Institutional Circumstances Research Articles

Midwives’ perception of patient safety culture—A qualitative study

ObjectiveTo explore midwives’ experiences with and perceptions of patient safety culture in the German-speaking countries. Design and settingSemi-structured interviews with midwives were conducted between December 2013 and March 2014, whereby the narrative nature of the questions on patient safety culture provided the space for the interviewed midwives to express their own wishes and thoughts freely. The interviews were recorded and transcribed, and the transcripts were anonymized with respect to personal and institutional names. The analysis of the transcripts was based on the methods of qualitative content analysis with the goal to consider all of the remarks with open coding, following a strictly inductive approach. Data analysis and categorization was performed using the software MAXQDA Release 12.2.1. Participants14 midwives from Austria, Germany and Switzerland. FindingsThe interviewed midwives provided insights into their thoughts and experiences on factors that promote and inhibit patient safety culture as well as superordinate topics related to patient safety culture in general. Their statements were assigned to seven main categories; (i) institutional circumstances, (ii) role of the management, (iii) interprofessional factors, (iv) meetings, (v) education and training, and (vi) psychosocial aspects. Moreover, the majority of statements assigned to these categories additionally related to two overarching core categories, communication and knowledge / skills. Key conclusions and implications for practiceIt appears that patient safety culture is a personal matter for the majority of the participating midwives. However, it seems that at least at some institutions a discrepancy between the perceived importance of patient safety culture and an incomplete implementation into everyday work exists. A natural way of dealing with patient safety culture and an open blame-free discussion of critical incidences rely on the implementation of institutional circumstances that promote education, training as well as intra- and interprofessional exchange and transparent clear responsibilities.

La reincorporación formativa de jóvenes que abandonan tempranamente la educación: relevancia de su trayectoria previa

The lack of education and training resulting from leaving education early might contribute significantly to high rates of unemployment and inactivity among young people. Education is also seen as a decisive means of tackling these problems. Therefore, acquiring knowledge about the conditions in which re-engagement with education occurs after it is prematurely interrupted deserves special attention. The study presented here explores the opinions of students attending a second-chance educational centre in Ceuta (where the aforementioned benchmarks have quite high levels) concerning their life courses prior to returning to education there and the impact they attribute to the centre. Data from in-depth, individual interviews were used to do this. These were performed with 39 unemployed young people at risk of social exclusion aged between 18 and 24 (29 had left school early and 10 had not), as part of a broader case study relating to a centre selected for its relative success and its reputation in Ceuta. The information provided by the participants in the form of stories was subjected to narrative analysis, using two processes: summary biographical tables, which represent relevant events from their lives longside their views of them, and thematic analysis of the information contained in them. In broad terms, results indicate that the life courses the participants follow are shaped by decisions they take from options shaped by personal, institutional, and social circumstances. They are, therefore, something like choice biographies. In this context, early school leaving and re-engagement in training are recurrent, transitory, and reversible, precisely because of the important role played by the people who experience these situations, even if they do so constrained by their institutional and social setting.

Моделі художнього освоєння світу в освітніх практиках країн Сходу та Заходу

The culturological analysis of the content of the basic models of the artistic education in the leading countries of the world, in particular, Japan, China, the USA, Canada, and Germany is done. Considering the object and the purpose of education, we can define the artistic education as the formation of a man’s artistic attitude to the reality. Combining human, epochal, regional, national, professional and individual features its content keeps a historically certain level of humanity. The author emphasises that the formation of a person’s ability to associate with reality is the multidisciplinary process vertically (from perception to artistic transformation) as well as horizontally (from the formation of an artistic attitude to nature — to the formation of the self-attitude). The latter is determined by the specifics of the values in different spheres of reality, which bring some features in the aesthetic familiarization of these spheres of the social life. The author pays attention to the following meanings of the artistic education and upbringing: 1) the provision of the broad opportunities to percept the diversity of contemporary artistic culture in its national identity and to open the world artistic processes; 2) the formation of the need for the creative self-realization of the individual in the sociocultural and artistic life of the society; 3) the upbringing and getting the necessary skills of the professional activities in the field of culture and art. The purposes of the article are to analyse the specific features of the functioning of the arts education system in the leading countries of the world and to highlight the main value concepts of its content. The methodology of the research includes the interdisciplinary approach to the theorizing of the identified issue in the field of cultural studies, philosophy, aesthetics, art studies, and pedagogy. The application of the methods of the comparative analysis, the artistic comparativism has allowed us to characterize the cultural field of the problem. The methods of abstraction and analysis have allowed the author to reveal the similarities and differences in the approaches of the essence of artistic education in the educational practices of the leading countries of the world. The scientific novelty of the work is fact that the analysis of the basic models of the artistic education of the leading countries allows us to state that artistic education opens the new aspects, and parameters. In addition, it is also contributed to the formation of the higher rationality. Therefore, the artistic education is the positive guiding spiritual activity that produces rather positive things and enriches the humankind with new accomplishments, ensures the development of civilization. In the process of the artistic education, the higher spiritual powers of the person find their place and develop his/her ability, mind, will, moderation, elegance, ethics, tolerance, and integrity. Finally, we can define the process of the artistic education and upbringing as the impact on the human development, which is determined by the combination of the institutional and non-institutional circumstances. They are the different spheres of the culture of the society, which involve each new generation in certain activities, defining its general conditions, character and content. Thanks to them it assimilates the public experience, produces certain views, ideals, etc.

