Implementation of a Curriculum to Optimize Hygiene Behaviors Among Refugees and Migrants Being Resettled

Health knowledge and behaviors can impact well-being and promote community integration post-arrival for refugees and migrants being resettled. Health and hygiene curricula are efficient and accessible mechanisms to mitigate the risk of chronic and infectious diseases in populations being resettled. This report summarizes a successful interagency/interdisciplinary Uganda-based collaboration between the International Organization for Migration, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the University of Minnesota. The project's objective was to co-create and align a health curriculum and education messages across the resettlement continuum. Due to timing, the curriculum expanded to include COVID-19 prevention education, thus broadening the initiative's impact. Since the initial implementation, thousands of US-bound applicants have had exposure to the curriculum modules. The curriculum is now the primary tool for health education during pre-departure procedures in Kampala, Uganda, with implementations planned in other countries. The modular format and standardized non-technical language facilitated uptake by medical and non-medical personnel. Incorporating end users in curriculum development supports the early adoption and sustainability of the project. The interagency/interdisciplinary partnership strengthens systems and supports resource sharing to optimize the health and well-being of persons resettling in the United States

Moral Sensitivity and Our Interconnection With One Another and Nature: A Conversation With Ervin Laszlo

Riane Eisler, Editor-in-Chief of the Interdisciplinary Journal of Partnership Studies, interviews pioneering systems philosopher, scientist, and global activist Dr. Ervin Laszlo, about his work with the late evolutionary systems scientist David Loye on moral sensitivity, evolution, and the need to move from a linear to a whole-systems approach to meet our mounting global environmental, economic, social, and personal challenges

Collective Impact Partnerships: The Data to Action Hourglass Model

Models are needed to guide positive health care and social transformation using real-world data, particularly in an era of data-driven science and accountability. We describe the Data-to-Action Hourglass Model, which synthesizes ideas of collective impact, partnership theory and practice, knowledge complexity, design justice, and systems thinking toward this goal. The Hourglass Model is an ecological (nested) perspective, placing knowledge management within the context of health at levels ranging from planetary to personal, and then using knowledge to inform collective action to influence policy. We offer in-depth commentary and resources to guide use of the Hourglass Model in research, education, and practice, and invite collaboration and discourse related to the model

Human Morality: Love or Fear, Partnership or Domination

David Loye pointed us to one of Charles Darwin’s aims that often has been overlooked, to explain the evolution of humanity’s moral sense. Most people focus on Darwin’s aim to explain speciation, changes in traits across generations. In studying the moral sense, Darwin assumed it was innate, though he found it more evident among non-Western peoples he met than among his British compatriots. His finding is not a surprise if you understand when and how most human sociomoral capacities are shaped—after birth, by immersive experience. Humanity’s evolved developmental niche, or evolved nest, appears to be crucial for the development of moral sense because it provides the support needed to optimize the development of psychosocial neurobiological systems. To reestablish and maintain the moral sense, humanity needs to restore the provision of the evolved nest to all people, especially children

Moral Sensitivity, Moral Transformation, and Evolutionary Scientist David Loye: An Introduction

This article introduces the two major themes of this issue of the Interdisciplinary Journal of Partnership Studies: moral sensitivity and transformation, and honoring the late evolutionary systems scientist David Loye. The article shows how these two themes are integrally interconnected. Loye introduced the term “moral sensitivity” as well as the distinction between “partnership moral sensitivity” and “dominator moral insensitivity” or “moralism,” showing how the latter has been used to push us back to “strong-man” rule, violence, and injustice. He was the first to reclaim what he called “Darwin’s lost theory” based on Charles Darwin’s long-ignored writings about human evolution, including what Darwin called “the moral sense.” Quoting from some of Loye’s more than 30 published books as well as a sampling of articles, the article highlights his gift of bringing to life the people and times he wrote about, including the men and women he called “the great scientific explorers of the better world.” Colorful examples from his many writings illustrate how Loye advanced the study of human evolution through his offerings on moral sensitivity, clarifying much that is otherwise obscured, and showing his enormous contributions to a better understanding of our past, present, and the possibilities for our future. The article provides new terms and new ideas for building a more equitable, less violent, more sustainable future through the works of a man first known for his prize-winning book on the immorality of racism, whose later works focused on how we can create a future where we not only survive, but thrive

A Conversation with Kelly White, MSN, RN, Chief Nursing Officer, Hennepin Healthcare: Partnering to Improve Work Culture

