Professionals, Professionalization and the Caring Professions

Exploring evidence-based practice research

This study investigates how employment in family planning affects the status of community workers. The focus is on three critical variables: prestige, professional status, and social influence. The data are derived from a focus-group study conducted in 1987-88 in the Maternal and Child Health and Family Planning Project in Matlab, Bangladesh. Focus-group sessions were held with community workers, their husbands, community leaders, and community women. Results show that although community workers initially faced intense hostility in the community, they succeeded in maintaining the prestige that is traditionally accorded to women in their conservative, rural society. Moreover, they established themselves as valued health and family planning professionals in a social context where professional roles for women have been extremely circumscribed. Finally, they gained social influence by performing a range of functions in the community that exceed formally prescribed job responsibilities. The professional and social leadership roles that community workers now assume imply a degree of status that seemed inconceivable a decade ago. That such change could result from a well-designed and appropriately managed family planning project deserves careful attention.

BackgroundThe approach to the education and professional advancement of physiotherapists is particularly relevant today. To date, no studies have compared the perceptions of physiotherapists regarding professional issues in geographically close European countries such as Poland and Germany. Therefore, this study’s purpose was to compare Polish and German physiotherapists’ perceptions related to their profession, entry-level education, and career opportunities.MethodsWe recruited 565 physiotherapists from Poland and 560 physiotherapists from Germany. An opinion polling method based on a questionnaire was applied in the study. The survey was conducted in 48 facilities located throughout the territories of the two countries. The assessment focused on the following three issues: 1) professional education (form and content of educational programs, organizational aspects, and effects of education); 2) professional development and career opportunities; and 3) the relationship between years of service and perceptions of professional education, career satisfaction and advancement opportunities.ResultsGerman respondents rated specific aspects of their education, development opportunities and professional careers more highly than their Polish counterparts (p = 0.001). A highly significant negative correlation was identified in both groups between all the assessed aspects of professional education and years of service (0.9 ≤ |R| < 1, p = 0.001).ConclusionsOpinions on their professions expressed by physiotherapists from closely neighboring countries, namely, Poland and Germany, were surprisingly disparate. Compared to their Polish colleagues, German physiotherapists viewed their experiences more favorably vis-a-vis entry-level education, career opportunities, and professional status. Further study is needed to establish whether these findings reflect actual differences, sampling bias, or other factors.

The Occupational Health Studies Group industrial hygiene studies at a group of 14 tire and tube manufacturing plants chosen to represent a cross-section of the industry include numerous evaluations of potential exposure to airborne particulate matter. Results of these environmental particulate sampling studies are reported by plant and by occupational groups within plants. High volume, open face and cyclone samplers were employed to evaluate both personnel and area particulate concentrations. The concentrations of particulates yielded by high volume and open face total particulate samplers are compared with those of comparison samples of respirable material. Personnel samples of particulates are compared with general air samples taken in the same work areas. An overall review and comparison is given of particulate exposures to workers in various occupational title groups where particulate materials are released to the air from processes or operations.

