Anaesthetists’ Non-Technical Skills (ANTS): evaluation of a behavioural marker system † †Declaration of interest: The ANTS system was developed under research funding from the Scottish Council for Postgraduate Medical and Dental Education, now part of NHS Education for Scotland, through grants to the University of Aberdeen from September 1999 to August 2003. The views presented in this paper are those of the authors and should not be taken to represent the position or policy of the funding body.

Due to the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, dental treatment performed by undergraduate students at the University of Marburg/Germany was immediately stopped in spring 2020 and stepwise reinstalled under a new hygiene concept until full recovery in winter 2020/21. Patient treatment in the student courses was evaluated based on three aspects: (1) Testing of patients with a SARS-CoV-2 Rapid Antigen (SCRA) Test applied by student assistants (SA); (2) Improved hygiene regimen, with separated treatment units, cross-ventilation, pre-operative mouth rinse and rubber dam application wherever possible; (3) Recruitment of patients: 735 patients were pre-registered for the two courses; 384 patients were treated and a total of 699 tests with the SCRA test were performed by SAs. While half of the patients treated in the course were healthy, over 40% of the patients that were pre-registered but not treated in the course revealed a disease being relevant to COVID (p < 0.001). 46 patients had concerns to visit the dental hospital due to the increase of COVID incidence levels, 14 persons refused to be tested. The presented concept was suitable to enable patient treatment in the student course during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic.

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“Systems”, Strengths, Weaknesses and Challenges

International Journal of Systems and Society ◽

10.4018/ijss.2017010106 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 4 (1) ◽

pp. 49-59

Author(s):

Frank Stowell

Keyword(s):

Action Research ◽

Systems Thinking ◽

Research Funding ◽

Cumulative Effect ◽

Research Programme ◽

Common Reason ◽

New Ideas ◽

The Subject ◽

The University

Systems and Cybernetics no longer occupies the position, in academic circles, it once did. There are many reasons why this is the case but a common reason given is the lack of research funding for the subject. The knock-on effect is that the subject has fewer 'champions' and as a consequence is less prominent then it once was. There are many factors that mitigate against research funding for the domain but the cumulative effect is that there are few (if any) new ideas generated now which in turn is having an impact upon the number of academics attracted to it. In this paper the author revisits the action research programme at the University of Lancaster. This project contributed valuable insights into organisational inquiry and the nature of Systems thinking for over 30 years. In this paper the author revisits the programme to discover if there are lessons to be learnt that may be adopted to help provide a means of re-establishing the profile of the domain.

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The Cost of Merit in University Research1

Australian Journal of Education ◽

10.1177/000494418202600305 ◽

1982 ◽

Vol 26 (3) ◽

pp. 279-291 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Stuart Macdonald ◽

Tom Mandeville ◽

Don Lamberton

Keyword(s):

Research Funding ◽

Assessment Process ◽

Research Report ◽

Research Projects ◽

Staff Time ◽

Research Committee ◽

The Cost ◽

The University ◽

Australian Universities ◽

Increase Efficiency

This paper is based on a research report published at the University of Queensland in November 1980, which emanated from research commissioned by the University's Research Committee and carried out by the authors. The study was concerned with the problem of distributing resources available for research and concluded that there was not an efficient use of such resources in the University of Queensland. Part of the study considered attempts to increase efficiency by funding those research projects which seemed to possess most merit. Such policy is becoming more common in Australian universities and this is understandable during a period of financial stringency. However, the policy seems to ignore the substantial costs associated with applying for merit grants, and to assume that any scheme funding the most deserving research automatically improves the efficiency of research funding. That is not necessarily so. Most research funding in Australian universities is provided in the form of staff salaries. When staff time is occupied by the merit application and assessment process, it is not available for research. Consequently there is a cost to research, a cost that is not widely appreciated and one which may well exceed the benefits of ill-considered merit schemes.

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Introduction: Inequality in Education – Innovation in Methods, with reflections by Dr Nicola Ingram and Professor Melanie Nind

Exchanges The Interdisciplinary Research Journal ◽

10.31273/eirj.v2i2.112 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 2 (2) ◽

pp. 224-233

Author(s):

Carli Ria Rowell ◽

Siobhan Dytham ◽

Nicola Ingram ◽

Melanie Nind ◽

Carli Ria Rowell ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Research Funding ◽

Future Prospect ◽

Inequality In Education ◽

Education Innovation ◽

The Uk ◽

The University ◽

The Impact

Against a backdrop of metamorphosis in the UK educational landscape and the increased focus on ‘innovation’ in research funding and postgraduate programmes, a conference entitled ‘Inequality in Education – Innovation in Methods’ (IEIM) was held at the University of Warwick in November 2014 to offer space to reflect on ‘inequality in education’ as a field of research and the impact, and future prospect for ‘innovation in method’ in this field. This article introduces this featured section, including reflections from Dr Nicola Ingram and Professor Melanie Nind, who both delivered keynote addresses at the conference.

