Search Results (52)

Facilitating a just response to staff involved in patient safety events is complex, with varying perceptions of safe behaviour and practice across settings. This viewpoint paper explores the challenges of developing a just culture, particularly in safeguarding situations involving peer-to-peer harm. It argues that established just culture principles, such as balancing staff and organisational accountability and using After Action Review (AAR) debriefs, need to be tailored to these contexts. In particular, organisational accountability is paramount in safeguarding situations, especially where individuals do not have the capacity to understand or intend their behaviours. Furthermore, AARs are inappropriate incident responses for serious aggression, violence, and abuse cases. To counter this, a consistent AAR practice can be valuable for preventative learning when applied to the service user care journey and comprehensive incident learning responses. The incorporation of social workers, service users, and families can help promote learning and the prevention of events. Finally, this paper emphasises the need for consistency in core safety principles across settings and the need to tailor just cultural principles to particular contexts. Future research on the role of AAR in diverse settings is recommended. Full article

Objective: To better understand barriers and enablers to uptake of dementia training in rural and remote areas using input from rural and remote aged and health care workers into how dementia training could be offered to better meet their needs. Methods: Roundtable focus groups were conducted in six diverse rural and remote locations in four jurisdictions around Australia. Sixty-seven workers from predominantly nursing, allied health, and support worker roles involved in dementia care participated. Data were collected by site and used a mixture of face-to-face and virtual facilitated ‘roundtable’ discussions. Each group discussed barriers and enablers to participation in training and their preferences for how dementia training should be provided. Results: Commonalities emerged in barriers for accessing dementia training. Participants emphasised the need for strong organisational support and locally relevant, interactive and flexible delivery methods to address rural challenges. Significant challenges related to staffing levels, time constraints, and competing priorities. Enablers of training uptake included support from employers covering time and costs of training, local collaboration, and training accessibility for all job roles rather than profession specific. Participants emphasised the importance of practical, local training relevant to their scope of practice delivered by experienced trainers. The need for culturally safe aged care practices was noted in all sites. Discussion and Conclusions: Collaborative approaches across organisations and the aged care workforce and training relevant to local rural contexts were favoured. The opportunity to learn from external experts was greatly appreciated. Workers want training that enhances culturally safe practices. Organisational support is critical for training implementation. Full article

The increasing digitalisation of healthcare has created a pressing need for health professionals to develop robust digital skills. This paper explores the imperative of equipping health professionals with the necessary digital proficiency to enhance their daily workflows and improve patient care. The expanding use of digital technologies, including electronic health records, telehealth, and artificial intelligence, has transformed the healthcare landscape. However, the adoption of these technologies has been hindered by barriers, such as a lack of interoperability and hesitancy among healthcare providers. To address these challenges, this paper argues that digital skill development must be a core component of healthcare education and professional training. Medical schools and healthcare organisations must prioritise the integration of digital health curricula and continuous learning opportunities to ensure that the next generation of healthcare providers is well-equipped to navigate the digital healthcare ecosystem. Additionally, this paper highlights the importance of fostering a culture of digital innovation and collaboration within healthcare settings. By empowering health professionals to actively participate in the development and testing of new digital health applications, the industry can unlock the full potential of digital technologies to enhance daily workflows and improve patient outcomes. Full article

The increasing complexity of healthcare needs driven by an ageing population places pressure on district nursing care. Many vulnerable older adults prefer to remain at home, requiring care coordinated with general practitioners and other professionals. This demand for integrated care is further challenged by a shortage of nursing professionals and the lack of standardised approaches to measure care quality. This article identifies the key requirements for implementing a learning healthcare system in district nursing care, using patient outcome data to foster continuous improvement and create a more adaptive, evidence-based, and patient-centred approach. This paper synthesises findings from multiple studies conducted as part of a PhD thesis, utilising a multi-method approach. These methods include examining patient outcomes in district nursing care and evaluating necessary cultural, organisational, and financial changes. Four key requirements were identified: (1) standardising patient outcome measures; (2) fostering a data-driven culture and strengthening professional autonomy; (3) enhancing organisational support and integrated care; and (4) adopting financing models that incentivise continuous learning and quality improvement. Implementing a learning healthcare system with patient outcome data in district nursing care requires a transformative shift. Standardising outcome measures, investing in information systems, and promoting continuous learning are crucial. Aligning financial incentives with patient outcomes, strengthening professional autonomy, and enhancing organisational support can make district nursing more responsive and capable of meeting complex needs. The described requirements are essential for advancing district nursing care through a more adaptive, evidence-based, and patient-centred approach. Full article

