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Healthcare organizations have employed numerous strategies to promote quality improvement (QI) initiatives, yet little is known about their effectiveness. In 2008, staff in one organization developed an in-house QI training program designed for frontline managers and staff and this article aims to report employee perspectives

Design/methodology/approach

Qualitative interviews were conducted with 22 course participants to examine satisfaction, self-assessed change in proficiency and ability to successfully engage with QI initiatives. Sampling bias may have occurred as the participants volunteered for the study and they may not represent all course participants. Recall bias is also possible since most interviews took place one year after the course was completed to assess long-term impact. Respondents were asked to self-rate their pre- and post-course knowledge and skill, which may not represent what was actually learned.

Informants reported that the course expanded their QI knowledge and skills, and that supervisor support for the course was essential for success. Additionally, the course QI project provided participants with an opportunity to translate theory into practice, which has the potential to influence patient outcomes.

Several lessons for future QI training can be gleaned from this evaluation, including respondent opinions that it is challenging to offer one program when participants have different QI knowledge levels before the course begins, that “booster sessions” or refresher classes after the course ends would be helpful and that supervisor support was critical to successful QI-initiative implementation.

This study conducts in-depth interviews with QI course participants to elicit staff feedback on program structure and effectiveness. These findings can be used by QI educators to disseminate more effective training programs.

Over the past two decades significant attention has been given to the topic of historical empathy, yet the manner in which historical empathy is currently defined, operationalized, and put into classroom practice lacks consistency and often is based on dated conceptualizations of the construct. Scholars have employed a variety of theoretical and practical approaches to utilizing historical empathy with students, leading to persistent confusion about the nature, purpose and fostering of historical empathy. Our goal is to present an updated conceptualization that clearly defines historical empathy as a dual-dimensional, cognitive-affective construct and differentiates historical empathy from exclusively cognitive or affective modes of historical inquiry. We further provide an updated instructional model for the promotion of historical empathy that includes consideration for historical empathy’s proximate and ultimate goals. We aim to highlight where research has produced some consensus on best practice for promoting empathy and where further study is needed.

Using two main research questions, the purpose of this paper is to examine well-being and preparedness among Cambodian and Laotian immigrants living near the Gulf Coast of the USA, and the ways in which indicators such as sense of community and risk perception are related to these constructs.

This study employed a cross-sectional prospective design to examine disaster preparedness and well-being among Laotian and Cambodian immigrant communities. Quantitative survey data using purposive snowball sampling were collected throughout several months in Alabama, Mississippi, Florida and Louisiana.

Results from two multiple regressions revealed that sense of community and age contributed to well-being and were significant in the model, but with a negative relationship between age and well-being. Risk perception, confidence in government, confidence in engaging household preparedness and ability to cope with a financial crisis were significant predictors and positively related to disaster preparedness.

Well-being and disaster preparedness can be bolstered through community-based planning that seeks to address urgent needs of the people residing in vulnerable coastal locations. Specifically, immigrants who speak English as a second language, elder individuals and households in the lowest income brackets should be supported in disaster planning and outreach.

Cambodian and Laotian American immigrants rely upon the Gulf Coast’s waters for fishing, crab and shrimp income. Despite on-going hazard and disasters, few studies address preparedness among immigrant populations in the USA. This study fills a gap in preparedness research as well as factors associated with well-being, an important aspect of long-term resilience.

One of the main aspects of a mentoring relationship involves the expectations that mentees have of an ideal mentor. However, the traits that mentees envision in an ideal mentor are unclear. The purpose of this paper is to present series of studies examined mentees’ ideas about their ideal mentor’s physical characteristics and mentoring functions. The authors also examined gender and racial (white/nonwhite) differences in ideal mentor preferences.

The two studies examined what mentees envision when they picture their ideal mentor, and whether the ideal mentor prototypes varied by participants’ ethnicity and gender. Study 2 further examined mentees’ ideal mentor characteristics in a forced choice ranking scale and the ideal mentor scale (Rose, 2003).

