Different Types Of Professionals Research Articles

Right-sizing interprofessional team training for serious-illness communication: A strength-based approach

ObjectivePalliative care communication skills help tailor care to patients' goals. With a palliative care physician shortage, non-physicians must gain these serious illness communication skills. Historically, trainings have targeted physician-only groups; our goal was to train interprofessional teams. MethodsWorkshops were conducted to teach palliative care communication skills and interprofessional communication. Participants completed surveys which included questions from the Interpersonal Reactivity Index, the Ekman Faces tool, the Consultation and Relational Empathy measure, open-ended questions about empathy, and measures of effective interprofessional practice. ResultsParticipants felt the workshop improved their ability to listen (p < 0.001), understand patients' concerns (p < 0.001), and show compassion (p = 0.008). It increased the perceived value of peer observation (p < 0.001) and ability to reflect (p = 0.02) during complex conversations. Different types of professionals adopted different communication goals, though all affirmed the importance of active listening. Participants felt they improved their ability to work within an interprofessional team. ConclusionsThe course effectively trained 71 clinicians, the majority non-physicians, in serious illness communication and interprofessional team communication skills, and could be reproduced in similar settings. InnovationWe adapted an approach common to physician-only trainings to diverse interprofessional groups, added a team-based component using Applied Improvisation, and demonstrated its effectiveness.

Building Inclusive Dispositions Within Interdisciplinary Training for Teachers of the Deaf and Speech-Language Pathologists

Effective services for students who are deaf or hard of hearing depend on uniquely skilled professionals who coordinate their support. University programs have developed interdisciplinary models, training different types of professionals together to equip them for work settings that are increasingly inclusive and collaborative. These training programs address standards-based knowledge and skills from various disciplines, but may not be as deliberate in addressing the professional dispositions that are foundational to collaborative practice. Particularly when belief systems intersect topics of language use and identity, dispositions can be challenging to teach and are often applied differently across professions. This article provides a narrative description of an interdisciplinary training program that equips teachers of the deaf and speech-language pathologists. Using a “self-reflective cycle” representative of participatory-action research, it considers both missteps and successes within a continuous improvement process, and the integration of interdisciplinary dispositions as a foundational component of training. A framework of “What to Teach,” Why to Teach It,” and “How to Teach It” is provided that can be embedded or adapted for similar interdisciplinary training programs. The identified dispositions are informed by research-based best practices and center on inclusivity.

A model for measuring multi‐concern assurance of critical infrastructure control systems

AbstractDigital transformation of engineering practice, paradigms, processes, and workforce engender agreement uncertainty among professionals, particularly in the critical industry control system field. Control systems are susceptible to cyber‐mediated changes that can uniquely affect the control of the physical world from data‐centric information systems. Change to the system can be introduced by any proposed or forced alteration that affects the acceptability, suitability, feasibility, or resiliency to perform its intended mission, either positively or negatively. The potential impact of the cybersecurity threat on control systems is difficult to quantify. Agreement among professionals about decision authority and Command and Control (C2) over this threat is even more challenging to quantify. Understanding what cybersecurity entails still needs to be widely understood by the critical infrastructure control system workforce, and the control system assets are not widely understood by the Information Technology (IT) workforce. This research introduces a model and methodology for measuring multi‐concern assurance through the statistical uncertainty analysis of Likert semantic differential scales. The model addresses agreement in priority, the lack of which means there might be competing aims, competing spending, and competing focus on different aspects of the cybersecurity governance or policy as examples. The outcome identifies where different types of professionals do not agree about cybersecurity readiness and best practices for critical infrastructure control systems.

