Regional Follow up of Late Preterm Neonatal Intensive Care Graduates: Methodological Considerations.

The aim is to guide researchers who are contemplating embarking on research by discussing the methodological challenges encountered in a retrospective follow-up study of three-year-old, late preterm infants (LPIs) who received neonatal intensive care (NIC) in Northern Ireland in 2006. The importance of effective research examining the longer term outcomes of infants admitted to NIC has received increasing recognition. Follow-up cohort and longitudinal studies have grown in number globally, yet the research methodology relating to follow up of NIC graduates is unclear. This paper highlights the methodological challenges of conducting retrospective follow-up research, from the initial planning stages through to the collection of data from the children, including identification of infants from a retrospective database, ethical issues, child-safety concerns and recruitment challenges. This paper creates an awareness of potential issues that may arise in follow-up research with NIC graduates. The paper also offers practical and effective examples of dealing with these issues, helping to ensure the smooth running of an ethical, professionally conducted, methodologically sound and clinically relevant follow-up study.

Building partnerships in social work education: Towards achieving collaborative advantage for employers and universities

Summary: Better partnership working between employers and academic institutions has recently been identified as one of the key developments needed to improve social work education and practice in the UK (Social Work Reform Board, 2010). However, the praxis of collaborative working in social work education remains under-researched and it is unclear what factors are significant in promoting effective partnership. This article contributes to this debate by reporting research that examined the experience of social work academics working with employers to deliver qualifying level social work education in Northern Ireland.

Findings: This analysis explores key factors in the dynamics of the collaborative process and identifies both congruence and discord in academic and employer perspectives. The findings highlight the collaborative advantage accruing from partnership working, which include the benefits of a centrally coordinated system for the management and delivery of practice learning. However, the results also indicate that engaging in partnership working is a complex process that can create conflict and tensions, and that it is important to ground collaborations in realistic expectations of what can be achieved.

Application: This article identifies opportunities for achieving collaborative advantage and the challenges. It identifies lessons learned about the value of partnership working in social work education and ways to increase its efficacy.

Energy: lessons from devolution

Geraint Ellis and Richard Cowell explain the findings of the ‘Delivering renewable energy under devolution’ project, including some reasons for Scotland’s lead.

The UK has seen massive increases in renewable energy since 1998, with installed capacity growing from 2,600 MW to 12,300 MW in 2011. This has coincided with devolution and it is within Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales that the greatest increases have been seen.

As devolved administrations now host half of the UK’s renewable energy capacity, their policies are critical to achieving the broader UK targets. This also provides a fascinating insight into what sort of approach works best, and why. This has been the focus of a two-year study, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, involving universities from across the UK, which indicates that Scotland is leading the way on renewable energy.

All devolved governments have offered significant support to renewable energy but have different degrees of powers in relation to energy. Scotland’s success seems to be based on the centrality of energy issues to current political aspirations, particularly the SNP, but also has cross-party support. The research suggests that the consensus on the importance of renewable energy amongst élite interests in Scotland helps to explain why Scottish governments have been empowered and enabled to make robust use of the powers available.

As it has achieved successful growth in the sector, this too helps cultivate credibility among key business interests and gives increased leverage to its position in policy discussions with the UK Government. Scotland has been more consistent over time in presenting the expansion of renewable energy as a national economic agenda, rather than just an environmental or rural development agenda. The availability of larger, windy, but relatively less contested sites for onshore wind in Scotland has meant that more projects went through central consenting procedures rather than local planning authorities. Its enhanced support for wave and tidal power technologies is also notable. These political conditions have been harder to find in the rest of the UK, making progress a little more uncertain.

Northern Ireland has used its powers (which are more extensive than Scotland’s) to facilitate small-scale renewables and bio-fuel processes, with its liberalised planning regime offering an initial boost to expanding capacity.

This has contrasted with the position in Wales, which has least control over energy but the Welsh Government has adopted a more innovative approach to strategic spatial zoning; this appears to have pulled in a larger volume of onshore wind development interest than could be expected in a comparable region of England. A downside of the Welsh approach appears to be the fact that the concentration of these wind projects in these zones has triggered public opposition and political conflict.

It therefore appears that the powers available to the devolved governments do not seem to determine which country has been able to make greatest headway, with broader political commitments being more significant. Despite this, the research does not conclude that the actions and activities undertaken by the devolved governments are necessarily the most important factors in shaping the development of renewable energy in the UK. This is because devolution is still a relatively new dimension of energy governance in the UK and decisions affecting key drivers for renewable energy investment are still made mainly in Westminster, with the Treasury exercising close budgetary control. In all areas of the UK, grid capacity expansion remains slow to achieve. The major growth in offshore wind to date has been driven mainly by Westminster and cross-UK bodies with the most significant capacity growth being in English territorial waters.

