The International Childbirth Initiative: An Applied Anthropologist’s Account of Developing Global Guidelines

This chapter describes my personal experiences as an applied anthropologist serving as the lead editor in the development of a set of international guidelines focused on improving quality of maternity care: the International Childbirth Initiative (ICI): 12 Steps to Safe and Respectful MotherBaby-Family Maternity Care (2018). The ICI’s purpose is to encourage global awareness and local implementation of the MotherBaby-Family Model of Care. This is a model based on women’s rights and humane, respectful, family-centered care. The ICI’s creation story is continuous with global movements to improve the quality of maternity care and with a deep history of birth activism by practitioners, public health advocates, and social scientists aimed at decreasing unnecessary medical intervention in childbirth. This narrative is widely relevant for understanding how to develop and implement global guidelines that can flexibly adapt to local contexts. The ICI was developed by the merging of the 2015 FIGO Guidelines to Mother-Baby Friendly Birthing Facilities with the pre-existing International MotherBaby Childbirth Initiative (IMBCI) in an intense and rewarding group process. The chapter discusses factors that contributed to the successful development of clear global guidelines for high-quality maternity care. These include attention to process, alignment with key values of the women’s health and midwifery movements, multilevel collaboration and networking around a clear vision, garnering input from many people with diverse voices and perspectives, and patience with and commitment to the tasks at hand.

Influence of the pandemic on international tourism

The beginning of the global Covid–19 crisis in the world had a negative impact on the economies of various regions and countries, including the development of tourism as a separate branch of the national economy. International tourism experienced a serious downturn in 2020 and early 2021: due to the pandemic and lockdowns, the number of tourists dropped to 98 percent. The article analyzes the level of decline in global tourism, emerging around the world due to the Covid-19 crisis. In the course of the analysis, the author considers vulnerable areas of international tourism on the example of several associated groups. The analysis of the current state and development of international tourism used the method of partial abstraction to collect information and effectively search, group, process and summarize the necessary material. The study of the dynamics of three different economic indicators of the regions of Africa, America, Asia and the Pacific, Europe, the Middle East using a comparative method, including the direct impact of tourism on GDP, exports and international tourism, allows to establish causal relationships and identify and mitigate the problems of international tourism. In particular, it is known that vaccination is a relevant mechanism for solving the emerging underlying problems.

Researching Adverse Childhood Experiences in a Domestic Violence service: The role of co-operative inquiry groups in practice development and change

The long-term impacts of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) are of increasing interest to researchers and practitioners. While attention is being paid to the effectiveness of screening for ACEs to improve health and social outcomes, how to implement such practices has become key. The Irish study upon which this article is based used an action research approach to implement ACEs routine enquiry within a domestic violence service, while also utilising co-operative inquiry groups for practitioners within the organisation (n=10) and those working in associated fields of infant mental health, child protection and welfare and community support (n=7). This article documents the process of enacting the co-operative inquiry groups and outlines learning points, challenges and lessons. Drawing on Finlay’s (2002a, 2002b) theories on the variants of reflexivity in research processes, six themes emerged on the research process: insider and outsider status; the structure and approach to the groupwork process; participation in the group process; addressing fears; practice concerns; and motivations to act. We conclude with suggestions for effective co-operative inquiry processes and highlight the factors related to groupwork that may contribute to improvements in practice, organisational and community change.

Co-Designing a Social Connections Program With Older Adults

Loneliness presents a higher risk for mortality than smoking 15 cigarettes per day. COVID-19 has exacerbated loneliness for many older adults, without access to family, friends, and community. Friendly caller programs utilizing volunteers to talk with older adults who are lonely can be helpful, providing much-needed contact. However, few lasting connections have formed in these programs. To enhance our social connections program, we systematically engaged a group of older adults who struggle with social isolation to co-design a program to meet their needs. This group met virtually twice for two hours to (1) identify contributors to their isolation, generate ideas for ideal program components, and how best to connect older adults to each other; and (2) to refine the multi-component program created by staff based on the first discussion. Group process and themes will be presented, along with a discussion of key issues in program co-design with older adults.

Leadership and Follower Voice: The Role of Inclusive Leadership and Group Faultlines in Promoting Collective Voice Behavior

We developed and tested a theoretical model to examine how and when inclusive leadership affected collective voice behavior in this study. We identified two voice-relevant mediators—group psychological safety (an emergent state) and information elaboration (a group process) to clarify the mechanisms between inclusive leadership and collective voice behavior. Further, according to the person–situation interaction approach, we brought the faultlines theory to the inclusive leadership literature and considered group faultlines as a positive moderator to maximize the effects of inclusive leadership. With a two-wave, two-source design, we collected data from 301 employees within 67 research and development groups in China. We found that inclusive leadership positively affected collective voice behavior through the mediating mechanisms of both group psychological safety and information elaboration. Additionally, this effect was stronger in high faultlines situation. The findings suggest that leaders should show inclusiveness to motivate collective voice, especially in groups with high faultlines.

Exploring work engagement in the context of person-centred practices: a qualitative study in municipal long-term care facilities for older people

Background: To provide high-quality and cost-effective person-centred care, organisations need employees who are committed to perform at their best. Employee work engagement, defined as a positive, fulfilling approach to work, is known to correlate favourably with employee wellbeing and performance and with the service climate. Extended understanding about the meaning of work engagement can promote the development of environments that are both conducive to person-centred practices and good places to work. Aim: To explore the meaning of work engagement in the context of person-centred practices in municipal healthcare facilities for older people. Methods: A total of 16 individual interviews were conducted with a purposive sample of registered nurses and nursing assistants working in municipal healthcare facilities for older people in Norway. Data were analysed using a stepwise-deductive-inductive approach. Findings were generated inductively from the themes that emerged in the interviews and were later reflected on in relation to both theory and practice. Findings: Work engagement is manifest at individual and collective levels, involving intrapersonal, interpersonal and social/group components. Engagement is experienced as contributing to employee work capacity and team effectiveness with respect to person-centred processes. Conclusion: At individual, collective and environmental levels, employee engagement facilitates the development of person-centred practices in organisations providing long-term care for older people, to the benefit of residents and staff. Implications for practice: • Work engagement should be recognised as a condition that fosters employees’ ability and willingness to suspend judgment and appreciate the service user’s perspective • Individual-level engagement is contagious, facilitating development of supportive work environments, which, in turn, enables person-centred practices • Engagement should be approached simultaneously as an intrapersonal, interpersonal, and social/group process, with individual- and group-level outcomes