PURPOSE: Optimizing return to work after knee arthroplasty is becoming more important because of the growing incidence of KA among workers and poor return to work outcomes. The purpose of this study is to investigate the feasibility of Back At work After Surgery (BAAS): an integrated clinical pathway for return to work after knee arthroplasty.METHOD: Working patients who received unicompartmental knee arthroplasty (UKA) or total knee arthroplasty (TKA) between January 2021 and November 2021, younger than 65 years and motivated to return to work were eligible to participate. Feasibility was investigated on five domains: reach, dose delivered, dose received, fidelity and patients' attitudes. These outcomes were obtained by a patient-reported questionnaire and an interview with the occupational case manager and medical case manager.RESULTS: Of the eligible 29 patients, eleven were willing to participate (response rate 38%; due to travel distance to and from the hospital). The dose delivered was between 91 and 100%, except information given about return to work from the orthopedic surgeon which was 18%. The dose received was 100%. For fidelity, case managers reported nine shortcomings for which five solutions were mentioned. In terms of patients' attitude, all patients were satisfied and one patient mentioned an improvement.CONCLUSIONS: In terms of reach, participation was low: only 29%. The BAAS clinical pathway seems feasible based on dose delivered, dose received, fidelity and patient attitudes. The next step is to assess the effectiveness of the BAAS clinical pathway for return to work.
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A large proportion of the global workforce migrated home during the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdowns. It remains unclear what the exact differences between home workers and non-home workers were, especially during the pandemic when a return to work was imminent. How were building, workplace, and related facilities associated with workers’ perceptions and health? What are the lessons to be learned? Lifelines Corona Research Initiative was used to compare employees’ workplaces and related concerns, facilities, work quality, and health in a complete case analysis (N = 12,776) when return to work was imminent. Mann-Whitney U, logistic regression, and Wilcoxon matched-pairs were used for analyses. Notwithstanding small differences, the results show that home workers had less favourable scores for concerns about and facilities of on-site buildings and workplaces upon return to work, but better scores for work quality and health than non-home workers. However, additional analyses also suggest that building, workplace, and related facilities may have had the capacity to positively influence employees’ affective responses and work quality, but not always their health.
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Coronary artery bypass grafting is the most frequently performed cardiac surgical procedure. Despite its benefits on survival and quality of life, it is associated with a considerable financial burden on society including sick leave. Our study aimed to explore the barriers that obstruct return to work after coronary artery bypass grafting. We performed a qualitative study with in-depth interviewing of patients 6 months after their surgery. We included ten working patients and interviewed them and their spouses at home. The interviews were transcribed and two investigators independently searched the transcriptions for barriers that had obstructed return to work. Based on the interviews we were able to distinguish four main groups of barriers: 'personal', 'healthcare', 'work' and 'law & regulation.' The personal barriers were subgrouped in affective, physical, cognitive, social and individually determined factors. Conclusion In a qualitative study we showed that personal barriers as well as barriers regarding healthcare, work and law & regulation, were perceived by patients as important factors obstructing return to work after coronary artery bypass grafting. To overcome the identified barriers, the process of return to work could preferably be initiated during the hospital phase, started during cardiac rehabilitation, and coordinated by a case-managing professional.
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ObjectivesThe existing studies among workers with a past cancer diagnosis have rarely focused on workers confronted with cancer recurrence or metastases specifically, so knowledge is lacking. The aim of this study, therefore, was to investigate the work functioning (work ability, burnout complaints, and work engagement) of workers with recurrent or metastasized cancer. Furthermore, the association of psychological capital (hope, optimism, resilience, and self-efficacy) with work functioning was studied.MethodsData from a survey study among workers 2–10 years past cancer diagnosis were used (N = 750); 73% reported a diagnosis of breast cancer and 27% a diagnosis of cancer other than breast cancer. Analysis of variance was used to compare participants with and without cancer recurrence or metastases regarding work functioning (work ability, burnout complaints, and work engagement) and psychological capital (hope, optimism, resilience, and self-efficacy). Multivariate regression analyses were used to analyze the association of type of cancer and psychological capital with work functioning among workers with cancer recurrence or metastatic cancer (n = 54), controlling for age.ResultsWork ability is significantly lower among workers with cancer recurrence or metastases (controlling for age); however, burnout complaints and work engagement are at comparable levels. Among workers with cancer recurrence or metastases, a higher level of hope is positively associated with work ability and work engagement, and a higher level of hope or resilience is negatively associated with burnout complaints.Significance of resultsAmong workers with cancer recurrence or metastases, work ability needs attention. Furthermore, especially the element hope of psychological capital is important to focus on because of the association with more favorable work functioning in general. The clinical psycho-oncological practice may benefit from these insights in guiding this vulnerable group of workers who are living with active cancer and many uncertainties.
