An enquiry into potential graduate entrepreneurship:is higher education turning off the pipeline of graduate entrepreneurs?

Purpose: In today’s global economy, high in talent but low in growth, the capability and skills mismatch between the output of universities and the demands of business has escalated to a worrying extent for graduates. Increasingly, university students are considering alternatives to a lifetime of employment, including their own start-up, and becoming an entrepreneur. The literature indicates a significant disconnect between the role and value of education and healthy enterprising economies, with many less-educated economies growing faster than more knowledgeable ones. Moreover, theory concerning the entrepreneurial pipeline and entrepreneurial ecosystems is applied to graduate entrepreneurial intentions and aspirations. Design/methodology/approach: Using on a large-scale online quantitative survey, this study explores graduate ‘entrepreneurial intention’ in the UK and France, taking into consideration personal, social and situational factors. The results point to a number of factors that contribute to entrepreneurial intention including social background, parental occupation, gender, subject of study, and nationality. The study furthers the understanding of and contributes to the extant literature on graduate entrepreneurship. It provides an original insight into a topical and contemporary issue, raising a number of research questions for future study.Findings: For too long, students have been educated to be employees, not entrepreneurs. The study points strongly to the fact that today’s students have both willingness and intention to become entrepreneurs. However, the range of pedagogical and curriculum content does not correspond with the ambition of those who wish to develop entrepreneurial skills. There is an urgent need for directors of higher education and pedagogues to rethink their education offer in order to create a generation of entrepreneurs for tomorrow’s business world. The challenge will be to integrate two key considerations: how to create a business idea and how to make it happen practically and theoretically. Clearly, change in the education product will necessitate change in the HE business model.Research limitations/implications: The data set collected was extensive (c3500), with a focus on France and the UK. More business, engineering and technology students completed the survey than others. Further research is being undertaken to look at other countries (and continents) to test the value of extrapolation of findings. Initial results parallel those described in this paper.Practical implications: Some things can be taught, others need nurturing. Entrepreneurship involves a complex set of processes which engender individual development, and are highly personalised. Higher Education Enterprise and Teaching and Learning Strategies need to be cognisant of this, and to develop innovative and appropriate curricula, including assessment, which reflects the importance of the process as much as that of the destination.Originality/value: This work builds on an extensive literature review coupled with original primary research. The authors originate from a variety of backgrounds and disciplines, and the result is a very challenging set of thoughts, comments and suggestions that are relevant to all higher education institutions, at policy, strategy and operational levels

Opinion, but no data, in support of Superthumb. (Reply by Maher et al to comment by Molnar P, and Laird R and Kent P, Australian Journal of Physiotherapy 48: ….)

We cannot agree with any of the points Molnar raises. The Superthumb web page explicitly states that the device reduces hand pain and fatigue (Superthumb 2002) so the writer misleads the readers of the Journal by stating that the information provided on Superthumb only refers to thumb pain and does not mention wrist or hand pain. We are disappointed that he has done this

Corpora for sentiment analysis of Arabic text in social media

Different Natural Language Processing (NLP) applications such as text categorization, machine translation, etc., need annotated corpora to check quality and performance. Similarly, sentiment analysis requires annotated corpora to test the performance of classifiers. Manual annotation performed by native speakers is used as a benchmark test to measure how accurate a classifier is. In this paper we summarise currently available Arabic corpora and describe work in progress to build, annotate, and use Arabic corpora consisting of Facebook (FB) posts. The distinctive nature of thesecorpora is that it is based on posts written in Dialectal Arabic (DA) not following specific grammatical or spelling standards. The corpora are annotated with five labels (positive, negative, dual, neutral, and spam). In addition to building the corpus, the paper illustrates how manual tagging can be used to extract opinionated words and phrases to be used in a lexicon-based classifier

Rotator cuff disorders: An updated survey of current (2023) UK physiotherapy practice

BackgroundClinical guidelines recommend treatment by a physiotherapist for people with shoulder pain due to rotator cuff disorder. Despite this recommendation, research evidence supporting the effectiveness of treatment by a physiotherapist is uncertain. While developing a randomised controlled trial to test the effectiveness of treatment by a physiotherapist for people with shoulder pain due to rotator cuff disorders we first aimed to understand current practice as a basis for defining usual care.MethodsAn online survey was developed based on a clinical vignette used in a previous survey exploring physiotherapy practice for people with shoulder pain due to rotator cuff disorder. UK-based physiotherapists were invited to complete the survey via X and email across professional networks.Results170 complete responses were received. 167 (98%) respondents would offer advice/education to patients with shoulder rotator cuff disorders; 146 (86%) would use isotonic exercise (including concentric/eccentric strengthening); 20 (12%) would offer a corticosteroid injection; 7 (4%) would use joint mobilisation. 168/169 (99%) would offer in-person assessment; 115 (68%) expect to deliver treatment over 3-4 sessions. 50% agreed there is uncertainty about the effectiveness of physiotherapy treatment for patients with shoulder rotator cuff disorders. 76% agreed that patients with this condition can recover without physiotherapy intervention. ConclusionsExercise and advice remain the most common treatments offered by physiotherapists for people with shoulder pain due to rotator cuff disorder. Corticosteroid injections are infrequently considered. Uncertainty about the effectiveness of treatment by a physiotherapist for shoulder pain due to rotator cuff disorder is evident.<br/

