An Alternative to Socio-Economic Injustice

Individuals have responded with a variety of responses to crises such as war, natural disasters, famine, and pandemics. These are times when people have pulled together to overcome these challenges, or sometimes have divided themselves ideologically, politically, and behaviorally. This chapter addresses some of those characteristics within the United States affecting national and global relationships in the 21st century. The authors support the perception that there is a need for behavioral and cultural change—caring. Specifically, the authors propose an alternative paradigm: the development and sustainability of a “culture of care” as an interdisciplinary approach for national behaviors and international collaboration. The work of two American scholars, Nel Noddings and Jean Watson, center on the importance of the philosophy of care, caring theory, and practice in education and nursing. Going forward to more international crises such as climate change, the COVID-19 pandemic, and poverty and hunger, the authors look to a more equitable and collaborative means to address these problems.

Supporting Institutional Transformations: Experimenting with Reflexive and Embodied Cross-Boundary Research

The sustainable management of natural resources (SMNR) is concerned with socially and environmentally just decision-making processes around the access to, and the control over, natural resources. However, SMNR is imbued of multiple (and conflictual) intersecting knowledges, practice, expertise and value systems, as well as unequal power relations. This makes achieving meaningful and inclusive collaborative practices far from straightforward, and by no means easy to guarantee. This chapter discusses some evidence from Wales, drawing from a wider cross-boundary doctoral research project (led by the first author) on collaborative forms of SMNR, co-developed by a small transdisciplinary team of academics (the two co-authors) and (cross-divisional) civil servants within Welsh Government. Specifically, this chapter discusses the first author’s experience of transdisciplinary collaboration through the methodological lens provided by blending the Formative Accompanying Research (Freeth, R. (2019). Formative Accompanying Research with Collaborative Interdisciplinary Teams. Doctoral Thesis.) and the Embodied Researcher approach (Horlings et al., 2020). We offer a critical reflection on the first-hand experience of co-experimenting alongside policy actors with alternative and more creative ways of working in the spaces in between the written publication and implementation of SMNR legislation and policy.We explore the role of creative methods such as Theory U (Scharmer, 2018) in further promoting collaborative processes of meaning-making in transdisciplinary research settings, highlighting their contribution towards enabling emotional and embodied ways of working to be forefronted. In so doing, the chapter illustrates the role of emotional labour, vulnerability and energy in such co-experimental work by emphasizing the need for the practicing of care in building relationships of trust and collaboration, especially within the context of just sustainability transformations. We conclude by stressing the importance of dedicating sufficient time and resources to enable a culture of care (Bellacasa, 2017; Tronto, 2013) such that embodied and collaborative ways of working can be more fully supported and understood within governmental institutions.

The Role of School Connectedness in Supporting the Health and Well-Being of Youth: Recommendations for School Nurses

The importance of students feeling connected in school cannot be overstated, as this perception is crucial to support their health and well-being. A lack of school connectedness can lead to adverse physical and mental health outcomes, including bully victimization. Numerous factors, including individual, social, and environmental, influence students’ perceived sense of school connectedness. School nurses are well positioned to establish and maintain school connectedness due to their knowledge, accessibility to students, and familiarity with the school environment. This article details the importance of school connectedness and describes the associations between school connectedness, bullying, and mental health. In addition, we offer recommendations geared toward school nurses regarding strengthening school connectedness and promoting a culture of care and inclusivity within school environments, especially salient in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Challenges and Solutions Surrounding Environmental Enrichment for Dogs and Cats in a Scientific Environment

Dogs and cats housed in research-, kennel- and cattery-type settings are reliant on caregivers to optimise their day-to-day experiences and welfare. The goal is to provide enriching environments for physical, social and environmental control; behavioural choice and opportunities to live as varied a life as possible. However, there are numerous challenges in these environments such as lack of appropriate enrichment for group housing, budget for equipment/training, study controls, time and space to make improvements. In addition, research settings are required to comply with legislation for care, husbandry and housing, and as standards differ between regions, conditions will vary between settings. Sharing knowledge in this field can only help drive a wider culture of care by helping improve the lives and welfare of animals cared for. This article presents some of the environmental enrichment strategies effective at the Waltham Petcare Science Institute, UK.

The Prevention of Occupational Heat Stress in Sugarcane Workers in Nicaragua—An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis

Background: Chronic kidney disease of non-traditional origin (CKDnt) is an ongoing epidemic that has taken the lives of tens of thousands of people in Mesoamerica, also affecting other tropical geographies. Occupational heat stress, which will increase worldwide as climate change persists, has been identified as a primary trigger of kidney injury and reduced renal function. At Nicaragua's largest sugarcane mill, the water, rest, and shade (WRS) intervention has proven to reduce the risk of heat stress and kidney injury effectively as assessed by the research and policy NGO La Isla Network (LIN) and their academic partners, who have worked with the sugar mill to improve the design of their intervention system. However, discrepancies between intervention design and implementation have been found. This study explores the perceptions of the WRS intervention in the company from the perspective of positions responsible for the workers' environment and heat stress prevention implementation.Methods: A qualitative design was used in the study. Twenty-one key informants of low and middle management, field assistants, and two members from LIN took part in the study. Semi-structured interviews were used to collect the data. Interviews' transcriptions were analyzed using interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA).Results: Four main themes were developed in the analysis of the data: “A worthwhile struggle,” “Culture of care”, “Traditional production culture Vs. Culture of care,” and “The importance of the formalization of care.” Each theme contained sub-themes, all of which were further discussed in the light of organizational psychology.Conclusion and Implications: Discretionary differences resulting in low and middle management prioritizing production over health protection appeared to relate to a fair part of the implementation challenges and indicate that more efforts are needed to align operations' production and health goals. Education enhancement might be necessary, while further focus on health metrics for performance assessment might offer an opportunity to level perceived incentives and value of health and production.

Improving culture of care through maximising learning from observations and events: Addressing what is at fault

The term ‘culture of care’ in the context of using animals for scientific purpose describes the culture in organisations that provides support to staff to strive for continuous improvement in: • animal care and welfare; • support and recognition of staff involved in the animal care and use programme; • scientific quality; • openness and transparency. We developed a systematic process for reporting observations and events that have the potential to help with continuous learning, improving animal welfare and supporting staff. The process took learning from the safety, health and environment arena on accident prevention. The two key aspects were (a) the systematic logging of observations and events; and (b) the learning approach to following up on observations. Underpinning our systematic process is the ‘Learning from Observations and Events Log’. Reported observations and events can relate to positive practices, general observations as well as near misses. We created an environment to promote continuous improvement for both animals and staff by recognising, rewarding and sharing good practice, as well as where near misses are openly reported and learnt from. Supporting animal welfare, staff welfare, improving scientific quality and transparency are the four key pillars of a positive culture of care. We recognised early on that using a system and learning approach to follow up on observations and events rather than a people and blame approach was key to developing open reporting and a positive culture. In the systems approach, errors are consequences rather than causes, having their origins in systemic factors.

Improving the culture of care

Kate Nash, Senior Lecturer and Professional Midwifery Advocate, provides an overview of the advocating for education and quality improvement (A-EQUIP) model and role of the Professional Midwifery Advocate