Comfort and confidence levels of health care professionals providing pediatric palliative care in the intensive care unit

Most childhood deaths that occur in the hospital happen in the pediatric intensive care unit. Providing pediatric palliative care in the intensive care unit comes with unique challenges due to the acute care, curative and often medically aggressive focus of these settings. In this study, 190 PICU health care professionals reported on their comfort and confidence in providing palliative care. Findings indicate that professionals report only a moderate level of comfort and confidence in this type of care in the pediatric ICU. For physicians and nurses, comfort and confidence was significantly higher for those who had practiced 8 years or more. Practitioners reported less comfort in providing psychosocial care. Implications for the social work role on the interdisciplinary team and suggestions for future research are discussed.     

Comment on Conflict Methodology: a Protagonist Position

In response to Lundman and McFarlane's assessment of what they understand to be conflict methodology, several points of exception and clarification are offered. Conflict methodology is neither a new data collection technology nor an abandonment of professional ethics by sociologists. It is an emerging movement away from the orthodoxy of consensus methodology by sociologists who recognize the ethical and epistemological weaknesses inherent in the dogmas of positivistic science. It proposes an evolutionary epistemology in opposition to the reductionism, operationalism, objectivism, and technocracy of consensus methodology Conflict methodology affirms the unity of science and the social discourse, the centrality of subjectivity in science, and the emancipatory interest in knowledge, while recognizing the threat to the scientific standing of sociology posed by institutional domination of social research.     

Partnership and core groups in the risk society

In this paper, partnerships between parents/carers, children and professionals within child protection social work are critically assessed in relation to Beck's (1992 ) concept of the 'risk society'. Partnerships within core groups provide the specific focus for this paper, as in the authors' view these groups provide particular opportunities for the development of partnerships between professionals, parents/carers and children. In the risk society new dangers and risks are constantly being created and (re)discovered, the status of professional and lay expertise is questioned and professional judgement is often mediated through discourses of risk. In this environment reflexivity becomes an essential element of professional practice. Two case studies of child protection are used to link theory and practice, and to raise questions for professional practice in core groups.     

The Failure of Calendar Reform (1992–1931): Religious Minorities, Businessmen, Scientists, and Bureaucrats

The standardization of measurements of length, mass, temperature, etc is a central part of the process of modernization and rationalization described by Weber. However, attempts by businessmen, scientists and bureaucrats to reform the calendar, as a rationalizing measure and to improve economic efficiency, have been thwarted by religious minorities. Curiously, the religious opposition is rooted in material interests, in contrast to the ideal interests of the calendar reformers. The argument that calendar reform is contrary to religious liberty is shown to be confused. Durkheim's concepts of mechanical and organic solidarity are then used to clarify the nature of the issues involved.     

网络时代澳大利亚版权法中的新型传播权

澳大利亚《数字日程法》规定新型的传播权来执行《版权条约》第8条"向公众传播权"。在国内实施向公众传播权有必要考虑权利类型、网上传播版权作品的主体以及传播发生的时间和地点等问题。澳大利亚的新型传播权包括向公众提供权和电子传输权两部分,传播的主体应为上载人,向公众提供的时间为作品被上载到公众可以访问的网络服务器上的时间,电子传输的时间为作品从网络服务器对外发送的时间,传输的地点为供下载的网络服务器所在地。澳大利亚新型传播权具有域外效力,包括外部域外效力和内部域外效应。     

Young Women’s Dynamic Family Size Preferences in the Context of Transitioning Fertility

Dynamic theories of family size preferences posit that they are not a fixed and stable goal but rather are akin to a moving target that changes within individuals over time. Nonetheless, in high-fertility contexts, changes in family size preferences tend to be attributed to low construct validity and measurement error instead of genuine revisions in preferences. To address the appropriateness of this incongruity, the present study examines evidence for the sequential model of fertility among a sample of young Malawian women living in a context of transitioning fertility. Using eight waves of closely spaced data and fixed-effects models, we find that these women frequently change their reported family size preferences and that these changes are often associated with changes in their relationship and reproductive circumstances. The predictability of change gives credence to the argument that ideal family size is a meaningful construct, even in this higher-fertility setting. Changes are not equally predictable across all women, however, and gamma regression results demonstrate that women for whom reproduction is a more distant goal change their fertility preferences in less-predictable ways.     

Do youth in out-of-home care receive recommended mental health and educational services following screening evaluations?

For children in out-of-home care, a significant gap exists between those who need services and those who receive them. Screening all children in out-of-home care is recommended to reduce this gap. This study was designed to determine if recommendations from mental health and educational screening evaluations were related to service implementation for youth in out-of-home care. Screening evaluations were completed with 171 maltreated youth (ages 9 to 11) who had been placed in out-of-home care within the prior year. Written reports summarizing the findings were provided to children's caseworkers. Service utilization was assessed at baseline (T1; before screening reports were completed) and follow-up (T2; 9–12 months later) interviews. For children not already receiving services at T1, logistic regression analyses tested the association between T1 recommendations for services and new service implementation by T2. Mental health (youth-report) and educational (teacher-report) outcomes were analyzed separately. Screening evaluations identified 22% of children with unmet mental health needs and 36% with unmet educational needs at T1. Children who received a recommendation for new services (i.e., all of those with unmet needs) were more likely to receive mental health (OR = 2.50, p = .06) and/or educational (OR = 3.54, p = .04) services by T2 than children who did not receive recommendations for services. While recommendations increased the odds of receiving services, almost half of the children with unmet mental health needs did not receive services, and 84% of children with unmet educational needs did not receive services by T2. Much work remains to ensure youth receive needed services.     

Responses of the social work profession to unaccompanied children seeking asylum in the Republic of Ireland

The Republic of Ireland is rapidly developing immigration legislation and policies to respond to its relatively new status as a destination for asylum seekers and refugees within the European Union. New political definitions of asylum seekers and refugees are being constructed in a country with its own history of mass emigration. At the same time, the economic growth that is making Ireland a more attractive destination for asylum seekers and refugees has also fuelled an unprecedented expansion in the employment of social workers. Specialized services are now being developed for unaccompanied children who are seeking asylum. This expansion in the number of social workers and growth in service provision has led to little professional debate about the role of social workers with asylum seekers and refugees. This paper examines the questions raised by the provision of social work services to these children and considers the wider implications for the development of the social work profession and social work practices in Ireland.