Nursing a Grievance? The Role of Healthcare Assistants in a Modernized National Health Service

The complex division of labour in health care has encouraged the analysis of occupational boundary disputes between separate professions. Less attention has been directed at the divisions in individual occupational groups but in a context of intensive health sector workforce reform there has been a growth in lower status occupations. This article extends debate about lower status occupations by exploring the manner in which nurses and healthcare assistants engage in boundary work to advance their occupational interests. The UK government's modernization agenda has encouraged a more prominent role for healthcare assistants and the findings confirm that this agenda has reinforced occupational boundary disputes between nurses and healthcare assistants. Tensions between nurses and healthcare assistants took particular forms influenced by gendered notions of caring work. The consequences of these boundary management strategies in terms of work undertaken, pay and status are also explored.     

Performativity and helping professions: social theory, power and practice

Drawing on Judith Butler's conception of 'performativity', we would argue that the notion has important implications for contemporary debates in international social welfare over agency, subjection and 'resistance'. Professional social workers embedded in discursive institutions function according to particular expectations around performativity. In addition, this organisational context is complex with multiple demands. In light of technologies of surveillance and control in contemporary social work, performativity offers a response to the pressing need to expand notions of worker opposition beyond traditional forms of organised dissent towards the production of subjective space.     

Women's Career Success and Work–life Adaptations in the Accountancy and Medical Professions in Britain

This article examines gendered career paths in two feminizing and highly qualified professions. Quantitative data show that in medicine the profession is internally segregated by sex, as women tend to opt for the family friendly but clinically inferior specialty of general practice. In accountancy internal segregation by sex is considerably less evident but women fail to rise through organizational hierarchies. Qualitative interviews with qualified doctors and accountants suggest that sex discrimination is to some extent still an issue but that the major factor underlying these different gendered career trajectories is that women still retain the major responsibility for domestic work and caring. They also suggest that doctors have been able to exercise more control over their working hours than accountants and that even when accountants work part‐time, they work longer hours than contracted. Part‐time work is also seen as seriously career‐limiting. In our conclusions, we briefly examine the gender equality implications of these contrasting self‐regulated and market‐driven adaptations to occupational feminization.     

Regulation of unregistered birth workers in Australia: Homebirth and public safety

Background

Australian midwives are regulated under the National Registration and Accreditation Scheme. Unregistered birth workers may provide midwifery services at homebirths without any regulatory oversight. To address this issue, several states have passed legislation enabling prohibition orders to be made (negative licensing) against unregistered health practitioners who fail to comply with a statutory code of conduct developed for those not covered by the National Scheme.

What do young adult carers learn through supporting family members? Extending the affirmation model

Abstract

Some writers (e.g. O'Dell, Crafter, de Abreu, Cline 2010 O’Dell, Lindsey, Sarah Crafter, Guida de Abreu, and Tony Cline. 2010. Constructing ‘Normal Childhoods’: Young People Talk About Young Carers. Disability & Society, 25 (6): 643–655.[Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) have argued that young carers are just one among many categories of youth who navigate the transition to adulthood while already carrying responsibilities usually associated with adulthood. This article explores that position in relation to a research project, undertaken in North-East England, which generated 13 in-depth biographical accounts with 16–25-year-old carers about their transitions to adulthood. It will be argued that their experiences of supporting disabled people in their families resulted in these young adult carers becoming more other-centred than their peers. Otherwise, their transitions to adulthood were mostly typical of young people in other types of adult role. The article discusses whether an affirmation model of disability (Swain and French 2000 Swain, John and Sally French. 2000. Towards an Affirmation Model of Disability. Disability & Society, 15 (4): 569–582.[Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) can be used to help young adult carers take positive ownership of their identities in the challenging context of post-industrial youth.     