Examination of the Licensure Differences of Mental Health Professionals in National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I Athletic Departments

The high rates of depression, anxiety, suicide, and other mental health disorders among collegiate student-athletes have resulted in the need for appropriate mental health services. The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) has released a best practices guide for mental health in college sport that includes licensed psychologists (LP), licensed clinical social workers (LCSW), and licensed professional counselors (LPC) as competent to provide mental health services to student-athletes. However, an examination of the differences between these three licenses is absent from the literature. This essay offers an overview on these differences to clarify the purview of each license as there is confusion surrounding the different types of professionals that can provide mental health services. A detailed description of what is means to hold an LP, LCSW, and LPC distinction is provided, followed by a discussion of the difference between mental health licensure and certification as a certified mental performance consultant (CMPC). This will assist administrators, athletic administrators, and student-athletes in making informed decisions about mental health care.

Choosing a coach: the influence of age, gender and experience in shaping preferences for business coaches

ABSTRACT The present study examined people’s preference for an executive coach. A sample of 504 participants completed a questionnaire in which they were asked to rate eight potential coaches stratified by sex (male vs. female), age (under 40 vs. over 50 years), as a proxy for experience, and background experience (business vs. psychology). There was a significant main effect of gender, with female coaches being preferred over male coaches; effect of experience, with less experienced coaches being preferred over those with more experience; and background, with those from a business background being preferred over those with a psychology background. There were more important interaction effects, particularly around the sex of the coach. These results are discussed in relation to the extant literature on preferences for different types of professionals. Implications and limitations are noted.

Professionals´ readiness for change to knowledge-based palliative care at nursing homes: a qualitative follow-up study after an educational intervention

BackgroundThere has been a global increase in the number of people who are dying of old age. This development implies a need for good palliative care among older persons at the end of life. Here nursing homes have an important role to play. However, the principles of palliative care have not been sufficiently applied in nursing homes, and there is a need to increase the implementation of palliative care in these settings. Therefore the project named Implementation of Knowledge-Based Palliative Care in Nursing Homes (the KUPA project, to use its Swedish acronym) was started as a contribution to filling this knowledge gap. The aim of the present study was to investigate the professionals’ experiences of readiness for change to knowledge-based palliative care at nursing homes after the educational intervention within the KUPA project.MethodsThe focus group method was used to interview 39 health-care professionals with the aid of semistructured questions based on the Organizational Readiness for Change theoretical framework. Six focus groups were formed at six nursing homes in two counties in southern Sweden. The groups included different types of professionals: assistant nurses, nurses, occupational therapists, physiotherapists and social workers. The analysis was conducted with an abductive approach and included deductive and inductive content analysis.ResultsThe analysis revealed one overarching theme: hopeful readiness for change in palliative care despite remaining barriers. The main categories were increased knowledge facilitating development, enhanced team spirit, uncertainty about future plans connected with hopeful readiness and remaining organizational barriers.ConclusionsThis study adds knowledge and understanding concerning professionals’ readiness for change palliative care in nursing homes and shows how ready nursing home settings undertake these changes in practice. The Organizational Readiness for Change theory proved suitable for application in nursing homes to assess the professionals’ experiences and to evaluate educational interventions regardless of the organization’s readiness for change.Trial registrationClinicalTrials NCT02708498, first registration 15/03/2016.

Associations Between School Mental Health Team Membership and Impact on Service Provision.

Schools are the most common venue in which children and youth receive mental health services. To organize delivery of mental health care to such a large number of children, use of school teams is often recommended. Yet, there is limited empirical literature about the composition of school mental health teams or teams’ relations to service provision. This study investigated team composition, including team multidisciplinarity (number of different types of professionals) and the presence of a community provider, and the relations of these two variables to service provision at Tier 1 (mental health promotion), Tier 2 (early intervention) and Tier 3 (intensive treatment) for 386 schools representing different school sizes, locations, and urbanicity. Results suggested team multidisciplinarity and the presence of a community provider were related to more frequent endorsement of service provision at schools. Practice and research implications are discussed including possible application to hiring decisions and further research with longitudinal data and information on service quality.Supplementary InformationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12310-021-09493-z.

