A controlled case study of supervisor training to optimize response to injury in the food processing industry

The role of supervisors to aid injured workers, access health care, and provide reasonable accommodation may prevent prolonged disability among workers reporting musculoskeletal pain. Although supervisor training has been a common element of broad-based ergonomic interventions to prevent injuries, the impact of supervisor training alone to improve injury response has not been studied. In a controlled design, 11 supervisors in an intervention group and 12 supervisors in a delayed intervention control group from the same plant were provided a 4-hour training workshop. The workshop emphasized communication skills and ergonomic accommodation for workers reporting injuries or health concerns. Workers' compensation claims data in the 7 months before and after the workshop showed a 47% reduction in new claims and an 18% reduction in active lost-time claims versus 27% and 7%, respectively, in the control group. Improving the response of frontline supervisors to employees' work-related health and safety concerns may produce sustainable reductions in injury claims and disability costs.     

Restoring "Regional" History Education: A prerequisite in promoting respect for other European and world histories

History teaching in the universities of the larger nation states of 19th- and early-20th-century Europe has often colluded in the repression of regional identities, the exacerbation of hostility between major powers and the neglect or even dehumanisation of non-European cultures. As European integration and regionalisation proceeds in the 21st century, and as smaller Eastern European states adjust to the disintegration of the former Soviet and Yugoslavian blocs, there will be increased interest in the role of historical education in helping to reconstruct national (small nation) or regional identities. It will be of crucial importance for democracy in Europe and beyond that these processes of group identity reconstruction adopt sophisticated and inclusive models, which do not simply replicate the simplistic and exclusive models once held in the larger nation states within which they have gained a measure of autonomy or from which they have seceded. As a first step, it will be necessary for regions or re-established nation states to develop histories which revisit and value local development. Establishing self-respect should confer the confidence to go on to recognise internal diversity and to acknowledge indebtedness to other cultures, including those from beyond Europe. Through teacher education, such histories may contribute significantly to the development of self-confident pluralist societies that welcome the human, economic and cultural exchange essential to the present and future well-being of Europe. At the end of the 20th century, there were signs in Europe's "regions" or former nation states, such as Scotland, of the development of positive and inclusive models. In this paper, Scotland is used as an example to illustrate general issues in such development.     

The influence of financial incentives and racial status on the use of post-hospital care

This study examines the influence of financial incentives and the racial status of the patient on the use of extended care following an episode of hospitalization. Post-hospital care (PHC) is defined as the services provided by a skilled nursing facility (SNF) or intermediate care facility (ICF) following discharge. The focus of the analysis is on the use or nonuse of PHC, the presence or absence of a delay in transfer to an ICF or SNF and, limited to those who experienced a postponement, the length of the delayed discharge. After controlling for multiple factors, the results indicate that Medicare beneficiaries were more likely to use PHC, less likely to experience a delay in discharge, and used fewer days of prolonged care. Medicaid recipients and uninsured patients experienced reduced access to PHC. The results also indicated that the access of Native Americans and Americans to PHC was impeded.     

The relationship between organizational factors and resident satisfaction with nursing home care and life

We examined the relationships between nursing home (NH) resident satisfaction and NH organizational characteristics, while controlling for the effect of resident characteristics within facilities. We used a stratified, random sample of NHs (N = 72) from two states and a prescreened and randomized sample of 1496 residents. Data sources included resident interviews, an administrator survey, the Minimum Data Set (MDS), and the Online Survey, Certification and Reporting System (OSCAR). Using Hierarchical Linear Modeling (HLM) techniques, we found that non-chain affiliation, certified nursing assistant staffing, and provision of a family council had significant positive effects on total resident satisfaction. The presence of a special care unit was associated with lower levels of satisfaction.     

College health professionals and academic librarians: collaboration for student health

College health professionals must find new ways of educating students on finding and evaluating consumer health information, specifically in the online environment. Librarians are trained as information professionals; however, librarians at general academic libraries are not taking a lead role in providing consumer health information. OBJECTIVE: The authors' purpose in this research was to determine the health information resource needs of college and university students and provide a model for collaboration between college health professionals and academic librarians. PARTICIPANTS AND METHODS: The authors compared data from a national survey on college health (N = 54,111) with their own results from a survey of general academic librarians (N = 17) to create recommendations for synching students' reported health information needs with librarians' resources. RESULTS: Although the Internet was students' second most-often consulted health information source, they ranked the believability of online health information above only television. In the librarian survey, although 12 respondents indicated that health information provision is a library's responsibility, the majority (n = 11) believed their library's consumer health outreach to be passive. CONCLUSIONS: The authors offer recommendations for partnerships between college healthcare professionals and academic librarians to better provide this information to students.