Reflecting on asynchronous internet mediated focus groups for researching culturally sensitive issues

Internet-mediated focus groups (FGs) have become a feature of qualitative research over the last decade; however, their use within social sciences has been adopted at a slower pace than other disciplines. This paper considers the advantages and disadvantages of internet-mediated FGs and reflects on their use for researching culturally sensitive issues. It reports on an innovative study, which utilised text-based asynchronous internet-mediated FGs to explore attitudes to abortion, and abortion as a workplace issue. The authors identify three key elements of text-based asynchronous online FGs as particularly helpful in researching culturally sensitive issues – safety, time and pace. The authors demonstrate how these elements, integral to the actual process, contributed to ‘opinion change/evolution’ and challenged processes of stigmatisation centred on over-simplification, misinformation as to the incidence of a culturally sensitive issue in a population, and discrimination

Evaluating the Motivation, Wellbeing, Resilience and Employment Preferences of Social Work Graduates Over Time: Time 1 Report

Research studies over the past 20 years indicate that students are often motivated to study social work based on altruism, political ideals, or a desire to help people by challenging oppression and promoting a more socially just society (Hackett et al., 2003; Tham and Lynch, 2014; Ferguson et al., 2018; McCartan et al., 2022). Other research indicates that life and family experiences, personal needs and beliefs may motivate people towards a career in social work (Wilson and McCrystal, 2007; Stevens et al., 2012). Despite a growing interest in the transition of newly qualified social workers (NQSWs) into employment, there is a dearth of longitudinal studies following graduates from university into the workplace (Tham and Lynch, 2019). A five-year longitudinal study involving NQSW conducted in Scotland (Grant et al., 2022), highlighted the importance of the transition from student social worker to NQSW, and how the experiences of support from line management, teams or peers, and the experiences with service users, can shape the way NQSW practice throughout their career, and how long they remain in the social work profession. The report also illustrated the importance of understanding and learning from the experiences and needs of NQSWs, so that we can promote recruitment and retention within the profession. Their findings illustrated the importance of allowing NQSWs time and space to develop their knowledge, skills and experience, and higher levels of support to minimise the longer-term impact of stress and anxiety. In their findings, workloads were complex which made NQSWs feel anxious, and they needed support with everyday work, through managers, dedicated admin support and a positive team environment. Supervision was deemed important, but needed to be frequent, offer clear guidance and opportunities to critically reflect on practice as well as discussing workload management, training and emotional well-being. Other areas for consideration, included the importance of peer support/supervision and continuous professional development through formal and informal modes of learning (Grant et al., 2022). Similar findings were identified by Bogo (2015) and Field et al. (2016).Messages from the Health and Social Care Workforce (HSC Workforce Strategy, 2026) acknowledge recruitment difficulties, the increasing administrative workload on frontline staff, the need to develop roles that reflect the ageing workforce aligned to the pension age, greater opportunities for flexible working patterns and offering clearer pathways for career development. Regional recruitment into social work posts across Northern Ireland has been challenging for the past number of years. This has resulted in increased expenditure on agency staff, causing additional pressure on the Health and Social Care budget. This has created instability for teams and has a demoralising impact on the permanent workforce. Data is needed from student social workers, and NQSWs during the early stages of their career, regarding levels of motivation to practice social work, and preferences regarding employment. Given the concerns regarding well-being and resilience within the profession, information is needed to capture changes in the early stages of a social worker’s career.AimThe overall aim of this project is to improve our understanding of the well-being, resilience, motivation, and employment of social work graduates in the first 12 months of employment. This report presents findings from Time 2, which captured data from NQSWs towards the end of their Assessed Year in Employment (AYE).The objectives of this report are to examine the:a. Demographic data from social work participantsb. Health issues, caring or parenting responsibilitiesc. Well-being, resilience, and motivation of participantsd. Current employment by sector, service, setting and contracte. Levels of satisfaction with supervision and support during the AYEf. Preferences for employment upon completion of their AYEg. Recommended incentives, training, or support for newly qualified social worker

Effects of a high-dose 24-h infusion of tranexamic acid on death and thromboembolic events in patients with acute gastrointestinal bleeding (HALT-IT): an international randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial

Background: Tranexamic acid reduces surgical bleeding and reduces death due to bleeding in patients with trauma. Meta-analyses of small trials show that tranexamic acid might decrease deaths from gastrointestinal bleeding. We aimed to assess the effects of tranexamic acid in patients with gastrointestinal bleeding. Methods: We did an international, multicentre, randomised, placebo-controlled trial in 164 hospitals in 15 countries. Patients were enrolled if the responsible clinician was uncertain whether to use tranexamic acid, were aged above the minimum age considered an adult in their country (either aged 16 years and older or aged 18 years and older), and had significant (defined as at risk of bleeding to death) upper or lower gastrointestinal bleeding. Patients were randomly assigned by selection of a numbered treatment pack from a box containing eight packs that were identical apart from the pack number. Patients received either a loading dose of 1 g tranexamic acid, which was added to 100 mL infusion bag of 0·9% sodium chloride and infused by slow intravenous injection over 10 min, followed by a maintenance dose of 3 g tranexamic acid added to 1 L of any isotonic intravenous solution and infused at 125 mg/h for 24 h, or placebo (sodium chloride 0·9%). Patients, caregivers, and those assessing outcomes were masked to allocation. The primary outcome was death due to bleeding within 5 days of randomisation; analysis excluded patients who received neither dose of the allocated treatment and those for whom outcome data on death were unavailable. This trial was registered with Current Controlled Trials, ISRCTN11225767, and ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT01658124. Findings: Between July 4, 2013, and June 21, 2019, we randomly allocated 12 009 patients to receive tranexamic acid (5994, 49·9%) or matching placebo (6015, 50·1%), of whom 11 952 (99·5%) received the first dose of the allocated treatment. Death due to bleeding within 5 days of randomisation occurred in 222 (4%) of 5956 patients in the tranexamic acid group and in 226 (4%) of 5981 patients in the placebo group (risk ratio [RR] 0·99, 95% CI 0·82–1·18). Arterial thromboembolic events (myocardial infarction or stroke) were similar in the tranexamic acid group and placebo group (42 [0·7%] of 5952 vs 46 [0·8%] of 5977; 0·92; 0·60 to 1·39). Venous thromboembolic events (deep vein thrombosis or pulmonary embolism) were higher in tranexamic acid group than in the placebo group (48 [0·8%] of 5952 vs 26 [0·4%] of 5977; RR 1·85; 95% CI 1·15 to 2·98). Interpretation: We found that tranexamic acid did not reduce death from gastrointestinal bleeding. On the basis of our results, tranexamic acid should not be used for the treatment of gastrointestinal bleeding outside the context of a randomised trial