Mothers and child care: policies,values and theories

Government expansion of child care services is based on the assumption that both parents are employed (the adult worker model) and make cost‐benefit calculations in choosing child care (the rational economic choice model). This paper addresses this assumption, based on research examining mothers' assessments of appropriate child care. These assessments involve complex moral and emotional decisions around their own and their children's needs, and differ between social groups. On this basis, we conclude that the assumptions underlying current child care expansion policy are inadequate, and that the mere expansion of services is not enough.     

EMPLOYEE AWARENESS OF FAMILY LEAVE BENEFITS: The Effects of Family, Work, and Gender

The 1993 Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) was intended to help employees meet short-term family demands, such as caring for children and elderly parents, without losing their jobs. However, recent evidence suggests that few women and even fewer men employees avail themselves of family leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act. This paper examines the organizational, worker status, and salience/need factors associated with knowledge of family leave benefits. We study employees covered by the FMLA using the 1996 panel of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth to ascertain what work and family factors influence knowledge of leave benefits. Overall, 91 percent of employed FMLA-eligible women report they have access to unpaid family leave, compared to 72 percent of men. Logistic regression analyses demonstrate that work situations more than family situations affect knowledge of family leave benefits and that gender shapes the impact of some work and family factors on awareness. Furthermore, work and family situations do not explain away the considerable gender difference in knowledge of family leave.     

Validation of a Stochastic Discrete Event Model Predicting Virus Concentration on Nurse Hands

Understanding healthcare viral disease transmission and the effect of infection control interventions will inform current and future infection control protocols. In this study, a model was developed to predict virus concentration on nurses’ hands using data from a bacteriophage tracer study conducted in Tucson, Arizona, in an urgent care facility. Surfaces were swabbed 2 hours, 3.5 hours, and 6 hours postseeding to measure virus spread over time. To estimate the full viral load that would have been present on hands without sampling, virus concentrations were summed across time points for 3.5‐ and 6‐hour measurements. A stochastic discrete event model was developed to predict virus concentrations on nurses’ hands, given a distribution of virus concentrations on surfaces and expected frequencies of hand‐to‐surface and orifice contacts and handwashing. Box plots and statistical hypothesis testing were used to compare the model‐predicted and experimentally measured virus concentrations on nurses’ hands. The model was validated with the experimental bacteriophage tracer data because the distribution for model‐predicted virus concentrations on hands captured all observed value ranges, and interquartile ranges for model and experimental values overlapped for all comparison time points. Wilcoxon rank sum tests showed no significant differences in distributions of model‐predicted and experimentally measured virus concentrations on hands. However, limitations in the tracer study indicate that more data are needed to instill more confidence in this validation. Next model development steps include addressing viral concentrations that would be found naturally in healthcare environments and measuring the risk reductions predicted for various infection control interventions.     

The human side of merger planning

This article argues that chief executive officers and staff planners must more explicitly integrate ‘change planning’ with the other dimensions of merger planning (e.g. financial, marketing) if implementation is to be successful. Based on recent research, guidelines for gaining acceptance of merger are presented and discussed. The need to distinguish between gaining initial acceptance, on the one hand, and continuing acceptance on the other is stressed, and the guidelines carry forward that distinction. Such guidelines should be integrated into the overall strategic plan developed for merger.     

Segregation of minorities in the metropolis: two decades of change

Data from Census 2000 show that black-white segregation declined modestly at the national level after 1980, while Hispanic and Asian segregation rose in most metropolitan areas. Changes that may have produced greater changes for blacks proved to have insignificant effects: there was no net shift of the black population toward less-segregated areas, segregation at the metropolitan level did not decline more in areas where the incomes of blacks came closer to the incomes of whites over time, and the emergence of more multiethnic metropolises had no impact. As in the past, declines were centered in the South and West and in areas with smaller black populations. Increases in Hispanic and Asian segregation in individual metropolitan areas were counterbalanced by a net movement of these two groups toward areas of lower segregation. These increases were associated especially with the more rapid growth in the Hispanic and Asian populations. Hispanic segregation increased more in regions where group members had declining incomes relative to the incomes of whites and included a growing share of immigrants.