Managing knowledge in internationalizing universities through foreign assignments

Purpose: This article discusses the opportunities presented by the globalization of education and the role of knowledge management in successful global expansion. It seeks to explain why the tacit dimensions of the knowledge transferred during international education provision makes it difficult to provide educational services in offshore campuses, absent the transfer of people. Design/methodology/approach: The article draws on literature in the discipline of international business to explain why internationalizing universities need to consider the role of knowledge transfer as a strategic imperative. As this is a conceptual article, arguments are built on insights from extant theoretical and empirical work. Findings: Based on the analysis of a diverse body of academic literature in the areas of international business, knowledge management and education theory, this article demonstrates the role of foreign assignments in the transfer of tacit knowledge in universities with offshore campuses. Research limitations/implications: The implications of the proposition raised in this article are presented with a focus on how they affirm the need for foreign assignments for effective knowledge management in internationalizing universities. Those implications include the need to use assignments to deliver courses offshore and to create face-to-face interactions with academics at partner universities. Originality/value: Drawing on a diverse body of academic literature, this article provides theoretical and practical insights into how assignments can be utilized in international educational management, international educational delivery, and the creation of an environment in which knowledge resources can be utilized on an international basis. © Emerald Group Publishing Limited.

Effectiveness of the Construction Management Courses

This research assesses the effectiveness of current MSc. Construction Project Management programmes within the UK and Ireland. A review of published prospectuses is used to create questionnaires for universities, graduates and employers. Responses provide an insight into programme creation and their relative success in addressing the needs of industry and in achieving other educational objectives. Since the majority of learning institutions have attained professional accreditation, it is useful to review these awards and to assess their potential value to both graduates and industry alike. Interviews are conducted with representatives from the main professional accrediting bodies to understand their procedures and rigour in enforcing standards of education and training. The results show that project management education could be further enhanced by the inclusion of more practical learning and that current programmes place greater emphasis on hard skills at the expense of the softer human skills. There is clearly a need for a closer working relationship between academics and practitioners to tackle the perceived gap between theoretical learning and construction practice. Learning institutions can use the findings to improve their programmes and address the education deficiencies identified by the industry, by the professional institutions and by graduates.

How much do you need: a randomised experiment of whether readers can understand the key messages from summaries of Cochrane Reviews, without reading the full review?

Objective: We explored whether readers can understand key messages without having to read the full review, and if there were differences in understanding between various types of summary.
Design: A randomised experiment of review summaries which compared understanding of a key outcome.
Participants: Members of university staff (n = 36).
Setting: Universities on the island of Ireland.
Method: The Cochrane Review chosen examines the health impacts of the use of electric fans during heat waves. Participants were asked their expectation of the effect these would have on mortality. They were then randomly assigned a summary of the review (i.e. abstract, plain language summary, podcast or podcast transcription) and asked to spend a short time reading/listening to the summary. After this they were again asked about the effects of electric fans on mortality and to indicate if they would want to read the full Review.
Main outcome measure: Correct identification of a key review outcome.
Results: Just over half (53%) of the participants identified its key message on mortality after engaging with their summary. The figures were 33% for the abstract group, 50% for both the plain language and transcript groups and 78% for the podcast group.
Conclusions: The differences between the groups were not statistically significant but suggest that the audio summary might improve knowledge transfer compared to written summaries. These findings should be explored further using a larger sample size and with other reviews.

Views of pharmacy graduates and pharmacist tutors on evidence-based practice in relation to over-the-counter consultations: a qualitative study

RATIONALE, AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: Health care services offered to the public should be based on the best available evidence. We aimed to explore pharmacy tutors' and trainees' views on the importance of evidence when making decisions about over-the-counter (OTC) medicines and also to investigate whether the tutor influenced the trainee in practice.

METHODS: Following ethical approval and piloting, semi-structured interviews were conducted with pharmacy graduates (trainees) and pharmacist tutors. Transcribed interview data were entered into the NVivo software package (version 10), coded and analysed via thematic analysis.

RESULTS: Twelve trainees (five males, seven females) and 11 tutors (five males, six females) participated. Main themes that emerged were (in)consistency and contradiction, confidence, acculturation, and continuation and perpetuation. Despite having an awareness of the importance and potential benefits, an evidence-based approach did not seem to be routinely or consistently implemented in practice. Confidence in products was largely derived from personal use and patient feedback. A lack of discussion about evidence was justified on the basis of not wanting to lessen patient confidence in requested product(s) or possibly negating the placebo effect. Trainees became acculturated to 'real-life' practice; university teaching and evidence was deemed less relevant than meeting customer expectations. The tutor's actions were mirrored by their trainee resulting in continuation and perpetuation of the same professional attitudes and behaviours.

