The Future of the Employee’s Right to Disconnect in the European Union and Latvia

The right to disconnect refers to a worker's right to be able to disconnect from work and refrain from engaging in work-related electronic communication, like emails and other messages, during non-work hours and holidays. The Latvian Labor Law does not directly determine the right to disconnect from digital devices, however, such rights arise from certain legal norms. Examples of the provisions of the Labor Law relate to the general rules on rest periods and breaks in work. The recent research results of remote work during Covid-19 pandemic conducted by the author show that for 69.3% of respondents working remotely possibility to disconnect from digital devices outside working hours (when the assigned work tasks have been completed) is extremely crucial. If the rights to disconnect are not explicitly regulated, the risk of disbalance between work and private life is at stake. The increase in workload during the emergency caused by COVID-19 was indicated by 42.7% of respondents in Latvia. That shows that another problem of lack of regulation of rights to disconnect could be unpaid overtime. The research shows that 14.7% of respondents were not paid for overtime work when working from home. The practice shows a critical need for sustainable and predictable changes in the legal system to protect employees’ rights and thus ensure stable employment in general in Latvia. It was also recently decided by Employment Committee MEPs that EU countries must ensure that workers are able to exercise the right to disconnect effectively. Some of the member states in the European Union have recently implemented the right into their legal system (Portugal, Spain, France), but each member state takes a different approach. That means that discussion is no longer if there is a need to implement the “right to disconnect” in national legal acts, but how to implement the right efficiently not only at a national level but at the EU level as well.The goal of the research is to provide an in-depth analysis of the legal status of the “right to disconnect” in the legal system of the European Union and Latvia. In order to reach the goal, the author is using various scientific research methods. The paper is based on a quantitative research method and analytical, comparative, case law analysis method to provide valid conclusions on the current role of the “right to disconnect” in Latvia and the European Union. The author also offers recommendations on how to implement the “right to disconnect” efficiently to avoid violation of employees’ rights and ensure a sustainable work environment.In the result, the author has concluded that the biggest impediment of the employee's right to disconnect is the lack of clear legislative preconditions that would encourage businesses to preserve employees' freedom to disconnect, resulting in a more sustainable working environment - both in the office and remotely.Finally, the author concludes that there is a need to adjust regulation in Latvia to meet the needs of widespread use of remote work. The author also concludes that a significant role to protect employees’ right to disconnect is for governmental authorities to explain the right to disconnect to employees and employers.publishersversionPeer reviewe

The Theology of Ecology: A Bibliographical Analysis

INTRODUCTION In this day of fads, causes, and avant-garde philosophies, the current ecologic crisis is a viable issue. It is no longer possible to confine it to the realm of academic debate or to the bylaws of some esoteric conservationist society; the critical balance between organism and environment is a factor every man must seriously consider. Scientists are now saying that there is no place on earth where the ravages of pollution and environmental misuse have not grossly affected this crucial relationship. Pollution, a reaction which injects foreign substances into the environment as well as removing necessary elements,. touches everyone. Men are at the same time pollutors and sufferers from pollution. Today, it is certain that pollution adversely affects the quality of human life. In the future, it may affect its duration

Improving job satisfaction with different intervention methods among the school personnel in Estonia and Latvia

ArticleThis investigation was carried out in two high schools: one in Estonia (EST1) and one in Latvia (LAT1). The offices EST2 and LAT2 were chosen from the countryside of the both countries. Office EST1 is situated in an atrium-type building for educational and research needs. The second building is mainly for education (auditoriums) and the offices LAT1 are situated on the ground floor. The third and the fourth offices were taken for comparison. Office EST2 is situated in a countryside in an old wooden building; the fourth office LAT2 is located in a new building in Latvian countryside. All together 181 office-workers were involved. At first, the work environment conditions were measured. The ergonomics of workplaces was assessed with ARTtool and Kiva-questionnaire was used to study psychosocial conditions and job satisfaction at computer-equipped workplaces. Occupational hazards were measured to clarify, do the work environment influence on the behaviour and the job motivation and satisfaction of the worker at workplace? After the first questioning of workers using Kiva-questionnaire, the Metal Age programme was implemented and after the intervention, the Kiva-questionnaire was carried out again. The results showed that if the preventive measures for solving the problems at workplace are implemented, and the employers and the employees are trained and consulted using the appropriate programmes, the stress situations could be avoided. The workers in all offices were confident that the discussion about the problems is very important as the work with computers is intensive and there is a very short time to communicate with each other. The educational work is also stressful

