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The purpose of this paper is to examine and explicate the concept of poor care by exploring what it is and what contributes to its occurrence in practice with a particular focus on the care of older people.

The results of systematically searched published literature were analysed using an inductive, descriptive, thematic approach as part of Rodgers’ evolutionary concept analysis method.

The concept of poor care is understood in the context of the antecedents of vulnerability, use of healthcare services and interaction with healthcare personnel. Its defining characteristics involve individual’s personal traits, interpersonal dynamics, an endangered self, misconceptions or organisational constraints.

Further research is needed to explore the recognition of poor care and reporting thresholds. In addition, the role of the “zone of tolerance” of expectations in the delivery and receipt of interpersonal care and attention for older people needs to be better understood.

Understanding the continuum and mapping the structures of poor care in contemporary UK healthcare practice can help sensitise practitioners to the widespread range and potential for instances of poor care. This concept analysis uniquely demonstrates consequences not only for the patient but also for healthcare staff and other individuals.

The reporting of incidents or “whistleblowing” occurs when a member of staff within an organisation discloses that an employee has acted in a way that is a cause for concern, and the person it is reported to has the ability to do something about it. Surveys in the UK and the USA have shown that errors in healthcare are unacceptably high. It is also known that under‐reporting of errors is the norm. There is a need to understand why people fail to report so that systems and more open cultures which support staff in reporting poor practice can be introduced. Research that captures the experiences of those who have observed poor care and what they experience if they report an incident is critical to developing such an understanding. This paper aims to address this issue.

An exploratory quantitative research design, based on a similar study in the NHS UK, was utilised to answer the research questions of this study. Data were collected in eight acute hospitals in the Health Services Executive (HSE) regions in Ireland. Two hospitals were selected from each of the four regions and nursing staff on three wards within each hospital provided the sample. A total of 575 anonymous questionnaires were sent to all grades of nurses working on these 24 wards.

A total of 152 responses were received, a response rate of 26 per cent. This study found that 88 per cent of respondents, i.e. nurses working in acute hospitals, have observed an incident of poor care in the past six months. The findings indicate that 70 per cent of those that observed an incident of poor care reported it. Nurse managers are more likely to report than staff nurses (reporting rates of 88 per cent and 65 per cent respectively). The study findings indicate that only one in four nurses who reported poor care were satisfied with the way the organisation handled their concerns.

Health professionals have a responsibility to maintain standards of care and this responsibility includes taking action to report poor care. The paper shows that reporting of poor care is hampered by a fear of retribution and lack of faith in the organisation's ability to take corrective action.

This study aims to evaluate the relationships between leadership style and reported incidents, reporting practices and patient safety initiatives in Kuwaiti hospitals.

This cross-sectional and retrospective quantitative multi-centre study was conducted in a secondary care setting. The multifactor leadership questionnaire and the patient safety questionnaire were distributed in six general hospitals to a sample of physicians, nurses and pharmacists. Incident reports were reviewed in each hospital to assess reporting practices.

The hospital with the most safety incident reports scored the highest on good reporting practices, whereas the hospital with the lowest score of poor reporting practices had reported fewer incidents. Reporting was better if an error reached the patient but caused no harm. Overall, reporting practices and implementation of patient safety initiatives in the hospitals were suboptimal. Nevertheless, a transformational leadership style had a positive effect on patient safety and reporting practices.

This study represents a baseline for researchers to assess the relationship between leadership style and patient safety. Moreover, it highlights significant considerations to be addressed when planning patient safety improvement programmes. More investment is needed to understand how to raise transformational leaders who are more effective on patient safety. Further studies that include primary and tertiary health-care settings and the private sector are required.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first in Kuwait to report on the relationship between transformational leadership and safety practices.

A systems perspective of waste management allows an integrated approach not only to the five basic functional elements of waste management itself (generation, reduction, collection, recycling, disposal), but to the problems arising at the interfaces with the management of energy, nature conservation, environmental protection, economic factors like unemployment and productivity, etc. This monograph separately describes present practices and the problems to be solved in each of the functional areas of waste management and at the important interfaces. Strategies for more efficient control are then proposed from a systems perspective. Systematic and objective means of solving problems become possible leading to optimal management and a positive contribution to economic development, not least through resource conservation. India is the particular context within which waste generation and management are discussed. In considering waste disposal techniques, special attention is given to sewage and radioactive wastes.

The challenges confronting the Nigerian construction industry which led to the adoption of supply chain management (SCM) practice were evaluated in this chapter. It was discovered that the Nigerian construction industry is confronted with fragmentation and poor information management. The stakeholders within the Nigerian construction industry proposed the adoption of SCM to overcome the fragmentation and other shenanigans facing the industry. This chapter revealed that construction supply chain (CSC) practices within the Nigerian construction industry focus on waste elimination by adopting the lean concept. The focus on the lean concept could be attributed to the numerous research related to lean or the enormous waste emanating from the Nigerian construction industry. Regardless of the emphasis on lean, the Nigerian CSC is still confronted with fragmentation and heavy waste generation. Thus, this chapter proposed the adoption of principles and technologies driven by the fourth industrial revolution (4IR) is a paradigm shift for the management of CSC in the country. It was discovered in this chapter that Nigerian construction supply stakeholders had not embraced the technologies and principles of the 4IR. The failure to adopt the technologies driven by the 4IR is attributed to the absence of a CSC model that depicts the management of CSC in alignment with the 4IR. This chapter called for developing a SCM model for the Nigerian construction industry in tandem with the principles and technologies of the 4IR.