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Research and development projects fuzzy definition in the university context

Proceedings of 6th International Scientific Conference Contemporary Issues in Business, Management and Economics Engineering ‘2019 ◽

10.3846/cibmee.2019.056 ◽

2019 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Dorota Kuchta

Keyword(s):

Research Funding ◽

Fuzzy Theory ◽

Value Added ◽

Project Managers ◽

Structured Interviews ◽

Innovative Potential ◽

Definition Of ◽

The University ◽

Practical Implications ◽

Selection Of

Purpose – research on R&D projects implemented at universities shows that many researchers feel that the requirements set on R&D project definition in the process of calls for projects brake the innovativeness and the freedom of research. Thus, the objective of the paper is to propose a soft, fuzzy set based method of R&D project definition, which would allow to evaluate projects in the stage of project calls, but at the same time would not act contrary to the research ideas of the most ingenious and innovative researchers. Research methodology – the proposal is based on the results of over 70 structured interviews with R&D project managers from Polish and French universities. The respondents expressed their critical opinion about the required definition of R&D projects in the application stage of most calls, suggested which elements should be improved and in which way. Most of them criticised the required detail level of projects description and emphasized the uncertainty present in their research. Then we propose to model this uncertainty by means of fuzzy sets. Findings – the result of the research presented in the paper is a new way of R&D project definition, based on the fuzzy theory, adjustable to each R&D project type. The new method of project definition will express the actual uncertainty and innovative potential of each R&D project and thus allow a selection of R&D projects which would maximise their contribution to the university and science development. Research limitations – the proposed approach needs to be validated and verified on the basis of a big sample of a real world R&D project, with the participation of a representative sample of researchers. Another limitation is a highly probable resistance against such an approach among the researchers and research funding institutions, as it requires a deep analysis of the planned research and its context. Practical implications – it is proposed that the method will be used by research funding institutions in project calls. This will increase the efficiency of financial resources spent on research, in terms of value-added per one dollar invested in the research. Originality/Value – the proposed method is the first approach to project definition based on fuzzy numbers and one of very few existing approaches to project definition taking uncertainty into account

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Novel Assessments of Technical and Nontechnical Cardiac Surgery Quality: Protocol for a Mixed Methods Study (Preprint)

10.2196/preprints.22536 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Donald Likosky ◽

Steven J Yule ◽

Michael R Mathis ◽

Roger D Dias ◽

Jason J Corso ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Adverse Events ◽

Technical Skills ◽

Assessment Tools ◽

Complication Rates ◽

University Of Michigan ◽

Electronic Health Record Data ◽

Institutional Review ◽

Computer Based ◽

The University ◽

The Relationship

BACKGROUND Of the 150,000 patients annually undergoing coronary artery bypass grafting, 35% develop complications that increase mortality 5 fold and expenditure by 50%. Differences in patient risk and operative approach explain only 2% of hospital variations in some complications. The intraoperative phase remains understudied as a source of variation, despite its complexity and amenability to improvement. OBJECTIVE The objectives of this study are to (1) investigate the relationship between peer assessments of intraoperative technical skills and nontechnical practices with risk-adjusted complication rates and (2) evaluate the feasibility of using computer-based metrics to automate the assessment of important intraoperative technical skills and nontechnical practices. METHODS This multicenter study will use video recording, established peer assessment tools, electronic health record data, registry data, and a high-dimensional computer vision approach to (1) investigate the relationship between peer assessments of surgeon technical skills and variability in risk-adjusted patient adverse events; (2) investigate the relationship between peer assessments of intraoperative team-based nontechnical practices and variability in risk-adjusted patient adverse events; and (3) use quantitative and qualitative methods to explore the feasibility of using objective, data-driven, computer-based assessments to automate the measurement of important intraoperative determinants of risk-adjusted patient adverse events. RESULTS The project has been funded by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute in 2019 (R01HL146619). Preliminary Institutional Review Board review has been completed at the University of Michigan by the Institutional Review Boards of the University of Michigan Medical School. CONCLUSIONS We anticipate that this project will substantially increase our ability to assess determinants of variation in complication rates by specifically studying a surgeon’s technical skills and operating room team member nontechnical practices. These findings may provide effective targets for future trials or quality improvement initiatives to enhance the quality and safety of cardiac surgical patient care. INTERNATIONAL REGISTERED REPORT PRR1-10.2196/22536

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EDUCATION IN THE AREA OF NEW NEW MEDIA ON THE EXAMPLE OF YOUTUBE AND INTERDISCIPLINARY WORKSHOPS

10.33225/balticste/2017.129 ◽

2017 ◽

Author(s):

Renata Stasko ◽

◽

Karolina Czerwiec ◽

Katarzyna Potyrala ◽

Emanuel Studnicki ◽

...

Keyword(s):

New Media ◽

Technical Skills ◽

Media Education ◽

Scientific Thinking ◽

Future Teachers ◽

Communication Problems ◽

Social Communications ◽

The University ◽

Research Show

The aim of the research concerning the organization of interdisciplinary educational workshops for 50 students-future teachers of technics and informatics. It was important to raise their level of social, communications and media competences, as well as the diagnosis of their attitudes towards the possibility of improving their technical skills of using new new media, in particular YouTube service. Results of the research show that the workshops allow students not only to develop their scientific thinking during the manual-technical and communication actions at the university, but also percept of the need to organize such activities in order to shape an appropriate approach to contemporary scientific and communication problems. Keywords: media education, interdisciplinarity, digital competences, workshops, YouTube.

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