Our current dependency on the oil and gas (O&G) industry for economic development and social activities necessitates research into the sustainability of the industry's supply chains. At present, studies on sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) practices in the industry do not include firm-internal factors that affect the sustainability strategies employed by different functional areas of its supply chains. Our study aims to address this gap by identifying the relevant internal factors and exploring their relationship with SSCM strategies. Specifically, we discuss the commitment to and preparedness for sustainable practices of companies that operate in upstream and downstream O&G supply chain. We study the impact of these factors on their sustainability strategies of four key supply chain functions: supplier management, production management, product stewardship and logistics management. The analyses of data collected through a survey among 81 companies show that management preparedness may enhance sustainable supply chain strategies in the O&G industry more than commitment does. Among the preparedness measures, management of supply chain operational risks is found to be vital to the sustainability of all supply chain functions except for production management practices. The findings also highlight the central importance of supplier and logistics management to the achievement of sustainable O&G supply chains. Companies must also develop an organizational culture that encourages, for example, team collaboration and proactive behaviour to finding innovative sustainability solutions in order to translate commitment to sustainable practices into actions that can produce actual difference to their SSCM practices.
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Family caregivers of an older person who was recently hospitalized often feel unprepared for their new or expanded tasks. Quality and continuity of care for older people is expected to improve when nurses collaborate with family caregivers as partners in care. The aim of this study was to explore the unique contribution of collaboration between family these caregivers of older patients and hospital nurses as a possible predictor for preparedness of caregiving after hospital discharge. With a cross sectional design, a postal survey was sent to 777 family caregivers of home-dwelling hospitalized patients (≥70 years). Regression analyses were used to test the association between collaboration and preparedness for caregiving. In total, 506 (68%) family caregivers responded of whom 281 (38%) were eligible. Their mean (SD) age was 65 (13) and 71% were female. Family caregivers’ level of collaboration with nurses was significantly associated with their preparedness for caregiving.
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The professional growth of midwives, essential for optimizing midwifery leadership globally, can be enhanced through twinning collaborations. How twinning promotes growth is unclear. This case study explores how professional growth is affected by cultural differences between twins. We used a longitudinal qualitative design including data from open-ended questionnaires and focus groups. These data were analyzed using a content analysis. Our findings show that cultural differences were capable of both hindering and facilitating professional growth. Within the complex dynamics of twinning, professional growth was facilitated by twins’ preparedness to bridge cultural differences. Common goals positively influenced this process. Friction was more likely, and professional growth was hindered, when midwives were unprepared to bridge cultural differences. To optimize professional growth through twinning, we recommend a clear focus on common goals and consideration of the interaction between the length of a project and the extent of the cultural differences between twins.
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Abstract Purpose: The pharmacology and clinical pharmacology and therapeutics (CPT) education during the undergraduate medical curriculum of NOVA Medical School, Lisbon, Portugal, was changed from a traditional programme (i.e. discipline-based, lectures) to a problem-based learning (PBL) programme (i.e. integrated, case-based discussions) without an increase in teaching hours. The aim of this study was to investigate whether this change improved the prescribing competencies of final-year medical students. Methods: Final-year students from both programmes (2015 and 2019) were invited to complete a validated prescribing assessment and questionnaire. The assessment comprised 24 multiple-choice questions in three subdomains (working mechanism, side-effects and interactions/contraindications), and five clinical case scenarios of common diseases. The questionnaire focused on self-reported prescribing confidence, preparedness for future prescribing task and education received. Results: In total, 36 (22%) final-year medical students from the traditional programme and 54 (23%) from the PBL programme participated. Overall, students in the PBL programme had significantly higher knowledge scores than students in the traditional programme (76% (SD 9) vs 67% (SD 15); p = 0.002). Additionally, students in the PBL programme made significantly fewer inappropriate therapy choices (p = 0.023) and fewer erroneous prescriptions than did students in the traditional programme (p = 0.27). Students in the PBL programme felt more confident in prescribing, felt better prepared for prescribing as junior doctor and completed more drug prescriptions during their medical training. Conclusion: Changing from a traditional programme to an integrated PBL programme in pharmacology and CPT during the undergraduate medical curriculum may improve the prescribing competencies of final-year students.
