Hypothesis Testing of CNA Perceptions of Organizational Culture in Long Term Care

This commentary for the special issue on research that went wrong describes a study that explored factors that contribute to variability within Certified Nursing Assistants (CNAs) on organizational safety culture. We know from previous research that CNAs provide most direct care in nursing homes and that direct care workers often experience agency culture differently from agency management (Wolf et al., 2014). We were looking for factors that nursing homes could alter to improve the culture for CNAs, and thus, residents. We conducted a secondary analysis of data collected via a multi-component paper survey of CNAs employed in long term care. We used results from the Nursing Home Survey on Patient Safety Culture and primary shift, type of unit, and years as a CNA to identify modifiable characteristics that would explain variability in the perceptions of patient safety culture. The final sample included n = 106 from three nursing homes. Dimension scores were compared using bivariate tests appropriate to the scale and ordinal logistic regression. Despite support in the literature for the hypothesis, we found few significant differences on the total scale within groups. Differences in perceptions have implications for quality of care and the experiences of residents within nursing homes.     

From the Mouths of Mothers: Can Drama Facilitate Reflective Learning for Social Workers?

This article explores and evaluates a cross-disciplinary small-scale project using applied theatre in social work education. The aim was to provide an ‘Affective Encounter’ where students could practice empathic engagement, understanding of the needs of children who have been sexually abused and their protective parents/carers and engage in the complexities of working with family members who may be resistant. The workshop took place five times over a period of three years and was attended by children and families social workers on a one year post-qualifying graduate diploma course. While the use of verbatim theatre does not offer a guarantee of factual truth, it provided the students with some performed moments of personal testimony which was taken word-for-word from mothers whose children had been sexually abused. This allowed the social workers to hear the marginalised narratives of the protective mothers and to practice without a negative impact on the service user. The evaluation identified from self-report the development of emotional and practical skills and knowledge of available resources. This paper focuses on the emotional skills reported and two emerging themes are discussed: learning for humane practice, and the use of this pedagogical approach to encourage affective reflection.     

Hesitant Madams in a Global City: Japanese Expat Wives and their Global Householding in Hong Kong

Care work, once a sanctioned labor of love, is increasingly commodified in transnational contexts. The picture of migrant women shouldering the housework and child care of local professonal women may seem like a mutually beneficial arrangement—matching the “needs” of the haves and have-nots—, but the global care chain ultimately works to maintain the traditional gendered division of labor as well as global inequality. To this trend of globalization of care work, Japan has been an exception; however, how much longer it will be so is now in a question, as the government paves the way for importing domestic labor from abroad. This article focuses on Japanese expat wives in Hong Kong in order to locate Japanese women vis-à-vis the global care chain. The narrative analysis on how they decide whether to hire a domestic worker in their home away from home highlights the sociopolitical nature of their supposedly private choices. Some drew on cultural ideal of wifehood and motherhood to rationalize their choice while others referred to racialized or even overtly racist and classist images of foreign domestic workers. A few women spoke against the system itself, showing awareness of its inherent social injustice. All such narratives are never purely personal; their decisions and the rationalization behind them sustain the prevailing discourses of gender, race, ethnicity, culture, and class, which, in turn, envelop their attempts at global householding.     

Financial Knowledge and Behaviors of Chinese Migrant Workers: An International Perspective on a Financially Vulnerable Population

ABSTRACT

Making informed financial decisions is crucial to the wellbeing of Chinese migrant workers. Using interview survey data (N = 329), this study examined financial knowledge and behaviors of migrant workers in China. Results showed that participants demonstrated low levels of financial knowledge (51.4%) and beneficial financial behaviors (51.0%). Multivariate results indicated that a modest proportion of the variance in financial behaviors was explained by financial knowledge, attitudes, and socio-demographic characteristics (e.g., marital status and income). Findings underscore the importance of disseminating culturally-relevant educational interventions to financially at-risk, low-paid migrant workers in China.     

