“Unexpected and Distressing”: Understanding and Improving the Experience of Transferring Palliative Care Inpatients to Residential Care

The survival of patients with advanced cancer, coupled with the increased presence of end-stage chronic illnesses in an aging population, is leading to a demand in palliative care. Due to the ongoing need for acute-pain and symptom control in hospice/palliative care units, few are able to offer long-stay admission for those whose symptoms have stabilized. When a patient no longer requires specialist palliative care services, transfer from an inpatient palliative care facility may then be necessary. A core component of the role of palliative-care social workers involves working with patients and their families/carers when the care pathway shifts and the option of residential aged care facility (RACF) needs to be considered. This research explored several issues, including the impact of this transition on the patient and their families and on the interdisciplinary health care team treating the patient. An investigation was undertaken to identify concerns and barriers regarding the transition from hospice care to RACF and opportunities were highlighted to improve clinical practice in this area. A tripartite approach was adopted conducting face-to-face interviews with patients, their families/carers, and health care professionals. Members of the interdisciplinary team were interviewed and social workers working in similar inpatient palliative-care facilities undertook telephone interviews to gauge their experiences. A thematic analysis discerned a number of themes highlighting the impact of this transition on key stakeholders and incorporated recommendations to improve or best manage this process. The research has highlighted the difficulties that patients/families encounter in this transition, as well as the emphases of protecting the integrity of the patient and family. This is achieved by holding open and ongoing dialogue, particularly through family meetings and working in collaboration with the patient, the family, and the team. Understanding the experience and impact of this transition on key stakeholders is helpful in building up a knowledge base and to ensure a more effective relationship occurs. This research incorporated the voices of terminally ill patients, families, and members of the health care team in order to understand their views and recommendations for best managing the transition from a hospice/inpatient palliative-care facility to a RACF. This enables their input to have some real impetus in clinical practice and service delivery.     

“By Whose Definition?”: The University of Saskatchewan's Firing of a Dean and the Textual Battle to Define Academic Freedom in Canada

The article focuses on the firing of a dean at Canada's University of Saskatchewan in 2014 to consider both the decidedly weak response to this event as an infringement of academic freedom protections, and the corporate instrument that was cited as the excuse for the firing, an employment contract's confidentiality clause. The central concerns are with the relationship of academic freedom to freedom of expression more generally, and the textual battle in Canada for the definition of academic freedom in which (in the face of the silence of academics at all levels) administrative imperatives shaped by a neoliberal agenda are currently dominating.     

Nano Risk Analysis: Advancing the Science for Nanomaterials Risk Management

Scientists, activists, industry, and governments have raised concerns about health and environmental risks of nanoscale materials. The Society for Risk Analysis convened experts in September 2008 in Washington, DC to deliberate on issues relating to the unique attributes of nanoscale materials that raise novel concerns about health risks. This article reports on the overall themes and findings of the workshop, uncovering the underlying issues for each of these topics that become recurring themes. The attributes of nanoscale particles and other nanomaterials that present novel issues for risk analysis are evaluated in a risk analysis framework, identifying challenges and opportunities for risk analysts and others seeking to assess and manage the risks from emerging nanoscale materials and nanotechnologies. Workshop deliberations and recommendations for advancing the risk analysis and management of nanotechnologies are presented.     

Wars and Invisible Girls,Shadow Industries,and the Politics of Not-Knowing

This article begins in the interior of Mozambique during the country's post-independence war with the stories of three girls variously affected by violence. It then follows girls' war experiences in general out from the frontlines to wider international locales where girls face domestic violence in their home communities and civil and labor violence at the hands of (shadow) transnational profiteers; who reap billions of dollars yearly on children's factory, domestic, and sexual labor. The article is set in an overall theoretical framework that explores how a politics of invisibility - literally of 'not-knowing' - has developed in which little public information is available on children's human rights violations or on the political tactics and economic gain that have attended to these violations.     

