For delayed and long-term students, the education process is often a lonely journey. The main conclusion of this research is that learning should not be an individual process of the student connected to one lecturer, but rather a community where learning is a collective journey. The social interaction between lecturers, groups of delayed students and other actors is an important engine for arriving at the new knowledge, insights and expertise that are important to reach their final level. This calls for the design of social structures and the collaboration mechanism that enable the bonding of all members in the community. By making use of this added value, new opportunities for the individual are created that can lead to study success. Another important conclusion is that in the design and development of learning communities, sufficient attention must be paid to cultural characteristics. Students who delay are faced with a loss of self-efficacy and feelings of shame and guilt. A learning community for delayed students requires a culture in which students can turn this experience into an experience of self-confidence, hope and optimism. This requires that the education system pays attention to language use, symbols and rituals to realise this turn. The model ‘Building blocks of a learning environment for long-term students’ contains elements that contribute to the study success of delayed and long-term students. It is the challenge for every education programme to use it in an appropriate way within its own educational context. Each department will have to explore for themselves how these elements can be translated into the actions, language, symbols and rituals that are suitable for their own target group.
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In the Netherlands, client and family participation in care for people with intellectual disabilities has been in vogue for a long time, and increasingly receives attention (KPMG and Vilans 2017). However, the perspective and experiential knowledge of service users and relatives is often still insuBiciently used for the co-creation of care. The professional perspective is often still dominant. In addition, professionals mainly focus on clients and less on relatives, even though relatives often play an important role in the client’s (quality of) life (Wiersma 2017). The project ‘Inclusive Collaboration in Disability Care’[1] (ICDC) focusses on enhancing equal communication between people with intellectual disabilities, their relatives, and professional caregivers, and hence contributes to redressing power imbalances in longterm care. It investigates the question: “How can the triangle of client, relative and professional caregiver together co-create better care and support?”.
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In service design projects, collaboration between design consultant and service provider can be problematic. The nature of these projects requires a high level of shared understanding and commitment, which providers may not be used to. We studied designer-provider collaboration in multiple real-life cases, in order to uncover determinants for successful collaboration. The case studies involved six service innovation projects, performed by Dutch design agencies. Independent researchers closely monitored the projects. Additional interviews with designers and providers gave insights in how both parties experienced their collaboration in the innovation projects. During data analysis, a coding scheme was created inductively. The scheme supported us in formulating 12 themes for designer-provider collaboration, amongst them four contextual determinants of shared understanding and stakeholder commitment in SD-projects. The insights from this study were then grounded in literature. Knowledge gaps were identified on themes about agreements of responsibilities, the open-endedness of an SD-process, an opportunitysearching approach, and organizational change that is required for the successful implementation of innovative service concepts.
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Technology has a major impact on the way nurses work. Data-driven technologies, such as artificial intelligence (AI), have particularly strong potential to support nurses in their work. However, their use also introduces ambiguities. An example of such a technology is AI-driven lifestyle monitoring in long-term care for older adults, based on data collected from ambient sensors in an older adult’s home. Designing and implementing this technology in such an intimate setting requires collaboration with nurses experienced in long-term and older adult care. This viewpoint paper emphasizes the need to incorporate nurses and the nursing perspective into every stage of designing, using, and implementing AI-driven lifestyle monitoring in long-term care settings. It is argued that the technology will not replace nurses, but rather act as a new digital colleague, complementing the humane qualities of nurses and seamlessly integrating into nursing workflows. Several advantages of such a collaboration between nurses and technology are highlighted, as are potential risks such as decreased patient empowerment, depersonalization, lack of transparency, and loss of human contact. Finally, practical suggestions are offered to move forward with integrating the digital colleague
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Experts like Jouslin de Noray, Shiba and Hardjono discern three paradigms in quality management: control, continuous improvement and breakthrough. Van Kemenade argues that before being able to reach breakthrough you need another paradigm: commitment.
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Innovation is crucial for higher education to ensure high-quality curricula that address the changing needs of students, labor markets, and society as a whole. Substantial amounts of resources and enthusiasm are devoted to innovations, but often they do not yield the desired changes. This may be due to unworkable goals, too much complexity, and a lack of resources to institutionalize the innovation. In many cases, innovations end up being less sustainable than expected or hoped for. In the long term, the disappointing revenues of innovations hamper the ability of higher education to remain future proof. Against the background of this need to increase the success of educational innovations, our colleague Klaartje van Genugten has explored the literature on innovations to reveal mechanisms that contribute to the sustainability of innovations. Her findings are synthesized in this report. They are particularly meaningful for directors of education programs, curriculum committees, educational consultants, and policy makers, who are generally in charge of defining the scope and set up of innovations. Her report offers a comprehensive view and provides food for thought on how we can strive for future-proof and sustainable innovations. I therefore recommend reading this report.
