Laura Bridle, Sam Bassett and Sergio A. Silverio
Women with little-to-no English continue to have poor birth outcomes and low service user satisfaction. When language support services are used it enhances the relationship…
Abstract
Purpose
Women with little-to-no English continue to have poor birth outcomes and low service user satisfaction. When language support services are used it enhances the relationship between the midwife and the woman, improves outcomes and ensures safer practice. However, this study has shown a reluctance to use professional interpreter services by midwives. This study aims to understand the experiences of midwives using language support services.
Design/methodology/approach
A maximum variation purposive sampling strategy was used to recruit midwives (N = 12) to a qualitative, semi-structured interview study. Data were analysed using thematic analysis.
Findings
Four themes were generated from the data analysis with a central organising concept of “Navigating Care Without Language”. These themes were: “Continuity as Key”, “Facilitating Tools”, “Networks of Support” and “Innovative Planning”. Each of these themes had between three and four sub-themes. It was found midwives are keen to support women with language barriers. However, support can be difficult due to the unavailability of equipment and resources; lack of continuity (of interpreter and midwife); inability to plan for the acute care of women who require interpreter services; and the system not being accessible enough to women who require language support services, thus causing them to fall through the net.
Originality/value
Continuity of carer appears to be a protective factor due to the flexibility, relationship and continuum of support. This study will aid the development of education for undergraduate, post-graduate and practising midwives. It will also inform policymakers working to improve the service offered to women who speak little-to-no English.
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Laura Simmons, Arwel W. Jones, Niro Siriwardena and Christopher Bridle
Sickness absence is a major concern for healthcare services and their employees with healthcare workers having higher sickness absence rates compared to the general population…
Abstract
Purpose
Sickness absence is a major concern for healthcare services and their employees with healthcare workers having higher sickness absence rates compared to the general population. The purpose of this paper is to systematically review randomised control trials (RCTs) that aimed to reduce sickness absence among healthcare workers.
Design/methodology/approach
A systematic review was conducted that aimed to include RCTs with study participants who were employed in any part of the healthcare sector. This review included any type of intervention with the primary outcome measure being sickness absence.
Findings
Seven studies were included in the review and consisted of one exercise-only intervention, three multicomponent intervention programmes, two influenza vaccination interventions and one process consultation. Three studies (exercise-only, one multicomponent intervention programme and one influenza vaccination intervention) were able to demonstrate a reduction in sickness absence compared to control.
Research limitations/implications
Due to the lack of high-quality evidence, this review identified that there are currently no interventions that healthcare organisations are able to use to effectively reduce sickness absence among their employees. This review also highlights the importance of a standardised measure of sickness absence for healthcare staff, such as shifts.
Originality/value
To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first systematic review to synthesise such evidence among healthcare workers.
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Laura Scranage and Robert Hurst
The purpose of this paper is to share Laura Scranage’s story.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to share Laura Scranage’s story.
Design/methodology/approach
Laura wrote a short piece detailing her journey and was then interviewed by Robert.
Findings
Laura spoke about the difficulties she has faced in life and how her experiences with horses have been deeply therapeutic.
Research limitations/implications
Recovery narratives such as this give us an overview of only a single person’s experiences. However, they allow the person with lived experience to explore their story in depth.
Practical implications
Laura advocates for more research into how horses can be used in therapeutic interventions.
Social implications
There is so much to learn from a story such as Laura’s, for those who have had similar experiences and for those who work in mental health services.
Originality/value
This is the first time that Laura has chosen to share her unique story.
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Anthea Tinker, Elodie Haines, Laura Molloy, Imogen Monks, Evelina Russell and Laura Pennells
The purpose of this paper is to examine the influence of exercise on the mental health problems of older women.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the influence of exercise on the mental health problems of older women.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper is based on information from academic literature, government publications and publications from other relevant bodies. It is a scoping study and is not a systematic review because of the constraints of the resources.
Findings
There is growing evidence about the value of exercise for the mental health of older women but few evaluated examples of how this can be achieved.
Research limitations/implications
There is a gap in the literature about this topic with few evaluated examples of how more older women can be encouraged to take more exercise.
Practical implications
Policy makers, practitioners and older people themselves would gain from a greater emphasis on exercise as a means of improving quality of life and for reducing healthcare budgets through fewer referrals to services.
Social implications
Greater emphasis on exercise for older women would increase their quality of life through a reduction in mental health problems.
Originality/value
There is limited research which links mental health, exercise and older women, especially regarding the barriers to exercise that older women with diagnosed mental health problems may face.
