Model collaboration: university library system and rehabilitation research team to advance telepractice knowledge.

This Publisher's Report describes the collaboration between a university library system's scholarly communication and publishing office and a federally funded research team, the Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center (RERC) on Telerehabilitation. This novel interdisciplinary collaboration engages librarians, information technologists, publishing professionals, clinicians, policy experts, and engineers and has produced a new Open Access journal, International Journal of Telerehabilitation, and a developing, interactive web-based product dedicated to disseminating information about telerehabilitation. Readership statistics are presented for March 1, 2011 - February 29, 2012

Nurses and Pharmaceutical Care: Interprofessional, Evidence-Based Working to Improve Patient Care and Outcomes

Pharmaceutical care necessitates significant efforts from patients, informal caregivers, the interprofessional team of health care professionals and health care system administrators. Collaboration, mutual respect and agreement amongst all stakeholders regarding responsibilities throughout the complex process of pharmaceutical care is needed before patients can take full advantage of modern medicine. Based on the literature and policy documents, in this position paper, we reflect on opportunities for integrated evidence-based pharmaceutical care to improve care quality and patient outcomes from a nursing perspective. Despite the consensus that interprofessional collaboration is essential, in clinical practice, research, education and policy-making challenges are often not addressed interprofessionally. This paper concludes with specific advises to move towards the implementation of more interprofessional, evidence-based pharmaceutical care

From satisfaction to expectation: The patient's perspective in lower limb prosthetic care

Neck pain is a common musculoskeletal complaint and a relationship with reduced work-related functional capacity is assumed. A validated instrument to test functional capacity of patients with neck pain is unavailable. The objective of this study was to develop a Functional Capacity Evaluation (FCE), which is content valid for determining functional capacity in patients with work related neck disorders (WRND). A review of epidemiological review literature was conducted to identify physical risk factors for WRND. Evidence was found that physical risk factors contribute in development of WRND. Physical risk factors were related to repetitive movements, forceful movements, awkward positions and static contractions of the neck or the neck/shoulder region. An FCE was designed based on the risk factors identified. Eight tests were selected to cover all risk factors: repetitive side reaching, repetitive reaching overhead, static overhead work, front carry, forward static bend neck, overhead lift and the neck strength test. Content validity of this FCE was established by providing the rationale, specific objectives and operational definitions of the FCE. Further research is needed to establish reliability and other aspects of validity of the neck-FCE Aim Worldwide, family- centred and co- ordinated care are seen as the two most desirable and effective methods of paediatric care delivery. This study outlines current views on how team collaboration comprising professionals in paediatric rehabilitation and special education and the parents of children with disabilities should be organized, and analyses the policies of five paediatric rehabilitation settings associated with the care of 44 children with cerebral palsy ( CP) in the Netherlands. Methods For an overview of current ideas on collaboration, written statements of professional associations in Dutch paediatric rehabilitation were examined. The policy statements of the five participating settings were derived from their institutional files. Documents detailing the collaborative arrangements involving the various professionals and parents were evaluated at the institutional level and at the child level. Involvement of the stakeholders was analysed based on team conferences. Results Also in the Netherlands collaboration between rehabilitation and education professionals and parents is endorsed as the key principle in paediatric rehabilitation, with at its core the team conference in which the various priorities and goals are formulated and integrated into a personalized treatment plan. As to their collaborative approaches between rehabilitation centre and school, the five paediatric settings rarely differed, but at the child level approaches varied. Teams were large ( averaging 10.5 members), and all three stakeholder groups were represented, but involvement differed per setting, as did the roles and contributions of the individual team members. Conclusion Collaboration between rehabilitation and education professionals and parents is supported and encouraged nationwide. Views on collaboration have been formulated, and general guidelines on family- centred and co- ordinated care are available. Yet, collaborative practices in Dutch paediatric care are still developing. Protocols that carefully delineate the commitments to collaborate and that translate the policies into practical, detailed guidelines are needed, as they are a prerequisite for successful teamwork

St. John Valley Creative Economy Project

A team of researchers from the Margaret Chase Smith Policy Center at the University of Maine conducted an in-depth assessment of the St. John Valley’s creative economy in collaboration with the University of Maine at Fort Kent and regional community leaders. This report provides a summary of the activities, the output of research, and recommendations and conclusions based on project efforts

Institutional embrace and the postmodern professional

The post-modern teacher is one that has been fashioned over the last 20 year. S/he belongs to a 'greedy institution' in which teachers embrace its values and reproduce them as well as adding value by contributing to a continuous reinvention of it. Their professional identity is now one that is isomorphic with the school, one in which status and professional expertise are bound up with the image of the institution in the glo-na-cal environment of global, national and local. Web sites proclaim the character of the school but also celebrate their local status while national league tables pin point their level of achievement locally and nationally. Their global responsibility is mirrored in their commitment to raising achievement for the labour market and the national economy. The post-modern professional teacher is now a total teacher taking on everything and anything that policy demands as well as their own interests and values, for example contrasting performative and creative pedagogies. The commitment of the postmodern professional has been gained through the development of team work and collaboration, the necessity to improve performative targets and the survival of their institution in a market orientated environment. Economic imperatives drive education policy and they now include creative and entrepreneurialist market approaches, team cultures and a discourse of performativity. The Total Teacher has to ensure the raising of achievement by reaching targets based on external testing, support the institution in maintaining its market position and status, use team strategies and develop creative learners. This paper examines the life of the total professional who plays a major role in the development of the embracing institution

