The effect of incongruity on quality of health information systems : Bama, Nigeria PHC case study

Generally, organisations mobilise information from varying sources on which policies, plans, objectives and organisational management are predicated. indeed, everyone within organisation needs information to perform tasks, it is thus indispensable and its use so pervasive that a methodical approach for collection and processing is imperative. In health care organisations, involved with people and life, this is even of greater significance, in many instances allowable margin of error is narrow and can be devastating.Accurate and reliable information in clinical care for example cannot be compromised.On the other hand, adequate assessment of health services quality,effectiveness and efficiency depends on quality of information generated by the system, that is, accurate, relevant, timely, understandable and complete information. To achieve this, appropriate system design and operation is essential. Adoption of primary health care (PHC), in many developing countries in response to the Global 2000, necessitated establishment of chanisms for monitoring and evaluating effectiveness of services and programmes.Accordingly, in 1986 PHC was adopted in Nigeria, concomitantly, system monitoring and evaluation or the PHC Management Information System was effexted.The information system was envisaged to ameliorate the lack of reliable health information that has persisted since nception of modern health services in Nigeria. Findings in this and other studies indicate that existing health information systems have failed to provide accurate and reliable information, systems of data generation and processing are ineffective.The aim of this was to identify and understand factors that have contributed to the seemingly intractable and insalubrious information problem within the Nigerian health care system. It would be a herculean task for a lone researcher to undertake study of the entire health system, within resource and time limitations, data collection was therefore narrowed to the PHC level. Quality of the PHC management information system was assessed, with Bama Local Government as a case study. Focus was on understanding the information system's structure from a broad perspective to include, policies, objectives,established procedures; physical, material and human resources, in terms of their quality and quantity.Data collection was carried out using both qualitative and quantitative techniques. The structure, process and outcome models provided a framework for in-depth data collection, through observation, interview, review of records and administration of questionnaire, as well as for organisation and analysis of research data. The PHC MIS was followed through, from the village, health facility, local government, state and national levels.Study results suggest general ineffectiveness due to pervasive incongruity in the information system. In the first instance design of the MIS did not reflect information needs of community health workers and the community in general,who to the most part limited appreciation of the MIS structure, objectives to be achieved. Local and regional information need was not delineated, data collected had little relevance to local information needs, resource for systems operation was abysmal, skilled personnel and training provided severely inadequate.Consequently, data collection and processing was hampered, information produced often inaccurate, untimely, immense, irrelevant and unreliable. Data collected were neither analysed nor utilised. The information system was short of being integrated since 60% of functional units within the PHC department as well as related health organisations in the community ran parallel information systems.Research data point to serious incongruity in the organisation and management of the information system. Incongruity that resulted from factors within the organisation as well derived from events within the wider social environment, which however culminated in an effective and dysfunctional information system.Chapters one to three of the thesis deal with conceptual issues related to management information systems, organisational design and quality respectively. In chapter four methodological issues surrounding data collection were discussed. Empirical data and analysis are presented are presented in chapters five to seven. In chapter eight, an attempt was made to develop a model of organisational incongruity, applied to explicate research findings.Chapter nine focuses on measures toward establishment of an effective PHC information system in Nigeria, contributions of this study and suggestions for future research

Terrorists, Zombies, and Robots: The Political Unconscious, Thematics, and Affectual Structures of the Post-9/11 American Fear Narrative