The Douro Demarcated Region is fundamental to local cultural and economic identity. Despite its importance, the region faces the challenge of abandoned vineyard plots, caused, among other factors, by the high costs of maintaining vineyards on hilly terrain. To solve this problem, the European Union (EU) offers subsidies to encourage active cultivation, with the aim of protecting the region’s cultural and environmental heritage. However, monitoring actively cultivated vineyards and those that have been abandoned presents considerable logistical challenges. With 43,843 vineyards spread over 250,000 hectares of rugged terrain, control of these plots is limited, which hampers the effectiveness of preservation and incentive initiatives. Currently, the EU only inspects 5 per cent of farmers annually, which results in insufficient coverage to ensure that subsidies are properly used and vineyards are actively maintained. To complement this limited monitoring, organisations such as the Instituto dos Vinhos do Douro e do Porto (IVDP) use aerial and satellite images, which are manually analysed to identify abandoned or active plots. To overcome these limitations, images can be analysed using deep learning methods, which have already shown great potential in agricultural applications. In this context, our research group has carried out some preliminary evaluations for the automatic detection of abandoned vineyards using deep learning models, which, despite showing promising results on the dataset used, proved to be limited when applied to images of the entire region. In this study, a new dataset was expanded to 137,000 images collected between 2018 and 2023, filling critical gaps in the previous datasets by including greater temporal and spatial diversity. Subsequently, a careful evaluation was carried out with various DL models. As a result, the ViT_b32 model demonstrated superior performance, achieving an average accuracy of 0.99 and an F1 score of 0.98, outperforming CNN-based models. In addition to the excellent results obtained, this dataset represents a significant contribution to advancing research in precision viticulture, providing a solid and relevant basis for future studies and driving the development of solutions applied to vineyard monitoring in the Douro Demarcated Region. These advances not only improve efficiency in detecting abandoned plots, but also contribute significantly to optimising the use of subsidies in the region. Full article

Background: Nurse education plays an essential role in preparing future nurses to engage with quality improvement (QI) initiatives in their organisations and improve patient care. However, frontline nurses continue to report that a lack of QI knowledge hinders their abilities to engage in improvement work. In the UK, student nurses are now trained in QI within their degree to enable them to contribute to improvements once qualified. Objectives: This qualitative follow-up study investigated the sustainability of QI engagement in nurses who undertook QI training and a QI project during their degree and explored the factors influencing their engagement in QI once qualified. Methods: This paper followed the COREQ criteria to report upon 10 semi-structured interviews undertaken with registered nurses and focuses on their experiences of QI engagement post-registration. The data were investigated using an inductive thematic analysis and Nvivo 14. Findings: Five themes emerged: transition to a newly qualified nurse, QI knowledge decline, influencing factors (hierarchy, leadership, COVID-19 pandemic, data access and location), and skill transferability. Conclusions: This study showed that qualified nurses can sustain their QI knowledge and remain engaged with QI where they experience positive QI leadership and were exposed to ongoing QI activity in their preceptorship year. However, a lack of QI opportunities and a culture which does not consider QI a responsibility of new nurses is seen to hinder engagement. Educational institutions and practice partners require careful collaboration to assess and develop ongoing QI learning activities that support new nurses to engage in QI. Full article

