Search results

This study seeks to determine how process and latent errors in the interpersonal, organizational, health system, and public health domains impact doctor/patient communication and patient safety.

There were 278 physicians from Manitoba, Canada who completed a self‐report questionnaire during 2006. The largest specialty was family medicine, followed by internal medicine and pediatrics. Mean years of practice was 16, and 60 percent of the respondents were male. Respondents indicated the extent to which difficulties were encountered when communicating with patients.

The study finds that physicians had more difficulties with patients in the 0‐20 year age bracket on 12 of the 18 communication statements. Psychiatry and pediatrics reported more difficulties with language interpreters. Pediatrics reported more difficulties with patients using culturally‐based alternative medicine. Internal medicine had more difficulty with patients not appearing to trust or participate in treatment decisions. Patients in the 41‐60 years age bracket had the highest mean for non‐adherence to treatment plans, health maintenance and needed lifestyle change. The female physician‐female patient dyad had fewer communication difficulties on all statements.

Further research should examine how family structure influences health‐care delivery and health outcomes. Health care organizations can contribute to improving quality of care by seeking out and correcting sources of latent errors, and by supporting professional development and practice interventions.

Few studies exist that have linked communication difficulties to adverse events. This study provides insight on sources of interpersonal errors in communication that directly impact the physician/patient relationship and which may represent threats to patient safety.

Aarhus Kommunes Biblioteker (Teknisk Bibliotek), Ingerslevs Plads 7, Aarhus, Denmark. Representative: V. NEDERGAARD PEDERSEN (Librarian).

The purpose of this paper is to explore the experiences of displaced female textile sector workers.

A qualitative approach to data collection and interpretation forms the methodological basis of the study. In‐depth interviews were conducted with 14 female employees who were laid off from a large textile manufacturing facility in a southeastern state. Participants were selected through the local community college where they returned to school after losing their jobs.

A phenomenological interpretation of the responses led to the development of three emergent thematic areas connecting similarities and differences that surfaced across the participants' narratives. Key issues within the thematic areas point to the need for each participant to come to terms with the job loss, both emotionally and financially, and to decide where she would go from there.

The study focuses on women employed at a single manufacturing facility and within a single state in the southeastern USA. Implications of the meanings of participants' experiences for their community and for the future of employment in the US textile sector are considered.

The study provides an interpretation of the impact of textile sector dynamics on the lives of displaced workers and the local community.

The paper offers insight into the human side of industry dynamics and declining manufacturing employment figures. It also sheds light on the extent to which some displaced textile sector workers have pursued the educational options made available through government programs designed to provide assistance with education and retraining.

The purpose of this paper is to measure technical efficiency of Indian thermal power sector employing the recent by-production approach.

The by-production approach is used in conjunction with data from the Central Electricity Authority (CEA) of India to compute the output-based Färe, Grosskopf, Lovell (FGL) efficiency index and its decomposition into productive and environmental efficiency indexes for the ITPPs

The authors show that given the aggregated nature of data on coal reported by CEA, CEA’s computation of CO₂ emissions through a deterministic linear formula that does not distinguish between different coal types and the tiny share of oil in coal-based power plants, the computed output-based environmental efficiency indexes are no longer informative. Meaningful measurement of environmental efficiency using CEA data is possible only along the dimension of the coal input. Productive efficiency is positively associated with the engineering concept of thermodynamic/energy efficiency and is also high for power plants with high operating availabilities reflecting better management and O&M practices. Both these factors are high for private and centrally owned as opposed to state-owned power-generating companies. The example of Sipat demonstrates the importance of (ultra)supercritical technologies in increasing productive and thermodynamic efficiencies of the ITPPs, while also reducing CO₂ emitted per unit of the net electricity generated.

This paper uses the by-production approach for the first time to measure technical efficiency of ITPPs and highlights how the nature of the Indian data impacts on efficiency measurement.

The Seminar on Library Interior Layout and Design organised by IFLA's Section on Library Buildings and Equipment, and attended by people from over twenty‐two countries, was held at Frederiksdal, Denmark, in June 1980. This present article neither reports on the Seminar's proceedings, as it is hoped to publish the papers in due course, nor describes fully the Danish public libraries seen, but rather uses the Seminar's theme and the library visits as a point of departure for considering some aspects of the interior layout—the landscape—of public libraries. Brief details of the new Danish public libraries visited are given in a table at the end of the article.

Not many weeks back, according to newspaper reports, three members of the library staff of the School of Slavonic and East European Studies in London were dismissed. All had refused to carry out issue desk duty. All, according to the newspaper account, were members of ASTMS. None, according to the Library Association yearbook, was a member of the appropriate professional organisation for librarians in Great Britain.

In April 1988, the National Reference Center for Bioethics Literature (NRC) (see sidebar) published “AIDS: Law, Ethics and Public Policy.” As part of the NRC's Scope Note Series, the paper offered a current overview of issues and viewpoints related to AIDS and ethics. Not meant to be a comprehensive review of all AIDS literature, it contained selected citations referring to facts, opinion, and legal precedents, as well as a discussion of different ethical aspects surrounding AIDS. Updating the earlier work, this bibliography provides ethical citations from literature published from 1988 to the present.

This research aims to examine the performativity of corporate reports as an example of an accounting inscription that can frame the relationship between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander entities and their stakeholders. The framing and overflow effects of these reports have been explored to consider whether they strengthen or undermine the reputation and capability of these community-controlled entities.

Aligned with actor–network theory and a decolonising research protocol, qualitative interviews were conducted with senior managers and directors of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander entities and their key stakeholders to explore their experiences of corporate reporting. Additional analysis of these organisations' annual reports was conducted to corroborate key reporting themes.

This research has identified a dual role for corporate reporting, simultaneously framing performance against an expectation of failure, but with the potential for accounting inscriptions to highlight positive contributions to cultural and community priorities. It also indicates the need for sector specifics within the reporting frameworks and adequate resourcing for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander entities to meet reporting obligations.

This research makes policy-based recommendations in terms of user-driven and culturally informed performance measures. It also highlights the importance of adequate funding for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander entities to carry out meaningful performance evaluations beyond the preparation of financial statements.

One of the few empirical studies to capture the performativity of accounting inscriptions from the perspective of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander entities. This sector has received minimal attention within the accounting discipline, despite significantly contributing to community well-being and cultural protection. There is emancipatory potential via policy frameworks that resonate with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultural beliefs and practices.