Clinical research nurses perspective on recruitment challenges and lessons learnt from a large multi-site observational study

Background Recruitment of large numbers of study participants within a designated time frame for multi-site clinical research studies is a significant challenge faced by researchers. If a study does not manage to recruit targeted number of participants, it could have a significant impact on the statistical significance of the research. Purpose This paper highlights the challenges of recruitment for a large multi-site UK-based tuberculosis observational study ‘PREDICT’. Methods It uses a case study analysis from the research nurses perspective, and descriptive information retrieved from non-recruitment log forms to understand reasons for potential recruits not participating. Results Some of the main challenges to recruitment included patients not attending their clinic appointments, time required to obtain site-specific permissions and courier timings for blood sample collection. This paper also outlines key reasons for potential recruits who did not participate. Some of the common barriers to participation for non-recruited participants were work and family commitments, additional blood tests and language barriers. Conclusion Successful strategies which were implemented to overcome some of the challenges during the study are presented. This paper, therefore, aims to present the challenges faced, lessons learnt and successful strategies implemented to inform the planning of similar longitudinal studies of this scale in future.

A research framework for the United Nations Decade of Healthy Ageing (2021–2030)

The mission of UN Decade of Healthy Ageing (2020–2030) is to improve the lives of older people, their families and their communities. In this paper, we create a conceptual framework and research agenda for researchers to knowledge to address the Decade action items. The framework builds on the main components of healthy ageing: Environments (highlighting society and community) across life courses (of work and family) toward wellbeing (of individuals, family members and communities). Knowledge gaps are identified within each area as priority research actions. Within societal environments, interrogating beliefs about ageism and about familism are proposed as a way to illustrate how macro approaches to older people influence their experiences. We need to interrogate the extent to which communities are good places to grow old; and whether they have sufficient resources to be supportive to older residents. Further articulation of trajectories and turning points across the full span of work and of family life courses is proposed to better understand their diversities and the extent to which they lead to adequate financial and social resources in later life. Components of wellbeing are proposed to monitor improvement in the lives of older people, their families and communities. Researcher priorities can be informed by regional and national strategies reflecting Decade actions.

Immigrant academic mothers negotiating ideal worker and mother norms during the COVID-19 pandemic: Duoethnography as a co-mentoring tool for transformative learning

How are immigrant academic mothers negotiating the confounding terrains of work and family during the pandemic? How can they support each other in learning how to resist the prevalent notions of ideal working and mothering amidst the demanding schedule of working remotely and parenting? This study addresses these questions through sharing a narrative of how two immigrant mothers in academia challenged and began the journey of transforming their gendered work and family identities. Building on personal essays and 6 weeks of extensive journaling that reflected our positionalities and experiences of motherhood, work-life, and intersections between work and home during the pandemic, we offer a fine-grained understanding of how we helped each other as co-mentors to identify moments of our lived experiences as triggers for transformative learning. In doing so, we realized how duoethnography could be more than just a research methodology in helping us co-construct a relational space to empathize and challenge each other’s perspectives about our roles as mothers and professors and the gendered nature of social forces shaping those roles.

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.

Female academics’ views on work-life conflict in a Covid-19 global pandemic in Nigeria

Remarking on the importance of managing the existential conflict between work and family responsibilities, emphasis on female academics in a COVID-19 era in Nigeria has received diminutive research attention. The study seeks to address this research gap by interrogating women's views of work-life conflict narrative in a COVID-19 era. The exploratory research design was employed to expand the limit of the research gap and a total of 19 female academics were y recruited for interviews. The NVivo (v.12) qualitative software was employed to identify themes from the data and content analysis used to make sense of the various themes. The paper shows evidence of cultural bias in the recruitment and placement of female academics with social constraints hindering female academic capacity development. The long hours of teaching and consultation depict an indicator of work-life conflict with consequences on family support and emotional care for family and dependents. The need to acquire higher education qualifications on the part of females is also established as a pointer for the provocation of work-life conflict during the COVID-19 pandemic. The significance of lockdown constitutes major constraints for parenting mothers in the areas of combining home front responsibilities with work activities such as teaching, supervision, and the requirement of building a competitive career and research portfolio. The study concludes for a more robust measure in ensuring practical and realistic work-life conflict management strategies are introduced by managers of the University in order to aid the conflict between work and family responsibilities for female academics.

Family Firms and the Effects of Organizational Culture on Their Innovation

Owing to the fact that sustainability and the financial performance of businesses are important work outcomes in family firms, in this chapter for both reaching work and family related goals and ensuring sustainibility, it is proposed that family firms as in the case with their non-family counterparts will prefer to exploit innovativeness in attaining their financial goals. The main objective of this chapter is understanding innovative inclinations and preferences of family firms and examining the relationship between innovativeness and organizational cultures of these companies. And it is suggested that organizational culture will act as a catalyzer in this relationship. In the chapter, innovativeness in family firms has been examined in detail. Main types of organizational cultures regarding innovation in family firms have been explained in detail, and an approach that suggests that organizational climate is closely related with the innovativeness of family firms has been adopted.