Prairie Prosperity: An Economic Guide for the State of North Dakota

In this report, we examine the history of North Dakota’s state finances and explore the policies that led to the current environment. We evaluate the institutional settings and circumstances that caused North Dakota to move from being revered for its financial solvency to enacting massive spending cuts during the 2017 legislative session. We then turn to policy proposals that address state fiscal challenges and put North Dakota on a pathway to prosperity.

Re-mediating knowledge infrastructures: a site for innovation in teacher education

ABSTRACTThe article outlines a framework for studying and organizing infrastructure, social and material to advance consequential knowledge. To demonstrate the utility of the framework, three examples of innovation in teacher education are presented that involve re-mediating infrastructure to imagine equity-oriented teacher learning. The first case focuses on re-mediating social resources to create new pathways for knowledge and expertise to flow between a school and a university teacher education programme. The second case considers how re-mediating social and material resources, specifically who is involved in designing the goals of a teacher education programme, expanded conceptions of the valued outcomes of teacher preparation. The third case addresses the impact of an innovation that re-mediated technical and social resources to support teachers’ professional judgment in classroom interactions. As teacher educators, we need to be open to shifting our purposes and our designs in response to changing institutional, political, and practical circumstances. This framework for organizing and re-mediating infrastructure provides a means of doing this work in principled and responsible ways.

Informal use of restraint in nursing homes: A threat to human rights or necessary care to preserve residents’ dignity?

Use of restraint in nursing homes is highly controversial and fundamentally transgresses human rights and freedom of movement and choice. While different forms of formal restraint use in nursing homes are broadly delineated, the use of informal restraint is less understood. The aim of this article is to identify different kinds of informal restraint, and how staff use informal restraint under which circumstances. This article illuminates informal restraint use based on an ethnographic study in four nursing homes in the Western part of Norway. We have identified five different forms of informal restraint use which are as follows: (1) diversion of residents' attention; (2) white lies; (3) persuasion and interpersonal pressure; (4) offers and finally (5) threats. These different forms of informal restraint are actions by staff against residents' will, limiting residents' freedom of movement and their personal preferences. In addition, we have identified 'grey-zone restraint' which comprises actions by staff towards residents which lie in-between formal and informal restraint. The use of informal restraint can be explained by institutional circumstances such as location, architecture and institutional collectivist constraints in relation to care work. Moreover, and paradoxically, informal restraint can be explained as a consequence of neo-liberal policies with establishment of extended premises for freedom of movement and practices of resident preferences in nursing homes. Informal restraint practices call into question whether these practices are compatible with fundamental human rights and the preservation of residents' dignity.

External Audit Arrangements at Central Banks

This paper takes stock of external audit arrangements at central banks. Its focus is on the annual audit of central bank financial statements, as well as legal and institutional measures that support audit quality and independence. The paper outlines good practices in these areas and provides a summary of actual practices observed based on a review of audited financial statements and central bank legislation. While the audit frameworks for central banks differ depending on their legal and institutional circumstances, central banks’ external audits increasingly follow international standards. Most of them are audited by auditors with international affiliations and embrace modern governance structures that provide for audit oversight. However, the paper also notes that a sizeable number of central banks do not publish the audit results in a timely manner, which leaves room for improvement in transparency practices.

