On leadership development in the national health service Scotland

The National Health Service (NHS), which delivers healthcare to all in the UK, is undergoing profound change, from the role of the primary-care providers, the general practitioners, to the specialist hospital managers. There is a drive that ranges from greater care in the community to more effective use of highly specialist resources in hospitals. This is linked to the restructuring of the management in the NHS, requiring a new breed of leaders to achieve organisational change, and to attain development and growth. To develop the new cadre of managers, an exciting Programme is being established for Leadership and Organisational Development. This paper reflects on the background to the change in the NHS, and provides an account of the Leadership Development Programme that is being implemented in the NHS Scotland

The competences of command cadre of the airport fire service on the example of safety assurance of Warsaw Okęcie Airport

The globalization process in almost all spheres of our life causes a possibility of making equal living standards in all countries of the world. An introduction to globalization was undoubtedly the development of air transport which greatly accelerated the possibility of travelling on all continents. Along with the development of technology, airplanes used for carrying people and cargo become much better, quicker, but they also become more and more complicated in respect of their construction. This also gives rise to requirements that airports have to comply with, i.e. in order to receive super modern machines they must be equipped with modern navigational facilities, modern equipment for surface handling of airplanes and passengers. This, in turn, requires a continuous development of knowledge and competence from airport staff to be flexible in the constantly modernized environment. In consideration of a rapid development of air transport, and consequently its increasing importance for the world economy countries face a problem how to assure the high quality of aviation services, its access for a man-in-the-street, and first of all safety in its broad meaning, which is a synonym of quality in air transport. Nowadays, this is the main problem in air transport which has priority before the comfort of a traveller. Safety in aviation is approached in two dimensions – prevention of occurrence events and removal of results of unforeseeable incidents, accidents or catastrophes. A special part in this area is performed by the airport rescue and firefighting service, commonly called the Airport Fire Service (AFS). The main requirement for airport rescuers set by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) is conducting rescue and firefighting operations in case of an aircraft or airport incident (disaster) [...]

Spartan Daily, February 26, 2008

Volume 130, Issue 19https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/spartandaily/10445/thumbnail.jp

Spartan Daily, February 26, 2008

Volume 130, Issue 19https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/spartandaily/10445/thumbnail.jp

A Review of Generalist and Specialist Community Health Workers for Delivering Adolescent Health Services in sub-Saharan Africa.

The health of adolescents is increasingly seen as an important international priority because the world's one point eight billion young people (aged 10 to 24 years) accounts for 15.5% of the global burden of disease and are disproportionately located in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Furthermore, an estimated 70% of premature adult deaths are attributable to unhealthy behaviors often initiated in adolescence (such as smoking, obesity, and physical inactivity). In order for health services to reach adolescents in LMICs, innovative service delivery models need to be explored and tested. This paper reviews the literature on generalist and specialist community health workers (CHWs) to assess their potential for strengthening the delivery of adolescent health services. We reviewed the literature on CHWs using Medline (PubMed), EBSCO Global Health, and Global Health Archive. Search terms (n = 19) were sourced from various review articles and combined with subject heading 'sub-Saharan Africa' to identify English language abstracts of original research articles on generalist and specialist CHWs. A total of 106 articles, from 1985 to 2012, and representing 24 African countries, matched our search criteria. A single study in sub-Saharan Africa used CHWs to deliver adolescent health services with promising results. Though few comprehensive evaluations of large-scale CHW programs exist, we found mixed evidence to support the use of either generalist or specialist CHW models for delivering adolescent health services. This review found that innovative service delivery approaches, such as those potentially offered by CHWs, for adolescents in sub-Saharan Africa are lacking, CHW programs have proliferated despite the absence of high quality evaluations, rigorous studies to establish the comparative effectiveness of generalist versus specialist CHW programs are needed, and further investigation of the role of CHWs in providing adolescent health services in sub-Saharan Africa is warranted

Policy and Practice Brief: PASS: SSI’s Plan for Achieving Self-Support; This Self-Directed Vocational Rehabilitation Plan is an Alternative Funding Source to Support a Range of Work Goals

This primer provides an in-depth overview of the Plan for Achieving Self-Support (PASS), a Supplemental Security Income work incentive program. Detailed is how the PASS can support self-directed vocational rehabilitation and its impact on an individual’s benefits as they progress toward their established work goal. The process for completing a PASS Application is also reviewed

Breaking the Barriers to Specialty Care: Practical Ideas to Improve Health Equity and Reduce Cost - Increasing Specialty Care Availability

Tremendous health outcome inequities remain in the U.S. across race and ethnicity, gender and sexual orientation, socio-economic status, and geography—particularly for those with serious conditions such as lung or skin cancer, HIV/AIDS, or cardiovascular disease.These inequities are driven by a complex set of factors—including distance to a specialist, insurance coverage, provider bias, and a patient's housing and healthy food access. These inequities not only harm patients, resulting in avoidable illness and death, they also drive unnecessary health systems costs.This 5-part series highlights the urgent need to address these issues, providing resources such as case studies, data, and recommendations to help the health care sector make meaningful strides toward achieving equity in specialty care.Top TakeawaysThere are vast inequalities in access to and outcomes from specialty health care in the U.S. These inequalities are worst for minority patients, low-income patients, patients with limited English language proficiency, and patients in rural areas.A number of solutions have emerged to improve health outcomes for minority and medically underserved patients. These solutions fall into three main categories: increasing specialty care availability, ensuring high-quality care, and helping patients engage in care.As these inequities are also significant drivers of health costs, payers, health care provider organizations, and policy makers have a strong incentive to invest in solutions that will both improve outcomes and reduce unnecessary costs. These actors play a critical role in ensuring that equity is embedded into core care delivery at scale.Part 2: "Increasing Specialty Care Availability"Solutions such as telemedicine, innovative partnerships between specialists and primary care physicians, and centralized local referral networks improve access to specialty care

The Helper-Therapy Principle Applied to Weight Management Specialists

One hundred twenty applicants to a weight management specialist training program were studied over a 33-month period. Following a nine-month training period, Specialists (N = 29; those leading at least one posttraining weight management group) were compared to Contact Controls (N = 31; persons participating in the weight management program, but not in the helper role) and No Contact Controls (N = 60; those not accepted into the training program and whose only contact with the program was for data collection purposes) in a test of the helper-therapy principle. The major question was, What are the long-term physical, psychological, and behavioral effects on overweight and formerly overweight individuals involved in helping other persons manage their weight? Data gathered at 12 and 24 months posttraining revealed few differences between the total group of specialists and persons in the two control groups. However, when the data were analyzed by the amount of commitment to the specialist role, it was found that the Higher Involved Specialists (N = 16; those who led two or more weight management groups in the year posttraining) were significantly more likely to lose additional weight (or maintain earlier weight losses), to be more consistent in their adherence to the eating and activity levels advocated by the program, to feel better about themselves and their bodies, and to maintain their levels of general well-being than control subjects or the Lesser Involved Specialists. These latter individuals (N = 13) were significantly the worse for having gone through specialist training, but not fully carrying out the specialist role