TQM: a paradigm for physicians

Change, even when for the better, is always accompanied by apprehension and even outright fear. It is therefore not surprising to hear health care workers, especially physicians, expressing their concerns about this "new" management philosophy through a spectrum of reactions that vary from skeptical or grudging acceptance to outright dismissal of all of the new "alphabet soup" associated with TQM.     

Volunteers' motivations: a functional strategy for the recruitment, placement, and retention of volunteers

A psychological strategy for understanding the motivational underpinnings of volunteerism is described. In a presentation that merges the theoretical interests of researchers with the practical interests of volunteer administrators, six different motivational functions served by volunteerism are identified, and an inventory designed to measure these motivations is presented. The implications of this functional approach for the recruitment, placement, and retention of volunteers are then elaborated. Finally, recommendations are provided for volunteer administrators who seek to increase the number of people who volunteer and to improve their human resource management.     

Faith-based organizing for youth: one organization's district campaign for small schools policy

Oakland Community Organizations (OCO) has worked for over ten years to improve educational opportunities in low-income neighborhoods in Oakland, California. The work of thousands of parent, teacher, youth, and community leaders has resulted in the formation of nearly fifty new small schools and more than ten charters, creating settings for individualized learning environments and the opportunity for quality choices for many of Oakland's low-income families. In this article, OCO's executive director, Ron Snyder, outlines a four-phase organizing process undertaken by OCO, based on a set of organizing principles that have sustained community-led education reform despite constant changes in the political and school district environment: the centrality of love (self-interest) as a motivator for advocacy; the importance of quality research and powerful ideas (vision) as alternatives to the status quo; application of a model that creates a common structure, language, and experience to sustain leaders; the need for institutional and network power to apply leverage; the flexibility to seize opportunity when the window is open; and faithfulness to the object of our love: our children.     

BEYOND THE CLINIC: IN-HOME THERAPY WITH HEAD START FAMILIES

Social workers and case managers have provided in-home services to families for some time. The field of Marriage and Family Therapy, however, has begun to do in-home work only recently. This paper describes the experiences of MFT interns who worked with families in their homes. Two university graduate MFT training programs conceptualized and practiced in-home therapy with families who had at least one child enrolled in the local Head Start program. This collaborative effort was part of the AAMFT-Head Start Training Partnership Project that had the goal of funding projects that demonstrated successful partnerships between MFT and Head Start. Six interns worked with 27 Head Start families in their homes. A model of the interns' transition from clinic-based to home-based therapy is discussed and applied to working with Head Start families. The framework of in-home therapy is expanded to conceptualizing larger systems and community-based interventions, and recommendations for family therapists in private practice and agency settings are made.     

Neural Correlates of Encoding Predict Infants’ Memory in the Paired‐Comparison Procedure

The present study used event‐related potentials (ERPs) to monitor infant brain activity during the initial encoding of a previously novel visual stimulus, and examined whether ERP measures of encoding predicted infants’ subsequent performance on a visual memory task (i.e., the paired‐comparison task). A late slow wave component of the ERP measured at encoding predicted infants’ immediate performance in the paired‐comparison task: amplitude of the late slow wave at right‐central and temporal leads decreased with stimulus repetition, and greater decreases at right‐anterior‐temporal leads during encoding were associated with better memory performance at test. By contrast, neither the amplitude nor latency of the negative central (Nc) component predicted infants’ subsequent performance in the paired‐comparison task. These findings are discussed with respect to a biased competition model of visual attention and memory.     

Trend analysis of medical publications about LGBT persons: 1950-2007

Although there are currently at least 6 million lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) persons in the United States, there are no prior studies analyzing how this group is represented in the medical literature. An examination of published LGBT topics over a 57-year period was performed using OvidSP. A total of 21,728 publications was analyzed for topic using information from the title, keywords, subject headings, and abstracts. Several trends became apparent. The largest proportion of LGBT publications (31.78%) was devoted to HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted infections (STIs), yet there was an overall lack of emphasis on general health topics or common causes of mortality. Further analysis showed that if publications on HIV/AIDS or STIs addressed sexual orientation, they were more likely to be about LGBT persons than heterosexuals. Overall, the volume and range of medical publications on LGBT persons may not be reflective of the health care needs of this population.     

Residential Differences in Cohabitors' Union Transitions*

Abstract Using data from the 1995 National Survey of Family Growth, we examine residential variation in cohabiting women's union outcomes. Prior work has shown that although there are no residential differences in cohabitation, nonmetro women are more likely than others to marry directly and hold more favorable attitudes toward marriage. Building on this work, we examined residential differences in cohabiting women's union outcomes (i.e., marriage, separation, or remaining intact) to test whether nonmetro cohabiting women's unions are more likely to “end” through marriage, and whether pregnancy has a larger positive effect on marriage entry among this group. We find that nonmetro women are less likely to remain in cohabiting unions and are more likely to either marry or separate during the first 24 months of the cohabiting union. Pregnancy during cohabitation encourages marriage and discourages separation, but these effects are not significantly larger for nonmetro women.