Minorities & women in the health fields.

"August 1994".

Minorities & women in the health fields : applicants, students, and workers.

Chiefly tables.

Management of delirium in medicine : experience of a close observation unit

Objective(s): A new model of care for the management of patients with delirium was developed and evaluated. Method: A 4-bedded Close Observation Unit (COU) was introduced. The model comprised an education strategy for assistants in nursing (AIN), environmental adaptations and AIN to patient ratio of 1:4. Outcomes in all patients with delirium before and after introduction of the new model of care were compared. Results: 105 patients were admitted to COU, of whom 100 (95%) were diagnosed with delirium. In-hospital mortality improved after introduction of the unit (15% versus 5%; p=0.002) without significant change in length of stay, discharge destination or falls frequency. Conclusion: A dedicated unit for delirium management within medicine achieved a reduction in mortality.

A common ‘outlawness’ : criminalisation of Muslim minorities in the UK and Australia

Since mass immigration recruitments of the post-war period, ‘othered’ immigrants to both the UK and Australia have faced ‘mainstream’ cultural expectations to assimilate, and various forms of state management of their integration. Perceived failure or refusal to integrate has historically been constructed as deviant, though in certain policy phases this tendency has been mitigated by cultural pluralism and official multiculturalism. At critical times, hegemonic racialisation of immigrant minorities has entailed their criminalisation, especially that of their young men. In the UK following the ‘Rushdie Affair’ of 1989, and in both Britain and Australia following these states’ involvement in the 1990-91 Gulf War, the ‘Muslim Other’ was increasingly targeted in cycles of racialised moral panic. This has intensified dramatically since the 9/11 terrorist attacks and the ensuing ‘War on Terror’. The young men of Muslim immigrant communities in both these nations have, over the subsequent period, been the subject of heightened popular and state Islamophobia in relation to: perceived ‘ethnic gangs’; alleged deviant, predatory masculinity including so-called ‘ethnic gang rape’; and paranoia about Islamist ‘radicalisation’ and its supposed bolstering of terrorism. In this context, the earlier, more genuinely social-democratic and egalitarian, aspects of state approaches to ‘integration’ have been supplanted, briefly glossed by a rhetoric of ‘social inclusion’, by reversion to increasingly oppressive assimilationist and socially controlling forms of integrationism. This article presents some preliminary findings from fieldwork in Greater Manchester over 2012, showing how mainly British-born Muslims of immigrant background have experienced these processes.

Construction safety for ethnic minorities in Hong Kong

The construction industry of Hong Kong is experiencing an ageing problem and a labour shortage. To alleviate the shortage of construction workforce, the government has initiatives to assist ethnic minorities to join the construction industry. It is foreseeable that more people from the ethnic minorities will join the construction industry. The safety of workers from the ethnic minorities in construction has attracted growing research interest in many developed countries. Statistics show that workers from the ethnic minorities were nearly 30 percent more likely to have work-related injuries than local workers. However, in Hong Kong, official statistics on the safety of workers from the ethnic minorities are not available. This reflects the racial or ethnic insensitivity of the construction industry in Hong Kong. As the safety of ethnic minorities has not received the attention, this research seeking to contribute to efforts to improve the safety of workers from the ethnic minorities in the construction industry of Hong Kong is all the more urgent. This paper provides an initial report of a research project which focuses on improving the safety of ethnic minority construction workers. Qualitative and quantitative research methods applied in conducting the research are first discussed. Preliminary statistics of construction accidents involving ethnic minority construction workers will then be reported.

An introduction to radiation protection in medicine

"Combining facets of health physics with medicine, An Introduction to Radiation Protection in Medicine covers the background of the subject and the medical situations where radiation is the tool to diagnose or treat human disease. Encouraging newcomers to the field to properly and efficiently function in a versatile and evolving work setting, it familiarizes them with the particular problems faced during the application of ionizing radiation in medicine. The text builds a fundamental knowledge base before providing practical descriptions of radiation safety in medicine. It covers basic issues related to radiation protection, including the physical science behind radiation protection and the radiobiological basis of radiation protection. The text also presents operational and managerial tools for organizing radiation safety in a medical workplace. Subsequent chapters form the core of the book, focusing on the practice of radiation protection in different medical disciplines. They explore a range of individual uses of ionizing radiation in various branches of medicine, including radiology, nuclear medicine, external beam radiotherapy, and brachytherapy. With contributions from experienced practicing physicists, this book provides essential information about dealing with radiation safety in the rapidly shifting and diverse environment of medicine."--publisher website

Improving safety communication of ethnic minorities in the construction industry of Hong Kong