Gertrude Thomas, MSN, RN, PHN, CNE, interviews Kelly White, Chief Nursing Officer at Hennepin Healthcare in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Their conversation addresses the vision of the new nurse leader collaborative work to improve outcomes for patients that align with the organization’s mission of providing equitable and incisive care for patients and staff. Expectations and hopes for improving work culture and health-care outcomes are at the highest level with the incoming of the new CEO and the new CNO. We hope for transformation through partnerships across disciplines and collaborative work to meet goals that will improve our health-care systems. In their 2021 document, The Future of Nursing, 2020-2030: Charting a Path to Achieve Health Equity, The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine identify ways in which nurses should work with other members of the interdisciplinary team to eliminate disparities in health care and move toward equitable care delivery. This call to action cannot be achieved by one discipline. Stepping out of our silos and partnering across disciplines to bring our best efforts to the table, backed by actions that deliver care with a focus on equity and excellence, will bring us closer to achieving these visionary goals. Leadership challenges that include patients’ safety, staff satisfaction, financial accountability, and equitable care delivery, have spiraled downward because of an ongoing pandemic. This is more reason to lean into partnerships and gain collaborative insights that bring out our best. We can intentionally and effectively redesign health-care delivery through partnerships to achieve mutual goals

Artist's Statement: Don't Lose Our Youth

Artist’s Statement for the cover art of IJPS Volume 9, issue 1: Don’t Lose Our Youth, 2022. Oil, rice, gesso, and aerosol on wood

Healthy Work Environments: An Interprofessional Partnership Model to Promote Positive Workplace Culture

Background: Healthy work environments (HWEs) are a primary focus of leaders in health care. Many nurse- specific HWE initiatives exist to improve workplace culture; however, workplace harm persists. An interprofessional partnership model is needed to sustain healthy workplace cultures to promote engagement among providers and employees, and safe, high-quality patient care. Methods: The 5-Stage Process® is a method for teams to openly examine workplace behavior, co-creating their future using continuous quality improvement strategies of Team Building, Assessment, Implementation, Evaluation, and Sustainability. To ensure success, each stage should be completed with focused attention to the concrete strategies the team needs to take to sustain the healthy work environment. Results: The entire 5-Stage Process® was used by interprofessional teams from the specialties of Perinatology and Radiology at major health care institutions in the Midwest and Perioperative in the Northeast United States. Each team implemented one-on-one conflict resolution techniques, and one team noted improvements in employee engagement scores from 60% to 86%, patient satisfaction from 74% to 85%, safety perception scores from 70% to 79%, and teamwork perception scores from 82% to 84%. Conclusion: The interprofessional partnership 5-Stage Process® may be a successful method to continuously improve workplace cultures and ultimately improve patient safety and provider and staff satisfaction. Sustaining healthy work environments requires leaders’ constant focus and dedication to partnership techniques to ensure that new healthy behaviors persist

Love Letters to Planet Earth: A Podcast and Practice for our Planetary Emotional Wellbeing

In partnership studies, the configuration of the partnership model supports relations of mutual respect, accountability, and benefit, as well as hierarchies of actualization in which power is employed to empower rather than to disempower others in all relations, from intimate to international. What is possible when this approach is used to address eco-anxiety and pre-traumatic stress related to climate change? This article describes a new podcast and practice designed to nurture partnership with other humans and nature.

Community Partnerships: Training Case Managers Working with Individuals Experiencing Chronic Homelessness

Background: Homelessness is a chronic problem across the United States, with approximately 25% of homeless people located in California. In 2012, the United States Interagency Council to end Homelessness developed guidelines to implement Housing First initiatives and training for case managers. Launched in February 2017, Sacramento’s Flexible Supportive Rehousing Program, a permanent Housing First initiative, was adapted from Los Angeles County’s Housing for Health. Methods: A comprehensive training academy for case managers working with individuals experiencing chronic homelessness was developed, implemented, and evaluated. Goals were to improve case managers’ ability to keep clients in housing, and to improve health outcomes as indicated by the Social Determinants of Health. Results: Knowledge, skills, and attitudes (KSA) objectives were provided for each training module. Case managers demonstrated knowledge and skills acquisition by presenting case studies following a provided rubric. Attitude changes were assessed using an adaptation of a validated tool. Evaluation of progress toward longer-term goals is ongoing