A comparison of the epidemiology, clinical features, and treatment of acute osteomyelitis in hospitalized children in Latvia and Norway

Publisher Copyright: © 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.Background and objectives: Paediatric acute osteomyelitis (AO) may result in major lifethreatening and limb-threatening complications if not recognized and treated early. The management of AO may depend on local microbial prevalence and virulence factors. This study compares the approach to paediatric AO in hospitals in two countries-Latvia and Norway. Materials and Methods: The study includes patients with AO hospitalized in the paediatric department in the Norwegian hospital Sørlandet Sykehus Kristiansand (SSK), in the period between the 1st of January 2012 and the 31st of December 2019. The results from SSK are compared to the results of a published study of AO in patients hospitalized at the Children’s Clinical University Hospital (CCUH) in Riga, Latvia. Results: The most isolated pathogen from cultures in both hospitals was S. aureus (methicillinsensitive). The lower extremity was the most affected body part (75% in CCUH, 95% in SSK), the main clinical symptom was pain (CCUH 92%, SSK 96.6%). Deep culture aspiration was most often taken intraoperatively in CCUH (76.6%) and percutaneously in SSK (44.8%). Oxacillin was the most applied antibiotic in CCUH (89.4%), and Cloxacillin in SSK (84.6%). Combined treatment with anti-Staphylococcal penicillins and Clindamycin was administered in 25.5% and 33.8% of CCUH and SSK patients, respectively. The median duration of the intravenous antibacterial treatment in CCUH and SSK was 15 and 10 days, respectively, and a switch to oral therapy was mainly made at discharge in both hospitals. The median total duration of antibiotic treatment was 25 days in CCUH and 35 days in SSK. 75% of CCUH and 10.3% of SSK patients were treated surgically. Complications were seen in 47% of patients in CCUH and in 38% in SSK. Conclusions: The transition to oral antibacterial treatment in both hospitals was delayed, which suggests a lack of criteria for discontinuation of intravenous therapy and could potentially contribute to longer hospitalization, higher cost of treatment and risk of complications. The use of more invasive techniques for deep culturing and significantly more common surgical interventions could possibly be linked to a higher complication rate in AO patients treated at the Latvian hospital.publishersversionPeer reviewe

The co-influence of noise and carbon dioxide on humans in the work and living environment

The aim of the paper is to investigate the co-influence of noise and carbon dioxide on people in different situations (inside/outside houses/classrooms) depending on the traffic intensity, the fuel used for heating in residential buildings etc.). All the measurements and the questionnaire have been carried out during the autumn of 2019 (at the mean temperature of 5–10 °C). Riga has a more intensive traffic compared to Tallinn and has greater problems of exceeding the permissible noise levels. The levels of carbon dioxide inside classrooms are also very high in Latvia (1,500–2,000 ppm). The concentration of carbon dioxide outside buildings is low in the forest areas (measured in the south of Estonia), being 340–350 ppm. In regional towns, it is 500 ppm (measured in autumn-winter near a busy street). The co-influence of noise and carbon dioxide on the residents has been investigated by using the Weinstein questionnaire. High carbon dioxide levels cause fatigue. Although it was not particularly pointed out by the residents questioned in a panel house with small apartments, the air was considered to be stuffy. The house is situated near a busy street, so the problems with noise are higher. ANOVA statistics has been used for the questionnaire (p < 0.001, α = 0.93). The decrease of noise and carbon dioxide levels help people stay healthy and the environmental impact from the investigation is emphasising the necessity and providing possibilities to decrease the concentration of CO2 in the ambient air

Beliefs, practices and health care seeking behavior of parents regarding fever in children

