A multi-agency approach to reducing harms from violence and aggression directed towards ambulance services staff in Wales (UK)

Purpose Ambulance services staff worldwide have long been at risk of encountering violence and aggression directed towards them during their work. Verbal forms of violence and aggression are the most prevalent form, but sometimes incidents involve physical injury, and on rare occasions homicides do occur. Exposure to such violence and aggression can have a lasting negative impact upon ambulance staff and has been associated with increased levels of stress, fear, anxiety, emotional exhaustion, depersonalisation and burnout syndrome. Despite the significance of this issue, little progress has been made to tackle it. The purpose of this paper is to describe this multi-agency approach being taken in Wales (UK) to reduce such harms from violence and aggression directed towards ambulance services staff. Design/methodology/approach An interpretative post-positivist narrative methodology and policy analysis approach was followed. Snowball methods of gathering data were used to construct this narrative involving meetings, telephone calls, review of policy documents, legislation and academic literature. Findings The authors report how tackling violence and aggression directed towards emergency workers has become a priority within Wales (UK), resulting in policy developments and initiatives from groups such as the UK and Welsh Government, the Welsh Ambulance Services National Health Services (NHS) Trust, Health Boards, the NHS Wales Anti-Violence Collaborative and the Joint Emergency Services Group (JESG) in Wales. This has included changes in legislation such as the Assaults on Emergency Workers (Offences) Act 2018 that came into force on 13th November 2018 and policy changes such as the obligatory responses to violence in health care and the JESG #WithUsNotAgainst Us campaign. Our study however reflects the complexity of this issue and the need for further high-quality research. Originality/value The experiences and activities of Wales (UK) reported in this paper adds to the international body of knowledge and literature on violence and aggression directed towards ambulance services staff.

Spiritual trauma as a manifestation of religious and spiritual struggles in female victims of sexual abuse in adolescence or young adulthood in the Catholic Church in Poland

Specialists on issues of sexual abuse in religious institutions unanimously stress that this kind of experience significantly affects the victims’ spirituality. Particularly devastating and distorting for their spirituality is sexual abuse committed by clergy. In order to explore this issue for the first time in Poland, the authors conducted a qualitative study in the form of semi-structured interviews with five women who had experienced sexual abuse by Catholic clergy and/or religious in adolescence and young adulthood. The interviews were analyzed using the interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) and narrative methodology. The results showed that four respondents experienced or had experienced religious struggles in three areas: interpersonal, intrapsychic, and relationship with God. These struggles are complex and intense enough to be referred to as “spiritual trauma” (Doyle, 2009, 2011; Kusner & Pargament, 2015), “religious trauma” (Panchuk, 2018), or “spiritual violence” (Tobin, 2019). The results of the study may be of importance for people helping or having any other kind of contact with victims of clergy sexual abuse.

Exploring the ‘unexplained’ awarding gap through understanding BAME students' experiences

A narrative method of enquiry was used to investigate the university experiences of Black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) students studying in a south-eastern UK business school. Participants were self-selecting undergraduates and postgraduates and academic and professional staff. The three facilitators were all academic staff from the Business School: two who identify as Black, one who identifies as white. Using a ‘Thinking Group’ (Kline, 1999) narrative methodology, it was found that issues relating to belonging, isolation, inclusive curriculum, and employability are all impacting Black, Asian and minority ethnic students' success in the Business School currently. The research resulted in the co-creation of 30 recommendations for action in the following academic year.

normalising power and engaged narrative methodology: refugee women, the forgotten category in the public discourse

Since the beginning of the 21st century, the discourse of othering of non-Western migrants has been growing in many European societies. And since 2015, refugees have become a quite visible component in this discourse. Although, for decades, the dominant image of refugees has been constructed as people ‘at risk’, new competing images of refugee men ‘as risk’ have recently gained ground. For refugee women, however, the image of being victims and ‘at risk’ still prevails. This shows a strong underlying gendered logic of feminine vulnerability and masculine threat. In this article, I show how these images are situated within the dominant Dutch discourse of migration with taken-for-granted taxonomies of the self and the other. Specific in this normalised discourse for refugee women is that their agency is either ignored or their possible position as activists is not acknowledged to exist. Using examples from two studies in which my research team engaged with the method of narrative engaged research, I show the importance of this particular narrative method in unsettling the normalising power of othering. The theoretical argument of this article engages with ongoing discussions on power and agency. It argues that, when the power of exclusion works through repetition and is manifested in the daily normalisation of actions, agency needs to provide an alternative in the same fluid manner. Narratives in dialogue provide an illuminating angle for discussing this specific kind of agency, as I will show through some examples from research.

