scholarly journals The Lived Experience of Assisted Living Administrators During the COVID-19 Pandemic

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 732-733
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Hill ◽  
Rebecca Davis ◽  
Paige Greer ◽  
Susan Strouse
Keyword(s):  
Assisted Living ◽  
Lived Experiences ◽  
Moral Distress ◽  
Phenomenological Study ◽  
Small Sample Size ◽  
Well Being ◽  
The United States ◽  
Structured Interview ◽  
Small Sample ◽  
Future Research

Abstract Since March, 2020, administrators in assisted living (AL) residences have been challenged to provide the best care for their populations while undergoing a pandemic. Because nothing like this has happened in the recent past, AL administrators had to make many new decisions. The purpose of this phenomenological study is to reflect on the lived experiences of AL administrators during the COVID pandemic. Using a semi structured interview, individual interviews of four AL administrators from different AL communities were conducted via Zoom. The interviews contained questions related to the participants’ experiences with the COVID-19 pandemic. The recorded interviews were transcribed verbatim into MAXQDA. Data analysis followed a modified Giorgi approach, by reviewing the recorded interviews, categorizing the data into meaning units, then situated units, generalized units, and then themes. Results indicated that AL administrators have been adapting to constantly changing and conflicting regulations. The pandemic incited fear, depression, moral distress, but also hope for the future. The data shows a multitude of feelings and actions related to the well-being of the staff, residents, and residents’ families. The limitations of this study include a small sample size and the evolving nature of the pandemic in Michigan. Opportunities for future research would be to compare our findings to the experience of other AL’s in the United States. The results show the complexity of AL administrators’ lived experiences during the pandemic and highlight important considerations if an event like the pandemic were to occur again.

Transitional leadership to resolve conflict, facilitate change and restore wellbeing

2019 ◽  
Vol 27 (4) ◽  
pp. 1053-1072
Author(s):  
Tim J. Pratt ◽  
Roy K. Smollan ◽  
Edwina Pio
Keyword(s):  
Small Sample Size ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Small Sample ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Unique Contribution ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Non Profit ◽  
Transitional Leadership ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Christian Denomination

Purpose This paper aims to explore the experiences of church ministers who played the role of transitional leaders in congregational situations involving conflict. Design/methodology/approach Grounded theory was chosen as a suitable approach to investigate phenomena that occasionally penetrate religious publications and even less frequently scholarly management journals. Accordingly, in-depth interviews were conducted with six church ministers who had been transitional leaders in one Christian denomination in New Zealand. Findings Participants indicated that the drivers of transitional ministry were conflict, dysfunction and loss of direction; the goals were to heal the damage caused by conflict and restore functionality and well-being; the process, underpinned by a leadership philosophy of affirmation, trust-building, engagement and communication, involved working with church members to instil hope, establish operational structures, identify and resolve dysfunction, envision a future and ultimately recruit a permanent minister. Research limitations/implications The limitations of a small sample size in one Christian denomination could be addressed by using wider samples in other contexts. It is suggested that insights into transitional leadership after conflict will be of interest to researchers as well as practitioners in other religious organizations, the wider non-profit sector and the private sector. Future research into the impact of transitional leadership, against a background of conflict and organizational change, will add to this empirical foundation. Originality/value The model of transitional ministry is a unique contribution to religious literature and practice. It also offers insight into how other types of organization could deal with the exit of its permanent leader, in circumstances of conflict, and manage the transition phase of a temporary replacement, so that the organization returns to a state of well-being with a renewed sense of purpose.

scholarly journals The Effect of Inner Engineering Online (IEO) Program on Reducing Stress for Information Technology Professionals: A Randomized Control Study

2022 ◽  
Vol 2022 ◽  
pp. 1-11
Author(s):  
P. Upadhyay ◽  
T. F. H. Chang ◽  
S. Hariri ◽  
S. Rallabandi ◽  
Santha Yathavakilla ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Information Technology ◽  
Positive Affect ◽  
Emotional Health ◽  
Small Sample Size ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Small Sample ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Group Setting ◽  
Yogic Practice ◽  
Reducing Stress

In recent years, mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) are rapidly growing in the workplace. Several meta-analyses conclude that overall MBIs have a moderate effect of alleviating deficit-based experiences, such as burnout and stress, but a small to no effect of promoting asset-based experiences, such as positive affect and well-being. While workplace MBIs vary greatly in their content, format, and duration, the dominant format is still face to face in a group setting, which limits scalability. Our study introduces an emerging workplace intervention called Inner Engineering Online (IEO) and evaluates its effect on reducing stress, burnout, depression, and anxiety and increasing mindfulness and joy. Drawing on the classical yogic science, IEO is a comprehensive web-based multicomponent intervention that utilizes dialectic discourse, meditation, and yogic practices designed to improve physical, mental, and emotional health. Utilizing a randomized active control cross-over experimental design with a sample of 71 employees of an Information Technology company, we tested our hypothesis that IEO training and regular daily yogic practice are likely to lower the stress levels, prevent burnout, and alleviate anxiety and depression, while at the same time promotes positive affect for employees. The results show that IEO program significantly reduces stress only among those who adhere to recommended daily yogic practices. The study is limited by its small sample size. Future research using a large sample is recommended to reexamine the effect of IEO training on occupational health. This trial is registered with NCT04126564.

