The Efficacy of Psychosocial Services in Comprehensive Cancer Care: A Program Evaluation

On average, regardless of other factors, persons affected by cancer will experience some level of distress associated with the disease and its sequelae. Left untreated, psychosocial problems can, and often do, adversely affect a person\u27s health and healthcare treatment. As a result, national initiatives have been implemented to recognize and treat psychosocial stressors to optimize a person\u27s functioning and facilitate successful movement through the medical system. A program evaluation was conducted to examine how Providence Regional Cancer Partnership has addressed the psychosocial needs of its patient population. Specifically, the psychosocial services department, Patient Support Services, was evaluated to understand how program services were (a) utilized and represented across patient demographics and (b) valued or regarded within the larger cancer treatment center. Archival data was gathered from electronic health records to determine how program services were utilized and by whom. Two surveys were designed and distributed to understand the experiences and opinions of program services. Evaluation findings clarified areas of strength and identified areas of improvement. Program strengths provided insight into services that were well utilized and most valued and affirm the program’s mission to reach a broad patient population and provide services to patients in high need. Utilization of program services indicated two areas of underrepresentation (gender and cancer diversity) and one area of underutilization (support groups). Areas of program dissatisfaction identified by patients and staff were categorized into three themes: education and outreach; program services and access; and Patient Support Services staffing. Recommendations were developed with input from Patient Support Services and presented to stakeholders and program administrators to make informed decisions about desired program changes. In general, evaluation findings provided efficacy of program services and support for the merit of psychosocial services within a cancer treatment facility

Kako smo poboljšanim mjerama praćenja izloženosti i zaštite na radu snizili razine formaldehida u zraku u sveučilišnoj bolnici u Italiji: sažetak 20 godina iskustava

The last two decades have been crucial for the assessment of airborne formaldehyde (FA) exposure in healthcare environments due to changes in limits and reference values, definition of carcinogenicity, and new monitoring methods. The aim of this study was to analyse twenty years (1999–2019) of experience in automatic, continuous airborne FA monitoring in the Pathology Laboratory and operating rooms at the Careggi University Hospital, Florence, Italy. These 20 years saw gradual improvements in FA monitoring of exposed employees considered at maximum risk, including improvements in analytical methods of detection and sampling strategies, which came with changes in procedures and workflow operations. In 2019, after the adoption of safe practices, including a closed-circuit system using pre-loaded containers and a vacuum sealing, 94 % of the total measurements (FA concentrations) were lower than 16 μg/m3, and only 6 % ranged from 21 to 75 μg/m3. In the studied work units, the ratio between area and personal readings ranged from 0.9 to 1.0, both for long and short-term sampling. Personal sampling was simplified with a new workstation, which integrated different monitoring systems into an innovative ergonomic armchair equipped with personal sampling devices. Area monitoring was also improved with a real-time, continuous photoacoustic instrument. Over these 20 years, FA exposure significantly dropped, which coincided with optimised histology workflow and implementation of safety practices. For high-throughput screening and cost savings we propose an innovative ergonomic armchair station which allows remote continuous monitoring.Posljednja dva desetljeća bila su iznimno važna za procjenu izloženosti formaldehidu (FA) u zraku u zdravstvenim ustanovama zahvaljujući promjenama u preporučenim maksimalnim i referentnim vrijednostima, definiciji njegove kancerogenosti i novim metodama mjerenja/praćenja. Cilj je ovog istraživanja bio analizirati dvadeset godina (1999. – 2000.) iskustva u automatskom, kontinuiranom mjerenju razina FA-a u laboratoriju za patologiju i operacijskim dvoranama talijanske sveučilišne bolnice Careggi u Firenzi. Tijekom tih dvadeset godina bolnica je postupno poboljšavala metode praćenja razina FA-a i osoblja izloženoga najvećem riziku, analitičke metode detekcije i strategije uzorkovanja koje su bile popraćene promjenama u odgovarajućim postupcima i organizaciji rada. Nakon usvajanja novih postupaka zaštite na radu 2019., uključujući i zatvoreni sustav rukovanja spremnicima i sustav vakuumskoga zatvaranja, razine FA-a u 94 % izmjera bile su niže od 16 μg/m3, a samo 6 % izmjera kretalo se u rasponu od 21 do 75 μg/m3. Omjer izmjerenih razina prostornih i osobnih skupljača uzoraka u ispitanim scenarijima kretao se od 0,9 do 1,0, bez obzira na to je li posrijedi kratkoročno ili dugoročno mjerenje. Mjerenje osobnim mjeračima dodatno je pojednostavljeno novom radnom stanicom u obliku ergonomskoga radnog stolca, koji u sebi objedinjuje različite sustave praćenja i osobne mjerače. Nisu zaostala ni poboljšanja u prostornom mjerenju, budući da je uveden novi fotoakustični uređaj za kontinuirano mjerenje u stvarnom vremenu. U tih 20 godina izloženost FA-u drastično se smanjila, što je popraćeno poboljšanom organizacijom obrade histoloških uzoraka i zaštite na radu. Radnu stanicu u obliku ergonomskoga stolca svakako preporučujemo zbog velikog kapaciteta protoka za probirno mjerenje, značajnih ušteda i mogućnosti daljinskog upravljanja

