Academic Librarianship and Career Adaptability

The inspiration for this essay is Barbara Fister’s assertion that librarians must embrace functions that have not traditionally been part of the academic librarian’s portfolio. We shall examine the need for career adaptability in librarianship and use a case study to illustrate the four attributes librarians need to develop to ensure career adaptability. The case study involved collaboration between Kansas State University (KSU) Libraries, an agronomy professor, and the Global Research Alliance to develop an open access croplands research database. We will draw upon the field of vocational psychology to discuss career adaptability and ways librarians can develop the traits needed for good career adaptability: career concern, career control, career curiosity and career confidence (4 Cs) (Savickas, 2005)

Medical education and the pursuit of excellence : the quest for the Holy Grail?

Medical education in Europe is currently facing enormous challenges brought about by the number and the diversity of medical schools that are now within the fold. This diversity is amplified by different educational systems, cultural and socioeconomic issues, health care delivery systems and the ever increasing burden of communicable and non-communicable disease. There is also a movement away from traditional taught curricula to curricula that emphasise self-directed learning and thererby promote lifelong learning. The ultimate goal of undergraduate medical curricula should be to produce a medical doctor with certain core competances and the right basis for further specialisation and adaptability to different roles in health care. Furthermore, increasing professional mobility has highlighted the need for the establishment and maintenance of standards for quality assurance common to all EU countries.peer-reviewe

Implementing change in primary care practice: lessons from a mixed-methods evaluation of a frailty initiative

© 2018, BJGP Open. Background: The NHS is facing increasing needs from an aging population, which is acutely visible in the emerging problem of frailty. There is growing evidence describing new models of care for people living with frailty, but a lack of evidence on successful implementation of these complex interventions at the practice level. Aim: This study aimed to determine what factors enable or prevent implementation of a wholesystem, complex intervention for managing frailty (the PACT initiative) in the UK primary care setting. Design & setting: A mixed-methods evaluation study undertaken within a large clinical commissioning group (CCG). Design and analysis was informed by normalisation process theory (NPT). Method: Data collection from six sites included: observation of delivery, interviews with staff, and an online survey. NPT-informed analysis sought to identify enablers and barriers to implementation of change. Results: Seven themes were identified. PACT was valued by professionals and patients but a lack of clarity on its aims was identified as a barrier to implementation. Successful implementation relied on champions pushing the work forward, and dealing with unanticipated resistance. Contracts focused on delivery of service outcomes, but these were sometimes at odds with professional priorities. Implementation followed evidence-informed rather than evidence-based practice, requiring redesign of the intervention and potentially created a new body of knowledge on managing frailty. Conclusion: Successful implementation of complex interventions in primary care need inbuilt capacity for flexibility and adaptability, requiring expertise as well as evidence. Professionals need to be supported to translate innovative practice into practice-based evidence

Self-Efficacy and Emotional Intelligence as Predictors of Perceived Stress in Nursing Professionals

Background: Nursing professionals face a variety of stressful situations daily, where the patients’ own stresses and the demands of their family members are the most important sources of such stress. Methods: The main objectives pursued were to describe the relationships of self-efficacy and emotional intelligence with perceived stress in a sample of nursing professionals. We also developed predictive models for each of the components of perceived stress based on the dimensions of emotional intelligence and self-efficacy, for the total sample, as well as samples differentiated by sex. This study sample consisted of 1777 nurses and was conducted using multiple scales: the perceived stress questionnaire, general self-efficacy scale, and the brief emotional intelligence survey for senior citizens. Results: The variables stress management, mood, adaptability, intrapersonal skills, and self-efficacy explained 22.7% of the variance in the harassment–social component, while these same variables explained 28.9% of the variance in the irritability–tension–fatigue dimension. The variables mood, stress management, self-efficacy, intrapersonal, and interpersonal explained 38.6% of the variance in the energy–joy component, of which the last variable offers the most explanatory capacity. Finally, the variables stress management, mood, interpersonal, self-efficacy and intrapersonal skills explained 27.2% of the variance in the fear–anxiety dimension. Conclusion: The results of this study suggest that one way to reduce stress in professionals would be to help them improve their emotional intelligence in programs (tailored to consider particularities of either sex) within the framework of nursing, enabling them to develop and acquire more effective stress coping strategies, which would alleviate distress and increase the wellbeing of health professionals