Brokering Boundary Crossings through the SoTL Landscape of Practice

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 365-379
Author(s):  
Barbara Kensington-Miller ◽  
Andrea Webb ◽  
Ann Gansemer-Topf ◽  
Heather Lewis ◽  
Julie Luu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Lived Experiences ◽  
Department Chair ◽  
Phenomenological Study ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
The United States ◽  
Boundary Crossing ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Boundary Crossings ◽  
Development Support

This study examines the lived experiences of seven internationally diverse scholars from Canada, the United States, New Zealand, and Australia to answer the question: how do we make meaning of our collective boundary crossing experiences across disciplines and positions within SoTL? Our positions range from graduate student, faculty, and academic developers, to department chair and centre director. We conducted a phenomenological study, based on narratives of experience, and drew on Wenger-Trayner and Wenger-Trayner’s (2015) theoretical framework that explores the features of a landscape of practice. Guided by this framework, we analyze our boundary crossings and brokering across the “diverse, political and flat” features of the SoTL landscape. Our collective findings highlight the critical role brokers play in facilitating boundary crossings. Brokering is precarious, bringing people together, building trusting relationships, and developing legitimacy while negotiating deadlocks, bureaucracy, authorities, and a multitude of challenges. Brokers, we found, require strength and resilience to mobilise, influence, and drive change in the landscape to transform existing practices or create new ones. We suggest that our analytical process can be used as a tool of analysis for future research about how brokers influence the SoTL landscape of practice and how brokering enhances SoTL development, support, and leadership.

Learning motivational interviewing: prospects to preserve practitioners' well-being

2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul C. Endrejat ◽  
Simone Kauffeld
Keyword(s):  
Behavior Change ◽  
Motivational Interviewing ◽  
Psychological Health ◽  
Small Sample Size ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Small Sample ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Research Report ◽  
Conservation Of Resources ◽  
Content Type

PurposeMotivational interviewing (MI) is a collaborative communication style designed to help clients achieve desired behavior changes. MI includes communication methods along with a mindset that avoids attempting to impose behavior change. Relying on the conservation of resources theory, this research report argues that learning MI helps practitioners communicate more effectively and preserve their own psychological health resources.Design/methodology/approachWe tested whether MI training resulted in beneficial effects on practitioners' resilience and burnout (i.e. exhaustion and disengagement), surveying participants (N = 42) from various disciplines who learned MI at a training institute. Subjects received a questionnaire before and one month after MI training. The post-training questionnaire also assessed whether participants applied the training content in practice.FindingsThe results revealed that the training reduced participants' disengagement. Practical application was a predictor for this decrease as well as an increase in resilience.Research limitations/implicationsDue to the small sample size and self-reported data, this paper should be considered an experimental study that could inspire future research in this area, using more elaborate research designs.Practical implicationsLearning MI not only helps in facilitating behavior change in clients but also in bolstering practitioners' own resources. MI novices should aim to apply their newly acquired skills.Originality/valueThis study is among the first to explicitly hint at the possibility that learning MI helps practitioners preserve their psychological resources.

scholarly journals Connecting Air Quality with Emotional Well-Being and Neighborhood Infrastructure in a US City

2020 ◽  
Vol 14 ◽  
pp. 117863022091548 ◽  
Author(s):  
Raj M. Lal ◽  
Kirti Das ◽  
Yingling Fan ◽  
Karoline K. Barkjohn ◽  
Nisha Botchwey ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Air Quality ◽  
Urban Poor ◽  
Negative Emotion ◽  
Small Sample Size ◽  
Well Being ◽  
The United States ◽  
Small Sample ◽  
Light Rail ◽  
Mobile Source ◽  
Home Based

