Qualitative synthesis and systematic review in health professions education

Context  Formal qualitative synthesis is the process of pooling qualitative and mixed-method research data, and then drawing conclusions regarding the collective meaning of the research. Qualitative synthesis is regularly used within systematic reviews in the health professions literature, although such use has been heavily debated in the general literature. This controversy arises in part from the inherent tensions found when generalisations are derived from in-depth studies that are heavily context-dependent.Methods  We explore three representative qualitative synthesis methodologies: thematic analysis; meta-ethnography, and realist synthesis. These can be understood across two dimensions: integrative to interpretative, and idealist to realist. Three examples are used to illustrate the relative strengths and limitations of these approaches.Discussion  Against a backdrop of controversy and diverse methodologies, readers must take a critical stand when reading literature reviews that use qualitative synthesis to derive their findings. We argue that notions of qualitative rigour such as transparency and acknowledgment of the researchers’ stance should be applied to qualitative synthesis.

[Acceptance of killing of animals: survey among veterinarians and other professions]

Professional veterinarians are one of the most affected professions when it comes to killing animals. However, in some situations the opinion about the acceptance of killing of animals differs between people, which can cause a dilemma for the executing person. In a pilot study based on questionnaires, veterinarians from different working fields and students of different branches stated their acceptance of killing of animals in diverse concrete situations. The result clearly demonstrates a higher acceptance of killing of animals among veterinarians with longtime experience in contrast to other groups and the almost same acceptance among agricultural students. The acceptance increased with age, however, we could not find a gender specific difference except of within a narrow age interval. The variability of acceptance within the same profession group differs between the situations. Veterinarians should be aware of their different thinking about killing of animals in some situations compared to other people and should know the reason of such differences. This is important not least to protect themselves and their opinion and to contribute to their societal responsibility by their veterinarian activity.

Between Equity and Empathy: Social Professions and the New Accountability

This article explores the practical and ethical implications of the ‘new accountability’ (working to procedures, targets and standards) based on interviews with British social professionals. Although similar tendencies are present in other European countries, in Britain the rule-bound nature of social work is more intense. Practitioners who regard the ‘new accountability’ positively justify their views with reference to utilitarian and rights-based arguments relating to the promotion of good outcomes, the achievement of equity, respecting the consumer rights of service users and the rights of other stakeholders to information and value for money. Those practitioners who view the new accountability requirements negatively seem to speak in a different ‘moral voice’, which can be linked to more personal and situated approaches to ethics, stressing the importance of particular relationships in context, trust, sensitivity and a sense of ‘vocation’. Both ‘voices’ are part of professional practice, but the new accountability stresses the former at the expense of the latter. For social work to play the critical role identified by Walter Lorenz, maintaining a creative balance between equity and empathy will be important.

Video Composer and Live Video Conductor: Future Professions for the Interactive Digital Broadcasting Industry

Innovations in hardware and network technologies lead to an exploding number of non-interrelated parallel media streams. Per se this does not mean any additional value for consumers. Broadcasting and advertisement industries have not yet found new formats to reach the individual user with their content. In this work we propose and describe a novel digital broadcasting framework, which allows for the live staging of (mass) media events and improved consumer personalisation. In addition new professions for future TV production workflows which will emerge are described, namely the 'video composer' and the 'live video conductor'.

Choosing social-educational professions in post-soviet countries: international comparison

The motivation functions as the most important and decisive factor in choosing the profession Therefore it has an especially remarkable role in the further professional activity of a social-educational worker to raise one's qualification and progress as a specialist. The issue of the professional motivation for choosing social-educational work-studies is becoming increasingly important in post-soviet countries, where the institution of social worker is new and the social exclusion is so widely expressed. The issue of the professional aptitude of students is also important in various professional fields, however in social-educational professions it's importance is exceptional. The profession of social-educational work is based on competences that are constantly expanding and becoming more and more complex.

Changing Europe and The Relevance of Care and The Caring Professions

The aim of the paper is to introduce the challenges of the international care debate of the last ten years in order to grasp basic social needs, to analyse their treatment in the public and private sphere and to look at the orientation of professional answers by the care-professions. The concept of care enhances the societal dealing with - or ignoring of - different forms of dependency on informal and formal personal and social services throughout the life-cycle (child-care, nursing sick or handicapped persons, supporting the elderly) and in special life situations (from help to lone mothers and their children, via help to drug-addicts to help for homeless people). All societies have different approaches to deal with these life-situations, they do so by employ-ing various mixtures of: familial support, mostly provided by women, social politics, organized by the state, public and/or private social services. This welfare-mix shows different combinations of private and public obligations, paid and und unpaid work, professional and laymen's tasks based on a specific understanding of mo-rality and justice embedded in the gender structure and intergenerational relationships. The importance of social work as a profession in this context differs according to the historical developments and cultural traditions. Characteristic for the profile of social work is the rele-vance of a care ethics and the existence of social rights, the tension of mothering and profes-sional methods, the relationship between help, denial and punishment and the ways of institu-tionalisation. The actuality of this debate is closely intertwined with the restructuring of societal bonds in the face of globalisation, the political reorganisation of states, the changes in the living to-gether of different generations and both sexes and the consequences for the organisation and contents of welfare. Looking at Germany and Eastern Europe two new phenomena of social relevance for the dis-cussion of care work and care needs can be taken as an example: the extent of cheap illegal women laborers travelling between east and west, especially Polish women working intermit-tendly in private care for old people and the highly organized traffiking of women from Russia to Germany to work in the sex business. The care debate entails a reframing of welfare issues in the light of social justice between classes, ethnicities and gender groups.

