Stress, cognitive appraisal, and psychological health: testing instruments for health professionals

The job of health professionals, including nurses, is considered inherently stressful (Lee & Wang, 2002; Rutledge et al., 2009), and thus it is important to improve and develop specific measures that are sensitive to the demands that health professionals face. This study analysed the psychometric properties of three instruments that focus on the professional experiences of nurses in aspects related to occupational stress, cognitive appraisal, and mental health issues. The evaluation protocol included the Stress Questionnaire for Health Professionals (SQHP; Gomes, 2014), the Cognitive Appraisal Scale (CAS; Gomes, Faria, & Gonçalves, 2013), and the General Health Questionnaire-12 (GHQ-12; Goldberg, 1972). Validity and reliability issues were considered with statistical analysis (i.e. confirmatory factor analysis, convergent validity, and composite reliability) that revealed adequate values for all of the instruments, namely, a six-factor structure for the SQHP, a five-factor structure for the CAS, and a two-factor structure for the GHQ-12. In conclusion, this study proposes three consistent instruments that may be useful for analysing nurses’ adaptation to work contexts

Stress ocupacional e afrontamento em oficiais da polícia militar portuguesa

This study describes the professional experience of military police officers from the Portuguese Republican National Guard (N = 95). We focused on the main sources and consequences of stress and the coping strategies used to deal with stress. The evaluation protocol included one closed-ended question and four open-ended questions. Data analysis of meaningful text segments was conceptually based and data categorization followed deductive content analysis. Results allowed the identification of 483 meaning units. Factors intrinsic to the job and the relationships at work were the main stressors referred by participants. The consequences of stressors were evident at an individual level, affecting family, psychological, and physical/health domains. The coping strategies used to deal with the main source of stress in the professional career were focused on problem solving (e.g., active confrontation) and emotional regulation (e.g., situation acceptance). Practical implications and future avenues of research with these professionals are discussed.Este estudio analiza la experiencia profesional de agentes de la policía militar de la Guarda Nacional Republicana portuguesa (N = 95). Se centró en las principales fuentes y consecuencias del estrés, así como en las estrategias de afrontamiento. El protocolo de evaluación incluyó una pregunta cerrada y cuatro abiertas. Se realizó una categorización de datos atendiendo a un análisis de contenido deductivo. Las respuestas permitieron establecer 483 unidades de significado, a partir de las cuales se identificaron las principales quejas, relacionadas con factores intrínsecos al trabajo y a las relaciones interpersonales. Las consecuencias de estos problemas fueron evidentes en el plano individual (psicológicas y de salud física) y también afectaban a la familia. Las habilidades utilizadas para hacer frente a las principales fuentes de estrés estaban centradas en la resolución de problemas y el control emocional. Se discuten las implicaciones prácticas y las futuras vías de investigación con estos profesionales.Este estudo analisa a experiência profissional de agentes da polícia militar da Guarda Nacional Republicana Portuguesa (N=95). Centramo-nos nas principais fontes e consequências do stress assim como nas estratégias de afrontamento. O protocolo de avaliação incluiu uma pergunta fechada e quatro abertas. Realizou-se uma categorização de dados atendendo a uma análise de conteúdo dedutivo. As respostas permitiram a identificação de 483 unidades de significado, a partir das quais se identificaram as principais queixas. Estas estavam relacionadas com fatores intrínsecos ao trabalho e relações interpessoais. As consequências destes problemas foram evidentes no nível individual (psicológicas e saúde física) afetando também à família. As habilidades utilizadas para fazer frente às principais fontes de stress estavam centradas na resolução de problemas e o controle emocional. Discutem-se as implicações práticas e as futuras vias de pesquisa com estes profissionais.This study was conducted at Psychology Research Centre, University of Minho, and supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology and the Portuguese Ministry of Education and Science through national funds and when applicable co-financed by FEDER under the PT2020 Partnership Agreement (UID/PSI/01662/2013)

Low-latency privacy-enabled Context Distribution Architecture

As personal information and context sharing applications gain traction more attention is drawn to the associated privacy issues. These applications address privacy using an unsatisfactory {"}whitelist{"} approach [1] [2], similar to social networks {"}friends{"}. Some of them also link location publishing with user interaction which is also a form of privacy control - the user has to explicitly say where he is. There are a few automatic location based-services (LBS) that track the user [3], but without more adequate privacy protection mechanisms they enable even bigger threats to the user. On previous work, an XMPP-based Context Distribution Architecture was defined [4], more suitable for the distribution of frequently changing context than other systems because it is based on the publish-subscribe pattern. In this paper the authors present an extension to this architecture that allows for the introduction of a complex degree of access control in context distribution. The devised changes enable the system to consider a number of interesting context privacy settings [1] for context distribution control. Also, this control must be enforced in a way that it doesn't interfere with the real-time nature of the distribution process. After describing the enhancements to the architecture, a prototype of the system is presented. Finally, the delivery latency and additional processing introduced by the access control components is estimated by testing it against the existing system