When asked to describe their ideal mentor’s appearance, participants provided detailed descriptions of the ideal mentor’s features. They also emphasized mentoring characteristics and behaviors, such as guidance. Participants’ preferences for their ideal mentor’s gender and race varied by the question format (open-ended description vs scale).When asked to envision their ideal mentor (Study 2), participants emphasized guidance, interpersonal warmth, and ethical integrity. Other mentoring characteristics and behaviors emerged in the content coding framework. Prototypes of the ideal mentors varied based on ethnicity and gender, but also on how the question was presented.

These findings suggest that the ideal mentor prototype involves guidance, understanding, and role modeling ethical values. Like other organizational roles (i.e. leaders), awareness of these traits informs how employees view mentors and what they expect from mentoring relationships. Facilitators of mentoring programs can consider the ideal mentor prototype during the matching process and the initial stages of the mentoring relationship.

Much of the discussion surrounding the antivaccine movement focuses on the decision of parents to not vaccinate their children and the resulting danger posed to others. However, the primary risk is borne by the child left unvaccinated. Although living in a developed country with high vaccination rates provides a certain amount of protection through population immunity, the unvaccinated child is still exposed to a considerably greater risk of preventable diseases than one who is vaccinated. I explore the tension between parental choice and the child’s right to be free of preventable diseases. The chapter’s goal is twofold: to advocate for moving from a dyadic framework – considering the interests of the parents against those of the state – to a triadic one, in which the interests of the child are given as much weight as those of the parent and the state; and to discuss which protections are available, and how they can be improved. Specific legal tools available to protect that child are examined, including tort liability of the parents to the child, whether and to what degree criminal law has a role, under what circumstances parental choice should be overridden, and the role of school immunization requirements in protecting the individual child.

Organizations have become increasingly interested in developing their human resources. One tool that has been explored in this quest is mentoring. This has led to a surge in mentoring research and an increase in the number of formal mentoring programs implemented in organizations. This review provides a survey of the empirical work on mentoring that is organized around the major questions that have been investigated. Then a conceptual model, focused on formal mentoring relationships, is developed to help understand the mentoring process. The model draws upon research from a diverse body of literature, including interpersonal relationships, career success, training and development, and informal mentoring. Finally, a discussion of critical next steps for research in the mentoring domain is presented.

A standard wholemeal loaf is now on sale. It is made of flour of 85 per cent. extraction, and the Ministry of Food has arranged with the millers and bakers for the immediate production of both flour and bread in quantities sufficient, it is hoped, to meet all demands. The 85 per cent. extraction of this new national wholemeal flour compares with a figure of 73 per cent. for ordinary white flour, and the new flour will produce a more nutritious loaf. The Ministry of Food is satisfied after research by its experts that 85 per cent. extraction flour provides maximum digestibility and nutriment. Steps will be taken to see that the new bread is available everywhere, and at the same price as white bread. This is now 8d. a 4lb. loaf, and the Government are making a subsidy so that the price shall be kept at this figure. So far, although nearly three months have passed since it was decided to grant the subsidy, the bakers have not received it ; but agreement on the scheme has now been reached between them and the Ministry, which states that an early announcement will be made. Special breads, such as those containing more fat, which are popular in the North, may be sold for more than 8d., but these do not then qualify for the subsidy. The decision to make a standard wholemeal loaf and wholemeal flour available in large supply was taken because it was found that a substantial proportion of the population wanted them. Existing brown breads vary enormously ; the new loaf will be a standard product. Meanwhile, the Ministry is going ahead with its scheme for introducing flour reinforced with manufactured vitamin B1, but this will not be available for some months.

In this chapter, the authors explore the notion of loneliness in the CEO role. Traditionally, leaders are portrayed as possessing plentiful personal and social resources whereas lonely people are portrayed as socially and personally lacking, and so the notion of being lonely in a leadership position seems counterintuitive. The authors explore the elements of the CEO role and discuss the various ways the position can induce or perpetuate loneliness. The authors review the research on loneliness in relation to the CEO role and lay the foundation for future research in this underdeveloped area. The authors propose that loneliness is likely to develop when CEOs either are new to the leadership role or enact negative individual behaviors and might be felt more acutely during times of poor performance, criticism, and difficult decisions. The authors discuss implications and suggestions for future research.