Staff Assignment Research Articles

Obstacles to Research and Publication in Zimbabwean Higher Education Institutions: A Case Study of the Research and Intellectual Expo

The study was aimed at exploring the quantum and quality of research in higher education institutions (HEIs) in light of the stringent requirements for staff appointment, tenure and promotion. The case study method which falls within the qualitative research paradigm was employed. Documentary analysis was used to determine the trends in the number of articles submitted to the Research and Intellectual Expo (RIE) and those that are eventually published in the Journal of Zimbabwe studies from 2011 to 2014. In addition, interviews with 111 respondents (25 peer reviewers, 11 members of the Journal’s editorial staff, 45 academics, 10 Research Directors and 20 members of the organising Committee) were performed for purposes of obtaining explanations and justifications for the trends obtained from the case study. Results indicate that although the number of articles submitted to the RIE had increased over the years (from 218 in 2011 to 498 in 2014), there are serious deficiencies in research and writing skills among academics in HEIs. However, variations in publication rates exist depending on academic field with those in the science-related disciplines producing better quality research articles than those in education, arts, humanities and social sciences. The major reasons for rejection of papers were poor research and writing skills as well as plagiarism. New forms of academic dishonesty namely: ‘ghost’ researches and unjustified multiple authorship were unearthed. The major challenge faced by the academics in conducting research was the pressure to publish in an environment characterised by high teaching loads and inadequate resources. The paper recommends collaboration by key stakeholders in imparting research and academic writing skills to and academics.

AN EDUCATIONAL CLIMATE FOR INNOVATION AT THE U.S. ARMY WAR COLLEGE

AN EDUCATIONAL CLIMATE FOR INNOVATION AT THE U.S. ARMY WAR COLLEGE

A classification scheme for integrated staff rostering and scheduling problems

In the last decades job scheduling, staff rostering and staff assignment have received considerable attention, as have combinations of these problems. However, given the wide range of variants of all three basic problems, the number of combinations is immense. In this paper we introduce a new classification scheme for integrated staff rostering and job scheduling problems, extending existing schemes for project and machine scheduling. We provide some elementary reductions and show how problems studied in the literature fit into this new classification scheme. Furthermore, some complexity results are presented.

Efecto del índice enfermera-paciente en la calidad de atención: Estudio realizado en pacientes con enfermedades crónicodegenerativas en el Servicio de Medicina Interna

Los indicadores para determinar el número de personal de enfermería necesario deben responder a la demanda epidemiológica que caracteriza a nuestro país, dominada por enfermedades crónico-degenerativas que requieren un cuidado complejo que garantice la calidad de atención en salud y reduzca el riesgo de lesiones, maximizando la salud de los pacientes. La demanda de atención exige a las instituciones realizar la asignación del personal sin considerar la gravedad de la enfermedad, lo que puede alterar la calidad de atención. El objetivo de este trabajo fue evaluar, en un hospital de segundo nivel, la calidad de atención brindada a los pacientes con enfermedades crónico-degenerativas en relación al índice enfermera-paciente en medicina interna de atención. La metodología utilizada fue cuantitativa, longitudinal, prospectiva, no experimental, analítica y correlacional, en 47 pacientes por muestra probabilística. Por día se registró el índice real enfermera-paciente, se aplicó una cédula para valorar el estado integral del paciente a su ingreso y egreso, así como los cuidados de enfermería, utilizando los indicadores de calidad. El análisis se realizó con el Programa SPSS v20.0, e interpretación correlacional de Pearson y Spearman. Resultados: No se encontró ninguna asociación significativa (Rho Spearman = 0.00) entre la calidad de atención y los pacientes recibidos en el servicio, ni entre la calidad de atención y el personal promedio que labora en el Servicio de Medicina Interna. Conclusiones: Los indicadores establecidos por la Comisión Interinstitucional de Enfermería están basados en datos epidemiológicos de 1997, los cuales no responden al estándar de cuidado actualmente requerido.

The Commission on Faith and Order and the Second Vatican Council

The Commission on Faith and Order and the Second Vatican Council

Polio outbreak among nomads in Chad: outbreak response and lessons learned.