Cities in the United States have announced initiatives to become more sustainable, healthy, resilient, livable, and environmentally friendly. However, indicators for measuring all outcomes related to these targets and the synergies between them have not been well defined or studied. One such relationship is the linkage between air quality with emotional well-being (EWB) and neighborhood infrastructure. Here, regulatory monitoring, low-cost sensors (LCSs), and air quality modeling were combined to assess exposures to PM2.5 and traffic-related NOx in 6 Minneapolis, MN, neighborhoods of varying infrastructure parameters (median household income, urban vs suburban, and access to light rail). Residents of the study neighborhoods concurrently took real-time EWB assessments using a smart phone application, Daynamica, to gauge happiness, tiredness, stress, sadness, and pain. Both LCS PM2.5 observations and mobile-source-simulated NOx were calibrated using regulatory observations in Minneapolis. No statistically significant (α = 0.05) PM2.5 differences were found between urban poor and urban middle-income neighborhoods, but average mobile-source NOx was statistically significantly (α = 0.05) higher in the 4 urban neighborhoods than in the 2 suburban neighborhoods. Close proximity to light rail had no observable impact on average observed PM2.5 or simulated mobile-source NOx. Home-based exposure assessments found that PM2.5 was negatively correlated with positive emotions such as happiness and to net affect (the sum of positive and negative emotion scores) and positively correlated (ie, a higher PM2.5 concentration led to higher scores) for negative emotions such as tiredness, stress, sadness, and pain. Simulated mobile-source NOx, assessed from both home-based exposures and in situ exposures, had a near-zero relationship with all EWB indicators. This was attributed to low NOx levels throughout the study neighborhoods and at locations were the EWB-assessed activities took place, both owing to low on-road mobile-source NOx impacts. Although none of the air quality and EWB responses were determined to be statistically significant (α = 0.05), due in part to the relatively small sample size, the results are suggestive of linkages between air quality and a variety of EWB outcomes.

Positive leadership: animating purpose, presence, passion and play for flourishing in schools

2020 ◽  
Vol 58 (4) ◽  
pp. 401-415 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sabre Cherkowski ◽  
Benjamin Kutsyuruba ◽  
Keith Walker
Keyword(s):  
Lived Experiences ◽  
School Leaders ◽  
School Administrators ◽  
Small Sample Size ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Small Sample ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Positive Leadership ◽  
Vice Principals ◽  
K 12

PurposeThe purpose of this multiyear research study is to examine leadership in K-12 schools using a positive organizational perspective to understand how to foster, support and encourage flourishing in schools. In this article, the authors describe the lived experiences of a small group of principals and vice-principals in K-12 schools describing how they have experienced flourishing in their work.Design/methodology/approachThe research was carried out using a qualitative, phenomenological approach to examine the lived, concrete and situated experiences of a small sample of school administrators (N = 9) in two school districts in the province of British Columbia, Canada. Data were collected through individual interviews that were designed to be appreciative in nature. These lasted between 60 and 90 min, were recorded and transcribed. The interview data were deductively and inductively analyzed and arranged into themes that demonstrate the key components of positive leadership for flourishing in schools, derived from these participants' experiences.FindingsBuilding on and extending their findings that school administrators feel a sense of flourishing when they focus on their work from the values of purpose, passion and play, the authors found that a fourth value, presence, was important for these participants to experience well-being at work. Principals’ sense of well-being was strongly related to the notion of balance in their work and life, which helped them address potential stress and ill-being. Findings suggest that a strengths-based, positive approach to school leadership offers an alternative perspective for supporting and encouraging well-being at work.Research limitations/implicationsLimitations of this research include the small sample size and the appreciative focus with which the data were collected that meant that participants were providing their experiences from a positive perspective. This article offers a complementary perspective for researching well-being in schools, from a positive, strengths-based approach to examining the work of administrators.Practical implicationsThe authors offer insights into the work of school leaders from an appreciative, strengths-based perspective on understandings and practices that may be useful to principals and vice-principals who wish to enhance their workplace well-being. The authors suggest that administrators can learn to craft their work in ways that highlight existing well-being conditions toward amplifying and sustaining well-being. Working from four animating values for flourishing seemed to promote well-being for this small sample of administrators within the existing challenges and complexities of their work.Originality/valueThis article offers examples of lived experiences of principal and vice-principal well-being that highlight what happens when school leaders attend to their work from a positive, appreciative, strength-based perspective. This research perspective is an additional source of knowledge about well-being in schools complementing the existing research on well-being from a stress management and reduction perspective.

