Night work and symptoms of anxiety and depression among nurses: A longitudinal study

Over the last few decades, night work has been found to be associated with negative somatic consequences; however, there is less knowledge about its impact on mental health. In a sample of 633 Norwegian nurses, we investigated by means of latent growth curve modelling whether different work schedules predicted differences in baseline values of anxiety and depressive symptoms, and trajectories of these over a two-year span. All participants completed the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale as part of a larger survey conducted during the winters of 2009, 2010 and 2011. The results revealed that night workers and nurses who changed from day work to night work during the study period did not differ from day workers either in terms of baseline symptoms of anxiety or depression, or in terms of trajectories of these symptoms. However, nurses who changed from night work to day work reported a significant decrease in symptoms of both anxiety and depression over time compared to day workers. Furthermore, supporting previous work, languidity was related to higher anxiety and depression and hardiness to lower levels of those symptoms. Possible mechanisms underlying the results are discussed.     

Food Safety Objectives Should Integrate the Variability of the Concentration of Pathogen

The World Trade Organization introduced the concept of appropriate level of protection (ALOP) as a public health target. For this public health objective to be interpretable by the actors in the food chain, the concept of food safety objective (FSO) was proposed by the International Commission on Microbiological Specifications for Foods and adopted later by the Codex Alimentarius Food Hygiene Committee. The way to translate an ALOP into a FSO is still in debate. The purpose of this article is to develop a methodological tool to derive a FSO from an ALOP being expressed as a maximal annual marginal risk. We explore the different models relating the annual marginal risk to the parameters of the FSO depending on whether the variability in the survival probability and in the concentration of the pathogen are considered or not. If they are not, determination of the FSO is straightforward. If they are, we propose to use stochastic Monte Carlo simulation models and logistic discriminant analysis in order to determine which sets of parameters are compatible with the ALOP. The logistic discriminant function was chosen such that the kappa coefficient is maximized. We illustrate this method by the example of the risks of listeriosis and salmonellosis in one type of soft cheese. We conclude that the definition of the FSO should integrate three dimensions: the prevalence of contamination, the average concentration per contaminated typical serving, and the dispersion of the concentration among those servings.     

An equilibrium analysis of the gender wage gap

Within a two‐sector general equilibrium model, women's productivity in the marketplace decreases with the amount of household work they perform at home. Assuming that men's and women's household labour inputs are complementary here we prove the existence of multiple equilibria. In some, men and women allocate their labour equally and earn identical wages. In others, they allocate labour differently and earn different wages. In this context, beliefs about the inferiority of women's productivity are shown to be self‐fulfilling. By use of numerical examples, we show that welfare is highest when spouses allocate labour equally and suggest policy recommendations.     

Teaching Note—MSW Student Perceptions of Learning Advanced Clinical Practice Skills Through the Flipped Classroom

The flipped classroom, with its focus on student-centered learning and active student engagement, is a growing trend in social work education. This article presents an innovative way of delivering practice content through the flipped classroom model, which can be adapted for any level of social work education. It walks readers through the steps of developing the course and the successes and challenges of the flip, particularly with an incorporated skills lab component. Additionally, this article shares student reflections on the development and execution of the course, with specific feedback on the experiential learning environment, discussions surrounding instructor workload and preparation, and implications for future iterations of the course from students who had very little prior technologically centered learning experiences.     

Access to social services as a rite of integration: Power,rights, and identity

Access to social services is a multifaceted and multifactorial process, involving social policy lines, services organization, and professional front line practices. It appears to have a crucial role in how personal social services work: depending on the way the process is handled, access to social services could provide a bridge to an inclusive and solidarizing community or worsen discrimination and marginalization. Many underline how studying the actual encounters between citizens and practitioners can provide a privileged site to highlight the interconnections between the abovementioned factors. This is the focus of our research that explored access in a specific Italian region using a case study strategy. After a pilot study, the main points of access to social services were identified, and three units were selected as best examples of different approaches. The three units were explored using mainly qualitative methods inspired by ethnography. We were able to gain in depth understanding of three cultural approaches to access, defined as the “ethical duty,” the “good organization,” and the “professional approach” and reach an in‐depth understanding of their impact on access. There is a vast literature on the power of street‐level bureaucrats, seen as similar to gatekeepers. However, our research suggests that specific organizational cultures also play an important part: different organizational cultures may impact the implementation of local social policy, the organizational procedures, and social workers' practices.     

CONSTRUCTING A HEALTH AND SOCIAL INDICATOR FRAMEWORK FOR INDIGENOUS COMMUNITY HEALTH RESEARCH

Health and social indicators that capture the distinct historical, social, and cultural contexts of Indigenous communities can play an important role in informing the planning and delivery of community interventions. There is currently considerable interest in cataloguing and vetting meaningful community-level health and social indicators that could be applied to research and health promotion activities in Indigenous communities in Australia, Canada, and New Zealand, inclusive of conventional indicators as well as measures developed specifically for use in or with Indigenous communities. To avoid haphazard selection of indicators, and to assure the comprehensiveness and relevance of any given set of indicators, a framework that can accommodate and conceptually classify indicators representing a full range of domains is required. We report here on the development of a conceptual framework, by which Indigenous community indicators, and more general community-level social indicators, can be sorted, catalogued, and systematically classified within four hierarchical levels. The indicator framework was developed across Canada, Australia and New Zealand in consultation with academic researchers and Indigenous community stakeholders, building from established health and social indicator systems. The Indigenous indicator framework permits Indigenous communities, public health researchers, and funding agencies to compare and select the most appropriate indicators for application in specific contexts from the multitude of existing indicators.     

The Role of Social Networks in Immigrant Women’s Political Incorporation

This article examines how immigrant women’s social networks affect their propensity to vote and to participate in unconventional political activities, as well as their knowledge of politics and government services and programs. Our primary source of data is a telephone survey of women living in Canada’s two largest metropolitan areas. Our findings show that contrary to the social capital literature, bonding ties do not exert strong negative effects on political incorporation, while bridging ties are not as helpful as hypothesized. What is important for immigrant women are the resources that are embedded in their social networks.