New Hampshire Children in Need of Services: Impacts of 2011 Legislative Changes to CHINS

Using administrative data from state and local agencies and data from interviews with CHINS professionals, this brief provides an overview of participation in the Children in Need of Services (CHINS) program before and after the change in the law in September 2011 but before funding returned in 2013. Specifically, it examines changes in CHINS petitions filed, children served, and services provided to children and their families in the state. Authors Lisa Speropolous and Barbara Wauchope present the study as an example of the impact that state fiscal policy can have on the most vulnerable of New Hampshire’s populations

Theorising interprofessional pedagogic evaluation: framework for evaluating the impact of interprofessional CPD on practice change

This paper outlines the development of a conceptual framework to guide the evaluation of the impact of the pedagogy employed in continuing professional development for professionals in education, health and social care. The work is developed as part of the Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning: Interprofessional Learning across the Public Sector (CETL: IPPS) at the University of Southampton. The paper briefly outlines the field for pedagogic research and comments on the underpinning theories that have so far been used to guide research into interprofessional learning (IPL). It maps out the development of interprofessional CPD in its specific context as part of the CETL: IPPS with its links to a local authority undergoing service reorganisation and the role of the continuing professional development (CPD) in effecting change. It then brings together a theoretical framework with the potential toexplore, explain and evaluate the essential features of the model of pedagogy used in interprofessional CPD, in which professionals from education have for the first time been included alongside those from health and social care. The framework draws upon elements of situated learning theory, Activity Theory and Dreier’s work (2002, 1999) on trajectories of participation, particularly Personal Action Potency. By combining the resulting analytic framework with an adapted version of an established evaluation model, a theoretically-driven, practicable evaluation matrix is developed. The matrix has potential use in evaluating the impact of pedagogic input on practice change. The paper models a process for developing a conceptual framework to steer pedagogic evaluation. Such a process and the resulting matrix may be of use to other researchers who are similarly developing pedagogic evaluation

Implementing Care Aims in an integrated team

Care Aims is increasingly being used as a model of care within NHS services, particularly by allied health professionals. This article reports the findings of a pilot study exploring the impact of implementing Care Aims in an integrated community health team. It describes the main findings, and discusses the factors that appeared to impact on the implementation and use of the Care Aims approach in these teams. The model has been traditionally used in uni-professional teams rather than integrated teams. This case study suggests Care Aims has potential to support integrated team working. In this study, clinicians perceived Care Aims was a model that could improve care for patients, support professionals working together and support self-management. However, it is unclear whether it was Care Aims itself or the training and discussion that took place that enabled this team to develop and agree more consistent working practices. Similar to previous studies, this study has shown how team and professional culture can influence how team members work together and provide care in an integrated way. Team and professional cultures are also shown to influence how team members approach and embrace that change. As such, Care Aims may be more challenging to some staff groups to implement

Impact of the Fourth Industrial Revolution on the Health Sector: A Qualitative Study

Objectives: The Fourth Industrial Revolution is changing the way health is understood, transforming the methods of treatment and diagnosis as well as the relationship between health professionals and patients and altering the management and organization of health systems. The main objective of this study was to explore the impact that the Fourth Industrial Revolution is having on the health sector. Methods: Conducting interviews consisting of four questions with 10 professionals who had experience working in the health sector to gain their insights and to obtain information to meet the general objective of the study as well as its specific objectives. Results: From the analysis of the respondents’ responses, it was possible to create five dimensions developed by the topics most addressed by respondents, namely, impact on healthcare efficiency and effectiveness, impact on government action, impact on human resources, impact on health system organization, and financial impact on the health sector. Conclusions: Although the Fourth Industrial Revolution is still at an early stage, it has been concluded that it is having a major positive impact on the health sector. For the effective and efficient implementation of these disruptive technologies, a global interaction between governments, health professionals, stakeholders, and society is essential to make this change possible.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Alternative Narratives of Dementia: Healthcare Professionals Witnessing Blogs from People Living with Dementia

