The incidence of metabolic risk factors in an inpatient psychiatric setting

Our study examines risk factors for metabolic syndrome on admission to an acute psychiatric facility and the incidence of medical referrals at discharge. Data on demographics, risk factors for metabolic syndrome, other health risk factors, medications, related diagnoses, and primary care providers and referrals were collected from 125 psychiatric patient charts. Comparison analysis was done for two groups: those with two or more risk factors for metabolic syndrome and those with less than two risk factors. Differences between groups were statistically significant for age, waist circumference, body mass index, high-density lipoprotein, triglycerides, and fasting glucose levels. Few patients were referred to their primary care provider for follow-up care. This study has clinical implications for improving assessment of psychiatric patients at risk for developing metabolic syndrome, for designing interventions to help patients adopt lifestyle changes to mitigate these risks, and for working toward fuller integration of psychiatric and primary care.     

Influence of door handles design in effort perception: accessibility and usability

The application of ergonomics in product design is essential to its accessibility and usability. The development of manual devices should be based on ergonomic principles. Effort perception analysis is an essential approach to understand the physical and subjective aspects of the interface. The objective of the present study was to analyze the effort perception during a simulated task with different door handles by Portuguese subjects of both genders and different ages. This transversal study agreed with ethical aspects. 180 subjects of both genders pertaining to three age groups have participated. Five door handles with different shapes were evaluated. A subjective numeric rating scale of 5 levels was used to evaluate the effort. For statistical analysis it was applied the Friedman non-parametric test. The results have showed no significant differences of effort perception in door handles "A" and "B"; "A" and "D"; and "D" and "C". Door handle "E" presented the lowest values of all. In general, there's an inverse relationship between the results of biomechanical studies and the effort perception of the same task activity. This shows that door handles design influence directly these two variables and can interfere in the accessibility and usability of these kinds of products.     

Ergonomics and the inclusion of people with disabilities in a Brazilian workplace

The customization of a secretary workstation at a drama school was the objective of this case study. The investigation involved a 25-year-old illiterate woman with intellectual disabilities and low vision that had been been attending, for over 12 years, a state school for people with disabilities. The customization process, operationalized after a diagnosis was made, focused on environmental rearrangements, with the purpose of meeting the physical and social demands of the workstation. The results of this research are configured in an ergonomic analysis of work associated with an inventory of social skills, applied to people living directly with the participant. Preliminary evaluations indicated the degree of adjustment of labor demands to the personal characteristics of the participant in the customized job.     

Expanding the Role of Long-Term Care Social Workers: Assessment and Intervention Related to Urinary Incontinence

Urinary incontinence (UI) is a common and stigmatizing problem faced by long-term care (LTC) residents. It is typically addressed by medical professionals, with social work rarely involved. The purpose of this article is to illustrate how social workers can address the psychosocial implications of UI while working with residents and their family members as part of an interdisciplinary team. Using a case example and the NASW objectives for LTC, recommendations on how the role of the LTC social workers can be expanded to better address both the needs of residents, families, and the larger LTC system are provided.     

Participatory Organizational Research: Examining Voice in the Co‐production of Knowledge

This paper advances participatory methods in management research. We propose the term participatory organizational research to describe this adjunct to action research. We illustrate the potential of the method to allow sometimes unheard organizational members to generate alternative perspectives that can offer the potential for the co‐production of new forms of knowledge that are locally relevant. Participatory methods originate from work with marginalized groups and have been used more commonly in community and organizational development. The aim of such research is, generally, to change the social and organizational conditions within which participants operate by using their perspectives as active participants to develop alternative possibilities. As such, this research method has significant potential for management researchers in providing the means for unheard organizational members to voice their perspectives: a central component, we argue, in knowledge co‐production. Based on a participatory study of care quality in elder care institutions, we examine in detail how participatory organizational research can enable voice and explore some of the structural limitations particularly in respect of research ethics.     

A Stochastic Model to Assess the Effect of Meat Inspection Practices on the Contamination of the Pig Carcasses

The objective of meat inspection is to promote animal and public health by preventing, detecting, and controlling hazards originating from animals. With the improvements of sanitary level in pig herds, the hazards profile has shifted and the inspection procedures no longer target major foodborne pathogens (i.e., not risk based). Additionally, carcass manipulations performed when searching for macroscopic lesions can lead to cross‐contamination. We therefore developed a stochastic model to quantitatively describe cross‐contamination when consecutive carcasses are submitted to classic inspection procedures. The microbial hazard used to illustrate the model was Salmonella, the data set was obtained from Brazilian slaughterhouses, and some simplifying assumptions were made. The model predicted that due to cross‐contamination during inspection, the prevalence of contaminated carcass surfaces increased from 1.2% to 95.7%, whereas the mean contamination on contaminated surfaces decreased from 1 logCFU/cm² to ?0.87 logCFU/cm², and the standard deviations decreased from 0.65 to 0.19. These results are explained by the fact that, due to carcass manipulations with hands, knives, and hooks, including the cutting of contaminated lymph nodes, Salmonella is transferred to previously uncontaminated carcasses, but in small quantities. These small quantities can easily go undetected during sampling. Sensitivity analyses gave insight into the model performance and showed that the touching and cutting of lymph nodes during inspection can be an important source of carcass contamination. The model can serve as a tool to support discussions on the modernization of pig carcass inspection.     

Employee voice on social media — An affordance lens

Voice mechanisms in organizations provide an opportunity for employees to have a say about their work. As new digital mechanisms, such as social media (SM), are being increasingly adopted by organizations for knowledge sharing, employee engagement and general communication, it is important to consider the extent to which SM may facilitate employee voice. The limited attempts to examine SM and employee voice have mostly focused on identifying the contextual factors that could promote constructive voice on SM. The extant literature does not explore how SM features may (or may not) facilitate all types of voice, such as those which promote employee interests. Adopting an affordance lens, this paper answers the call of voice scholars to explore the potential of SM as a voice mechanism by discussing the perceived value of different SM features for different types of employee voice content. The paper brings together SM and voice literature and explores how different SM affordances may potentially facilitate certain voice content more so over others. In doing so, future directions for research of voice on SM are also discussed.     

The Determinants of Blue CollarWage Rates: An Analysis of a DataSet Incorporating Observed Job Characteristics

There is wide agreement that one of the major problems in the estimation of wage equations, and in testing theories of wages, is the quality of the data available. In particular, the data used in almost all studies involve indirect or unsatisfactory measures of a variety of relevant factors, including working conditions. In this paper we exploit an unusual data set that includes measures of characteristics of jobs generated by observation (rather than self report, or through inference from the Dictionary of Occupational Titles). With these data we estimate a wage equation in which compensating differentials play a significant role in wage determination and, once working conditions and other characteristics are effectively controlled, all but one measure of previous labour market experience had no effect on the wage rate.     

A further examination of antecedents of correctional staff life satisfaction

Working in corrections is not only a demanding job, but a socially important one. While a growing number of studies have examined how the work environment impacts the job stress, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment of staff, very few studies have examined how working in corrections impacts the life satisfaction of workers. The current study utilized OLS regression to examine the antecedents of life satisfaction among staff at a Midwestern private prison. Job satisfaction had a positive relationship with life satisfaction, while age, work on family conflict, family on work conflict, and job involvement all had statistically significant negative effects. Finally, perceptions of the level of financial rewards, job stress, organizational commitment, gender, race, educational level, tenure, supervisory status, position, marital status, and having children, all had non-significant associations with overall satisfaction with life.