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Will China’s policymakers return to pragmatism and will the entrepreneurs strike a balance between the central control and market logic? In this analysis, Yuxi Nie explores the situation.
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Research has shown that breastfeeding has important long-term health effects on both children and mothers. The World Health Organization therefore recommends that children be exclusively breastfed for the first six months of life and that breastfeeding be continued thereafter, alongside complementary feeding, until children are at least two years old. However, many mothers experience problems with breastfeeding and stop earlier than they would like. One of the reasons that women stop prematurely is the often difficult combination of breastfeeding and work. In this dissertation Van Dellen studied what organizations can do to support breastfeeding employees, both before the return to work and in the period afterwards.Before the return to work, a breastfeeding support programma appears to be an effective way to support mothers. Within the programme, women received structural support from a lactation consultant, from pregnancy until ten weeks after birth. Mothers who received the support programme were on average 66% less likely to stop breastfeeding compared to mothers who did not receive support. After the return to work, the quality of lactation rooms appears to play an important role. Lactation room quality is positively related to satisfaction, perceived ease, and perceived support for milk expression at work. Moreover, experimental research found that mothers in a high-quality lactation room experienced less stress, more control, and more well-being than mothers in a low-quality lactation room.The results of the study show that organizations can better support breastfeeding employees by offering structural support from a lactation consultant and high-quality lactation rooms.
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In recent decades, the number of cases of knee arthroplasty among people of working age has increased. The integrated clinical pathway ‘back at work after surgery’ is an initiative to reduce the possible cost of sick leave. The evaluation of this pathway, like many clinical studies, faces the challenge of small data sets with a relatively high number of features. In this study, we investigate the possibility of identifying features that are important in determining the duration of rehabilitation, expressed in the return-to-work period, by using feature selection tools. Several models are used to classify the patient’s data into two classes, and the results are evaluated based on the accuracy and the quality of the ordering of the features, for which we introduce a ranking score. A selection of estimators are used in an optimization step, reorganizing the feature ranking. The results show that for some models, the proposed optimization results in a better ordering of the features. The ordering of the features is evaluated visually and identified by the ranking score. Furthermore, for all models, higher accuracy, with a maximum of 91%, is achieved by applying the optimization process. The features that are identified as relevant for the duration of the return-to-work period are discussed and provide input for further research.
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Titel: The Exodus from the Netherlands or Brain Circulation: Push and Pull Factors of Remigration among Highly Educated Turkish Dutch Auteurs: Gürkan Çelik and Ton Notten In: European Review, 22 (3), 2014, pp. 403-413 The exodus from the Netherlands or brain circulation: Push and pull factors of remigration among highly educated Turkish-Dutch An increasing number of Turks, the Netherlands’ largest ethnic minority, are beginning to return to their country of origin, taking with them the education and skills they have acquired abroad, as the Netherlands faces challenges from economic difficulties, social tension and increasingly powerful right wing parties. At the same time Turkey’s political, social and economic conditions have been improving, making returning home even more appealing for Turkish migrants at large. This article gives explanations about the push and pull factors of return migration. The factors influencing return to one’s country of origin are “pulls”. It is assumed that remigration is more affected by positive developments in the country of origin than by negative developments in the country of residence. Civil society, business world and the Dutch government can develop policies to bind these capable people to the Netherlands, at least in the form of “brain circulation” so that they can serve as “bridge builders” between the two countries. Keywords Return migration, integration, Turkish-Dutch, Turkish migrants, brain circulation =============================================================================== SAMENVATTING De uittocht uit Nederland of breincirculatie: Push- en pull-factoren van remigratie onder hoogopgeleide Turkse Nederlanders. In Nederland zien we een lichte toename van het aantal Turken, de grootste etnische minderheidsgroep in Nederland, die terugkeren naar hun land van herkomst. Ze exporteren daarmee goede opleidingen en vaardigheden die ze in Nederland verwierven. De oorzaken: de economische neergang, sociale spanningen en de groeiende invloed van extreemrechtse partijen. Tegelijkertijd verbeteren in Turkije de politieke, sociale en economische omstandigheden die steeds meer aantrekkingskracht uitoefenen op immigranten in dat land. Dit artikel gaat in op de push- and pull-factoren voor remigranten. Pull-factoren beinvloeden iemands terugkeer naar zijn land van herkomst. Aangenomen wordt dat zo’n remigratie sterker wordt bevorderd door positieve ontwikkelingen in het land van herkomst dan door negatieve (push-factoren) in het land waar men op dat moment woont. De civil society, het bedrijfsleven en de Nederlandse overhead kunnen een beleid ontwikkelen dat verdienstelijke inwoners weet te behouden, hen op z’n minst kan inschakelen als bruggenbouwers en aldus kenniscirculatie mogelijk maakt tussen beide landen. Trefwoorden Retourmigratie, integratie, Turkse Nederlanders, Turkse migranten, kenniscirculatie, breincirculatie
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