Number Of Staff Members Research Articles

The band count imprecision - a Croatian multicentric pilot study.

Due to high inter-observer variability the 2015 International Council for Standardization in Haematology (ICSH) recommendations state to count band neutrophils as segmented neutrophils in the white blood cell (WBC) differential. However, the inclusion of bands as a separate cell entity within the WBC differential is still widely used in hematology laboratories in Croatia. The aim of this multicentric study was to assess the degree of inter-observer variability in enumerating band neutrophils within the WBC differential among Croatian laboratories. Seven large Croatian hospital laboratories from different parts of the country participated in the study. In each of 7 participating laboratories, one blood smear, that was flagged by the analyzer as possibly having bands, was evaluated by all personnel participating in the analysis of hematology samples. Between-observer manual smear reproducibility was expressed as coefficient of variation (CV) and calculated using the following formula: CV (%) = (standard deviation (SD)/mean value) x 100%. The CVs (%) and relative band neutrophil counts in participating laboratories were as follows: 15.4% (16-24), 19.2% (16-32), 19.5% (17-40), 21.1% (17-44), 35.0% (8-26), 51.9% (3-29), and remarkably high 62.4% (12-59). For segmented neutrophils CVs were lower, ranging from 7.4% to 32.2%. The CVs did not correlate with the number of staff members in each hospital (P = 0.293). This study revealed very high variability in enumerating band neutrophil count in the blood smear differential among all participants, thus prompting a need for action on a national level.

Factors influencing the profit and choice of agribusiness for agricultural cooperatives in Thailand

AbstractMany agricultural cooperatives in Thailand do not conduct agribusiness and face declining profits. Therefore, this study examined the factors influencing their profit and agribusiness choices. The results reveal that operating capital, the presence of a trading business and average payback positively affect profit. In contrast, the number of cooperative members and the number of staff members have a negative effect on profit. In addition, the number of members, the presence of a manager, the presence of a cooperative office and the ability to raise funds have a significant positive impact on the likelihood of conducting trading and compilation businesses.

Landscape architecture education and democracy

The pioneers of landscape architecture invented this profession in a period of democratic, science and industrial revolutions that encouraged civil rights movements. However, before WWII the courses in landscape architecture were developed in only a small number of countries. Until the mid- seventies several new landscape architecture programs started in Western Europe. From the mid-seventies to the end of the eighties existing programs increased their number of staff members and students. The fall of the Iron Curtain, in 1989, resulted in the establishment of several new university degree programs in Eastern Europe. The hypothesis that there would be a correlation between the development of landscape architecture education and the political regimes is discussed in this paper. Different landscape architecture university programs worldwide are analyzed to see their history and the background of the institutions that provide them. Two reputable resources are used to support this analysis: the Democracy Index, and the Freedom House Report. According to this analysis about 88% of landscape architecture programs are offered in democratic countries, 82% are offered in free countries. A good association between the number of landscape architecture programs and democracy index is verified for former communist countries. The analysis showed that the progress of democracy institutions and civil rights create the necessary environment for the development of the landscape architecture profession.

More Nursing Home Staff Linked to More COVID-19 Cases

According to this study: A higher number of nursing home staff members was associated with a higher number of COVID-19 cases, independent of the size of the facility.Decreasing the number of staff members but not the number of direct care hours could help improve patient safety.

Surgical caps displaying team members' names and roles improve effective communication in the operating room: a pilot study