Bereavement Support Groups: Timing of Participation and Reasons for Joining

2001 ◽  
Vol 43 (3) ◽  
pp. 247-258 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cliff Picton ◽  
Brian K. Cooper ◽  
Diana Close ◽  
Jean Tobin
Keyword(s):  
Support Groups ◽  
Emotional Support ◽  
Exploratory Study ◽  
Qualitative Data ◽  
Small Sample Size ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Small Sample ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Bereavement Support ◽  
Target Individual

This exploratory study investigated the experiences of a small group of people who had participated in professionally led bereavement support groups, with particular emphasis on perceptions of the appropriate timing for initial involvement with a group and the reasons for joining. The results support the need for timely group-based bereavement support. The proposition that bereavement support in the early weeks of bereavement is too early was voiced by some participants but strongly negated by others who found early support of major value to their well-being. Taking account of the small sample size, qualitative data suggest that the reasons for joining are similar regardless of the length of time since the death, although there is evidence that the need for emotional support is felt most acutely by those without adequate family support and who join within the first three months after the death. Findings suggest that group interventions are helpful to target individual circumstances, needs, and reactions throughout the process of mourning and offer direction for future research.

scholarly journals A Phenomenological Study of COVID-19’s Impact on U.S. Nursing Personnel

2021 ◽  
pp. 216507992110302
Author(s):  
Cheryl M. Patton
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Phenomenological Study ◽  
Sleep Problems ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Workplace Safety ◽  
The United States ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Policies And Procedures ◽  
Hospital Policies ◽  
Depth Interviews

Background The COVID-19 pandemic overwhelmed the New York City area upon its arrival in the United States. Hospitals were unprepared to handle the influx of patients. Methods This study explored nurse/nurse practitioner experiences when caring for COVID-19 patients in New York metropolitan hospitals, concentrating on physical well-being. Data collection involved in-depth interviews with eight participants. Findings (A) physical safety of self, family members, colleagues, and patients greatly concerned participants; (B) caring for COVID-19 patients led to participants’ physical exhaustion; and (C) most participants’ sleep was impacted when caring for COVID-19 patients. Conclusions This study identified issues involving U.S. health care workplace safety during the COVID-19 pandemic, namely availability of personal protective equipment, lack of centralized knowledge-sharing capabilities, sleep problems, anxiety regarding physical safety of self and others, and insufficient/undertrained staffing. It serves as a foundation for future research and calls for changes in U.S. hospital policies and procedures during crises.

scholarly journals A REVIEW ON MINDFULNESS AND NURSING STRESS AMONG NURSES

ANALITIKA ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 31 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zaini Said ◽  
Goh Lei Kheng
Keyword(s):  
Training Programs ◽  
Small Sample Size ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Underlying Mechanism ◽  
Small Sample ◽  
Mindfulness Training ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Positive Effects ◽  
Nursing Stress ◽  
Future Direction

<p><em>Previous research has been done on mindfulness and nursing stress but no review has been done to highlight the most up-to-date findings, to justify the recommendation of mindfulness training for the nursing field. The present paper aims to review the relevant studies, derive conclusions, and discuss future direction of research in this field. A total of 19 research papers were reviewed. The majority was intervention studies on the effects of mindfulness-training programs on nursing stress. Higher mindfulness is correlated with lower nursing stress. Mindfulness-based training programs were found to have significant positive effects on nursing stress and psychological well-being. The studies were found to have non-standardized intervention methods, inadequate research designs, small sample size, and lack of systematic follow-up on the sustainability of treatment effects, limiting the generalizability of the results. There is also a lack of research investigation into the underlying mechanism of action of mindfulness on nursing stress. Future research that addresses these limitations is indicated.</em></p>

Brokering Boundary Crossings through the SoTL Landscape of Practice

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 365-379
Author(s):  
Barbara Kensington-Miller ◽  
Andrea Webb ◽  
Ann Gansemer-Topf ◽  
Heather Lewis ◽  
Julie Luu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Lived Experiences ◽  
Department Chair ◽  
Phenomenological Study ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
The United States ◽  
Boundary Crossing ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Boundary Crossings ◽  
Development Support

This study examines the lived experiences of seven internationally diverse scholars from Canada, the United States, New Zealand, and Australia to answer the question: how do we make meaning of our collective boundary crossing experiences across disciplines and positions within SoTL? Our positions range from graduate student, faculty, and academic developers, to department chair and centre director. We conducted a phenomenological study, based on narratives of experience, and drew on Wenger-Trayner and Wenger-Trayner’s (2015) theoretical framework that explores the features of a landscape of practice. Guided by this framework, we analyze our boundary crossings and brokering across the “diverse, political and flat” features of the SoTL landscape. Our collective findings highlight the critical role brokers play in facilitating boundary crossings. Brokering is precarious, bringing people together, building trusting relationships, and developing legitimacy while negotiating deadlocks, bureaucracy, authorities, and a multitude of challenges. Brokers, we found, require strength and resilience to mobilise, influence, and drive change in the landscape to transform existing practices or create new ones. We suggest that our analytical process can be used as a tool of analysis for future research about how brokers influence the SoTL landscape of practice and how brokering enhances SoTL development, support, and leadership.

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