Roundtable Event Research Articles

Emerging Issues and Challenges for Improving Patient Safety in Mental Health

It is only recently that patient safety in mental health was considered a field in its own right, and there is a lack of awareness of the issues and a shortage of readily available information. This research builds on existing knowledge by soliciting the expertise of leaders in the area of patient safety and/or mental health via 2 qualitative methods. Qualitative interviews were held with 19 key informants. Small group discussions were held during a Canadian invitational roundtable event with 72 participants. A thematic qualitative analysis involving a 2-step process was performed: (1) coding each interview, and (2) identifying larger themes. The findings revealed that more work is required to establish clear patient safety definitions, develop awareness, set priorities, and develop strategies for responding to patient safety incidents in mental health settings. Establishing a culture of patient safety and embedding it within all levels of an organization is vital, including adopting a systems level approach to examining patient safety incidents, encouraging open reporting and communication, considering the patient/caregiver perspective, and eliminating discrimination and stigma. Patient safety issues pertaining to community care settings are an urgent issue and require greater understanding. The need to promote national leadership, standardization of practice, ongoing training, information sharing, and additional research also was voiced. The results from this research highlight that greater action is required to improve patient safety in mental health settings. This research has identified several potentially important future directions for improving patient safety in mental health.

WIL[ling] to share: an institutional conversation to guide policy and practice in work‐integrated learning

Teaching in universities can be a solitary pursuit, with academics designing and delivering learning and teaching experiences, and even units, in relative isolation. Even course design can involve only a small, discipline‐specific team that rarely extends to colleagues outside their specialisation. The challenges and possibilities provided by introduction of work integrated learning (WIL) to universities offer an unprecedented opportunity for staff to share knowledge and experience across disciplines to enhance student learning. This paper focuses on an opportunity for such cross‐discipline collaboration on the issues of WIL through a roundtable event at the University of Tasmania. The roundtable allowed staff from across the institution to share successes, challenges and resources and then to make recommendations to address identified issues.

Zoonoses of people and their pets: a US perspective on significant pet-associated parasitic diseases

Michael Paul, DVM is Executive Director, Companion Animal Parasite Council. Lonnie King, DVM is past-Director, National Center for Zoonotic, Vector-Borne, and Enteric Diseases, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and current Professor and Dean of the College of Veterinary Medicine, The Ohio State University. Ellen P. Carlin, DVM is Special Projects Manager and Editor, Companion Animal Parasite Council.The findings and conclusions in this manuscript are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Écouter l’inexprimé, entendre l’inexprimable : l’impact de l’identité sexuelle dans la carrière musicienne des femmes improvisatrices

This paper explores the extent to which one can participate in community without having to sacrifice aspects of one’s identity, through examination of the relation that female musicians in improvising musical ensembles have to their gender identity. I concentrate on the views expressed within a particular interview setting—a roundtable event organized as part of an academic conference on improvisatory communities. This event merits attention because it was organized specifically to discuss the extent to which gender is an obstacle, a topic the invited speakers decided they did not want to address publicly. I look at their resistance to gender identification and pose questions about whether identifying as female—or as feminist—has implications for their ability to succeed in the world of improvised music, and about the extent to which we might see their refusals as fear-based or as principled resistance to a difference that ought not to matter.

Education on malnutrition needed.

Malnutrition is often missed in people with dementia, according to a nurse participant in a major round-table event on nutrition care and support.

Developing graduate managers for hospitality and tourism

Development of managers is key to the future health of hospitality and tourism: sectors increasingly affected by trends in globalisation and pressures on competitiveness. Reporting on a round table event, driving forces affecting the development of the sectors are identified; major stakeholder views are offered and the ensuing discussion of graduate profiles was organised into three main scenarios: professional developers, portfolio strategists and pragmatic mavericks. The scenarios identify varying approaches for graduates, higher education institutions and employers. One outcome of the analysis is to note high levels of interdependency between these stakeholders in ensuring any desired outcomes and argues for long‐term, strategic co‐operation.