Toward increased public representation on bioethics committees: Lessons from Judging the cold war human radiation experiments∗

The process of judging the Cold War Human Radiation Experiments illuminates a need to develop a model for an appropriate public role on bioethics committees. A citizen representative was appointed to the President's Advisory Committee on Human Radiation Experiments, and the Committee solicited broad public participation in their investigation. However, many members of the affected and interested public desired further representation on the Committee, as they tended towards stronger ethical condemnations of the experiments than the Committee expressed. I offer an account of a testimony before the Committee by a radiation experiment subject's survivor to illustrate this contrast in moral perspective. I consider some the contributions that “non‐expert”; public members can add to committee deliberations, and suggest that concerns about public representatives may be overcome with the guidance of clearer principles for selecting public members. Further efforts to increase membership by the general and affected public on bioethics committees will enhance deliberations and help realize the democratic ideals of bioethics.     

Reactions of leaders to 360-degree feedback from subordinates and peers

The current study examined factors related to leaders' reactions to 360-degree feedback. The total sample consisted of 220 supervising managers from a large public utility. We collected data in three waves which involved pretest, performance rating, and posttest surveys (49 leaders had valid data from all three waves of measurement). We hypothesized that overall ratings, organizational support, and perceived rater ability would be positively related to four reaction criteria (acceptance and perceived usefulness of subordinate feedback and peer feedback). Results showed that overall ratings were related to acceptance of peer and subordinate feedback, but were less consistently related to perceptions of feedback usefulness. For perceived usefulness of subordinate feedback, organizational support accounted for unique variance beyond overall ratings, and perceived rater ability was marginally significant. None of the predictions for perceived usefulness of peer feedback were significant. The authors discuss limitations, implications, and suggestions for future research.     

Bingo playing in the UK: The influence of demographic factors on play

Abstract

Despite the popularity of bingo, it is a little studied gambling behaviour. This study was conducted in order to obtain general information regarding the gambling behaviour of current UK bingo players. A total of 412 bingo players completed questionnaires about their gambling behaviour. The majority of participants (57%) played once or twice a week with a small percentage (3%) playing five or more times a week. A large percentage of participants also played the National Lottery (82%) and bought National Lottery scratchcards (40%), but very few ever gambled in a casino (6%). An analysis by age revealed that older bingo players were significantly more likely to play more often. However, younger players are more likely to spend more per bingo session. This paper adds significantly to a sparse literature. The data collected add to our understanding of the bingo phenomenon in the UK.     

After September 11

A major question in studying the relationship between mass media and society is whether mass media are agents of social change or reinforcers of the status quo. This study examined media portrayal of women to explore the relationship between the media and society within the Chinese context. Through a content analysis of 352 cover pictures of Women of China, China's official English women's magazine for foreign publicity, the authors investigated whether and how the media portrayal of Chinese women relates to China's social changes. Our findings show that the image of Chinese women presented by the covers of Women of China is to a large extent influenced by the socio-economic and political-ideological changes in China. Rather than a literal portrayal of the “reality,” it is a symbolic representation of the Chinese women created through the interaction of party ideology, editorial policy, and readers' taste as well as the changing reality of Chinese women's life and work. The interlocking of party control and societal influences has determined the typical images of “Chinese Women” suited to particular periods of time in the contemporary Chinese history.     

A Comparison of Advanced Standing and Regular Master’s Students’ Performance in the Second-Year Field Practicum

The author surveyed field instructors of second-year graduate students to ascertain the instructors’ assessments of their students’ preparedness for and skill in social work practice. The variable of interest was traditional second-year or advanced placement status. Results indicate that, with few exceptions, there were no differences in field instructors’ evaluations based on status; those that existed favored advanced placement students. The implications of the findings for the continuing debates over advanced placement and an articulated continuum regarding the bachelor’s versus master’s social work degree are discussed.