Concept Creep and Psychiatrization

Some aspects of psychiatrization can be understood as forms of concept creep, the progressive expansion of concepts of harm. This article compares the two concepts and explores how concept creep sheds light on psychiatrization. We argue that although psychiatrization is in some respects a broader concept than concept creep, addressing institutional and societal dimensions of the expanding reach of psychiatry in addition to conceptual change, concept creep is broader in other respects, viewing the expansion of psychiatric concepts as examples of the broadening of a more extensive range of harm-related concepts. A concept creep perspective on psychiatrization clarifies the different forms of expansion it involves, the centrality of harm to it, its benefits as well as its costs, its variations across individuals and groups, and the drivers of psychiatrization in the general public and in fields beyond psychiatry.

Metaphoric Perceptions of Preservice Teachers Regarding Technological Change

The purposes of this study were to determine metaphoric perception of preservice teachers from different fields regarding technological change and to examine the differences and similarities between perceptions of preservice teachers (1st and 4th grades). This study employed single case (holistic) study as a qualitative approach. Participants consisted of 445 preservice teachers who have continued their education in different programs in 2019-2020 academic year in Faculty of Education. After informing participants about metaphor technique and its applications, each participant was asked to fill out a structured form. The structured form included a prompt: “Technological change is like ......, because......”. Content analysis technique was employed to analyze the data. Content analysis included developing conceptual categorization and themes based on the reasoning of metaphors. Results showed that most of the participants had similar metaphoric perception regarding technological change, considering “metaphoric categories” and “conceptual categories.” However, “metaphoric categories” and “metaphoric concepts” had similarities and differences by year. And, “technological change as societal/cultural interaction” theme emerged from the analysis. This theme consisted of two categories (influencer and influenced) and these two categories were grouped in three sub-categories. Overall, the results indicate that preservice teachers’ perceptions of “technological change” concept had some variations.

Standardized aseptic dressing change procedure: Optimizations and adherence in a prospective pre- and postintervention cohort study

Background: The “HygArzt” project investigated the effectiveness of hygiene measures introduced by an infection prevention link physician (PLP). Objective: To investigate whether the introduction of a standardized aseptic dressing change concept (ADCC) by a PLP can increase hand hygiene adherence and adherence to specific process steps during an aseptic dressing change (ADC) in a trauma surgery and orthopedic department. Methods: We defined 4 required hand disinfection indications: (1) before the preparation of ADC equipment, (2) immediately before the ADC, (3) before the clean phase, and (4) after the ADC. A process analysis of the preintervention phase (331 ADCs) was used to develop a standardized ADCC. The ADCC was introduced and iteratively adopted during the intervention phase. The effect was evaluated during the postintervention phase (374 ADCs). Results: Hand hygiene adherence was significantly increased by the introduction of the ADCC for all indications: (1) before the preparation of the ADC equipment (from 34% before to 85% after, P <.001), (2) immediately before an ADC (from 32% before to 85% after; P < .001), (3) before the clean phase (from 42% before to 96% after; P < .001), and (4) after an ADC (from 74% before to 99% after; P < .001). Overall hand hygiene adherence was analyzed before the indications for an ADC (from 9.6% before to 74% after; P < .001). The same strategy was applied to the following process parameters: use of a clean work surface, clean withdrawal of equipment from the dressing trolley, and appropriate waste disposal. Conclusions: A PLP sufficiently implemented a standardized concept for aseptic dressing change during an iterative improvement process, which resulted in a significant improvement in hand hygiene and adherence to other specific ADCC process steps.

Sustaining Meaningful Patient Engagement Across the Lifecycle of Medicines: A Roadmap for Action

Background There is increased recognition that incorporating patients’ perspectives and insights into the medicines development process results in better health outcomes and benefits for all involved stakeholders. Despite the increased interest and the existence of frameworks and practical recommendations, patient engagement (PE) is not yet considered standard practice. The objective of this work was to provide a roadmap to support systematic change in all stakeholder organisations involved in medicines development across Europe, patients and patient organisations, medicines developers, academia, regulatory authorities, Health Technology Assessment bodies, payers, policy-makers and public research funders, to sustain PE practices. Methods A mixed-methods approach was used by the EU-funded Innovative Medicines Initiative PARADIGM Consortium to co-develop the sustainability roadmap including background work to identify success factors and scenarios for sustainable PE. The roadmap development was based on the Theory of Change concept and populated with findings from (1) interviews with national/ and international institutions with the potential to increase PE uptake by other stakeholders; (2) multi-stakeholder workshops and webinars; and (3) consultations with specific stakeholder groups, Consortium members and a consultative body formed by international PE initiatives. Results This roadmap sets strategic goals for the PE community to achieve meaningful and systematic PE through changes in the culture, processes and resources of stakeholder organisations. It brings in key PARADIGM outputs to work in a coordinated fashion with existing frameworks and mechanisms to achieve system-wide sustained PE. Conclusions The roadmap provides a framework for all stakeholders to take collective action within their organisations and across Europe to implement PE in a sustainable manner.

The Impact of Climate Change on Human Resource Management in the Global Economy

Climate change has a global impact on everyone in their homes and workplaces. It occurs naturally but is also human-induced. It does more bad than good, especially in the workplace of every industry. Human resource functions play a major role in addressing this issue with management structures, employees, customers, and other stakeholders. The effort of reducing climate change is not an easy task, as many still have no belief that it is actually occurring. This chapter seeks to define the human resource function and climate change concept within a global economy.

Research of globalization influence to paradigm change in financial services

Research background: Study of paradigm about financial services and how it changes under influence of globalization and introduction of a new player as a financial technology company or shortly Fintech. Literature and other informative sources regarding issues of innovation in financial services, impact of globalization and formation of new perspective to financial services was reviewed during the study. Purpose of the article: The main purpose of this work is to detect and highlight the change of the concept about financial services in favor of Fintech companies supported by tendencies which are characteristic for globalization process, and how it can be beneficial for consumers and overall financial services industry. Methods: For this research was used content analysis approach, which has advantage over other methods since it allows to extract specific data from text and other forms of information without intervention by researchers. Obtained data was encoded and applied to a model created by authors to see certain change pattern during the study of the phenomenon of financial services paradigm change. Finding & Value added: The findings of this research proved that globalization led to change of the paradigm about financial services. The value of this research is to provide theoretical fundamentals for application of paradigm change concept in the sphere of management science.

New companies’ DNA: the heritage of the past industrial revolutions in digital transformation

This paper debates the ongoing processes of digital transformation enhanced by the 4th industrial revolution in successful companies which have a long time business history and an international presence. The aim is analyzing how what they have experienced and learned in the 2nd and 3rd industrial revolutions represents key elements that have shaped their DNA and continue to inspire their transformation to the point that the gradual radical change concept is preferred to the concept of disruption. Such learning processes are primary values to transfer in companies’ digital transformation in order to implement it efficiently and effectively creating new opportunities at an international level. The paper leverages on an explorative research based on the empirical setting of three international Italian manufacturing companies that have experienced challenges of the 2nd, 3rd and are now facing an important digital transformation process in a worldwide landscape. A qualitative constructive multiple case research design is conducted to evaluate the conceptual model and some considerations emerged from the analysis. The paper also benefits from 30 years of experience of one of the Authors as Business Development Director of big multinational companies accompanying many enterprises during their digital transformation. This study presents an interpretative framework that provides an exploration of main heritages coming from the past industrial revolutions according to three aspects: business drivers, supply view and entrepreneurial model. The emerged evidences can be taken as lessons by international manufacturing companies in order to implement digital transformation enhancing their international competitiveness.