Foundation Year 2 doctors’ reasons for leaving UK medicine : an in-depth analysis of decision-making using semistructured interviews

This work was funded by a Scottish Medical Education Research Consortium grant.Objectives:  To explore the reasons that doctors choose to leave UK medicine after their foundation year two posts. Setting : All four regions of Scotland. Participants:  Foundation year two doctors (F2s) working throughout Scotland who were considering leaving UK medicine after foundation training were recruited on a volunteer basis. Maximum variation between participants was sought. Primary and secondary outcome measures:  Semistructured interviews were coded using template analysis. Six perspectives, described by Feldman and Ng, were used as the initial coding template. The codes were then configured to form a framework that explores the interplay of factors influencing Foundation Year 2 (F2) doctors’ decisions to leave UK medicine. Results:  Seventeen participants were interviewed. Six perspectives were explored. Structural influences (countrywide and worldwide issues) included visas, economic and political considerations, structure of healthcare systems and availability of junior doctor jobs worldwide. Organisational influences (the National Health Service (NHS) and other healthcare providers) included staffing and compensation policies, the working environment and the learning environment. Occupational influences (specific to being a junior doctor) comprised the junior doctor contract, role and workload, pursuit of career interests and the structure of training. Work group influences (relationships with colleagues) included support at work, task interdependence and use of locums. Personal life influences consisted of work-life balance, and support in resolving work-life conflict. The underlying theme of ‘taking a break’ recurred through multiple narratives. Conclusions:  F2s give reasons similar to those given by any professional considering a change in their job. However, working within the NHS as an F2 doctor brought specific challenges, such as a need to make a choice of specialty within the F2 year, exposure to workplace bullying and difficulties in raising concerns. Despite these challenges, most F2s did not view their decision to leave as a permanent job change, but as a temporary break from their current working lives.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Foundation Year 2 doctors' reasons for leaving UK medicine:an in-depth analysis of decision-making using semistructured interviews

Objectives To explore the reasons that doctors choose to leave UK medicine after their foundation year two posts. Setting All four regions of Scotland. Participants Foundation year two doctors (F2s) working throughout Scotland who were considering leaving UK medicine after foundation training were recruited on a volunteer basis. Maximum variation between participants was sought. Primary and secondary outcome measures Semistructured interviews were coded using template analysis. Six perspectives, described by Feldman and Ng, were used as the initial coding template. The codes were then configured to form a framework that explores the interplay of factors influencing Foundation Year 2 (F2) doctors' decisions to leave UK medicine. Results Seventeen participants were interviewed. Six perspectives were explored. Structural influences (countrywide and worldwide issues) included visas, economic and political considerations, structure of healthcare systems and availability of junior doctor jobs worldwide. Organisational influences (the National Health Service (NHS) and other healthcare providers) included staffing and compensation policies, the working environment and the learning environment. Occupational influences (specific to being a junior doctor) comprised the junior doctor contract, role and workload, pursuit of career interests and the structure of training. Work group influences (relationships with colleagues) included support at work, task interdependence and use of locums. Personal life influences consisted of work-life balance, and support in resolving work-life conflict. The underlying theme of € taking a break' recurred through multiple narratives. Conclusions F2s give reasons similar to those given by any professional considering a change in their job. However, working within the NHS as an F2 doctor brought specific challenges, such as a need to make a choice of specialty within the F2 year, exposure to workplace bullying and difficulties in raising concerns. Despite these challenges, most F2s did not view their decision to leave as a permanent job change, but as a temporary break from their current working lives.</p

Coupling carbon allocation with leaf and root phenology predicts tree-grass partitioning along a savanna rainfall gradient

The relative complexity of the mechanisms underlying savanna ecosystem dynamics, in comparison to other biomes such as temperate and tropical forests, challenges the representation of such dynamics in ecosystem and Earth system models. A realistic representation of processes governing carbon allocation and phenology for the two defining elements of savanna vegetation (namely trees and grasses) may be a key to understanding variations in tree–grass partitioning in time and space across the savanna biome worldwide. Here we present a new approach for modelling coupled phenology and carbon allocation, applied to competing tree and grass plant functional types. The approach accounts for a temporal shift between assimilation and growth, mediated by a labile carbohydrate store. This is combined with a method to maximize long-term net primary production (NPP) by optimally partitioning plant growth between fine roots and (leaves + stem). The computational efficiency of the analytic method used here allows it to be uniquely and readily applied at regional scale, as required, for example, within the framework of a global biogeochemical model. We demonstrate the approach by encoding it in a new simple carbon–water cycle model that we call HAVANA (Hydrology and Vegetation-dynamics Algorithm for Northern Australia), coupled to the existing POP (Population Orders Physiology) model for tree demography and disturbance-mediated heterogeneity. HAVANA-POP is calibrated using monthly remotely sensed fraction of absorbed photosynthetically active radiation (fPAR) and eddy-covariance-based estimates of carbon and water fluxes at five tower sites along the North Australian Tropical Transect (NATT), which is characterized by large gradients in rainfall and wildfire disturbance. The calibrated model replicates observed gradients of fPAR, tree leaf area index, basal area, and foliage projective cover along the NATT. The model behaviour emerges from complex feedbacks between the plant physiology and vegetation dynamics, mediated by shifting above- versus below-ground resources, and not from imposed hypotheses about the controls on tree–grass co-existence. Results support the hypothesis that resource limitation is a stronger determinant of tree cover than disturbance in Australian savannas.The contributions of V. Haverd and P. Briggs were made possible by the support of the Australian Climate Change Science Program. B. Smith acknowledges funding as an OCE Distinguished Visiting Scientist to the CSIRO Oceans & Atmosphere Flagship, Canberr