Coffee-Drinking as a Symbol of Social Change in Continental Europe in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries PETER ALBRECHT 1 he Europeans first discovered coffee and coffeehouses in Turkish dominions. Europe owes its first written account of coffee to Carolus Clusius [Charles L’Ecluse] (1526-1609). In Antwerp in 1574 Clusius pub­ lished an edited and modified version of a botanical work by Gracias ab Horto in which he reported on coffee and provided an illustration of its seed, barely recognizable, however. Alphonsus Pancius had sent him the seed from Ferrara.1 The Augsburg doctor Leonhard Rauwolf was the first to give an account of coffee based on his own experience. From May 1573 until February 1576 Rauwolf had traveled incognito through the Orient, at that time prohibited territory for European travelers.2 The first scientific illustration of a coffee bush and coffee seed is contained in a book by Prosper Alpinus first published in Venice in 1592? A series of reports on the subject followed, but for nearly a century only botanists, doctors and travelers to the Orient were interested in coffee. It was not until 1650 that Europeans really began to consume coffee, and a century later it was as well-known as the traditional drinks of wine and beer.4 One factor which contributed to the rapid spread of its popu­ larity was that coffee was the first foodstuff intended for human con­ sumption to be introduced (if not always welcomed) by a wide variety of publications. Both these publications and coffee itself first attracted attention among the educated members of the upper classes. 91 92 / ALBRECHT Among the publications on coffee we find first those which provide general information about its origins, preparation, etc. Thus, in 1650 the first London cafe proprietor, Rosee, had a handbill printed announcing the various benefits to be derived from drinking coffee, and, of course, where this miraculous brew could be purchased. A very similar broad­ sheet was in circulation in Paris before 1666.5 There were also controver­ sial pamphlets dealing mostly with the question of whether or not coffee was good for the health, and about what should be the proper reaction to the new institution of the coffeehouse.6 Finally, in order to round off this short survey of “coffee literature,” there were many works published in which coffeehouses provided the setting, or in which the word “coffee­ house” on the title-page was meant to imply that the views being propa­ gated in the work were, in contemporary eyes, progressive.7 Lastly, there were plays and musical compositions dealing with coffee and coffee­ houses. Carlo Goldoni’s “La Bottega del Caffe” (Venice, 1750) and Johann Sebastian Bach’s “Kaffee-Kantate,” composed in 1732, are still famous today.8 Attention on this scale was attracted not just by the beverage coffee, but by the ideas and social behavior connected with it. To understand this it is necessary to take a look at social conditions in Europe under the ‘ancien regime.’ At the end of the Thirty Years’ War (1648) there was a general desire in many circles of society (and not just in Germany) to see a return to the “good old days.” Peace and order were the main objectives. For the great majority of Europeans this meant a lifelong remaining in the estate and condition into which they had been born, with no realistic chance of ever traveling beyond the narrow confines of their native regions. Life in a society structured according to the hierarchy of class, in which social barriers were legally sanctioned, and political rights reserved for the privileged few, meant in effect that life was lived in the context of strictly defined and segregated groups, and allowed little room for individual expression. Divisions resulted from birth —noble, burgher, peasant classes —as well as from professional status, religious confession, and place or country of birth. The behavioral norms of such a society clearly demanded that its members should value such distinctions and uphold the social demarcation lines which stressed professional honor, status and privilege, office and profession. The decisive factor was the status of the social group to which an individual belonged, not personal fulfill...

The International Commission on Radiological Protection recommends the adoption of the linear, no-threshold model as a predictive risk model for radiation protection purposes since the relationship between low-dose radiation exposure and cancer risk is unclear. Medical radiation workers are subject to occupational exposures and differences in workload, area of work and types of exposure can lead to variations in exposures between different occupational groups. We investigated the occupational exposures of 572 workers from four departments in two community hospitals and stratified into 22 occupational groups in order to identify groups with the highest radiation exposure. The occupational doses from 2015 to 2019 were analyzed to identify the dose distribution of each occupational group, total number of monitored workers, annual and collective deep (Hp(10)), eye (Hp(3)) and shallow (Hp(0.07)) doses. We further determined the individual and occupational group lifetime doses as well as the probability that monitored workers' lifetime doses will exceed a specified lifetime dose level. The occupational groups with the highest radiation exposures were the nuclear medicine technologists, diagnostic imaging radiologists and diagnostic cardiologists. Although our data suggest that occupational doses reported are low, it is essential that exposure of occupationally exposed personnel are always kept as low as reasonably achievable with an effective radiation protection program.

SummaryThe premodern history of the European university can be divided into two triads of three centuries: the medieval university and the ‘medieval’ university of the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. During these last three centuries Europe's Christian university was a ‘confessional’ university: the catholic, Lutheran, reformed and Anglican university and the dissenter university of New England. The reformed university of these centuries offered a distinctive way of systematic thought. A specific doctrine of God was connected with a distinct ontology and this combination constituted the theoretical framework of its philosophy and theology. What are the main distinctive features of this scholastic way of thought (I) and can a specific traditionhistorical background be identified (II)?I - The key concept of this systematic way of thought is God's free knowledge (scientia libera). This free knowledge is here understood to be God's knowledge of future states of affairs - see section 7 for the...

Given the changing nature of the dental workforce, and the need to retain the services of future members, it is important to understand why current dental students perceive that they were motivated to study dentistry. Qualitative research provides the opportunity to explore the underlying issues in addition to informing subsequent quantitative research. The objectives of this research were to investigate final-year dental students' motivation for studying dentistry and how they perceive this has been modified during their undergraduate degree programme. Purposive sampling of a representative group of 35 final-year dental students at King's College London Dental Institute to participate in audio-taped focus groups. Qualitative data were analysed using Framework Methodology. The findings suggest a strong emphasis on having a career, providing 'professional status', 'financial benefits', 'job security, flexibility and independence' and 'good quality of life'. Students reported being attracted by features of the job, supported to a greater or lesser extent by personal experience, family and friends. It appears however that students' initial motivation is being tempered by their experiences during their undergraduate degree programme, in particular, the 'responsibilities of an intensive professional education', their 'mounting student debt' and the perception of 'feeling undervalued'. This perception related to dentistry in general and National Health Service dentistry in particular, being undervalued, by government, patients, the public and members of the dental profession. Students' vision of a 'contained professional career' within health care, providing status and financial benefits, appears to have influenced their choice of dentistry. Pressures relating to student life and policy changes are perceived as impacting on key components of professional life, particularly status in the social and economic order. The implications for educators, professional leaders and policy makers are explored.

