Bold resourcefulness: redefining employability and entrepreneurial learning

This two-year investigation into the provision and quality of professional development, employability and enterprise (e&e) learning in UAL’s curriculum aims to stimulate debate about how students are prepared for the workplace, the wider benefits of a creative education and the key issues for emerging graduates in a changing world. The findings will lead to improvements in the key areas of: student satisfaction and graduate employment and contribute to a University-wide employability strategy

An evaluation of the workbook for health trainers in prisons and the wider community: based on the Royal Institute of Public Health Level 2 award: understanding health improvement

Health trainers form part of a public policy initiative designed to tackle health inequalities. Health Trainers were first proposed in the White Paper ‘Choosing Health’ (2004) and initially some 1200 NHS accredited Health Trainers were placed in post, providing support in key Primary Care Trust areas with the most challenging health and deprivation indicators. The North West and East Midlands Health Trainer Hubs have developed initiative further within the Prison and National Probation Services with the production of a workbook to support prisoners in their attainment of the award. A team from Sheffield Hallam University were commissioned to conduct a brief consultation exercise to ensure that prison staff delivering the initiative, and prisoners who have completed the training in custody were given the opportunity to contribute to the design and content of the workbook

Teaching for High Standards: What Policymakers Need to Know and Be Able to Do

In this report, Ball and Darling-Hammond discuss the relationship between teacher knowledge and student performance; they summarize what the research suggest about what kinds of teacher education and professional development teachers need in order to learn how ot teach to high standards; and they describe what states are doing to provide these opportunities for teacher learning, and with what effects

A study of outsourcing and externalisation by libraries with additional reference to the museums and archives domains

This study provides an up-to-date view of the current experience of outsourcing and externalisation in the library and information domain, particularly higher education, public and special libraries, and its potential, together with an assessment of the effects of the external economic, political and technical pressures on service providers leading to change. Information has also been gathered from, and parallels drawn with, the other domains within Resource's remit, museums and archives, giving some indication of the context of, and scope for, cross-domain working. The practical issues arising have been documented, and a decision matrix, recommended for judging the potential within an organisation for outsourcing, produced. This study has also undertaken an assessment of potential suppliers and agents in the market place: their capabilities, readiness, interests and future plans to meet increasing demands for outsourcing

Smokers’ beliefs about the tobacco control potential of “a gene for smoking”: A focus group study

BACKGROUND: Several genetic variations associated with nicotine dependence and lung cancer exist. Translating this knowledge into tobacco control policy relies on smokers’ perceptions of the implications of the research. This study explored smokers’ beliefs about the tobacco control uses for research examining genomics, smoking, and addiction. METHOD: Smokers (N = 85) participated in one of thirteen focus groups and one interview, stratified by race (eight black, six white) and education (seven < Bachelor’s degree, seven ≥ Bachelor’s degree). Data were analyzed by two independent coders using standard analysis and validation techniques. RESULTS: Nearly all groups suggested using genetic information for youth-oriented tobacco prevention education. Beliefs about the effectiveness of such actions varied. Many participants believed that providing smokers personalized genetic testing results or informing them about the existence of a gene would not motivate people to quit. All smokers emphasized the need for improved smoking cessation treatment options. Using genomics research to develop gene therapies and personalized drug treatments were also mentioned, yet perceptions of such treatments were mixed. Whereas some participants viewed the possibility positively, others expressed concern about cost and access. Participants who were skeptical of the effectiveness of using genetic information for tobacco control noted that the harms of tobacco use are widely known and genetic information does not add much of a deterrent. CONCLUSION: Participants generated several possible tobacco control uses for genomics research findings. Our findings suggest that tobacco control experts should consult with smokers prior to implementing tobacco control measures. The potential public health benefits of genetics and genomics research related to tobacco use cannot be realized until communication strategies that are most likely to encourage and support tobacco avoidance decisions, and minimize mistrust and backlash, are identified

Patient satisfaction with hospital care and nurses in England:An observational study