Professional judgement: an institutional logic approach to contractor tender pricing

Competitive tendering is the default procurement route for most types of construction projects in the UK. As a process, it is costly, time-consuming and complicated, involving input from upwards of 200 separate organisations per project. Existing research has mainly focused on identifying discrete factors that influence contractor pricing. While many scholars and professionals treat the level of mark-up as a technical problem, others acknowledge the role of professional judgement. This paper uses the neo-institutional concept of ‘hybrid institutional logics’ and an exploratory study into two projects in one firm to explore the way in which different types of professionals work together to produce a single price. The research documents the existence of two distinct logics: a first-principles cost estimation logic and strategic mark-up logic. These are combined in a highly structured process, with moments of separation, bridging and demarcation. These findings explain how firms purposefully balance multiple cognitive schemas to manage resources and position themselves in the market. The research also offers a novel theoretical approach to the study of multidisciplinary collaboration which can be used to address issues of integration more generally. <em><strong>Practice relevance</strong></em> A study of the ways in which main contractors balance multiple considerations when tendering offers several contributions to practice. First, it identifies how pricing is influenced by socially embedded professional judgements. These include judgements about: (1) the current market price (independent of supplier bids); (2) the firm’s market position and relationship with clients, suppliers and competitors; and (3) firm-level resource management. Second, it identifies several specialised competencies that inform the use of ‘intuition’ in pre-tender pricing and which contribute to ‘realistic’ mark-ups, notably ‘first-principles estimation’ and ‘strategic firm-level mark-up’. Third, it analyses the way in which these are mobilised across the tender preparation process, drawing attention to ways that distinct competencies are combined in bid preparation, in particular, and in everyday work processes, more generally.

Implementation of Acupuncture in Routine Oncology Care: A Comparison of Physicians', Nurses', Physiotherapists' and Acupuncturists' Practice and Beliefs.

It is important to investigate beliefs in acupuncture in professionals because professionals' expectations may affect treatment outcomes. To document the type, number, and education of professionals practicing acupuncture. Further, to compare beliefs about the effectiveness of acupuncture for common cancer related symptoms in the different types of professionals. This cross-sectional study employed a questionnaire on practice and beliefs regarding acupuncture effects for symptoms that commonly occur in patients treated within oncology care settings. The respondents (n = 555) consisted of oncology professionals that is, physicians (n = 133), nurses (n = 172), and physiotherapists (n = 117). Additional respondents consisted of acupuncturists (n = 133), working outside approved health care. Of the respondents, acupuncture was practiced by 4% of the physicians, 6% of the nurses, 58% of the physiotherapists, and 90% of the acupuncturists. The professionals believed acupuncture to be effective for pain (of the physicians, nurses, physiotherapists, and acupuncturists, 94%, 98%, 89%, and 99% respectively believed in the effectiveness), chemotherapy-induced nausea (corresponding figures: 74%, 89%, 89%, and 93%), and vasomotor symptoms (corresponding figures: 71%, 81%, 80%, and 97%). The physicians believed acupuncture to be effective in a mean of 5 symptoms, nurses in 6 symptoms, physiotherapists in 6 symptoms, and acupuncturists in 10 symptoms (P < .001). Since the professionals varied substantially regarding practice, education and beliefs in acupuncture, oncology clinics may consider delivering patient preferred acupuncture according to evidence-informed guidelines rather than on varying preferences among the professionals, since professionals' treatment expectations may modify treatment outcomes.

The role of professional identity in HRM implementation: Evidence from a case study of job redesign

AbstractHow and why do employees from heterogeneous professional and occupational groups respond to the same HR practice differently—job redesign—and what is the implication of this for human resource management (HRM) implementation? Drawing upon a qualitative case study of job redesign in the English health and social care sector, affecting three distinct groups of employees, we highlight the different ways these employees respond to the implementation of job redesign over time. We contribute to a nascent literature discussing employees' role in HRM implementation. We also show that different types of professionals (occupational professionals, paraprofessionals, and organisational professionals) respond to job redesign differently, depending on its impact on their professional identity, which, in turn, affects its implementation.