EQUAL RIGHTS OF WORKING SPOUSES AND OTHER PERSONS WHO FULFIL FAMILY RESPONSIBILITIES AND THE MAINTENANCE OF THE BALANCE BETWEEN WORK AND FAMILY LIFE

The improvement in the quality of life of an employed person and his/her sustainable development are the basis of the concept of work-life balance. In this concept, the professional and private spheres are of equal importance and should complement and strengthen each other. The objective of ILO Convention 156 and ILO recommendation 165 related to it, is to ensure equal treatment and equal opportunities in the scope of employment and professional activity of working women and men who fulfill family responsibilities. Art. 33 section 2 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union and the European pillar of social rights provides accordingly. The permanence of marriage and equal rights of spouses are among the basic principles of Polish family law. Equal rights of women and men in the context of equal rights of persons carrying out parental and care responsibilities are a fundamental constitutional principle in our country. Therefore, new legal regulations at the EU and national level concerning the balance between the professional and private life of parents and guardians are necessary. It should be de lege ferenda called for the inclusion of the concept of balance between professional and private life of working people who perform parental and guardian functions in labor law and family and guardianship law in a wider scope. It seems that nowadays the most important problem is the introduction of legal solutions in the field of work exemptions, employee holidays and more flexible working hours for employees who have care responsibilities towards the elderly or chronically ill (parents, parents-in-law, siblings) to the Labor Code

REFLECTIONS ON WORK-LIFE BALANCE FOR PARENTS AND GUARDIANS IN THE LIGHT OF DIRECTIVE (EU) 2019/1158 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL

In this article the authors submit thorough analysis a new Directive (EU) 2019/1158 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 June 2019 on work-life balance for parents and carers as well as the repealing Council Directive 2010/18/EU that entered into force on August 1, 2019, paying special attention to adjusting domestic regulations to it. The solutions adopted in this Directive lay down minimum requirements designed to achieve equality between men and women regarding labour market opportunities and treatment at work, by facilitating the reconciliation of work and family life for workers who are parents, or carers. To that end, this Directive 2019/1158 provides for individual rights related to the following: paternity leave, parental leave and carers’ leave, flexible working arrangements for workers who are parents, or carers.

Women’s Adaptability, Multiple Roles Maintained in the Work-Family Context: Covid-19 Experiences

COVID-19 emerged in December 2019 in Wuhan, China, and since then has impacted work, family, and social life of people around the globe. The working community had to face difficulties and barriers due to increasing job insecurity and changing working environments during the pandemic. Employees around the world have experienced sudden, significant changes in their work and family roles. This study aims to examine the impact of COVID-19 on married women’s work-family balance during the lockdown in Sri Lanka. The research problem of the study is: Does the working woman maintain the balance of work-family environment? By applying the mixed research methodology, we draw on the quantitative data by surveying married women working from home to understand and analyse their adaptability to work from home during the lockdown within two months (from May to July 2020). In addition, in-depth interviews were conducted to gather qualitative data of the study selecting the purposive sampling method. The sample consisted of women with diversity in age, employment, and educational level. A majority of women reported working for long hours without any leave during the lockdown period. This study revealed that 57% of women could manage their household work and job-related work during the period, in contrast, only 43% of respondents could not do so. Even though there were several difficulties faced by married women, they successfully managed both, i.e., their job-related work and their family chores. While 43% of the respondents belonged to nuclear families, 57% of them belonged to extended families. Eighty-three percent of respondents reported high levels of support from husbands for housework and office work. In conclusion, although Sri Lankan women encounter significant difficulties, they are inclined to maintain a balance and adaptability between work-family tasks.

Testing Salience Model on Work Family Interface: A Regression Analysis

The simultaneous arrangement of home and work life is important for all. Many who work at home, however, face difficulties in maintaining their work and domestic relations balance, since both fields are mixed together on a single roof. As telecoms technology progresses, the possibilities of working from home have been improved. Discussed the effects of working at-home solutions on the quality of work life of the individual. The current research examined in a sample of service workers from Pakistan an extended version of the differential salience model and a related salience model. The findings of this study help in part the model in a number of cultural and domestic contexts, but they also establish variations in domain resources and limit requirements. Strong job demands and the present situation of COVID-19 represent primarily technically the work-to-home interference (WtHI). Traveling tools have been identical in terms of reducing the WtHI and work-to-home enhancement (WtHE). WtHE was expected to be more likely because of the activation of personnel services. However, testing one's work had no big influence on WtHE. Moreover, unlike the theoretical model, restriction requirements at the interfaces between work and family have been found to be differential, not comparatively significant.