Claire O’Brien, Laura Hogan, Peter Ward, William Howard, Rebecca Mooney, Paul Bernard and Grace Corcoran
Emergency Department (ED) presentations in older people are associated with a wide range of adverse events, which increase the risk of lengthy hospitalisation and poor outcomes…
Abstract
Purpose
Emergency Department (ED) presentations in older people are associated with a wide range of adverse events, which increase the risk of lengthy hospitalisation and poor outcomes. Pathfinder is an inter-organisational initiative delivered in partnership between Beaumont Hospital Occupational Therapy and Physiotherapy departments and the National Ambulance Service. Pathfinder responds to non-serious and non-life-threatening emergency medical service (EMS) calls. This study aims to demonstrate how Pathfinder can safely treat a proportion of older people at home by using alternative care pathways (ACPs), therefore avoiding unnecessary ED presentations. Once a decision has been reached to treat the person at home, the Pathfinder follow-up team delivers functional rehabilitation and case management in the persons’ home over the subsequent days.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper outlines the Pathfinder assessment, management and interventions in one clinical case example. Outcome measures include the level of patient satisfaction obtained via routine telephone feedback questionnaire and re-presentation to Beaumont Hospital within 30 days.
Findings
This paper illustrates through a case example the benefit of a collaborative multi-disciplinary rapid response team for non-serious and non-life-threatening EMS calls in older adults. The patient in this case example had no further EMS calls or ED presentations for 30 days after Pathfinder intervention and reported a high level of satisfaction with the service.
Research limitations/implications
ED presentation was avoided through comprehensive multi-disciplinary assessment, including immediate access to intensive follow-up support in the person’s own home.
Practical implications
The Pathfinder service is improving access to ACPs for older people in the Beaumont Hospital catchment area. Pathfinder will now be spread nationally, with local adaptation, so that older people in other parts of Ireland will also benefit from this integrated model of care.
Originality/value
Patient feedback surveys confirm older adults want access to alternative care pathways.
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The purpose of this paper is to reveal the development of Chinese studies in selective Canadian universities through examining the remarkable careers of three middle-aged ethnic…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to reveal the development of Chinese studies in selective Canadian universities through examining the remarkable careers of three middle-aged ethnic Chinese intellectuals.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper analyses the origin and growth of East Asian Studies programs in Canada by first describing the backgrounds of the three scholars. Why did Canadian universities accept them despite their Chinese origin?
Findings
Canadian universities are indeed the incubators of racial tolerance. Racism existed in the 1950s but was only confined to the collegial level. Universities generally welcomed a diversified representation of their payroll. While none of three academics founded East Asian Studies programs in their institutions, they had forcibly become their mascots and had lured more students into lifelong studies of the Far East. Despite the early fanfare of their recruitments, all three had become disillusioned with their employers as years passed. They felt their contributions were taken for granted and had shifted their career focuses elsewhere. The Asia-Pacific is still marginally focussed in the Canadian academe.
Originality/value
The three men and many others in the field have sowed the seed for the study of China and the East Asian region in Canada. It is up to future “East Asianists” to carry on this tradition that they had built in the twentieth century.
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EC Common Agricultural Policy expenditure is substantial, about £22 billion a year. Its objective is to support the market and to “guarantee” EC producers, processors, importers…
Abstract
EC Common Agricultural Policy expenditure is substantial, about £22 billion a year. Its objective is to support the market and to “guarantee” EC producers, processors, importers and exporters a reasonable return. The individual market support arrangements are defined by many hundreds of EC Council and Commission regulations which either specify or imply the need for control measures such as guarantees, indemnities, product descriptions, processes: technical, legal and administrative, and the checking of them. Checking in this specific but fragmented way has to be reinforced by control at an “aggregate” level, which is achieved by the examination of a claimant's transactions in the context of its suppliers, markets, associated companies and key third parties. Provision for this to be done is given by EC Council Regulation 4045/89, but argues that the Regulation itself militates against effective control at this “aggregate” level on at least three counts.
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A relatively recent development in the history of social inequality is the growth of mass media communications. In developed and in underdeveloped nations, in highly stratified…
Abstract
A relatively recent development in the history of social inequality is the growth of mass media communications. In developed and in underdeveloped nations, in highly stratified and in egalitarian societies, research documents the persistence of major disparities between different socioeconomic groups in their awareness of given topics. Despite the abundance of information available through a diversity of communication channels and information agencies in our nation, evidence points to the inability of major population sub‐groups to gather the appropriate types of information to cope with the most pressing information needs. These differences in information acquisition and in the ability to manage information seem to be related to differences in exposure to the mass media, which in turn appear to be strongly related to, or constrained by, differences in income, education, and other available socio‐economic resources.
The paper serves as an introduction to the special issue on Heinz von Foerster. Major episodes of his life are sketched and related to his scientific convictions regarding…
Abstract
Purpose
The paper serves as an introduction to the special issue on Heinz von Foerster. Major episodes of his life are sketched and related to his scientific convictions regarding transdisciplinary research and radical constructivist. In the second part the contributions to the issue are summarized. Finally, the relevance of Foerster's work is discussed.
Design/methodology/approach
The arguments are based on the scientific literature.
Findings
Foerster argued against reductionist science and in favor of transdisciplinary research in order to trigger further scientific developments.
Practical implications
By using transdiciplinary and choosing the constructivist perspective, science will increase its productivity. This should be reflected in science policy.
Originality/value
By pointing at the variety of his scientific output and his influence on many colleagues and students, the paper is in support of Foerster's non‐reductionist worldview.
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The archives of François Perroux deposited at IMEC bear witness to the fact that he has devoted, beyond his scientific production, great energy to the most material aspects of…
Abstract
The archives of François Perroux deposited at IMEC bear witness to the fact that he has devoted, beyond his scientific production, great energy to the most material aspects of research: setting up and maintaining networks to publicize his work and that of other economists, either directly or through the institutes and the journals he headed; organize seminars and symposiums; take care of relations with colleagues and the press; create collections and journals; and so on.
In this chapter, we concentrate our attention on the archives relating to the management of the institutes, those attesting to the lines and themes of the producer’s research, and those concerning his important correspondence.
Thanks to the archives deposited at IMEC, it is possible to follow the development of the theoretical work of François Perroux by contextualizing it. They also show the itinerary of a Christian intellectual, whose attachment to social Catholicism constitutes a guiding thread and is reflected in all his activities. Finally, the archives illuminate his substantial role in the institutionalization of research in economics in the France of the twentieth century.
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Canada is a country with ten provinces and three territories, each of which boasts its own set of unique characteristics. Education is constitutionally defined as a provincial…
Abstract
Canada is a country with ten provinces and three territories, each of which boasts its own set of unique characteristics. Education is constitutionally defined as a provincial responsibility. Although several federal government departments have some responsibilities in the area of education, there is no federal department of education. Thus, it is difficult to examine educational policy at a national level.