Exploring frontliners' knowledge, participation and evaluation in the implementation of a pay-for-performance program (PMAQ) in primary health care in Brazil

PurposeThis paper employs implementation theory and the political literature on performance measurement to understand how frontline health workers know, participate and evaluate the Brazilian National Program for Improving Access and Quality of Primary Care (PMAQ, 2nd round).Design/methodology/approachThis paper develops an implementation theory-driven qualitative analysis. The research is developed in the city of Goiania (Brazil): a challenging organizational context in primary care (PHC). Interviews were carried out with 25 frontliners – managers, doctors, nurses and community health workers. Data were thematically and hierarchically analysed according to theoretical concepts such as policy knowledge, policy adherence, forms of accountability, alternative logics, organizational capacity and policy feedback.FindingsResults show the need to foster organizational capacity, knowledge, participation and policy feedback at the frontline. Successful implementation would require those adaptations to counteract policy challenges/failures or the emergence of alternative logics.Research limitations/implicationsThe study was conducted in only one setting, however, our sample includes different types of professionals working in units with different levels of organization capacity, located in distinct HDs, expressing well the implementation of PMAQ/P4P. Qualitative researches need to be developed for further exploring the same/other factors.Social implicationsFindings can be used to improve discussions/planning and design of P4P programs in the city and State of Goias.Originality/valueThe majority of analysis of PMAQ are of a quantitative or results-based nature. This article focuses on politically significant and unanswered questions regarding the implementation of PMAQ.

Formação continuada e prática profissional

Professores e bibliotecários são agentes formadores de indivíduos letrados em informação no contexto escolar e como tal carecem de formação continuada para a ampliação das suas práticas pedagógicas.  Nesse sentido, a Universidade Federal de Goiás oferta o curso de Especialização em Letramento Informacional: educação para informação a fim de minimizar a lacuna na formação desses profissionais. O propósito desta pesquisa consistiu em identificar a ampliação do conceito de letramento informacional bem como ampliação e melhoria das práticas pedagógicas e/ou profissionais dos participantes do curso. Justificou-se por buscar compreender como os diferentes tipos de profissionais aplicam o letramento nas suas práticas profissionais após a conclusão do curso. Apresenta fundamentação teórica em letramento informacional por meio da releitura de autores como Gasque e Campello, que se dedicam à pesquisa nessa área do conhecimento. Para tanto, a pesquisa foi realizada a partir de análise documental sobre o curso e aplicação de questionário aos alunos concluintes. Desse modo, os resultados indicam que houve ampliação nas práticas pedagógicas da grande maioria dos participantes, principalmente no que se refere a práticas de pesquisa. O que permite concluir que o curso é uma proposta promissora para a formação de profissionais, principalmente na área da educação, com competências informacionais que os tornam capazes de formar indivíduos letrados.

What works for mental health problems in youth? Survey of real-world experiences of treatments and side effects.

Despite youth being the most common age group for onset of mental disorders, there is less knowledge on the benefits and harms of treatments in young people. In addition, efficacy data from randomized controlled trials may not generalize to how treatment works outside of research settings. This study aimed to investigate young people's perceived effectiveness of different treatments for mental health problems, the professionals who delivered these, and the experience of negative effects. We developed a consumer report website where young people who were ever diagnosed with a mental disorder provided ratings on the helpfulness or harmfulness of different types of professionals, mental health treatments (medical, psychological complementary/alternative) and self-help strategies, and whether they had experienced particular negative effects. Here, 557 young people aged 12-25 years, who were recruited from English-speaking, high-income countries, provided 1258 ratings of treatments. All treatments showed varied perceptions of effectiveness. Medical and psychological treatments were rated moderately helpful on average with low rates of harmfulness. Self-help strategies were rated as being as helpful as professional treatments. Side effects related to the head or mind (e.g., concentration difficulties, inability to feel emotions, depression and irritability) were the most common across all types of medicines. For psychological treatments, treatment being too expensive and feeling worse at the end of a session were the most commonly reported negative effects. Study findings may be a useful guide to clinicians, researchers, young people and their families about what is likely to work in real-world settings.