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Summary Project objectives This study fits into a larger research project on logistics collaboration and outsourcing decisions. The final objective of this larger project is to analyze the logistics collaboration decision in more detail to identify thresholds in these decisions. To reach the overall objectives, the first step is to get a clearer picture on the chemical and logistics service providers industry, sectors of our study, and on logistics collaboration in these sectors. The results of this first phase are presented in this report. Project Approach The study consists of two parts: literature review and five case studies within the chemical industry. The literature covers three topics: logistics collaboration, logistics outsourcing and purchasing of logistics services. The five case studies are used to refine the theoretical findings of the literature review. Conclusions Main observations during the case studies can be summarized as follows: Most analyzed collaborative relationships between shippers and logistics service providers in the chemical industry are still focused on operational execution of logistics activities with a short term horizon. Supply management design and control are often retained by the shippers. Despite the time and cost intensive character of a logistics service buying process, shippers tendering on a very regular basis. The decision to start a new tender project should more often be based on an integral approach that includes all tender related costs. A lower frequency of tendering could create more stability in supply chains. Beside, it will give both, shippers and LSPs, the possibility to improve the quality of the remaining projects. Price is still a dominating decision criterion in selecting a LSP. This is not an issue as long as the comparison of costs is based on an integral approach, and when shippers balance the cost criterion within their total set of criteria for sourcing logistics services. At the shippers' side there is an increased awareness of the need of more solid collaboration with logistics service providers. Nevertheless, in many cases this increased awareness does not actually result in the required actions to establish more intensive collaboration. Over the last years the logistics service providers industry was characterized by low profit margins, strong fragmentation and price competition. Nowadays, the market for LSPs is changing, because of an increasing demand for logistics services. To benefit from this situation a more pro-active role of the service providers is required in building stronger relationships with their customers. They should pay more attention on mid and long term possibilities in a collaborative relation, in stead of only be focused on running the daily operation.
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Abstract Aims: To identify crucial programme characteristics and group mechanisms of, and lessons learned from hindrances in an empowerment programme for certified nursing assistants and contribute to the development of similar programmes in other care settings. Design: Exploratory qualitative study. Methods: Between May 2017 and September 2020, we used in-depth interviews and participant observations to study four groups participating in an empowerment programme for certified nursing assistants (N = 44). Results: We identified three crucial empowerment-enhancing programme characteristics: (1) inviting participants to move outside their comfort zone of caregiving; (2) stimulating the use of untapped talents, competencies and interests; (3) supporting the rediscovery of participants' occupational role and worth. Crucial group mechanisms encompassed learning from and with each other, as well as mechanisms of selfcorrection and self-motivation. Hindrances included a perceived lack of direction, and a lack of organizational support and facilitation. Conclusion: We showed the significance of creating an inviting and stimulating environment in which participants can explore and function in ways they otherwise would not. Likewise, we identified how this can help participants learn from, critically correct and motivate one another. Impact: The programme under study was uniquely aimed to empower certified nursing assistants. Our insights on crucial programme characteristics and group mechanisms may benefit those who develop empowerment programmes, but also policymakers and managers in supporting certified nursing assistants and other nursing professions in empowerment endeavours. Such empowerment may enhance employee retention and make occupational members more likely to address challenges affecting their occupational group and the long-term care sector
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Abstract Aims: To identify crucial programme characteristics and group mechanisms of, and lessons learned from hindrances in an empowerment programme for certified nursing assistants and contribute to the development of similar programmes in other care settings. Design: Exploratory qualitative study. Methods: Between May 2017 and September 2020, we used in-depth interviews and participant observations to study four groups participating in an empowerment programme for certified nursing assistants (N = 44). Results: We identified three crucial empowerment-enhancing programme characteristics: (1) inviting participants to move outside their comfort zone of caregiving; (2) stimulating the use of untapped talents, competencies and interests; (3) supporting the rediscovery of participants' occupational role and worth. Crucial group mechanisms encompassed learning from and with each other, as well as mechanisms of self-correction and self-motivation. Hindrances included a perceived lack of direction, and a lack of organizational support and facilitation. Conclusion: We showed the significance of creating an inviting and stimulating environment in which participants can explore and function in ways they otherwise would not. Likewise, we identified how this can help participants learn from, critically correct and motivate one another. Impact: The programme under study was uniquely aimed to empower certified nursing assistants. Our insights on crucial programme characteristics and group mechanisms may benefit those who develop empowerment programmes, but also policymakers and managers in supporting certified nursing assistants and other nursing professions in empowerment endeavours. Such empowerment may enhance employee retention and make occupational members more likely to address challenges affecting their occupational group and the long-term care sector.
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Regenerative agriculture is increasingly seen as the way forward to safeguard soil fertility and with that economic, human and natural sustainability. The fashion industry, being very much reliant on inputs from the agricultural sector, can play a pivotal role in promoting regenerative practices. In order to do so however it needs to radically rethink its business model, or else it will not be able to reap all the possible benefits.
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