Becoming Active Citizens

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruth Braunstein
Keyword(s):  
Religious Discourse ◽  
Active Citizenship ◽  
American Democracy ◽  
Speaking Up ◽  
Standing Up ◽  
Civil Discourse ◽  
Waking Up ◽  
Speak Up

Chapter 2 focuses on similarities in the ways in which members of Interfaith and the Patriots described their choice to become more active citizens, despite significant differences in their demographic compositions and policy demands. For members of both groups, this process involved waking up, standing up, and speaking up—acts that were described as democratic and sacred responsibilities alike. In justifying their choices and distinguishing them from alternatives, participants in both groups drew loosely on a “civil discourse” that valorized the qualities associated with active citizenship, while critiquing or distancing themselves from fellow citizens who chose not to wake up, stand up and speak up. In the process, they also drew on “civil religious discourse” that infused active citizenship and American democracy itself with sacred significance.

scholarly journals Speaking up about care concerns in the ICU: patient and family experiences, attitudes and perceived barriers

2018 ◽  
Vol 27 (11) ◽  
pp. 928-936 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sigall K Bell ◽  
Stephanie D Roche ◽  
Ariel Mueller ◽  
Erica Dente ◽  
Kristin O’Reilly ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Perceived Barriers ◽  
Family Education ◽  
Speaking Up ◽  
Academic Medical Centre ◽  
Know How ◽  
Family Attitudes ◽  
Conflicting Information ◽  
Academic Medical ◽  
Internet Sample ◽  
Speak Up

BackgroundLittle is known about patient/family comfort voicing care concerns in real time, especially in the intensive care unit (ICU) where stakes are high and time is compressed. Experts advocate patient and family engagement in safety, which will require that patients/families be able to voice concerns. Data on patient/family attitudes and experiences regarding speaking up are sparse, and mostly include reporting events retrospectively, rather than pre-emptively, to try to prevent harm. We aimed to (1) assess patient/family comfort speaking up about common ICU concerns; (2) identify patient/family-perceived barriers to speaking up; and (3) explore factors associated with patient/family comfort speaking up.MethodsIn collaboration with patients/families, we developed a survey to evaluate speaking up attitudes and behaviours. We surveyed current ICU families in person at an urban US academic medical centre, supplemented with a larger national internet sample of individuals with prior ICU experience.Results105/125 (84%) of current families and 1050 internet panel participants with ICU history completed the surveys. Among the current ICU families, 50%–70% expressed hesitancy to voice concerns about possible mistakes, mismatched care goals, confusing/conflicting information and inadequate hand hygiene. Results among prior ICU participants were similar. Half of all respondents reported at least one barrier to voicing concerns, most commonly not wanting to be a ‘troublemaker’, ‘team is too busy’ or ‘I don’t know how’. Older, female participants and those with personal or family employment in healthcare were more likely to report comfort speaking up.ConclusionSpeaking up may be challenging for ICU patients/families. Patient/family education about how to speak up and assurance that raising concerns will not create ‘trouble’ may help promote open discussions about care concerns and possible errors in the ICU.

The Rule of Numbers

2018 ◽  
pp. 76-108
Author(s):  
Loka Ashwood
Keyword(s):  
Collective Good ◽  
American Democracy ◽  
Short Answer ◽  
Personal Rights ◽  
Standing Up ◽  
State Of Affairs

This chapter suggests that there is something uncomfortable about democracy as we live in it today, where the majority is considered as the righteous ruler. Thus, if the majority wants electricity, and if providing that service requires a few people to give up their land or health, then the few should sacrifice for the whole. How did American democracy get to the point where standing up for one's personal rights became understood as an affront to the broader collective good? The short answer is that the democratic state's rendering of most things and people into numbers has created such a state of affairs, which is referred to the “rule of numbers.” People, ecology, or really anything can be added or subtracted, and all that matters in the end is what comes out of the equation.

