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The purpose of this paper is to explore English and Finnish paramedic perceptions of the healthcare blame culture, its relationship to complaints, the use of defensive practice and if this impacts on paramedic practice and clinical care.

Participants were recruited from English and Finnish ambulance services that have similar organisational and professional scopes of practice. The aim was to gain insight into the similarities and differences between the countries regarding the existence of a blame culture in paramedic practice. Semi-structured focus groups and interviews involving 20 English and Finnish paramedics were undertaken. Qualitative perceptions concerning the reality of a blame culture in paramedic practice and its impact on professional roles were sought.

Three major themes that were identified in the thematic analysis included: blame culture and its influences; the impact of complaints against paramedics; and the use of defensive practice within their roles. These data themes were similar for both groups of participants. The majority of participants thought the healthcare blame culture to be widespread and believed that this was likely to directly influence paramedics’ working practices.

Whilst the impact of blame culture and complaints on the medical profession has previously been examined, this study makes an important contribution by exploring the factors that impact on paramedics’ lives and their practice, within two European countries. The inappropriate use of social media by some members of the public in both countries was a disturbing issue for many participants and was identified as an area for further research.

Reviews the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoints practical implications from cutting‐edge research and case studies.

This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context.

Now that shopping online is normal rather than being a minority activity, and that users include people of disparate ages, incomes and technical experience, the focus should be on the customer rather than the technology. As websites become better and better, easier to use and offer believable assurances that your payment details are safe in their hands, so the necessity for differentiation increases.

Provides strategic insights and practical thinking that have influenced some of the world's leading organizations.

The briefing saves busy executives and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy‐to‐digest format.

This chapter offers a description and analysis of teacher preparation in Scotland from the period after World War 1 to the end of the twentieth century. It traces the development of the sector from Training Centres responsible to Provincial and National Committees, through monotechnic Colleges of Education, to Faculties of Education within Universities. Among the topics covered are: political and economic pressures affecting the policy context; the drive to improve standards and raise the professional status of teachers; the influence of key policy documents, such as the 1965 Primary Memorandum; the degree of control exercised by the Scottish Education Department; the significance of shifts in language (e.g. training/education/professional learning). The 1960s are seen as a particularly important period when major structural changes were introduced in Scottish education (e.g. the establishment of the General Teaching Council and Central Committees reviewing particular aspects of the school curriculum): these impacted on the aims and content of courses designed to prepare trainee teachers for work in schools. Similarly, later reforms of curriculum and assessment (Standard Grade, 5–14, Higher Still) necessitated responses by the teacher education community. Throughout the chapter certain key themes recur: the relationship between colleges and universities; the variable scope for innovation at different points in the twentieth century; the differential provision for primary and secondary teachers, graduates and non-graduates, men and women; the relative importance of academic knowledge and pedagogic skills.

Intimate partner violence (IPV), affecting 30 percent of women worldwide, may affect employment and workplace safety. In all, 16 US states adopted laws providing leave for employed survivors. These qualitative findings are from an evaluation of Oregon’s state leave law. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

The authors interviewed Oregon government employees (n=17) with past year IPV and Oregon supervisors (n=10) of past year IPV survivors. Interviews were transcribed, analyzed and coded.

Participants agreed that IPV has an effect on work. They reported positive workplace reactions to IPV disclosure (93 percent positive, 52 percent negative), but also negative reactions (lack of information, confidentiality, supervisor support). Several implications for supervisors were named (workload, being untrained, being a mandatory reporter, workplace safety and confidentiality). Three years after implementation, 74 percent of participants did not know the leave existed, 65 percent of survivors would have used it if known. The main barriers to usage were fear for job, lack of payment, and stigma. The main barriers of implementation were untrained supervisors and lack of awareness. Participants (85 percent) suggested workplace training on IPV, the law and supervisor role.

Effective implementation and support of the IPV leave law is important to avoid negative consequences for survivors and the workplace. Participants called for an increase in IPV awareness and supervisor training.

These results provide important recommendations to policymakers, authorities and advocates on development, implementation and evaluation of laws adopted to support employed IPV survivors.

The purpose of this study is to consider why firms use different disclosure outlets. The authors argue that the firm's choice of disclosure outlet can be explained by voluntary disclosure theories and investigate whether the market response around different disclosure outlets varies.

The authors investigate differences in the characteristics of firms purchasing analyst research, holding investor presentations or Open Briefings and compare market reactions around each disclosure event.

The authors find that firm incentives to reduce information acquisition costs or mitigate disclosure risk affect firm disclosure outlet choice, and mixed evidence in support of talent signalling motivations. There is a lower absolute abnormal return around Open Briefings and a higher signed abnormal return around purchased analyst research.

The research is exploratory in nature and only considers a small subset of disclosure outlets. There may be differences in information content across disclosure outlets.