Using Social Network Analysis to Investigate the Relationship between School-Based Team Communication Networks and Implementation of Positive Behavior Support Systems

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between school-based team communication networks and implementation of school-wide reform efforts and initiatives, namely Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS). The study employed social network analysis (SNA) to determine if a relationship was present between the structure and properties of the team communication network and the level of implementation of PBIS, the position and properties of the PBIS leadership team and the level of implementation of PBIS implementation, and the quality of internal process for collaboration of the PBIS leadership team and PBIS implementation. It was predicted that schools in which teachers and staff have opportunities to communicate with their colleagues within and across teams have a network conducive to access of social capital and diffusion of innovation, supporting the school-wide implementation of reform efforts. Team network data were collected from eight elementary schools actively implementing PBIS and were analyzed at the network and ego-level using social network analyses. Network analyses were correlated with reports of PBIS implementation, as measured by the Self-Assessment Survey (SAS). Internal process for collaboration was assessed using the Teacher Collaboration Assessment Survey (TCAS) and correlated with the SAS. Moderate findings were present between network properties indicating the number of nodes, edges, and density of the network and PBIS implementation. A moderate relationship was also found between the degree centrality, betweenness centrality, and eigenvector centrality of the PBIS leadership team and the level of PBIS implementation. Statistically significant and strong correlations were reported for the quality of internal process for collaboration in PBIS leadership teams and PBIS implementation. The study concludes with a discussion of the implications of the findings for policy, professional practice, and future research on implementation of school-wide reform efforts, particularly from a social network and diffusion of innovations perspective

The Interdependence of Scientists in the Era of Team Science: An Exploratory Study Using Temporal Network Analysis

How is the rise in team science and the emergence of the research group as the fundamental unit of organization of science affecting scientists’ opportunities to collaborate? Are the majority of scientists becoming dependent on a select subset of their peers to organize the intergroup collaborations that are becoming the norm in science? This dissertation set out to explore the evolving nature of scientists’ interdependence in team-based research environments. The research was motivated by the desire to reconcile emerging views on the organization of scientific collaboration with the theoretical and methodological tendencies to think about and study scientists as autonomous actors who negotiate collaboration in a dyadic manner. Complex Adaptive Social Systems served as the framework for understanding the dynamics involved in the formation of collaborative relationships. Temporal network analysis at the mesoscopic level was used to study the collaboration dynamics of a specific research community, in this case the genomic research community emerging around GenBank, the international nucleotide sequence databank. The investigation into the dynamics of the mesoscopic layer of a scientific collaboration networked revealed the following—(1) there is a prominent half-life to collaborative relationships; (2) the half-life can be used to construct weighted decay networks for extracting the group structure influencing collaboration; (3) scientists across all levels of status are becoming increasingly interdependent, with the qualification that interdependence is highly asymmetrical, and (4) the group structure is increasingly influential on the collaborative interactions of scientists. The results from this study advance theoretical and empirical understanding of scientific collaboration in team-based research environments and methodological approaches to studying temporal networks at the mesoscopic level. The findings also have implications for policy researchers interested in the career cycles of scientists and the maintenance and building of scientific capacity in research areas of national interest

Leadership Development in a South African Health Service

The paper reports the outcomes of one module of a collaborative learning project aimed at the development of leadership capacity in district health management teams in the East Cape province of South Africa. A work-based learning methodology was selected for the module with the intention of developing strategic and procedural knowledge bases within these teams as a way of addressing the complex problems of policy implementation in South African state organisations. The paper demonstrates the effectiveness of collaborative work-based projects in developing team members' capacity to solve difficult workplace problems and to implement strategy in a challenging operational environment. It endorses the role of leadership coaching in the development of, and ability to leverage, important strategic knowledge resources that reside within and between team members. The paper concludes with an example that demonstrates the developing ability of team members to initiate successful collaboration around the resolution of complex service delivery problems

Professional Standards for School-Based Behavior Analysts

The Professional Standards for School-Based Behavior Analysts are intended to serve as an enhanced foundational layer for behavior analysts working specifically in the context of public school settings. These Professional Standards were developed by a team of behavior analysts with experience working in public schools and feedback was obtained from additional behavior analysts and other education professionals. There are five identified Professional Standard areas including: 1) Ethical & Professional Practice; 2) Collaboration; 3) Systems Capacity Building; 4) Instruction; and 5) Leadership & Policy