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There are two main objectives in this study. First, we aim to develop a set of constructs for health task management support (HTMS) features to evaluate which health-related tasks are supported by mobile health application (mHealth app) functions. Second, drawing on innovation resistance theory (IRT), we examine the impacts of the newly developed HTMS dimensions on perceived usefulness, alongside other barrier factors contributing to technology anxiety.

Using a mixed-method research design, this research seeks to develop new measurement scales that reflect how mHealth apps support older adults’ health-related needs based on interviews. Subsequently, data were collected from older adults and exploratory factor analysis was used to confirm the validity of the new scales. Partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was used to analyze survey data from 602 older adults.

The PLS-SEM results indicated that medical management task support, dietary task support, and exercise task support were positively associated with perceived usefulness, while perceived complexity and dispositional resistance to change were identified as antecedents of technology anxiety. Perceived usefulness and technology anxiety were found to positively and negatively influence adoption intention, respectively.

This study enriches the information systems literature by developing a multidimensional construct that delineates how older adults’ health-related needs can be supported by features of mHealth apps. Drawing on IRT, we complement the existing literature on resistance to innovation by systematically examining the impact of five types of barriers on technology anxiety.

In light of the world’s accelerating march towards a sustainable future, the education for sustainable healthcare must be sufficiently acknowledged in health professions curricula. Early integration of these competences into nursing degree programme emphasizes its importance and applicability. This paper aims to investigate the effectiveness of an educational sustainability intervention in higher education to change nursing students’ attitudes towards sustainability and climate change, and environmental awareness.

A quasi-experimental study was performed with repeated measures between September 2019 and May 2023. Undergraduate students were introduced to sustainability and climate change in the context of healthcare using scenario-based learning and augmented reality over the courses in nursing degree. Participants' attitudes and awareness were collected by online questionnaires.

The educational intervention showed effectiveness in significantly improving attitudes towards climate change and sustainability, and the environmental awareness for changing their clinical practice (p < 0.01). However, students struggled to apply sustainability and address unsustainable practices in healthcare settings.

This study shows an effective model of curricular sustainability that can be implemented in other universities and health disciplines. The findings highlighting the importance of sustainability education in nursing and its potential to drive positive change in healthcare practice and society at large. Embedding key topics aligned with sustainable development goals in the curriculum prepares nursing or health workforce to address planetary health and implement sustainable practices that provide climate-smart care.

To assess patient safety culture in a teaching hospital in Jordan, identify the demographic and professional characteristics that impact safety culture, and benchmark patient safety culture with similar studies in the region.

A cross-sectional design was applied. Responses were analyzed using SPSS software. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze the data.

In total, 430 (80.5%) participants were nurses and physicians; 300 (56.20%) were females; 270 (50.6%) were in the age group 25–34 years of age. Participants provided the highest positive ratings for “teamwork within units” (60.7%). On the contrary, participants recorded a low positive reaction to the proposition that the response to error was punitive in nature. Of the participants, about 53% did not report any events in the past year.

The average positive response of PSC composites varied from 28.2 to 60.7%. Therefore, patient safety culture in this Jordanian hospital was revealed fragile. This research informs and enables managers and policymakers to plan for future interventions to improve patient safety culture in healthcare institutions.

Healthcare providers are under pressure due to increasing and more complex demands for services. Increased pressure on budgets and human resources adds to an ever-growing problem set. Competent leaders are in demand to ensure effective and well-performing healthcare organisations that deliver balanced results and high-quality services. Researchers have made significant efforts to identify and define determining competencies for healthcare leadership. Broad terms such as competence are, however, inherently at risk of becoming too generic to add analytical value. The purpose of this study is to suggest a holistic framework for understanding healthcare leadership competence, that can be crucial for operationalising important healthcare leadership competencies for researchers, decision-makers as well as practitioners.

In the present study, a critical interpretive synthesis (CIS) was conducted to analyse competency descriptions for healthcare leaders. The descriptions were retrieved from peer reviewed empirical studies published between 2010 and 2022 that aimed to identify healthcare services leadership competencies. Grounded theory was utilised to code the data and inductively develop new categories of healthcare leadership competencies. The categorisation was then analysed to suggest a holistic framework for healthcare leadership competence.