In response to the 2011 and 2012 polio epidemic in Chad, Chad's Ministry of Public Health, with support from Global Polio Eradication Initiative partners, took steps to increase vaccination coverage of nomadic children with targeted polio campaigns. This article describes the strategies we used to vaccinate nomads in 3 districts of Chad. Our targeted interventions involved using mobile vaccination teams, recruiting local nomads to identify settlements, using social mobilization, and offering vaccinations to children, women, and animals. Vaccination coverage of nomadic children 0-59 months of age increased, particularly among those never before vaccinated against polio. These increases occurred mostly in the intervention districts of Dourbali, from 2956 to 8164 vaccinated children, and Kyabe, from 7319 to 15 868. The number of first-time vaccinated nomadic children also increased the most in these districts, from 60 to 131 in Dourbali and from 1302 to 2973 in Kyabe. Coverage in the Massaguet district was only 37.7%. Our success was probably due to (1) appointment of staff to oversee implementation, (2) engagement of the national government and its partners, (3) participation of nomadic community leaders, (4) intersectoral collaboration between human and animal health services, and (5) flexibility and capacity of vaccinators to vaccinate when and where nomads were available.

Multi-objective homecare worker scheduling: A fuzzy simulated evolution algorithm approach

As the need for improved homecare services continues to rise in every society, homecare service providers need to develop efficient staff scheduling methods. Homecare services are aimed at providing medical, paramedical, and social aid to patients at their own homes, leading to reduced hospitalization and healthcare operations costs in the medium to long term. However, the home healthcare worker scheduling problem is a complex one since it combines the hard vehicle routing and the staff assignment problems. As such, the purpose of this research is to present a fuzzy simulated evolution algorithm, based on fuzzy evaluation techniques, to address the homecare worker scheduling problem in a home care environment. The main objective is to decide on (i) which patients to assign to each worker, and (ii) the best route or trip for each care giver to execute the healthcare tasks so as to satisfy the patient's preferences in the time window during which the care giver should visit and offer the requested healthcare service. Computational results on illustrative experiments show that the proposed algorithm is a promising decision support tool.

Influence of provider type (nurse anesthetist or resident physician), staff assignments, and other covariates on daily evaluations of anesthesiologists' quality of supervision.

At many U.S. healthcare facilities, supervision of anesthesiology residents and/or Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists (CRNAs) is a major daily responsibility of anesthesiologists. Our department implemented a daily process by which the supervision provided by each anesthesiologist working in operating rooms was evaluated by the anesthesiology resident(s) and CRNA(s) with whom they worked the previous day. Requests for evaluation were sent daily via e-mail to each resident and CRNA after working in an operating room. Supervision scores were analyzed after 6 months, and aligned with the cases' American Society of Anesthesiologists Relative Value Guide units. (1) Mean monthly evaluation completion rates exceeded 85% (residents P = 0.0001, CRNAs P = 0.0005). (2) Pairwise by anesthesiologist, residents and CRNAs mean supervision scores were correlated (P < 0.0001), but residents assigned greater scores than did CRNAs (P < 0.0001). The pairwise differences between residents and CRNAs were heterogeneous among anesthesiologists (P < 0.0001). (3) Anesthesiologist supervision scores provided by residents were: (a) greater when a resident had more units of work that day with the rated anesthesiologist (P < 0.0001), and (b) less when the anesthesiologist had more units of work that same day with other providers (P < 0.0001). However, the relationships were unimportantly small, Kendall τb = +0.083 ± 0.014 (SE) and τb = -0.057 ± 0.014, respectively. The correlations were even less among the CRNAs, τb = -0.029 ± 0.013 and τb = -0.004 ± 0.012, respectively. (4) There also was unimportantly small association between a resident's or CRNA's mean score for an anesthesiologist and the number of days worked together (τb = -0.069 ± 0.023 and τb = +0.038 ± 0.020, respectively). Although the attributes that residents and CRNA perceive as constituting "supervision" significantly share commonalities, supervision scores should be analyzed separately for residents and CRNAs. Although mean supervision scores differ markedly among anesthesiologists, supervision scores are influenced negligibly by staff assignments (e.g., how busy the anesthesiologist is with other operating rooms).

