An investigation of healthcare professionals’ experiences of training and using electronic prescribing systems: four literature reviews and two qualitative studies undertaken in the UK hospital context

Electronic prescribing (ePrescribing) is the process of ordering medicines electronically for a patient and has been associated with reduced medication errors and improved patient safety. However, these systems have also been associated with unintended adverse consequences. There is a lack of published research about users’ experiences of these systems in UK hospitals. The aim of this research was therefore to firstly describe the literature pertaining to the recent developments and persisting issues with ePrescribing and clinical decision support systems (CDS) (chapter 2). Two further systematic literature reviews (chapters 3 and 4) were then conducted to understand the unintended consequences of ePrescribing and clinical decision support (CDS) systems across both adult and paediatric patients. These revealed a taxonomy of factors, which have contributed to errors during use of these systems e.g., the screen layout, default settings and inappropriate drug-dosage support. The researcher then conducted a qualitative study (chapters 7-10) to explore users’ experiences of using and being trained to use ePrescribing systems. This study involved conducting semi-structured interviews and observations, which revealed key challenges facing users, including issues with using the ‘Medication List’ and how information was presented. Users experienced benefits and challenges when customising the system, including the screen display; however, the process was sometimes overly complex. Users also described the benefits and challenges associated with different forms of interruptive and passive CDS. Order sets, for instance, encouraged more efficient prescribing, yet users often found them difficult to find within the system. A lack of training resulted in users failing to use all features of the ePrescribing system and left some healthcare staff feeling underprepared for using the system in their role. A further literature review (chapter 5) was then performed to complement emerging themes relating to how users were trained to use ePrescribing systems, which were generated as part of a qualitative study. This review revealed the range of approaches used to train users and the need for further research in this area. The literature review and qualitative study-based findings led to a follow-on study (chapter 10), whereby the researcher conducted semi-structured interviews to examine how users were trained to use ePrescribing systems across four NHS Hospital Trusts. A range of approaches were used to train users; tailored training, using clinically specific scenarios or matching the user’s profession to that of the trainer were preferred over lectures and e-learning may offer an efficient way of training large numbers of staff. However, further research is needed to investigate this and whether alternative approaches such as the use of students as trainers could be useful. This programme of work revealed the importance of human factors and user involvement in the design and ongoing development of ePrescribing systems. Training also played a role in users’ experiences of using the system and hospitals should carefully consider the training approaches used. This thesis provides recommendations gathered from the literature and primary data collection that can help inform organisations, system developers and further research in this area

Quality Assessment for E-learning: a Benchmarking Approach (Third edition)

The primary purpose of this manual is to provide a set of benchmarks, quality criteria and notes for guidance against which e-learning programmes and their support systems may be judged. The manual should therefore be seen primarily as a reference tool for the assessment or review of e-learning programmes and the systems which support them. However, the manual should also prove to be useful to staff in institutions concerned with the design, development, teaching, assessment and support of e-learning programmes. It is hoped that course developers, teachers and other stakeholders will see the manual as a useful development and/or improvement tool for incorporation in their own institutional systems of monitoring, evaluation and enhancement

Towards an integrative framework of leadership development in the South African banking industry