Educational poverty is widespread in compulsory education in terms of poor learning and socio-cultural disadvantages; it affects students with disabilities, students with learning difficulties, and those with an immigrant background. During the pandemic crisis, students with special educational needs (SENs) mostly suffered the risk of an additional deprivation. Within an advanced inclusive model during school closure, the Italian State guaranteed access to schools only to students with disabilities. What effects did this “equalizing” measure produce? What kinds of attitudes have teachers adopted and what roles have they played (active vs. passive) in order to make it sustainable? What was their acknowledgement of the educational poverty and deprivation? To what extent were their attitudes differentiated? This article explores the roles and attitudes of teachers during periods of lockdown as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic in Italy. We assume that the teachers’ attitudes were differentiated on the basis of five cultural dimensions (auto/hetero-referencing; vision of remote teaching; relationship with bureaucracy, relationships with students; teaching as performance or relation), and two functions (classroom teachers/ SENs teachers). The study is based on 42 semi-structured interviews conducted with teachers, principals, and parents in six lower secondary public schools with high rates of SENs students and multi-ethnicity (Northern Italy), and focused on the organisational, teaching, and relational aspects. Results seem to confirm that not all teachers agreed with the Ministry line and adopted a range of responses to the challenge of maintaining inclusivity, from the inert/impatient to the creative/active ones. Their attitudes changed during the post-pandemic period from atomistic to more collaborative, and their preoccupation with the fragile “uncertified students” increased. The article closes with recommendations on teacher training. Full article

Vernacular architecture offers valuable technological and typological solutions rooted in knowledge systems that connect environmental, social, economic, and cultural contexts. This paper introduces the Heritage for People Platform, a collaborative digital tool developed under the VerSus+ project (Creative Europe Program), aimed at organising and disseminating vernacular architectural knowledge with a focus on sustainable practices that are both culturally and environmentally conscious. The platform builds upon lessons learned from similar projects, offering key improvements such as the adoption of a Case-Based Reasoning methodology, which organises examples by geographic location, materials, and intervention types. A structured classification system based on sustainability principles and strategies enables cross-disciplinary research and comparison. The design process was highly participatory, incorporating user feedback at every stage to ensure the platform is accessible to a wide range of users, including designers, scholars, craftspeople, and the general public. A cross-device, user-centered approach further broadens its accessibility. The platform provides a public, web-based geospatial repository where users can create, update, and explore a dynamic collection of artefacts, design models, people, and institutions from across the globe. This tool marks a significant advance in promoting and preserving both physical and intangible heritage, with strong educational and practical applications for sustainable architecture. The paper details the theoretical framework and real-world potential of the platform as a critical resource for promoting sustainability in the built environment. Full article

The question of how Aboriginal Elders influence the leadership of non-Aboriginal led service organisations when working biddiya to biddiya (boss to boss) emerged while conducting a qualitative analysis as part of the evaluation of the Looking Forward Moving Forward project. This project brought together non-Aboriginal service leaders, Aboriginal Elders and Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal researchers to implement and evaluate a framework for engagement to promote organisational change and transform the way in which services respond to Aboriginal people in need of mental health and drug and alcohol support in Perth, Western Australia. This paper uses a case study to demonstrate how Elders on Nyoongar Country have influenced one non-Aboriginal service leader. At the heart of this case study is a close examination of a recorded, semi-structured, in-depth focus group exchange between a non-Aboriginal leader, Elders and co-researchers. This exchange foregrounds the Elders’ and co-researchers’ voices, capturing the dialogic nuances and interplay of the interaction to provide a more detailed picture of how building long-term relationships with Elders influences leaders. A key theme to emerge from the data was the developmental change in leadership approaches resulting from the biddiya to biddiya working relationship between Elders and this non-Aboriginal leader. The data show that, along with their deepening relationship, the leader demonstrated an openness and humility to be teachable. This leader demonstrated how he applied his new learning, integrating new ways of working into his leadership practice to change the way his organisation responded to Aboriginal people seeking support and to enhance the organisation’s cultural safety. Full article

