How to provide health clubs the possibility of offering distinctive services in an increasingly stronger and rapidly changing competitive environment? This was the issue raised by the Dutch fitness industry, which in recent years has grown markedly. Our study represents an extension of the dynamic capabilities framework, by exploring and suggesting a mixed method approach to operationalize the capability of customer focus. We have adapted emerging generative user research methods from the field of design as we feel that the most commonly used models and methods in marketing do not answer to the new demands of the market In our contribution we discuss the need for new methods for arriving at a customer-driven marketing approach. We demonstrate how we have transferred this to the health club industry in a study among n=5,000 customers of health clubs. We will discuss how the approach spurred new insights through multidisciplinary collaboration.
Objectives: Promoting unstructured outside play is a promising vehicle to increase children’s physical activity (PA). This study investigates if factors of the social environment moderate the relationship between the perceived physical environment and outside play. Study design: 1875 parents from the KOALA Birth Cohort Study reported on their child’s outside play around age five years, and 1516 parents around age seven years. Linear mixed model analyses were performed to evaluate (moderating) relationships among factors of the social environment (parenting influences and social capital), the perceived physical environment, and outside play at age five and seven. Season was entered as a random factor in these analyses. Results: Accessibility of PA facilities, positive parental attitude towards PA and social capital were associated with more outside play, while parental concern and restriction of screen time were related with less outside play. We found two significant interactions; both involving parent perceived responsibility towards child PA participation. Conclusion: Although we found a limited number of interactions, this study demonstrated that the impact of the perceived physical environment may differ across levels of parent responsibility.
MULTIFILE
Background: During hospitalization patients frequently have a low level of physical activity, which is an important risk factor for functional decline. Function Focused Care (FFC) is an evidencebased intervention developed in the United States to prevent functional decline in older patients. Within FFC, nurses help older patients optimally participate in functional and physical activity during all care interactions. FFC was adapted to the Dutch Hospital setting, which led to Function Focused Care in Hospital (FFCiH). FFCiH consists of four components: (1) ‘Environmental and policy assessment’; (2) ‘Education’; (3) ‘Goal setting with the patient’ and (4) ‘Ongoing motivation and mentoring’. The feasibility of FFCiH in the Dutch hospital setting needs to be assessed. Objective: Introduce FFCiH into Dutch hospital wards, to assess the feasibility of FFCiH in terms of description of the intervention, implementation, mechanisms of impact, and context. Design: Mixed method design Setting(s): A Neurological and a Geriatric ward in a Dutch Hospital. Participants: 56 Nurses and nursing students working on these wards. Methods: The implementation process was described and the delivery was studied in terms of dose, fidelity, adaptions, and reach. The mechanisms of impact were studied by the perceived facilitators and barriers to the intervention. Qualitative data were collected via focus group interviews, observations, and field notes. Quantitative data were collected via evaluation forms and attendance/participation lists. Results: A detailed description of FFCiH in terms of what, how, when, and by whom was given. 54 Nurses (96.4%) on both wards attended at least 1 session of the education or participated in bedside teaching. The nurses assessed the content of the education sessions with a mean of 7.5 (SD 0.78) on a 0–10 scale. The patient files showed that different short and long-term goals were set. Several facilitators and barriers were identified, which led to additions to the intervention. An important facilitator was that nurses experienced FFCiH as an approach that fits with the principles underpinning their current working philosophy. The experienced barriers mainly concern the implementation elements of the FFCiH-components ‘Education’ and ‘Ongoing motivation and mentoring’. Optimizing the team involvement, improving nursing leadership during the implementation, and enhancing the involvement of patients and their family were activities added to FFCiH to improve future implementation. Conclusions: FFCiH is feasible for the Dutch hospital setting. Strong emphasis on team involvement, nursing leadership, and the involvement of patients and their families is recommended to optimize future implementation of FFCiH in Dutch hospitals.
