The Struggle to Balance Work and Family Life During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Insights Based on the Situations of Working Women in Delhi

The COVID-19 pandemic generated economic contraction across the world. In India, the stringent lockdown led to extreme distress. The unprecedented situation adversely affected the women’s efforts to balance professional life with family life because of a disproportionate increase in their domestic work burden and a shift in their workstation to home. Since every job cannot be performed remotely, women employed in healthcare services, banks and media witnessed additional risks of commuting and physical interaction at the workplace. Based on personal interviews of women in the Delhi-NCR region, the study aims to explore the commonalities and variances in the challenges experienced by the women engaged in diverse occupations. Using the qualitative methodology of flexible coding, the study finds that a relatively larger section of women travelling to their office during the pandemic, rather than those working from home, had an effective familial support system that helped them navigate this tough time.

A Carefare Regime

Hungary’s anti-liberal government has invented a novel solution to the care crisis, which I call a “carefare regime”. This chapter describes four key features of the policies, policy practice and discourse that make up Hungary’s carefare regime. I argue that in contrast to welfare state models familiar from developed democracies, in post-2010 Hungary, women’s claims to social citizenship are most successfully made on the basis of doing care work. The state is re-engineered rather retrenched: services are not commodified but “churchified” in an effort to redistribute resources and build political loyalty. Women are constructed as “naturally” responsible for reproduction and care and this responsibility is tied to sentimentalized notions about femininity and true womanhood. In addition to providing care in the household, women are increasingly engaged in the paid labor market too, where the tolerance for gender inequality is officially mandated. A carefare regime provides limited financial advantages for a select group of women, while simultaneously increasing their devalued work burden both in and outside the household: it feeds a growing underclass of women workers.

Teachers’ Awareness and Needs of the School-Based Speech-Language Pathologists

Objectives: Recently, as the population of various students in school classrooms has increased, the need for intervention on various communication problems has been emphasized. This study aims to provide basic data for legislative proposals for speech and language services in schools by investigating teachers’ perceptions and demands for establishment of school-based service delevery in speech-language pathology (SLP) in Korea.Methods: Using a Google survey, teachers at kindergarten, elementary, middle and high schools were questioned regarding their perception and demand for school SLP, with a total of 141 teachers responding.Results: The types of communication problems for the students in charge were 37.3% for multicultural families, 33.3% for slow learners, and 27% for children with other communication problems. Among the difficulties in communication among students, social communication skills accounted for 40.6%, followed by literacy with 22.7%, articulation with 16.4%, and vocabulary with 9.4%. More than 80% of teachers answered that there were students who had difficulty participating in class. Among them, 73.9% had the most difficulty in understanding the contents of the class, 32.2% of teachers’ instructions, and 17.4% of class presentations. In addition, it was found that more than half of the teachers interfered with the class or felt a work burden due to students who had difficulty participating in the class. Therefore, for this reason, 96.5% of teachers thought that having experts to help students would reduce their work burden and help children.Conclusion: Our outcomes demonstrated that teachers recognized the need for professional support at school sites, and mandatory placement of school SLP could provide students and parents with programs that could help improve their academic achievement or social communication skills.

Comparison of COVID-19 Pandemic-Related Stress among Frontline Medical Personnel in Daegu City, Korea

