this study, a burn facility converted from a burn unit into a burn center is introduced and the necessary design inputs for the transformation are discussed because there is no holistic study in the literature that delas with all the spaces that should be in a burn center and relations between spaces. This study aims to define the functional relations between each of the units and the spaces that change according to different sterilization demands in the burn center for ensuring spatial infection control. Furthermore, it aims to propose a method for ensuring continuity in the control of spatial infections.
Design/methodology/approach
The burn care and health facilities guidelines are examined within the framework of spatial standards, together with a comprehensive literature review. The design method was based on the spread of microorganisms and the effect of human movement on space and spatial transitions in the burn center, according to all relevant literature reviews. To determine the extent to which the differences in treatment protocols of burn care guidelines were reflected in the space, interviews were conducted with burn facility officials. The plan–do–check–act (PDCA) method is also modeled to ensure the continuity of infection control in the burn center.
Findings
The burn center design findings are classified under three main headings, namely, location of the burn center in the hospital, spatial organization and physical features of the burn center and the air flowing system. The importance of the interactions among the criteria for spatial infection control has been revealed. Due to the physical space characteristics and air flow characteristics that change according to human movement and the way microorganisms spread, it has been seen that designing the air flow and architectural aspects together has an effective role in providing spatial infection control. Accordingly, a functional relation scheme for the center has been suggested. It is also proposed as a model to ensure the continuity of infection control in the burn center.
Practical implications
This research presents spatial measures for infection control in burn centers for practitioners in health-care settings such as designers, engineers, doctors and nurses. The PDCA method also leads to continuity of infection control for hospital management.
Originality/value
This is the first study, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, to focus on developing the criteria for spatial infection control in burn center. Moreover, the aim is to create a function chart that encompasses the relationships between the units within the burn center design so that infection control can be coordinated spatially.
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This chapter offers a description and analysis of teacher preparation in Scotland from the period after World War 1 to the end of the twentieth century. It traces the development…
Abstract
This chapter offers a description and analysis of teacher preparation in Scotland from the period after World War 1 to the end of the twentieth century. It traces the development of the sector from Training Centres responsible to Provincial and National Committees, through monotechnic Colleges of Education, to Faculties of Education within Universities. Among the topics covered are: political and economic pressures affecting the policy context; the drive to improve standards and raise the professional status of teachers; the influence of key policy documents, such as the 1965 Primary Memorandum; the degree of control exercised by the Scottish Education Department; the significance of shifts in language (e.g. training/education/professional learning). The 1960s are seen as a particularly important period when major structural changes were introduced in Scottish education (e.g. the establishment of the General Teaching Council and Central Committees reviewing particular aspects of the school curriculum): these impacted on the aims and content of courses designed to prepare trainee teachers for work in schools. Similarly, later reforms of curriculum and assessment (Standard Grade, 5–14, Higher Still) necessitated responses by the teacher education community. Throughout the chapter certain key themes recur: the relationship between colleges and universities; the variable scope for innovation at different points in the twentieth century; the differential provision for primary and secondary teachers, graduates and non-graduates, men and women; the relative importance of academic knowledge and pedagogic skills.
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This chapter presents the personal perspectives of the author on issues related to methodology in teaching children with learning disabilities and to the role of methodology in…
Abstract
This chapter presents the personal perspectives of the author on issues related to methodology in teaching children with learning disabilities and to the role of methodology in the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). Additionally, problems schools have had in implementing IDEA are highlighted and proposals offered to alleviate those difficulties.
In recent years the upsurge in consumer interest in nutrition and health has stimulated increased use of nutrition information and messages in food marketing strategies. In this…
Abstract
In recent years the upsurge in consumer interest in nutrition and health has stimulated increased use of nutrition information and messages in food marketing strategies. In this article, Terry Kirk reviews the salient features of legislation and voluntary guidelines relating to food labelling and he suggests that a unique opportunity exists for harnessing commercial motivation and communication expertise for the benefit of consumer nutrition education and positive health benefits
Outdoor education was first included in the formal (written) curriculum for New Zealand schools in 1999. This article explores New Zealand outdoor education as a product of a…
Abstract
Outdoor education was first included in the formal (written) curriculum for New Zealand schools in 1999. This article explores New Zealand outdoor education as a product of a particular coincidence of social and economic conditions and the contested domais of pedagogy and curriculum during the period 1935‐1965. Popkewitz, among others, views school curricula and associated practices as emerging from ‘systems of ideas that inscribe styles of reasoning, standards and conceptual distinctions’ which ‘shape and fashion interpretation and action’. It is these ‘systems of ideas’, or ‘traditions’ in Goodson and Marsh’s terms, that provide a framework for understanding outdoor education in New Zealand schools. Since the 1930s, outdoor education in New Zealand appears to have consolidated from, and been shaped by, competing educational ideologies and changing social and economic influences. The way in which outdoor education accommodated competing traditions is the focus of this, necessarily broad, analysis