Funding Information: Acknowledgments: The authors thank all the data collectors, clinicians and parents who participated in the study. This research project was coordinated by State Research programme “BIOMEDICINE”, Project No. 5.6.2. “Research on acute and chronic diseases in children of wide age range to develop diagnostic and therapeutic algorithms to reduce mortality, prolong survival and improve quality of life”. Publisher Copyright: © 2019 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.Background and objectives: Fever in children is one of the most common reasons for seeking medical attention. Parents often have misconceptions about the effects to fever, which leads to inappropriate use of medication and nonurgent visits to emergency departments (ED). The aim of this study was to clarify the beliefs on the effects and management of fever and to identify healthcare seeking patterns among parents of febrile children in Latvia. Materials and Methods: Parents and legal guardians of children attending ED with febrile illness were included in the study. Participants were recruited in Children’s Clinical University Hospital (CCUH) in Riga, and in six regional hospitals in Latvia. Data on beliefs about fever, administration of antipyretics, healthcare-seeking behavior, and experience in communication with health care workers were collected via questionnaire. Results: In total, 355 participants were enrolled: 199 in CCUH and 156 in regional hospitals; 59.2% of participants considered fever itself as indicative of serious illness and 92.8% believed it could raise the child’s body temperature up to a dangerous level. Antipyretics were usually administered at median temperature of 38.0 °C, and the median temperature believed to be dangerous was 39.7 °C; 56.7% of parents usually contacted a doctor within the first 24 h of the illness. Parents who believed that lower temperatures are dangerous to a child were more likely to contact a doctor earlier and out-of-hours; 60.1% of participants had contacted their family doctor prior their visit to ED. Parental evaluation of satisfaction with the information and reassurance provided by the doctors at the hospital was higher than of that provided by their family doctor; 68.2% of participants felt safer when their febrile children were treated at the hospital. Conclusions: Fever itself was regarded as indicative of serious illness and potentially dangerous to the child’s life. These misconceptions lead to inappropriate administration of antipyretics and early-seeking of medical attention, even out-of-hours. Hospital environment was viewed as safer and more reassuring when dealing with febrile illness in children. More emphasis must be placed on parental education on proper management of fever, especially in primary care.publishersversionPeer reviewe

Integrating Clinical Signs at Presentation and Clinician's Non-analytical Reasoning in Prediction Models for Serious Bacterial Infection in Febrile Children Presenting to Emergency Department

Funding Information: The study was partially derived from the PERFORM (Personalised Risk Assessment in Febrile Illness to Optimise Real-Life Management Across the European Union) project, which has been supported by funding received from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (PERFORM) under Grant Agreement No. 668303. Publisher Copyright: Copyright © 2022 Urbane, Petrosina, Zavadska and Pavare.Objective: Development and validation of clinical prediction model (CPM) for serious bacterial infections (SBIs) in children presenting to the emergency department (ED) with febrile illness, based on clinical variables, clinician's “gut feeling,” and “sense of reassurance. Materials and Methods: Febrile children presenting to the ED of Children's Clinical University Hospital (CCUH) between April 1, 2017 and December 31, 2018 were enrolled in a prospective observational study. Data on clinical signs and symptoms at presentation, together with clinician's “gut feeling” of something wrong and “sense of reassurance” were collected as candidate variables for CPM. Variable selection for the CPM was performed using stepwise logistic regression (forward, backward, and bidirectional); Akaike information criterion was used to limit the number of parameters and simplify the model. Bootstrapping was applied for internal validation. For external validation, the model was tested in a separate dataset of patients presenting to six regional hospitals between January 1 and March 31, 2019. Results: The derivation cohort consisted of 517; 54% (n = 279) were boys, and the median age was 58 months. SBI was diagnosed in 26.7% (n = 138). Validation cohort included 188 patients; the median age was 28 months, and 26.6% (n = 50) developed SBI. Two CPMs were created, namely, CPM1 consisting of six clinical variables and CPM2 with four clinical variables plus “gut feeling” and “sense of reassurance.” The area under the curve (AUC) for receiver operating characteristics (ROC) curve of CPM1 was 0.744 (95% CI, 0.683–0.805) in the derivation cohort and 0.692 (95% CI, 0.604–0.780) in the validation cohort. AUC for CPM2 was 0.783 (0.727–0.839) and 0.752 (0.674–0.830) in derivation and validation cohorts, respectively. AUC of CPM2 in validation population was significantly higher than that of CPM1 [p = 0.037, 95% CI (−0.129; −0.004)]. A clinical evaluation score was derived from CPM2 to stratify patients in “low risk,” “gray area,” and “high risk” for SBI. Conclusion: Both CPMs had moderate ability to predict SBI and acceptable performance in the validation cohort. Adding variables “gut feeling” and “sense of reassurance” in CPM2 improved its ability to predict SBI. More validation studies are needed for the assessment of applicability to all febrile patients presenting to ED.publishersversionPeer reviewe