This project aims to develop a measurement tool to assess the inclusivity of experiences for people with varying challenges and capabilities on the auditory spectrum. In doing so, we performed an in-depth exploration of scientific literature and findings from previous projects by Joint Projects. Based on this, we developed an initial conceptual model that focuses on sensory perception, emotion, cognition, and e[ort in relation to hearing and fatigue. Within, this model a visitor attraction is seen as an “experienscape” with four key elements: content, medium, context, and individual. In co-creative interviews with experts by experience with varying challenges on the auditory spectrum, they provided valuable insights that led to a significant expansion of this initial model. This was a relevant step, as in the scientific and professional literature, little is known about the leisure experiences of people with troubled hearing. For example, personal factors such as a person’s attitude toward their own hearing loss and the social dynamics within their group turned out to greatly influence the experience. The revised model was then applied in a case study at Apenheul, focusing on studying differences in experience of their gorilla presentation amongst people with varying challenges on the auditory spectrum.Societal issueThe Netherlands is one of the countries in Europe with the highest density of visitor attractions. Despite this abundance, many visitor attractions are not fully accessible to everyone, particularly to visitors with disabilities who sometimes are not eligible to ride due to safety concerns, yet when eligible generally still encounter numerous barriers. Accessibility of visitor attractions can be approached in various ways. However, because the focus often lies on operational and technical aspects (e.g., reducing stimuli at certain times of the day by turning o[ music, o[ering alternative wheelchair entrances), strategic and community-focused approaches are often overlooked. More importantly, there is also a lack of attention to the experience of visitors with disabilities. This becomes apparent from several studies from Joint Projects, where visitor attractions are being visited together with experts by experience with various disabilities. Nevertheless, experience is often being regarded as the 'core product' of the leisure sector. The right to meet, discover, develop, relax and thus enjoy this core product is hindered for many people with disabilities due to a lack of knowledge, inaccessibility (physical, digital, social, communicative as well as financial) and discrimination in society. Additionally, recreation entrepreneurs still face a significant gap in reaching the potential market of guests with disabilities and their networks. Thus, despite the numerous initiatives in the leisure sector aimed at improving accessibility on technical and operational fronts, often people with disabilities are still not being able to experience the same kind of enjoyment as those without. These observations form the pressing impetus for initiating the current research project, tapping into the numerous opportunities for learning, development and growth on making leisure offer more inclusive.Benefit to societyIn total, the current project approach comes with a number of enrichments in terms of both knowledge and methodology: a mixed-methods approach that allows for comparing data from different sources to obtain a more complete picture of the experience; a methodological co-design process that honours the 'nothing about us without us' principle; and benchmarking for a group (i.e., people with challenges on the auditory spectrum) that despite the size of its population has thus far mostly been overlooked.
Vanuit het werkveld bereiken Fontys Sporthogeschool (FSH) regelmatig vragen voor effectievere ondersteuning bij docentprofessionalisering van docenten Lichamelijke Opvoeding (LO). Deze zijn geconcretiseerd naar enkele breed gedeelde praktijk-vraagstellingen. Een innovatieve en veelbelovende methode voor docentprofessionalisering is Lesson Study (LS). Bij LS werken docenten samen aan het ontwerpen, uitvoeren en onderzoeken van een les. Deze aanpak voldoet aan kenmerken voor effectieve docentprofessionalisering zoals omschreven in de wetenschappelijke literatuur. Het is echter nog niet bekend of LS daadwerkelijk effectief is. Het consortium bestaande uit FSH, Universiteit Gent, Universiteit Utrecht, en de Academische Opleidingsscholen West-Brabant, Brabant Noord-Oost, Tilburg en Den Bosch, is daarom gekomen tot de volgende onderzoeksvragen: 1) Wat zijn de effecten van een workshop ‘motivationeel klimaat’ gevolgd door een begeleide lesson study op de vijf niveaus van doorwerking van Guskey (2000), in vergelijking met alleen een workshop? 2) Welke belemmeringen en succesfactoren kunnen er geïdentificeerd worden met betrekking tot het zelfstandig toepassen van de methode lesson study door docenten LO? 3) Hoe waarderen docenten LO en hun leidinggevenden de opbrengsten van de methode lesson study ten opzichte van de tijdsinvestering die deze vergt? In het onderzoek is sprake van een mixed-methods aanpak. De effecten (vraag 1) worden kwantitatief gemeten aan de hand van de niveaus van Guskey (2000) en vergeleken met een controlegroep van scholen die alleen een workshop krijgen. Vraag 2 en 3 worden kwalitatief onderzocht via focusgroepgesprekken (docenten) en semi-gestructureerde interviews (leidinggevenden). De opbrengsten van dit project zijn kennis met betrekking tot de effectiviteit en bruikbaarheid van LS voor docentprofessionalisering bij LO. Deze kennis wordt verspreid met nationale en internationale publicaties en presentaties. Voor het werkveld wordt tevens een symposium georganiseerd. De kennis zal niet alleen indalen in de lerarenopleiding LO van Fontys Sporthogeschool, maar LS zal bij gebleken effectiviteit ook in worden gezet als werkvorm voor LO-studenten die stagelopen.