Conclusion

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruth Braunstein
Keyword(s):  
Active Citizenship ◽  
Political Commitment ◽  
American Democracy ◽  
Good Citizen ◽  
Proper Role ◽  
Democratic Tradition ◽  
Democratic Ideals

Chapter 7 summarizes the key findings and contributions of the book. First, it highlights the book’s contributions to understanding how broadly shared democratic ideals can refract into different understandings of what it means to be a good citizen in practice, and ultimately, different styles of engaging in active citizenship. It then discusses the implications of these findings for American democracy itself. Although Interfaith and the Patriots disagree about how democracy ought to work and the proper role of citizens within it, they share an abiding faith in the American democratic project itself. Moreover, the book suggests that this disagreement is not new, and that the complexity of America’s democratic tradition is both a blessing and a curse, fueling perpetual disagreement over what it means to be a good citizen, but also encouraging political commitment. It concludes by suggesting that as long as groups like Interfaith and the Patriots continue to cultivate and enact many different stories of America, and no single story becomes dominant, then citizens can productively interrogate their respective benefits and drawbacks.

Organisational empowerment and assertive communication behaviours: a survey of Jordanian newly qualified nurses

2020 ◽  
Vol 29 (7) ◽  
pp. 419-425 ◽  
Author(s):  
Muhammad W Darawad ◽  
Mansour Mansour ◽  
Tahany Al-Niarat
Keyword(s):  
Two Dimensions ◽  
Early Years ◽  
Cross Sectional Survey ◽  
Speaking Up ◽  
Structural Empowerment ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Clinical Scenarios ◽  
Communication Behaviours ◽  
Speak Up ◽  
The Impact

Background: Newly qualified nurses (NQNs) face several challenges in their early years of practice. Being empowered and able to speak up against unsafe practice are two important pillars for practising nursing safely and competently. Little research has examined the potential correlation between those two dimensions in the context of NQNs in Jordan. Aims: To investigate the correlation between NQNs' perceived structural empowerment in their work setting and their willingness to challenge unsafe practice in some hypothetical clinical scenarios. Methods: A cross-sectional survey involved 233 NQNs, who completed a self-administered questionnaire between January and March 2016. Findings: Participants reported moderate levels of both perceived structural empowerment and willingness to speak up against unsafe practice. There was a statistically significant positive correlation between the total structural empowerment score and the mean score for speaking up against unsafe practice. Conclusion: The findings highlight the impact of peer, managerial and overall organisational support on enabling NQNs to become more empowered and assertive. Concrete, collaborative and organisation-wide efforts must be considered to foster greater empowerment of NQNs, but also revisiting work priorities to include supporting and advocating assertive communication skills among the more vulnerable of the newly qualified cohort.

Metaphorical Representations of the Biblical Concepts of Death and Resurrection When Translating in a Buddhist Context

2017 ◽  
Vol 68 (1) ◽  
pp. 51-63 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexey Somov
Keyword(s):  
Target Language ◽  
Conceptual System ◽  
Bible Translation ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Cognitive Metaphor ◽  
Metaphor Theory ◽  
Standing Up ◽  
Waking Up ◽  
Key Terms ◽  
Buddhist Culture

This article applies Lakoff and Johnson’s cognitive metaphor theory to the key terms of death and resurrection in the Scriptures and examines the translation of these terms into languages with a traditional Buddhist culture whose worldview is different from that of the Bible. The present analysis indicates that in the conceptual system of the biblical authors, the concept of death is metaphorically described as sleep while resurrection is pictured as waking up and standing up. However, in the Buddhist worldview the concept of the resurrection is absent and the concept of death is not always metaphorically extended as sleep. This article discusses the practical possibilities and limits of the representations of these metaphorical extensions in three Buddhist-context translation projects of the Institute for Bible Translation in Russia: Buryat, Kalmyk, and Tuvan. It also offers some suggestions about searching for their possible representations in the target language.