Educational triage in open distance learning: Walking a moral tightrope

&lt;p&gt;Higher education, and more specifically, distance education, is in the midst of a rapidly changing environment. Higher education institutions increasingly rely on the harvesting and analyses of student data to inform key strategic decisions across a wide range of issues, including marketing, enrolment, curriculum development, the appointment of staff, and student assessment. In the light of persistent concerns regarding student success and retention in distance education contexts, the harvesting and analysis of student data in particular in the emerging field of learning analytics holds much promise. As such the notion of educational triage needs to be interrogated. Educational triage is defined as balancing between the futility or impact of the intervention juxtaposed with the number of students requiring care, the scope of care required, and the resources available for care/interventions.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The central question posed by this article is “how do we make moral decisions when resources are (increasingly) limited?” An attempt is made to address this by discussing the use of data to support decisions regarding student support and examining the concept of educational triage. Despite the increase in examples of institutions implementing a triage based approach to student support, there is a serious lack of supporting conceptual and theoretical development, and, more importantly, to consideration of the moral cost of triage in educational settings.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;This article provides a conceptual framework to realise the potential of educational triage to responsibly and ethically respond to legitimate concerns about the “revolving door” in distance and online learning and the sustainability of higher education, without compromising ‘openness.’ The conceptual framework does not attempt to provide a detailed map, but rather a compass consisting of principles to consider in using learning analytics to classify students according to their perceived risk of failing and the potential of additional support to alleviate this risk.&lt;/p&gt;

Evaluating the Staffing of an Interlibrary Loan Unit: An Exercise in Data-Driven Decision Making and Debunking “Anecdata”

The former Head of Access Services of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga Library reports on the recent attempt to restructure the interlibrary loan unit of the department. Reviewing workflows, data reports, technology use, and staff assignments precipitated staffing changes that allowed the Library to become more efficient and to reallocate librarian time to library areas in need of greater support due to changing workflows across the organization. The greatest challenges proved to be moving beyond unfounded perception (or “anecdata”) when making decisions, determining staff members’ skill strengths and weaknesses, and changing established work habits. Short-term benefits included improved workflows, improved ability to handle absences and student worker scheduling, and reduced staff stress.

South Africa’s Institutions of Higher Learning

As a discipline, “Islamic studies” has attracted serious attention by a number of institutions of higher learning in predominantly nonMuslim societies. While southern Africa’s communities witnessed the inclusion of “Islam” as a subject in the faculties of theology at various regional universities as well as Christian seminaries, Muslim communities have clamored for the appointment of Muslim staff at universities to teach courses on Islam. On the whole, these educational developments bode well for the teaching and studying of Islam regionally, even though the purpose and objectives for doing so differ radically from one institution to the other. This essay first seeks to offer a brief insight into the teaching of “Islam” as a subject in theological/oriental/religious studies programs; it thereafter reflects upon “Islamic studies” as a social science discipline that has been included in the social science and humanities syllabus. It focuses on the BA Honors program to show the themes chosen for these programs and how scholars redesigned and changed these programs to meet modern needs. Apart from using “social change” as its theoretical framework, it also brings en passantinto view the insider/outsider binary that further frames the debates regarding the teaching and studying of Islam at these institutions in southern Africa generally and South Africa in particular.

South Africa’s Institutions of Higher Learning

As a discipline, “Islamic studies” has attracted serious attention by a number of institutions of higher learning in predominantly nonMuslim societies. While southern Africa’s communities witnessed the inclusion of “Islam” as a subject in the faculties of theology at various regional universities as well as Christian seminaries, Muslim communities have clamored for the appointment of Muslim staff at universities to teach courses on Islam. On the whole, these educational developments bode well for the teaching and studying of Islam regionally, even though the purpose and objectives for doing so differ radically from one institution to the other. This essay first seeks to offer a brief insight into the teaching of “Islam” as a subject in theological/oriental/religious studies programs; it thereafter reflects upon “Islamic studies” as a social science discipline that has been included in the social science and humanities syllabus. It focuses on the BA Honors program to show the themes chosen for these programs and how scholars redesigned and changed these programs to meet modern needs. Apart from using “social change” as its theoretical framework, it also brings en passantinto view the insider/outsider binary that further frames the debates regarding the teaching and studying of Islam at these institutions in southern Africa generally and South Africa in particular.

Strategies for net cost reductions with the expanded role and expertise of anesthesiologists in the perioperative surgical home.

