AHRD joins IFTDO: capturing new opportunities to advance human resource development

This article is being written from the perspectives of two organizations. As president of the Academy of Human Resource Development (AHRD), I am pleased to introduce the article and to comment on the promise that holds for the relationship between AHRD and the International Federation of Training and Development Organizations (IFTDO). IFTDO is a unique organization since its membership is comprised of organizations pursuing common and/or related goals and objectives, not individual professionals. Later in this article, Carol Panza, immediate past chair of the Executive Board of IFTDO, will offer her comments representing the perspective of IFTDO regarding the emerging relationship with AHRD. Our goal is not only to inform the human resource development (HRD) community of AHRD’s decision to join IFTDO, but also to reinforce the shared awareness of the societal importance of developing a global community of scholars and practitioners in HRD.     

THE EMERGING ROLE OF THE MEDICAL SOCIOLOGIST IN PALLIATIVE CARE SETTINGS

The demographics of a rapidly aging society and the chronic nature of contemporary illness intersect in the twenty-first century to confront medicine with the challenge of reenvisioning health care at life's end. Using analytic, interpretive, and reflexive tools, the medical sociologist can assist health care teams in improving quality of life terminally ill patients and their caregivers. In this article, we explore the role of the medical sociologist in palliative care settings, discuss ways to integrate that role into the day-to-day processes of palliative medicine, and identify three areas of intervention where medical sociologists can bring a unique perspective to end-of-life settings. We conclude by examining impediments to the inclusion of the medical sociologist on the clinical team and discussing how these barriers can be addressed.     

Factors that may influence midwives work-related stress and burnout

Research questionTo determine the incidence and level of work-related stress and burnout in midwives and contributing and protective demographic factors that may influence those levels.Participants and methodAll registered midwives (152) working in two public hospital maternity units within the same health service district in NSW completed the Maslach Burnout Inventory Human Services Survey and a demographic survey including care model, shift work, lifestyle data and exercise level.FindingsThere was a response rate of 36.8% with 56 (56/152) midwives completing the surveys. Almost two thirds (60.7%) of midwives in this sample experienced moderate to high levels of emotional exhaustion, a third (30.3%) scoring low personal accomplishment and a third (30.3%) experiencing depersonalization related to burnout. Significant differences were found among groups of midwives according to years in the profession, shifts worked, how many women with multiple psychosocial issues were included in the midwife's workload and the midwife's uptake of physical exercise. Those midwives who had spent longer in the profession and exercised scored low burnout levels.ConclusionThe impact of years in the profession, shifts worked, how many women with multiple psychosocial issues were included in their workload and the midwife's level of exercise significantly affected how these midwives dealt with burnout and provided care for women. As the response rate was low, and the study cannot be generalised to the entire midwifery workforce but provides important insights for further research. Understanding factors related to burnout can benefit health care institutions financially and in terms of human costs, especially in view of consistent international shortages of midwives.     

In memory of Bernie Zilbergeld 1939–2002

This study examined perceptions of sexual harassment based on belief in women's use of token resistance and a victim's physical or verbal resistance to unwanted sexual attention, described in experimentally manipulated vignettes. Findings from 541 undergraduates revealed that a stronger belief in token resistance was associated with weaker perceptions of sexual harassment. Results showed that any type of resistance led to stronger perceptions of sexual harassment than no resistance at all, except for those with a stronger belief in women's use of token resistance. Perceptions among those with a stronger belief strengthened only when there were two forms of resistance offered simultaneously. These findings extend the literature by investigating the influence of physical resistance on sexual harassment perceptions.     

Orderly mixing and accommodation in South African codeswitching

'Mixed Language,' a characteristic pattern of language use among African township residents in South Africa, may well include words or full constituents from several languages. However, from both a structural and a social perspective, such speech has a systematic nature. In reference to grammatical structure, within any CP (projection of COMP) showing codeswitching, only one language (the Matrix Language) provides the grammatical frame in the data studied. Also, while speakers from different educational levels engage in codeswitching with similar frequencies, the types of codeswitched constitutents they prefer are different. In reference to the social use of language, we argue that specific patterns of codeswitching indicate how language is both an index of identity and a tool of communication in South Africa. In the codeswitching patterns they use, speakers exhibit strong loyalty to their own first languages. Yet, because they recognize that codeswitching facilitates communication with members of other ethnic groups, they use a number of codeswitching strategies as a means of accommodating to their addressees and simultaneously as a means of projecting multiple identities for themselves.     

Retracted Article: Growth attenuation and young people with profound disabilities – why we need to talk about Charley

In 2004 an intervention known as the Ashley Treatment (AT) was sought on behalf of Ashley X, a girl with severe developmental disabilities. A discursive interpretive framework is used to investigate use of the AT in the case of Charley Hooper in New Zealand in 2009. This investigation found that use of the AT is intimately bound up in ideas about worthiness of life related to the ability to act as an autonomous agent within social structures. Questions this case raises about ethical decision-making and future physical and social requirements for profoundly disabled young people in the future are posed.