Social work education in Cyprus: prospects and challenges in developing an indigenous character

The evolution of the social work education and welfare system in Cyprus is inextricably linked to the country’s recent turbulent history. Social Work in the Republic of Cyprus, although shaped by the country’s turbulent political past and present, is also influenced by Western theory as in many other countries in the Asian and African continent [Gray, M., & Fook, J. (2004). The quest for a universal social work: Some issues and implications, Social Work Education, 23(5), 625–644; Rankopo, M. J., & Hwedie, K. O. (2011). Globalization and culturally relevant social work: African perspectives on indigenization. International Social Work, 54(1), 137–147; Yip, K. S. (2007). Tensions and dilemmas of social work education in China. International Social Work, 50(1), 93–105]. In contrast with social welfare which has a long history (since late nineteenth century), social work education is still at an early stage of development in Cyprus. A non-surprising situation given that social work practice and education, in its early stages, is essentially a modernist Western invention which has a history of silencing marginal voices and importing, into diverse cultural contexts across the world, Western thinking primarily from the UK and the USA (Gray & Fook, 2004). However, if an indigenous social work character is to be developed in Cyprus, and a more distinctive identity with regard to the social work academic curricula is to be demonstrated, then Payne’s [(2001). Knowledge bases and knowledge biases in social work. Journal of Social Work, 1(2), 133–136] views on social work knowledge need further exploration.     

‘We are not anything alike’: marginalization of health professionals with disabilities

Despite inclusive rhetoric, disabled peoples’ participation in the Health and Human Service (HHS) professions remains limited. This study explores the perspectives of individuals in the HHS sector regarding inclusion-related barriers and facilitators. We found three mechanisms that marginalize disabled people in HHS education and professions: dominant disabling discourses; discriminatory design within programmes and universities; and oppressive interactions. The inclusion of disabled individuals is vital for ensuring HHS professionals represent the populations they serve. By challenging the views of educators, professionals, and scholars, these findings may become part of the foundation upon which change can be created.     

教师职业品格论考

优良的职业品格是教师必备的素质之一,古今中外对其都有明确的阐述,本文通过浓缩古今中外教师职业品格要求的精髓汲取众家之长,在充分关注其民族性、时代性、实践性、操作性的基础上对我国当代教师职业品格内涵作出了盲简意赅、耳熟能详、全面系统、寓意深刻的文字表述。教师的职业品格即为朴实、务实、踏实、现实。     

Negotiating Quality: Total Quality Management and the Complexities of Transforming Professional Organizations

During the past two decades organizations in many industries have introduced management-style changes, such as employee involvement (EI) and total quality management (TQM). In the health care sector, one change has been the inclusion of TQM into the accreditation process. Using ethnographic and interview data, this case study examines the process of introducing TQM into a professional organization—a hospital—and shows how successful implementation of such new management styles in professional organizations requires complex negotiations of existing formal and informal power relationships. Some employees and middle managers embraced the TQM philosophy and techniques and successfully influenced the implementation and project-team design. In this case, administrators used TQM as rhetoric and justification for increased bureaucratic control, goals that are distinctly at odds with the ideological objectives of TQM.     

Transphobia Among Students Majoring in the Helping Professions

The study was designed to further the understanding of transphobia among students majoring in the helping professions including social work, occupational therapy, and nursing. The study’s hypotheses examined the effects of transgender content in education (e.g., textbooks and lectures), religiosity, contact with transgender people, and several sociodemographic variables with transphobia. Differences in transphobia levels between social work students and those in aligned professions were also explored. The sample consisted of 600 students of a public, urban university in New York City who participated in an online survey. Measures included transphobia and transgender content scales. Students reported (75%) a deficient amount of transgender content in education, and almost one half of the sample reported moderate to high levels of transphobia. Other findings showed that transgender content in education was positively correlated with transphobia, and 1-way ANOVA showed that transphobia differed significantly across the majors. The author suggestions included increasing transgender content in textbooks, lectures, and class discussions as well as developing field sites that provide students with opportunities to serve this population.