* Summary: In the context of wider debates about the future of social work, it may be timely to reappraise the role of residential child care in the profession. This article raises the question of whether residential child care can achieve a professional identity or status within social work. It outlines the development of services for children and young people in Scotland and highlights some of the tensions apparent in efforts to conceptualize residential child care within the social work knowledge base and identity paradigms. * Findings: The likely setting of registerable qualifications for workers in residential child care at Vocational Qualification (VQ) level calls into question an erstwhile consensus favouring parity with other areas of social work. This may merely expose more fundamental structural and pedagogical differences between residential child care and the social work profession as it has developed. * Applications: Possible routes through which residential child care might achieve a professional identity and knowledge base, and some of the requirements for this to come about, are considered.

Transition to Practice: Onboarding Components for Establishing and Sustaining Healthy Work Environments.

Objectives. This study aimed to examine the prevalence of chronic musculoskeletal pain among employees of a large German chemical company and how it varies depending on occupational group. Methods. Cross-sectional data were collected between 2019 and 2022 during a voluntary occupational health check-up, including a written questionnaire. Chronic musculoskeletal pain was defined as lasting at least 3 months in the past year. Occupational group was operationalized either by self-reported work area or by the International Standard Classification of Occupations 2008 (ISCO-08). Associations between occupational group and chronic musculoskeletal pain were analyzed using robust Poisson regression. Results. The final sample included 13,705 employees. The 12-month prevalence of chronic musculoskeletal pain was 18.6% for the whole sample, and 22.0, 21.9, 20.2 and 15.0% for employees in the work areas other, office, research/laboratory and production/craft, respectively. Regression analyses showed that the prevalence was 24.1% (p < 0.001) lower for employees in production/craft and 11.2% (p < 0.05) lower for employees in research/laboratory compared to office employees in the fully adjusted model. Conclusions. The high prevalence of chronic musculoskeletal pain underscores the importance of both the prevention and management of chronic musculoskeletal pain. Thereby, workplace-specific needs-based offerings could play an important role.

Dust exposure levels were studied in a cement factory in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, as part of an epidemiological study assessing chronic respiratory health effects. One hundred and twenty personal 'total' dust samples were collected from 80 randomly selected workers from eight a priori occupational groups (OGs) based on work areas using a 37 mm Millipore sampler. The between-group, within-group and within-worker variances were determined to assess the contrast in exposure level between the OGs and to estimate the attenuation and standard error of the theoretical exposure-response slope. Using mixed-effect model estimates, the probability of overexposure relative to the occupational exposure limit (OEL) was assessed for each OG. The geometric means of total dust exposure were higher in the cranes (38.64 mg m(-3)), packing (21.30 mg m(-3)) and crusher (13.48 mg m(-3)) than in the cement mill (3.23 mg m(-3)), kiln (2.87 mg m(-3)), raw mill (1.85 mg m(-3)), maintenance (1.16 mg m(-3)) and administration (0.29 mg m(-3)). The a priori grouping scheme seems to be an efficient scheme because of the high contrast in exposure level between the OGs (0.78) and minimal attenuation of the theoretical exposure-response slope (1.0%). When using the reduced mixed-effect model, the probabilities of overexposure () relative to the OEL of 10 mg m(-3) for total cement dust were higher in the crane (96%), packing (88%) and crusher (73%) than in the cement mill (16%), kiln (14%), raw mill (5%), maintenance (2%) and administration (0.01%).

