scholarly journals First do no harm: practitioners’ ability to ‘diagnose’ system weaknesses and improve safety is a critical initial step in improving care quality

2020 ◽  
pp. archdischild-2020-320630
Author(s):  
Mike English ◽  
Muthoni Ogola ◽  
Jalemba Aluvaala ◽  
Edith Gicheha ◽  
Grace Irimu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Initial Step ◽  
Professional Associations ◽  
Care Quality ◽  
Standards Of Care ◽  
Complex Interactions ◽  
Worker Education ◽  
Safety Work ◽  
Care Workers ◽  
Blame Culture ◽  
Local Safety

Healthcare systems across the world and especially those in low-resource settings (LRS) are under pressure and one of the first priorities must be to prevent any harm done while trying to deliver care. Health care workers, especially department leaders, need the diagnostic abilities to identify local safety concerns and design actions that benefit their patients. We draw on concepts from the safety sciences that are less well-known than mainstream quality improvement techniques in LRS. We use these to illustrate how to analyse the complex interactions between resources and tools, the organisation of tasks and the norms that may govern behaviours, together with the strengths and vulnerabilities of systems. All interact to influence care and outcomes. To employ these techniques leaders will need to focus on the best attainable standards of care, build trust and shift away from the blame culture that undermines improvement. Health worker education should include development of the technical and relational skills needed to perform these system diagnostic roles. Some safety challenges need leadership from professional associations to provide important resources, peer support and mentorship to sustain safety work.

scholarly journals Influenza Mandates and Religious Accommodation: Avoiding Legal Pitfalls

2018 ◽  
Vol 46 (3) ◽  
pp. 756-762
Author(s):  
Dorit Rubinstein Reiss ◽  
V.B. Dubal
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Civil Rights ◽  
Health Care Workers ◽  
Professional Associations ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
Religious Discrimination ◽  
Federal Law ◽  
Health Care Institutions ◽  
Care Workers ◽  
Religious Accommodation

Influenza mandates in health care institutions are recommended by professional associations as an effective way to prevent the contraction of influenza by patients from health care workers. Health care institutions with such mandates must operate within civil rights frameworks. A recent set of cases against health care institutions with influenza mandates reveals the liabilities posed by federal law that protects employees from religious discrimination. This article examines this legal framework and draws important lessons from this litigation for health care institutions. We argue counterintuitively that providing religious exemptions from influenza mandates may expose health care institutions to more liability than not providing a formal exemption.

Legitimising the care market: the social recognition of migrant care workers in Italy

2016 ◽  
Vol 46 (1) ◽  
pp. 91-108 ◽  
Author(s):  
MARTA CORDINI ◽  
COSTANZO RANCI
Keyword(s):  
Care Quality ◽  
Social Recognition ◽  
European Countries ◽  
Public Provision ◽  
Private Care ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Regulation ◽  
Employment Conditions ◽  
Care Workers ◽  
The Social

AbstractThe sizeable presence of migrant care workers in the private care market in many European countries is confirmed by several studies that have explained the phenomenon through functional arguments, stressing the economic convenience of transnational markets and the crucial role played by public regulation. This paper focuses instead on the public and institutional discourses that have contributed to legitimising this private care market, characterised by the worsening of employment conditions and the decrease in care quality. The main argument of this paper is that the social recognition of these workers provides the public with the new concepts and rationales that determine the actual shape of the private care market.Migrant care workers are usually, compared to other migrant workers, more welcome in the host society and less targeted by xenophobic attitudes, especially where their labour helps to meet a lack of public provision as is happening in Southern European countries. Nevertheless, their rights are not fully granted either as citizens or as workers: basic requirements in this migrant care market include for instance reduced wages, great flexibility, and informal contracts.Our hypothesis is tested through the reconstruction of the public regulation and a content analysis of the public discourse that has accompanied this regulation for ten years (2002–2012) in Italy. The two main national newspapers have been taken into account. This analysis provides evidence on how market dynamics have been shaped by a deliberate political construction, which has relieved governments of the task of finding a public solution to care needs and has relegated migrant care workers to a subordinate social position, which is functional in making the care market work.

scholarly journals Variations in user-oriented elderly care: a multilevel approach

2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 138-147 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ali Kazemi ◽  
Petri Kajonius
Keyword(s):  
Elderly Care ◽  
Care Quality ◽  
Satisfaction With Care ◽  
Content Type ◽  
National Board ◽  
Care Services ◽  
Care Workers ◽  
Interpersonal Care ◽  
Sources Of Variation

Purpose National Board of Health and Welfare claims that the quality of elderly care services differ considerably between municipalities in Sweden. This study aims to analyze to what extent these variations can be accounted for by the older person’s municipality affiliation (i.e. receiving elderly care in a certain municipality). Design/methodology/approach Addressing this issue, national survey data from 78,538 older respondents receiving elderly care services in Sweden were analyzed using multilevel modeling (MLM). Findings The results showed that municipality affiliation only marginally explained the variance in satisfaction with care, i.e. its variations were larger within than between municipalities. Instead, user-oriented care accounted for the variation in satisfaction with care. Specifically, the way the care workers behave toward the older person proved to be much more crucial for satisfaction with care than municipality affiliation. Moreover, random effects analyses revealed that the effects of user-oriented care on satisfaction with care varied across municipalities. Care setting (i.e. home care or nursing home) only marginally accounted for its variance. Practical implications Developing care quality should start and primarily be discussed at the interpersonal care level, and not, as is customary, at the municipality level. Originality/value The present research is the first in its kind to quantitatively investigate the sources of variation in perceived quality of Swedish elderly care using MLM.