All nursing students have the opportunity to gain experience in the Independent Sector. The Health and Social Care Act (2012) in the UK has led to more health services being provided by the Independent Sector. The purpose of this paper is to explore the perceptions of first year student nurses of their learning experience in nursing homes placements within the Independent Sector.

Two focus groups were undertaken with first year student nurses, one with six students and the other with seven students. All students had completed four week clinical placements in nursing homes. The focus groups were semi structured. Thematic analysis was undertaken on the data.

Important themes that emerged from the data included: leadership issues, poor practice relating to infection control and manual handling, team dynamics, commitment to addressing issues when raised and challenges to raising issues within the placement area. The findings provided an insight into some of the barriers for student nurses when raising issues. The decision to raise concerns was multifactorial and complex. Attention was also focused on the relationship between the mentor and the student and the impact that can have on the learning environment.

The limitations for this study included: this was a small scale study, the findings were from a small number of placement areas within a small geographical area of the UK. Some students may have felt reluctant to share their views in a focus group. The findings reflect the views of first year student nurses only. However, first year students can provide an alternative view of a placement area. Their lack of experience can be an opportunity to question accepted norms with the mentor, acting as a resource of new ideas.

This paper identified opportunities and challenges for student nurses and education providers alike. For the student it was the complexities of raising issues and for the education provider it was equipping students with the knowledge and skills to raise such issues not only as a student but also upon qualification.

The paper aims to look into the implications of urban informality in Chris Abani's Graceland as represented in slum life and urban poverty as products of over urbanization and globalization, seeking to unravel multi-layers of the human side of the slum.

The paper examines slum life from a descriptive approach to highlight how people survive under poverty. The study of the culture of slums entails an analysis of the survival techniques and everyday practices of slum dwellers, the relations and patterns of behavior and the outcomes of the interplay between place, culture and power relations in such communities.

The urban slum dwellers utilize everyday forms of resistance which comprise a number of “low-profile techniques” to subvert state-imposed power structures and break the cycle of poverty.

Despite the relevance of a post-colonial approach to the texts, this paper is limited to the study of the impact of urban poverty on individuals.

The margin, represented in the urban poor, is brought into focus and perceived in a new light of empowerment which challenges alienating discourses.

The multidimensional vision of Nigeria in Abani's text highlights the cultural and economic impacts of multiculturalism, neocolonialism and globalization on the urban poor.

The paper formulates a framework for understanding the culture of the slum as a space of a peculiar nature, seeking to deconstruct a fixed view of slum life and poverty culture.

The system of government-run poor relief in England, dating from the sixteenth century, was not replicated in Europe until the mid- to late 1800s. In order to understand why, poor relief must be placed within the socio-economic framework of capitalism, a system of surplus appropriation which originated in the novel class relations of English agriculture. The English way of dealing with poverty was distinctive and this distinctiveness was rooted in the unparalleled expansion of capitalism in that country in the early modern era. Assistance to the poor in England emerged alongside a qualitative social change, wherein an economy rooted in custom was transformed into one based on the competitive social relations of capitalism. The main conclusion of this article is that the welfare state was not a product of industrialization but of the class structure of agrarian capitalism.

There is a growing interest in research focusing on performance management practices in the public sector, but research is still limited with regards to public primary healthcare services (PHSs), which play an important role in national healthcare systems. These organisations are frequently criticised for alleged poor performance management practices and misuse of resources, though such claims are not always substantiated. The purpose of this study is to examine performance management practices in public PHSs.

Three case studies of PHSs organisations were conducted resulting in interview material and archival data. Otley's performance management framework was used to examine the data.

It is found that the performance management systems of the studied PHSs were disjoint and lacked consistency and coherence. Lack of direction and motivational were key issues in PHSs. Furthermore, the observations indicate that vertical controls between PHSs and parent organisation were weak and accountability poor.

Generalisability of findings and social desirability bias are the important limitations. A key research implication is that the conceptual framework adopted can be meaningfully used to generate insights into performance management issues in public sector healthcare organisations.

The study highlights the implications of the poor design and use of performance management systems and highlights areas for improvement in the organisations studied, and potentially across the sector.

This study is the first to draw upon Otley's performance management framework to examine performance management practices in PHSs and to demonstrate its usefulness in this context.

The cost of residential building maintenance can harmfully affect low-income earners' expenditure if not checked. A customised maintenance concept via a framework will ensure efficient and proper building maintenance operations. The outcome may keep the life cycle cost down. Studies concerning the low-cost housing (LCH) maintenance concept through a framework are scarce in Malaysia. Thus, the study aims to investigate the state of LCH and develop a framework to improve LCH maintenance practices in Malaysia.

The study adopted a soft system methodology (SSM) to comprehend Malaysia's LCH building maintenance practices. The SSM allowed an alternative approach to improve LCH maintenance practices via a developed framework. Virtual interviews were conducted with experts, and findings were presented. It was in line with the SSM seven steps.

The findings show that apart from the poor state of LCH maintenance, there is the absence of a framework to improve maintenance practices, especially in LCH across Malaysia's cities. The findings developed a framework that would reposition the joint management body and management corporation in collaboration with the proposed maintenance agency for better service delivery via substantive, technical and administrative aspects.

This study's data collection is restricted to Pulau Pinang, Kuala Lumpur and Johor through a qualitative research design approach. Future research is needed to consider more extensive coverage and validate the developed framework from this study via a quantitative research design.

Apart from the conceptual model that was developed, the suggested framework can be employed by Malaysia's maintenance practitioners and policymakers as a guideline to improve LCH building maintenance practices across the cities.

This study examined Malaysia's LCH maintenance practices via SSM to identify the state of the houses, identify the information required and propose a suitable framework to improve Malaysia's LCH maintenance practices.