BackgroundTeamwork in the operating theatre is a complex emergent phenomenon and is driven by cooperative relationships between staff. A foundational requirement for teamwork is the ability to communicate effectively, and in particular, knowing each other’s name. Many operating theatre staff do not know each other’s name, even after formal team introductions. The use of theatre caps to display a staff member’s name and role has been suggested to improve communication and teamwork.MethodsWe hypothesized that the implementation of scrub hats with individual team members' names and roles would improve the perceived quality and effectiveness of communication in the operating theatre. A pilot project was designed as a pre-/post-implementation questionnaire sent to 236 operating room staff members at a general hospital in suburban Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, between November 6 to December 18, 2018. Participants included medical practitioners (anaesthetists, surgeons, obstetricians and gynaecologists), nurses (anaesthetic, scrub/scout and paediatric nurses), midwives and theatre technicians. The primary outcome was a change in perceived teamwork score, measured using a five position Likert scale.ResultsOf 236 enrolled participants, 107 (45%) completed both the pre and post intervention surveys. The median perceived teamwork response of four did not change after the intervention, though the number of low scores was reduced (p = 0.015). In a pre-planned subgroup analysis, the median perceived teamwork score rose for midwives from three to four (p < 0.001), while for other craft groups remained similar. The median number of staff members in theatre that a participant did not know the name of reduced from three to two (p < 0.001). Participants reported knowing the names of all staff members present in the theatre more frequently after the intervention (31% vs 15%, p < 0.001). The reported rate of formal team introductions was not significantly different after the intervention (34.7% vs 47.7% p = 0.058).ConclusionsIn this study, we found that wearing caps displaying name and role appeared to improve perceived teamwork and improve communication between staff members working in the operating theatre.

Barriers to Psychosocial Care in Nursing Homes as Reported by Social Services Directors

ABSTRACT This study identifies social services directors’ perceptions of major barriers to psychosocial care and examines the structural factors associated with these barriers. Data were merged from the 2019 National Nursing Home Social Services Directors Survey and CMS’s Nursing Home Compare. A hierarchical linear regression predicts overall barriers. Nine binary logistic regressions predict specific barriers. Common major barriers include “insufficient number of nurse aide staff” (31%), and “having to do things other people could do” (30%). Overall barriers to psychosocial care decreased as directors’ years of experience increased, the number of staff members in social services increased, and less time was spent on short-stay residents. Departments with one staff member (compared to 3+) have a 300% greater likelihood of perceiving a major barrier in social services staffing, pressured discharge of short-stay residents, and residents’ socioemotional needs are treated as less important than medical/nursing needs. Directors had a 59%-239% greater likelihood of perceiving a major barrier across six of the nine barriers when 50% or more of social services staffing is devoted to short-stay residents. To improve psychosocial care, federal guidelines should ensure adequate staffing levels differentiated by resident needs across short- and long-term care.

Correctional oversight bodies’ resources and protections across the European Union: Are their hands tied?

Oversight bodies play a critical role in upholding human rights standards in prison. Several international instruments require states to establish independent forms of prison oversight and to give them the powers they need to conduct their work. Resources are central to the effectiveness and independence of oversight bodies. Of equal importance is the ability of prison oversight bodies to offer protections against reprisals for those who choose to speak to them and for their own staff. In this article, we provide results from the first survey of prison oversight bodies in the European Union and the United Kingdom, focusing on the resources and protections which prison oversight bodies in these states have to enable them to conduct their work. Our results suggest the need to strengthen the financial independence of prison oversight bodies, with slightly less than half of the bodies having their own budget to monitor prisons. Bodies which had their own budgets had a greater number of staff members and a greater variety of professional backgrounds among their members, likely influencing their ability to fulfil their mandate. Our results also point to the need to develop further protection mechanisms against reprisals for those who speak with inspectors as well as for staff from prison oversight bodies.

COVID-19 testing strategy in response to infection among healthcare workers in a large non-COVID-designated hospital

ABSTRACT Sarawak General Hospital, which is the only public access tertiary referral center in Sarawak State for all clinical specialties, was designated a hybrid hospital to treat both COVID-19 and non-COVID-19 patients. During the initial surge of patients admitted with COVID-19, there was also a corresponding increase in health-care workers (HCWs) detected with COVID-19 infection. The latter being isolated, and the large number of staff members that had come into contact with COVID-19 being quarantined from work, placed further strain on the health-care services. The staff mass screening strategy was a policy decision made by the hospital in response to infection among HCWs, and it aimed to reduce in-hospital transmission (particularly among asymptomatic staff), mitigate workforce depletion due to quarantining, and protect the health-care workforce. In this study, we assessed the detection rate of COVID-19 infection from staff mass testing over a five-week period, and described our experience of adopting this surveillance screening strategy alongside ongoing contact tracing and symptomatic screening strategies. Although it was thought that such periodic staff surveillance might be helpful in protecting the health-care workforce within a short period, the long-term implications, especially in settings with limited resources, is significant and therefore explored in this paper. Our findings might provide an evidence-based reference for the future planning of an optimal strategy with the least compromise in care for a larger proportion of non-COVID-19 patients amid efforts against COVID-19 in a large non-COVID-designated hospital with hybrid status.

