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Cocreating injury prevention training for youth team handball

Although it is advocated that end-users are engaged in developing evidence-based injury prevention training to enhance the implementation, this rarely happens. The ‘Implementing injury Prevention training ROutines in TEams and Clubs in youth Team handball (I-PROTECT)’ uses an ecological participatory design incorporating the perspectives of multiple stakeholders throughout the project. Within the I-PROTECT project, the current study aimed to describe the development of holistic injury prevention training specifically for youth handball players through using knowledge from both end-users (coaches and players) and researchers/handball experts. Employing action evaluation within participatory action research, the cyclical development process included three phases: research team preparation, handball expert-based preparation and end-user evaluation to develop injury prevention training incorporating both physical and psychological perspectives. To grow the knowledge of the interdisciplinary research team, rethinking was conducted within and between phases based on participants’ contributions. Researchers and end-users cocreated examples of handball-specific exercises, including injury prevention physical principles (movement technique for upper and lower extremities, respectively, and muscle strength) combined with psychological aspects (increase end-user motivation, task focus and body awareness) to integrate into warm-up and skills training within handball practice. A cyclical development process that engaged researchers/handball experts and end-users to cocreate evidence-based, theory-informed and context-specific injury prevention training specifically for youth handball players generated a first pilot version of exercises including physical principles combined with psychological aspects to be integrated within handball practice.

Considering design practice

Academic design research often fails to contribute to design practice. This dissertation explores how design research collaborations can provide knowledge that design professionals will use in practice. The research shows that design professionals are not addressed as an important audience between the many audiences of collaborative research projects. The research provides insight in the learning process by design professionals in design research collaborations and it identifies opportunities for even more learning. It shows that design professionals can learn about more than designing, but also about application domains or project organization.

Art in social work practice

A Learning and Innovation Network (LIN) in Nursing

Abstract Review Article: Introduction: Registered nurses and students of the Bachelor of Nursing are improving the quality of healthcare by working together in a Learning and Innovation Network (LIN). A LIN is a powerful learning environment, where employees and students work together towards a common goal. Methods: In the Netherlands, Amsterdam UMC, location VUmc and Inholland University of Applied Sciences have set up a LIN on the internal medicine traumatology, oncology, cardiology and urology departments. On the LIN departments, the number of students has increased significantly. Because the students are supernumerary, space and time are created to optimize the learning process of the RNs without compromising the care to be provided. Within the LIN, students learn from the practical experience of RNs, which gives them tools to apply knowledge practically. On the other hand, students can contribute to the adaptation of long established practices, based on recently acquired knowledge. A bridge is built between acting according to recent scientific insights and experiences from practice. It is also important to take the patient’s wishes into account. This guarantees nursing action based on evidence based practice and best practice. Several projects aimed at increasing the quality of care have already been carried out within the LIN such as projects focused on removing a catheter and bandaging. Conclusion: The LIN is taking more and more shape within the VUmc. There is a broad support base between educational and healthcare institutions, both on management and executive level. In order to make the LIN activities even more attuned to the authentic development needs of the department, interprofessional learning and working should be encouraged by also enthusing other care disciplines and researchers to participate in the LIN. An EBP working group consisting of permanent team members can contribute to the safeguarding of the outcomes of the LIN projects.

Social Innovation using the Best Practice Unit model

The model of the Best Practice Unit (BPU) is a specific form of practice based research. It is a variation of the Community of Practice (CoP) as developed by Wenger, McDermott and Snyder (2002) with the specific aim to innovate a professional practice by combining learning, development and research. We have applied the model over the past 10 years in the domain of care and social welfare in the Netherlands. Characteristics of the model are: the interaction between individual and collective learning processes, the development of (new or better) working methods, and the implementation of these methods in daily practice. Multiple knowledge sources are being used: experiential knowledge, professional knowledge and scientific knowledge. Research is serving diverse purposes: articulating tacit knowledge, documenting the learning and innovation process, systematically describing the revealed or developed ways of working, and evaluating the efficacy of new methods. An analysis of 10 different research projects shows that the BPU is an effective model.

Een kleine sociologie van sociale interventies: de bijziendheid van evidence based practice

Er wordt dezer dagen in de Nederlandse sociale sector veel geïnvesteerd in evidence based practice. Brede welzijnsorganisaties worden er in hun onderhandelingen met gemeenten op aangesproken, en wat niet 'evidence based' is vormt een makkelijke prooi voor bezuinigingen. Landelijke organisaties zoals NJi en MOVISIE werken hard aan het bouwen en vullen van vrij toegankelijke digitale databanken met daarin actuele informatie over welke effectonderzoeken beschikbaar zijn voor een hele reeks sociale interventies. Krachtig materiaal dat de modernisering van sociaal werk vooruit kan helpen, maar tegelijk leidend aan de eerder genoemde vorm van bijziendheid. Een volwaardig perspectief op beroepsinnovatie in de sociale sector kan zich niet beperken tot een normatief uitgangspunt, tot verkondigen wat zou moeten zijn. Dat volwaardig perspectief bereiken we pas als we kijken naar wat is, naar de diverse factoren die de dynamiek van beroepsinnovatie beïnvloeden, ook als ze minder verheffend zijn (bijvoorbeeld de invloed van platte commercie, of macht en populisme). We doen daarom een oproep om open biografieën van sociale interventies te ontwikkelen, om vanuit een sociologisch perspectief te beschrijven hoe allerlei sociale interventies een plek verwerven in het dagelijks leven van sociaal werk.