17 research outputs found
Sacriston: towards a deeper understanding of place
In this report, we summarise the results of a small research project undertaken by researchers at UCL in conjunction with the Durham Minersâ Association, to explore social and economic change in the former mining village of Sacriston, supported by UCL Grand Challenges
A four-year, systems-wide intervention promoting interprofessional collaboration
Background: A four-year action research study was conducted across the Australian Capital Territory health system to strengthen interprofessional collaboration (IPC) through multiple intervention activities.
Methods: We developed 272 substantial IPC intervention activities involving 2,407 face-to-face encounters with health system personnel. Staff attitudes toward IPC were
surveyed yearly using Heinemann et alâs Attitudes toward Health Care Teams and Parsell and Blighâs Readiness for Interprofessional Learning scales (RIPLS). At studyâs
end staff assessed whether project goals were achieved.
Results: Of the improvement projects, 76 exhibited progress, and 57 made considerable gains in IPC. Educational workshops and feedback sessions were well received and stimulated interprofessional activities. Over time staff scores on Heinemannâs Quality of Interprofessional Care subscale did not change significantly and scores on the Doctor Centrality subscale increased, contrary to predictions. Scores on the RIPLS subscales of Teamwork & Collaboration and Professional Identity did not alter. On average for the assessment items 33% of staff agreed that goals had been achieved, 10% disagreed, and 57% checked âneutralâ. There was most agreement that the study had resulted in increased sharing of knowledge between professions and improved quality of patient care, and least agreement that between-professional rivalries had lessened and communication and trust between professions improved.
Conclusions: Our longitudinal interventional study of IPC involving multiple activities supporting increased IPC achieved many project-specific goals, but improvements in
attitudes over time were not demonstrated and neutral assessments predominated, highlighting the difficulties faced by studies targeting change at the systems level and
over extended periods
A New Biology: A Modern Perspective on the Challenge of Closing the Gap between the Islands of Knowledge
This paper discusses the rebirth of the old quest for the principles of biology along the discourse line of machine-organism disanalogy and within the context of biocomputation from a modern perspective. It reviews some new attempts to revise the existing body of research and enhance it with new developments in some promising fields of mathematics and computation. The major challenge is that the latter are expected to also answer the need for a new framework, a new language and a new methodology capable of closing the existing gap between the different levels of complex system organization
Brexit and the everyday politics of emotion: methodological lessons from history
The 2016 European Union referendum campaign has been depicted as a battle between âheadsâ and âheartsâ, reason and emotion. Votersâ propensity to trust their feelings over expert knowledge has sparked debate about the future of democratic politics in what is increasingly believed to be an âage of emotionâ. In this article, we argue that we can learn from the ways that historians have approached the study of emotions and everyday politics to help us make sense of this present moment. Drawing on William Reddyâs concept of âemotional regimesâ, we analyse the position of emotion in qualitative, âeveryday narrativesâ about the 2016 European Union referendum. Using new evidence from the Mass Observation Archive, we argue that while reason and emotion are inextricable facets of political decision-making, citizens themselves understand the two processes as distinct and competing
It is time to talk about people: a human-centered healthcare system
Examining vulnerabilities within our current healthcare system we propose borrowing two tools from the fields of engineering and design: a) Reason's system approach [1] and b) User-centered design [2,3]. Both approaches are human-centered in that they consider common patterns of human behavior when analyzing systems to identify problems and generate solutions. This paper examines these two human-centered approaches in the context of healthcare. We argue that maintaining a human-centered orientation in clinical care, research, training, and governance is critical to the evolution of an effective and sustainable healthcare system
A folk theory of the EEC: popular Euroscepticism in the early 1980s
The 2016 EU Referendum has renewed the focus of historians and social scientists on Britainâs historical relationship with Europe as they aim to develop a better understanding of âthe road to Brexitâ. The development of Euroscepticism in Britain has often been approached from an elite perspective, with a focus on the conflicting ideas and arguments between politicians, political parties, and the media. This article builds on existing studies by focusing on popular attitudes to Europe during the early 1980s. We analyse responses to a âspecial directiveâ issued by the Mass Observation Project in the autumn of 1982 to mark the ten-year anniversary of Britain joining the European Economic Community (EEC). Reading this previously overlooked material for categories, storylines, and other cultural resources, we identify four key grievances MO panellists shared as common-sense evaluations of Britainâs membership of the EEC. We argue these grievances constituted a wider folk theory of Euroscepticism circulating in British society six years prior to Margaret Thatcherâs Bruges speech and subsequent debates about further integration in the early 1990s. In developing this argument, we contribute a better understanding of the content and origins of popular Euroscepticism in the 1980s
Unlikely friends? Oprah Winfrey and restorative justice
In recent years, restorative justice has surfaced as a new criminal justice practice in diverse parts of the world. Often, it appears that these practices have emerged in complete isolation from one another. This prompts us to question what it is that has allowed restorative justice to become an acceptable way of dealing with criminal justice issues, or in Foucault's terms, the âconditions of emergenceâ of restorative justice. This article explores one of numerous potential âconditions of emergenceâ of restorative justice â the discourses of the âtherapeuticâ, ârecoveryâ, âself-helpâ and âNew Ageâ movements. It aims to investigate the ways in which the taken-for-granted nature of these discourses have, in part, permitted restorative practices to become an approved way of âdoing justiceâ