Background: During placements abroad, healthcare students are confronted with different personal and professional challenges, related to participation in practice. This study investigates when and how students respond to such challenges, and which coping and support mechanisms students use to overcome these. Methods: Twenty-five international students shared their experiences about physiotherapy placement in The Netherlands. Using a critical incident technique, we asked participants to recall events where participation was affected by an unforeseen situation, in or outside the clinic. Further, we explored students’ strategies of seeking support within their social network to overcome individual challenges. Two researchers applied thematic analysis to the interview data, following an iterative approach. Team discussions supported focused direction of data collection and analysis, before conceptualizing results. Results: Participants described a wide range of challenges. The scope and impact level of challenges varied widely, including intercultural differences, language barriers and inappropriate behaviour in the workplace, students’ personal context and wellbeing. Mechanisms employed by students to overcome these challenges depended on the type of event (personal or professional), making purposeful use of their available network. Conclusion: Students involve clinical staff, peers, family and friends during placement abroad, to make deliberate use of their support network to overcome challenges in participation, whereas the academic network remains distant. Findings may help reflect on the roles and responsibilities of academic staff and other professionals involved with placements abroad. Healthcare programmes should ensure support before, during and after placement is within students’ reach.
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Abstract Healthcare organizations operate within a network of governments, insurers, inspection services and other healthcare organizations to provide clients with the best possible care. The parties involved must collaborate and are accountable to each other for the care provided. This has led to a diversity of administrative processes that are supported by a multi-system landscape, resulting in administrative burdens among healthcare professionals. Management methods, such as Enterprise Architecture (EA), should help to develop and manage such landscapes, but they are systematic, while the network of healthcare parties is dynamic. The aim of this research is therefore to develop an EA framework that fits the dynamics of network organizations (such as long-term healthcare). This research proposal outlines the practical and scientific relevance of this research and the proposed method. The current status and next steps are also described.
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Introduction: Writing Readiness Inventory Tool In Context (WRITIC) is a context-based assessment tool to evaluate which kindergarten children are at risk of developing handwriting difficulties. WRITIC-assessment is valid, reliable, feasible, predictive, and norm-referenced tool. Objectives: Building a network to enable professionals internationally using WRITIC-assessment in kindergarten. Methods: Build contacts internationally, compose translation teams within different universities, train translation teams, support back- and forth translation and cross-cultural assessment adaptation, carry out feasibility and validation studies, publish WRITIC-manuals in different languages, provide train-the-trainer courses, support organization of courses for professionals in different countries. Results: Different international projects started resulting in an English, Portuguese, German and Slovenian translation; validation studies in Flanders, UK, Portugal and Slovenia; translation projects in Greece and Bulgaria and contacts build in France, Spain, Japan, Indonesia, South Africa and Australia. A Figshare environment was developed to safely store and exchange data and to support international research. A digital platform was constructed to share information, sell manuals, and provide assessment requirements. Conclusion: The growing international network and the resulting projects make it possible to support future-proofing school-based occupational therapy worldwide. WRITIC-assessment helps to enable participation in handwriting for all children and contributes to inclusive education.
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MUSE supports the CIVITAS Community to increase its impact on urban mobility policy making and advance it to a higher level of knowledge, exchange, and sustainability.As the current Coordination and Support Action for the CIVITAS Initiative, MUSE primarily engages in support activities to boost the impact of CIVITAS Community activities on sustainable urban mobility policy. Its main objectives are to:- Act as a destination for knowledge developed by the CIVITAS Community over the past twenty years.- Expand and strengthen relationships between cities and stakeholders at all levels.- Support the enrichment of the wider urban mobility community by providing learning opportunities.Through these goals, the CIVITAS Initiative strives to support the mobility and transport goals of the European Commission, and in turn those in the European Green Deal.Breda University of Applied Sciences is the task leader of Task 7.3: Exploitation of the Mobility Educational Network and Task 7.4: Mobility Powered by Youth Facilitation.
Renewable energy, particularly offshore wind turbines, plays a crucial role in the Netherlands' and EU energy-transition-strategies under the EU Green Deal. The Dutch government aims to establish 75GW offshore wind capacity by 2050. However, the sector faces human and technological challenges, including a shortage of maintenance personnel, limited operational windows due to weather, and complex, costly logistics with minimal error tolerance. Cutting-edge robotic technologies, especially intelligent drones, offer solutions to these challenges. Smaller drones have gained prominence through applications identifying, detecting, or applying tools to various issues. Interest is growing in collaborative drones with high adaptability, safety, and cost-effectiveness. The central practical question from network partners and other stakeholders is: “How can we deploy multiple cooperative drones for maintenance of wind turbines, enhancing productivity and supporting a viable business model for related services?” This is reflected in the main research question: "Which drone technologies need to be developed to enable collaborative maintenance of offshore wind turbines using multiple smaller drones, and how can an innovative business model be established for these services? In collaboration with public and private partners, Saxion, Hanze, and RUG will research the development of these collaborative drones and investigate the technology’s potential. The research follows a Design Science Research methodology, emphasizing solution-oriented applied research, iterative development, and rigorous evaluation. Key technological building blocks to be developed: • Morphing drones, • Intelligent mechatronic tools, • Learning-based adaptive interaction controllers and collaborations. To facilitate the sustainable industrial uptake of the developed technologies, appropriate sustainable business models for these technologies and services will be explored. The project will benefit partners by enhancing their operations and business. It will contribute to renewing higher professional education and may lead to the creation of spin-offs/spinouts which bring this innovative technology to the society, reinforcing the Netherlands' position as a leading knowledge economy.
National forestry Commission (SBB) and National Park De Biesbosch. Subcontractor through NRITNational parks with large flows of visitors have to manage these flows carefully. Methods of data collection and analysis can be of help to support decision making. The case of the Biesbosch National Park is used to find innovative ways to figure flows of yachts, being the most important component of water traffic, and to create a model that allows the estimation of changes in yachting patterns resulting from policy measures. Recent policies oriented at building additional waterways, nature development areas and recreational concentrations in the park to manage the demands of recreation and nature conservation offer a good opportunity to apply this model. With a geographical information system (GIS), data obtained from aerial photographs and satellite images can be analyzed. The method of space syntax is used to determine and visualize characteristics of the network of leisure routes in the park and to evaluate impacts resulting from expected changes in the network that accompany the restructuring of waterways.
Lectoraat, onderdeel van NHL Stenden Hogeschool
