5,808 research outputs found

    An Exploration of the Suitability of Pharmacy Education in Saudi Arabia to Prepare Graduates to Meet Healthcare Needs: a Mixed-Methods Study

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    The key role of pharmacists within the health system, particularly in optimising safe, responsible and effective use of medicines, underpins the demand for a highly skilled and competent workforce. Therefore, developing the capacity of pharmacists to attain and maintain essential competencies relevant to the population’s health needs is required to ensure a high standard of patient care, thereby helping to improve patient and population health. In Saudi Arabia, little evidence exists regarding the assessment of national educational programmes’ structure and outcomes. Moreover, no national competency framework exists for pharmacists in any sector or stage of practice. In the absence of such core quality elements to inform pharmacy education assessment and development, the extent to which pharmacy schools in Saudi Arabia prepare competent pharmacists to address societal needs from pharmacy services is unclear. Therefore, this study aimed to explore the extent to which pharmacy education can prepare competent pharmacists to address the healthcare needs for pharmacy practice in Saudi Arabia. An exploratory sequential mixed methods research design was used to address the aim of this study in three phases: individual interviews and focus groups were employed with a purposively selected sample of pharmacy policy makers, pharmacists and the public to explore societal healthcare needs and the roles required of pharmacists to meet those needs; a national online survey of pharmacists and an online nominal group consensus method of pharmacy experts were used to identify competencies considered essential to develop a profession-wide national foundation level competency framework; and a case study in which curriculum mapping of two purposively selected Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD) curricula was used to assess the extent to which the current pharmacy programme in Saudi Arabia meets the identified competencies of the developed national competency framework. Based on qualitative and quantitative analyses of societal healthcare needs, pharmacists’ roles, core competencies and curricular contents within the local context of Saudi Arabia, findings showed that there is a mismatch between initial education and real practice needs and expectations. While the country’s current needs from pharmacists are to optimise health system capacity and increase access to primary care services and medicines expertise in community pharmacies, the study indicated local education is product-oriented with a focus of curricular content and experiential training opportunities in most schools on preparing future pharmacists for hospital pharmacy practice. The study also identified several gaps between current initial education programmes and the competencies required to practise the expected roles, suggesting that current initial education might not prepare the students sufficiently to provide the full range of quality pharmaceutical services as per the country’s pharmacy practice needs. The study provided a new understanding of graduates’ readiness to practise as per the country’s pharmacy practice needs, the quality of educational programmes and pharmacists' professional development opportunities in Saudi Arabia. Findings maybe used to inform the development of competency-based education and maximise graduates’ capacity to deliver and develop pharmaceutical services effectively to best meet societal healthcare needs in Saudi Arabia

    “Oh my god, how did I spend all that money?”: Lived experiences in two commodified fandom communities

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    This research explores the role of commodification in participation in celebrity-centric fandom communities, applying a leisure studies framework to understand the constraints fans face in their quest to participate and the negotiations they engage in to overcome these constraints. In fan studies scholarship, there is a propensity to focus on the ways fans oppose commodified industry structures; however, this ignores the many fans who happily participate within them. Using the fandoms for the pop star Taylor Swift and the television series Supernatural as case studies, this project uses a mixed-methodological approach to speak directly to fans via surveys and semistructured interviews to develop an understanding of fans’ lived experiences based on their own words. By focusing on celebrity-centric fandom communities rather than on the more frequently studied textual fandoms, this thesis turns to the role of the celebrity in fans’ ongoing desire to participate in commodified spaces. I argue that fans are motivated to continue spending money to participate within their chosen fandom when this form of participation is tied to the opportunity for engagement with the celebrity. While many fans seek community from their fandom participation, this research finds that for others, social ties are a secondary outcome of their overall desire for celebrity attention, which becomes a hobby in which they build a “leisure career” (Stebbins 2014). When fans successfully gain attention from their celebrity object of fandom, they gain status within their community, creating intra-fandom hierarchies based largely on financial resources and on freedom from structural constraints related to education, employment, and caring. Ultimately, this thesis argues that the broad neglect of celebrity fandom practices means we have overlooked the experiences of many fans, necessitating a much broader future scope for the field

    Making friends with failure in STS

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    Inclusive Intelligent Learning Management System Framework - Application of Data Science in Inclusive Education