The Perioperative Surgical Home is a model adopted by the American Society of Anesthesiologists to increase quality and patient safety and to decrease costs. This Special Article is about the latter topic. Using narrative review, we show that there are two principal opportunities for net cost reduction. One opportunity is to reduce unnecessary interventions that do not have potential to benefit patients (e.g., preoperative laboratory studies in healthy patients undergoing low-risk surgery and use of substantial fresh gas flows with volatile anesthetics). The other opportunity is to optimize staff scheduling, case scheduling, and staff assignment. These two are the same as the principal ways that a positive return on investment can be achieved from use of an anesthesia information management system. Three other opportunities are much less likely to achieve as large (if any) net cost reduction among all patients but may at some hospitals. These are to reduce cancellations, operating room times, and/or hospital postoperative lengths of stay.

Quality of life of residents with dementia in a group-living situation: an approach to creating small, homelike environments in traditional nursing homes in Japan.

Group living is an approach that can create small, homelike environments in traditional nursing homes in Japan. The aim of the present study was to examine quality of life (QOL) of residents with dementia in group-living situations. The group-living group consisted of facilities that formed residential units. Each unit had a common area and stable staff assignments. The control group consisted of facilities that did not form residential units. The quality of life instrument for Japanese elderly with dementia (QLDJ) scale was used to rate QOL by direct care workers of 616 residents with dementia from 173 facilities in the group-living group and 750 residents from 174 facilities in the control group. QOL was based on the following subscales: interacting with surroundings; expressing oneself; and experiencing minimal negative behavior. Multilevel regression analyses demonstrated a significantly greater QOL with respect to interacting with surroundings, expressing oneself, and experiencing minimal negative behavior for residents with dementia in the group-living group compared to the control group, as measured by the QLDJ. The total QLDJ score was also significantly higher for the group-living group. The results suggest improved QOL of residents with dementia under group-living situations. Future studies should examine the effect of group-living on QOL of residents with dementia using a cohort design, following residents longitudinally from admission.

Regulation 17: the way forward to meet requirements

Regulation 17 from the Water Services Act 108 (1997) is currently being implemented for the classification of wastewater treatment facilities and process controllers in South Africa. Green Drop Assessments (an incentive-based programme for wastewater treatment works) place a large focus on Regulation 17 compliance, which replaces Regulation 2834. Over the years, a lack of enforcement of Regulation 2834 has resulted in the incorrect appointment of staff. Many municipalities are therefore struggling to meet the Regulation, which requires appointment of the correct skill level staff to corresponding treatment facilities. The purpose of this paper is to identify the common problems experienced by municipalities, more specifically by the eThekwini Metro Municipality, and to identify possible solutions for closing the gaps. The four key problem areas identified were: imbalanced staff allocation, lack of education amongst staff, lack of experience amongst staff and the need for grandparenting assessments. The solution began with the correct classification of plants and staff, and included education drives and training programmes in addition to staff reallocation methods. These initiatives form part of both a short-term gap-closing strategy and a broader long-term sustainable plan for compliance with Regulation 17, enhanced process control at a plant level and ultimately the acquisition of Greens Drops, as part of the Green Drop Assessments.

Integrated project scheduling and staff assignment with controllable processing times.

This paper addresses a decision problem related to simultaneously scheduling the tasks in a project and assigning the staff to these tasks, taking into account that a task can be performed only by employees with certain skills, and that the length of each task depends on the number of employees assigned. This type of problems usually appears in service companies, where both tasks scheduling and staff assignment are closely related. An integer programming model for the problem is proposed, together with some extensions to cope with different situations. Additionally, the advantages of the controllable processing times approach are compared with the fixed processing times. Due to the complexity of the integrated model, a simple GRASP algorithm is implemented in order to obtain good, approximate solutions in short computation times.

The future hospital – implications for acute care

The future hospital – implications for acute care

From lineages to webs: a history of the Australian Society of Herpetologists

The foundation of the Australian Society of Herpetologists in 1964 occurred at a time of change in Australian herpetology, as university-based herpetological studies began to spread, both within and between institutions, and a new generation of museum researchers was employed. The Society’s foundation can be traced to a single lineage of anuran research at the University of Western Australia, which flowered in the 1950s with the stimulus of new techniques and technology introduced to Australia by John Alexander Moore and then spread to the University of Melbourne and Monash University as former students established new research groups. This stimulus coincided with new zoology staff appointments, particularly of New Zealand herpetologists, at the University of Sydney and the Australian National University, all of whom began to support students working on herpetological topics. The spreading of herpetology across institutions and scientific disciplines necessitated increasing communication, provided by the Society through its newsletters and meetings, and the Society has continued to expand over the half a century of its existence, and in turn encouraged the diversification of Australian herpetological research and the training of new generations of herpetological students.

