Musculoskeletal Disorders in Healthcare Workers

Musculoskeletal Disorders (MSD) are one of the leading causes of disability in hospital nurses and nursing aids and is a high cost problem in the healthcare industry. Working in a complex environment of an acute medical floor where repetitive nature of patient handling, can lead to musculoskeletal injuries for healthcare workers. This is evidenced by work-related injuries in hospitals nearly doubling compared to private industry and hospitals are one of the most hazardous work environments in the country. Musculoskeletal injuries of healthcare workers are an ongoing problem which requires investigation due to high risk of reoccurrence. This is especially true when related to direct patient handling given the patient(s) health care demands, while the nursing staff works with limited resources, time constraints, frequent patient handling, repeated shifts as resource nurse(s), low staffing and lack of leadership. The purpose of this project is assessing one’s microsystem for MSD, with the lenses of a CNL systems analysist and advocacy for healthcare professional competency by facilitating a plan of action to implement changes to benefit nurses and lead them with EBP to lower injuries obtained in the health care industry

Poor care and the professional duty of the registered nurse

Concerns have been raised in recent years about standards of care in the UK. Notable failures have been identified in the care of vulnerable older adults. This article identifies and discusses some logical steps which might be taken to minimise the risk of individual and systemic care failure in settings for older adults. These steps include frank discussion about ageism to promote empowerment and respect for older people; ensuring robust policies are in place that support and encourage the reporting of poor care; and ensuring that registered practitioners are aware of their accountability for their actions and also their omissions should they witness poor care. In addition to reducing the risk of poor care, these steps could contribute to having a more confident, competent and empowered workforce

Hybrid Search: Effectively Combining Keywords and Semantic Searches

This paper describes hybrid search, a search method supporting both document and knowledge retrieval via the flexible combination of ontologybased search and keyword-based matching. Hybrid search smoothly copes with lack of semantic coverage of document content, which is one of the main limitations of current semantic search methods. In this paper we define hybrid search formally, discuss its compatibility with the current semantic trends and present a reference implementation: K-Search. We then show how the method outperforms both keyword-based search and pure semantic search in terms of precision and recall in a set of experiments performed on a collection of about 18.000 technical documents. Experiments carried out with professional users show that users understand the paradigm and consider it very powerful and reliable. K-Search has been ported to two applications released at Rolls-Royce plc for searching technical documentation about jet engines

Are we assessing students appropriately for the 21st century world in which they will live and work?

This presentation will explore the 21st century skills and capabilities that our students will need as they live and work in a world dominated by ubiquitous technology as well as increasing uncertainty and complexity. Our assessment practices will need to change; we cannot continue to give students static content-based assessment tasks that ignore the contextual consequences of working in a complex environment with many stakeholders. We will need to expand our repertoire of assessment tasks to include a more sophisticated use of virtual spaces that allow students to construct their responses with access to whatever resources are required to make a meaningful response to a meaningful problem. Students should be required to identify their decision making processes when proposing a solution to a real life problem and to identify all the stakeholders impacted by this response. Students will need to be provided with more authentic, meaningful tasks that will engage them in using the full range of capabilities they have developed during their learning. We will examine some of the implications of this new educational environment and reflect on our current assessment practices in relation to the requirements of this brave new world

Automatic Toll Collection Using OCR Technique

Toll Collection in India is a matter of concern as the toll checkpoints are hotbeds of corruption. The purpose of this project is to propose a technique where collection of tolls can be done electronically using image processing technique where we can detect the vehicle and thereby deduct the toll amount. Using this technique we can make an attempt to eradicate corruption from toll checkpoints in India. The current scenario is that the vehicle needs to slow down at the toll collection area in order to pay the amount which leads to traffic problem and sometimes the toll collector doesn�t collect the toll fee from the owner. So the proposed technique will maintain all the records of the toll collected as there is no physical cash involved in this technique

Industrial robot efficient trajectory generation without collision through the evolution of the optimal trajectory

[EN] An efficient algorithm is presented to obtain trajectories for industrial robots working in industrial environments. The procedure starts with the obtaining of an optimal time trajectory neglecting the presence of obstacles. When obstacles are considered, the initial trajectory (obtained by neglecting obstacles) will not be feasible and will have to evolve so that it can become a solution. In this paper, the way that it evolves until a new feasible collision-free trajectory is obtained considering the possible obstacles is described. This is a direct algorithm that works in a discrete space of trajectories, approaching the global solution as the discretization is refined. The solutions obtained are efficient trajectories near to the minimum time one and they meet the physical limitations of the robot (the maximum values of torque, power and jerk are considered for each actuator), avoid collisions, and take into account the constraint of energy consumed. Examples already published and new examples in real industrial environments have been solved to verify the working of the algorithm.This paper has been made possible thanks to support from the Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports through the Project for Research and Technological Development with ref. DPI2013-44227-R.Rubio Montoya, FJ.; Llopis Albert, C.; Valero Chuliá, FJ.; Suñer Martinez, JL. (2016). Industrial robot efficient trajectory generation without collision through the evolution of the optimal trajectory. Robotics and Autonomous Systems. 86:106-112. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.robot.2016.09.008S1061128

