Search Results for
"human"

Aims This paper explores the collaborative development of a Master's level advanced practice programme in the context of the radical reform and remodelling of the UK's National Health Service. Some of the educational, managerial and practice challenges are discussed. Background Changes to education and training in response to key strategic reviews undertaken by the Greater Manchester Strategic Health Authority (North West of England) established a need to develop nurses and allied health care practitioners to advanced practitioner level. This paper considers how employers, commissioners and educationalists worked together to produce a Master's level programme to prepare nurses and other health care practitioners for sustainable advanced practice roles. Key issues Developing innovative and effective curricula to meet the needs of post graduate students from varied backgrounds preparing to practice in different contexts with different client groups is challenging. However, the development of individual learning pathways and work-based learning ensures that the student's work and intended advanced practice role remains at the centre of their learning. Analysis of each student's knowledge and skill deficits alongside an analysis of the organization's readiness to support them as qualified advanced practitioners (APs) is instrumental in ensuring that organizations are ready to support practitioners in new roles. Conclusion Work-based learning and collaboration between students, employers and higher education institutions can be used to enable managers and students to unravel the network of factors which affect advanced practice in health and social care. Additionally, collaborative working can help to create opportunities to develop strategies that will facilitate change. Implications for nursing management Sustainable change concerned with the introduction of advanced practitioner roles present a real challenge for managers at a strategic and operational level. Commissioning flexible, collaborative and service-led educational programmes can assist in ensuring that change is sustainable and produce practitioners who are fit for practice, purpose and award. © 2009 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

Transitions from school to work are particularly difficult for students with cognitive disabilities. Job placements in appropriate inclusive community work settings have proven to be possible yet job retention is poor. This article focuses on using customization as a strategy for successful transitions. Six students in rural Kentucky will be receiving resources from vocational rehabilitation and special education to create a discovery portfolio, individualized job development, and customized employment. Their transition will be part of a ten year follow-up study that will track their employment history, inclusion in their chosen community, and asset building. Our goal is to place them in full-time employment that provides a living wage. © 2009 IOS Press. All rights reserved.

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Graduate medical trainees in the UK appreciate mentors who demonstrate learner-centredness as modelled by Rogers. This case study was undertaken to examine how, in one instance, learner-centred may be supervision within the tight confines of a formal, competency-based programme of training. Four formal interviews (in 18 months), were analysed to assess how learner-centred might be the process, by means of a within-case study method. Learner-centredness was seen to occur, as evidenced by less emphasis on formal exchanges, which were replaced by more of an exploratory and 'enabling' atmosphere in which insights were developed and which had more of the nature of a coaching or a 'skilled helper' model. This might allow others insights into their own practice. © 2009 Taylor & Francis.

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to examine the initiatives being taken in India in recent years to revitalize the national education and skill development systems from the perspectives of a knowledge economy. These initiatives include strengthening of the higher and technical education system of the country and bringing about a paradigm shift in the national skill development system through the plans of action contained in the on-going Eleventh Five Year Plan (2007-2012). The new policy frameworks for education and skill development developed by respective Government Ministries are also to be examined from the point of view of their efficacy in moving India up the ladder of knowledge economy. Design/methodology/approach - The critical review is based on an assessment of India's current status on well-known Knowledge Economy Indices, providing a conceptual understanding of the requirements from the country's education and skill development systems, and the emerging needs for making measurable progress on issues related to education and skill development. The approach is literature-survey based. Findings - The paper, while underscoring the emphasis given by the Government in bringing about major changes through mission-mode activities in both education and skill development systems, highlights possible gaps and mismatches in various initiatives taken up by different agencies, resulting in continuing issues and challenges in India's path towards moving up the ladder of knowledge economy. Originality/value - The paper gives a fresh look at several initiatives which have been continually taken up by the Government in the past, from the prism of a knowledge economy. © Emerald Group Publishing Limited.