Obituary

On May 25, 2013, the doors of the Santa Monica Drive-Thru Brain Surgery Center in Santa Monica, CA, closed forever. Its resident neurosurgeon, Dr Harvey Birsner, passed away on that date, and the North American Neuro-ophthalmology Society (NANOS) lost one of its only neurosurgeon members and Fellows. Harvey Birsner was born in San Francisco on February 24, 1941, to Harry Mackler and Helen Nicholson Mackler. He was raised in Bakersfield, CA, and graduated from Bakersfield High School in 1958. In high school, Harvey was voted “least likely to succeed.” Harvey attended Bakersfield Junior College and San Francisco State College. He received his medical degree from the University of California San Francisco in 1965 and started postgraduate neurosurgical training at Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas, TX. Part way through his residency, Harvey received a letter from the United States Government directing him to report for active duty, and he subsequently served 2 years as the Chief of Neurosurgery at Naval Hospital, Philadelphia. While on active duty, Harvey decided that he wanted to do a neuro-ophthalmology fellowship with William Hoyt. Dr Hoyt accepted him with the stipulation that he read Walsh & Hoyt's textbook in its entirety before starting. Harvey did and from 1970 to 1971 he was a neuro-ophthalmology Fellow at UCSF alongside Myles Behrens and Ernesto Rios-Montenegro. Dr Hoyt said that Harvey was the only neurosurgeon in the United States who could identify the retinal nerve fiber layer with an ophthalmoscope. After finishing his neurosurgical training at Parkland Hospital in 1972, Harvey arrived in Antelope Valley (AV), California. He was AV's first neurosurgeon and served on the medical staff of each of the Valley's hospitals. He was elected to various positions including Chief of Surgery and Chief of Medical Staff at AV Hospital. In addition to multiple medical staff appointments, he was a Trustee of the Antelope Valley Healthcare District between the years 1980 and 1996. He served in various capacities including board Chairman. Harvey married Donna Harris in 1974. After Harvey and Donna retired, they moved to Park City, UT, in 1997 to pursue their love of skiing and travel. At last count, Harvey and Donna had visited 83 countries, always in style. While living in Park City, Harvey regularly attended grand rounds in neurosurgery at the University of Utah—and pushed the neurosurgeons to use their ophthalmoscopes and report the results of their patients' visual acuities and fields. Harvey prided himself in being a thinking neurosurgeon. Harvey Birsner had been a fellow of NANOS since 2001. He was recently remembered by the then Chief of Neurosurgery at the University of Utah as “the Utah version of William Hoyt.” We suspect that Harvey was quite proud of that comparison. Dr Hoyt was his mentor and his friend, and Harvey regularly hosted a dinner for him and a few close friends at the annual NANOS meeting. The only stipulation for the guests was that they endure Harvey's barbs, which were effusive but clearly came from his heart. Harvey faced his final illness of cholangiocarcinoma in typical Harvey fashion. He declined chemotherapy after the first dose made him too ill. Instead of chemotherapy, he ordered a case of his favorite wine, dined and entertained life-long friends, emailed everyone, and then finally passed away with Donna at his side. Harvey was preceded in death by his parents and his adoptive father, Dr J. W. Birsner. In addition to Donna, Harvey is survived by his 2 sisters, Elizabeth and Margaret, his brother, John, who is a practicing physician in AV, and, of course, his neuro-ophthalmology colleagues.Figure

Using HL7 in hospital staff assignments

Hospital staff assignments are the instructions that allocate the hospital staff members to the hospital beds. Currently, hospital administrators make the assignments without accessing the information regarding the occupancy of the hospital beds and the acuity of the patient. As a result, administrators cannot distinguish between occupied and unoccupied beds, and may therefore assign staff to unoccupied beds. This gives rise to uneven and inefficient staff assignments. In this paper, the hospital admission–discharge–transfer (ADT) system is employed both as a data source and an assignment device to create staff assignments. When the patient data is newly added or modified, the ADT system updates the assignment software client with the relevant data. Based on the relevant data, the assignment software client is able to construct staff assignments in a more efficient way.