Tuatara

Since the era dominated by industrial production to the knowledge-based society, the traditional way of choosing leaders has been to change the development of non-traditional leadership skills. In addition to the traditional leadership virtues, taking into account the previously unconventional skills have become extremely important in selecting leaders in a modern army. Future challenges can only be tackled by adaptive organizations in which individuals have to make much more autonomous decisions, to adapt to the ever-changing environment that management needs to take into account and support.  The generals of the future have to form a strategy in a complex environment, they have to learn how to apply a comprehensive approach, when they have to cooperate with different types of professionals and participants in the possession of visionary, operative and bridge building skills – and this is not easy because different roles require different waysof thinking.&#x0D; In history, we find examples of such leaders, which in our time are becoming alive, because if organizations are not ready to find rapid answers to the challenges, if their decision-making processes are overwhelmed, no hopeful success is expected. Deeply embedded, centralized command and control in the armed forces is not an appropriate response to extremely complex asymmetric situations, especially when facing critical challenges that require immediate decisions.&#x0D; Leadership is not the same as power. Non-traditional leaders need to have followers, associates who support their idea and achieve a degree of freedom. A good example of acquiring the necessary learning and adaptation skills in this worldis the convincing example of the success of tuatara, a real living fossil, of evolutionary survival.

Changed Roles and Strategies of Professionals in the (co)Production of Public Services

This paper investigates the changed roles and strategies of professionals in a context of hybrid welfare state reform. This context exposes public professionals to market regulation and rationalization (new public management), and simultaneously expects them to work across professional borders to co-produce public services together with their clients, colleagues and other stakeholders (new public governance). Adopting a comparative perspective, we studied different types of professionals for their views on the implications of this reform mix on their work. Hence, we investigate ‘strategy’ at the macro level of public sector reform and at the micro level of professionals’ responses. The study is based on literature and policy documents, participatory observations and especially (group) interviews with professionals across Dutch hospitals, secondary schools and local agencies for welfare, care or housing. We found that professionals across these sectors, despite their different backgrounds and status, meet highly similar challenges and tensions related to welfare state reform. Moreover, we show that these professionals are not simply passive ‘victims’ of the hybrid context of professionalism, but develop own coping strategies to deal with tensions between different reform principles. The study contributes to understanding new professional roles and coping strategies in welfare state reform, in a context of changing relationships between professions and society.

Cultura de Gerenciamento de Projetos - Percepção dos Profissionais de Sistemas de Informação

Project management culture is a key element of an IS management model. In this context, this research aims to analyze the relationship between the characteristics of IS professionals and project management culture. To achieve this goal, we carried out a literature review on project management culture and on IS professionals. This research used a survey applied to 256 professionals and through the application of statistical techniques concluded that: the culture focused on client and company's goals was the most perceived by the professionals, as opposed to the culture of innovation that was the least perceived. In addition, different types of professionals had different perceptions regarding project management culture.

Information Seeking When Problem Solving: Perspectives of Public Health Professionals.

