Long-Term Impact of Interprofessional Medical Mission Service Trips in Sierra Leone

Objective: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the impact of capacity-building short-term mission service trips to Sierra Leone on local health education and perspectives.Methods: This was a prospective, mixed-methods study. During three mission trips between June 2017 and December 2019, health professional students taught multiple locally selected patient care-related topics. Local staff completed knowledge questionnaires and were surveyed or interviewed on mission service impact along with the cultural competence of missionaries. Mission team members completed the Intercultural Effectiveness Scale (IES) and surveys to determine their cultural competence.Results: After initial education, 90% passed the knowledge questionnaire with at least a 50% and the correct response rate was 57.9 vs. 66.7% after 6 months and 2.5 years, respectively (p = 0.40). Local staff ranked education/training as most valuable (84%) and highly desired (53%). Mean IES score and survey responses of both missionaries and local staff rated mission team cultural competence as average.Conclusions: Education-focused mission trips in Sierra Leone seem to have long-lasting benefits and a positive impact on local staff, though improved intercultural competence is needed.

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Management of Malaria in Children Younger Than 5 Years Old During Coronavirus Disease 2019 Pandemic in Sierra Leone: A Lesson Learned?

Frontiers in Pediatrics ◽

10.3389/fped.2020.587638 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 8 ◽

Author(s):

Danilo Buonsenso ◽

Francesco Iodice ◽

Bianca Cinicola ◽

Francesca Raffaelli ◽

Solia Sowa ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Sierra Leone ◽

Health Systems ◽

Positive Impact ◽

Local Population ◽

Malaria Diagnosis ◽

Peripheral Region ◽

Local Health ◽

Significant Drop ◽

Proactive Approach ◽

The Impact

Growing evidences are showing the potential indirect effects of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) on the health systems of low-resource settings, where diseases such as Tuberculosis, Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and Malaria represent major killers. Therefore, we performed a retrospective study aimed to evaluate the impact of COVID-19 on Malaria programs in a peripheral region of Sierra Leone, previously involved by the Ebola outbreak in 2015, when malaria care have been impaired since local health systems were overwhelmed by Ebola cases. During COVID-19 in Sierra Leone, we did not notice a significant drop in malaria diagnosis in children, suggesting that a proactive approach in the management of malaria in endemic countries during COVID-19 may have had a positive impact. A comprehensive approach that include also educational activities to sensitize the local population, was useful to guarantee successful malaria diagnosis and treatment, and prevents excess of malaria deaths due to potential disruption of the local health systems related to the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic.

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Management of malaria in children under 5-years-old during COVID-19 pandemic in Sierra Leone: a lesson learned?

10.1101/2020.11.04.20225714 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Danilo Buonsenso ◽

Francesco Iodice ◽

Bianca Cinicola ◽

Francesca Raffaelli ◽

Solia Sowa ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Retrospective Study ◽

Sierra Leone ◽

Health Systems ◽

Positive Impact ◽

Local Population ◽

Malaria Diagnosis ◽

Peripheral Region ◽

Local Health ◽

Proactive Approach ◽

The Impact

AbstractGrowing evidences are showing the potential indirect effects of COVID-19 on the health systems of low-resource settings, where diseases such as Tuberculosis, HIV and Malaria represent major killers. Therefore, we performed a retrospective study aimed to evaluate the impact of COVID-19 on Malaria programs in a peripheral region of Sierra Leone, previously involved by the Ebola outbreak in 2015, when malaria care have been impaired since local health systems were overwhelmed by Ebola cases. During COVID-19 in Sierra Leone, we did not notice a drop in malaria diagnosis in children, suggesting that a proactive approach in the management of malaria in endemic countries during COVID-19 may have had a positive impact. A comprehensive approach that include also educational activities to sensitize the local population, was useful to guarantee successful malaria diagnosis and treatment, and prevents excess of malaria deaths due to potential disruption of the local health systems related to the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic.Contribution to the fieldwe performed a retrospective study aimed to evaluate the impact of COVID-19 on Malaria programs in a peripheral region of Sierra Leone, previously involved by the Ebola outbreak in 2015, when malaria care have been impaired since local health systems were overwhelmed by Ebola cases. During COVID-19 in Sierra Leone, we did not notice a significant change in the middle term period in malaria diagnosis in children, suggesting that a proactive approach in the management of malaria in endemic countries during COVID-19 may have had a positive impact. A comprehensive approach that include also educational activities to sensitize the local population, was useful to guarantee successful malaria diagnosis and treatment, and prevents excess of malaria deaths due to potential disruption of the local health systems related to the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic.Funding statementnothing to declareEthics statementsStudies involving animal subjectsGenerated Statement: No animal studies are presented in this manuscript.Studies involving human subjectsGenerated Statement: The studies involving human participants were reviewed and approved by Bureh Town Community Hospital. Written informed consent to participate in this study was provided by the participants’ legal guardian/next of kin.Inclusion of identifiable human dataGenerated Statement: No potentially identifiable human images or data is presented in this study.Data availability statementGenerated Statement: The raw data supporting the conclusions of this article will be made available by the authors, without undue reservation.

