Allyson Oliphant, Cathy Faulds, Samara Bengall and Elysée Nouvet
The study aimed to (1) determine on what bases paramedics in this context have defined themselves as feeling safe or at risk while serving on the front lines and (2) develop…
Abstract
Purpose
The study aimed to (1) determine on what bases paramedics in this context have defined themselves as feeling safe or at risk while serving on the front lines and (2) develop recommendations to support paramedics in their critical public health emergency response role.
Design/methodology/approach
This qualitative study consisted of 21 semi-structured interviews with primary care paramedics (PCPs), advanced care paramedics (ACPs) and critical care paramedics (CCPs) with first-hand experience responding to the COVID-19 pandemic in Ontario. Qualitative research is best suited to the research objectives of gaining detailed and nuanced understandings of paramedics' experiences during this public health emergency, and identifying in paramedics' accounts what changes to policy and practice might strengthen their sense of safety in future infectious disease outbreaks (Bowling, 2002; Chafe, 2017). Data collection occurred over the course of 3.5 months, from June 2020 until September 2020.
Findings
Participants described several factors that heightened their feeling exposed to risk particular to working on the front lines of the COVID-19 public health response. These factors include stress connected to personal protective equipment (PPE) and equipment access, risks of infection to self and family, communications and feelings of being systematically under-considered. Recommendations from this research include, but are not limited to, ensuring a more equitable distribution of protective equipment to paramedics across unevenly funded services, and recognizing paramedics face unique and additional stressors in public health emergencies.
Research limitations/implications
A key limitation of this study was the relatively small sample, with 50% of potential participants deciding not to engage in an interview. The authors suspect this is likely a result of timing, as this was conducting during significant periods of the COVID-19 pandemic in Ontario. The study identifies and begins to shed light on the way in which feelings of compromised safety and specific stressors in a public health emergency context connect to one another and potentially increase risks of burnout for this healthcare provider group. This study's documentation of paramedics feeling uncertainty about their own and their family's safety, combined with feeling occupational pressure, decisional pressure within constrained frameworks of care delivery, a lack of autonomy and a lack of consideration within their healthcare system in general and within its pandemic response in particular, is important in and of itself. These stressors can have serious implications for the ability of paramedics to sustain their integral role in public health emergency response.
Practical implications
A series of pandemic-specific and generalizable recommendations emerged from this research and in collaboration with community-based medical leadership. (1) Consult paramedics on effectiveness of screening questions and equipment. Be sure to illicit and respond to paramedic feedback in a timely manner. (2) Implement operational changes during pandemics in the form of donning and doffing stations, disposable gowns, decontamination teams at hospitals, infectious disease paramedic (IDP) truck, anti-fog sprays for goggles, and safe and controlled areas for eating and taking breaks. (3) Develop an emergency pandemic plan that is resourced and maintained as part of EMS strategic planning. Involve EMS in decisions related to health system emergency planning and sustainability of EMS practice. (4) Establish equitable distribution of resources, such as ensuring PPE is distributed equitably and applying pandemic pay equally to all essential workers. (5) Validate and respect EMS, as they are essential workers. Recognize the expertise of paramedics and community healthcare providers. Finally, an overarching recommendation at the core of this research is the consideration for paramedic knowledge as expertise given their role as critical front line healthcare specialists and the protection of this crucial human resource as it relates to their resilience and mental wellbeing.
Social implications
Evidence-based awareness and improved understanding of paramedic stress during the pandemic is a first step to developing strategies to reduce that stress. This is essential in ensuring access to this essential service during emergencies and the safety of the communities they serve.
Originality/value
Findings from this study can inform development of supports to sustain paramedic wellbeing during public health emergencies, during the ongoing pandemic, in Ontario and beyond.
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Suparna Banerjee and Prosenjit Mukherjee
Nanotechnology is nowadays very much successful in producing specifically functionalized nano-sized particles. In this work, copper nanoparticles were prepared by reduction method…
Abstract
Nanotechnology is nowadays very much successful in producing specifically functionalized nano-sized particles. In this work, copper nanoparticles were prepared by reduction method which is greener and environmentally suitable, cheap and best as compared to other conventional methods, particularly in the context of COVID in globalized world. The formation and size of copper nanoparticles was evidenced by the X-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy. The very high surface area of 35–50 m2/gm and very small crystallite sizes of 5–15 nm of these metal nanoparticles is mainly responsible for their effective involvement in removal of carbon dioxide gas as one of major hazardous pollutants from the environment. This chapter, as its main objective, mainly focuses on utility of nano technology and its beneficiary in creating a sustainable environment in economic world. Apart from laboratory experimental procedure and characterizations for preparation of copper nanoparticles, appropriate research methods such as simple statistical, econometric tools and mathematical tools have been used for economic analysis. However, as major findings of the results, developed countries have been successful in maintaining a sustainable human development, in spite of having higher per capita income (PCI) growth as compared to the role of developing countries with lower PCI in this global world.
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Soniya Billore and Hans Hägerdal
The present paper aims to focus on the Indian influence in the transfer of, the business of and consumer markets for Indian products, specifically, textiles from producers in the…
Abstract
Purpose
The present paper aims to focus on the Indian influence in the transfer of, the business of and consumer markets for Indian products, specifically, textiles from producers in the South Asian subcontinent to the lands to the east of Bali. This aspect of the influence of Indian products has received some attention in a general but not been sufficiently elucidated with regard to eastern Indonesia.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper is based on archival research, as well as secondary data, derived from the published sources on early trade in South Asia and the Indian Ocean world. The study includes data about the Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie, a Dutch-owned company, and its textile trade history with India and the Indonesian islands with a special focus on Patola textiles. Narratives and accounts provide an understanding of the Patola, including business development and related elite and non-elite consumption.
Findings
The paper shows how imported Indian textiles became indigenised in important respects, as shown in legends and myths. A search in the colonial sources demonstrates the role of cloth in gift exchange, alliance brokering and economic network-building in eastern Indonesia, often with important political implications.
Research limitations/implications
The study combines previous research on material culture and textile traditions with archival data from the early colonial period, thus pointing at new ways to understand the socio-economic agency of local societies.
Originality/value
Only mapping the purchase and ownership of trading goods to understand consumption is not enough. One must also regard consumption, both as an expression of taste and desire and as a way to reify a community of people.
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Haiping Zhao, Qingxue Li and Jianhua Tao
Several multivariate statistical methods were comprehensively used to interpret the temporal, spatial patterns and source identification of surface water pollution in Bohai Bay…
Abstract
Several multivariate statistical methods were comprehensively used to interpret the temporal, spatial patterns and source identification of surface water pollution in Bohai Bay with the large and complex data. Twelve variables water quality indices were surveyed at 12 sites three times a year (May, August, and October) from 1995 to 2005. Cluster analysis (CA) grouped the eleven years into two clusters, Cluster A (1995 to 2001 except 1998) and cluster B (2002 to 2005 and 1998), and spatial CA divided the entire area into three groups. The results of discriminant analysis showed that the temporal CA and spatial CA were effective with 90% and 83.3% correct assignments, respectively. In cluster A, the pollution sources mainly were nutrient factor from non-point source and Hg pollution, oil and organic pollutions were relatively light. In Cluster B, the organic pollution became the mainly pollution source, and the nutrient pollution was still serious problem. In the results of spatial analysis, the group 1 was mainly affected by anthropogenic pollution, the group 3 was seriously affected by oil spill pollution and nutrients pollution, and the group 2 reflected relatively strong water self-purification ability.