Of Mice, Cattle, and Men: A Review of the Eco-Epidemiology of Leptospira borgpetersenii Serovar Ballum

In New Zealand (NZ), leptospirosis is a mostly occupational zoonosis, with >66% of the recently notified cases being farm or abattoir workers. Livestock species independently maintain Leptospira borgpetersenii serovar Hardjo and L. interrogans serovar Pomona, and both are included in livestock vaccines. The increasing importance in human cases of Ballum, a serovar associated with wildlife, suggests that wildlife may be an overlooked source of infection. Livestock could also act as bridge hosts for humans. Drawing from disease ecology frameworks, we chose five barriers to include in this review based on the hypothesis that cattle act as bridge hosts for Ballum. Using a narrative methodology, we collated published studies pertaining to (a) the distribution and abundance of potential wild maintenance hosts of Ballum, (b) the infection dynamics (prevalence and pathogenesis) in those same hosts, (c) Ballum shedding and survival in the environment, (d) the exposure and competency of cattle as a potential bridge host, and (e) exposure for humans as a target host of Ballum. Mice (Mus musculus), rats (Rattus rattus, R. norvegicus) and hedgehogs (Erinaceus europaeus) were suspected as maintenance hosts of Ballum in NZ in studies conducted in the 1970s–1980s. These introduced species are distributed throughout NZ, and are present on pastures. The role of other wildlife in Ballum (and more broadly Leptospira) transmission remains poorly defined, and has not been thoroughly investigated in NZ. The experimental and natural Ballum infection of cattle suggest a low pathogenicity and the possibility of shedding. The seroprevalence in cattle appears higher in recent serosurveys (3 to 14%) compared with studies from the 1970s (0 to 3%). This review identifies gaps in the knowledge of Ballum, and highlights cattle as a potential spillover host. Further studies are required to ascertain the role that wild and domestic species may play in the eco-epidemiology of Ballum in order to understand its survival in the environment, and to inform control strategies.

The Impact Of South Asian Cultural Violence

<div>This study explores the experiences and perspectives of first/second generation South Asian Canadian women on the representation of South Asian culture and violence against South Asian women. Specifically, this study looks at the myth of South Asian cultural violence, which views South Asian culture as inherently oppressive toward women and South Asian men as violent; and as a result, South Asian women are seen as victims of these men and their culture.</div><div>This study does not undermine violence against South Asian women, but challenges the ways in which violence against South Asian women gets talked about through the myth or the discourse of South Asian cultural violence. Both the state and (trans)national media play an important role in circulating this myth to further socio-political agendas. Centering the narratives of South Asian women in this study will show the ways in which they make meaning of the myth, as well as how they challenge and resist it. This study involves a focus group with two first/second generation South Asian Canadian women using arts-informed narrative methodology. Findings demonstrate that the discourse of South Asian cultural violence has had a significant impact on their relationship to themselves, other South Asians, and to the South Asian culture due to the ongoing encounter with stories of violence against South Asian women. </div>

The Impact Of South Asian Cultural Violence

<div>This study explores the experiences and perspectives of first/second generation South Asian Canadian women on the representation of South Asian culture and violence against South Asian women. Specifically, this study looks at the myth of South Asian cultural violence, which views South Asian culture as inherently oppressive toward women and South Asian men as violent; and as a result, South Asian women are seen as victims of these men and their culture.</div><div>This study does not undermine violence against South Asian women, but challenges the ways in which violence against South Asian women gets talked about through the myth or the discourse of South Asian cultural violence. Both the state and (trans)national media play an important role in circulating this myth to further socio-political agendas. Centering the narratives of South Asian women in this study will show the ways in which they make meaning of the myth, as well as how they challenge and resist it. This study involves a focus group with two first/second generation South Asian Canadian women using arts-informed narrative methodology. Findings demonstrate that the discourse of South Asian cultural violence has had a significant impact on their relationship to themselves, other South Asians, and to the South Asian culture due to the ongoing encounter with stories of violence against South Asian women. </div>

How Do Veterinary Students Engage When Using Creative Methods to Critically Reflect on Experience? A Qualitative Analysis of Assessed Reflective Work

Critical reflection—the exploration and questioning of one’s experience, beliefs, assumptions, and actions—supports resilience, empathy, the management of uncertainty, and professional identity formation. Yet for many students and educators, the techniques to engage in critical reflection are elusive. Creative methods that foster engagement with emotional and uncertain aspects of experience reportedly help some students to reflect at a more critical level than when they use reflective writing, and this study explores more deeply the experiences of such students, who used creative methods to critically reflect on challenging or troubling past events. A narrative methodology was utilized, in which researchers collaboratively co-constructed an understanding of students’ experiences of reflection to identify the activities and steps they used. Creative methods did not inherently lead to critical reflection, but when this was achieved, the creative approaches seemed to facilitate a staging of reflection, which incorporated five sequential stages: preplanning creative depiction, experimenting with different ideas, deliberately completing the reflective piece, reflecting on creative work, and reflecting again on learning and development. This cyclic, repeated revisit to experience, as students engaged in each stage of their work, appeared to facilitate both a deep connection with the emotional elements of experience and a more distanced analysis. This ultimately led to a deepening of understanding of events, including the construction of students’ own beliefs and empathy with others’ views.

On the Mathematical Narration by Trans-Spectrum University Students

More than 80 years of literature support the idea that math attitudes and experiences differ by gender. However, such research treats gender as a simple and dichotomous variable, which it is not. As such, our understandings of math affective variables are completely dominated by a cisgender narrative and a false gender binary. In particular, I argue that it is important to research the lived experiences in the math classroom and the sense of belonging felt by trans-spectrum students. This qualitative study has employed a narrative methodology to analyze the semi-structured interviews of 6 participants who identify as trans-spectrum university students in order to explore the tactile lived experiences in the math classroom as it relates to gender, when gender is considered holistically. Overall, the participants indicated that while mathematics as a discipline is not gender-specific, the participants face discrimination and microaggressions around mathematics that help create a chilly atmosphere. The participants, then, narrate their sense of belonging in regard to a separation between mathematics as a discipline and mathematical activities. Collectively, all participants presented stories that highlight conflicts within various social binaries, such as male/female or private/public school.