How to conduct research in an independent hospice: practical tips and advice

Independent hospices can – and should aim to – participate in palliative care research, say Paul Perkins, Rebecca Day, Julie Hapeshi, Lorraine Dixon and Rudo Nyakuhwa, who give tips and advice based on their experience at Sue Ryder

How to conduct research in an independent hospice: practical tips and advice

Independent hospices can – and should aim to – participate in palliative care research, say Paul Perkins, Rebecca Day, Julie Hapeshi, Lorraine Dixon and Rudo Nyakuhwa, who give tips and advice based on their experience at Sue Ryder

Bringing Third Culture Kids Together: Building a TCK Network in Your Library

Several months ago, I had the privilege of reading Born Confused authored by Tanuja Desai Hidier as a requirement for a seminar on issues and trends in young adult literature. In this novel, an Asian teenager struggles with self-identity while living with her Indian parents in the United States. Feeling the impact of both an eastern and western culture, she expresses: …not quite Indian, and not quite American. Usually I felt more along the lines of Alien (however legal, as my Jersey birth certificate attests to). The only times I retreated to one or the other description were when my peers didn’t understand me (then I figured it was because I was too Indian) or when my family didn’t get it (clearly because I was too American)… Sometimes I was too Indian in America, yes, but in India, I was definitely not Indian enough... This statement compelled me to continue on a most fascinating and reflective reading experience. As I paralleled my own life experiences against the experiences of the girl in the story, I was reminded of the overwhelming sense of loneliness that accompanied my final return from Africa to the United States at the age of seventeen. After spending thirteen years in Kenya, intermingled with a few years of furlough, I found that it took increased amount of energy to adjust to the fastpaced, materialistic lifestyle of the United States, and I, like the heroine in Hidier’s story, became frustrated over the lack of knowing how to fit into the culture, understand myself, and relate to my peers

Do institutional logics predict interpretation of contract rules at the dental chair-side?

In quasi-markets, contracts find purchasers influencing health care providers, although problems exist where providers use personal bias and heuristics to respond to written agreements, tending towards the moral hazard of opportunism. Previous research on quasi-market contracts typically understands opportunism as fully rational, individual responses selecting maximally efficient outcomes from a set of possibilities. We take a more emotive and collective view of contracting, exploring the influence of institutional logics in relation to the opportunistic behaviour of dentists. Following earlier qualitative work where we identified four institutional logics in English general dental practice, and six dental contract areas where there was scope for opportunism; in 2013 we surveyed 924 dentists to investigate these logics and whether they had predictive purchase over dentists' chair-side behaviour. Factor analysis involving 300 responses identified four logics entwined in (often technical) behaviour: entrepreneurial commercialism, duty to staff and patients, managerialism, public good

Reduced street lighting at night and health: A rapid appraisal of public views in England and Wales.

Financial and carbon reduction incentives have prompted many local authorities to reduce street lighting at night. Debate on the public health implications has centred on road accidents, fear of crime and putative health gains from reduced exposure to artificial light. However, little is known about public views of the relationship between reduced street lighting and health. We undertook a rapid appraisal in eight areas of England and Wales using ethnographic data, a household survey and documentary sources. Public concern focused on road safety, fear of crime, mobility and seeing the night sky but, for the majority in areas with interventions, reductions went unnoticed. However, more private concerns tapped into deep-seated anxieties about darkness, modernity 'going backwards', and local governance. Pathways linking lighting reductions and health are mediated by place, expectations of how localities should be lit, and trust in local authorities to act in the best interests of local communities

What factors influence the use of contracts in the context of NHS dental practice?:A systematic review of theory and logic model