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The Long-Term Impact of Different Offline Population Inclusion Strategies in Probability-Based Online Panels: Evidence From the German Internet Panel and the GESIS Panel

Social Science Computer Review ◽

10.1177/0894439320984131 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 089443932098413

Author(s):

Carina Cornesse ◽

Ines Schaurer

Keyword(s):

Survey Data ◽

Positive Impact ◽

Alternative Mode ◽

Mail Surveys ◽

Internet Users ◽

Online Panels ◽

Long Term Impact ◽

The Impact ◽

Postal Mail

While online panels offer numerous advantages, they are often criticized for excluding the offline population. Therefore, some probability-based online panels have developed offline population inclusion strategies. Two dominant approaches prevail: providing internet equipment and offering an alternative survey participation mode. We investigate the impact of these approaches on two probability-based online panels in Germany: the German Internet Panel, which provides members of the offline population with internet equipment, and the GESIS Panel, which offers members of the offline population to participate via postal mail surveys. In addition, we explore the impact of offering an alternative mode only to non-internet users versus also offering the alternative mode to internet users who are unwilling to provide survey data online. Albeit lower recruitment and/or panel wave participation probabilities among offliners than onliners, we find that including the offline population has a positive long-term impact on sample accuracy in both panels. In the GESIS Panel, the positive impact is particularly strong when offering the alternative participation mode to non-internet users and internet users who are unwilling to provide survey data online.

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THE IMPACT OF NATIONAL CULTURE ON THE CORPORATE CULTURE IN GLOBAL HOTEL COMPANIES

Tourism and hospitality management ◽

10.20867/thm.12.2.8 ◽

2006 ◽

Vol 12 (2) ◽

pp. 93-102

Author(s):

Zdenko Cerović ◽

Amelia Tomašević

Keyword(s):

National Culture ◽

Corporate Culture ◽

Positive Impact ◽

Social Differences ◽

National Cultures ◽

Local Staff ◽

Business Operations ◽

Norms And Values ◽

Hotel Service ◽

The Impact

The national culture is a system of assumptions, values, norms and traditions shared by one national group; the corporate culture is a system of rituals, behavior patters, norms and values shared by majority of employees in a company. Both cultures influence the style of management and communication with employees. The national culture influences the corporate culture, but in a long term, a corporate culture can also influence the national culture. Strong corporate cultures can suppress the national culture through the system of standardization of business operations, which in international companies is an element of brand identification and a competitive advantage. Global hotel companies which manage the hotels all over the world, face problems which derive from differences between their own corporate culture and national cultures of local staff. The efficiency of operations will depend on the way and skills in handling those problems. The influence of national and sometimes local cultures might have positive impact on creation of very successful hotel system of hotel service which often is well accepted on tourist market, but might also result with potential misunderstandings and even opposite effects. The paper surveys the elements of national cultures which might have impact on corporate cultures. The paper assumes that global hotel companies often face big cultural and social differences in certain destinations of their business interest. The model of survey are hotel corporate cultures in Croatian, European and world hotels and their corporations.

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Resilience and Empowerment through Higher Education in Kakuma Refugee Camp: A Conversation

Global Research in Higher Education ◽

10.22158/grhe.v4n1p64 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 4 (1) ◽

pp. p64

Author(s):

Paul O’Keeffe ◽

Samuel Niyonkuru

Keyword(s):

Higher Education ◽

Positive Impact ◽

Refugee Camp ◽

Management Policy ◽

Local Health ◽

Policy And Practice ◽

Health Care Organisation ◽

Care Organisation ◽

The Impact

Resilience and empowerment are concepts that recently have become popularised in the world of forced displacement management policy and practice. Often undervalued and dismissed as being buzzwords, these concepts have become bound up in the burgeoning study of higher education in refugee contexts. This article explores these themes in the frame of a real-world experience of studying a blended learning medical studies course in Kakuma refugee camp and the impact it has had on an individual’s life and that of his community. Building on the academic discourse, we present a case study of the individual’s experience of studying an online and face-to-face course in Kakuma refugee camp and subsequently undertaking an internship with a local health care organisation. Through a discursive conversation, the subject of the case study reveals the positive impact this educational experience has fostered in his life by instilling resilience and empowering him to become a force for positive change in his community.

