Presence Of Consultants Research Articles

Effectiveness of a multidisciplinary facial function clinic.

To analyse the usefulness of a multidisciplinary facial function clinic (FFC). Retrospective case-note review. The FFC was established in July 2006 at the Manchester Royal Eye Hospital with attending consultants from Ophthalmology, Skull-Base Otolaryngology, Plastic Surgery, and Physiotherapy. We retrospectively reviewed the case notes for 59 consecutive patients seen at the FFC from July 2006 to February 2009. We documented demographic data, including distance travelled and average journey time. The 59 patients (mean age 46 years) made a total of 106 clinical visits (mean 1.8). The mean distance travelled by a patient was 31.9 miles with an estimated journey time of 47 min, each way. At presentation the average House-Brackmann grade of facial nerve weakness was IV. Ophthalmologist's advice was needed for 58 (98.3%), otolaryngologist's for 57 (96.6%), plastic surgeon for 49 (83.0%), physiotherapist for 58 (98.3%), and 4 (6.8%) were referred for psychological counselling. In all, 47 (79.7%) of our patients needed input from all four consultants during their visit at the FFC. By combining the presence of several consultants in one clinic, we saved an average of 5.1 visits (325.4 miles; 8 h travel time) for each patient. We and our patients feel our multidisciplinary facial function clinic has been an effective service and has continued to work.

Business Ethics in the South and South East Asia

This article attempts to understand the state of teaching, training and research in business ethics in the South and South East Asian region. The countries surveyed are Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, India, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam. The diversity across countries in the region is high in terms of economic development, political structuring and human development. The degree of privatization and globalization is varied across countries since each of them is in a different phase of transition. In an earlier survey on Business Ethics, published in 1997, India was the only country from this region that was represented. In the current survey, 12 countries from the South and South East Asia are represented. While Business Ethics in academia is widely present, Corporate Social Responsibility, Governance and Sustainability though relatively new appear to be growing rapidly. Business Ethics courses tend to focus on functional ethics, managerial ethics and implementing codes of ethical conduct. Across the 12 countries, Business Ethics is taught either as an elective or a core course in most institutions. Training emphasis across countries is varied. While training institutions in India appear to be high, the presence of multinational consultants in Thailand, Malaysia, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka is significant. The research focus across countries in the region is weak. The high convergence on the top issues in Business Ethics, across respondents in different countries, is worthy of mention.

For Better or Worse: How Political Consultants Are Changing Elections in the United States

For Better or Worse: How Political Consultants Are Changing Elections in the United States. By David A. Dulio. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2004. 289p. 23.95 paper.This analysis addresses two important developments in American political campaigns: the increase in the presence of political consultants and their effect on campaigns. In pursuing this analysis, David Dulio focuses on the central questions of whether consultants are changing the nature of campaigns and whether their presence has displaced the role of political parties. The analysis draws heavily on a survey conducted in 1999 among 505 political consultants by American University staff.

Wrongdoing by Consultants: An Examination of Employees? Reporting Intentions

Organizations are increasingly embedded with consultants and other non-employees who have the opportunity to engage in wrongdoing. However, research exploring the reporting intentions of employees regarding the discovery of wrongdoing by consultants is scant. It is important to examine reporting intentions in this setting given the enhanced presence of consultants in organizations and the fact that wrongdoing by consultants changes a key characteristic of the wrongdoing. Using an experimental approach, the current paper reports the results of a study examining employees’ reporting intentions subsequent to their discovery of wrongdoing by a consultant. The results of the study indicate that perceptions about the seriousness of a wrongdoing, personal costs and personal responsibility related to reporting a wrongdoing, and moral-equity judgments are significantly associated with reporting intentions for a normal (non-anonymous) reporting channel. Only perceptions of seriousness and personal costs are significantly associated for an anonymous reporting channel. Lastly, while personal costs for the anonymous reporting channel were lower than the normal reporting channel, reporting intentions were similar across the two channels.

Managing, surviving, and thriving with health care consultants

Health care consultants have become commonplace, given the complexities, challenges, and economics of the industry. While outside expertise may be needed and welcomed, the very presence of consultants may pose its own challenges. Surviving in the era of health care consultants requires that nursing leaders clearly identify types of consultants, purposes of the engagement, roles (both the consultants' and their own), and strategies to effectively manage the consultation. External expert consultants are brought in for many reasons, and their credibility is essential. However, no consultant is an expert in everything. When choosing one, look for an established expert in your specific area of interest who can build a custom plan. Avoid generic consultants that continually sell and resell off-the-shelf plans. Table 1 lists some of the major types of health care consultants, and this article describes each specialty in detail.

Democratizing the hospital: deliberative-democratic bioethics.

The increased presence of moral consultants, or bioethicists, within hospitals and clinics in the last two decades has begun to raise questions about their sources of authority and norms of practice. Under pressure from critics in the social sciences, a number of bioethicists have recently raised the ideal of democratic deliberation to defend and reconstruct their place in the medical field. This article sheds light on these developments by placing bioethics in a historical context that shows an early tension between bioethicists as whistle-blowers and bioethicists as incremental reformers of medical practice. This article also develops a conceptual framework for analysis that indicates how such tensions have grown more complicated for contemporary bioethicists because they occupy a fluid and structurally ambiguous role in which there are multiple sources of normative expectations and little guidance for meeting these expectations. The liminality of the role and the overload of expectations have made bioethics vulnerable to methodological criticisms from social scientists. This article concludes that such methodological criticisms cannot address the more systemic problems of liminality and overload. The ideal of democratic deliberation, though imperfect, does address these systemic problems because it shows bioethicists how to gain guidance and share responsibility for moral consultation.