This dissertation examines the post-9/11 American fear narrative across media and genre. First, it proposes the concepts of the fear narrative, the primary fear theme, and the secondary fear theme. Second, it proposes that the fear narrative has a long tradition in American culture, in which its themes have adapted and evolved in historically sedimented layers of development. Third, it proposes that American fear themes change depending on its historical context of production, its cultural regime, its genre, and the form of media in which it is expressed. To help uncover the political unconsciousness of the American fear narrative, it employs the methodology of Fredric Jameson’s three horizons of interpretation. At the first horizon, this methodology interprets a text by focusing on a formal contradiction in the narrative as a symbolic resolution to an irresolvable real-world contradiction. At the second horizon, this contradiction is re-interpreted as a social conflict between two different ideological positions in the text. At the third horizon, this is re-interpreted as a contradiction between sedimented layers of genres, and at this point the text can be interpreted as expressing both oppressive and Utopian ideological content. To analyze the post-9/11 American fear narrative, this study turns to a variety of genres in several media forms. First, it examines the genre of the 9/11 novel. Here, it is noted how fear narratives use the ten primary fear themes this study has identified to access their contradictions and that these narratives seem to have either ambiguous or hopeful endings. Second, it analyzes the zombie narrative, noting the role of five secondary fear themes that are more specific to this genre. Third, it examines the science fiction fear narrative to note how these texts after 9/11 often explored the secondary fear theme of the hybrid character, expressing an intertwining of anxiety and hope as cultures such as the East and West intermix after the terrorist attacks. This study notes an ongoing discourse among post-9/11 American fear narratives on how America as a Utopian project should move forward into the future

Global health

Human, animal and plant health is a field of work which offers opportunities for inter- and trans-disciplinary research. The whole topic bridges the natural and social sciences. Today, in a world of global environmental change it is widely recognized that human societies and their wellbeing depend on a sustainable equilibrium of ecosystem services and the possibility of cultural adaptation to global environmental change. The need to identify and quantify health risks related to global environmental change is now one of the most important challenges of humankind. Describing spatial (geographic, intra/inter-population) and temporal differences in health risks is an urgent task to understand societies’ vulnerabilities and priorities for interventions better. The Göttingen International Health Network (GIHN) is a research and teaching network in relation to this cross-cutting topic. The book provides a collection of articles which contribute to this issue of overriding importance and presents an overview of the GIHN launch event

Global health - a challenge for interdisciplinary research

Human, animal and plant health is a field of work which offers opportunities for inter- and trans-disciplinary research. The whole topic bridges the natural and social sciences. Today, in a world of global environmental change it is widely recognized that human societies and their wellbeing depend on a sustainable equilibrium of ecosystem services and the possibility of cultural adaptation to global environmental change. The need to identify and quantify health risks related to global environmental change is now one of the most important challenges of humankind. Describing spatial (geographic, intra/inter-population) and temporal differences in health risks is an urgent task to understand societies’ vulnerabilities and priorities for interventions better. The Göttingen International Health Network (GIHN) is a research and teaching network in relation to this cross-cutting topic. The book provides a collection of articles which contribute to this issue of overriding importance and presents an overview of the GIHN launch event

Impacts of climate change on fisheries and aquaculture

The 2015 Paris Climate Agreement recognizes the need for effective and progressive responses to the urgent threat of climate change, through mitigation and adaptation measures, while taking into account the particular vulnerabilities of food production systems. The inclusion of adaptation measures in the fisheries and aquaculture sector is currently hampered by a widespread lack of targeted analyses of the sector's vulnerabilities to climate change and associated risks, as well as the opportunities and responses available. This report provides the most up-to-date information on the disaggregated impacts of climate change for marine and inland fisheries, and aquaculture, in the context of poverty alleviation and the differential dependency of countries on fish and fishery resources. The work is based on model projections, data analyses, as well as national, regional and basin-scale expert assessments. The results indicate that climate change will lead to significant changes in the availability and trade of fish products, with potentially important geopolitical and economic consequences, especially for those countries most dependent on the sector

Friedrich Schiller\u27s play : a theory of human nature in the context of the eighteenth-century study of life.