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Given the increasing importance of sustainability as a part of one’s daily routine and life in countries in the European Union, there is a need to establish a basic understanding of the attitudes, behaviours and culture among older people. This, in turn, should lead to better policies which help alleviate the effects of the current cost-of-living and energy crises and make our societies more sustainable and resilient. Despite the growing awareness of sustainability amongst the general public, a conceptual model of a sustainable lifestyle among older people is missing. The existing reports from the WHOprovide some guidance on how to move along, as they touch upon items that are related to sustainability such as walkability, proximity to transportation stops and emergency preparedness, and highlight the need to improve the fit between people’s needs and the environments in which they live. Any effort to come up with such a conceptual model would have to acknowledge that energy conservation and sustainable behaviours among our older population, as was shown by Bennetts et al., are not an integral part of all older people’s lifestyles and day-to-day choices. Also, following Dikken et al.,many seemingly sustainable choices may be made purely out of financial necessity. New models and policies would have to acknowledge that in times of declining purchase power, the majority of older people living on the edge make sacrifices in terms of energy use in the broadest sense of the word due to financial constraints and not out of concern for the environment.
MULTIFILE
Purpose: Facing the COVID-19 pandemic, police officers are confronted with various novel challenges, which might place additional strain on officers. This mixed-method study investigated officers' strain over a three-month-period after the lockdown. Methods: In an online survey, 2567 police officers (77% male) from Austria, Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands, and Spain participated at three measurement points per country in spring, 2020. Three-level growth curve models assessed changes in strain and its relation to stressor appraisal, emotion regulation, and preparedness through training. To add context to the findings, free response answers about officers' main tasks, stressors, and crisis measures were coded inductively. Results: On average, officers seemed to tolerate the pandemic with slight decreases in strain over time. Despite substantial variance between countries, 66% of the variance occurred between individuals. Sex, work experience, stressor appraisal, emotion regulation, and preparedness significantly predicted strain. Risk of infection and deficient communication emerged as main stressors. Officers' reports allowed to derive implications for governmental, organizational, and individual coping strategies during pandemics. Conclusion: Preparing for a pandemic requires three primary paths: 1) enacting unambiguous laws and increasing public compliance through media communication, 2) being logistically prepared, and 3) improving stress regulation skills in police training.
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Most research on hydrological risks focuses either on flood risk or drought risk, whilst floods and droughts are two extremes of the same hydrological cycle. To better design disaster risk reduction (DRR) measures and strategies, it is important to consider interactions between these closely linked phenomena. We show examples of: (a) how flood or drought DRR measures can have (unintended) positive or negative impacts on risk of the opposite hazard; and (b) how flood or drought DRR measures can be negatively impacted by the opposite hazard. We focus on dikes and levees, dams, stormwater control and upstream measures, subsurface storage, migration, agricultural practices, and vulnerability and preparedness. We identify key challenges for moving towards a more holistic risk management approach.
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Presentatie gehouden voor het Nationaal Jaarcongres Enterprise Architectuur Management 2014. Behandelt beveiligingsbeleid voor bedrijven.
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Educational linguistics lays at the interface of contributions from linguistics (in our case focused on L1) and education. It aims at teaching students in compulsory schooling how to engage in fruitful reflection when facing both language in use (especially in the written mode) and language as a system, approaching language as something worthwhile exploring and targeting the development of students’ encyclopaedic knowledge about it. In this context, the educational game can be seen as a process in which specific contents are made accessible to specific learners through mediation, which comprises well-articulated conceptual systems, as well as methodological procedures, directly provided by teachers in the classroom. Nonetheless, such mediation can indirectly be provided by other agents (curriculum theorists, linguists, material designers, etc.), and this is the focus of the papers in this special issue: the role of linguistics, teachers’ beliefs and preparedness, the role of grammar in the curriculum, the concepts of sentence, and the difficulties in linking grammar knowledge and knowledge on language use. The ulti- mate goal of this special issue is to contribute a common ground for a debate.
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Population decline, welfare state reforms and austerity measures pressurise the liveability of rural areas in the Netherlands and call upon local governments and communities to adapt and renew their mode of governance. This paper reports on three Dutch experimental governance arrangements which are analysed through the lens of Evolutionary Governance Theory. The study focuses on how decision-making roles change while these arrangements unfold and how the three municipalities institutionalise these changes in the course of time. The study produces three main conclusions. First, the readiness and preparedness of local governments to shift decision-making roles with citizens proved to be of main influence on governance change. Second, local residents’ commitment importantly affected the progress of the experiments, while social cohesion and tangible outputs strongly influenced the extent and continuity of such commitment. Third, although the arrangements took place in the same period of time and abovementioned context, the level of institutionalisation of shifting roles between government and residents differed among the cases. Certain pathways of evolving decision-making roles seem to be more stable than others. It is in this area that the extent of both formal and informal institutionalisation seems to play an important role.
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