A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa, in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa, in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)The thesis is a qualitative, multi-site case study of leadership development within the South African retail banking sector. It responds to the call for qualitative research to explore and give voice to the South African and other developing contexts within the predominantly Western-centric literature. It poses questions on the day-to-day organisational and lived realities of leadership and its development within this context. It is an enquiry of the forms and realities of aligning, designing and integrating leadership development, which leads to deliberation on the possibility of integrative frameworks. This follows from the thesis drawing together the reviews of the state of leadership and leadership development and how the thematic of alignment and integration is approached therein and within the human resource, management and organisational literature. Through this it develops an argument that the mainstream assumptions and programme-based approach to leadership development, including the remedial attempts to address this, do not provide the space to theoretically and empirically attend to, and engage with, the realities, complexities, contingencies and contestations at the individual, team, organisational, sector, national and global levels. The thesis explores this within the South African retail banking sector. This is done through qualitative interviews on, and thematic analysis of, the various mandates, purposes, funding and ways of configuring and managing leadership development within the banks’ Leadership Development Centres and the Banking Sector Education and Training Authority’s (BankSeta) International Executive Development Programme (IEDP) which is hosted at a local Business School. The thesis explores how leadership development is formalised, shaped, configured and managed as a function, purpose, programme and developmental process within the above sites, and how these are navigated, negotiated, enacted and embodied over time by the various stakeholders. It draws out the thematic of layered journeys; that is, the evolving and ongoing organisational, programmatic, pedagogic, personal and individualised journeys within the banks, BankSeta and the Business School. The journeys illustrate how leadership development evolves, opens up and differentiates over time at the different sites and levels as well as foregrounds the realities, complexities, contingencies and contestations therein. Through these journeys one appreciates the varied forms, perspectives, basis, sites, agency and spaces for designing and integrating leadership development and how these evolve, including how the standardisation, tailoring and customisation evolves. The deliberate, emergent, contingent and relational nature of designing and integrating, and the journey’s thematic, point to the limits of the mainstream assumptions and programme-based approach to leadership development. The thesis suggests a critical theoretical stance as an alternative as it provides space to critically attend to, engage with, and undertake the journey, task and process of aligning, designing, integrating and managing leadership development. It proposes ways to locate this task and process within the integrative theoretical models of leadership and the fields of instructional design, curriculum design and design of artefacts as well as the literature on the evolving human resources function, the identity work therein, and on space and place. It then suggests an organising model that can serve both as a guide for developing an open, modular platform and an analytical framework. In this way, the thesis contributes to the question and task of integrative frameworks of leadership development. Keywords: context, post-Apartheid, banking, leadership, leadership development, alignment, design, customisation, integration, pedagogy, journey, programme, function, centre, modular, platformGR201

Information Technology decision makers’ readiness for artificial intelligence governance in institutions of higher education in South Africa

Artificial intelligence (AI) can enhance the educational experience for academics and students. However, research has inadequately examined AI ethics and governance, particularly in the higher education sector of developing economies such as South Africa. AI governance ensures that envisioned AI benefits are realized while reducing AI risks. Against this backdrop of huge research deficit, the current study reports on a qualitative exploratory study that investigates the state of readiness for AI governance and AI governance maturity in South African higher education institutions. Informed by the combination of the TOE framework, the traditional IT governance model and the adapted IT governance maturity assessment model, semi-structured interviews were conducted with academic and ICT decision makers from two public and three private higher education institutions in South Africa to determine their insights on the state of readiness and maturity of AI governance. Results reveal high proliferation of AI elements in higher education information systems. However, results revealed low levels of AI governance readiness by higher education institutions. The study recommends for recognition of AI risks and taking lessons from AI regulatory frameworks advanced in developed countries

The impact of a customised management development programme on a selected organisation

Thesis (MTech (Business Administration))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2019This study assessed the impact of a customised management development programme on the senior staff in the Cape Town branch of a logistics organisation. The study analysed the staff’s development and determined the challenges that the senior staff and middle managers were facing after the organisation had gone through a number of management changes. The organisation was committed to creating a learning culture. Thus, the organisation had embarked on a clear strategic direction to enhance the leadership skills of the mid-level managers in the business. From an impact and cost-effectiveness point of view, the focus was on the middle management to start creating a learning culture in the organisation. To gather data, this qualitative study used a questionnaire with open-ended questions sent to the middle managers of the logistics organisation. This gave the researcher the opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of the phenomenon and to ask for clarification. The sample size used was 30 middle managers. The study found that the customisation of the management development programme aimed at the middle managers played a pivotal role in retaining staff and in increasing the performance of both the employees and the organisation. The findings showed the employees felt they could relate to operational goals and efficiencies much better after the focused intervention. The employees realised that they are an esteemed resource of the organisation, and that the success or failure of the organisation relies on the performance of the management staff of the organisation. Furthermore, in order to get employees to perform optimally and to improve their performance, they required the right tools, equipment and working environment

Partnerships for education, well-being and work : models of university service in the community

"This five month multi-perspective study, commissioned by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE), investigated the nature, forms and practices of three partnership enterprises between the University of Nottingham and its local schools and communities" -- page vii

A multidimensional framework for embedded academic skill development : transition pedagogy in social work

As a consequence of the widening participation agenda, student cohorts in Australian higher education are becoming increasingly diverse. While diversity is often characterised by a focus on culture or ethnicity, this variability also independently exists in regard to competence in academic skills (Dillon, 2007). Successfully developing discipline-specific academic skills is crucial to a student’s learning, progress and attainment in higher education. The growing recognition that students are entering Australian universities with varying levels of academic preparedness as a result of the widening participation agenda has made effective academic skill support even more important, since ‘access without a reasonable chance of success is an empty promise’ (International Associations of Universities, 2008, p. 1)