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Preliminary Understanding (preliminary + understanding)
Selected AbstractsOpportunities for independent living using direct payments in mental healthHEALTH & SOCIAL CARE IN THE COMMUNITY, Issue 2 2006Helen Spandler PhD Abstract Mental health service users have yet to reap the benefits of greater choice, control and independent living, which direct payments have facilitated in other groups of community care users, particularly people with physical disabilities. To redress this imbalance a national pilot to promote direct payments to people with mental health needs in five local authority sites across England was set up and evaluated. The evaluation used a multi-method approach incorporating both qualitative and quantitative data, including individual semi-structured interviews and group discussions with key stakeholders across the pilot sites. This article draws on findings from the pilot evaluation to provide a preliminary understanding of how applicable the independent living philosophy is to mental health and what opportunities direct payments offer for service users. When given the opportunity, service users were able to use direct payments creatively to meet a range of needs in ways which increased their choice, control and independence. This suggests that the benefits of greater independent living through direct payments may be realisable in mental health. However, a number of ways in which the principles of direct payments in mental health could be ,downgraded' were identified. The evaluation results indicate that a thorough understanding of the independent living philosophy needs to be developed in the context of mental health. [source] Effects of cooperative and competitive incentives on agility, quality, and speed in an experimental settingHUMAN FACTORS AND ERGONOMICS IN MANUFACTURING & SERVICE INDUSTRIES, Issue 4 2004Charlene A. Yauch Inter- and intraorganizational cooperation have been identified as essential characteristics of agile manufacturing. For this research, agility was compared using two experimental treatments: cooperative versus competitive. Student teams performed a task and were confronted with random changes to simulate a dynamic environment. Although differences were not statistically significant, the results show that cooperative incentives do not result in greater agility. Speed also decreased with cooperative incentives but quality improved. The experiment provides a preliminary understanding of how competition, cooperation, and agility interrelate and suggest that intra-organizational cooperation may not be the best means of achieving manufacturing agility. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Hum Factors Man 14: 403,413, 2004. [source] An evaluation of nursing practice models in the context of the severe acute respiratory syndrome epidemic in Hong Kong: a preliminary studyJOURNAL OF CLINICAL NURSING, Issue 6 2006Engle Angela Chan PhD Aim and objective., Like other health-care workers, Hong Kong nurses had their professional knowledge and skills seriously challenged during the SARS outbreak. Could current nursing practices support the care of SARS or SARS-like patients in the future? If not, alternative practices would be needed. Providing a preliminary understanding, this paper compares the conventional with different nursing delivery models in a simulated SARS ward and focuses on nurses' efficiency, infection control practices and views of the two models. Design and methods., This study was conducted in three phases. First, a baseline understanding of nursing practices was achieved through four workflow observations. In an eight-hour day, four research assistants observed nursing activities in the medical and fever wards. These data were used in the second phase to construct two sets of clinical vignettes, pertaining to SARS patient care in both conventional and alternative practice models. These scripts were discussed with nine nurses of various ranks from the hospital under study for their expert validation and input. In the third phase, nurse participants and patient actors enacted the vignettes in a simulated setting. Video-taped observations and four nurse participant interviews were employed. Observational data were analysed through descriptive statistics and independent t -tests. Textual data were coded and categorized for common meanings. Results., Conventional practice from the findings consisted of cubicle and named nurse nursing. While the former reflected modified team and functional nursing, it did not confine patient care within a cubicle as suggested by its name. The latter depicted a modified primary nursing approach in a team, with delegation of care. Preliminary findings concerning infection control and nurse satisfaction revealed that the alternative model had an advantage over the conventional. Relevance to clinical practice., This study findings lay the foundation for clinical trials, which would evaluate the significance of patient-care quality, cost-effectiveness and better human resource management by restructuring current nursing practices. [source] Beyond the ,digital natives' debate: Towards a more nuanced understanding of students' technology experiencesJOURNAL OF COMPUTER ASSISTED LEARNING, Issue 5 2010S. Bennett Abstract The idea of the ,digital natives', a generation of tech-savvy young people immersed in digital technologies for which current education systems cannot cater, has gained widespread popularity on the basis of claims rather than evidence. Recent research has shown flaws in the argument that there is an identifiable generation or even a single type of highly adept technology user. For educators, the diversity revealed by these studies provides valuable insights into students' experiences of technology inside and outside formal education. While this body of work provides a preliminary understanding, it also highlights subtleties and complexities that require further investigation. It suggests, for example, that we must go beyond simple dichotomies evident in the digital natives debate to develop a more sophisticated understanding of our students' experiences of technology. Using a review of recent research findings as a starting point, this paper identifies some key issues for educational researchers, offers new ways of conceptualizing key ideas using theoretical constructs from Castells, Bourdieu and Bernstein, and makes a case for how we need to develop the debate in order to advance our understanding. [source] Prose and Cons: Offender Auto/Biographies, Penal Reform and Probation TrainingTHE HOWARD JOURNAL OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE, Issue 5 2002Mike Nellis ,The life history approach is peculiarly ignored in teaching contexts' wrote Ken Plummer in 1983 (p.74). Things may have changed on ordinary social science degrees, but offender/prisoner autobiographies , akin to the life story approach , are a still underused resource in the training of probation officers. The criminological importance of such autobiographies was recently affirmed by the late Steve Morgan (1999), adroitly re,therorised by Goodey (2000) and used constructively by Wilson and Reuss (2000) in a study of prison(er) education. This article describes, from experience, how they can be used at the beginning of a probation training programme, to develop a preliminary understanding of desistance, and to open up debate on what works with offenders and what doesn't, in and out of prison. An historical background to British prisoner autobiographies is provided to ground this approach to teaching in a distinctive criminological discourse, to provide a resource for those who wish to take debate on prisoner autobiographies further, and to indicate the kind of impact that the best of this writing has had on the penal reform process. The article should be read both as a contribution to an overdue, and at present meagre, debate on how an academically sound and vocationally relevant curriculum for trainee probation officers can be constructed, and as an at least partial substantiation of the deeper argument that probation training can draw productively on traditions of penal reform which it has hitherto neglected. [source] Consumers on a Mission to Force a Change in Public Policy: A Qualitative Study of the Ongoing Canadian Seafood Boycott1BUSINESS AND SOCIETY REVIEW, Issue 4 2009KARIN BRAUNSBERGER ABSTRACT Netnography (i.e., the online equivalent of ethnography) was used to analyze consumer boycott pledges submitted to an online boycott petition that was designed to recruit consumer participation in the contentious Canadian Seafood Boycott. The purpose was to investigate what motivates consumers to pledge boycott participation as well as to provide a preliminary understanding of boycott pledgees' psychographic makeup. The findings show that petition signatories are generally very angry about the Canadian Seal Hunt, pledge to boycott for a variety of objectives (instrumental, expressive, and punitive), abhor cruelty against animals, do not believe that it is acceptable to kill an animal for its fur, and worry about the environment in general. Many are very religious and quite a number believe that traditions that embrace animal cruelty need to be abolished. The findings further indicate that concern for animal welfare/rights has been moved into the mainstream. [source] | ||||||||||