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The Veterans Healthcare Administration (VHA) has promoted Specialty Care Neighborhoods (SCN) to enhance the coordination of services between primary and specialty care. Care coordination agreements (CCAs) were included as a critical element in the SCN program. The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of these documents in the successful implementation of SCNs.

Content, quality, and perceived usefulness of CCAs from 19 SCN sites were evaluated. CCA content was defined as the presence or absence of eight key components: contact information, process for urgent consults, process for e-consults, content of consults, primary and specialty care responsibilities, expected response time, discharge criteria, and review criteria. CCA quality was based on a qualitative assessment of CCA content; and perceived usefulness was based on a qualitative assessment of interview responses from CCA users. CCA characteristics were compared to SCN implementation levels using descriptive statistics. SCN implementation level was defined and measured by VHA Specialty Care Services.

Participating sites with medium-high or high SCN implementation levels had CCAs with more key components and of higher quality than sites with medium-low to medium SCN implementation levels. Perceived usefulness of CCAs was not associated with implementation level.

Since this study built on a quality improvement effort to facilitate care coordination, a rigorous research approach was not used. Specific CCA components could not be examined nor could specific hypotheses be tested due to the small and diverse sample. Findings presented are only preliminary.

The examination of CCAs suggests that these documents may be helpful to improve communication among primary and specialty care providers by explicitly stating agreed upon processes, mechanisms and criteria for referrals, roles and responsibilities for the co-management of patients, and timelines for review of CCAs.

This small study suggests that high-quality CCAs, which include a number of key components, can facilitate the implementation of coordinated care. Key characteristics of CCAs are identified in this study, including measures of CCA content, quality, and usefulness, which can be used in future efforts to develop and evaluate efforts to improve care coordination.

This paper explores the impact of a coach training programme in a UK higher education institution (UKHEI). This paper evaluates the use of coach training to equip undergraduate students with the skills needed to set goals and navigate stressors in personal and professional life.

An interpretivist research design was chosen to gather detailed information about the participants. Data were collected via a multi-method approach comprising participant observations, individual reflections and surveys amongst 18 students. Each method allowed the researcher to interpret the participants' perspectives of social reality.

The inductive analysis revealed three key themes related to the impact of coach training: a greater awareness of self, enhanced relationships with others and a renewed focus on the future. The findings also showed that coach training provided students with a goal-focussed, judgement-free strategy to address issues related to university stressors such as burnout.

The conclusions drawn from the study are placed in the context of the wider coaching debate yet are not generalisable. They illustrate a strong link between coach training and the positive impact on the students increased sense of self, their renewed view of the world and how they want to engage with the training.

The results of this study highlight the need for further research into the impact of coaching and coach training initiatives on UKHEI students. The study also proposes that coaching strategies should be embedded into the curriculum to better prepare graduates to navigate the transition from university life to professional life.

This paper provides empirical evidence of the positive impacts of coach training on UKHEI students. This paper contributes to an understanding of coach training's potential impact on students' engagement in, and enjoyment of, the higher education learning journey. This paper also provides a foundation for future empirical research in this area.

The aim of this study was to investigate whether perceptions of fair pay are characterised by social norms about the appropriate bases of pay differentials.

In order that the employees could voice their opinions without the restrictions of pre‐coded categories individual interviews were carried out with employees from five private sector organizations. The design of the study allowed an examination of attitudes towards pay criteria in the context of changes in organizational pay structures towards more individualism in pay awards.

The most popular bases of pay were “responsibility”, “qualifications” and “performance”. The attitudes appeared to reflect widespread norms about the most appropriate bases of pay. There was some evidence for an interaction between employee attitudes towards pay determination and organizational characteristics on the design and implementation of pay policies.

The interview methodology restricted the size of the sample and consequently the generalisations that can be made from the findings. Future research could use qualitative or quantitative methods to check whether the findings replicate with different types of groups of employees.

The paper contains useful information for human resource practitioners about maintaining “felt fairness” in the design of new pay systems.

The qualitative approach of this study produces rich information about employee perceptions of pay differentials in the context of current changes towards more individualised pay determination.

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This paper seeks to understand relationships between prison healthcare and integrated care systems (ICS), including how these affect the delivery of new healthcare interventions. It also aims to understand how closer integration between prison and ICS could improve cross system working between community and prison healthcare teams, and highlights challenges that exist to integration between prison healthcare and ICS.

The study uses evidence from research on the implementation of a pilot study to establish telemedicine secondary care appointments between prisons and an acute trust in one English region (a cross-system intervention). Qualitative interview data were collected from prison (n = 12) and community (n = 8) healthcare staff related to the experience of implementing a cross-system telemedicine initiative. Thematic analysis was undertaken on interview data, guided by an implementation theory and framework.

The research found four main themes related to the closer integration between prison healthcare and ICS: (1) Recognition of prison health as a priority; (2) Finding a way to reconcile networks and finances between community and prison commissioning; (3) Awareness of prison service influence on NHS healthcare planning and delivery; and (4) Shared investment in prison health can lead to benefits.

This is the first article to provide research evidence to support or challenge the integration of specialist health and justice (H&J) commissioning into local population health.