Background: People with dementia are increasingly becoming involved in advocacy to seek change in the ways that dementia is understood by individuals, organisations, and society. A growing number of studies have explored the experiences and motivations of people with dementia who advocate, however they have not explored the impact of advocacy within a healthcare context. Aims: The aims were to explore the personal blogs of people with dementia who advocate, and to investigate the impact of these blogs on healthcare professionals who work alongside people with dementia. Methods: Two people with dementia and four healthcare professionals took part. The narrative practice of outsider witnessing was used to connect the blog entries of each person with dementia to two healthcare professionals. Following this group meeting, healthcare professionals were also interviewed individually. A Dialogical Narrative Analysis was used to explore blog posts and the narratives that were elicited from healthcare professionals pertaining to the impact of these blog posts. Analysis: Blog posts suggested that being diagnosed with dementia could initially be associated with loss. However, they also suggested that through a process of psychological acceptance and adaptation to symptoms, it was possible to continue living a full and meaningful life with dementia. Healthcare professionals reported that hearing blog entries from people with dementia enabled them to develop a greater insight into the experience of dementia, challenged their preconceived ideas about dementia, and incentivised them to change their practice. Conclusions: The findings provided initial support for the value of including advocacy by people with dementia (through their blog entries) into approaches to training and educating healthcare professionals. However, the effects of advocacy need to be explored further by studies which employ more rigorous methodologies. Moreover, there is a need for healthcare professionals and training providers to be open and receptive to involving people with dementia in service delivery

Artificial intelligence in communication management : a cross-national study on adoption and knowledge, impact, challenges and risks

Purpose Artificial intelligence (AI) might change the communication profession immensely, but the academic discourse is lacking an investigation of the perspective of practitioners on this. This article addresses this research gap. It offers a literature overview and reports about an empirical study on AI in communications, presenting first insights on how professionals in the field assess the technology. Design/methodology/approach A quantitative cross-national study among 2,689 European communication practitioners investigated four research questions: RQ1 – How much do professionals know about AI and to what extent are they already using AI technologies in their everyday lives? RQ2 – How do professionals rate the impact of AI on communication management? RQ3 – Which challenges do professionals identify for implementing AI in communication management? RQ4 – Which risks do they perceive? Findings Communication professionals revealed a limited understanding of AI and expected the technology to impact the profession as a whole more than the way their organisations or themselves work. Lack of individual competencies and organisations struggling with different levels of competency and unclear responsibilities were identified as key challenges and risks. Research limitations/implications The results highlight the need for communication managers to educate themselves and their teams about the technology and to identify the implementation of AI as a leadership issue. Originality/value The article offers the first cross-national quantitative study on AI in communication management. It presents valuable empirical insights on a trending topic in the discipline, highly relevant for both academics and practitioners

No future in archaeological heritage management?

Although the future is mentioned frequently in overarching aims and visions, and it is a major drive in the daily work of archaeological heritage managers and indeed heritage professionals more generally, it remains unclear precisely how an overall commitment to the future can best inform specific heritage practices. It seems that most archaeologists and other heritage professionals cannot easily express how they conceive of the future they work for, and how their work will impact on that future. The future tends to remain implicit in daily practice which operates in a continuing, rolling present. The authors argue that this needs to change because present-day heritage management may be much less beneficial for the future than we commonly expect

The influence of digitalisation on the role of quality professionals and their practices

Studies suggest that quality management professionals need a range of skills to simultaneously exploit current operational models and explore digital transformation. However, there is limited research on the impact of digitalisation on improvement work, associated practices and the skills and competencies of quality management professionals. To contribute to this gap, this study draws on a framework based on a conceptual combination of the principles of quality management and the field of occupational competence. The study aims to understand how digitalisation influences the role of quality management professionals, by assessing its influence on the professionals’ improvement practices. The study employs a multiple cross-case research design with data from interviews with nine interviewees, and two focus groups. The results show a so far nascent and limited influence of digitalisation on improvement practices, a need for explorative and team-based practices. Moreover, nine needed skills areas to enhance the professionals’ potential to benefit from digitalisation in improvement work are suggested. These are Integrator, Pragmatic approach based on a good understanding of possibilities, Change management, Process management, General project management, Improvement analysis, Predictive and proactive approach in QM, General IT and Big data proficiency