Assessing School and Student Predictors of Weapons Reporting

School violence and weapons at school are a major concern for community members, school administrators, and policy makers. This research examines both student-level and school-level variables that predict middle school students’ willingness to report a weapon at school under several reporting conditions. Results substantiate previous analyses of these data that student-level variables explain students’ willingness to report a weapon but extend these findings to include school climate variables that affect willingness to report (i.e., collective identity and conflict). School climate variables were also shown to influence reporting under conditions in which there would be consequences for the weapons-carrying student or for the reporting student; however, school climate was not found to influence anonymous reporting conditions. Although policies aimed at improving school climate may increase a student’s willingness to report and are important in their own right, improving a school’s climate may be a daunting task. This research, therefore, suggests that the most efficient way to encourage weapons reporting is to provide students with an anonymous way to report

A spatial approach to combatting wildlife crime

Poaching can have devastating impacts on animal and plant numbers, and in many countries has reached crisis levels, with illegal hunters employing increasingly sophisticated techniques. We used data from an 8‐year study in Savé Valley Conservancy, Zimbabwe, to show how geographic profiling—a mathematical technique originally developed in criminology and recently applied to animal foraging and epidemiology—can be adapted for use in investigations of wildlife crime. The data set contained information on over 10,000 incidents of illegal hunting and the deaths of 6,454 wild animals. We used a subset of data for which the illegal hunters’ identities were known. Our model identified the illegal hunters’ home villages based on the spatial locations of the hunting incidences (e.g., snares). Identification of the villages was improved by manipulating the probability surface inside the conservancy to reflect the fact that although the illegal hunters mostly live outside the conservancy, the majority of hunting occurs inside the conservancy (in criminology terms, commuter crime). These results combined with rigorous simulations showed for the first time how geographic profiling can be combined with GIS data and applied to situations with more complex spatial patterns, for example, where landscape heterogeneity means some parts of the study area are less likely to be used (e.g., aquatic areas for terrestrial animals) or where landscape permeability differs (e.g., forest bats tend not to fly over open areas). More broadly, these results show how geographic profiling can be used to target antipoaching interventions more effectively and more efficiently and to develop management strategies and conservation plans in a range of conservation scenarios.TRAFFIC Southern and East Africa, the European Union, Wilderness Trust, Chicago Board of Trade, and the African Wildlife Conservation Fund.http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1111/(ISSN)1523-17392019-06-01hj2018Mammal Research InstituteZoology and Entomolog

Strength in diversity: enhancing learning in vocationally-orientated, master's level courses

Postgraduate education in geography, especially at the Master’s level, is undergoing significant changes in the developed world. There is an expansion of vocationally-oriented degree programmes, increasing recruitment of international students, integration of work place skills, and the engagement of non-traditional postgraduate students as departments respond to policies for a more ‘inclusive’ higher education. This paper sets the context by outlining some programmatic changes in selected countries (Australia, the UK, and the USA). We briefly reflect on how postgraduate ‘bars’ or ‘levels’ are defined and explore in detail what ‘diversity’ or ‘heterogeneity’ means in these new postgraduate settings. The paper then explores some examples of practice drawn from our own experiences, whilst recognising that relevance will vary in other contexts. Finally we consider how diversity can be harnessed as a strength that has potential to enhance taught elements of contemporary postgraduate education in and beyond the discipline

A scale-dependent model to represent changing aerodynamic roughness of ablating glacier ice based on repeat topographic surveys

Turbulent fluxes make a substantial and growing contribution to the energy balance of ice surfaces globally, but are poorly constrained owing to challenges in estimating the aerodynamic roughness length (z0). Here, we used structure from motion (SfM) photogrammetry and terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) surveys to make plot-scale 2-D and 3-D microtopographic estimations of z0 and upscale these to map z0 across an ablating mountain glacier. At plot scales, we found spatial variability in z0 estimates of over two orders of magnitude with unpredictable z0 trajectories, even when classified into ice surface types. TLS-derived surface roughness exhibited strong relationships with plot-scale SfM z0 estimates. At the glacier scale, a consistent increase in z0 of ∼0.1 mm d−1 was observed. Space-for-time substitution based on time since surface ice was exposed by snow melt confirmed this gradual increase in z0 over 60 d. These measurements permit us to propose a scale-dependent temporal z0 evolution model where unpredictable variability at the plot scale gives way to more predictable changes of z0 at the glacier scale. This model provides a critical step towards deriving spatially and temporally distributed representations of z0 that are currently lacking in the parameterisation of distributed glacier surface energy balance models

Evaluating a multi-component intervention to reduce and break up office workers' sitting with sit-stand desks using the APEASE criteria

Objective: Sedentary workplace interventions have had success in reducing excessive sitting time in office workers, but barriers to implementation and uptake remain. This study formally assessed a theory-derived, sit-stand desk intervention using the APEASE (Acceptability, Practicability, Effectiveness, Affordability, Side-effects, Equity) criteria. / Methods: Thirteen adults (eight female, mean age 38 ± 10 years) from the treatment arm of a sedentary behaviour intervention participated in semi-structured interviews. Thematic codes were inductively assigned to data items followed by deductive charting using the APEASE criteria. / Results: The intervention was highly acceptable, practicable, safe to deploy, and helped workers reduce workplace sitting time, though individual preferences and workload mediated engagement. Affordability of sit-stand desks and Equity of access were potential barriers to uptake. / Conclusions: Through the lens of the APEASE criteria, this theory-derived, multi-component sit-stand desk intervention showed acceptability, practicability and effectiveness in reducing and breaking up sedentary time at work with minimal side effects. Using this approach with further tailoring and personalisation may help workers achieve greater reductions in workplace sitting, though affordability and equity should be considered further