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An Investigation into the Influence of Different Types of Nesting Materials upon the Welfare of Captive Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes)

Animals ◽

10.3390/ani11061835 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (6) ◽

pp. 1835

Author(s):

Naomi Anderson ◽

Bala Amarasekaran ◽

David Riba

Keyword(s):

Sierra Leone ◽

Pan Troglodytes ◽

Relative Frequency ◽

Environmental Enrichment ◽

Positive Impact ◽

Older Individuals ◽

Wild Populations ◽

Treatment Conditions ◽

Different Types ◽

The Impact

Ensuring the welfare of captive chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) is crucial, in part because they can act as a conservation resource in the case of wild populations becoming extinct. One strategy often adopted to ensure animal welfare is environmental enrichment. In this study, we investigated the impact of different nesting materials (leaves and branches, long grass, cotton sheets, and shredded newspaper) upon the welfare of chimpanzees housed at Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary (Sierra Leone). Data was collected on 20 subjects (aged 4 to 15 years) between November 2019 and March 2020. Welfare was based on individuals’ relative frequency of affiliative, abnormal and agonistic behaviours, as well as their social and behavioural competence. We found that individuals’ welfare was higher when presented with nesting materials (compared to the control and post-treatment conditions), particularly when given shredded newspaper, regardless of whether the material was presented separately or in conjunction with another. In addition, welfare was highest: during the morning (vs evening); in groups of older individuals (vs younger); with females engaging in less agonistic behaviours compared to males; and males displaying relatively higher behavioural competence. Our results support previous research that captive chimpanzees be supplied with destructible nesting materials, and demonstrate that synthetic enrichments can indeed have a more positive impact upon welfare than their natural alternatives.

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The impact of study abroad experiences on international students’ employability: a preliminary study on Chinese engineering students in US

10.4995/head21.2021.12751 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Qian Huang

Keyword(s):

Study Abroad ◽

Job Search ◽

Engineering Students ◽

Positive Impact ◽

Phenomenological Approach ◽

Structured Interview ◽

Search Process ◽

Interpretative Phenomenological Approach ◽

Long Term Impact ◽

The Impact

This study aims to examine how study abroad experiences influence Chinese engineering students’ employability. Employability in this study is defined as capabilities, processes and performances before job search, during job search and after job search. This study aims to explore how study abroad experiences contribute to engineering students’ global competencies; how study abroad experiences influence engineering graduates’ job search process; what the long-term impact of study abroad experience on engineering graduates’ early careers are. This study adopts interpretative phenomenological approach via semi-structured interview. The preliminary findings include: firstly, study abroad experience is a premise for Chinese engineering students for being screened during job search both in China and abroad; secondly, study abroad allows students to discover their real interests which decided their career directions; thirdly, students kept learning and self-reflecting which contribute to their capabilities building; fourthly, study abroad trained engineering students with soft skills. Moreover, recommendation from professors and alumni facilitate the job search. Lastly, personal value and family reason influence graduates’ career decisions in working in China or abroad. Conclusion was drawn that study abroad experiences have positive impact on engineering students’ employability building, job search process and their early careers.

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Peer Review: A Tool to Enhance the Quality of Academic Written Productions

English Language Teaching ◽

10.5539/elt.v12n5p30 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 12 (5) ◽

pp. 30

Author(s):

Maria Fernanda Poveda de Brusa ◽

Liliya Harutyunyan

Keyword(s):