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This research draws on qualitative interviews with primarily lower socioeconomic status (SES) public library internet users to illuminate their perceptions of economic benefits…
Abstract
This research draws on qualitative interviews with primarily lower socioeconomic status (SES) public library internet users to illuminate their perceptions of economic benefits afforded by the internet. This powerful evidence challenges utopian new technological theories. The results from this study allow for the comparison of perspectives from Millennials, Generation Xers, Boomers, and the Silent generation. These results suggest a disconnect between the cultural mythology around the internet as an all-powerful tool and the lived experiences of lower SES respondents. Lower SES participants primarily use the internet to train and educate themselves in areas where they would like to work in the process of applying for jobs using the internet. Participants recognized marginal benefits such as socialization and less burdensome job application processes. However, they struggled to identify significant job-related benefits when comparing applying for jobs online as opposed to applying for jobs in person. With the exception of millennials, all generational groups believed in the economic promise of the internet to make their lives easier given enough time. Millennials, however, challenged the techno-utopianism expressed by other generations. Only millennials recognized the realities of digital inequalities that make techno-utopian outcomes unattainable given broader economic realities for low-SES individuals.
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EXCEPT in two instances, the important recent appointments in public libraries have been by way of promotions of the principal assistants. In some of these cases the choice has…
Abstract
EXCEPT in two instances, the important recent appointments in public libraries have been by way of promotions of the principal assistants. In some of these cases the choice has been a good one, justified by the qualifications and experience of the candidate. There is something to be said for such advancements. A man who has been trained in a library can bring to its management a local experience of undeniable value. On the other hand, it is usually in library systems which have only a mediocre record that such appointments are made; and, unless the new men are quite exceptional, they bring no new ideas or methods to the service. A universal adoption of “ promotions from staff ” would soon mean universal stagnation. The practice should be advocated of throwing open appointments. The ratepayers are entitled to the services of the best available librarians; and library workers should not find avenues of progress definitely closed to them by home‐raised men. We look forward to the time when the promising librarian may hope to progress by graduated stages through assistantship to a small librarianship, then to a larger and finally to a really large office. Such is the ideal way.
In this chapter, I present narratives of two Black men who represent a population of people who are often talked about but seldom heard from in school-to-prison pipeline research…
Abstract
In this chapter, I present narratives of two Black men who represent a population of people who are often talked about but seldom heard from in school-to-prison pipeline research. To analyze their stories, I employed a framework that centers on understanding human dignity and the conditions, circumstances, and experiences that threatened it. I found that their sense of self was eroded by moments of personal loss, disposal, and ways that even well-intentioned people marked them as “problems.” I explore how their eroded sense of self led them to engage in disruptive and destructive behaviors. I conclude by discussing the importance of supplementing school-to-prison pipeline research with Black boys’ and men’s first-hand accounts of their own experiences as a way of humanizing the primary subjects of this burgeoning area of education research.
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RECENT investigation has led us to wonder if the remuneration of librarians has made anything like the progress which sanguine people are wont to say it has. Or, since it is…
Abstract
RECENT investigation has led us to wonder if the remuneration of librarians has made anything like the progress which sanguine people are wont to say it has. Or, since it is always distasteful to harp on payment for work, we ask: has librarianship advanced, as shown in the salaries paid, in a manner commensurate with the services rendered? If the librarian were receiving the acknowledgment that his position, from its nature, ought to command, his salary should compare in some way with the salaries of his municipal colleagues. Does it? It is true the salaries of librarians have advanced, but does not the pre‐war ratio of difference between them and the salaries of the borough accountant, the medical officer, the borough engineer, remain constant? We believe it does. An example occurs to us, where the pre‐war salary of the town clerk was £1,000 and the borough engineer's was the same, while the medical officer received £800. The librarian had £400. To‐day the town clerk has £2,000, the doctor £1,300, and the engineer £1,750, but the librarian has £750. He is still in the same, if not in a worse, position, relatively, than he was before the war. And £750 is not a low salary, as library appointments go now‐a‐days. The simple truth is that municipalities do not, and frankly say they do not, regard librarians as professional men. So, in this line alone, much remains to be done.
In the earliest decades of anthropological fieldwork in the late nineteenth century, fieldwork relationships with informants appear to have been anything but overly close. The…
Abstract
In the earliest decades of anthropological fieldwork in the late nineteenth century, fieldwork relationships with informants appear to have been anything but overly close. The stereotype of the anthropologist in the American Southwest is that of a white man who sat on the steps of the trading post and paid Indians to tell him words in their language. Attempts were made to elicit information on kinship systems through direct and imperious questioning: “What do you call your mother's brother?” The analogous British and German stereotypes were of those who sat on the verandah of the local colonial officer's house, conducting themselves similarly with “the natives.”