ObjectivesTo inform healthcare workforce policy decisions by showing how patient perceptions of hospital care are associated with confidence in nurses and doctors, nurse staffing levels and hospital work environments.DesignCross-sectional surveys of 66 348 hospital patients and 2963 inpatient nurses.SettingPatients surveyed were discharged in 2010 from 161 National Health Service (NHS) trusts in England. Inpatient nurses were surveyed in 2010 in a sample of 46 hospitals in 31 of the same 161 trusts.ParticipantsThe 2010 NHS Survey of Inpatients obtained information from 50% of all patients discharged between June and August. The 2010 RN4CAST England Nurse Survey gathered information from inpatient medical and surgical nurses.Main outcome measuresPatient ratings of their hospital care, their confidence in nurses and doctors and other indicators of their satisfaction. Missed nursing care was treated as both an outcome measure and explanatory factor.ResultsPatients’ perceptions of care are significantly eroded by lack of confidence in either nurses or doctors, and by increases in missed nursing care. The average number of types of missed care was negatively related to six of the eight outcomes—ORs ranged from 0.78 (95% CI 0.68 to 0.90) for excellent care ratings to 0.86 (95% CI 0.77 to 0.95) for medications completely explained—positively associated with higher patient-to-nurse ratios (b=0.15, 95% CI 0.10 to 0.19), and negatively associated with better work environments (b=−0.26, 95% CI −0.48 to −0.04).ConclusionsPatients’ perceptions of hospital care are strongly associated with missed nursing care, which in turn is related to poor professional nurse (RN) staffing and poor hospital work environments. Improving RN staffing in NHS hospitals holds promise for enhancing patient satisfaction.</jats:sec

Nursing skill mix in European hospitals: cross-sectional study of the association with mortality, patient ratings, and quality of care

OBJECTIVES: To determine the association of hospital nursing skill mix with patient mortality, patient ratings of their care and indicators of quality of care. DESIGN: Cross-sectional patient discharge data, hospital characteristics and nurse and patient survey data were merged and analysed using generalised estimating equations (GEE) and logistic regression models. SETTING: Adult acute care hospitals in Belgium, England, Finland, Ireland, Spain and Switzerland. PARTICIPANTS: Survey data were collected from 13 077 nurses in 243 hospitals, and 18 828 patients in 182 of the same hospitals in the six countries. Discharge data were obtained for 275 519 surgical patients in 188 of these hospitals. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Patient mortality, patient ratings of care, care quality, patient safety, adverse events and nurse burnout and job dissatisfaction. RESULTS: Richer nurse skill mix (eg, every 10-point increase in the percentage of professional nurses among all nursing personnel) was associated with lower odds of mortality (OR=0.89), lower odds of low hospital ratings from patients (OR=0.90) and lower odds of reports of poor quality (OR=0.89), poor safety grades (OR=0.85) and other poor outcomes (0.80<OR<0.93), after adjusting for patient and hospital factors. Each 10 percentage point reduction in the proportion of professional nurses is associated with an 11% increase in the odds of death. In our hospital sample, there were an average of six caregivers for every 25 patients, four of whom were professional nurses. Substituting one nurse assistant for a professional nurse for every 25 patients is associated with a 21% increase in the odds of dying. CONCLUSIONS: A bedside care workforce with a greater proportion of professional nurses is associated with better outcomes for patients and nurses. Reducing nursing skill mix by adding nursing associates and other categories of assistive nursing personnel without professional nurse qualifications may contribute to preventable deaths, erode quality and safety of hospital care and contribute to hospital nurse shortages.European Union's Seventh Framework Program (223468), National Institute of Nursing Research, National Institutes of Health (NR014855), Spanish Ministry of Science and Technology.S

How riots spread between cities: introducing the police pathway

Waves of riots are politically and psychologically significant national events. The role of police perceptions and practices in spreading unrest between cities has been neglected in previous research, even though the police are significant actors in these events. We examined the role of police interventions in the spread of rioting to one English city in August 2011 by triangulating multiple data sources and analyzing police accounts and community-participant interviews. Rioting in other cities had relatively little direct influence in the community, but it led to heightened vigilance in the police. The resultant police mobilization inadvertently created a large gathering in a local community with a history of hostile relations with police. Police attempts to disperse the crowd affected many more people than those originally intending to riot, leading to collective conflict. These findings support a new theoretical account of the role of policing in riot spread. Complementing existing accounts of diffusion, our study helps explain how self-fulfilling prophecy can operate to spread conflict between cities