Times a changing. Mangement roles change. Quailty managers more an more are change managers and need soft skills to perform well.
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The concept of a working alliance is rooted in psychotherapy and has been studied extensively in that field. Much less research has been conducted into working alliances between chronic psychiatric patients and their case managers. The aim of this review was to identify what is known about the working alliance between chronic psychiatric patients and their case managers. An extensive survey of the literature produced 14 articles for this review. The results of studies conducted show that a good working alliance has positive effects on the functioning of patients, and that the quality of the alliance depends on both patient characteristics and the behaviour of the case managers. The results also indicate that the working alliance is largely determined in the first 3 months of the contact. Further research into the development of working alliances is necessary.
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The purpose of this study was to explore the experiences and impact of peer-to-peer shadowing as a technique to develop nurse middle managers’ clinical leadership practices. A qualitative descriptive study was conducted to gain insight into the experiences of nurse middle managers using semi-structured interviews. Data were analysed into codes using constant comparison and similar codes were grouped under sub-themes and then into four broader themes. Peer-to-peer shadowing facilitates collective reflection-in-action and enhances an “investigate stance” while acting. Nurse middle managers begin to curb the caring disposition that unreflectively urges them to act, to answer the call for help in the here and now, focus on ad hoc “doings”, and make quick judgements. Seeing a shadowee act produces, via a process of social comparison, a behavioural repertoire of postponing reactions and refraining from judging. Balancing the act of stepping in and doing something or just observing as well as giving or withholding feedback are important practices that are difficult to develop.
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The hard side in total quality management of measurement and data analysis can only be successful if it is replenished with the soft side, the people side. This conclusion has serious consequences for the education of professionals, especially managers. Managers should be trained in soft skills, trained in managing themselves and their relations with others. The recent research done by Meduprof-S focuses on the question which skills are needed and on the extent to which business schools quality standards consider soft skills to be important in the education of managers .
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Detecting practical problems of persons with dementia (PwD) experience at home, and advising them on solutions to facilitate aging in place are complex and challenging tasks for nurses and case managers. In this two group randomized, controlled laboratory experiment, the efficacy of a decision support application aiming to increase nurses' and case managers' confidence in clinical judgment and decision-making was tested. The participants (N = 67) assessed a case of a PwD within the problem domains: self-reliance, safety and informal care, and provided suggestions for possible solutions. Participants used either their regular procedure with (intervention group) or without the App (control group) to conduct these tasks. No statistically significant difference was found on the primary outcome measure, the overall level of confidence. However, nurses and case managers highly recommended use of the App in practice. To explain these results, more research on the potential added value of the App is needed.
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A Magnet-related program has been recently adopted in the Netherlands. Support for staff nurses from nurse middle managers (NMMs) is a key component of such a program. A Bourdieusian ethnographic organizational case study in four hospitals in the Netherlands and the United States (Magnet, Magnet-related and non-Magnet) was conducted to explore NMMs’ supporting role behavior. Bourdieus concepts of habitus, dispositions, field and capital guided the analysis. Eight dispositions constitute NMMs habitus. A caring, clinical and scientific disposition enhance NMMs’ capital in particular organizations-as-fields. Further research is necessary to link Magnet (related) program characteristics to various configurations of dispositions of NMMs habitus.
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Nurse managers play an important role in implementing patient safety practices in hospitals. However, the influence of their professional background on their clinical leadership behaviour remains unclear. Research has demonstrated that concepts of Bourdieu (dispositions of habitus, capital and field) help to describe this influence. It revealed various configurations of dispositions of the habitus in which a caring disposition plays a crucial role. Objectives: We explore how the caring disposition of nurse middle managers' habitus influences their clinical leadership behaviour in patient safety practices.
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With climate change and urban development, water systems are changing faster than ever. Currently, the ecological status of water systems is still judged based on single point measurements, without taking into account the spatial and temporal variability of water quality and ecology. There is a need for better and more dynamic monitoring methods and technologies. Aquatic drones are becoming accessible and intuitive tools that may have an important role in water management. This paper describes the outcomes, field experiences and feedback gathered from the use of underwater drones equipped with sensors and video cameras in various pilot applications in The Netherlands, in collaboration with local water managers. It was observed that, in many situations, the use of underwater drones allows one to obtain information that would be costly and even impossible to obtain with other methods and provides a unique combination of three-dimensional data and underwater footage/images. From data collected with drones, it was possible to map different areas with contrasting vegetation, to establish connections between fauna/flora species and local water quality conditions, or to observe variations of water quality parameters with water depth. This study identifies opportunities for the application of this technology, discusses their limitations and obstacles, and proposes recommendation guidelines for new technical designs
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There are lots of definitions of quality, and also of quality in education. Garvin (1984)discerns five approaches: the transcendental approach, the product-oriented approach, the customeroriented approach, the manufacturing-oriented approach and the value-for-money approach. Harvey and Green (1993) give five interrelated concepts of quality as: exceptional, perfection (or consistency), fitness for purpose, value for money and transformative. A new definition of quality is needed to explain recent quality issues in higher education. This article describes a quality concept with four constituents: object, standard, subject and values. The article elaborates on the values. Four value systems derived from Beck and Cowan (1996) are transformed into four value systems on quality and quality management: control, continuous improvement, commitment and breakthrough. These value systems make it possible to explain some recent developments in quality management in higher education.
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from the article: Abstract Based on a review of recent literature, this paper addresses the question of how urban planners can steer urban environmental quality, given the fact that it is multidimensional in character, is assessed largely in subjective terms and varies across time. The paper explores three questions that are at the core of planning and designing cities: ‘quality of what?’, ‘quality for whom?’ and ‘quality at what time?’ and illustrates the dilemmas that urban planners face in answering these questions. The three questions provide a novel framework that offers urban planners perspectives for action in finding their way out of the dilemmas identified. Rather than further detailing the exact nature of urban quality, these perspectives call for an approach to urban planning that is integrated, participative and adaptive. ; ; sustainable urban development; trade-offs; quality dimensions
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