Who benefit from government-led microfinance projects? Evidence from rural China

Drawing from a unique dataset of 2356 Chinese villages, this paper assesses the anti-poverty effect of the largest government-led microfinance project in the developing world. We find that the project can significantly increase the income level in the targeted villages. The main engine of the project lies in the expansion of access to nonfarm activities. We also highlight the importance of institutional circumstance in the effectiveness of the project. Specifically, a more democratized village with less political connection to local governments reaps more benefits from its participation.

Corporate risk management practices and firm value in an emerging market: a mixed methods approach

This paper examines the impact of corporate risk management strategies, namely, (1) financial, (2) operational, and (3) enterprise risk management on firm value in the context of an emerging market, Turkey. We use a unique hand-collected sample of non-financial Turkish companies for the years 2010–2015 and use mixed research methods to gain insights into the complex relationship between risk management and firm value. The quantitative methodology is accompanied by a follow up qualitative study that involves in-depth interviews with selected finance and risk management professionals. Results surprisingly reveal that none of the three risk management strategies increase firm value. We explore how the different institutional circumstances surrounding firms moderate the relationship between risk management and firm value and derive some policy implications for authorities in emerging markets regarding improving disclosures on risk management and corporate governance.

Preparation for Old Age: The Role of Cultural Context and Future Perceptions.

Preparation for age-related changes is a central task in midlife and older age and a determinant of functioning and well-being in later life. If and how people prepare is influenced by societal and institutional circumstances and also by beliefs about aging and the future. We assessed domain-specific preparation for age-related changes in samples from three countries with high population aging but different premises regarding preparation, and analyzed data from N = 1,830 individuals aged 35-85 years from urban regions in Germany, the United States, as well as China (Hong Kong). Preparation was universally low in China, but the amount of differences between countries varied depending on life domain. While we found pronounced differences between all three countries for domains related to public provision (such as health care, work, and finances), East-West differences in preparation emerged for domains regarding social relations and end-of-life concerns. The concreteness of time perspective and future self-views mediated country differences in preparation. Our results speak for the culture-specificity of preparing for old age and we deliver evidence on psychological variables that might explain these differences.

Successfully mobilizing for employee board representation

PurposeThe equal representation of employees on codetermined supervisory boards is one of the distinctive features of the German corporate governance system. This study aims to examine the relevance of the frequent assumption according to which this system is rooted in a typically “German culture”.Design/methodology/approachThis research applies Davis and Thompson’s (1994) mobilization theory as an interpretive grid to historical sources to reveal the determinants of the institutionalization of equal board representation in post-war Germany.FindingsThe present contribution reveals that the supposedly “German tradition” of board representation is a myth. The specific regime of codetermined supervisory boards is instead the outcome of the dramatic political and institutional circumstances of the late 1940s, which saw fierce struggles and the mobilization of various actors ranging from politicians and industrialists to trade unionists.Originality/valueThe German Catholic Church is shown to have played a significant, albeit seldom recognized, role in this search for institutional consensus. It acted as a broad-based “supporting institution”, positively influencing mobilization efforts in favor of board codetermination and ultimately enabling an agreement to be reached.

Mapping library values and student learning outcomes

The teaching efforts at Marriott Library are distributed widely across a variety of groups and a range of subject matter. Teaching styles and pedagogical foci are varied and diverse among the librarians in the building. To increase collaboration and raise teaching standards, Graduate and Undergraduate Services (GUS) formulated Guidelines for teaching librarians by using the University of Utah’s Quality Course Framework (QCF) and Marriott Library’s own Four Core Student Library Learning Outcomes and mapping them to the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education. To facilitate communication and usability, the Guidelines contain an alignment matrix for librarians to follow through the teaching process. The matrix is also intended to open up new opportunities for conversation and collaboration between librarians and academic staff to better serve student needs.
 The purpose of this report is to document and reflect upon the collaborative work done by teaching librarians at the University of Utah to create the Teaching Guidelines. The process of this work involved the synthesis and alignment of several models of pedagogical structure as well as the overarching interests and goals of a variety of stakeholders and participants in the teaching environment at the University. The product of these efforts includes clear Teaching Guidelines, alignment with the ACRL Framework for Information Literacy, and an alignment matrix designed to provide a clear map of the teaching philosophies and strategies employed at the library.
 This report presents the process of creating and implementing the Guidelines and outlines the background of the process, including those institutional, situational, and environmental circumstances which shaped the general course of its development. The report includes an analysis of the pedagogical characteristics of the Guidelines. The report also presents an example of the Guidelines as used in action when developing the library-related content for an undergraduate-level community learning course known as ‘Learning, Engagement, Achievement and Progress’ (LEAP).