Specialised wound care clinics in Spain: distribution and characteristics.

To determine the number of specialised wound care units/clinics (SWCUs) in Spain, at present, and to describe their most important characteristics. This was an observational study with a descriptive-analytical, cross-sectional, multicentre approach, where the studied population consisted of SWCUs in Spain. A specific data-collection questionnaire was designed using a modified Delphi method, consisting of four rounds, with the collaboration of 10 wound experts. The final questionnaire included 49 items distributed across four dimensions/areas with a content validity index (CVI-Total for pertinence=0.96 and CVI-Total for relevance=0.94. A total of 42 SWCUs were included in the study. Most SWCUs were based in hospitals (n=15, 35.7%) or healthcare centres, covering a specific healthcare area (n=17, 40.5%). SWCU coordinators were primarily nurses (n=33, 78.6%). Staff members' professions in SWCUs included registered nurses (n=38 units, 92.7%), nursing assistants (n=8 units, 19.5%), podiatrists (n=8 units, 19.5%), vascular surgeons (n=7 units, 17%), osteopaths (n=2 units, 4.8%) and medical doctors from different specialties (n=3 units, 7.2%). For wound aetiology, the most prevalent wounds managed were diabetic foot ulcers (n=38 units, 90.5%), followed by venous leg ulcers (n=36 units, 85.7%) and arterial ischaemic ulcers (n=36 units, 85.7%). A statistically significant association was found between the number of staff members in a SWCU and the existence of resistance/opposition barriers when developing a SWCU (Chi-square test, p=0.049; Cramér's V=0.34; 34%), as well as between resistance/opposition barriers when developing a SWCU and a nurse as coordinator of a SWCU (MacNemar test, p=0.007, Cramér's V=0.35; 35%). The typical SWCU implemented in Spain is located in a hospital or integrated in a healthcare structure that offers coverage to a whole health area and providing services for people with hard-to-heal wounds (wound management and prevention) and health professionals (advice, consultancy and training/education). Despite the growing number of SWCUs in Spain, the future of this new organisational model is uncertain, as there can be barriers to creating them and some deficiencies, such as low staff numbers, which need to be addressed.

Staff your office well, support employees in growth

An appropriate number of staff members — and the right people in the right roles — help your office run smoothly. Members of The Successful Registrar’s Advisory Board participated in a conference call to discuss how they hire the best staff members and promote their careers.

Let's Work Together - Occupational Factors and Their Correlates to Prison Climate and Inmates' Attitudes Towards Treatment.

The role of psychosocial and structural occupational factors in mental health service provision has broadly been researched. However, less is known about the influence of employees’ occupational factors on inmates in correctional treatment settings that mostly seek to apply a milieu-therapeutic approach. Therefore, the present study investigated the relationships between occupational factors (job satisfaction, self-efficacy, and the functionality of the organizational structure) and prison climate, the number of staff members’ sick days as well as inmates’ treatment motivation. Employees (n = 76) of three different correctional treatment units in Berlin, Germany, rated several occupational factors as well as prison climate. At the same time, treatment motivation of n = 232 inmates was assessed. Results showed that higher ratings of prison climate were associated with higher levels of team climate, job satisfaction and the functionality of the organizational structure, but not with self-efficacy and sick days. There was no significant relationship between occupational factors and the perceived safety on the treatment unit. Inmates’ treatment motivation was correlated with all aggregated occupational factors and with average sick days of staff members. Outcomes of this study strongly emphasize the importance of a positive social climate in correctional treatment units for occupational factors of prison staff but also positive treatment outcomes for inmates. Also, in the light of these results, consequences for daily work routine and organizational structure of prisons are discussed.

