Critical approaches to care:understanding caring relations, identities and cutures

What does ‘care’ mean in contemporary society? How are caring relationships practised in different contexts? What resources do individuals and collectives draw upon in order to care for, care with and care about themselves and others? How do such relationships and practices relate to broader social processes? Care shapes people’s everyday lives and relationships and caring relations and practices influence the economies of different societies. This interdisciplinary book takes a nuanced and context-sensitive approach to exploring caring relationships, identities and practices within and across a variety of cultural, familial, geographical and institutional arenas. Grounded in rich empirical research and discussing key theoretical, policy and practice debates, it provides important, yet often neglected, international and cross-cultural perspectives. It is divided into four sections covering: caring within educational institutions; caring amongst communities and networks; caring and families; and caring across the life-course. Contributing to broader theoretical, philosophical and moral debates associated with the ethics of care, citizenship, justice, relationality and entanglements of power, Critical Approaches to Care is an important work for students and academics studying caring and care work in the fields of health and social care, sociology, social policy, anthropology, education, human geography and politics.

Greening operations management:an online sustainable procurement course for practitioners

In the Operations Management field, sustainable procurement has emerged as a way to green the purchasing and supply process. This paper explores issues in sustainable procurement training. The authors formed an interdisciplinary team to design, deliver and evaluate a training programme to promote and develop sustainable procurement in the United Kingdom health sector. Particular features of the project were its engagement with evolving and contested understandings of sustainable procurement and of the underlying concept of sustainable development and its recognition that relevant knowledge in the field is both incomplete and widely diffused through the procurement community. Eight practitioner groups worked together on themes to develop their understanding of sustainable procurement using the Blackboard virtual learning environment. Group interviews were conducted upon completion of the course and again three months later to explore qualitatively participants' experience of learning and implementing sustainable procurement. Although the course was delivered to practitioners, it might be modified for undergraduate and graduate students as it comprised the use of online activities in virtual learning environments, case studies and a broad range of literature. The course was also particularly significant in the context of contemporary policy moves in the United Kingdom and elsewhere to promote the role of higher education institutions in delivering workplace-based, high-skills education consistent with strategic policy considerations (see, for example, DIUS, 2008).

Influence of ethical beliefs, national culture and institutions on preferences for HRM in Oman

Purpose – The paper seeks to investigate the association between ethical beliefs, aspects of national culture and national institutions, and preferences for specific human resource management practices in the Sultanate of Oman. Design/methodology/approach – A total of 712 individuals working in six organisations (both private and public sectors) responded to a self-administered questionnaire in the Sultanate of Oman. To test the raised research questions of the proposed framework, the methodology of structural equation models was used. Findings – The results highlight significant differences in the belief systems on the basis of different demographic characteristics. The findings also confirm impact of ethical beliefs, and aspects of national culture and national institutions on preferences for human resource management (HRM) practices. Research limitations/implications – Although the goodness-of-fit indexes confirmed the validity of the proposed operational model, some indices were attained at rather flexible levels. Practical implications – Studies on managerial beliefs and values can offer important insights into the extent that work is viewed as an integral life activity. Such information can help differentiate among managerial styles in various cultures, and in predicting managerial behaviour such as ethical decision-making. Based on such understanding, the findings can be used to educate government officials and outside consultants interested in Oman. Originality/value – The study contributes to the accumulation of knowledge about under-researched developing countries such as Oman, as limited data are available on HRM, value orientations and ethical beliefs' issues in this region.

The attitudes of students and academic staff towards electronic course support:are we convergent?