Value of parental concern and clinician's gut feeling in recognition of serious bacterial infections : A prospective observational study

Funding Information: Authors are thankful to State Research programme “BIOMEDICINE”, Project No. 5.6.2. “Research on acute and chronic diseases in children of wide age range to develop diagnostic and therapeutic algorithms to reduce mortality, prolong survival and improve quality of life”. This manuscript was drafted as a part of the project. We thank all the participating clinicians and research team of data collectors. Funding Information: This research was funded by State Research programme “BIOMEDICINE”, Project No. 5.6.2. “Research on acute and chronic diseases in children of wide age range to develop diagnostic and therapeutic algorithms to reduce mortality, prolong survival and improve quality of life”. This manuscript was drafted as a part of the project. The funders had no role in the design of the study; in the collection, analyses, or interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript, or in the decision to publish the results. Publisher Copyright: © 2019 The Author(s).Background: Serious bacterial infections (SBI) are a significant cause of mortality worldwide. Parental concern and clinician's gut feeling that there is something wrong has been associated with increased likelihood of developing SBI in primary care studies. The aim of this study is to assess the diagnostic value of parental concern and gut feeling at the emergency department of a tertiary hospital. Methods: This prospective observational study included children with fever attending the emergency department of Children's Clinical University hospital in Riga between October 2017 and July 2018. Data were collected via parental and clinician questionnaires. "Gut feeling" was defined as intuitive feeling that the child may have a serious illness, and "Sense of reassurance" as a feeling that the child has a self-limiting illness. "Parental concern" was defined as impression that this illness is different from previous illnesses. SBI included bacterial meningitis, sepsis, bacteraemia, pneumonia, urinary tract infection, appendicitis, bacterial gastroenteritis, and osteomyelitis. Pearson's Chi-Squared test or Fisher's exact test were used to compare the variables between children with and without SBI. Positive likelihood ratio was calculated for "gut feeling", "sense of reassurance", and parental concern. Results: The study included 162 patients aged 2 months to 17.8 years. Forty-six patients were diagnosed with SBI. "Sense of reassurance" expressed by all clinicians was associated with lower likelihood of SBI (positive likelihood ratio 8.8, 95% confidence interval 2.2-34.8). "Gut feeling" was not significantly predictive of the patient being diagnosed with SBI (positive likelihood ratio 3.1, 95% confidence interval 1.9-5.1), The prognostic rule-in value of parental concern was insignificant (positive likelihood ratio 1.4, 95% confidence interval 1.1-1.7). Conclusion: Sense of reassurance was useful in ruling out SBI. Parental concern was not significantly predictive of SBI.publishersversionPeer reviewe

Coping with febrile illness in children : A qualitative interview study of parents

Funding Information: This study was part of the State Research Programme “Biomedicine”, Project No. 5.6.2. “Research on acute and chronic diseases in children of wide age range to develop diagnostic and therapeutic algorithms to reduce mortality, prolong survival and improve quality of life”. Publisher Copyright: © 2019 Urzula Nora Urbane et al., published by Sciendo 2019.The aim of this study was to investigate parental perception of febrile illness in their children, the most commonly applied management practices, as well as the expectations from clinicians when coping with fever in children. The study included parents of patients admitted to the Emergency and Observation Department of Children's Clinical University Hospital in Ria, Latvia. Data were collected via semi-structured interviews. All interviews were transcribed, and the transcripts analysed by inductive thematic analysis. Thirty-four parental interviews were analysed. Six themes emerged from the study, which were: signs causing concern; beliefs regarding fever; assessment and monitoring of fever; fever management practices; help-seeking behaviour; and expectations from the healthcare personnel. Many parents believed that fever could potentially cause injuries to the nervous system, kidneys, the brain, other internal organs, and even cause death. The perceived threat of fever resulted in frequent temperature measurements and administration of antipyretics. Meeting the emotional and information needs of the parents were considered as equally important to meeting the child's medical needs. The study found that fever phobia exists among parents. Parental misconceptions of fever lead to overly zealous management practices. Parental education initiatives must be organised in order to improve parental knowledge of fever and its management in children.publishersversionPeer reviewe