DETERMINATION OF THE FOREIGN ECONOMIC POTENTIAL OF UKRAINIAN WINE INDUSTRY IN THE WORLD MARKET

Topicality. Ukrainian export strategy for 2017-2021 determines food industry as one of the key elements of the country's foreign economic potential. Despite the secondary importance of wine in meeting the basic human needs, wine industry plays an important role in filling the budget of the country, ensuring the socio-economic development of regions. The wine sector is a perspective direction for the development of Ukrainian economy, an integral part of its foreign economic potential because of favourable natural and climatic conditions and existence of labour and other resources of high quality.Aim and tasks. The purpose of the article is to determine the foreign economic potential of Ukrainian wine industry in the world market. To achieve the goal, following tasks have been set and solved: definition of production potential of Ukrainian wine industry; assessment of consumer potential of Ukrainian wine market; study of trends of export-import activity of market operators (volumes of export, import, foreign trade turnover, balance of export and import operations, geographic structure of export and import).Research results. According to the research results of Ukrainian wine industry in 2014-2018, it is established that the production potential of Ukrainian wine market is decreasing. This can be explained by the decrease in the area of grape plantations in the fructiferous age, the declining dynamics of the index of industrial products, the growth of depreciation, the decrease in the average number of staff members, as well as the decline in consumer market potential (due to a decrease in the number of target consumer segment, in the share of spending on alcoholic beverages and tobacco products, the growth of average consumer prices, the prohibition of the promotion of wine etc.).According to the export-import activity in monetary terms Ukraine is a net importer of grape wines. However, in terms of volume, the volumes of wine exports are dominated by imports. Such contradictions in data in both physical and monetary terms can be explained by the low cost of Ukrainian exports. The average price of 1 litre of exported Ukrainian wine in 2018 is 3.5 times lower than the cost of 1 litre of imported one. The geographic structure of demand for Ukrainian wines varies: the share of CIS countries and Europe is decreasing and the share of Asian countries is increasing. The largest buyers of Ukrainian wine are: Russian Federation, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, and China. The geography of the import of grape wines has the opposite structure: a significant proportion is being taken by the European countries, the smallest – by the “new wine regions”: America, Africa and Australia and Oceania.Conclusion. The analysis of the indicators of functioning of Ukrainian wine industry shows that at present, it can not claim the position of an influential player in the market. There is a significant natural and climatic potential, but there is a number of problems that hinder the development of foreign economic potential. These problems are: problems related to the political and legal environment; problems of production potential; problems of consumer potential; foreign trade problems; retail problems.

Which US and European Higher Education Institutions are visible in ResearchGate and what affects their RG score?

While ResearchGate has become the most popular academic social networking site in terms of regular users, not all institutions have joined and the scores it assigns to academics and institutions are controversial. This paper assesses the presence in ResearchGate of higher education institutions in Europe and the US in 2017, and the extent to which institutional ResearchGate Scores reflect institutional academic impact. Most of the 2258 European and 4355 US higher educational institutions included in the sample had an institutional ResearchGate profile, with near universal coverage for PhD-awarding institutions found in the Web of Science (WoS). For non-PhD awarding institutions that did not publish, size (number of staff members) was most associated with presence in ResearchGate. For PhD-awarding institutions in WoS, presence in RG was strongly related to the number of WoS publications. In conclusion, a) institutional RG scores reflect research volume more than visibility and b) this indicator is highly correlated to the number of WoS publications. Hence, the value of RG Scores for institutional comparisons is limited.

The Lifestyle Habits and Cardiovascular Disease Risk Factor Profiles of Staff Within a Provincial Tertiary Institution in South Africa

BACKGROUND: Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is a rising burden in many parts of the world including South Africa. There is a strong relationship between CVD, type II diabetes and obesity. The CVD risk and health status of employees in tertiary institutions remains of high concern, as limited studies have been conducted in this area.OBJECTIVES: The study objectives were to determine the: CVD risk factor profile; possible risks of other NCDs; and lifestyle habits i.e. physical activity, nutritional/dietary habits, tobacco smoking and alcohol consumption of university employees.METHODS: A cross-sectional design was conducted on academic and non-academic (professional) staff members from the University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Purposive sampling of staff within the School of Health Sciences were selected to participate in this study. The data collection included health/fitness screening questionnaires, selected anthropometric measurements and non-fasting blood tests.RESULTS: Seventy-five staff members with a mean age of 39.71 years old voluntarily participated in this study. A significant number of staff members presented with a moderate CVD risk profile. Body fat percentages were significantly higher for females than for males. In addition waist circumference measures indicated possible risks for Type II diabetes and metabolic syndrome. The overall lifestyle habits were adequate to poor.CONCLUSION: There is an imperative need for workplace health interventions to improve CVD risk profiles and the susceptibility to other NCD’s among staff in tertiary institutions.