Background and Objectives: Frontline medical staff usually experience high levels of stress, which could greatly impact their work output. We conducted a survey to investigate the level of stress and its association with job types, work departments, and medical centers among COVID-19 pandemic frontline medical personnel. Materials and Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional survey using a self-administered questionnaire among 307 frontline medical staff who cared for COVID-19 patients in Daegu city. We used a 33-item questionnaire to assess respondents’ general characteristics, job stress, personal effects associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, and their stress level. A general health questionnaire-12 (GHQ-12) was included in our questionnaire. Results: Majority (74.3%) of the respondents were in the stress group. The mean GHQ-12 score was 14.31 ± 4.96. More females (67.4%, p < 0.05) and nurses (73.3%, p = 0.001) were in the stress group compared to males and doctors. Medical staff in the general ward considered the severity of the COVID-19 pandemic situation higher. Nurses perceived work changes (p < 0.05), work burden (p < 0.05), and personal impact (p < 0.05) more serious than doctors. Medical staff in Level 3 emergency department (ED) perceived a lack of real-time information (p = 0.012), a lack of resources, and negative personal impacts associated with the pandemic as more serious than staff in Level 1 and Level 2 EDs. Medical staff in the intensive care unit perceived work changes (p < 0.05), work burden (p < 0.05), and lack of personal protective equipment (p = 0.002) as more serious than staff in the ED and general ward. Conclusion: Providing real-time information and resources for reducing work burden and negative personal impact is central to maximizing the work output of the COVID-19 pandemic frontline medical staff. Supporting their mental health through regular programs and intervention is also imperative.

Development and usage of the digital SAMG system

In order to reduce the work burden during the training and drilling of the severe accident and severe accident management guidelines, and improve the implementation efficiency of the guidelines, a method of digitizing the SAMG program files is proposed. A set of digital SAMG system supported by information technology and combined with software and hardware is developed to transform the manual processes of paper file browsing, data searching, logical judgment and auxiliary calculation into automatic and digital processes, which can be used for SAMG training and drilling, and also for verifying the SAMG execution process and the effectiveness of mitigation measures.

Impact of corona virus on nature of work, income and time spent by women

Corona virus emerged from Sea food market, China but it affected on all countries including women, men and children. Women are most affected economically, emotionally and work by Corona virus. Immediately after the outbreak of corona virus, Central and State governments introduced lockdown of economy. All women working in an informal sector lost their job and income. Those women working in formal sector had more online workload without time constraints. Household chores, child care, family members care, carry vegetables and grocery was routine activities for women. Such activities increased more work burden on women. Other member were expected to cooperate to women in work but they never cooperated to women. Over work and family related violence made women more worse in this pandemic.

Potential of an Automated- and Image-Based Cell Counter to Accelerate Microalgal Research and Applications

Efforts to achieve Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have resulted in enhancement of the position of microalgae in feedstocks for food, feed, healthcare, and biofuels. However, stabile microalgal biorefineries require a sustainable and reliable management system of microalgae, which are sensitive to environmental changes. To expand microalgal applicability, assessment and maintenance of microalgal quality are crucial. Compared with conventional methods, including hemocytometry and turbidity, an automated- and image-based cell counter contributes to the establishment of routine management of microalgae with reduced work burden. This review presents the principle of an automated cell counter and highlights the functional capacities of the device for microalgal management. The method utilizing fluorescence function to evaluate the chlorophyll integrity of microalgae may lay the groundwork for making a large variety of microalgal biorefineries, creating an important step toward achieving SDGs.

Evaluating the impact of nurse practitioner involvement in a pleural procedures clinic

Background: Pleural disease incidence is increasing and there has been a move towards outpatient management. Pleural clinics have been developed for patients to be assessed and have pleural procedures for diagnostic and symptomatic purposes. Aim: The study aimed to assess the impact of nurse practitioner (NP) involvement in a pleural procedures clinic on clinic capacity, and staff and patient experience. Methods: A mixed-methods service evaluation was completed in a medium-sized general hospital. The number of patients seen in clinic over a 6-month period at the beginning of NP involvement was compared with the number of patients seen 1 year later. Semi-structured interviews of key staff stakeholders were conducted. Findings: Clinic capacity increased from 4.57 to 5.86 patients per list. NP involvement increased access, improved patient care, reduced work burden for other staff and improved educational opportunities. Conclusion: The impact of NP involvement in the pleural clinic was seen as positive and increased clinic capacity. The same model of practice could be considered elsewhere.