Can a web-based community of practice be established and operated to lead falls prevention activity in residential care?

The aims of this study were to evaluate establishing and operating a web-based community of practice (CoP) to lead falls prevention in a residential aged care (RAC) setting. A mixed methods evaluation was conducted in two phases using a survey and transcripts from interactive electronic sources. Nurses and allied health staff (n = 20) with an interest in falls prevention representing 13 sites of an RAC organization participated. In Phase 1, the CoP was developed, and the establishment of its structure and composition was evaluated using determinants of success reported in the literature. In Phase 2, all participants interacted using the web, but frequency of engagement by any participant was low. Participatory barriers, including competing demands from other tasks and low levels of knowledge about information communication technology (ICT) applications, were identified by CoP members. A web-based CoP can be established and operated across multiple RAC sites if RAC management support dedicated time for web-based participation and staff are given web-based training

Working Together Toward Better Health Outcomes

Healthcare organizations and community-based organizations (CBOs) that provide human services are partnering in shared pursuit of better health outcomes. The Partnership for Healthy Outcomes – Nonprofit Finance Fund (NFF), the Center for Health Care Strategies (CHCS), and the Alliance for Strong Families and Communities (Alliance), with support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) – set out to capture and analyze the lessons emerging in this dynamic space. Information from more than 200 partnerships serving all 50 US states provide important lessons from, and for, partnerships that hope to improve access to care, address health inequities, and make progress on social issues like food, education, and housing

Integrating Students into Interdisciplinary Health and Health Disparities Research Teams

Major initiatives by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services as well as the World Health Organization have produced a large and compelling body of evidence on how to reduce health disparities, which entails having a clear understanding of how social factors shape health and healthcare outcomes. Specifically, there is a need for healthcare professionals to understand social determinants of health (e.g., low socioeconomic status, lack of health insurance, and poor education) and how these lead to disparities in health for people of minority racial and ethnic groups. Little is known about how students are developed as health disparities researchers or how their research experiences impact their views about addressing social determinants of health as a career goal. The purpose of this paper is to describe how health and human sciences students were integrated into three minority HIV prevention and testing projects using the lifelong learning for health professionals (LLHP) principles and activities framework, which entails a focus on: (a) education, (b) community, and (c) organization in the planning, development, implementation, and evaluation of interdisciplinary research

The Secret to Successful User Communities: An Analysis of Computer Associates’ User Groups

This paper provides the first large scale study that examines the impact of both individual- and group-specific factors on the benefits users obtain from their user communities. By empirically analysing 924 survey responses from individuals in 161 Computer Associates' user groups, this paper aims to identify the determinants of successful user communities. To measure success, the amount of time individual members save through having access to their user networks is used. As firms can significantly profit from successful user communities, this study proposes four key implications of the empirical results for the management of user communities

Reimagining WHO: Leadership and Action for a New Director-General

Three candidates to be the next WHO Director-General remain: Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, David Nabarro, and Sania Nishtar. The World Health Assembly’s ultimate choice will lead an Organization facing daunting internal and external challenges, from its own funding shortfalls to antimicrobial resistance and immense health inequities. The new Director-General must transform WHO into a 21st century institution guided by the right to health. Topping the incoming Director-General’s agenda will be a host of growing threats—risks to global health security, antimicrobial resistance, non-communicable diseases, and climate change—but also the transformative potential of the Sustainable Development Goals, including their universal health coverage target. Throughout, the next Director-General should emphasize equality, including through national health equity strategies and, more boldly still, advancing the Framework Convention on Global Health. Success in these areas will require a reinvigorated WHO, with sustainable financing, greater multi-sector engagement, enhanced accountability and transparency, and strengthened normative leadership. WHO must also evolves its governance to become far more welcoming of civil society and communities. To build the political support for these transformative changes, the Director-General will need to focus first on gaining political support. This entails improving accountability and transparency to gain member state trust, and enabling meaningful civil society participation in WHO’s governance and standing up for the right to health to gain civil society support. Ultimately, in the face of a global environment marked by heightened nationalism and xenophobia, member states must empower the next Director-General to enable WHO to be a bulwark for health and human rights, serving as an inspiring contra-example to today’s destructive politics, demonstrating that the community of nations are indeed stronger together