AbstractUK NHS contracts mediate the relationship between dental and medical practitioners as independent contractors, and the state which reimburses them for their services to patients. There have been successive revisions of dental and medical contracts since the 1990s alongside a change in the levels of professional dominance and accountability. Unintended consequences of the 2006 dental contract have led to plans for further reform. We set out to identify the factors which facilitate and hinder the use of contracts in this area. Previous reviews of theory have been narrative, and based on macro-theory arising from various disciplines such as economics, sociology and political science. This paper presents a systematic review and aggregative synthesis of the theories of contracting for publicly funded health care. A logic map conveys internal pathways linking competition for contracts to opportunism. We identify that whilst practitioners' responses to contract rules is a result of micro-level bargaining clarifying patients' and providers' interests, responses are also influenced by relationships with commissioners and wider personal, professional and political networks

Threat Avoidance Behavior and Land Use of the Northern Bobwhite in the Rolling Plains of Texas

Northern bobwhites (Colinus virginianus) are an economically important species for several regions within the state of Texas. Bobwhites, along with their fiscal importance, fill a key role within the ecosystem as an r-selected common prey species. However, throughout the past few decades, bobwhite populations have plummeted to record lows. Currently many studies are investigating possible causes behind this precipitous decline, but efforts to discover better land management practices that provide preferred habitat for bobwhites should not be abandoned. Current landscape recommendations related to bobwhite escape cover stem from data collected on anthropogenic threats to bobwhites (i.e., coveys flushed by human disturbance). Bobwhites have a multitude of non-anthropogenic threats in the wild, and the existing data may lack important information regarding threat-specific avoidance behavior. Predation is a primary cause of bobwhite mortality, and we focused on bobwhite anti-predatory behavior and resulting land-use strategies with an ultimate goal of providing management recommendations to increase bobwhite survival. We designed and conducted an experiment to investigate not only bobwhite responses to anthropogenic threats, but also their responses to common natural predators. We investigated bobwhite behavioral and use of cover actions in response to 4 threat types: researchers, hunters, raptors, and nocturnal mammals. We collected data from January through March in 2010 and from November 2010 through March 2011. We measured characteristics of bobwhite flushing behavior, flight speed, and land and vegetative use when presented with specific threats. We located radio-marked coveys and conducted a walk-through for the researcher threat, if necessary, to cause the birds to flush. The hunter and raptor threats were conducted similarly with introduction of pointing dogs and shotgun blasts for the hunting scenario, and introduction of a trained northern goshawk (Accipiter gentilis) to give chase to bobwhites in the raptor scenario. We followed the same methods as the researcher treatment when creating the nocturnal mammal treatment, but conducted the test at night and followed the birds’ flight with a thermal imaging scope. There was a significant difference in landing cover among threat types with bobwhites selecting shrubs for landing cover when pursued by a raptor (P , 0.0001), whereas they showed no selection for shrubs when flushed by the other threat types. Bobwhites landed in live oak (Quercus virginianus) mottes and hackberry (Celtis reticulata) shrubs with the highest frequency, followed closely by wolfberry (Lycium barbarum), lote bush (Ziziphyus obtusifolia), and Englemann’s pricklypear (Opuntia engelmannii) when escaping the raptorial threat, These 5 species accounted for 49% of all shrubs used (19 total species) as escape cover in the raptor treatment. Obstructive vegetative height was higher at landing sites when bobwhites were presented with a raptor (P , 0.0001) or hunter (P 1⁄4 0.033) threat; however, bobwhites displayed no selection for obstructive vegetative height when presented with a researcher or nocturnal mammal threat. Further analyses will include modeling environmental and experimental parameters to find likely predictors of bobwhite threat avoidance behaviors, such as flushing speed, flight speed, and flight distance; behaviors that arguably affect energy expenditure and may interact with bobwhite health and predator avoidance capabilities. Our results suggest that land management recommendations based solely on anthropogenic threats may be insufficient to enable successful bobwhite escape strategies from raptors. Considering the availability and ‘integrity’ of shrubs as escape cover from raptors when contemplating brush management plans may enhance bobwhite management. We expect to provide threat-specific land management recommendations for bobwhites related to shrub species and density as well as grass density with continued analysis of these data