Current and future advances in practice: tendinopathies of the shoulder

Tendinopathies of the shoulder are a burdensome problem. Current treatments include exercise, physical therapies, corticosteroid injections, and surgery. However, the clinical outcomes from randomised controlled trials evaluating the effectiveness of these interventions are largely unremarkable. Given the apparent lack of progress in improving clinical outcomes for patients, it is appropriate to consider other avenues. Research has identified a link between lifestyle-related modifiable risk factors including smoking, overweight, physical inactivity, and the onset and persistence of tendinopathies of the shoulder. Further research is required to understand whether addressing these factors results in better clinical outcomes for patients. Teachable moments and shared decision-making are concepts that could enable clinicians to integrate the assessment and management of these lifestyle factors. Given these lifestyle factors also increase the risk of developing other common morbidities, including cardiovascular disease, an evolution of routine clinical care in this way could represent an important step forward

Effect of two behavioural 'nudging' interventions on management decisions for low back pain: A randomised vignette-based study in general practitioners

Objective €Nudges' are subtle cognitive cues thought to influence behaviour. We investigated whether embedding nudges in a general practitioner (GP) clinical decision support display can reduce low-value management decisions. Methods Australian GPs completed four clinical vignettes of patients with low back pain. Participants chose from three guideline-concordant and three guideline-discordant (low-value) management options for each vignette, on a computer screen. A 2×2 factorial design randomised participants to two possible nudge interventions: €partition display' nudge (low-value options presented horizontally, high-value options listed vertically) or €default option' nudge (high-value options presented as the default, low-value options presented only after clicking for more). The primary outcome was the proportion of scenarios where practitioners chose at least one of the low-value care options. Results 120 GPs (72% male, 28% female) completed the trial (n=480 vignettes). Participants using a conventional menu display without nudges chose at least one low-value care option in 42% of scenarios. Participants exposed to the default option nudge were 44% less likely to choose at least one low-value care option (OR 0.56, 95%CI 0.37 to 0.85; p=0.006) compared with those not exposed. The partition display nudge had no effect on choice of low-value care (OR 1.08, 95%CI 0.72 to 1.64; p=0.7). There was no interaction between the nudges (OR 0.94, 95% CI 0.41 to 2.15; p=0.89). Interpretation A default option nudge reduced the odds of choosing low-value options for low back pain in clinical vignettes. Embedding high value options as defaults in clinical decision support tools could improve quality of care. More research is needed into how nudges impact clinical decision-making in different contexts

Increasing patient engagement in healthcare service design: a qualitative evaluation of a co-design programme in New Zealand

The Health & Quality Safety Commission New Zealand commissioned Ko Awatea, an innovation and improvement centre, to deliver a co-design programme to nine teams of healthcare providers. The co-design programme was part of Partners in Care, a broader programme developed in 2012 to support and enable patient engagement and participation across the health and disability sector. In the current programme teams received training, guidance and mentorship in Experience Based Design (EBD) methodology through a one day masterclass, seven WebEx sessions, coaching calls, email and through the completion of workbooks. We evaluated the co-design programme to explore the experiences, challenges and solutions that participating teams encountered while engaging with patients in their projects. The evaluation involved seventeen semi-structured interviews with programme participants, including seven team members, five sponsors, four patients and the programme facilitator. A further two team members provided feedback in written form and eight of nine teams provided completed workbooks. Data from the interviews and workbooks was thematically analysed. Health professionals identified key challenges to patient engagement as capturing diverse experiences, clear communication of project details and the availability and health of the patient. Patients advised the importance of improved communication, planning in advance and providing feedback and assurance about the value of their contribution. There are several important considerations to secure and maintain patient engagement in co-design. These include tailored strategies for approaching patients and capturing their experiences, pre-existing relationships and continued rapport building between patients and health professionals, good communication throughout the project, planning, and visibility of outcomes

Increasing sustainability in co-design projects: A qualitative evaluation of a co-design programme in New Zealand

The Health Quality & Safety Commission New Zealand commissioned Ko Awatea, an innovation and improvement centre, to deliver a co-design programme to nine teams of healthcare providers. The co-design programme was part of Partners in Care, a broader programme developed in 2012 to support and enable patient engagement and participation across the health and disability sector. Teams received training, guidance and mentorship in Experience Based Design (EBD) methodology.1 We evaluated the co-design programme to explore barriers and facilitators to the sustainability of the co-design projects and the EBD approach. The evaluation involved seventeen semi-structured interviews with programme participants, including seven team members, five sponsors, four patients and the programme facilitator. A further two team members provided written feedback. Eight teams provided completed workbooks. Data from the interviews and workbooks was thematically analysed. Team members saw support from sponsors as important to increase visibility and successful completion of co-design projects, mitigate barriers, and to secure resources and buy-in from peers. Five of nine participating teams reported dissatisfaction with the support received. Communication and competing priorities were challenges to sponsor engagement. Sharing co-design skills with peers and alignment with organisational strategy were seen as important for sustainability. Teams identified lack of secured resources or staff time, and consumer or staff attrition as key barriers to sustainability. The conclusion: buy-in from sponsors and senior leaders, support from colleagues, user-friendliness of co-design tools, consumer and staff availability, alignment, and system or culture change were key factors that influenced project sustainability

Effectiveness of Surgery for Lumbar Spinal Stenosis : A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Peer reviewedPublisher PD