Friedrich Schiller\u27s psychological theory of play, his hypothesis about human nature, is embedded in the Aesthetic Letters . Its trans-historical value owes much to the committed interest in life in the late Enlightenment, and the theory itself is an example of that period\u27s enthusiastic study of living organisms. It is within this context--of eighteenth-century natural history, natural philosophy and medicine--that the theory can be profitably evaluated. That it is also an example of the connection of the humanities of the time and the emerging life sciences suggests its usefulness as a paradigm today: as a general theory of human nature, it might serve as a bio-cultural ground for the humanities. In this dissertation, Schiller\u27s theory\u27s situation in several contemporary contexts is explored and its relevance to the contemporary humanities and biological sciences, asserted Chapter II presents Schiller\u27s theory of play. In hypothesizing a theory of species-specific drives, Schiller approached human nature as a unity. In us, the actions of two drives, the sense-drive and the form-drive, create a play-drive which, in relation to beauty, promotes full personal development. Chapter III reviews the activities of mid-eighteenth-century researchers whose attention was turned to the anomalies that defined life. From their work, Schiller drew ideas about nature and the human species. Chapter IV celebrates the identification of a program of life study, vitalism. Schiller\u27s mix of mechanical and organic metaphors, his drives and his history of play are based on its science. Chapter V presents the period\u27s vitalistic epistemology. In it, comparison, analogy and hypothesizing augment observation, experimentation and analysis. As a vitalist, Schiller combined Kant\u27s epistemology with Goethe\u27s scientific intuition. Chapter VI reviews Schiller\u27s German aesthetic heritage. Special focus is given to his text as an example of art, as an organic product, and to Schiller\u27s own life, as an example of the whole man in the process of development. The Epilogue notes current play research in biology and the humanities and suggests that Schiller\u27s play is an evolutionary mechanism, a structural and behavioral adaptation and, as such, a firm ground upon which to steady the humanities against aspects of its own relativism

Preacher\u27s Magazine Volume 65 Number 03

SUITABLE FOR FRAMING EDITORIAL ‘TIs the Season to Be Joyful, Randal E. Denny FEATURES Restored, James E. Copple with Eileen L. CoppleProphet Unawares, Elizabeth A. CuttingGlimpses, David W. Waltner Peter Remembers — Thirty Years Later, James W. Thompson SOCIAL CONCERN Back to the Beginning, Carol Wight-Oritton AIDS: The Challenge for Compassion, Carol Wight-Oritton Called for This Time, Richard F. Schubert The Answer to AIDS: Obedience, Tom Nees CHAPLAINCY A Reserve Chaplain— Right Place at the Right Time, David A. Tish The Ministry of Presence, Jack Nix PASTOR’S PERSONAL GROWTH The Dynamics of Ministerial Morality, Lyndon K. McDowell MINISTER’S MATE Listening to God — and Your Husband, Jill Briscoe THEOLOGY Freedom and Its Meaning in Ministry, J. Kenneth CriderJohn Wesley’s Defense of the Doctrine of Original Sin, Herbert McConigle CHRISTIAN EDUCATION Remembering the Elderly, J. Grant Swank, Jr. IDEA MART Picture This, Kenneth VogtHow to Fold Church Bulletins the Easy “Smyres Way,” Ron S. Smyres PASTOR’S PROFESSIONAL GROWTH Thin Skinned or Shock Resistant?, Raymond C. Kratzer HOLINESS A Tale of Two Dogmas, Doug Samples EVANGELISM Do We Believe People Are Lost?, Robert E. Coleman CHURCH ADMINISTRATION Servant Leadership for a Servant Community, LeBron Fairbanks FINANCE Church Employees or Independent Contractors? How John Wesley Handled Money, Charles Edward White WORSHIP Kerygmatic Worship, Barry E. Bryant PREACHING Send the Good Tidings On, Philip Bence We Can’t Hear You, Pastor, Rolland R. Reece Why Holiness Ministers Should Read Fosdick, Ron Adams WESLEYANA The Influence of Dutch Arminianism on the Theology of John Wesley, David Eaton CHURCH MUSIC Music, Martin Luther, and Today’s Church, Anna Marie Lockard ARK ROCKER With the Vanguard, A Sharp Pencil HELPFUL REGULARS Preacher’s Exchange, Book Reviews 52 WORSHIP AND PREACHING HELPS Sermon and Worship Service Outlines, Curtis Lewis, Jr.https://digitalcommons.olivet.edu/cotn_pm/1656/thumbnail.jp

