An exploratory study of work-related imagined interactions with real-life coworkers

Communication between individuals in social systems includes not only interpersonal, external acts of discourse, but also intrapersonal communications within each person\u27s interior cognitive space. One type of intrapersonal communication, imagined interactions, involves mentally imagining communication encounters with others in an internal dialogue symbolic of real-life conversations. This research project explored the phenomenon of imagined interactions with real-life coworkers as a component of the interior work lives of working adults. The research question was: How do supervisors utilize imagined interactions to make sense of and manage workplace relationships? An existing survey instrument, the Survey of Imagined Interactions, was modified to limit responses to imagined interactions in work-related scenarios and with real-life coworkers. A total of 88 participants completed the questionnaire. All respondents reported engaging in work-related imagined interactions with their real-life coworkers. A mixed methods data analysis resulted in findings related to the frequency, variation, topics, conversational partners, and emotional valence of work-related imagined interactions. The findings provide insight into how working adults engage imagined interactions for self-understanding, relationship maintenance, emotional catharsis, conversational rehearsal, job preparation, and navigating difficult relationships, especially with their boss. The analysis also resulted in a finding about methodological approaches which suggests that qualitative data provides greater insight into work-related imagined interactions than quantitative data. Taken as a whole, these findings provide an important baseline for understanding the emotional and relational dynamics that trigger imagined interactions in real-life work scenarios. This exploratory research study makes an interdisciplinary connection between the communication sciences and the organizational sciences, and introduces the construct of imagined interactions into the organizational, leadership, and common vernacular. The results lay the groundwork for continued scholarship on how the ubiquitous phenomenon of imagined interactions contributes to workplace relationship maintenance and overall job performance

African Americans\u27 perspectives on racial solidarity

This study explored the fundamental formulations that shape perspectives on racial solidarity among one group of African Americans. The perspectives gained in this study aid in understanding the existence, origin, and views toward the concept. In-depth, qualitative interviews were conducted with individuals from two generational cohorts: ages 18 to 30 (post-Civil Rights era) and ages 50 and older (Civil Rights era). This study describes a process by which racial solidarity appears to have diminished among some African Americans. This transition seems to have occurred as a result of the deterioration of the traditional African American community, the acceptance of externally imposed beliefs about the racial group, and in-group sabotaging behaviors that create numerous problems within the younger generation. Reports from participants within the post-Civil Rights generational cohort provide some insight into the magnitude of these problems. Strategies African Americans can use to improve racial solidarity are offered

Risking Reproduction: Reproductive Health Among Women With Sickle Cell Disease

Reproductive health among women with sickle cell disease remains a critical gap in the literatures on sickle cell disease, reproductive health, and women\u27s health. Sickle cell disease (SCD) is a condition with a complicated clinical sequelae, accompanied by a myriad of health complications, unremitting, extreme pain, and frequent hospitalizations. The purpose of this study was to explore the meaning and lived experiences of reproductive health and health care among women with sickle cell disease. Using a qualitative, phenomenological methodology, this study captured the authentic voices of 28 adult women with sickle cell disease and their perceptions and experiences of reproductive health and health care. Nearly all women in this study were advised to avoid having biological children because of the concerns for their health or that they would have a child with sickle cell disease. Despite this recommendation, participants exercised agency and looked to their embodied experience living with sickle cell disease when determining whether they were healthy enough for pregnancy and childbirth. Participants also described carrying a reproductive burden due to their genetic characteristics to ensure they did not pass sickle cell disease on to their children. Their motivations were derived from their desire to prevent their children from suffering the way they had, both from the physical symptoms and social judgment that accompanies sickle cell disease. These findings illustrate the need for women with sickle cell disease to receive reproductive health care that takes into consideration their particular health characteristics in regards to gynecological care, contraception and prenatal care to avoid potentially health-harming recommendations that may exacerbate sickle cell disease symptoms. This study extends existing ideas concerning the embodied risk and reproductive health from women who develop or contract risk, to those who were born with it. This information may also encourage more appropriate reproductive health care, and improve the understanding regarding the significance of reproductive health in general and within the context of illness among health care providers

Perspectives on Tobacco Product Waste: A Survey of Framework Convention Alliance Members' Knowledge, Attitudes, and Beliefs.

Cigarette butts (tobacco product waste (TPW)) are the single most collected item in environmental trash cleanups worldwide. This brief descriptive study used an online survey tool (Survey Monkey) to assess knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs among individuals representing the Framework Convention Alliance (FCA) about this issue. The FCA has about 350 members, including mainly non-governmental tobacco control advocacy groups that support implementation of the World Health Organization's (WHO) Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC). Although the response rate (28%) was low, respondents represented countries from all six WHO regions. The majority (62%) have heard the term TPW, and nearly all (99%) considered TPW as an environmental harm. Most (77%) indicated that the tobacco industry should be responsible for TPW mitigation, and 72% felt that smokers should also be held responsible. This baseline information may inform future international discussions by the FCTC Conference of the Parties (COP) regarding environmental policies that may be addressed within FCTC obligations. Additional research is planned regarding the entire lifecycle of tobacco's impact on the environment