They show disclosure outlets are not homogenous and provide empirical evidence voluntary disclosure theories help explain differences between firms’ use of disclosure outlets. Considering the growing number of disclosure outlets available, disclosure outlet choice is likely to be an increasingly important topic in accounting research.

The purpose of this study is to mirror the late guitarist Peter Green’s life experiences through insights from Andrew Voyce, who recovered from mental illness, and expertise from Peter Bryngelsson, a Swedish professional musician and author.

The authors used a mixed method of collaborative autoethnography, psychobiography and digital team ethnography.

Despite having not previously attracted academic interest, Peter Green’s experiences of mental health problems and his return to recording and performance provide a rich data source when mirrored and compared to the lives and experiences of Andrew Voyce and Peter Bryngelsson.

The main limitation of this piece of work is that Peter Green died in 2020. During the process of writing, the authors have had to follow different, mostly unacademic, sources that have described various parts of Peter Green’s life. The authors have given examples and drawn conclusions from their own lives as well as from academic sources, which they have found appropriate.

Both Andrew Voyce and Peter Bryngelsson’s stories would be helpful when it comes to a deeper understanding as to why Peter Green “took a left turn”, i.e., turned his back on an accepted lifestyle.

Acid casualty is a problem connected to both mental distress and to the music industry. Peter Bryngelsson’s story tells us that one can remain sane and drug free and still be an influential and creative musician.

The analysis has brought together two stories of mental distress in combination with insights.

There is no more fascinating type of bedside book than the catalogue of a great private library. “Bedside book” I say: but that is hardly just, for I would willingly retire to a desert island (as all the best people appear to be prepared to do these days) with a comfortable handful of such records of greatness. These can conjure up visions for me as no other books can. I find the Abbotsford catalogue as spell‐binding as The Three Musketeers, and old Kirk‐patrick Sharpe's curious collections as intriguing as the adventures of young Waverley. Are there others who share my taste? I hope so, though I admit that it is not everyone's meat. Might I be pardoned for trying to suggest why I like this bye‐way? Bear with me while in the manner of Hill Burton I summon up a few of the famous bookmen of a former day. And pardon me again if it be found that they are all Scots.

ACCORDING to a pamphlet just issued by Mr. Thomas Greenwood, the total amount expended by Mr. Andrew Carnegie on the provision of Public Library, school, and other educational buildings is about £14,000,000 sterling. Some of this enormous amount has been devoted to the endowment of scholarships in universities, but the major part of it has been given for the purpose of enabling towns to erect library buildings. About £1,300,000 have been given to Scotland for this purpose, and probably about £50,000 to England, though this latter sum is being augmented almost daily. Mr. Carnegie's action in this matter is without precedent in the history of the world, and his extraordinary generosity and enthusiasm in this particular field of educational work deserves the heartiest recognition and applause from every section of the public. His work, so far as British libraries are concerned, is largely supplemental to the niggardly and short‐sighted policy of Parliament, which allows municipal authorities to establish Public Libraries, and raise funds which are barely sufficient in many cases to pay the gas bill and provide a few of the current magazines. Hence it follows that, in many cases, our libraries are housed in all kinds of temporary premises, from disused warehouses to prisons, churches, and market‐halls, where their utility is impaired by the complete unsuitability of their environment. Thus, about 75 per cent. of the British municipal libraries are administered under conditions which are desperate when compared with those of the United States. But worse even than the matter of equipment is that of efficient administration. Extraordinarily good work is accomplished, and great use is made of the books, in library premises which are a disgrace to the community which owns them, and to the Parliament which sanctions such makeshifts in the name of education; but this is owing more to luck in obtaining capable officers than the action of any systematic attempt to train competent staffs and improve methods of administration. Mr. Carnegie has done such a great work in making good the failure of the Legislature to provide adequately or the material side of Public Libraries, that it is not too much to suggest a practical method of making his valuable gifts even more valuable and effective. At present many of the Carnegie libraries are object‐lessons in what to avoid in library administration. They are staffed by untrained men, whose methods are the laughing‐stock of the more competent American librarians, whose opinions Mr. Carnegie is bound to respect in view of his belief in everything American. They are classified in a manner which would prove ruinous in any business run for profit, and catalogued in such a painfully bald manner as to reduce the whole method of book‐selection to the level of a lottery. We could name libraries in Scotland, which have been lavishly helped by Mr. Carnegie, which are doing greatly inferior work to little municipal libraries elsewhere, which are not even decently housed. They have not adopted a single modern or scientific method of doing anything, and they have been officered in a manner which will prevent any possibility of improvement for years to come. Other instances could be given of libraries housed in fine buildings which are simply libels on the aims and objects of modern librarianship, but enough has been said in a general way to show that something more is required to make Public Libraries efficient than good homes, or even a penny rate. How this could in part be accomplished, it is the purpose of this article to try and show.