Stay at Home Dads: How fatherhood is evolving in Irish society.

This research project is an investigation of the changing role of fatherhood in Irish society, with a particular focus on stay at home dads. The main research question was “is masculinity an issue for stay at home dads in Ireland?” My aim was to look at how men experience at home parenting in a society that is only beginning to recognise the validity of such a phenomenon, and how this effects their place in the social world. In the literature review, I look at how fatherhood was viewed in the past and how much of this was socially constructed, and at fatherhood in Irish society today. I also look at ideas concerning masculinity and what that word means, and how feminism has affected men. The experiences of stay at home dads in America are also looked at, as this is where the largest concentration of them exists. The methodology section deals with the research methods I chose for the project, and their suitability for the cause. Details of how I went about conducting the research and gathering my data are provided.The data analysis section deals with the issues that were raised as being important by my interview participants, and also my participant observation calls into question some of the old myths about men and their ability to care for children while out in public. In my conclusion, I discuss my how my research questions were revised after the conducting of the actual research, and what the implications for this are. I look at the support that these men receive, what are the problems that they encounter, and what is it that drives them to take this role. It is clear that the government need to stop discriminating by gender when it comes to parental leave and social welfare, and the reasons for this are discussed in detail

Equality Through Precarious Work Regulation: Lessons from the Domestic Work Debates in Defence of the Standard Employment Relationship

Precarious work is a crucial impediment to substantive equality. This paper examines the regulation of precariousness in the light of two recent trends: the casualisation of employment in the wake of the crisis, and global efforts to regulate domestic work (e.g. ILO Domestic Workers Convention (No 189)). It takes these developments as an opportunity to explore the effective regulation of contemporary labour markets, and in particular the role of the Standard Employment Relationship (SER). The paper returns to two prominent accounts of the SER: Vosko's critique of SER-centrism in non-standard work regulation and Bosch's notion of the flexible-SER. It argues that the domestic work debates confirm the value of a modernised SER in its temporal dimensions. Yet the literature on precarious work tends to focus on regulatory settings in which the standard model remains dominant. The key contemporary challenge is to identify strategies that will embed this model in settings in which it is in decline or was never deep-rooted. Drawing on the notion of ‘reconstructive labour law’, the paper argues for innovative legal mechanisms that prompt the construction of flexibilised SER-type relationships. It concludes, however, that for these strategies to be effective, casualisation must be identified not only in contractual arrangements but also in working-time practices

Stay at Home Dads: How fatherhood is evolving in Irish society.

This research project is an investigation of the changing role of fatherhood in Irish society, with a particular focus on stay at home dads. The main research question was “is masculinity an issue for stay at home dads in Ireland?” My aim was to look at how men experience at home parenting in a society that is only beginning to recognise the validity of such a phenomenon, and how this effects their place in the social world. In the literature review, I look at how fatherhood was viewed in the past and how much of this was socially constructed, and at fatherhood in Irish society today. I also look at ideas concerning masculinity and what that word means, and how feminism has affected men. The experiences of stay at home dads in America are also looked at, as this is where the largest concentration of them exists. The methodology section deals with the research methods I chose for the project, and their suitability for the cause. Details of how I went about conducting the research and gathering my data are provided.The data analysis section deals with the issues that were raised as being important by my interview participants, and also my participant observation calls into question some of the old myths about men and their ability to care for children while out in public. In my conclusion, I discuss my how my research questions were revised after the conducting of the actual research, and what the implications for this are. I look at the support that these men receive, what are the problems that they encounter, and what is it that drives them to take this role. It is clear that the government need to stop discriminating by gender when it comes to parental leave and social welfare, and the reasons for this are discussed in detail

Barriers and facilitators to opioid deprescribing among Advanced Nurse Practitioners: A qualitative interview study

Aim: To explore the experiences primary care Advanced Nurse Practitioners have had in relation to deprescribing opioids in chronic non‐malignant pain. Design: A qualitative interview study. Methods: Primary care Advanced Nurse Practitioners were recruited from across the Northern Ireland GP Federations. Data collection for this study took place between April and June 2022. In total, 10 semi‐structured online interviews were conducted. Interviews were audio and visually recorded, transcribed verbatim and interpreted using a thematic analysis framework. The COREQ criteria were used to guide the reporting of this study. Results: The Advanced Nurse Practitioners experienced several challenges associated with opioid deprescribing and the implementation of current chronic pain guidelines. The main barriers identified were difficulties engaging patients in deprescribing discussions, a lack of availability of supportive therapies and poor access to secondary care services. The barriers identified directly impacted on their ability to deliver best practice which resulted in a sense of professional powerlessness. Conclusion: The experiences of the Advanced Nurse Practitioners demonstrate that opioid deprescribing in patients with chronic pain is challenging, and implementation of current chronic pain guidelines is difficult. Impact: This study contributes to existing literature on the topic of reducing opioid prescribing and as far as the authors are aware, is the first study to examine the experiences of primary care advanced nurse practitioners in this context. These findings will be of interest to other primary care practitioners, and prescribers involved in the management of chronic non‐malignant pain. Patient or Public Contribution: No patient or public contribution

Recurrence of Clostridium difficile infection in the Western Australian population

Clostridium difficile, the most common cause of hospital-associated diarrhoea in developed countries, presents major public health challenges. The high clinical and economic burden from C. difficile infection (CDI) relates to the high frequency of recurrent infections caused by either the same or different strains of C. difficile. An interval of 8 weeks after index infection is commonly used to classify recurrent CDI episodes. We assessed strains of C. difficile in a sample of patients with recurrent CDI in Western Australia from October 2011 to July 2017. The performance of different intervals between initial and subsequent episodes of CDI was investigated. Of 4612 patients with CDI, 1471 (32%) were identified with recurrence. PCR ribotyping data were available for initial and recurrent episodes for 551 patients. Relapse (recurrence with same ribotype (RT) as index episode) was found in 350 (64%) patients and reinfection (recurrence with new RT) in 201 (36%) patients. Our analysis indicates that 8- and 20-week intervals failed to adequately distinguish reinfection from relapse. In addition, living in a non-metropolitan area modified the effect of age on the risk of relapse. Where molecular epidemiological data are not available, we suggest that applying an 8-week interval to define recurrent CDI requires more consideration