The feasibility of delivering Group Family Nurse Partnership

PURPOSE: To evaluate the feasibility of delivering the Group Family Nurse Partnership (gFNP) programme, combining elements of the Family Nurse Partnership programme and Centering Pregnancy and offered from early pregnancy to 12 months postpartum to mothers under 25. DESIGN/METHODOLOGY: A mixed method descriptive feasibility study. Quantitative data from anonymised forms completed by nurses from November 2009 to May 2011 (pilot 1) and January 2012 to August 2013 (pilot 2) reporting referrals, attendance and client characteristics. Qualitative data collected between March 2010 and April 2011 (pilot 1) and November 2012 and November 2013 (pilot 2) from semi-structured interviews or focus groups with clients and practitioners. FINDINGS: There were challenges to reaching eligible clients. Uptake of gFNP was 57% to 74%, attendance ranged from 39% to 55% of sessions and attrition ranged from 30% to 50%. Clients never employed attended fewest sessions overall compared to those working full time. The group format and the programme’s content were positively received by clients but many struggled to attend regularly. FNP practitioners were positive overall but involving community practitioners (pilot 2) placed more stress on them. RESEARCH IMPLICATIONS: Further feasibility and then cost and effectiveness research is necessary to determine the optimal staffing model. PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS: The content and style of support of the home-based FNP programme, available only to first time mothers under 20, could be offered to women over 20 and to those who already have a child. Social implications A range of interventions is needed to support potentially vulnerable families. ORIGINALITY/VALUE: This new complex intervention lacks evidence. This paper documents feasibility, the first step in a thorough evaluation process. Keywords: Group support, pregnancy, early infancy, nurses, parent-child relationship

A Cause Map Approach to Exploring MIS Benefits

This paper considers the problem of implementing large strategic MIS in the UK Health Sector, which has recently been the subject of wide-reaching institutional reforms involving the introduction of information technology. The paper details the empirical results from four case hospitals studied over two years. The research involved a cause map investigation of the collective constructs and organizational processes impacting upon the achievement of benefits, as perceived by the stakeholders. A model is proposed which gives some novel insights into the phenomena involved

Panel: IS journals in which Europeans should publish more

In the past few years, virtual worlds – such as Second Life, World of Warcraft and RuneScape – have demonstrated the potential to be a promising online business model. Millions of paying users around the world now participate in virtual worlds and trade virtual items with each other. However, little empirical research has been conducted into players’ purchase behaviour in virtual worlds. To address this research gap, the current study develops and tests a conceptual model of purchase behaviour in the context of virtual worlds. An online survey was conducted within Second Life (n=250) and SEMPLS (Structural Equation Models by Partial Least Squares) was used to confirm the conceptual model. Among the statistically significant paths found in the conceptual model, effort expectancy, performance expectancy, perceived value, customisation, habit, advancement and enjoyment all have strong impact on virtual world residents’ purchase intention. The study rounds off with a discussion and conclusions, highlighting implications for practice, research limitations and promising areas for future researc

An empirical exploration of requirements engineering for hybrid products

In this paper we report on an empirical study on requirements engineering of hybrid products. Hybrid products (often also referred to as product service systems) – a combination of product, software and service elements – are an emerging trend on the market. Companies intend to offer holistic solutions for customer problems and not single products. The development of hybrid products differs from the development of “classic” products because of the high-level of technological integration of the elements that hybrid products consist of, the interdisciplinarity and the different lifecycles of their single components. We have conducted fifteen expert interviews to explore current practices in requirements engineering in three industries developing hybrid products: automotive, IT-consulting and system integrators, and medical technology. Our results show that most components of hybrid products are developed independently from each other. Based on our empirical insights we have identified requirements and challenges for the design of an integrated requirements engineering process for hybrid products

Towards More Convenient Services: A Text Analytics Approach to Understanding Service Inconveniences in Digital Platforms

In today’s fast-paced world, where time is our most valuable asset, convenience is on the rise. This trend has led to a huge growth in digital on-demand services, which target convenience-oriented consumers. Using big data and text analytics, we examine the impact of service inconveniences on customer satisfaction in the context of on-demand food delivery. Building on the Model of Service Convenience and Attribution Theory, we analyze 235,147 user-generated reviews through a combination of keyword-assisted topic modelling and cumulative link model analysis. We introduce the concept of Remote support inconvenience and identify the key topics related to each inconvenience. We find that all service inconveniences negatively influence satisfaction (especially cancelled orders and remote support incidences), and the effects are exacerbated when moderated by stability or controllability attributions. These insights contribute to our theoretical understanding of service inconvenience and can help platforms identify and improve critical areas of their services

Effect of chisel edge in ultrasonic assisted drilling of carbon fibre reinforced plastics (CFRP)

Ultrasonic assisted drilling (UAD) has been reported effective for thrust force reduction during drilling of CFRP resulting in lower exit delamination. However, this process is not fully understood in relation to machining theory. This work focused on understanding the separate effects of chisel and cutting edges during UAD in comparison with conventional drilling (CD). Experiments were performed at 100 m/min cutting speed and 0.05 mm/rev feed rate. UAD produced 36% lower thrust force with a chisel edge, similar torque and 35% lower wear chisel edge compared to CD, suggesting forces from chisel edge specifically, being reduced in UAD