A Developmental Perspective on College & Workplace Readiness

Reviews research on and identifies the physical, psychological, social, cognitive, and spiritual competencies high school graduates need to transition into college, the workplace, and adulthood. Includes strategies for meeting disadvantaged youths' needs

Management of health care workforce: Conceptualizing a structural model of human resource planning in healthcare in Slovenia

The healthcare system’s effectiveness depends mainly on healthcare workers’ knowledge, skills, and motivation, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic. Systematic planning of human resources is, therefore, an essential prerequisite for ensuring the sustainability and efficiency of the health care system. This article outlines a structural human resource planning model in health care and explores the complexities involved. A detailed analytical framework is proposed, drawing on various materials and evidence to outline the factors that influence human resource planning in health care. The in-depth analytical process employs an extensive literature review to provide greater credibility to research findings. It investigates numerous sources and materials, both in national and international contexts. The purpose of human resource planning initiatives in healthcare is to calculate the needed number of healthcare workers in the future based on past and current data and assumptions about future supply and demand trends. The research findings reveal this is a very challenging task, as there are typically many unknowns when planning for the future. In addition, planners often need more reliable data and systemic deficiencies. Furthermore, the study shows that unplanned and delayed solutions concerning human resource needs in healthcare can only alleviate problems. Still, they cannot replace effective strategic measures and timely structural changes within the healthcare ecosystem

The family practitioner family : the use of metaphor in understanding changes in primary health care organizations

Current UK health policy guidance locates primary care at the frontiers of health care modernization. New organizational structures have resulted in general practitioner (GP) practices being brought together in Primary Care Groups (PCGs) and Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) each serving a much larger population group than the traditional GP practice. These changes have been accompanied with a need to explore new ways of working and thinking. This paper draws upon the experiences of nurses and GPs participating in an evaluation of workforce planning issues in primary health care. It explores how practitioners working in PCGs across one geographical area were able to gain a better understanding of what these changes, to both the structure and process of practice, might involve. During this developmental process the respondents used ‘the family’ metaphor, as a form of ‘shorthand’ to orientate themselves to the new responsibilities, challenges and opportunities presented by these changes to primary health care. It was in the use of terms and constructs that were familiar to their ‘everyday life’ experiences that made taking the first tentative steps in the change process easier. This paper suggests that using metaphors may be a powerful tool for policy makers, practitioners,managers and for researchers as they seek to communicate a plan for change and in understanding what these changes might mean

Work relations and the multiple dimensions of the work-life boundary: Hairstyling at home

This article proposes a multidimensional approach to analysis of the work-life boundary and examines the affects of particular social and organizational relations on the preservation or porous-ness of different dimensions. In line with Nippert-Eng (1996), it is suggested that different dimensions of the boundary are reinforced or weakened by different social and organizational pressures. Analysis describes a specific type of multidimensional breaching – instances when work is taken outside of the worksite (spatial breaching) and is carried out outside of work-time (temporal breaching). Empirical research was conducted among hairstylists working in salons and barbershops in a city in the North of England. Because of the nature of the tasks involved in hairstyling – that the skills involved are widely exchangeable and so may be employed in extra-work environments and temporalities – hairstylists provide a nice site for investigating the circumstances when this does (or does not) occur. Data collection involved a comprehensive self-completion survey of salons and barbershops in the city (response rate: 40%; N=132) and semi-structured interviews with 70 stylists working in 52 salons or barbershops. Findings demonstrate that work relations (hairstylists’ structural relations of production – whether a worker is an owner-proprietor, chair-renter, on-commission stylist, basic-only stylist, or trainee) are critical in determining both workers’ ability and desire to resist the seepage of work into their social lives as well as the particular dimensions of the boundary that are breached. This is because work relations affect the relative importance of four identified motivations for taking work out of the salon (income production; training; inter-personal reciprocity rooted in social relations; and inter-personal reciprocity rooted in the workplace)

Integration of substance use disorder services with primary care: health center surveys and qualitative interviews.

