Susan Brandis, Stephanie Schleimer and John Rice
Building a new hospital requires a major investment in capital infrastructure. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of bricks-and-mortar on patient safety…
Abstract
Purpose
Building a new hospital requires a major investment in capital infrastructure. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of bricks-and-mortar on patient safety culture before and two years after the move of a large tertiary hospital to a greenfield site. The difference in patient safety perceptions between clinical and non-clinical staff is also explored.
Design/methodology/approach
This research uses data collected from the same workforce across two time periods (2013 and 2015) in a large Australian healthcare service. Validated surveys of patient safety culture (n=306 and 246) were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics.
Findings
Using two-way analysis of variance, the authors found that perceived patient safety culture remains unchanged for staff despite a major relocation and upgrade of services and different perceptions of patient safety culture between staff groups remains the same throughout change.
Practical implications
A dramatic change in physical context, such as moving an entire hospital, made no measurable impact on perceived patient safety culture by major groups of staff. Improving patient safety culture requires more than investment in buildings and infrastructure. Understanding differences in professional perspectives of patient safety culture may inform organisational management approaches, and enhance the targeting of specific strategies.
Originality/value
The authors believe this to be the first empirically based paper that investigates the impact of a large investment into hospital capital and a subsequent relocation of services on clinical and non-clinical staff perceptions of patient safety culture.
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Susan Brandis, John Rice and Stephanie Schleimer
Employee engagement (EE), supervisor support (SS) and interprofessional collaboration (IPC) are important contributors to patient safety climate (PSC). The purpose of this paper…
Abstract
Purpose
Employee engagement (EE), supervisor support (SS) and interprofessional collaboration (IPC) are important contributors to patient safety climate (PSC). The purpose of this paper is to propose and empirically test a model that suggests the presence of a three-way interaction effect between EE, IPC and SS in creating a stronger PSC.
Design/methodology/approach
Using validated tools to measure EE, SS, IPC and PSC data were collected from a questionnaire of 250 clinical and support staff in an Australian health service. Using a statistical package (SPSS) an exploratory factor analysis was conducted. Bivariate correlations between the derived variables were calculated and a hierarchical ordinary least squares analysis was used to examine the interaction between the variables.
Findings
This research finds that PSC emerges from synergies between EE, IPC and SS. Modelling demonstrates that the effect of IPC with PSC is the strongest when staff are highly engaged. While the authors expected SS to be an important predictor of PSC; EE has a stronger relationship to PSC.
Practical implications
These findings have important implications for the development of patient safety programmes that focus on developing excellent supervisors and enabling IPC.
Originality/value
The authors provide quantitative evidence relating to three of the often mentioned constructs in the typology of patient safety and how they work together to improve PSC. The authors believe this to be the first empirically based study that confirms the importance of IPC as a lead marker for improved patient safety.
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Susan Brandis, Stephanie Schleimer and John Rice
Creating a culture of patient safety and developing a skilled workforce are major challenges for health managers. However, there is limited information to guide managers as to how…
Abstract
Purpose
Creating a culture of patient safety and developing a skilled workforce are major challenges for health managers. However, there is limited information to guide managers as to how patient safety culture can be improved. The purpose of this paper is to explore the concept of reflexivity and develop a model for magnifying the effect of patient safety culture and demonstrating a link to improved perceptions of quality of care.
Design/methodology/approach
This research employed a correlational case study design with empirical hypothesis testing of quantitative scores derived from validated survey items. Staff perceptions of patient safety, reflexivity and quality of patient care were obtained via a survey in 2015 and analysed using inferential statistics. The final sample included 227 health service staff from clinical and non-clinical designations working in a large Australian tertiary hospital and health service delivering acute and sub-acute health care.
Findings
Both patient safety culture and reflexivity are positively correlated with perceived quality of patient care at the p<0.01 level. The moderating role of reflexivity on the relationship between patient safety culture and quality of care outcomes was significant and positive at the p<0.005 level.
Practical implications
Improving reflexivity in a health workforce positively moderates the effect of patient safety culture on perceptions of patient quality of care. The role of reflexivity therefore has implications for future pre-professional curriculum content and post-graduate licencing and registration requirements.
Originality/value
Much has been published on reflection. This paper considers the role of reflexivity, a much less understood but equally important construct in the field of patient safety.
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At a recent inquest upon the body of a woman who was alleged to have died as the result of taking certain drugs for an improper purpose, one of the witnesses described himself as…
Abstract
At a recent inquest upon the body of a woman who was alleged to have died as the result of taking certain drugs for an improper purpose, one of the witnesses described himself as “an analyst and manufacturing chemist,” but when asked by the coroner what qualifications he had, he replied : “I have no qualifications whatever. What I know I learned from my father, who was a well‐known ‘F.C.S.’” Comment on the “F.C.S.” is needless.
Kristin Elizabeth Klimley, Alexis Carpinteri, Brandy Benson, Vincent B. Van Hasselt and Ryan A. Black
The commercialized sexual exploitation of children (CSEC), specifically child trafficking, prostitution, pornography, and enticement, has become a burgeoning topic over the past…
Abstract
Purpose
The commercialized sexual exploitation of children (CSEC), specifically child trafficking, prostitution, pornography, and enticement, has become a burgeoning topic over the past several decades. The purpose of this paper is to determine the characteristics of those victims who were at risk for sex trafficking, prostitution, pornography, and traveling/enticement.
Design/methodology/approach
This observational, survey design includes a records review of 18 victims who were identified by the FBI Miami Field Office. Case illustrations are provided for a more in-depth analysis of CSEC victims.