School Improvement Grants in Ohio: Effects on Student Achievement and School Administration

The federal School Improvement Grant (SIG) program allocated US$7 billion over nearly a decade in an effort to produce rapid and lasting improvements in schools identified as low performing. In this article, we use a regression discontinuity design to estimate the effect of Ohio’s SIG turnaround efforts on student achievement and school administration. The results indicate that Ohio’s SIG program significantly increased reading and math achievement, with effects in both subjects of up to 0.20 standard deviations in the second year after SIG eligibility identification. Estimates for the third year are somewhat larger, in the range of one quarter of a standard deviation. We provide evidence that these effects were primarily attributable to schools that implemented the SIG Turnaround model. We also show that SIG eligibility had a positive effect on per-pupil spending, but no average effect on administrative outcomes, including staff turnover, the number of staff members in the school, and school closure. These null overall effects mask heterogeneity across SIG models, however. Most notably, Turnaround schools experienced more turnover than they otherwise would have, whereas Transformation schools experienced less.

The Trend of the Bibliographical Output from Libyan Engineering Schools: A 30-Year Review From 1984-2013

In this study, the research output from the major Libyan engineering schools was gathered and compared for the period of thirty years (from 1984 to 2013). The Elsevier database, Science Direct, was used to gather these publications and only engineering articles were included. A comparative analysis was performed on three levels; first a local comparison between the different faculties of engineering across Libya and secondly, a broader comparison between Libya and the neighboring METAL (Morocco, Egypt, Tunisia, Algeria and Libya) countries and finally, the third comparison was performed between Turkey and the METAL countries. In the local comparison, the output was normalized by the number of teaching staff while in the broader regional comparison, gross domestic product and population were used as standardization factors. When analyzing the research output of the Libyan engineering schools, it was observed that most publications came from Tripoli (47.1%, n=131) followed by Benghazi (25.9%, n=72), Misurata (4.1%, n=12) and Omar Al-Mukhtar (4.0%, n=11). However, when the number of staff members was taken into consideration, Benghazi University and Omar Al-Mukhtar University had higher research productivity levels than Tripoli University and Misurata University respectively. The regional comparison showed a clear difference between Libya and its neighbors, having the lowest output among them. Finally, it was found that across the three decades under study, Turkey produced more research than all the METAL countries combined. More attention needs to be paid to research and publications in Libyan engineering schools. A number of recommendations were made to help improve the publication rate in Libyan engineering faculties

Research on the Evaluation of Supporting Ability of “Double-First Class”University Libraries Based on the Principal Component Analysis and Cluster Analysis

Based on the data at the end of 2016 and selecting 12 variables such as building area and paper resource purchase fee, this paper uses principal component analysis and cluster analysis to evaluate the support ability and overall strength of 42 universities and colleges under “double-first class” construction. At last, ranking and classifying the university libraries according to the research results. This study has shown that the number of staff members, the purchase fee of electronic resources, paper resources, literature resources, the number of published paper and the number of paper resources are the main factors affecting the construction of university libraries. The gap in support ability among university libraries in the same region, different provinces and cities, and different types are obvious; the imbalance of libraries' own strength leads to their inefficiency; the strength of university libraries does not match the strength of scientific research. It is recommended that universities and colleges should allocate funds reasonably, increase the investment and attention in libraries, and strengthen exchanges and cooperation between university libraries in and between regions.

