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In order to provide access to care in a timely manner, it is necessary to effectively manage the allocation of limited resources. such as beds. Bed management is a key to the effective delivery of high quality and low-cost healthcare. The purpose of this paper is to develop a discrete event simulation to assist in planning and staff scheduling decisions.

A discrete event simulation model was developed for a hospital system to analyze admissions, patient transfer, length of stay (LOS), waiting time and queue time. The hospital system contained 50 beds and four departments. The data used to construct the model were from five years of patient records and contained information on 23,019 patients. Each department’s performance measures were taken into consideration separately to understand and quantify the behavior of departments individually, and the hospital system as a whole. Several scenarios were analyzed to determine the impact on reducing the number of patients waiting in queue, waiting time and LOS of patients.

Using the simulation model, it was determined that reducing the bed turnover time by 1 h resulted in a statistically significant reduction in patient wait time in queue. Further, reducing the average LOS by 10 h results in statistically significant reductions in the average patient wait time and average patient queue. A comparative analysis of department also showed considerable improvements in average wait time, average number of patients in queue and average LOS with the addition of two beds.

This research highlights the applicability of simulation in healthcare. Through data that are often readily available in bed management tracking systems, the operational behavior of a hospital can be modeled, which enables hospital management to test the impact of changes without cost and risk.

This paper aims to describe how public librarians can better address complex information needs. First, librarians should classify the degree of complexity of the need by using Warner’s classification model; then they can use Popper’s three world theory to anticipate and respond to complex information needs by following specific steps.

After examining the information science literature, appropriate models were selected to support public librarians. Our information science scholarship, coupled with our practical experience, informed our search and selection.

This paper details specific steps that public librarians can take to anticipate and respond to individual information needs. Doing so is imperative as the information needs of the public continue to become increasingly complex.

This paper improves information practice because it offers specific steps to aid public librarians to anticipate and respond to complex information needs. It draws upon an existing model and theoretical framework. This paper also highlights selected examples of how public librarians across the USA have anticipated information needs, and developed partnerships with organizations external to the public library to address complex information needs.

It is reasonable to assume the existence of a new “dynamic” that influences how to measure reference services in libraries and how we evaluate the reference librarians who provide those services. Traditional, face-to-face delivery of reference services is reported to be declining, and there is myriad evidence, albeit largely uncollated and little evaluated, which suggests reference librarians are delivering significant and increasing amounts of the services they render in network environments. These trends raise questions, in turn, about how well we understand the current state of affairs in reference services, particularly where the management and evaluation of reference services in network environments are concerned.

The purpose of this study is to investigate relevant circumstances and conditions bearing – directly and indirectly – on changes in the nature, form, substance, and effects of reference services – through the reference librarian experience. Specifically, this attitudinal study will account for and assess changes in reference services (in the context of a medium-sized private university with a national reputation for successfully integrating information technologies into the educational process), with the further aim of developing an understanding of how to capture statistics and evaluate reference services and personnel in this dynamic environment. Reference librarians at a second mid-sized public university library were also interviewed for comparative data analysis in this study. Select portions of this paper have appeared in other publications in shorter, focused, introductory articles.

When the subject of outsourcing originally surfaced in the corporate real estate community, the process was promoted as both a tactical resource and a strategic opportunity. Tactical objectives included the obvious: increasing the efficiency and reducing the cost of traditional real estate activities. Strategic prospects focused on broader goals. Real estate would be managed dynamically to serve the corporation’s comprehensive business and financial objectives. The corporate real estate function would be elevated in the organisational hierarchy as a result. What happened to this vision? That which was promoted as a strategic partnership has, in many cases, turned out to look far more like a traditional customer/vendor relationship. Strategic advances have been limited. Financial performance may have been boosted initially and incrementally as real estate headcount was moved off one balance sheet and onto another. But, in general, outsourcing has not helped the corporate real estate function emerge as a strategic business force. It is entirely possible to revive and redefine an outsourcing relationship, so that it delivers on the strategic promise that both clients and service partners have found so attractive and yet so elusive. The challenge lies in creating and maintaining a real partnership between the corporate real estate team and the service provider. The key is to determine what needs to be done on both sides of the relationship to make it work effectively.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate why reading aloud (RA), both by teachers and students, is such a common practice in high school classrooms. In particular, this investigation considers students’ views of why RA is practised and what are its effects.

The paper presents the results of two small focus group discussions, in which high school students were given the opportunity to express their responses to the notion of RA in the classroom. Their responses are considered in the context of theoretical views of RA: pedagogical, reader-response and social/vocational.

Analysis of responses revealed acknowledgement that RA is not only a useful skill but also that it is in the classroom, a site of anxiety and even conflict.

The sample is small and of very circumscribed generalisability. The students’ responses indicate further questions that might usefully be asked about the purpose and value of RA, in school and in society.

The findings have implications for teachers’ practice, particularly in terms of the extent to which and the conditions in which students’ RA can develop confidence.

Although much has been written about the use of RA with young children, it remains under-researched in mainstream high schools.

Despite the breadth of knowledge on self and identity formation across the study of organizations, the field of organizational development and change has limited research on the construction of professional identity. Much has been written to describe the “self-concepts” of those practicing and researching in the field, but there have been no investigations that have explored how these “self-concepts” form. In addition, although women have contributed to defining the “self” in the field, men have held the dominant perspective on the subject. Thus, in this chapter, we address a disparity in the research by exploring the construction of professional identity in the field of organizational development and change, and we give voice to the renowned women who helped to build the field. Using the profiles of 17 American women included in The Palgrave Handbook of Organizational Change Thinkers, we perform a narrative analysis based upon the concepts and models prevalent in the literature on identity formation. By disentangling professional identity formation of the notable women in the field, we can begin to see the nuance and particularities involved in its construction and gain deeper understandings about effective ways to prepare individuals to work in and advance the field.

The purpose of this paper is twofold. First, Part One is to make a comparison of organization development (OD) and change management (CM) across eight concepts that are relevant to both OD and CM. The concepts or characteristics are (1) guiding philosophy, (2) value system, (3) theory, (4) primary skill, (5) intervention mode, (6) change model, (7) change activities, and (8) sustainment of change. OD stresses development of people and change regarding the organization, whereas CM emphasizes facilitation and expanding their business with the client organization. A concluding statement for the comparison of OD and CM is that OD has a rich underpinning of theory and a clear set of values that provide guidelines for the work with clients and CM has neither. Thus, CM is a misnomer. Part Two concerns the longer term and includes some consequences for OD from the pandemic of 2020–2021, such as the virtual workplace and leadership. The article concludes with some things to remember, suggesting the importance of group size, large group interventions, and loosely coupled systems.