The present study investigates the views and attitudes of both the students and staff with regard to the usefulness of electronic course support throughout all four years of the MPharm programme at Aston University. Students were sampled between January and March 2001 using a self-completion questionnaire administered during the start of a practical or tutorial class. All internal academic staff were interviewed using a semi-structured interview format. Response rates were 100 and 89.5%, respectively. The study found that students rapidly embraced the use of electronic course support within the undergraduate programme, although they view its role as augmenting traditional course delivery. This view was mirrored by the academic staff, although only around a half currently place their material on the University's virtual learning environment (VLE), WebCT. The failure of staff to completely embrace the VLE is grounded in a lack of confidence and ability in its use. A majority of the academic staff indicated that they wish to be trained further in the use of information technology. Academic institutions need to understand and meet these needs in parallel with the introduction of any electronic course support.

Cross-institutional development of an online open course for educators:confronting current challenges and imagining future possibilities

The Global Dimensions in Higher Education module is a fully online open course for educators, jointly developed by three UK universities through a process of consultation and inquiry involving colleagues within the global education sector. The purpose of the module is two-fold. Firstly, to engage academics within and beyond the partner institutions in a critical exploration of transnational and global issues within higher education. Secondly, to provide the project partners with an opportunity to understand and address the challenges of jointly developing and delivering an online course that is to be offered both openly as well as integrated within credit-bearing and continued professional development provision for academics in the partner institutions. This short paper describes progress to date in developing the Global Dimensions in Higher Education module, our current activity focused on validating and implementing the module, and lessons learned to be considered for the collaborative development of open online courses.

Development of a work-based learning MSc course which incorporates the development and demonstration of professional engineering competence standards

UK engineering standards are regulated by the Engineering Council (EC) using a set of generic threshold competence standards which all professionally registered Chartered Engineers in the UK must demonstrate, underpinned by a separate academic qualification at Masters Level. As part of an EC-led national project for the development of work-based learning (WBL) courses leading to Chartered Engineer registration, Aston University has started an MSc Professional Engineering programme, a development of a model originally designed by Kingston University, and build around a set of generic modules which map onto the competence standards. The learning pedagogy of these modules conforms to a widely recognised experiential learning model, with refinements incorporated from a number of other learning models. In particular, the use of workplace mentoring to support the development of critical reflection and to overcome barriers to learning is being incorporated into the learning space. This discussion paper explains the work that was done in collaboration with the EC and a number of Professional Engineering Institutions, to design a course structure and curricular framework that optimises the engineering learning process for engineers already working across a wide range of industries, and to address issues of engineering sustainability. It also explains the thinking behind the work that has been started to provide an international version of the course, built around a set of globalised engineering competences. © 2010 W J Glew, E F Elsworth.

Interventions for nurses caring for a child who has an unexpected acute life threatening event (ALTE) in hospital

Introduction: Caring for a child who has an unexpected ALTE in hospital can be stressful. An ALTE may include a cardiac arrest, respiratory arrest or call for immediate assistance. An international survey of practice was conducted to identify any existing interventions to inform a PhD program of work aimed at reducing the stress from these events through preparation and support. Purpose: The purpose of the survey was threefold: (1) Describe ‘normal’ practice when it comes to preparing staff or providing psychological support after caring for a child who has had an ALTE. (2) Determine if there are any interventions to prepare clinical staff for potential psychological effects of caring for a child who has an ALTE. (3) Determine if there are any interventions to provide support for clinical staff after caring for a child who has an ALTE. Material - Methods: An 18 item semi structured questionnaire was designed for the study to allow respondent to describe practices within their institution and outline their opinions and professional experiences. Clinicians from selected children’s and adult hospitals in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, United Kingdom and the United States of America were contacted by telephone. Following consent they were given the option to complete the survey via the telephone, by post or online. Results: Of the 61 hospitals approached 44 (72%) clinicians responded. Eighteen (41%) respondents identified interventions in place to prepare nurses for an ALTE ranging from (but not limited to) ad hoc discussions during life support training through to structured simulation training. Thirty-six (82%) respondents identified that they had interventions in place to support nurses after an ALTE ranging from (but not limited to) debriefing through to structured case reviews. Conclusions: Interventions varied across institutions, with no outcome or evaluation data for the interventions published to date.