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    Dissertation presented as the partial requirement for obtaining a Master's degree in Data Science and Advanced Analytics, specialization in Data ScienceBeing a disabled student the author faced higher education with a handicap which as experience studying during COVID 19 confinement periods matched the findings in recent research about the importance of digital accessibility through more e-learning intensive academic experiences. Narrative and systematic literature reviews enabled providing context in World Health Organization’s International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health, legal and standards framework and information technology and communication state-of-the art. Assessing Portuguese higher education institutions’ web sites alerted to the fact that only outlying institutions implemented near perfect, accessibility-wise, websites. Therefore a gap was identified in how accessible the Portuguese higher education websites are, the needs of all students, including those with disabilities, and even the accessibility minimum legal requirements for digital products and the services provided by public or publicly funded organizations. Having identified a problem in society and exploring the scientific base of knowledge for context and state of the art was a first stage in the Design Science Research methodology, to which followed development and validation cycles of an Inclusive Intelligent Learning Management System Framework. The framework blends various Data Science study fields contributions with accessibility guidelines compliant interface design and content upload accessibility compliance assessment. Validation was provided by a focus group whose inputs were considered for the version presented in this dissertation. Not being the purpose of the research to deliver a complete implementation of the framework and lacking consistent data to put all the modules interacting with each other, the most relevant modules were tested with open data as proof of concept. The rigor cycle of DSR started with the inclusion of the previous thesis on Atlântica University Institute Scientific Repository and is to be completed with the publication of this thesis and the already started PhD’s findings in relevant journals and conferences

    Performance-based practices and coeliac disease: an analysis of the lived experiences of employees in intellectual labour in the UK

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    Many contemporary organisations are alike in their prioritisation of and dependency on performance-based quantification practices that aim to boost profits through efficiency gains. But how do employees engaged in intellectual labour experience these organisational practices, which are typically rooted in numerically oriented discourses? To extend critical accounting management research investigating this question, this thesis analyses the experiences of employees living with coeliac disease, an autoimmune disease that is triggered by the protein gluten. This thesis reports empirical research conducted through an in-depth critical case study (Glynos and Howarth, 2007) of such performance practices and their effects on employees with coeliac disease. Adopting a three-tiered analytic approach that examines employee experiences (micro level), organisational practices (meso level) and wider policy context (macro level), the case study examines workplace practices relevant to employees with coeliac disease. I draw on the lived experiences of 17 employees in the United Kingdom, supplementing their oral accounts with references to secondary materials. The analysis is grounded in the post-Marxist discourse theory of Laclau and Mouffe, as well as in Glynos and Howarth’s Logics of Critical Explanation (LoCE). The thesis narrates the employees’ experiences of the workplace environment through their personal life stories. It also prompts further debate on performance evaluation processes and the emancipatory transformation that is required to humanise the workplace. The thesis makes an empirical contribution to critical management accounting literature on employees’ lived experiences with respect to performance measures, while also contributing to debates on methodology and post-Marxist theory. More specifically, the thesis expands the scope of the application of the LoCE to a new area— employees with coeliac disease— while critically assessing dominant trends in contemporary organisational practice. In its understanding of performance as a hegemonic practice, the thesis also contributes to the wider effort to integrate accounting practices into theories of society’s political nature

    Mitigating Greenwashing: The Role of Audit Committees and Internal Audits in ESG Reporting Assurance

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    Greenwashing refers to businesses making misleading ESG disclosures (Burbano, (2011). In response to rising expectations from regulators, investors, and the public, a growing number of businesses are under pressure to publish ESG reports. Financial losses, damaged brand reputation, and even corporate failure can result from greenwashing behaviour on the part of businesses if their ESG information is inaccurate. ESG reporting has been a significant area of development in corporate reporting over the last two decades with different names and scopes. However, ESG reporting assurance (hereafter ‘ESG assurance’) is a relatively new area of practice, and there is limited research and understanding of its effectiveness. Existing studies in this field have mainly focused on the external audit role in the assurance process. The aim of this study is to gain an understanding of how the audit committee and internal audit can assist the board in fulfilling its oversight role of mitigating greenwashing by ESG assurance, based on direct evidence from the assurance providers. To achieve this aim, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 47 participants from various countries, representing a diverse range of global perspectives. The interviews lasted an average of 60 minutes, were recorded and transcribed, and analysed using reflexive thematic analysis. Results suggest that competent audit committees should play an active and important role in ESG assurance. Internal audit is perceived to play an important role in ESG assurance. Respondents identified greenwashing as a real and significant risk to both businesses and the environment. They further emphasized that ESG reporting must be credible and well supported in order to gain investors' and the public's trust and meet their sustainability expectations. Results also showed that ESG reporting governance is poorly defined, limiting assurance, and that most boards lack ESG expertise and may underestimate the importance of ESG assurance. This study provides empirical contributions on ESG assurance to mitigate greenwashing through direct engagement with boards, audit committees and assurance professionals. It also offers a framework to help better understanding some of the causes and consequences of greenwashing. In addition, it provides recommendations to boards, audit committees, internal audit, researchers and other assurance providers confronted with multiple challenges in this rapidly evolving domain
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