Growth in medical director numbers continues.

A recent survey shows that nearly two-thirds of all hospitals have or are considering a medical director position. Comparative data show that the average bed size of hospitals with a medical director continues to decline as more and more institutions add the position. The reasons for the growth, according to the survey, are the increasing demands of administering a medical staff and responding to regulatory agencies.     

Whose Project is it Anyway? Sharing and shaping the research and development agenda

The NHS and Community Care Act 1990 (NHSCCA) requires that local authorities should consult with service users in their review and planning of services. This requirement is open to various levels of interpretation. The exercise becomes more complex when planning and review are based on a funded research project, in which the voice of users can easily be lost or their participation only nominal. This article examines some of the key issues and dilemmas in partnership research, through critical evaluation of a research project in which the authors were involved. Paradoxically, it is issues of power, control, expertise, authority and accountability which emerge as recurrent themes in examination of the practice of partnership.     

SOME ISSUES ARISING FROM THE ANALYSIS OF 2×2 CONTINGENCY TABLES

We review the 40 year old controversy over the correct analysis of 2×2 tables. It is argued that conditioning on all marginal totals is appropriate by examining the likelihood based on these margins and secondly by comparing conditional and unconditional evaluations of certain specific outcomes. Several foundational issues which naturally arise are also discussed.     

Conventional Wisdom on Risk Communication and Evidence from a Field Experiment

A recent comprehensive review of the literature identified a number of facts and principles governing risk communication. This paper evaluates several of these propositions using recent evidence from a field experiment in communicating the risks from radon in homes. At this point in the research, data relates primarily to the response of risk perceptions to different information treatments and different personal characteristics. The effect of various causal factors is sensitive to the particular test of risk perception applied. No information treatment was clearly superior for all tasks. An important implication of these findings is that risk communicators must determine what specific task or tasks the information program should enable people to do.     

ANCILLARIES SUFFICIENT FOR THE SAMPLE SIZE1

The process of recovery of information proceeds by conditioning on ancillaries which are part of the minimal sufficient statistic (MSS), so-called internal ancillaries. This is motivated by the notion that ancillaries function as precision indices. In some cases the ancillary can itself replace the sample size entirely in the model. It is decided that such ancillaries must be conditioned on if one of the sufficiency or conditionality principles is not to be violated.     

Sexual attitudes and contraception among females across five college samples.

The relationships among sexual attitudes, sexual and contraceptive behavior, and responses to statements about sexual topics are explored using data obtained in the Sexual Opinion Survey concerning 772 women attending four midwestern U.S. universities in the period 1977-1979. "Associations generally occurred between the expression of more positive sexual attitudes and the reporting of behaviors and attitudes supportive of effective contraceptive activity."     

Reflection on action: The process of helping social work students to develop their use of theory in practice

Over the years, college and practice-based social work teachers have been expected to help social work students to relate or integrate theory and practice, to transfer knowledge and/or to be a reflective practitioner. This paper first seeks to unpick and clarify what integrating theory and practice actually means and then goes on to suggest a model for exploring the use of theory in practice which a practice teacher could use with students in supervision.