The Authoring of Observational Cinema: Conversations with Colin Young

Based on a series of conversations with Colin Young that have taken place over more than thirty years, this article explores how a certain set of practical and institutional circumstances, in combination with a series of philosophical and aesthetic ideas about the nature of cinema, first led to the emergence over the late 1960s and early 1970s of the approach to ethnographic filmmaking that would become known as “Observational Cinema.” Although it was those whom Colin Young trained, inspired or simply influenced who worked out the practical filmmaking applications of his ideas, it was he who initially formulated the foundational concepts underpinning this approach to ethnographic filmmaking. As such, although he has been a “filmmaker-maker” rather than a filmmaker himself, Colin Young has a rightful claim to be considered, in the sense defined by Roland Barthes, as the original “author” of Observational Cinema.

LA MEMORIA COMO RELATO ABIERTO. RETOS POLÍTICOS DEL TRABAJO DE LOS CENTROS DE MEMORIA Y LAS COMISIONES DE VERDAD

Este artículo parte del reconocimiento de la necesidad del trabajo de un centro de memoria o de una comisión de la verdad, para analizar el reto político que este conlleva, teniendo en cuenta que las circunstancias institucionales que condicionan la producción de un informe final convierten su ejercicio de memoria en relato hegemónico, en tanto se espera de él una contribución para la construcción del marco simbólico del posconflicto. El texto presenta argumentos para mostrar que la existencia de víctimas no integradas en el relato institucional abre la posibilidad de una política de la memoria, como tarea que debe ser contraída por la sociedad, que asuma los desafíos dejados por el trabajo de una comisión de la verdad. El texto concluye que es labor ciudadana la de abrir el espacio de aparición para la acción política de aquellas víctimas no incluidas en el régimen de memoria producido institucionalmente.

Mapping library values and student learning outcomes

The teaching efforts at Marriott Library are distributed widely across a variety of groups and a range of subject matter. Teaching styles and pedagogical foci are varied and diverse among the librarians in the building. To increase collaboration and raise teaching standards, Graduate and Undergraduate Services (GUS) formulated Guidelines for teaching librarians by using the University of Utah’s Quality Course Framework (QCF) and Marriott Library’s own Four Core Student Library Learning Outcomes and mapping them to the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education. To facilitate communication and usability, the Guidelines contain an alignment matrix for librarians to follow through the teaching process. The matrix is also intended to open up new opportunities for conversation and collaboration between librarians and academic staff to better serve student needs. The purpose of this report is to document and reflect upon the collaborative work done by teaching librarians at the University of Utah to create the Teaching Guidelines. The process of this work involved the synthesis and alignment of several models of pedagogical structure as well as the overarching interests and goals of a variety of stakeholders and participants in the teaching environment at the University. The product of these efforts includes clear Teaching Guidelines, alignment with the ACRL Framework for Information Literacy, and an alignment matrix designed to provide a clear map of the teaching philosophies and strategies employed at the library. This report presents the process of creating and implementing the Guidelines and outlines the background of the process, including those institutional, situational, and environmental circumstances which shaped the general course of its development. The report includes an analysis of the pedagogical characteristics of the Guidelines. The report also presents an example of the Guidelines as used in action when developing the library-related content for an undergraduate-level community learning course known as ‘Learning, Engagement, Achievement and Progress’ (LEAP).

Atypia of Undetermined Significance in Thyroid Fine-Needle Aspirations: Follow-Up and Outcome Experience in Newfoundland, Canada