“It was a great system”

This paper examines discursive strategies deployed by individuals to manage the deinstitutionalization of technology during IS development. In particular, the strategy of face‐work is an inevitable response to requirements analysis, because it centers on identifying “problems”. Directly implicated are individuals who work with the legacy system, thus threats to face and place within the organization are inescapable. This research shows that individuals save face by valorizing the past. This face‐work is accomplished through constructing the legacy system as a great system of the past and by confessing to previous transgressive acts with this system that attests to their technological competence. Both strategies are an intricate part of identity negotiations that serve to secure an individuals’ place in the organization. In this study, the presence of expert consultants and researcher gave expression to particular skewed power relations during the interviews. Thus, face‐work is profoundly influenced by the discursive field in which it takes place. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

An evaluation of breastfeeding promotion through peer counseling in Mississippi WIC clinics.

This study evaluates the effectiveness of a peer counseling program at increasing breastfeeding by participants in the Mississippi Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC). Data from the 1989-1993 Pediatric Nutrition Surveillance System were analyzed to compare breastfeeding rates in clinics with and without peer counseling programs. A questionnaire completed by program staff to describe the program in greater detail helped identify characteristics associated with greater success. The incidence of breastfeeding rose from 12.3% to 19.9% in those clinics with peer counseling programs, but only from 9.2% to 10.7% in clinics without a program. Clinics that started a program earlier showed greater changes in breastfeeding incidence. However, the presence of lactation specialists or consultants in the clinic appeared to be more important than the presence of less-trained peer counselors. Peer counselors who spent more than 45 minutes per participant were more effective than those spending less time. The peer counseling program significantly increased the incidence of breastfeeding, particularly in clinics with lactation specialists and consultants. Success can be enhanced by ensuring that peer counselors spend a great deal of time with the participants.

A Note on Private Farm Management Consulting Services: The Case of Argentina

AbstractThe paper discusses the evolution and perspectives of private farm management consulting in Argentina. In the first part, recent developments in consulting services are presented. Because of its importance, particular emphasis is placed in the evolution of consulting work done in the framework of the CREA (Consorcios Regionales de Experimentación Agricola) association of farm producers. Rough estimates show that: (a) private consulting represents 10‐15% of total manpower devoted to direct farmer advice, and (b) demand for consulting work has grown considerably faster in areas where farms have mixed (crop‐livestock) production systems.The possible incentives for farmers hiring consulting services are summarized. The widespread (in Argentina) opinion that consultants allow higher yields from a given input mix is not fully supported by the empirical data presented in this paper: there is evidence that yield differences found on farms are caused not only by the presence or absence of consultants but also (and perhaps primarily) by differences in land quality. The fact that the average farmer may be (at least on a yield basis) as efficient as the ‘top’ farmers should be further studied, as it has important implications from a policy point of view.

A note on private farm management consulting services: The case of Argentina

The paper discusses the evolution and perspectives of private farm management consulting in Argentina. In the first part, recent developments in consulting services are presented. Because of its importance, particular emphasis is placed in the evolution of consulting work done in the framework of the CREA (Consorcios Regionales de Experimentacíon Agricola) association of farm producers. Rough estimates show that: (a) private consulting represents 10–15% of total manpower devoted to direct farmer advice, and (b) demand for consulting work has grown considerably faster in areas where farms have mixed (crop-livestock) production systems. The possible incentives for farmers hiring consulting services are summarized. The widespread (in Argentina) opinion that consultants allow higher yields from a given input mix is not fully supported by the empirical data presented in this paper: there is evidence that yield differences found on farms are caused not only by the presence or absence of consultants but also (and perhaps primarily) by differences in land quality. The fact that the average farmer may be (at least on a yield basis) as efficient as the ‘top’ farmers should be further studied, as it has important implications from a policy point of view.

The Future — With Consultants

The use of management consultants is an accepted fact in management practice — in all management functions and in all sectors of the economy. Indeed, a great deal of money is spent in the UK on management consultancy each year. Wood estimates that, in 1982, around £170 million was spent on management consultancy. Assignments carried out within the area of personnel management alone accounted for some 15–20 per cent of this total. Yet, the presence of management consultants within organisations is often overlooked. There is scant mention of consultants in the huge array of prescriptive and descriptive literature on management. (One exception within the realms of personnel management is Purcell.) This absence is both interesting and curious. It is curious because so many organisations — both public and private, large and small — use consultants in some form or another. The use of consultants ought, therefore, to be an accepted fact of life in the management of organisations and by those writing about management.

Consultation and evaluation. Psychiatric consultations in medical and surgical outpatient clinics.

This paper describes the experience of providing on-the-spot psychiatric consultations to medical and surgical clinics. Data on the first 100 referred patients are presented, patterns of referral and outcome of the consultations discussed. The following postulates are offered. The presence of psychiatric consultants in the medical and surgical clinics is desirable in the interest of more efficient care of patients with psychiatric disorders, who reportedly comprise at least half of clinic populations. The aim of the consultant in this setting should be to facilitate better management of psychiatric problems by the non-psychiatrists and to prevent, as far as possible, automatic and often belated, referrals to the psychiatric clinic. Proper use of psychiatric consultants should be stressed to the medical students and residents. More attention should be devoted to the improvement of the techniques of psychiatric consultations to increase their still inadequate efficacy. Consultants should be members of an organized pyschiatric consultation service which would ensure their optimum performance. We predict that the future introduction of comprehensive medical care will make such a service an economic necessity in every general hospital.