CONCLUSIONS: Evidence appeared to have limited influence on OTC decision making. The tutor played a key role in the trainee's professional development. More work could be performed to investigate how evidence can be regarded as relevant and something that is consistently implemented in practice.

Transitional justice, demobilization, and peacebuilding amid political violence: Examining individual preferences in the Caribbean coast of Colombia

The conventional wisdom in the transitional justice literature is that there is no one-size-fits-all approach. This article suggests that this may also be true within a given state. The current paper reports on quantitative and qualitative data from 184 participants in a survey conducted in the Caribbean coast of Colombia. Results suggest widespread support for transitional justice mechanisms – such as perpetrator accountability, public acknowledgement and structural change – but dissatisfaction with national-level initiatives, specifically the 2005 Justice and Peace Law. Yet, despite a distrust of the national government and protracted conflict, individuals report social trust, community cohesion and reliance on local government institutions. These attitudes and behaviours suggest that decentralised transitional justice mechanisms may be more effective in meeting victims' needs. Moreover, analyses indicate that individual preferences are influenced by community factors, such as the presence of demobilised paramilitaries, which can be addressed through more localised approaches to promote peacebuilding. The paper concludes with best practices derived from the findings.

UK medical graduates’ preparedness for practice (P4P): A multi-site qualitative study

Introduction Previous research has demonstrated mixed findings in terms of graduates’ P4P in terms of their knowledge and skills, and interpersonal, systemic and technological aspects (Monrouxe et al. 2014). Few studies have included diverse stakeholders from multiple sites and employing longitudinal methods. We therefore aimed to understand the extent to which UK medical graduates are prepared for practice as Foundation doctors. Methods Cross-sectional qualitative narrative interview and longitudinal audio-diary (LAD) studies with participants from England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Study 1 comprised 27 group and 84 individual interviews (n=185) with participants representing different stakeholders (F1s, fully registered trainees, clinical educators, undergraduate/postgraduate deans/foundation programme directors, other healthcare professionals, employers, policy makers, government representatives, and patient/public representatives). Study 2 comprised LADs with 26 F1s over 4-months. Results Participants found it hard initially to conceptualise the term ‘preparedness for practice’. We identified 2187 personal incident narratives (i.e. stories of P4P experiences) across our data: 506 (23%) were classed as ‘prepared’, 730 (33%) as ‘unprepared’ and 951 (44%) as ‘unspecified’. We identified factors that facilitated (e.g. supportive supervisors/colleagues, opportunities for shadowing) and hindered (e.g. unsupportive or disrespectful colleagues, poor organization, understaffing) transitions into and through the Foundation programme. The LADs suggested that trainees felt more confident and competent over time, but that such development was not always linear as challenging circumstances (e.g. new rotations) sometimes made trainees feel unprepared for situations where they had previously indicated preparedness. Conclusion Our findings add to the existing evidence on medical graduates’ P4P in the UK (e.g. Goldacre et al. 2008; Illing et al. 2013). Our findings support the role of assistantships and supportive supervisors for smoothing transitions from student to F1. Further longitudinal and action research studies are now needed to follow students through their final-year assistantships and into their F2 year.

Comparing Social Work Students' Perceptions of Risk Using Online Discussion Fora: Lessons Learned from a European Pilot Project

Comparisons of international child welfare systems have identified two basic orientations to practice; a ‘child protection’ orientation and a ‘child welfare’ orientation, which are founded upon fundamentally different values and assumptions regarding the family, the origins of child care problems, and the proper role of the state in relation to the family. This paper describes a project which sought to compare how undergraduate social work students from three European Universities perceive risk in referrals about the welfare of children and to explore the impact of different cultural, ideological and educational contexts on the way in which risk is constructed by students. Students from Northern Ireland, Germany and Poland examined three vignettes via ten online discussion fora each of which provided a narrative summary of their discussion. The paper presents some findings from the analysis of the qualitative data emerging from the student discussions and draws out the lessons learned in terms of how the project was designed and implemented using online discussion fora.

Open for Business: Universities, Entrepreneurial Academics and Open Innovation

The emergence of open innovation theory and practice, alongside the evolution to a quadruple helix system of innovation, has led to a need for universities to rethink their models of engagement with industry and wider society. One important element in this system is the entrepreneurial academics; however there is a lack of research considering the motivations of entrepreneurial academics, who differ from academic entrepreneurs, to engage in knowledge transfer in line with open innovation policy. This research offers practical insights on whether new models of engagement, increasingly offered by universities, really address the policy drivers for open innovation. Furthermore, this research explores whether these activities might motivate entrepreneurial academics to participate. Preliminary findings identify that many supposedly new collaboration activities do not really motivate entrepreneurial academics. This may have important implications on the ability of universities to become truly open and to encourage their academics to become engaged in collaboration and impact.