Exploring key determinants of virtual worlds \ud business success based on users' experience and\ud perception

Given the growth and popularity of virtual worlds, companies have a\ud strong interest in presenting themselves successfully in virtual worlds. We\ud designed an experimental study to identify the key determinants of virtual worlds\ud business success based on users’ experience and perception. The preliminary\ud results indicate that Starbucks, McDonalds, and Paris are the 3 most favorite sites.\ud Furthermore, 5 key determinants (entertainment, functionality, interactivity,\ud reality, and sociality) of business success in virtual worlds are identified in this\ud study. We conclude the practical and theoretical implications of the findings of\ud this study.\u

A new framework for the design and evaluation of a learning institution’s student engagement activities

In this article we explore the potential for attempts to encourage student engagement to be conceptualised as behaviour change activity, and specifically whether a new framework to guide such activity has potential value for the Higher Education (HE) sector. The Behaviour Change Wheel (BCW) (Michie, Susan, Maartje M van Stralen, and Robert West. 2011. “The Behaviour Change Wheel: A New Method for Characterising and Designing Behaviour Change Interventions.” Implementation Science : IS 6 (1): 42. doi:10.1186/1748-5908-6-42) is a framework for the systematic design and development of behaviour change interventions. It has yet to be applied to the domain of student engagement. This article explores its potential, by assessing whether the BCW comprehensively aligns with the state of student engagement as currently presented in the HE literature. This work achieves two things. It firstly allows a prima facie assessment of whether student engagement activity can be readily aligned with the BCW framework. It also highlights omissions and prevalence of activity types in the HE sector, compared with other sectors where behaviour change practice is being successfully applied

Assessing Communities of Practice in health policy : A conceptual framework as a first step towards empirical research

Peer reviewe

Making the Case and Getting Underway: A Funder Toolkit to Support Healthy People in Healthy Places

This toolkit was created as part of the Health Eating Active Living Convergence Partnership (www.convergencepartnership.org) to help funders create multi-field environmental change strategies to enhance healthy eating and active living

Determinants of aspirations [Wider Benefits of Learning Research Report No. 27]

Aspirations vary for different sections of the population both in terms of parents’ educational and occupational goals for their children and the ambitions of the young people themselves. In this report, we review the current research literature across a range of disciplines to set out these differences and consider how educational and career aspirations are formed and developed in response to different environments and circumstances. We also examine the extent to which aspirations are related to eventual outcomes and discuss the implications for current policies and practices. Research indicates that aspirations begin to be shaped early in a child’s life, but are modified by experience and the environment. Aspirations tend to decline as children mature, in response to their growing understanding of the world and what is possible, and to constraints imposed by previous choices and achievements. This decline is particularly marked for those facing multiple barriers. Girls, young people from minority ethnic groups and those from higher socio-economic backgrounds tend to hold higher aspirations than their counterparts. Parents from these groups also tend to have higher aspirations for their children. Conversely, socially disadvantaged groups such as teenage parents tend to have low aspirations for themselves and for their children. In general, those who have, or whose parents have, high aspirations have better outcomes, even when taking into account individual and family factors, but this is not a universal effect. For some groups, high aspirations do not lead to higher achievement. In particular, there is a gap between educational aspirations and achievement for young people from some minority ethnic groups and a gap between girls’ occupational aspirations and career attainment. Practical and attitudinal barriers to the formation of high aspirations are evident. Financial constraints may limit some groups’ access to opportunities and enabling resources such as computers and private tuition. Equally, some individuals are limited by earlier achievement and choices such as leaving school or becoming a parent at a young age. But attitudes are also important. Young people who believe they have the ability to achieve and who attribute their success to hard work, rather than luck or fate, tend to have higher aspirations than their peers. The early years of a child’s life are a key time in the formation and development of aspirations. During this time, parents may need support to overcome both attitudinal and practical barriers to high aspirations. Schools can play a part in maintaining and realising ambitions, and the support they provide becomes more important when family resources are limited. Later, young people need easy access to advice and guidance and the involvement of professionals or volunteers – for example in a mentoring role – when necessary. Involvement in positive activities may also provide important socialising experiences that encourage high aspirations