BackgroundEach year, nearly 20 million Americans with alcohol or illicit drug dependence do not receive treatment. The Affordable Care Act and parity laws are expected to result in increased access to treatment through integration of substance use disorder (SUD) services with primary care. However, relatively little research exists on the integration of SUD services into primary care settings. Our goal was to assess SUD service integration in California primary care settings and to identify the practice and policy facilitators and barriers encountered by providers who have attempted to integrate these services.MethodsPrimary survey and qualitative interview data were collected from the population of federally qualified health centers (FQHCs) in five California counties known to be engaged in SUD integration efforts was surveyed. From among the organizations that responded to the survey (78% response rate), four were purposively sampled based on their level of integration. Interviews were conducted with management, staff, and patients (n=18) from these organizations to collect further qualitative information on the barriers and facilitators of integration.ResultsCompared to mental health services, there was a trend for SUD services to be less integrated with primary care, and SUD services were rated significantly less effective. The perceived difference in effectiveness appeared to be due to provider training. Policy suggestions included expanding the SUD workforce that can bill Medicaid, allowing same-day billing of two services, facilitating easier reimbursement for medications, developing the workforce, and increasing community SUD specialty care capacity.ConclusionsEfforts to integrate SUD services with primary care face significant barriers, many of which arise at the policy level and are addressable

Evaluating the impact of post-qualifying social work education.

Post-qualifying awards in social work are well established within the continuing professional development agenda for qualified social workers in the UK. The evaluation of education and training should be an integral part of this agenda because it is important to ensure that programmes continue to meet standards of delivery, are successful in meeting their aims and objectives and are making an impact on practice. However, there is limited amount of published work on the evaluation of post-qualifying social work education, with studies often focusing on programme delivery rather than on their impact on practice. This paper explores evaluative work within the current post-qualifying social work framework, and discusses the results of an evaluation of the Vulnerable Adults and Community Care Practice programme, a specialist post-qualifying social work education programme run by a UK university, as an example of an evaluation of the impact on practice. The results indicate positive evidence of impact on practice and demonstrate examples of how the programme has had a direct effect on individuals, teams, organisations and on people who use services

Unravelling Downsizing – What do we know about the Phenomenon?

This downsizing article represents a succinct review of the scholarly work of researchers studying the multifaceted downsizing phenomenon over the past 30 years. Since Cascio’s (1993) article “Downsizing: What do we know? What have we learned?”, the research has burgeoned across several countries. This paper examines what we have learned during the many years of scholarly enquiry. As such, the article is based upon an analysis of the downsizing literature and represents a summation of secondary sources. The research also provides an update on the latest downsizing developments.downsizing; strategy; workforce; literature review.

Conceptualizing a Trauma Informed Child Welfare System for Indian Country

The creation of trauma-informed systems that use evidence-based, culturally competent interventions for affected children and families is a priority in Indian Country because mounting evidence from adverse childhood experiences research with American Indians documents the incidence and prevalence of trauma. What is more, an emergent line of research documents secondary traumatic stress (STS) in the adult workforce, which reduces their ability to help affected children and families and contributes to workforce turnover. The development of a trauma-informed system entails evidence-based detection, treatment, and prevention mechanisms for children, families, and STS-affected social services professionals. With tribal child welfare systems as a starting point and also as a centerpiece for the development of companion, trauma-informed behavioral and mental health systems, we propose a conceptual framework for such work to guide innovative system designs. Although some aspects of such a system currently are in place in several Native American communities, to our knowledge the comprehensive design we describe is not fully developed and implemented anywhere. Adaptive leadership and evaluation-driven, organizational learning systems are practical necessities

Project knowledge into project practice: generational issues in the knowledge management process

This paper considers Learning and Knowledge Transfer within the project domain. Knowledge can be a tenuous and elusive concept, and is challenging to transfer within organizations and projects. This challenge is compounded when we consider generational differences in the project and the workplace. This paper looks at learning, and the transfer of that generated knowledge. A number of tools and frameworks have been considered, together with accumulated extant literature. These issues have been deliberated through the lens of different generational types, focusing on the issues and differences in knowledge engagement and absorption between Baby Boomers, Generation X, and Generation Y/Millennials. Generation Z/Centennials have also been included where appropriate. This is a significant issue in modern project and organizational structures. Some recommendations are offered to assist in effective knowledge transfer across generational types.Accepted manuscrip