What mental health professionals in Israel know and think about adolescent problem gambling

Mental health professionals are well versed in addressing multiple adolescent risky behaviours and play a primary role in the identification of and referral process and service provision for young people who engage in such behaviours. Given their ‘person-in-environment’ approach, training in multi-sectoral collaboration, and awareness of social policies, social workers are especially equipped to provide needed mental health services to young people. The aim of the current study was to examine Israeli mental health professionals’ awareness of and attitudes towards adolescent high-risk behaviours, including gambling. Child psychologists, social workers and school counsellors (N = 273) completed an online survey addressing concerns related to high-risk behaviours. Findings revealed that social workers perceived gambling as being among one of the least concerning adolescent mental health issues and reported feeling the least confident in their abilities to provide services to young people with gambling problems. The results suggest the importance of youth gambling addictions being incorporated into social work training curricula.     

上海社工职业化模式问题与展望

上海社会经济的发展需要职业化和专业化的社会工作。20世纪90年代中期以来,上海一直在稳步推进社会工作职业化。以授权为特征的职业化的主要内容包括:政府购买服务,民间组织经营,行业自律与管理,注册社工提供专业化服务。在职业化的过程中,上海社会工作在性质定位、需求定位、非政府参与和制度框架等方面还存在一些问题。面向新世纪,上海社会工作职业化需要全面拓展,走近百姓,广泛参与,规范运作。     

浙江省新生代农民工继续教育状况研究

中共中央、国务院印发的《新时期产业工人队伍建设改革方案》提出,要帮助"新生代农民工增加受教育培训机会,提高专业技能和胜任岗位能力",并将教育作为促进农民工融入城市,成为稳定就业的产业工人的重要路径。以浙江省11个地级市的服务行业、建筑行业、制造业的从业人员为主要调查对象,了解浙江省新生代农民工接受继续教育的现状与特点,发现新生代农民工存在自身接受继续教育的动力意愿不足、企业进行职业技能培训投资的动力意愿不足等问题,并据此提出要做好终身教育宣传、搭建继续教育平台、优化在职培训模式等解决办法。     

工会推进产业工人队伍建设的探索研究

产业工人是工人阶级的主体,在国民经济发展建设中发挥支撑作用。工会作为代表广大工人阶级利益的群众组织,在推进产业工人队伍建设改革中肩负着不可推卸的责任和重担。在目前新形势和时代变革下,我国产业工人队伍建设的现状还不能很好地适应经济转型中出现的新情况和新问题。对工会推进产业工人队伍建设的情况进行研究,在借鉴制造业强国经验的基础上,从思想政治引领、搭建发展平台、打造能力提升工程、利用“互联网+”和完善保障体系五个方面进行探索建设,从而为工会组织持续打造高素质产业工人队伍工作提供政策借鉴。     

新冠疫情对农民工复工的影响及应对分析

新冠疫情大流行正在对全球经济产生严重冲击,这次突如其来的疫情对我国经济及劳动力市场产生的重大影响还未停止,亿万农民工因春节后返城复工大流动的特殊性受影响尤为严重、在防疫防控与返城复工中创出的新鲜经验尤为珍贵。本文通过对农民工集中度高的制造业、建筑业、服务业分十个方面开展30户企业复工快速调查和“百企”复工分业调查,分析农民工在这一特殊时期错峰返城分批复工形成的“三波”新变化,研究农民工在特殊时期招工复工“新两难”问题,形成对农民工防疫与复工阶段性的基本研判,进而探索农民工防疫与复工交织的变化规律与应对之策,提出将部分应急对策上升为长期政策措施的初步建议。     

Supplemental home care and topping‐up: A shift from service universalism towards a new and privatised public service model?

How does a public service model based on service universalism react to the introduction of market principles of topping up? In a recent so‐called Free Municipality Scheme (an experimental scheme that allowed for greater operational autonomy locally in an effort to reduce state bureaucracy), a number of Danish municipalities were for the first time ever allowed to compete with for‐profit providers of home care in selling supplemental home care services paid entirely by the user. The take‐home message from this experience is that the introduction of supplemental home care entails challenges and eventually wider implications for the public service model, on an economic, organisational and cultural level. Supplemental services represent a new and potentially powerful combination of market and state logics that eventually redirects away from the universalist welfare state and towards a new and increasingly privatised public service model – a model where the service level is determined by the user's capacity to purchase and pay for services. The introduction of such services therefore implies a change of the potential of the Nordic welfare state to ensure equal access regardless of class and income.