Analysis of employability for the civil aviation maintenance graduates of Turkey

PurposeWith every passing day, the center of gravity for air traffic for the Middle East and Turkey is shifting toward becoming a center for airway transport, maintenance, repair, overhaul (MRO) and transfer. The MRO sector is gaining importance because of this increase in Turkey. The purpose of this study is to examine the future employability of the graduates receiving civil aviation maintenance training in Turkey.Design/methodology/approachThe paper uses past seven years’ data about maintenance personnel of Turkey. It includes all-level students, recently working personnel and retired personnel of each year. Regression analysis and Markov analysis were used to show the prediction of aviation maintenance personnel.FindingsThe paper provides quantitative results about employability of maintenance personnel under the real numbers of alumni and working and retired personnel in Turkey. The results show that the number of graduates will be greater than the number of staff members in certifying categories in 2018. Presently, Turkey meets the employment expected, but in the future, aviation maintenance personnel number is rising, and there will be an excess number of graduates left over in Turkey.Research limitations/implicationsBecause of the chosen region, Turkey, the research results may lack generalizability. Therefore, researchers are encouraged to conduct analysis for other countries which have an important role in aviation.Practical implicationsThe paper includes implications for the government maintenance personnel policy and educational policy for managing all types of maintenance personnel in Turkey.Originality/valueThis kind of personnel needs analysis has not been done before, and this is the originality of this paper. It will in turn lead to an analysis of planning for allocation of maintenance staff and alumni. The authors collected all official numbers about maintenance personnel from Turkish Student Selection and Placement Center of Turkey, Turkish Technic and Turkish Civil Aviation Reports.

Пути решения экологических проблем на городском транспорте

To solve the problems of urban transport development, authors proposed the interconnection ways. The first way is consideration of environmental problems besides technical and economic indicators when selecting type of urban transport. In this case, tram with much advantage will be lead. However, the classical track design could not be used in cities for many reasons, namely, all regulatory documentation has constructed and approved for these constructions. Modern tracks designs allow to significantly reduce noise and vibration, to improve dynamic indicators of the rolling stock, however, these constructions don’t have regulatory frameworks. Hence, the second way is the urgent necessity to correct regulatory framework for tracked overland transport. Third moment is the personnel training. Refresher course for faculty staff, in particular, involved in the sphere of personnel training of urban transport and directly staff in this area is a very important direction for big cities. The modules for environmental problems courses have been developing of the EcoBRU project since 2014. The developed modules, disciplines and programs have attracted the interest, and, nowadays, a number of staff members from transport complex and teachers from Emperor Alexander I St. Petersburg State Transport University have finished their studying and have been studying in the system of distance learning «PGUPS-TEMPUS».

Mitarbeiterzufriedenheit im Arbeitszeitmodell: Längsschnittstudie zu Praxistauglichkeit und Gesetzeskonformität in einer chirurgischen Klinik der Maximalversorgung

Background Between the conflicting requirements of clinic organisation, the European Working Time Directive, patient safety, an increasing lack of junior staff, and competitiveness, the development of ideal duty hour models is vital to ensure maximum quality of care within the legal requirements. To achieve this, it is useful to evaluate the actual effects of duty hour models on staff satisfaction. Materials and Methods After the traditional 24-hour duty shift was given up in a surgical maximum care centre in 2007, an 18-hour duty shift was implemented, followed by a 12-hour shift in 2008, to improve handovers and reduce loss of information. The effects on work organisation, quality of life and salary were analysed in an anonymous survey in 2008. The staff survey was repeated in 2014. Results With a response rate of 95% of questionnaires in 2008 and a 93% response rate in 2014, the 12-hour duty model received negative ratings due to its high duty frequency and subsequent social strain. Also the physical strain and chronic tiredness were rated as most severe in the 12-hour rota. The 18-hour duty shift was the model of choice amongst staff. The 24-hour duty model was rated as the best compromise between the requirements of work organisation and staff satisfaction, and therefore this duty model was adapted accordingly in 2015. Conclusion The essential basis of a surgical department is a duty hour model suited to the requirements of work organisation, the Working Time Directive and the needs of the surgical staff. A 12-hour duty model can be ideal for work organisation, but only if augmented with an adequate number of staff members, the implementation of this model is possible without the frequency of 12-hour shifts being too high associated with strain on surgical staff and a perceived deterioration of quality of life. A staff survey should be performed on a regular basis to assess the actual effects of duty hour models and enable further optimisation. The much criticised 24-hour duty model seems to be much better than its reputation, if augmented by additional staff members in the evening hours.