Peer Review ◽

Academic Writing ◽

Communicative Competence ◽

Positive Impact ◽

Future Research ◽

English Class ◽

Individual Knowledge ◽

Long Term Impact ◽

The Impact

Higher education focuses on promoting the training of autonomous, critical professionals who adapt to the ever-more demanding labor market. To achieve these objectives, it is necessary to rethink teaching practices in order to allow the student to be the main actor and modeler for their learning process. Previous studies based on Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory have shown that learning should be treated as a socio-cultural activity. Indeed, according to this approach, individual knowledge is firstly constructed at a social level. Peer review, for its part, is a learning tool based on the sociocultural approach. It allows students to achieve higher levels of autonomy and critical thinking. This research’s aim is, on the one hand, to analyze the effect of peer review on the quality of academic essays and, on the other, to examine the way in which linguistic and communicative competence in academic writing are affected. This experimental study was carried out with 68 level B1 + students (32 men and 36 women) in a private university in Ecuador during one academic year. After the statistical analysis, it is concluded that peer review has a positive impact on academic writing. However, the impact is higher in the communicative competence than in the linguistic competence. This result is aligned with previous research, which shows that students tend to prioritize message over form. Future research should investigate peer review’s long-term impact upon students and their ability to transfer skills acquired in English class to other subjects, or even to professional contexts.

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Do we have to downsize – does the empirical evidence suggest any alternatives?

Journal of Strategy and Management ◽

10.1108/jsma-08-2018-0079 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 11 (4) ◽

pp. 449-460 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Michael Carriger

Keyword(s):

Negative Impact ◽

Positive Impact ◽

Financial Health ◽

Content Type ◽

Financial Outcomes ◽

Cost Cutting ◽

Financial Decline ◽

Long Term Impact ◽

The Impact

Purpose Given a growing literature indicating that downsizing is not an effective way to address financial decline, having either little impact or negative impact on the financial health or market valuation of financially troubled companies, what is the alternative for those companies in financial trouble? Three sets of alternatives to downsizing are available to companies suffering financial trouble: strategies addressing personnel/fix costs, strategies focused on addressing cost cutting/variable costs and strategies addressing strategic planning/revenue. Although alternatives to downsizing have been identified, little research has been conducted comparing the impact of downsizing vs alternatives to downsizing on firm performance. The paper aims to discuss this issue. Design/methodology/approach This present study looked solely at strategies focused on addressing personnel/fix costs. Focusing primarily on forced attrition (downsizing) vs temporary attrition and/or natural attrition, this research attempts to determine whether specific groupings of alternatives to downsizing are more effective at addressing financial decline that companies find themselves in as compared to downsizing. This included relying on temporary attrition, natural attrition or doing nothing at all. Findings The research presented here indicates that various alternatives to downsizing have an immediate positive impact on measures of profitability and a positive long-term impact on one measure of efficiency: revenue per employee. Evidence shows that temporary attrition leads to better financial outcomes than natural attrition than forced attrition or downsizing. Originality/value The research presented here indicates that various alternatives to downsizing have an immediate positive impact on measures of profitability and a positive long-term impact on one measure of efficiency: revenue per employee. This has implications for managers put in the position of having to make a decision whether to downsize or not.

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Enhancing intercultural sensitivity: the impact of Erasmus+ mobilities on future Romanian leaders

Studia Universitatis Babeș-Bolyai Negotia ◽

10.24193/subbnegotia.2020.4.02 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 65 (4) ◽

pp. 27-54

Author(s):

Emanuel-Emil Săvan ◽

Gabriela-Casiana Pavăl

Keyword(s):

Cultural Diversity ◽

Intercultural Competence ◽

Positive Impact ◽

Intercultural Sensitivity ◽

Cultural Influences ◽

Jel Classification ◽

Business Leaders ◽

Intercultural Skills ◽

High Level ◽

The Impact

"This paper investigates the link between participation in Erasmus+ mobilities and a higher level of intercultural sensitivity, a component considered to be highly relevant for contemporary business leaders. It conducts an analysis of existing cultural influences in Romania, through the prism of ethnic minorities, migration and international tourism, in order to emphasize the country’s high level of cultural diversity. Furthermore, it explores the Erasmus+ mobility, more precisely, it presents the impact the programme has on integrating young people into the labour market. Subsequently, it clarifies the concept of intercultural sensitivity and outlines the links between intercultural competence and the educational environment. As far as the research methodology is concerned, the data was obtained through primary research: a questionnaire was developed, distributed and analysed. The instrument created by Chen and Starosta (2000), namely the Intercultural Sensitivity Scale, was used to measure the level of intercultural sensitivity of individuals. For this purpose, a comparative analysis of two groups of respondents: mobility participants and non-participants, was conducted, according to several independent variables. The study found that participation in this type of mobility has a positive impact in terms of intercultural skills and leadership abilities. Therefore, the formulated recommendations support the implementation of similar initiatives in the structure of the educational curriculum. Key words: leadership, Erasmus+, cultural diversity, intercultural sensitivity, ISS JEL Classification: M10, M14, M19"

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