Group Medical Visits and Clinician Wellbeing

There is strong evidence for clinical benefits of group medical visits (GMVs) (also known as shared medical appointments) for prenatal care, diabetes, chronic pain, and a wide range of other conditions. GMVs can increase access to integrative care while providing additional benefits including increased clinician-patient contact time, cost savings, and support with prevention and self-management of chronic conditions. During the COVID-19 pandemic, many clinical sites are experimenting with new models of care delivery including virtual GMVs using telehealth. Little research has focused on which clinicians offer this type of care, how the GMV approach affects the ways they practice, and their job satisfaction. Workplace-based interventions have been shown to decrease burnout in individual physicians. We argue that more research is needed to understand if GMVs should be considered among these workplace-based interventions, given their potential benefits to clinician wellbeing. GMVs can benefit clinician wellbeing in multiple ways, including: (1) Extended time with patients; (2) Increased ability to provide team-based care; (3) Understanding patients\u27 social context and addressing social determinants of health. GMVs can be implemented in a variety of settings in many different ways depending on institutional context, patient needs and clinician preferences. We suggest that GMV programs with adequate institutional support may be beneficial for preventing burnout and improving retention among clinicians and health care teams more broadly, including in integrative health care. Just as group support benefits patients struggling with loneliness and social isolation, GMVs can help address these and other concerns in overwhelmed clinicians

Does profiling employees online overstep the boundaries?

The challenge is to balance employer needs with ensuring safe and private online spaces for staff, argue Paula McDonald, Peter O’Connor and Paul Thompso

Profiling employees online: shifting public-private boundaries in organisational life

Profiling involves the collection and use of online information about prospective and current employees to evaluate their fitness for and in the job. Workplace and legal studies suggest an expanded use of profiling and significant legal/professional implications for HRM practitioners, yet scant attention has been afforded to the boundaries of such practices. In this study, profiling is framed as a terrain on which employees and employers assert asymmetrical interests. Using survey data from large samples in Australia and the UK, the study investigates the prevalence and outcomes of profiling; the extent that employees assert a right to privacy versus employer rights to engage in profiling; the extent that organisations codify profiling practices; and employee responses in protecting online information. The findings contribute to a small and emerging body of evidence addressing how social media conduct at work is reconstituting and reshaping the boundaries between public and private spheres. Keywords: profiling; public-private boundaries; social media at work; employee privac

Employee dissent on social media and organizational discipline

What kind of surveillance of employees is evident today? The rights of employers to police and act punitively with regard to workplace dissent and misbehaviour have become contentious legal, policy and ethical issues. Drawing on survey responses from employees in the UK and Australia, this study investigates the scope and scale of employee dissent in relation to critical online comments and the private use of social media during work time. The findings reveal a sufficient pool of misbehaviours, albeit that they are emergent and uneven. Also evident were some apparently contradictory responses with respect to employer rights to profile and discipline, at the same time as asserting employee rights to voice and private online identities. The findings contribute to knowledge of how much and what kinds of online dissent exist in the ambiguous space between the public sphere of work and the private lives of individual employees and what employers do about it

Increasing Skin Infections and Staphylococcus aureus Complications in Children, England, 1997-2006

During 1997-2006, general practitioner consultations for skin conditions for children <18 years of age in England increased 19%, from 128.5 to 152.9/1,000 child-years, and antistaphylococcal drug prescription rates increased 64%, from 17.8 to 29.1/1,000 child-years. During the same time period, hospital admissions for Staphylococcus aureus infections rose 49% from 53.4 to 79.3/100,000 child-years.link_to_subscribed_fulltex

Making Change, Increasing Value: Reorganizing Your Access Services Department

Presented at the 2016 Access Services Conference, Georgia Tech Global Learning Center and the Georgia Tech Hotel and Conference Center, November 16-18, 2016, Atlanta, Georgia.Paula Greenwell holds a bachelor’s in English, Language & Literature from the University of Maryland. She has worked in the main library at the University of Maryland since 1998. Paula works with periodicals and now, as Coordinator for Logistics & Periodicals, works with items that are to be packed or unpacked, sorted, and transferred to other units or other libraries.Timothy Hackman has been the department head for User Services & Resource Sharing (formerly Access Services) at the University of Maryland since 2012. Previously he was a subject liaison and branch librarian at the same university for ten years. He holds masters degrees in English and library science from the University of Maryland.James Spring holds a masters in library and information science from the University of South Florida. He worked in Resource Sharing at both USF and the University of Maryland, College Park before accepting his current position coordinating Library Services (formerly separate circulation and information desks).Hilary Thompson holds masters degrees in art history and library science from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, NY. As Head of Resource Sharing & Reserves at the University of Maryland College Park, she works diligently to refine operations and implement new services related to interlibrary loan, document delivery, and course reserves.In 2015 the department of Resource Sharing & Access Services at the University of Maryland Libraries undertook a major reorganization with the goals of increasing efficiency, staff engagement, and user satisfaction. Seeking to realign tasks and staff according to function, the year-long project resulted in a new organizational chart and new job descriptions for the majority of the department's thirty-two staff. This presentation will provide an overview of the theory and methods used to plan the reorganization, and will discuss implementation by focusing on integrations of four once-separate operations: scanning for interlibrary loan and reserves; book retrieval for holds, reserves and interlibrary loan; shipping and receiving for circulation and interlibrary loan; and scheduling for a merged service desk. One year after the reorganization was completed, we will assess the effectiveness of the new model in meeting our goals and share lessons learned for undertaking reorganization at your library