Organisational empowerment and speaking up against unsafe practice: the case for newly qualified nurses in Saudi Arabia

2020 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 94-102 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mansour Mansour ◽  
Maha Al-Madani ◽  
Abdelrahman Al-Anati ◽  
Aysar Jamama
Keyword(s):  
Saudi Arabia ◽  
Nurse Managers ◽  
Speaking Up ◽  
Eastern Province ◽  
Staff Wellbeing ◽  
Perceived Access ◽  
Speak Up ◽  
Support At Work ◽  
Work Empowerment ◽  
Spearman’S Correlation

Background/aims Nurses' sense of empowerment and ability to speak up against unsafe clinical practice are crucial to patient safety and staff wellbeing. However, research examining these attitudes among newly qualified nurses is lacking. This study aimed to investigate perceptions of organisational empowerment and willingness to speak up against perceived unsafe practice among newly qualified nurses in Saudi Arabia. Methods A questionnaire was completed by a convenient sample of 83 newly qualified nurses in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia. Descriptive statistics and Spearman's correlation coefficient (rho) were used for data analysis. Findings The nurses reported moderate levels of both empowerment and willingness to speak up against unsafe practice. There was a statistically significant correlation between the participants' total structured empowerment score and their speaking up score. Willingness to speak up against potentially unsafe practice was also correlated with participants' perceived access to support at work. Conclusions These findings highlight the need to support newly qualified nurses to develop their level of empowerment and assertive communication skills. Nurse managers, educators and peers must therefore consider practical strategies to help build and sustain newly qualified nurses' sense of work empowerment and assertiveness.

Speaking up in the perioperative setting

2020 ◽  
Vol 31 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 11-14
Author(s):  
Mark Dorrance
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Patient Safety ◽  
Health Care Workers ◽  
Speaking Up ◽  
Care Workers ◽  
Speak Up

Patient safety is a key role for all staff who work in the perioperative environment. Being able to raise concerns and have these concerns listened to is a big part of maintaining patient safety. Freedom to Speak Up Guardians were introduced to assist health care workers in raising concerns; however, their access to perioperative areas may be restricted. This article therefore looks to explain the role of Freedom to Speak Up Guardians and how this new role impacts on how concerns should be raised.

scholarly journals Why do employees speak up? Examining the roles of LMX, perceived risk and perceived leader power in predicting voice behavior

2019 ◽  
Vol 34 (8) ◽  
pp. 560-572
Author(s):  
Jinyun Duan ◽  
Émilie Lapointe ◽  
Yue Xu ◽  
Sarah Brooks
Keyword(s):  
Social Information Processing ◽  
Perceived Risk ◽  
Voice Behavior ◽  
Speaking Up ◽  
High Quality ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Social Information Processing Theory ◽  
Processing Theory ◽  
Member Exchange ◽  
Speak Up

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to understand better why employees voice. Drawing on social information processing theory and insights derived from the literature on power, the authors suggest that leader–member exchange (LMX) fosters voice by reducing the perceived risk of voicing. The authors further contend that high perceived leader power will strengthen this mediated relationship. Design/methodology/approach The authors relied on a sample of 265 employee-supervisor dyads collected from Chinese organizations to test the study hypotheses. Findings Results indicated that perceived risk of voicing significantly mediated the positive LMX–voice behavior relationship. In addition, perceived leader power strengthened the effect of LMX on voice behavior via perceived risk of voicing. The relationship of LMX to perceived risk of voicing was more negative, and the indirect effect of LMX on voice behavior was more positive when employees perceived that leader power was high. Practical implications Organizations seeking to promote voice behaviors should support leaders to develop high-quality relationships with employees. Organizations should also ensure that leaders are sufficiently empowered to fulfill their roles, and ensure that employees are aware of their leaders’ influence. Originality/value Findings suggest that, in the context of high quality leader–member relationships, employees’ perceptions of their leaders’ power may help to overcome barriers associated with speaking up. Thus, this study helps explain the conditions that encourage employees to voice.

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