Findings
The results of this paper indicated that hands-on sexual abuse and child prostitution were the most common CSEC offenses that victims experienced. Additionally, Caucasian females, between 13 and 18 years of age, were often victimized. Victims more frequently experienced web forms of sexual abuse and engaged in risky sexual behaviors outside of the victimization. Further, the majority of victims in the sample came from a low socioeconomic background and lived in a single-parent home.
Practical implications
The current results, combined with prior research, may aid law enforcement, mental health, and medical professionals in understanding potential characteristics correlated with various forms of CSEC offenses.
Originality/value
To the authors’ knowledge, this is one of the first descriptive studies involving case illustrations of CSEC victims.
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Diversified trading networks have recently drawn a great deal of attention. In the process, the importance of diversity has perhaps been overemphasized. Using the trade in port…
Abstract
Diversified trading networks have recently drawn a great deal of attention. In the process, the importance of diversity has perhaps been overemphasized. Using the trade in port wine from Portugal to Britain as an example, this essay attempts to show how a market once dominated by general, diversified traders was taken over by dedicated specialists whose success might almost be measured by the degree to which they rejected diversification to form a dedicated “commodity chain.” The essay suggests that this strategy was better able to handle matters of quality and the specialized knowledge that port wine required. The essay also highlights the question of power in such a chain. Endemic commodity-chain struggles are clearest in the vertical brand war that broke out in the nineteenth century, which, by concentrating power, marked the final stage in the transformation of the trade from network to vertical integration.
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Corrie Stone-Johnson and Jennie Weiner
In response to the proliferation of neoliberal reforms and a “new professionalism” (Evetts, 2009, 2011), researchers argue that school leaders, like teachers, have experienced a…
Abstract
Purpose
In response to the proliferation of neoliberal reforms and a “new professionalism” (Evetts, 2009, 2011), researchers argue that school leaders, like teachers, have experienced a form of “de-professionalization” (Keddie, 2017) and that the principalship may even be an “emergent profession” (Stone-Johnson and Weiner, 2020). Such framing assumes school leaders are indeed part of a profession. And yet, while research abounds regarding teaching as a profession (Ingersoll and Collins, 2018; Sachs, 2016; Torres and Weiner, 2018), no parallel literature exists about school leaders. Such information is critical to ensure educators receive the appropriate professional development and support (Sachs, 2016) and move the field forward and thus motivated the authors to ask how principals view their work and whether it can be seen as part of a discrete profession.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors utilized an interpretative phenomenological approach (IPA) drawing on qualitative interviews with sixteen elementary school principals in two US states.
Findings
The authors find administration, and specifically the principalship, exists adjacent to, but distinct from, teaching. Additionally, the authors find school leadership is an “emergent” profession, with aspects of the work that indicate leadership is a profession but others that do not.
Originality/value
This study extends early work (Stone-Johnson and Weiner, 2020) on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on principals' professionalism to shed light on the larger and more long-standing features of principals' work that support and hinder its development as a profession and the implications of such designation on attracting and retaining school leaders, as well as underscoring that because school leadership and teaching can be considered discrete professions, teachers need not leave their classroom to be true professionals.
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The paper extends the robust political economy framework to analyze the impact of tariffs on the entrepreneurial market process. It proposes that the unintended consequences of…
Abstract
Purpose
The paper extends the robust political economy framework to analyze the impact of tariffs on the entrepreneurial market process. It proposes that the unintended consequences of using trade policy to bolster a nation's economy will inevitably prevent an economy from allocating its resources to their highest-valued use. The study aims to expand the robust political economy literature to international trade.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper develops a robust analysis of trade policy and illustrates it with two case studies of trade wars: The Chicken War (1963) and the US–Canada softwood lumber disputes (1982-present).
Findings
The paper provides theoretical insights into how the entrepreneurial market process is distorted by trade barriers. The case studies show that the theoretical insights have real-world implications that should not be ignored when planning trade policy.
Originality/value
This paper applies a robust political economy framework to international trade.
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Steve McDonald, Amanda K. Damarin, Jenelle Lawhorne and Annika Wilcox
The Internet and social media have fundamentally transformed the ways in which individuals find jobs. Relatively little is known about how demand-side market actors use online…
Abstract
The Internet and social media have fundamentally transformed the ways in which individuals find jobs. Relatively little is known about how demand-side market actors use online information and the implications for social stratification and mobility. This study provides an in-depth exploration of the online recruitment strategies pursued by human resource (HR) professionals. Qualitative interviews with 61 HR recruiters in two southern US metro areas reveal two distinct patterns in how they use Internet resources to fill jobs. For low and general skill work, they post advertisements to online job boards (e.g., Monster and CareerBuilder) with massive audiences of job seekers. By contrast, for high-skill or supervisory positions, they use LinkedIn to target passive candidates – employed individuals who are not looking for work but might be willing to change jobs. Although there are some intermediate practices, the overall picture is one of an increasingly bifurcated “winner-take-all” labor market in which recruiters focus their efforts on poaching specialized superstar talent (“purple squirrels”) from the ranks of the currently employed, while active job seekers are relegated to the hyper-competitive and impersonal “black hole” of the online job boards.
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Assuming that the relations between the Local Authority and their Public Analyst are, as regards fixity of tenure, established on a satisfactory basis, there remain some very…
Abstract
Assuming that the relations between the Local Authority and their Public Analyst are, as regards fixity of tenure, established on a satisfactory basis, there remain some very important points to be discussed, namely, the duties of that officer, the conditions under which he works, and his relations to his colleagues on the staff. These are matters which, so far as we know, have never previously been dealt with in print, are only partially regulated by law, and are not settled by any uniformity of practice on the part of Local Authorities.