The ArgumentThe Doctor of Philosophy, a nonmedieval academic figure who spread throughout the globe in the Modern Era, and who emblemized the transformation of academic knowledge into the “pursuit of research,” emerged through a long and tortuous path in the early modern Germanies. The emergence and recognition of the Doctor of Philosophy would be correlative with the nineteenth-century professionalization of the arts and sciences. Throughout the Early Modern Era, the earlier Doctors and older “professional” faculties from the medieval university — Theology, Law, and Medicine — opposed recognition of the Doctor of Philosophy. In Saxony, the forces of “medievalism” were able to block recognition of the Doctor of Philosophy, and they retained the degraded Master of Arts or Philosophy as the highest degree in arts and sciences. Forces of “modernism” prevailed, however, in Austria and Prussia in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. In Austria, the Doctor of Philosophy arrived as a wholly modern figure, the creation of a nice dossier and a civil service examination: the medieval “juridical” persona became a modern “bureaucratic” persona. Between this bureaucratic modernism of the Austrians and corporatist medievalism of the Saxons, the Prussians pursued a via media. Unlike the Saxons, they recognized the Doctor of Philosophy; but unlike the Austrians, they did not completely bureaucratize the candidate's persona. The Prussians demanded from the candidate a “work of research,” a doctoral dissertation, which exhibited the aesthetic qualities of the Romantic artist: originality and personality.

This study aimed to investigate the socio-demographic characteristics of hunters in Burdur province in Türkiye based on the data of the Game Management Information System (AVBIS) being overseen by and under the control of the General Directorate of Nature Conservation and National Parks, the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry of Türkiye. Hunter educational status, and their professional status were determined using the chi-squared test. In the light of the data obtained from a total of 3185 hunters, the group with the primary school level 36.4%, secondary school 10.9%, high school 15.6%, associate 3.1%, undergraduate 8.0%, master's degree 0.8%, doctoral degree graduates 0.1% and the unknown educational status were determined to be 25% (P&lt;0.01). Considering the professional status, it has been determined that the largest share among occupational groups consists of 33.8% of self-employed and 23% of public sector employees, followed by 17.5% of tradesmen and 15.4% of retirees. Occupational groups with the lowest rate 1.7% the private sector, 1.3% students, and 0.3% industrialists with (P&lt;0.01). A comparison of data regarding hunting grounds and the number of game animals hunted was made with Anova-Duncan. It was revealed that for gaming the hunters visited highest catch in the hunting grounds of Burdur province was 45.4% in Kemer (P&lt;0.05). The lowest catch was found in Pamucak with 9.76%. The most hunted animal species in the hunting grounds of Burdur Province were found as 96.45% C. livia (P&lt;0.01) and S. rusticola and G. gallinago species is quite low compared to other animal species. As is evident from this study, socio-demographic profiles of hunters in Burdur province, Türkiye, and in Europe appear to be similar. A significant difference was observed in terms of the number of female hunters. While the average of female hunters in some European countries reached 10,5% there is no female hunter registered in the AVBIS in Türkiye.

BackgroundWith refinements in diagnosis and therapy of gliomas, the importance of survival time as the sole outcome parameter has decreased, and patient-centered outcome parameters have gained interest. Pursuing a profession is an indispensable component of human happiness. The aim of this study was to analyze the professional outcomes besides their neuro-oncological and functional evaluation after surgery for gliomas in eloquent areas.MethodsWe assessed neuro-oncological and functional outcomes of patients with gliomas WHO grades II and III undergoing surgery between 2012 and 2018. All patients underwent routine follow-up and adjuvant treatment. Treatment and survival parameters were collected prospectively. Repercussions of the disease on the patients’ professional status, socio-economic situation, and neurocognitive function were evaluated retrospectively with questionnaires.ResultsWe analyzed data of 58 patients with gliomas (WHO II: 9; III: 49). Median patient age was 35.8 years (range 21–63 years). Awake surgery techniques were applied in 32 patients (55.2%). Gross total and subtotal tumor resections were achieved in 33 (56.9%) and 17 (29.3%) patients, respectively, whereas in 8 patients (13.8%) resection had to remain partial. Most patients (n = 46; 79.3%) received adjuvant treatment. Median follow up was 43.8 months (range 11–82 months). After treatment 41 patients (70.7%) were able to resume a working life. Median time until returning to work was 8.0 months (range 0.2–22.0 months). To be younger than 40 at the time of the surgery was associated with a higher probability to return to work (p < .001). Multivariable regression analysis showed that patient age < 40 years as well as occupational group and self-reported fatigue were factors independently associated with the ability to return to work.ConclusionThe ability to resume professional activities following brain tumor surgery is an important patient-oriented outcome parameter. We found that the majority of patients with gliomas were able to return to work following surgical and adjuvant treatment. Preservation of neurological function is of utmost relevance for individual patients´ quality of life.