BORN TO HELP

Abstract The purpose of this dissertation was to ascertain (1) the level of readiness for hospital social work roles as perceived by Master of Social Work (MSW) graduates from Council on Social Work Education accredited programs, (2) the extent to which MSW level social workers felt prepared for their hospital roles by their MSW education, and (3) the quality of life perceived by social workers, with self-efficacy as a possible mediator variable. A critical literature review was completed. Surveys were sent using social media. One empirical study examined the level of self-efficacy felt by social workers as they worked in hospital settings. It also investigated the degree to which they felt prepared for their hospital roles by their MSW education. A second empirical study examined a path model testing the possible moderating effect of professional self-efficacy on the relationship between perceived preparedness and quality of life. Emerging themes from open-ended comments were also compiled. Findings from a systematic review of the literature showed an emerging pattern of themes: (1) a history of social work with a focus on the knowledge base; (2) the importance of the roles of hospital social workers; and (3) the role of social workers in hospitals as part of interprofessional teams. Results of the first empirical study showed MSW social workers only felt moderately prepared for their hospital roles, and felt moderate levels of self-efficacy. Results of the path analysis suggested that professional self-efficacy mediated the relationship between the degree to which social workers felt prepared by their MSW training to work in hospital settings and their quality of life. Results further suggested social workers’ sense of preparedness had a stronger effect on professional self-confidence than did their on-the-job experience. The results also showed professional self-efficacy had a positive effect on quality of life. Results of the qualitative analysis revealed that social workers support and define the profession to one another. Most felt unprepared by their MSW program for hospital social work. Anecdotally, social workers reported encouraging one another, and reported excellent self-care habits, all of which can contribute to good quality of life

The Regulation of Cell Size

An adult animal consists of cells of vastly different size and activity, but the regulation of cell size remains poorly understood. Recent studies uncovering some of the signaling pathways important for size/growth control, together with the identification of diseases resulting from aberrations in these pathways, have renewed interest in this field. This Review will discuss our current understanding of how a cell sets its size, how it can adapt its size to a changing environment, and how these processes are relevant to human disease

Embracing Fear: Finding Opportunities within Failure

As an actor I am a careful explorer. For this careful explorer the challenge is: Embracing Fear: Finding Opportunities Within Failure. The primary area of investigation concerns the relationship between Race: Understanding Origins and Sensuality/Sexuality: Understanding the Vocabulary of my Body. I am investigating the structure of Racial Passing as it relates to fear and limitation in theatre performance. Through academic research and physical/studio exploration I have built a conscious awareness of my own habitual participation in Racial Passing. This awareness will allow me to have more effective use of the vocabulary of my body resulting in more range and specificity. This, in-turn, will allow me to discover/utilize different aspects of myself and allow the text to function as a road map for moments of discovery, the natural geographical information filled in with in-rehearsal risk taking

It Takes a Community to Build a Framework: Information Literacy within Intercultural Settings

Information literacy practice plays a key role in the transitional processes of individuals within new intercultural settings. While this ability to adjust to new cultural contexts is increasingly important within today’s multicultural societies, campuses and workplaces, typical approaches to information literacy education struggle to scaffold the newcomer’s disrupted information landscapes. In focusing on prescriptive skills, information literacy standards position linguistic and cultural difference as a learning deficiency. Yet, when alternative information literacy frameworks centre upon personal habits of mind, they fail to account for contextual dynamics. In this conceptual paper, the authors use research into the health practices of resettling refugees as an example to argue that a move away from behaviourist approaches to information literacy refocuses our attention on questions of adjustment and engagement with cultural understandings of information, and forms a more inclusive way to consider the diversity of today’s information societies

Fractured academic space: Digital literacy and the COVID- 19 pandemic

Purpose: The study focussed on information literacy practices, specifically on how higher education staff managed the transition from established and routinised in-person teaching, learning and working practices to institutionally mandated remote or hybrid working patterns during the COVID-19 pandemic. / Design/methodology/approach: The qualitative study forms part of a broader research project, examining how information literacy and information practices unfolded during the COVID-19 pandemic. Phase Three of this project, which forms the subject of this paper, employed semi-structured interviews to explore the impact of COVID-19 on the workplace and, in particular, the role that technology and digital literacy plays in enabling or constraining information literacy practices necessary for the operationalisation of work. / Findings: The complexities of the COVID-19 pandemic precipitated a fracturing of workplace information environments and worker information landscapes by disrupting all aspects of academic life. The study recognises that whilst the practice of information literacy is predicated on access to modalities of information, this practice is also shaped by material conditions. This has implications for digital literacy which, in attempting to set itself apart from information literacy practice, has negated the significant role that the body and the corporeal modality play as important sources of information that enable transition to occur. In relation to information resilience, the bridging concept of fracture has enabled the authors to consider the informational impact of crisis and transition on people's information experiences and people's capacity to learn to go on when faced with precarity. The concept of grief is introduced into the analysis. / Originality/value: This study presents original research

Civic geographies: A commentary and call for Area

This commentary introduces civic geographies as a theme in Area, where papers can be collected, allowing a space for discussion at a time when the civic university agenda has become a priority for the sector. It calls for the discipline to share and debate ideas about civic geographies, showcase civic geographical research and teaching, and create a community of practice to develop approaches to engagement and social responsibility

Risk, vaccine hesitancy and information literacy during the COVID-19 pandemic

Introduction. This study seeks to identify how vaccine-hesitant people inform themselves about the Covid-19 vaccine. Prior research has positioned insufficient information or a lack of information skills as linked to vaccine hesitancy but has neglected to account for the role that information literacy plays within processes of becoming informed. Method. 14 semi-structured interviews were held online with vaccine-hesitant people in the UK. Interviews were audio-recorded and professionally transcribed; questions explored the information sources and activities that participants used to become informed about the COVID-19 vaccine. Analysis. Data were coded by each researcher using constant comparative techniques used in constructivist grounded theory methods before being jointly discussed in several online sessions. Results. Initial outcomes of this study suggest that vaccine hesitant and hesitant- influenced action is shaped through the employment of information strategies that bring multiple forms of vaccination risk into being, including social and other health risks. Conclusions. The study has implications for the teaching of information literacy, in particular the conceptualisation that being informed is an affirmative action

Civic geographies:: A commentary and call for Area

This commentary introduces civic geographies as a theme in Area, where papers can be collected, allowing a space for discussion at a time when the civic university agenda has become a priority for the sector. It calls for the discipline to share and debate ideas about civic geographies, showcase civic geographical research and teaching, and create a community of practice to develop approaches to engagement and social responsibility