Work like a Doc: a comparison of regulations on residents' working hours in 14 high-income countries

Background: Medical residents work long, continuous hours. Working in conditions of extreme fatigue has adverse effects on the quality and safety of care, and on residents' quality of life. Many countries have attempted to regulate residents’ work hours. Objectives: We aimed to review residents’ work hours regulations in different countries with an emphasis on night shifts. Methods: Standardized qualitative data on residents’ working hours were collected with the assistance of experts from 14 high-income countries through a questionnaire. An international comparative analysis was performed. Results: All countries reviewed limit the weekly working hours; North-American countries limit to 60–80 h, European countries limit to 48 h. In most countries, residents work 24 or 26 consecutive hours, but the number of long overnight shifts varies, ranging from two to ten. Many European countries face difficulties in complying with the weekly hour limit and allow opt-out contracts to exceed it. Conclusions: In the countries analyzed, residents still work long hours. Attempts to limit the shift length or the weekly working hours resulted in modest improvements in residents’ quality of life with mixed effects on quality of care and residents’ education

The politics of popular initiatives The radical right in interwar Estonia

SIGLEAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre-DSC:DXN018396 / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreGBUnited Kingdo

FOORUM: Milline on Eesti ajalooteaduse tulevik?

Kui teemanumbri seitse artiklit võtsid tagasivaatavalt vaagida Eesti ajalooteaduse arengusuundi vii­ masel kahel kümnendil, siis siinse foorumi seitse lühiesseed heidavad vastukaaluks pilgu ettepoole, arutledes Eesti ajalooteaduse võimalike suundumuste üle järgmisel kahel aastakümnel. Ettepanek foo­ rumisse panustada sai tehtud teadlikult vaid nendele eri põlvkondade Eesti ajaloolastele – doktorandist emeriitprofessoriteni –, kes on mõnda aega tegutsenud või tegutsevad praegu välismaa ülikoolides. Selle valiku taga on lihtne soov pakkuda avaramat vaadet, n­ö kõrvalt pilku, mida teises ühiskonnas töötamine eelduspäraselt pakub. Ühtlasi võib valikut käsitada tunnismärgina sellest, et uuel sajandil on üha enam Eesti ajaloolasi leidnud rakendust nimekates ülikoolides üle ilma. Tänan siinkohal toi­ metuse nimel kõiki, kes leidsid võimaluse ettepanek vastu võtta. Mõtteliselt võib siinse foorumi siduda kahekümne aasta taguse katsetusega ajakirjas Vikerkaar, kus palusin kümmekonnal Eesti ajaloolasel arutleda lühiessee vormis küsimuse üle „Kuidas kirjutada Eesti ajalugu“.1 Jääb vaid loota, et hiljemalt 2040. aastal saab see mõtteline traditsioon uue järje

Eastern Partnership: bringing 'the political' back in

Drawing on Edkins’ (1999) interpretation of ‘politics’ and ‘the political’, this article conceptually rethinks the Eastern Partnership agenda. Part of the problem, as this article argues, is the EU’s failure to imagine a new social order, which would give a relational value to the Other, and become more accommodating of their diverse and different world: and not by way of disciplining it to the EU purported standards, but rather by way of aligning differences to a mutually agreeable ‘normal’. The article thus problematises power relations as a process of ‘othering’, in order to re-conceptualise them via the key notions of differentiation conceived as distinction rather than deviation, and normalisation, seen as the interplay between different normalities. The article argues for bringing ‘the political’ (Edkins 1999) back in as an opportunity for debate and legitimation of contesting social orders

A Turbulent political history and the legacy of state Socialism in the Baltic countries

This chapter provides a survey of the political, socio-economic and demographic development of the Baltic countries. It is meant to give readers a general understanding of the setting in which large urban housing estates were built from the 1960s to the 1980s. The chapter begins with an account of the history of the Baltic countries, including their emergence as independent nations, their incorporation into the USSR and their reappearance on the world map in 1991. The second section analyses the modernisation of the Baltic economies, the Soviet strategies for industrialisation and their impact on the housing sector. The Baltic region enjoyed somewhat higher living standards and exhibited greater openness to Western influences than other union republics, which made Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania attractive to economic migrants from other parts of the USSR. The analysis also shows that the Baltic countries experienced demographic modernisation earlier than other regions of the USSR. A high demand for labour is driven by Soviet strategies for economic development, and slow population growth in the host countries, particularly in Estonia and Latvia, contributed to the persistence of high levels of immigration throughout the post-war decades. Due to their large numbers, migrant workers significantly transformed the composition of the urban population in the Baltic countries. Through a combination of factors, including the housing allocation mechanism, immigrants gained privileged access to new accommodation, and they became over-represented in the housing estates. This development connects the future of the housing estates with the integration of immigrants who settled in the region during the Soviet era