Search results

The purpose of this paper is to examine the perspectives of local residents regarding the impact of the long-duration Hazelwood open cut coal mine fire in rural Australia.

A qualitative approach was undertaken involving 27 in-depth interviews with adults who lived in the town of Morwell, immediately adjacent to the coal mine fire.

Participant concerns focussed upon fear and confusion during the event, the perceived health effects of the smoke, anger towards authorities and loss of a sense of community and sense of security. One of the significant ways in which people managed these responses was to normalise the event. The long duration of the event created deep uncertainty which exaggerated the impact of the fire.

Understanding the particular nature of the impact of this event may assist the authors to better understand the ongoing human impact of long-duration disasters in the future.

It is important to provide clear and understandable quality information to residents during and after such disasters.

While there is an extensive literature exploring the direct social and psychological impacts of acute natural disasters, less qualitative research has been conducted into the experiences of longer term critical events.

Due to the fragmented and complex nature of the construction industry, many countries, including Singapore, have progressively encouraged greater collaboration amongst major stakeholders in the industry. It is hoped that doing so will result in an increase in the quality of construction projects. Given the long duration of typical construction projects, it is plausible for collaborating parties to develop close and personal relationships. In recent years, corruption cases arising from familiar collaboration have caught the public's attention. This study seeks to better understand familiar collaboration and its adverse impacts on the quality of construction projects.

A mixed research method was adopted, with a questionnaire survey distributed to 32 respondents representing client and contractors. This was followed by interviews to validate the survey findings.

The findings suggest that, when there is a lack of surveillance, familiar collaboration is likely to lead to favouritism and dishonesty, which can have an adverse impact on the quality of construction projects. The findings additionally suggest that value for money, conformance to specifications and fitness for purpose are the main aspects of quality that are likely to be adversely affected by corrupt practices bought about by familiar collaboration.

In this paper, these relationships are described using the term familiar collaboration. Strong and intimate relationships of this type may lead to a danger of parties committing corrupt practices. This study is one of the very attempts seek to better understand familiar collaboration and its adverse impacts on the quality of construction projects.

The purpose of this paper is to conduct a narrative review of the food insecurity literature pertaining to university and college students studying in Very High Human Development Index countries. It aims to document food insecurity prevalence, risk factors for and consequences of food insecurity and food insecurity coping strategies among students.

English articles published between January 2000 and November 2017 were identified using electronic databases. Quality Assessment Tool for Quantitative Studies assessed the study quality of quantitative research.

A total of 37 quantitative, three mixed-methods and three qualitative studies were included from 80,914 students from the USA (n=30 studies), Australia (n=4), Canada (n=8) and Poland (n=1). Prevalence estimates of food insecurity were 9–89 percent. All quantitative studies were rated weak based on the quality assessment. Risk factors for food insecurity included being low income, living away from home or being an ethnic minority. Negative consequences of food insecurity were reported, including reduced academic performance and poor diet quality. Strategies to mitigate food insecurity were numerous, including accessing food charities, buying cheaper food and borrowing resources from friends or relatives.

Given the heterogeneity across studies, a precise estimate of the prevalence of food insecurity in postsecondary students is unknown.

For many students studying in wealthy countries, obtaining a postsecondary education might mean enduring years of food insecurity and consequently, suffering a range of negative academic, nutritional and health outcomes. There is a need to quantify the magnitude of food insecurity in postsecondary students, to inform the development, implementation and evaluation of strategies to reduce the impact of food insecurity on campus.

This review brings together the existing literature on food insecurity among postsecondary students studying in wealthy countries to allow a better understanding of the condition in this understudied group.

Although medical leadership and management (MLM) is increasingly being recognised as important to improving healthcare outcomes, little is understood about current training of medical students in MLM skills and behaviours in the UK. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

This qualitative study used validated structured interviews with expert faculty members from medical schools across the UK to ascertain MLM framework integration, teaching methods employed, evaluation methods and barriers to improvement.

Data were collected from 25 of the 33 UK medical schools (76 per cent response rate), with 23/25 reporting that MLM content is included in their curriculum. More medical schools assessed MLM competencies on admission than at any other time of the curriculum. Only 12 schools had evaluated MLM teaching at the time of data collection. The majority of medical schools reported barriers, including overfilled curricula and reluctance of staff to teach. Whilst 88 per cent of schools planned to increase MLM content over the next two years, there was a lack of consensus on proposed teaching content and methods.

There is widespread inclusion of MLM in UK medical schools’ curricula, despite the existence of barriers. This study identified substantial heterogeneity in MLM teaching and assessment methods which does not meet students’ desired modes of delivery. Examples of national undergraduate MLM teaching exist worldwide, and lessons can be taken from these.

This is the first national evaluation of MLM in undergraduate medical school curricula in the UK, highlighting continuing challenges with executing MLM content despite numerous frameworks and international examples of successful execution.

In 2019, St Johns Winchester, a CQC-registered charity, launched the Hand in Hand (HiH) Service, a social prescribing (SP) initiative to alleviate social isolation/loneliness amongst older people via integration between primary care and the third sector. Arising from collaborative stakeholder reflection, this article explicates processes instigated to plan, implement and evaluate the HiH service which has been locally recognised as an exemplar of good practice. It aims to fill a gap in the literature which has hitherto lacked contextual description of the drivers, mechanisms and processes of SP schemes, leading to confusion over what constitutes SP and which models can work.

The article defines the context of, drivers for and collaborative process followed to implement and evaluate HiH and reflects on challenges, facilitators and key points for transferable learning. Early evaluation findings are presented.

Key features underpinning the success of the pilot phase were: having clear referral pathways, working collaboratively with health and voluntary sector partners, building relationships based on trust, adherence to high-quality standards and governance, a well-trained team of volunteers and access to up-to-date information source. There remains a disparity between the urgent need for rigorous evaluation data and the resources available to produce it.

The article offers a novel contribution for those planning SP at the level of practice and policy and for the developing field of SP evaluation.

COST AND ERGONOMY PROBLEMS IN WAREHOUSES: The achievment of an optimum solution to the automation of a warehouse is a difficult task, involving a great deal of money, money that nobody really is interested in spending, as ‘the warehouse does nothing productive to the product’.

Text book theories of motivation are abundant. Content theories such as Maslow's hierarchy of needs and Herzberg's two factor theory or process theories such as expectancy theory and reinforcement theory are practiced in most American companies. The key difference between the best managed companies and other companies is their methods of implementation in their particular environment. Black and Decker, Lincoln Electric, Honeywell, Walmart, Dupont and Phillip Van Heusen are seven of America's best managed companies who use creativity and innovation to motivate employees.

This special “Anbar Abstracts” issue of the Journal of European Industrial Training is split into seven sections covering abstracts under the following headings: General Training Issues; Education & Students; Training/Learning Techniques; Training Technology; Skills Training; Management Development; Career/HR Development.