Essays in Honour of Eamonn Cantwell

"This number of Yeats Annual collects the essays resulting from the University College Cork/ESB International Annual W. B. Yeats Lectures Series (2003-2008) by Roy Foster, Warwick Gould, John Kelly, Paul Muldoon, Bernard O’Donoghue and Helen Vendler. Those that were available in pamphlet form are now collectors’ items, but here is the complete series. These revised essays cover such themes as Yeats and the Refrain, Yeats as a Love Poet, Yeats, Ireland and Europe, the puzzles he created and solved with his art of poetic sequences, and his long and crucial interaction with the emerging T. S. Eliot. The series was inaugurated by a study of Yeats and his Books, which marked the gift to the Boole Library, Cork, of Dr Eamonn Cantwell’s collection of rare editions of books by Yeats (here catalogued by Crónán Ó Doibhlin). Many of the volume’s fifty-six plates offer images of artists’ designs and resulting first editions. This bibliographical theme is continued with Colin Smythe’s census of surviving copies of Yeats’s earliest separate publication, Mosada (1886) and a resultant piece by Warwick Gould on that dramatic poem’s source in the legend of the Phantom Ship. John Kelly reveals Yeats’s ghost-writing for Sarah Allgood; Geert Lernout discovers the source for Yeats’s ‘Tulka’, Günther Schmigalle unearths his surprising connexions with American communist colonists in Virginia, while Deirdre Toomey edits some new letters to the French anarchist, Auguste Hamon—all providing new annotation for standard editions. The volume is rounded with review essays by Colin McDowell (on A Vision, and Yeats, Hone and Berkeley), shorter reviews of current studies by Michael Edwards, Jad Adams and Deirdre Toomey, and obituaries of Jon Stallworthy (Nicolas Barker) and Katharine Worth (Richard Cave).

Essays in Honour of Eamonn Cantwell

"This number of Yeats Annual collects the essays resulting from the University College Cork/ESB International Annual W. B. Yeats Lectures Series (2003-2008) by Roy Foster, Warwick Gould, John Kelly, Paul Muldoon, Bernard O’Donoghue and Helen Vendler. Those that were available in pamphlet form are now collectors’ items, but here is the complete series. These revised essays cover such themes as Yeats and the Refrain, Yeats as a Love Poet, Yeats, Ireland and Europe, the puzzles he created and solved with his art of poetic sequences, and his long and crucial interaction with the emerging T. S. Eliot. The series was inaugurated by a study of Yeats and his Books, which marked the gift to the Boole Library, Cork, of Dr Eamonn Cantwell’s collection of rare editions of books by Yeats (here catalogued by Crónán Ó Doibhlin). Many of the volume’s fifty-six plates offer images of artists’ designs and resulting first editions. This bibliographical theme is continued with Colin Smythe’s census of surviving copies of Yeats’s earliest separate publication, Mosada (1886) and a resultant piece by Warwick Gould on that dramatic poem’s source in the legend of the Phantom Ship. John Kelly reveals Yeats’s ghost-writing for Sarah Allgood; Geert Lernout discovers the source for Yeats’s ‘Tulka’, Günther Schmigalle unearths his surprising connexions with American communist colonists in Virginia, while Deirdre Toomey edits some new letters to the French anarchist, Auguste Hamon—all providing new annotation for standard editions. The volume is rounded with review essays by Colin McDowell (on A Vision, and Yeats, Hone and Berkeley), shorter reviews of current studies by Michael Edwards, Jad Adams and Deirdre Toomey, and obituaries of Jon Stallworthy (Nicolas Barker) and Katharine Worth (Richard Cave).