Antecedents to Strategic Project Success: A Qualitative Phenomenological Analysis of Project Leaders\u27 Perceptions

The purpose of this phenomenological analysis was to gain an understanding of antecedents to strategic project success through the perceptions from experienced project leaders. A qualitative based research design and questions were developed to discuss how strategic vision, strategic planning, and strategic actions contributed to successes or failures of strategic projects. The goal of the study sought insights to understand critical factors that enabled strategic project success and important related areas organizations should consider. The study evaluated strategic projects through the lens of the theory of constraints in order to identify factors most consequential. The findings were informed from the perceptions of 11 project leaders recruited and interviewed through purposeful sampling. A conceptual model and implications to research and practice are discussed including limitations and considerations for future research

Using Extreme Pedagogy toEnhance Entrepreneurship Education

We address the ongoing concern that entrepreneurship education (EE) is not preparing students sufficiently well for jobs in the 21st-century. We argue that many criticisms leveled against EE for not effectively addressing the entrepreneurial skills gap are due in part to EE’s emphasis on the roles of specific stakeholder groups separately (i.e., universities and their leaders, instructors, students, potential employers) rather than a shared focus on developing valuable graduates. Stated differently, there are competing and conflicting “ownerships” over the entrepreneurial skills gap. We enhance current pedagogical methods by offering a learning innovation called extreme pedagogy. Extreme pedagogy takes place when all stakeholders have a collective intention and ownership in producing graduates with relevant entrepreneurial skills. We describe extreme pedagogy’s conceptual foundation based on psychological ownership theory, the effective of use of extreme ownership in military contexts, and the role of universities and their leaders, instructors, students, and potential employers in the implementation of extreme pedagogy. We then summarize themes from a workshop involving entrepreneurial leaders across industries on EE challenges and the role of extreme pedagogy in addressing them. We close by describing anticipated benefits of extreme pedagogy for all EE stakeholders

Transforming Prescription Opioid Practices in Primary Care With Change Theory

The opioid epidemic continues to be an ongoing public health crisis. Many primary health care providers aptly serve as the gate keeper to opioid prescriptions. The opioid epidemic has challenged the primary care profession whilst many of these providers have opted out of opioid prescribing altogether. This unintended consequence affirms erosion to primary care that is vital to the ecosystem of opioid management. The purpose of this study was to understand strategies to deliver opioids safely and effectively. Results indicate primary care providers are uniquely positioned to make a positive opioid impact through focused change initiatives. Five common themes arose from the inductive analysis: (1) provide leadership support; (2) define standard of work; (3) conduct pre-visit reviews; (4) conduct post-visit reviews; and (5) measure progress. Then, each common theme was deductively analyzed through a view of Kotter’s change theory to support an effective proxy for implementing and sustaining chronic opioid therapy in a primary care context. These finding have potential to provide actionable implications for health care management professionals and primary care organizations such as hospitals and group practices

Enhanced numeracy skills following team-based learning in United States pharmacy students: a longitudinal cohort study

Purpose: The literature suggests that the ability to numerate cannot be fully understood without accounting for the social context in which mathematical activity is represented. Team-based learning (TBL) is an andragogical approach with theoretical links to sociocultural and community-of-practice learning. This study aimed to quantitatively explore the impact of TBL instruction on numeracy development in 2 cohorts of pharmacy students and identify the impact of TBL instruction on numeracy development from a social perspective for healthcare education. Methods: Two cohorts of students were administered the Health Science Reasoning Test-Numeracy (HSRT-N) before beginning pharmacy school. Two years after using TBL as the primary method of instruction, both comprehensive and domain data from the HSRT-N were analyzed. Results: In total, 163 pharmacy student scores met the inclusion criteria. The students’ numeracy skills measured by HSRT-N improved after 2 years of TBL instruction. Conclusion: Numeracy was the most significantly improved HSRT-N domain in pharmacy students following two years of TBL instruction. Although a closer examination of numeracy development in TBL is warranted, initial data suggest that TBL instruction may be an adequate proxy for advancing numeracy in a cohort of pharmacy students. TBL may encourage a social practice of mathematics to improve pharmacy students’ ability to numerate critically

Working against the clock: A model for rural STEMI triage

Residents in rural communities have higher incident of cardiac death and risk factors associated with cardiac disease. Living in a rural region can add precious time that amplifies cardiac death during a ST-elevated myocardial infarction (STEMI) episode. The consensus is that improved efficiencies can increase myocardial salvage and decrease STEMI mortality rates. This article identifies issues that may impact pre-hospital STEMI triage of patients in a rural region of the United States (U.S.). A qualitative research design was chosen to gain insight into emergency personnel perceptions of pre-hospital STEMI triage. The participants (n=18) were obtained from a convenience sample in rural Northeast Texas, U.S. Data were gathered by individual and group semi-structured interviews. Themes were identified, synthesized, and oriented to offer a basis for understanding opportunities to improve the delivery of rural STEMI care. This study demonstrated that quality improvement initiatives aimed at achieving pre-hospital STEMI triage efficiencies have dependencies on teamwork, technology, and training in the context of three stages a) pre-transport, b) door-to-door, and c) post-transport. A pre-hospital STEMI triage model is considered. By incorporating this model, emergency medical coordinators in rural communities have a better opportunity to facilitate timely reperfusion therapy for this high risk populous

Preclinical evidence implicating corticotropin-releasing factor signaling in ethanol consumption and neuroadaptation

The results of many studies support the influence of the corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF) system on ethanol (EtOH) consumption and EtOH-induced neuroadaptations that are critical in the addiction process. This review summarizes the preclinical data in this area after first providing an overview of the components of the CRF system. This complex system involves hypothalamic and extra-hypothalamic mechanisms that play a role in the central and peripheral consequences of stressors, including EtOH and other drugs of abuse. In addition, several endogenous ligands and targets make up this system and show differences in their involvement in EtOH drinking and in the effects of chronic or repeated EtOH treatment. In general, genetic and pharmacological approaches paint a consistent picture of the importance of CRF signaling via type 1 CRF receptors (CRF1) in EtOH-induced neuroadaptations that result in higher levels of intake, encourage alcohol seeking during abstinence and alter EtOH sensitivity. Furthermore, genetic findings in rodents, non-human primates and humans have provided some evidence of associations of genetic polymorphisms in CRF-related genes with EtOH drinking, although additional data are needed. These results suggest that CRF1 antagonists have potential as pharmacotherapeutics for alcohol use disorders. However, given the broad and important role of these receptors in adaptation to environmental and other challenges, full antagonist effects may be too profound and consideration should be given to treatments with modulatory effects.The authors were supported by the Department of Veterans Affairs; NIH NIAAA grants P60AA010760, R24AA020245 and U01AA013519 and NIH NIDA grant P50DA018165, during the writing of this manuscript. The authors have no financial conflict of interest to disclose

Organizational silofication: implications in grouping experts for organizational performance

This paper offers that organizational underachievement sourced to workplace expertise is a product of bounded perspective constructed by the agency of expertise. Embedded in any bounded perspective is limitations to what can be seen. Organizations that seek to leverage expertise solely on their agency risk organizational silofication. We conclude that recognizing organizational silofication is an opportunity for organizations to address organizational underachievement by addressing the perspectives that create the hidden impediments limiting their overall potential