Autonomous Mobile Robot Carrying Food Trays to the Aged and Disabled – Robot Technology and Results of the Field Evaluation Test –

1999 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 531-533
Author(s):  
Tsugito Maruyama ◽  
◽  
Muneshige Yamazaki ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Health Care Workers ◽  
Field Evaluation ◽  
Care Quality ◽  
Light Weight ◽  
Autonomous Mobile Robot ◽  
Information Display ◽  
Supervisory Controller ◽  
Care Workers ◽  
Practical Evaluation ◽  
Evaluation Test

A food-carrying robot developed for the aged and disabled consisted of 6 basic components, i.e., a compact light-weight manipulator, a moving mechanism, an environmental perception unit, an information display, a navigator, and a remote supervisory controller. Practical evaluation tests at medical and welfare facilities showed that targets for safety, autonomy, and human friendliness were achieved. Such a robot will help to resolve shortages in health-care workers and improve overall care quality.

INTERNATIONAL RECRUITMENT OF SOCIAL CARE WORKERS AND SOCIAL WORKERS: ILLUSTRATIONS FROM THE UK

2006 ◽  
Vol 40 (01n02) ◽  
pp. 93-110 ◽  
Author(s):  
SHERRILL EVANS ◽  
PETER HUXLEY ◽  
MARIA MUNROE
Keyword(s):  
Social Workers ◽  
Social Services ◽  
Social Care ◽  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
Standards Of Care ◽  
Definitive Answer ◽  
Employment Agency ◽  
International Recruitment ◽  
Care Workers ◽  
The Uk

This paper presents the results of a survey of international recruitment of social workers and social care workers into the United Kingdom. The literature on international recruitment, especially in relation to social care workers, is extremely sparse. Reviews conducted by the authors for the UK Department of Health did not find any definitive answer to the question of the numbers at present in the UK workforce, their movement between jobs, and their length of stay in the UK. The present study is based on qualitative interviews with three senior managers, four human resources managers, one employment agency manager, one senior social services inspector and three inspectors and three staff from the voluntary and private sectors. The interviews confirmed some of the major benefits associated with international recruitment: a reduction in vacancy rates; filling gaps in key shortage areas; improved sickness records; and once training has been provided the standards of care have improved. In addition, recruitment from overseas has the effect of creating a more diverse staff mix through the appointment of people with more varied experience and experiences. There may also be cost benefits associated with the reduction in costs of employing agency staff. The challenges involved are: having an ethical recruitment policy; the transferability of qualifications and skill sets, and cultural expectations and differences. Employers need to recognize that higher levels of induction are needed in order to meet the unique local knowledge requirements of an overseas candidate. Generally however, there are very few problems, and employers recruiting from overseas find that any problems that exist diminish with each round of recruitment, that is, as employers learn from their previous mistakes. Nevertheless, international recruitment is only a short term strategy, and, alone, does not solve the fundamental domestic problems that lead to the shortages in the first place.

Managing Work and Care: Does Employing a Live-in Migrant Care Worker Fill the Gap? The Example of Taiwan

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-13
Author(s):  
Li-Fang Liang
Keyword(s):  
Migrant Workers ◽  
Family Care ◽  
Work And Family ◽  
Care Quality ◽  
Public Care ◽  
Care Services ◽  
Care Workers ◽  
Limited Support ◽  
The Government ◽  
Care Worker

This article uses Taiwan as an example to examine how families manage work and care when the government and workplace provide limited support. Many Taiwanese households employ live-in migrant care workers to negotiate care responsibilities and adults’ paid jobs. Based on interviews with employers of live-in migrant care workers and workers, the findings demonstrate that daughters-in-law and occasionally daughters and sons become employers of live-in migrant care workers because of the limitation of public care services and lack of support they receive in seeking to combine paid work and family care responsibility. Even after employing migrant workers, women retain greater care responsibility in daily practices than their husbands. Hiring live-in migrant care workers also imposes risks to all parties involved in the processes of organising, coordinating, and providing care due to the uncertainty of care quality and the nature of care work.

scholarly journals Positive Turn in Elder-Care Workers’ Views Toward Telecare Robots