Background. Qualitative research on physical therapist students' conceptualizations of clinical reasoning (CR) is sparse. Objectives. The purpose of this study was to explore CR from students' perspectives Design. For this study, a qualitative, cross-sectional design was used. Methods. Thirty-one students were randomly selected from years 2, 3, and 4 of an undergraduate physical therapist program in New Zealand. Students were interviewed about their understanding of CR and how they used it in practice in a recent musculoskeletal placement. Interviews were recorded and transcribed verbatim. A 3-stage analysis included the categorization of students' conceptualizations on the basis of the meaning and the structure of each experience and the identification of cross-category themes. Results. Five qualitatively different categories were identified: A-applying knowledge and experience to the problem, patient, or situation; B-analyzing and reanalyzing to deduce the problem and treatment; C-rationalizing or justifying what and why; D-combining knowledge to reach a conclusion; and E-problem solving and pattern building. Cross-category analysis revealed 5 general themes: forms of CR, spatiotemporal aspects, the degree of focus on the patient, attributions of confidence, and the role of clinical experience. Conclusions. Categories formed a continuum of CR from less to more sophistication and complexity. Students were distributed evenly across categories, except for category E, which included only students from years 3 and 4. Each category comprised a logical, coherent experiential field. The general themes as critical dimensions suggest a new way of exploring CR and suggest a possible pathway of development, but further research is required. These findings have implications for teaching and the development of physical therapy curricula. © 2009 American Physical Therapy Association.

This article examines the sociopolitical conditions for preventing market failure in public goods investment. Based on International Social Survey Program data for 17 advanced industrialized countries, the author compares economies with strong and weak institutions of interfirm coordination in how they encourage investment in skills and technological innovation and highlight the inefficiency of alternative investment strategies that bypass cooperation. With weak coordination, firms underinvest in skills and the labor market relies on academic education as an alternative, resulting in underutilization of human capital. Innovation intensifies skill demands and can reduce overeducation. However, without cooperation, firms also underinvest in research and development, and the economy relies on innovation from outside the firm, which reduces its effectiveness in alleviating overeducation. In countries with weak interfirm coordination, the economy suffers simultaneously from deficient skills, underused academic qualifications, and technological innovations with limited human capital benefits for the labor force. © 2009 SAGE Publications.

Clinical education is an important component of undergraduate nurse education, in which clinical teachers facilitate students' application of theoretical classroom knowledge into the clinical practice setting. Mothering as part of clinical teachers' work was a major finding from a larger study exploring clinical teaching work to identify what shaped their work and barriers to their work in clinical settings. The study used semi-structured interviews, informed by the work of Foucault. Maternal discourses emerged as a predominant one as participants presented their relationships with students describing examples of nurturing, protecting, supporting, guiding and providing discipline. The unexpected finding contradicted the dominant view of students at adult learners, and potentially positions them as dependent in their learning in clinical environments. Exploration of this discourse in the context of the study forms the basis of this paper. It is argued that the overall impact of maternal discourses on clinical teaching and learning is unclear but warrants more detailed investigation. © 2008 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.

This article analyses the importance of apprenticeship systems in the current contexts of the UK and Germany. It discusses the policy and practice of apprenticeship in connection with skills formation and vocational learning. It argues that despite its declining popularity, apprenticeship continues to play a role in contemporary education policy with possibilities for progress and improvement. However, its practicality and feasibility is dependent on policies which are influenced by the different national socio-political, economic and educational contexts. Indeed, the reason why the UK's attempts to revitalise its apprenticeship system has not been successful is not because apprenticeship is becoming irrelevant, but rather because policy objectives are not consistent with national capacities. If an apprenticeship system is based on strong institutional arrangements and is adaptable to the labour market and its evolving demands, it has enormous potential to produce different types of intermediate-level skills. © Springer-Verlag 2009.

This paper presents the main results obtained from 40 in-depth interviews with persons in charge of human resources and/or company directors, and from a questionnaire targeting 872 companies surveyed from a data base of the 5,000 main Spanish companies. The objectives of this paper are the following: first, to identify the competencies required of university graduates by the labour market; second, to find out the mismatches that may exist between the current higher education students receive and company demands; and third, to discover how and to what extent universities can improve their education and training in order to reduce the gap that, according to employers, exists between current business needs and the education that graduates have upon entering the labour market. To carry out this research project, the competencies under study have been divided into two large groups: vocational and generic. At the same time, the latter have been subdivided into three subgroups: knowledge-related, methodological, and interpersonal competencies. © 2009 European Higher Education Society.