Occupational stress in professionals of public security: a study with military agents of the Republican National Guard

Este trabalho analisa o “stress” ocupacional em 95 militares da Guarda Nacional Republicana Portuguesa. Para tal, utilizámos um protocolo de avaliação com medidas do “stress” global, “burnout”, “coping” proactivo, comprometimento organizacional, satisfação com a vida e satisfação/realização profissional. Os indicadores de fidelidade e validade dos instrumentos foram muito aceitáveis. Os resultados de “burnout” por dimensão apontaram níveis apreciáveis de exaustão emocional (12%), seguidos do cinismo (10%) e da baixa eficácia profissional (8%) (mas nenhum participante registou valores de “burnout” nas três dimensões, em simultâneo), observando-se também variáveis distintas na predição destas três áreas. A análise discriminante entre subgrupos da amostra permitiu verificar dois aspectos principais: i) menores níveis de comprometimento organizacional e maior utilização de “coping” proactivo nos militares mais novos e/ou inexperientes e ii) maior desejo de abandonar o emprego/trabalho bem como maior cinismo parecem identificar os profissionais mais velhos e/ou mais experientes. No final, os autores discutem a importância de a investigação futura analisar os efeitos da maior tendência para o cinismo com o aumento da idade dos participantes e os efeitos do menor comprometimento organizacional por parte dos mais novos em termos da sua eficácia profissional.This work analyzes occupational stress in 95 Portuguese military agents of the Republican National Guard. We applied an evaluation protocol with measures of global stress, burnout, proactive coping, organizational commitment, satisfaction with life, and professional satisfaction/accomplishment. The fidelity and validity results of the instruments were very acceptable. The results of burnout pointed out a remarkable level of emotional exhaustion (12%) followed by cynicism (10%) and low professional effectiveness (8%) (but we have not found any participant with burnout values in the three dimensions simultaneously), and different variables were observed in the prediction of those three areas. The discriminant analysis among subgroups allowed us to verify two main aspects: (a) lower levels of organizational commitment and more use of proactive coping in younger and/or inexperienced military agents and (b) higher desire to leave the job/profession and cynicism in older and/or more experienced professionals. At the end, the authors discuss the importance of future research to analyze the effects of a higher tendency to use cynicism as their age increase and the consequences of a lower organizational commitment in terms of professional efficacy of the younger agents

KPI tree - a hierarchical relationship structure of key performance indicators for value streams

Performance Measurement Systems (PMS) have been a potential answer to problems related to production systems monitoring, allowing the management and manipulation of data collected at various levels in organizations. PMS can be defined as a group of indicators in an information system. There are several types of PMS, however, the relationship between indicators in a PMS is still an issue that needs to be explored, as the KPIs in a production system are not independent and may have an intrinsic relationship. The purpose of this paper is to present a multilevel structure and its intrinsic structural relation for managing and analysing KPIs for a value stream production system. This hierarchical structure has different KPI levels such as Improvement KPIs, Monitoring KPIs, and Results KPIs or KPR (Key Performance Results), intrinsically related from the strategic levels to the operational levels. This provides a useful tool for the management of production systems, being used to analyse, and support the organization's continuous improvement processes.This Work was supported by the FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia, Portugal, within the Project Scope UIDB/00319/2020. C.J. has been supported by operation NORTE-06-3559-FSE-000226, funded by Norte Portugal Regional Operational Program (NORTE 2020), under the PORTUGAL 2020 Partnership Agreement, through the European Social Fund (ESF)

TVPulse: detecting TV highlights in Social Networks

Sharing live experiences in social networks is a growing trend. That includes posting comments and sentiments about TV programs. Automatic detection of messages with contents related to TV allows a numerous quantity of applications in the industry of entertainment information. This paper describes a system that is capable of detecting TV highlights in one of the most important social networks - Twitter. Combining Twitter’s messages and information from an Electronic Programming Guide (EPG) we built a model that matches tweets with TV programs with an accuracy over 80%. Our model required the construction of semantic profiles for the Portuguese language. These semantic profiles are used to identify the most representative tweets as highlights of a TV program. Far from finished, we intend to further develop our system to take advantage of external metadata in order to improve matching rates