Does gender-fair language pay off? The social perception of professions from a cross-linguistic perspective

In many languages, masculine forms (e.g., German Lehrer, “teachers, masc.”) have traditionally been used to refer to both women and men, although feminine forms are available, too. Feminine-masculine word pairs (e.g., German Lehrerinnen und Lehrer, “teachers, fem. and teachers, masc.”) are recommended as gender-fair alternatives. A large body of empirical research documents that the use of gender-fair forms instead of masculine forms has a substantial impact on mental representations. Masculine forms activate more male representations even when used in a generic sense, whereas word pairs (e.g., German Lehrerinnen und Lehrer, “teachers, fem. and teachers, masc.”) lead to a higher cognitive inclusion of women (i.e., visibility of women). Some recent studies, however, have also shown that in a professional context word pairs may be associated with lesser status. The present research is the first to investigate both effects within a single paradigm. A cross-linguistic (Italian and German) study with 391 participants shows that word pairs help to avoid a male bias in the gender-typing of professions and increase women's visibility; at the same time, they decrease the estimated salaries of typically feminine professions (but do not affect perceived social status or competence). This potential payoff has implications for language policies aiming at gender-fairness.

Criteria of election of postgraduate courses in graduated students of technological/ humanistic/ artistic professions : Subjective and contextual involvements to arrive at the conclusion of them

El aumento en la cantidad de estudios de posgrado y de sus cursantes derivados de la demanda por mayores credenciales académicas en lo laboral y por la búsqueda personal para especializarse profesionalmente, es un fenómeno observado en Argentina desde mediados de los años 90. Obtener el título final de estos estudios resulta un porcentaje muy inferior en relación al número de sus inscriptos. Tales motivos focalizaron nuestra atención para analizar tanto los criterios de elección del posgrado como las condiciones contextuales y subjetivas para alcanzar la titulación. Este estudio, de tipo cualitativo, investiga en tres carreras de Especialización que se cursan en diferentes Universidades nacionales , los aspectos de su organización y estilo propuesto para cursar y lograr la finalización de los estudios, así como las motivaciones de la elección de cursantes y egresados en tres ramas diferentes: artística, humanística y tecnológica. El conocimiento sobre la lógica de la organización y la particularidad del objeto de estudio de cada carrera permite analizar diferencias y semejanzas entre ellas aportando algunas propuestas para considerar en programas de formación; mientras que los trayectos de cursantes y egresados explican aspectos subjetivos que intervienen en la finalización o no del posgrado.

Criteria of election of postgraduate courses in graduated students of technological/ humanistic/ artistic professions : Subjective and contextual involvements to arrive at the conclusion of them

El aumento en la cantidad de estudios de posgrado y de sus cursantes derivados de la demanda por mayores credenciales académicas en lo laboral y por la búsqueda personal para especializarse profesionalmente, es un fenómeno observado en Argentina desde mediados de los años 90. Obtener el título final de estos estudios resulta un porcentaje muy inferior en relación al número de sus inscriptos. Tales motivos focalizaron nuestra atención para analizar tanto los criterios de elección del posgrado como las condiciones contextuales y subjetivas para alcanzar la titulación. Este estudio, de tipo cualitativo, investiga en tres carreras de Especialización que se cursan en diferentes Universidades nacionales , los aspectos de su organización y estilo propuesto para cursar y lograr la finalización de los estudios, así como las motivaciones de la elección de cursantes y egresados en tres ramas diferentes: artística, humanística y tecnológica. El conocimiento sobre la lógica de la organización y la particularidad del objeto de estudio de cada carrera permite analizar diferencias y semejanzas entre ellas aportando algunas propuestas para considerar en programas de formación; mientras que los trayectos de cursantes y egresados explican aspectos subjetivos que intervienen en la finalización o no del posgrado.

Criteria of election of postgraduate courses in graduated students of technological/ humanistic/ artistic professions : Subjective and contextual involvements to arrive at the conclusion of them

El aumento en la cantidad de estudios de posgrado y de sus cursantes derivados de la demanda por mayores credenciales académicas en lo laboral y por la búsqueda personal para especializarse profesionalmente, es un fenómeno observado en Argentina desde mediados de los años 90. Obtener el título final de estos estudios resulta un porcentaje muy inferior en relación al número de sus inscriptos. Tales motivos focalizaron nuestra atención para analizar tanto los criterios de elección del posgrado como las condiciones contextuales y subjetivas para alcanzar la titulación. Este estudio, de tipo cualitativo, investiga en tres carreras de Especialización que se cursan en diferentes Universidades nacionales , los aspectos de su organización y estilo propuesto para cursar y lograr la finalización de los estudios, así como las motivaciones de la elección de cursantes y egresados en tres ramas diferentes: artística, humanística y tecnológica. El conocimiento sobre la lógica de la organización y la particularidad del objeto de estudio de cada carrera permite analizar diferencias y semejanzas entre ellas aportando algunas propuestas para considerar en programas de formación; mientras que los trayectos de cursantes y egresados explican aspectos subjetivos que intervienen en la finalización o no del posgrado.