Social Work and Social Welfare from a Multidisciplinary Perspective - A Challenge for Researchers

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Community series in advancing social purpose in organizations: An interdisciplinary perspective

Social purpose is important for advancing our understanding of how to make positive impacts in society through business purpose and profit and for employees finding meaning in their lives through work. In this community series, four manuscripts highlight the importance of human and social wellbeing and what it means within an organizational psychology context. Specifically, the authors demonstrate how organizations could create innovative business models in social purpose (De Silva et al., 2021) through better management of inclusion, psychological safety, job insecurity and stress and the “United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (2015) 3, 6, 7, 8, 9, 12, 13, and 17”

Editorial: Advancing Social Purpose in Organizations: An Interdisciplinary Perspective

Currently, there are many skeptics questioning the credibility of the Business Roundtables’s pledge and commitment to build and deliver transparent socially responsible corporate governance that delivers value for all stakeholders’ future success in business, communities, and country. Rodríguez-Vilá and Bharadwaj suggest that changing course on a firm’s social purpose is difficult and ill-advised because success depends on the legitimacy of the brand’s claim. Consequently, inconsistent social purpose claims may raise stakeholder doubts about the firm’s integrity or commitment to social purpose. For instance, “social responsibility could be employed for stakeholder social governing power and economic benefits, rather than societal good” (Thiel, p. 1). Alternatively, Donaldson and Walsh propose there is no theory of the firm that can serve us well when we attempt to understand the purpose or place of business in society. The authors develop the beginnings of a theory of business that is both empirical and normative to highlight collective value. Clearly, social purpose in organizations is an underdeveloped topic. This Research Topic aims to advance social purpose in organizations to better understand how to connect the collective value link between the organization and society. The 13 articles in this Research Topic contribute to the literature for advancing social purpose in organizations through research studies from different sectors, industries, countries, and cultures. These studies are expected to deepen interdisciplinary knowledge on social purpose in organizations and lay a foundation for interested scholars to undertake in their future inquiries

Predictors of trauma in bank employee robbery victims

In the literature, there are many studies that have investigated the psychological reactions resulting from traumatic events of varying degrees, such as wars, natural disasters, and acts of violence. Few, however, are the searches performed on employees who are victims of robbery. We carried out a research to assess the psychological reactions of 644 bank employees who had been victims of robbery, especially with regard to the possible development of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The aim of this study was to evaluate the variables pre-, peri-, and postrobbery trauma in relation to the development of psychopathological symptoms. The exploration of the reactions after the robbery was carried out on 644 employees of a banking institution, present throughout the national territory, through a survey, consisting of a general description of the event, the Impact of Event Scale Revised-6 scale, and the General Health Questionnaire-12, during the days after the robbery. The analysis showed that the development of pretrauma variables is not significant and that peritrauma variables are partially significant. In particular, being directly involved in the robbery, the thought of being hurt, and the feeling of intense fear are associated with posttraumatic symptoms. Finally, among the posttrauma variables, anxiety and depression played a major role. Surprisingly, a lower level of self-confidence seems to be related negatively to the PTSD symptomatology