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tuuli Turja ◽  
Sakari Taipale ◽  
Marketta Niemelä ◽  
Tomi Oinas
Keyword(s):  
Social Norms ◽  
Elder Care ◽  
Personal Values ◽  
Care Work ◽  
Survey Study ◽  
Standards Of Care ◽  
Ethical Standards ◽  
Analysis Phase ◽  
Care Robots ◽  
Care Workers

AbstractRobots have been slowly but steadily introduced to welfare sectors. Our previous observations based on a large-scale survey study on Finnish elder-care workers in 2016 showed that while robots were perceived to be useful in certain telecare tasks, using robots may also prove to be incompatible with the care workers’ personal values. The current study presents the second wave of the survey data from 2020, with the same respondents (N = 190), and shows how these views have changed for the positive, including higher expectations of telecare robotization and decreased concerns over care robots’ compatibility with personal values. In a longitudinal analysis (Phase 1), the positive change in views toward telecare robots was found to be influenced by the care robots’ higher value compatibility. In an additional cross-sectional analysis (Phase 2), focusing on the factors underlying personal values, care robots’ value compatibility was associated with social norms toward care robots, the threat of technological unemployment, and COVID-19 stress. The significance of social norms in robot acceptance came down to more universal ethical standards of care work rather than shared norms in the workplace. COVID-19 stress did not explain the temporal changes in views about robot use in care but had a role in assessments of the compatibility between personal values and care robot use. In conclusion, for care workers to see potential in care robots, the new technology must support ethical standards of care work, such as respectfulness, compassion, and trustworthiness of the nurse–patient interaction. In robotizing care work, personal values are significant predictors of the task values.

scholarly journals Care Worker Perceptions of Recruitment and Retention in Adult Social Care Settings

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Elisha Pitarella
Keyword(s):  
Social Care ◽  
Quality Care ◽  
Care Quality ◽  
Care Providers ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
High Turnover ◽  
Recruitment And Retention ◽  
Care Workers ◽  
Care Worker ◽  
Vulnerable Adults

In England, the Adult Social Care (ASC) sector continues to grow and is faced with repeated scrutiny regarding the availability and effectiveness of care workers. This results in difficult challenges for organisations, such as funding demands, recruitment costs, and job satisfaction. These challenges are combined with the increasing demand to meet the needs of vulnerable adults and provide high-quality care. Some organisations have improved their delivery of care, whilst others have declined in quality as providers have struggled with the challenges they face (Care Quality Commission (CQC), 2019). These challenges are exacerbated by the high turnover in staffing levels. Although organisations have processes in place, such as exit interviews, there appears to be a lack of clear identification of the causes of turnover in ASC settings. This research study contributes to the debate on how to improve recruitment and retention in ASC settings. This research takes a qualitative approach and seeks to highlight key factors affecting recruitment and retention issues through the views and experiences of care workers to consider strategies to improve the workforce and quality of care for vulnerable adults. This thesis presents findings from semi-structured interviews with present care workers and managers from 2019-2020 working in residential care homes, domiciliary care providers and supported accommodation. The research identified that individual personalities, pay, training, management, and organisational practices are all influential to care worker satisfaction.

scholarly journals An Asian Perspective of the Management of COVID-19: the Asian National Cancer Centers Alliance Led Regional Comparison

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (S1) ◽  
pp. 27-42
Author(s):  
Luh Komang Mela Dewi ◽  
Laureline Gatellier ◽  
Kanaga Sabapathy ◽  
C S Pramesh ◽  
Min Dai ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Cancer Care ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
Care Delivery ◽  
Standards Of Care ◽  
Survey Analysis ◽  
Think Tank ◽  
Survey Tool ◽  
Cancer Centers ◽  
Care Workers ◽  
High Standards

Objective: To describe how the Asian National Cancer Centers Alliance (ANCCA) members preserve high standards of care for cancer patients while battling the COVID-19 pandemic and to propose new strategies in the Asian Cancer Centers’ preparedness to future pandemics. Methods: A 41-question-based survey was developed using an online survey tool and conducted among 15 major Asian National Cancer Centers, including 13 ANCCA members. Direct interviews of several specialists were conducted subsequently to obtain additional answers to key questions that emerged during the survey analysis. Result: Institution/country-specific results provided a strong insight on the diverse ways of managing the pandemic around Asia, while maintaining well-balanced cancer care. Pragmatic strategies were put in place in each NCC hospital, including zoning and intensive triage depending on the pandemic impact. Distancing strategies and telemedicine were implemented in different capacity depending on the national healthcare system. In addition, there was a diverse impact on the manpower and financial aspect of cancer care across surveyed NCCs relating to magnitude of the pandemic impact on the country. Conclusion: The priorities nevertheless remain on maintaining cancer care delivery while protecting both patients and health care workers from the risk of COVID-19 infection. The role of a think-tank such as ANCCA to help share experiences in a timely manner can enhance preparedness in future pandemic scenarios.

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