The Construct of Lifelong Learning Imbedded in a Nursing Clinical Course

This article lays out the design for incorporating a clinical project for students to research a clinical issue and evidence-based practice, along with one-on-one student simulation learning experiences in a final semester nursing clinical course. The project intended to introduce students to the concept of lifelong learning. The final semester course in the nursing program provided students the opportunity to synthesize knowledge and skills gained throughout the nursing program and demonstrate their learning through a self-directed research project and their individual performance in individual simulation learning experiences

Examining the accounts of oil spills crises in Nigeria through sensegiving and defensive behaviours

The file attached to this record is the author's final peer reviewed version. The Publisher's final version can be found by following the DOI link.Purpose: The paper examines how oil multinational companies (MNCs) in Nigeria framed accounts to dissociate themselves from causing oil spills. Design/methodology/approach: We utilised data from relevant corporate reports, external accounts and interviews, and used sensegiving with defensive behaviours theoretical framing to explore corporate narratives aimed at altering stakeholders’ perceptions. Findings: The corporations gave sense to their audience by invoking scapegoating blame avoidance narrative in attributing the cause of most oil spills in Nigeria to outsiders (sabotage), despite potentially misclassifying the sabotage-corrosion dichotomy. Corporate stance was reinforced through justifying narrative, which suggested that multi-stakeholders jointly determined the causes of oil spills, thus portraying corporate accounts as transparent, credible and objective. Practical implications: With compensation to oil spills’ victims only legally permitted for nonsabotage- induced spills alongside the burden of proof on the victims, the MNCs are incentivised to attribute most oil spills to sabotage. On policy implication, accountability would be best served when the MNCs are tasked both with the burden of proof and a responsibility to demonstrate their transparency in preventing oil spills, including those caused by sabotage. Research implications: The socio-political dynamics in an empirical setting affect corporate accounts and how those accounts appear persuasive, implying that such contextual factors merit consideration when evaluating corporate accounts. For example, despite contradictions in corporate accounts, corporate attribution of oil spills to external factors appeared persuasive due to the inherently complicated socio-political dynamics. Originality/value: Crisis situations generate multiple and competing perspectives, but sensegiving and defensive behaviours lenses enrich our understanding of how crisis-ridden companies frame narratives to alter stakeholders’ perceptions. Accounts-giving therefore partly satisfies accountability demands, and acts as sensegiving signals aimed at reframing/redefining existing perceptions

Examining the accounts of oil spills crises in Nigeria through sensegiving and defensive behaviours

Purpose: The paper examines how oil multinational companies (MNCs) in Nigeria framed accounts to dissociate themselves from causing oil spills. Design/methodology/approach: We utilised data from relevant corporate reports, external accounts and interviews, and used sensegiving with defensive behaviours theoretical framing to explore corporate narratives aimed at altering stakeholders’ perceptions. Findings: The corporations gave sense to their audience by invoking scapegoating blame avoidance narrative in attributing the cause of most oil spills in Nigeria to outsiders (sabotage), despite potentially misclassifying the sabotage-corrosion dichotomy. Corporate stance was reinforced through justifying narrative, which suggested that multi-stakeholders jointly determined the causes of oil spills, thus portraying corporate accounts as transparent, credible and objective. Practical implications: With compensation to oil spills’ victims only legally permitted for non-sabotage-induced spills alongside the burden of proof on the victims, the MNCs are incentivised to attribute most oil spills to sabotage. On policy implication, accountability would be best served when the MNCs are tasked both with the burden of proof and a responsibility to demonstrate their transparency in preventing oil spills, including those caused by sabotage. Research implications: The socio-political dynamics in an empirical setting affect corporate accounts and how those accounts appear persuasive, implying that such contextual factors merit consideration when evaluating corporate accounts. For example, despite contradictions in corporate accounts, corporate attribution of oil spills to external factors appeared persuasive due to the inherently complicated socio-political dynamics. Originality/value: Crisis situations generate multiple and competing perspectives, but sensegiving and defensive behaviours lenses enrich our understanding of how crisis-ridden companies frame narratives to alter stakeholders’ perceptions. Accounts-giving therefore partly satisfies accountability demands, and acts as sensegiving signals aimed at reframing/redefining existing perceptions