Forty-one papers were included in the review. Coding and analysing the competence descriptions resulted in 12 healthcare leadership competence categories: (1) character, (2) interpersonal relations, (3) leadership, (4) professionalism, (5) soft HRM, (6) management, (7) organisational knowledge, (8) technology, (9) knowledge of the healthcare environment, (10) change and innovation, (11) knowledge transformation and (12) boundary spanning. Based on this result, a holistic framework for understanding and analysing healthcare services leadership competencies was suggested. This framework suggests that the 12 categories of healthcare leadership competencies include a range of knowledge, skills and abilities that can be understood across the dimension personal – and technical, and organisational internal and – external competencies.

This literature review was conducted with the results of searching only two electronic databases. Because of this, there is a chance that there exist empirical studies that could have added to the development of the competence categories or could have contradicted some of the descriptions used in this analysis that were assessed as quite harmonised. A CIS also opens for a broader search, including the grey literature, books, policy documents and so on, but this study was limited to peer-reviewed empirical studies. This limitation could also have affected the result, as complex phenomenon such as competence might have been disclosed in greater details in, for example, books.

The holistic framework for healthcare leadership competences offers a common understanding of a “fuzzy” concept such as competence and can be used to identify specific competency needs in healthcare organisations, to develop strategic competency plans and educational programmes for healthcare leaders.

This study reveals a lack of consensus regarding the use and understanding of the concept of competence, and that key competencies addressed in the included papers are described vastly different in terms of what knowledge, skills and abilities they entail. This challenges the operationalisation of healthcare services leadership competencies. The proposed framework for healthcare services leadership competencies offers a common understanding of work-related competencies and a possibility to analyse key leadership competencies based on a holistic framework.

In most Sub-Saharan African countries, a widely adopted policy to increase access to healthcare is the complete or partial removal of health user fees. This paper examines the effect of removing health user fees on the cognitive development of children in Ghana.

The study uses the Ghana Socioeconomic Panel Survey (GSPS) and a difference-in-differences method to analyze the impacts of free healthcare.

The findings show that improved access to healthcare enhances the cognitive ability of children. More importantly, children who received free healthcare in early life experienced significant improvement in their cognitive ability. The benefits are also huge for girls and children from low-income families. The findings further show that maternal health, the timely receipt of vaccinations and regular infant health visits are important operative channels through which improved access to healthcare affects children’s cognitive ability.

There are several studies on the effects of eliminating health user fees on various outcomes, but only a few focus on children’s outcomes. This study contributes to the literature by focusing on a vital child outcome, cognitive ability and exploring the timing and pathways through which abolishing health user fees affect cognitive development in children. Because cognitive ability is crucial for educational and labor market outcomes, the findings are useful for policymakers in determining the population to target and the timing of interventions that yield huge impacts when designing health intervention programs in developing countries.

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/IJSE-11-2022-0739.

Provisions for the minimisation of human error are essential through governance structures such as recruitment, human resource allocation and education/training. As predictors of safety attitudes/behaviours, employees’ personality traits (e.g. conscientiousness, sensation-seeking, agreeableness, etc.) have been examined in relation to human error and safety education.

This review aimed to explore research activity on the safety attitudes of healthcare staff and their relationship with the different types of personalities, compared to other complex and highly regulated industries. A scoping review was conducted on five electronic databases on all industrial/work areas from 2001 to July 2023. A total of 60 studies were included in this review.

Studies were categorised as driving/traffic and industrial to draw useful comparisons between healthcare. Certain employees’ personality traits were matched to positive and negative relationships with safety attitudes/behaviours. Results are proposed to be used as a baseline when conducting further relevant research in healthcare.

Only two studies were identified in the healthcare sector.

The necessity for additional research in healthcare and for comparisons to other complex and highly regulated industries has been established. Safety will be enhanced through healthcare governance through personality-based recruitment, human resource allocation and education/training.

The goal of this study was to assess changes in eating self-efficacy after participating in a brief psychoeducational group intervention, grounded in the cognitive-behavioral model, delivered by dieticians in community-based health facilities.

The study was conducted using a quasi-experimental, pre-post design. A total of 110 program participants took part in the study. They were asked to complete the Eating Self-Efficacy Scale before the start of the intervention, at the end of the intervention, and three months after the intervention ended. Data were analyzed using the Linear Mixed Model.