Given the many different types of professionals working in public health and their diverse roles, it is likely that their information needs, information-seeking behaviors, and problem-solving abilities differ. Although public health professionals often work in interdisciplinary teams, few studies have explored their information needs and behaviors within the context of teamwork. This study explored the relationship between Canadian public health professionals' perceptions of their problem-solving abilities and their information-seeking behaviors with a specific focus on the use of evidence in practice settings. It also explored their perceptions of collaborative information seeking and the work contexts in which they sought information. Key Canadian contacts at public health organizations helped recruit study participants through their list-servs. An electronic survey was used to gather data about (a) individual information-seeking behaviors, (b) collaborative information-seeking behaviors, (c) use of evidence in practice environments, (d) perceived problem-solving abilities, and (e) demographic characteristics. Fifty-eight public health professionals were recruited, with different roles and representing most Canadian provinces and one territory. A significant relationship was found between perceived problem-solving abilities and collaborative information-seeking behavior (r = -.44, p < .00, N = 58), but not individual information seeking. The results suggested that when public health professionals take a shared, active approach to problem solving, maintain personal control, and have confidence, they are more likely collaborate with others in seeking information to complete a work task. Administrators of public health organizations should promote collaboration by implementing effective communication and information-seeking strategies, and by providing information resources and retrieval tools. Public health professionals' perceived problem-solving abilities can influence how they collaborate in seeking information. Educators in public health organizations should tailor training in information searching to promote collaboration through collaborative technology systems.

Professional care providers in dementia care in eight European countries; their training and involvement in early dementia stage and in home care.

Knowledge concerning professionals involved in dementia care throughout its trajectory is sparse; the focus has mainly been on nursing-home care and less on home care, diagnosis and treatment of the disease and its complications despite the fact that home care is the most prominent type of care. The aim of this study was to explore and describe professional care providers involved in dementia care and their educational level applying the International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED) and further to investigate practice in the RightTimePlaceCare-countries with regard to screening, diagnostic procedures and treatment of dementia and home care. The findings demonstrate more similarities than differences in terms of type of professionals involved among the countries although untrained staff were more common in some countries. Findings also show that many types of professionals are involved, who to turn to may not be clear, for instance in terms of medical specialities and it may be unclear who bears the ultimate responsibility. The professionals involved in diagnosis, treatment and care are educated to bachelor's level or above whilst everyday care is provided by people trained at a lower ISCED level or with no formal training. Registered nurses as well as occupational therapists have bachelor's degrees in most countries, but not in Germany or Estonia. Professionals specifically trained in dementia care are not so common. Further research is needed to reveal not only who provides the diagnostics and treatment, but also how home care is organised and quality assured. Many different types of professionals serve as providers along the trajectory of the disease which may be difficult for the patient and the informal caregiver to cope with.

Professional service supply chains

Professional service (PS) exchanges are seldom narrowly bounded in time and space. This conceptual paper discusses prolonged PS sequences involving different professionals and different types of professionals. It is framed by the dual concepts of service episodes, representing the client's perspective and experience, and PS supply chains, that is, organized sequences of professional, clerical, and technical services explicitly set up to provide specific results, such as producing a financial product, designing a house, or replacing a hip. Four illustrative, empirically inspired situations are used to characterize episodes and supply chains. Each exemplar, two each from the health and social work sectors, is real and draws on publicly available data. The richness of the public information is a reflection of the fact that each is some form of failure or “disaster” (Altay and Ramirez, 2010). This dual conceptualization leads to a holistic perspective obtained by using the complex adaptive systems framework (Dooley and Van de ven, 1999, Levin, 1998) as a lens. The paper concludes with a discussion of the dynamics of such service systems and some proposals for a research agenda.

Developing Australia’s Highway Safety Professionals: What Can the United States Learn?

Highway safety is a complex issue that requires the combined skills of many different types of professionals, including engineers, public administrators, first responders, and public health officials. Although the United States and Australia are culturally similar countries with high levels of motor vehicle use, for historical reasons Australia has typically reached road safety milestones earlier than the United States has. Although a few American universities offer classes on road safety, current U.S. offerings predominantly consist of professional development short courses (often with a programmatic focus). In addition to professional development courses, some undergraduate and postgraduate courses in Australian universities offer electives on the principles of road safety engineering and methods for influencing road user behavior. This coursework can be viewed as part of a wider effort to implement scientifically validated methods and the safe system approach recommended by the International Transport Forum of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Deeper integration of highway safety principles into the undergraduate curriculum could assist both countries’ students in developing the leadership skills necessary to achieve higher levels of safety performance.