The construction workforce in Hong Kong is experiencing a severe ageing problem and labour shortage. One initiative to enhance the supply of manpower is to assist ethnic minorities joining the industry. It is foreseeable that the percentage of ethnic minorities in the construction workforce will keep increasing. Statistics show that ethnic minorities were nearly 30% more likely to have work-related injuries than local workers in some developed countries. However, official statistics on the safety of ethnic minorities are not available in Hong Kong. A search in newspaper archive revealed that ethnic minorities in the construction industry of Hong Kong are subjected to higher fatality rate than local workers, just as is the case in many developed countries. This reflects that the safety of ethnic minorities has not received the attention it rightly deserves. Safety communication has been one of the key factors leading to accidents. Safety communication barriers of ethnic minorities impede them from receiving safety training and acquiring safety information effectively. Research towards improving the safety communication of ethnic minorities in the construction industry of Hong Kong becomes more urgent. This paper will provides an initial report on a research project which focuses on improving the safety communication of ethnic minorities in the construction industry of Hong Kong. Quantitative and qualitative research methods including Social Network Analysis (SNA) applied in conducting the research are first discussed. Preliminary statistics of construction accidents related to ethnic minorities in Hong Kong are then presented.

Dimensions of University Student Learning in Medicine and Pharmacy

Study orientations in higher education consist of various dimensions, such as approaches to learning, conceptions of learning and knowledge (i.e. epistemologies), self-regulation, and motivation. They have also been measured in different ways. The main orientations typically reported are reproducing and meaning orientations. The present study explored dimensions of study orientations, focusing in particular on pharmacy and medicine. New versions of self-report instruments were developed and tested in various contexts and in two countries. Furthermore, the linkages between study orientations and students epistemological development were explored. The context of problem-based (PBL) small groups was investigated in order to better understand how collaboration contributes to the quality of learning. The participants of Study I (n=66) were pharmacy students, who were followed during a three-year professionally oriented program in terms of their study orientations and epistemologies. A reproducing orientation to studying diminished during studying, whereas only a few students maintained their original level of meaning orientation. Dualism was found to be associated with a reproducing orientation. In Study II practices associated with deep and surface approaches to learning were measured in two differing ways, in order to better distinguish between what students believed to be useful in studying, and the extent to which they applied their beliefs to practice when preparing for examinations. Differences between domains were investigated by including a sample of Finnish and Swedish medical students (n=956) and a Finnish non-medical sample of university students (n=865). Memorizing and rote learning appeared as differing components of a surface approach to learning, while understanding, relating, and critical evaluation of knowledge emerged as aspects of a deep approach to learning. A structural model confirmed these results in both student samples. Study III explored a wide variety of dimensions of learning in medical education. Swedish medical students (n=280) answered the questionnaire. The deep approach to learning was strongly related to collaboration and reflective learning, whereas the surface approach was associated with novice-like views of knowledge and the valuing of certain and directly applicable knowledge. PBL students aimed at understanding, but also valued the role of memorization. Study IV investigated 12 PBL tutorial groups of students (n=116) studying microbiology and pharmacology in a medical school. The educational application was expected to support a deep approach to learning: Group members course grades in a final examination were related to the perceived functioning of the PBL tutorial groups. Further, the quality of cases that had been used as triggers for learning, was associated with the quality of small group functioning. New dimensions of study orientations were discovered. In particular, novel, finer distinctions were found within the deep approach component. In medicine, critical evaluation of knowledge appeared to be less valued than understanding and relating. Further, collaboration appeared to be closely related to the deep approach, and it was also important in terms of successful PBL studying. The results of the studies confirmed the previously found associations between approaches to learning and study success, but showed interesting context- and subgroup-related differences in this respect. Students ideas about the nature of knowledge and their approaches to learning were shown to be closely related. The present study expanded our understanding of the dimensions of study orientations, of their development, and their contextual variability in pharmacy and medicine.

Career choice in medicine

Background: Career Choice in Medicine is an important and problematic topic. Medical education has been framed as professional identity development, yet career choice has not been viewed as a matter of identity. My primary aim was to offer new insights by exploring career choice using Figured Worlds theory, a socio-cultural theory of identity. Graduate retention is a challenge for many countries, including Ireland. My secondary aim was to address a gap in the data on postgraduate trainees in Ireland and to use the Irish case to illustrate points transferable to other contexts. Methodology & Methods: This was a predominantly qualitative Mixed Methods programme of research. My qualitative studies were oriented towards social constructionism. I collated existing data from the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland (RCPI) and HSE-MET to describe trainees and their career paths. I surveyed Basic Specialist Training trainees (n=333) about their career plans. I surveyed new trainees (n=527) about their expectations of training and all RCPI trainees about their experiences of training (n=1246). I conducted semi-structured interviews with 18 medical students and doctors. A subgroup (n=6) provided longitudinal data. Figured Worlds theory and Gee’s discourse tools were used for analysis. Results: I have used the case of medical training and career choice in Ireland to explain how social, political and cultural context, and day to day experiences in the cultural world of medicine, shaped doctors’ career choices. My qualitative findings described a unifying model of career choice, consisting of priming, exposure, positioning and open-endedness, which can guide the design of interventions to shape and support career choice. Conclusion: My original contribution has been to demonstrate the fruitfulness of framing career choice in terms of identity development. This represents a turn in the conversation about career choice, which brings new starting points and moves the dialogue forward.