Introduction: The rates of atypia of undetermined significance (AUS) by fine-needle aspiration (FNA) and malignant outcomes have been estimated at < 7% and 5–15%, respectively. Initial AUS diagnosis is followed up clinically with serial ultrasounds, repeat FNA, molecular testing, or direct surgery. We investigated the incidence, follow-up modalities, and final outcomes of AUS in Newfoundland. Methods: All cases of AUS diagnosed at the Eastern Health Cytology Laboratory between 1 January 2010 and 31 December 2013 were identified. Electronic medical records were examined for follow-up modalities and final histologic diagnosis. The final outcomes were reported as benign, malignant, or undetermined. Results: Out of 3,285 thyroid FNAs, 181 (5.5%) were AUS. Fifty-seven (31.5%) had repeat FNA diagnosed as benign (38.6%), AUS (29.8%), or suspicious/malignant (8.8%). Eighty-four (46.4%) had surgery after the first AUS diagnosis, 39 (46.4%) of which were malignant. Twenty-four patients (13.3%) were followed up by serial ultrasound only, 2 (1.1%) by molecular testing, and 1 (0.6%) died of unrelated disease. Thirteen (7.2%) had no follow-up record. Our malignancy rate (MR) was 29.8%. Conclusion: The MR in our population was higher than the rate proposed by The Bethesda System for Reporting Thyroid Cytopathology. Repeat FNA can reduce the rate of unnecessary surgeries, but practice guidelines should consider individual and institutional circumstances. The ratio MR:ADR (AUS diagnostic rate) may be a better indicator of performance.

A Sequential Analysis of the Welfare Effects of Mobile Phones in Africa

The main purpose of this article is to assess the welfare effects of situations in which either mobile phone devices or SIM cards (or both) are not owned by relatively poor inhabitants of African countries. The task is pursued in a sequential analytical framework where effects at different stages of the process influence the welfare impact at later stages. Much of the analysis is conducted in different institutional circumstances from those found in the West (notably sharing and renting). Perhaps the main result of the analysis—backed by ample empirical evidence—is that the fewer are the alternatives to mobile phones as forms of communication (e.g., public transport), the greater tend to be the gains from this technology. In the particular case of leapfrogging, the fewer are fixed-line phones, the more do mobiles yield gains to poor users, whether these be individuals or actual countries. It is thus the context in addition to the technology that determines the differential welfare gains.

External Audit Arrangements at Central Banks

This paper takes stock of external audit arrangements at central banks. Its focus is on the annual audit of central bank financial statements, as well as legal and institutional measures that support audit quality and independence. The paper outlines good practices in these areas and provides a summary of actual practices observed based on a review of audited financial statements and central bank legislation. While the audit frameworks for central banks differ depending on their legal and institutional circumstances, central banks' external audits increasingly follow international standards. Most of them are audited by auditors with international affiliations and embrace modern governance structures that provide for audit oversight. However, the paper also notes that a sizeable number of central banks do not publish the audit results in a timely manner, which leaves room for improvement in transparency practices.

Judicial impartiality in politically charged cases

Abstract This paper examines under which institutional and political circumstances tenured public officials make partisan decisions. It analyzes the decisions of the judges from the French supreme administrative court regarding the validity of controverted mayoral elections between 1958 and 2007 and uses the vote differential between winners and losers in each election as a quasi-natural experiment to assess the judges’ impartiality. It appears that the judges became partisan after 1981, when the far-right Front National party started to gain more votes. Before 1981, judges cancelled elections only when the vote differential between the election winner and the closest challenger was small. Afterwards, the affiliation of the parties’ candidates also mattered as judges seldom cancelled elections won by communist, mainstream left-wing and mainstream right-wing politicians.

Taming the great depression: Keynes’s personal investments in the US stock market, 1931–1939

While the recent literature has shown an increasing interest in Keynes’s investment activity, specific analysis of his own (rather than for King’s College) investments in US securities is still lacking. Keynes began to trade in the US stock market on a regular basis in late 1931, when it was still very hard to tell when full recovery could be expected. In 1930, he had publicly rebutted the view of his business partner Oswald Falk, whose advice to investors was to abandon British manufacture and buy American shares. Until 1933, Keynes’s outlook on the USA remained negative. Only in February 1934 did Keynes become optimistic about the USA on account of his growing confidence in the New Deal, which however was short-lived. In 1937 he was shaken by the US recession and disillusioned by Roosevelt’s fiscal policies and reforms. In this paper we first trace the evolution of Keynes’s opinions on the US economy and his “view” on the US stock market. There are direct references to Wall Street and specific examples relating to its working that are contained, in particular, in Chapter 12 of the General Theory. We then go on to follow the timeline of his investments by sectors, focusing on the companies that Keynes held onto for a longer period, looking for a pattern in his investment behaviour in the US market between 1931 and 1939, before the War changed the personal and institutional circumstances of his investment activity. We offer also a comparison of Keynes’s own portfolio with his investments on behalf of King’s (as reconstructed by Chambers and Kabiri, Bus Hist Rev 90(Summer):301–328, 2016) and conclude with an assessment of the influence of his theoretical approach on his investment activity.