Development of critical thinking abilities is essential for students in clinical disciplines of the health sciences. Past research has shown that critical thinking is a learned skill that can be fostered through teaching strategies. Ten educational strategies that were developed and tested by the authors in online courses are presented to assist instructors to encourage students in the health sciences to improve critical thinking processes.
This study is about the interrelations between three factors which are financial distress, health condition and social relation with mental illness among students in Universiti Utara Malaysia. Mental illness affects individuals feeling, mood as well as thinking processes. This condition eventually disturbs the ability and functions that relates towards others. People with same diagnosis face different experience. A mental illness is not based on one specific event, therefore may include a stressful job or home life, victim of a crime, entering the college life or workforce, marriage, children, divorce, job changes or a job loss. Statistical Package software for Social Science (SPSS) Version 25.0 was used to analyse the data. Results showed that financial distress, health condition and social relation have a positive relationship towards mental illness.
This paper provides a constructive illustration of ongoing methodological developments in the use of TOC Thinking Processes and logic tools. In particular, the paper outlines a new approach to using the Evaporating Cloud, Current Reality Branch and Future Reality Branch, and demonstrates how that approach can be used to construct a comprehensive problem solution to a common problem, that of personal productivity.
This paper presents a structured methodology for learning from experience. It uses the Thinking Processes of the Theory of Constraints with some changes. The objective of the methodology is to learn from single events to identify flawed mental models, update them and fix the processes and norms that have been based on the flawed model. The methodology as such could be used as a managerial control mechanism, especially at times of change, to keep the organization on the right direction pointed by the top management.
Abstract
Background
Surgical Tray Rationalization (STR) consists of a systematic reduction in the number of surgical instruments to perform specific procedures without compromising patient safety while reducing losses in the sterilization and assembly of trays. STR is one example of initiatives to improve process performance that have been widely reported in industrial settings but only recently have gained popularity in healthcare organizations.
Methods
We conduct a scoping review of the literature to identify and map available evidence on surgical tray management. Five methodological stages are implemented and reported; they are: identifying research questions, identifying relevant studies, study selection, charting the data, and collating, summarizing and reporting the results.
Results
We reviewed forty-eight articles on STR, which were grouped according to their main proposed approaches: expert analysis, lean practices, and mathematical programming. We identify the most frequently used techniques within each approach and point to their potential contributions to operational and economic dimensions of STR. We also consolidate our findings, proposing a roadmap to STR with four generic steps (prepare, rationalize, implement, and consolidate) and recommended associated techniques.
Conclusions
To the best of our knowledge, ours is the first study that reviews and systematizes the existing literature on the subject of STR. Our study closes with the proposition of future research directions, which are presented as nine research questions associated with the four generic steps proposed in the STR roadmap.
Purpose
– Recent literature emphasizes the application of lean manufacturing practices to food processing industries in order to improve operational efficiency and productivity. Only a very limited number of studies have focused on the implementation of lean manufacturing practices within small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) operating in the food sector. The majority of these studies used the case study method and concentrated on individual lean manufacturing techniques geared towards resolving efficiency issues. This paper aims to analyze the status of the lean manufacturing practices and their benefits and barriers among European food processing SMEs.
Design/methodology/approach
– A structured questionnaire was developed to collect data. A total of 35 SMEs' representatives, mostly CEOs and operations managers, participated in the survey. The study investigated the role of two control variables in lean implementation: size of the company and country of origin.
Findings
– The findings show that lean manufacturing practice deployment in food processing SMEs is generally low and still evolving. However, some lean manufacturing practices are more prevalent than others; e.g. flow, pull and statistical process control are not widely used by the food processing SMEs, whereas total productive maintenance, employee involvement, and customer association are more widespread. The key barriers encountered by food SMEs in the implementation of lean manufacturing practices result from the special characteristics of the food sector, such as highly perishable products, complicated processing, extremely variable raw materials, recipes and unpredictable demand. In addition, lack of knowledge and resources makes it difficult for food processing SMEs to embark on the lean journey.
Originality/value
– The gap in the literature regarding the application of lean manufacturing in the food sector is identified and addressed in this study. The originality of this paper lies in analyzing the current status of the use of lean manufacturing practices among food SMEs in Europe and identifying potential barriers.
Divergent Thinking in Four-Year-Old Children: An Analysis of Thinking Processes in Performing the Alternative Uses Task