Participants’ personal sense of control over their eating behaviors significantly increased after they completed the program and continued to increase up to the three-month follow-up. The effect of the intervention remained significant after controlling for differences in age and whether participants had access to other forms of individual support or completed the follow-up during the COVID-19 general lockdown.

By promoting participants’ sense of eating self-efficacy, this intervention could lead to positive dietary changes, which in turn could promote better health and healthy aging.

This community intervention is readily accessible and represents a cost-effective approach to promote healthy eating, reducing the risk of chronic disease and the need for medical care, thereby cutting costs for the healthcare system.

(1) This study addresses a gap in the scientific literature as there was limited published research to date that investigated this intervention. (2) The three-month follow-up made it possible to evaluate whether changes in eating self-efficacy were maintained over time. (3) Potential confounding variables, including age, having access to other forms of individual support and the COVID-19 general lockdown, were taken into account.

Healthcare systems receive criticism from both providers and recipients. The diversity in these systems throughout the world makes innovation and change difficult. However, a structured analysis of healthcare systems is crucial to identify areas for improvement and to share best practices for the betterment of healthcare throughout the world.

The paper uses organizational theory as an unbiased tool for evaluating healthcare systems. This theory analyses healthcare systems across five dimensions: environment, culture, social structure, physical structure and technology. This analysis provides an in-depth understanding of the organization's surroundings, formation and function. It offers a lens through which healthcare systems can be envisioned and establishes a vocabulary for communication.

Organizational theory presents a multifaceted approach to initiate assessments aiming to enhance existing healthcare systems and customize them to serve all stakeholders within the focused ecosystem. It alters the dynamics of criticism and presents an opportunity to sustainably address unforeseen healthcare challenges in the future. As the author proceeds to understand healthcare organizations through the perspective of organizational theory, the author also uncovers subtle yet crucial issues such as resource dependence, cultural clashes, organizational silence, bureaucracy, hierarchy, ethics, values, engagement and burnout.

This paper was crafted from a collaborative paper for the final of a master's degree. A collaboration was conceptualized using organisation theory as the tool to align processes and achieve successful outcome. The narrative of the collaboration has been edited and paper presented highlighting the importance of the tool of organisation theory in healthcare systems.

The objective of this study aims to investigate the manner in which Human Resource Practices (HRP), leadership, and intellectual capital contribute to organisational agility within the healthcare sector, and to assess how this agility influences overall organisational performance.

This research was undertaken within healthcare organisations situated in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The study sample comprised of 275 participants, and the distribution of the sample across various classifications closely mirrored that of the larger population. To assess the formulated hypotheses, the research utilized Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) software.

Results confirmed the proposed framework and uncovered the significance of HRP, leadership and intellectual capital on organisational agility and organisational performance in a dynamic environment like hospitals.

This study demonstrates originality by investigating hospital responsiveness within a highly dynamic context necessitating agility from both managerial and non-technical perspectives. Additionally, it explores the impact of HRP, leadership, and intellectual capital on organisational agility, along with its repercussions for overall organisational performance.

India has been on the pathway of improvement concerning healthcare and health outcomes of its population. However, India must overcome its unique challenges and cover a long journey ahead. This mandates a need for a high-quality, contemporary and community-based health system that promises consistent and quality healthcare, is trusted and valued by all its citizens, considers the changing population needs and should be affordable and accessible.

The study examines various dimensions and elements associated with the integrated healthcare system in India and uses input, process and output structural measures.

The present paper proposes an integrated, comprehensive healthcare system in India that endorses participation from diverse stakeholders such as the government, organizations, the community and individuals who can contribute uniquely. It also focuses on defined and measurable output that can make health a topic of social movement or “Jan Andolan” and create a sustainable and integrated care system.

The study is unique as it focuses on the role of stakeholders in health care. The research emphasized the involvement of the government, community, people and organizations in developing an integrated healthcare ecosystem that includes modern technology, skilled employees, enough finance, governance, efficient delivery platforms and top-tier infrastructure. The model’s output is focused on healthcare that is inexpensive, accessible, available, accountable and user-centered. This would gradually improve everyone’s health and well-being.