In Western countries, school systems have employed modern school building designs as symbols for progressive and innovative educational change. Yet, how does this design symbolism change teaching and learning? To address this, we examine the challenges and complexities of innovative school design by drawing on case studies of preschool and primary-level schools from non-Western cultural contexts. A conceptual framework that links social, organisational, cultural, and material elements is used to analyse two new schools in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Uruguay that used modern school designs as a basis for changes to local pedagogical approaches. Our findings suggest that school building design is not able, by itself, to drive educational changes; and that there are inherent challenges involved in its alignment with localities in terms of staff cultures, student dynamics, and school organisation. Special focus is given to the design of the new school facilities, and the voice of educators in this process. The conclusion points out the need for an adaptive alignment between non-Western educational conventions and introduced education and design concepts. Full article

The Sustainable Development Goals are a mission for all societies. Higher education has an essential role in preparing citizens for this global challenge by adopting student-centred approaches and active methodologies. Service Learning (SL) is recognised as having educative value in promoting values, teamwork, and social awareness. The pedagogical project reported in this study was built with the underpinnings of the SL and active learning methodologies and aimed to describe and analyse the experience built on the principles of SL for Society within the theme of Olympics values. This study took place during the school placement curricular unit of a master’s programme in the Physical Education Teacher Education programme at (blinded for review). Seventy-two preservice teachers, organised in groups, were invited to develop an SL for Society project subordinated to the theme of “No one should be left behind” (ASD 2030). An analysis of the 22 projects revealed a spectrum of seven themes: (1) Inclusion, (2) Environment and Sustainability, (3) Gender Equality, (4) Health and Wellness, (5) Olympic and Social Values, (6) Cultural Heritage and Intergenerational Relations, and (7) Learning Communities. While conceiving, planning, implementing, and evaluating the projects, the preservice teachers understood the importance of embracing inclusion, equity, sustainability, and social justice in teaching. Full article

In three devolved Australian school systems, for over 20 years, Australian researchers have been interested in understanding how successful school leaders lead schools that have a broad range of student and school outcomes that are above expectations. This paper draws upon findings from five Tasmanian, 18 Victorian, and one Northern Territory multiple-perspective case studies of successful primary, secondary, and special school principals. All cases are part of the International Successful School Principalship Project (ISSPP) and follow the methodologies of the ISSPP. At each school, data collected included interviews with the principal, senior teachers, teachers, students, parents, and school council members and document analysis. In addition, nine cases included observation of school activities, and two cases included a teacher survey. The cases reveal a complicated pattern of leadership activities by the principal and other school leaders that includes setting school directions, building positive cultures, developing supportive organisational structures, enhancing personal, professional, organisational, and community capacity, and developing networks, collaborations, partnerships, and stakeholder engagement. These areas of leadership action interact with school, staff, family, and broader contextual factors to develop outstanding teaching and learning that results in a wide array of positive student and school outcomes. Student outcomes include academic, extra-curricular, co-curricular, personal, and social areas. School outcomes include reputation, learning environment, resource allocation, community empowerment, and teacher quality areas. Successful school leadership is shown to be a complex endeavour, led by the principal but involving many and able to be sustained successfully over many years, leading to important and diverse student and school outcomes. Full article

Industry 5.0 emphasises social sustainability and highlights the critical need for personnel upskilling and reskilling to achieve the seamless integration of human expertise and advanced technology. This paper presents a methodological framework for designing personalised training programs that support personnel upskilling, with the goal of fostering flexibility and resilience amid rapid changes in the industrial landscape. The proposed framework encompasses seven stages: (1) Integration with Existing Systems, (2) Data Collection, (3) Data Preparation, (4) Skills-Models Extraction, (5) Assessment of Skills and Qualifications, (6) Recommendations for Training Program, (7) Evaluation and Continuous Improvement. By leveraging Large Language Models (LLMs) and human-centric principles, our methodology enables the creation of tailored training programs to help organisations promote a culture of proactive learning. This work thus contributes to the sustainable development of the human workforce, facilitating access to high-quality training and fostering personnel well-being and satisfaction. Through a food-processing use case, this paper demonstrates how this methodology can help organisations identify skill gaps and upskilling opportunities and use these insights to drive personnel upskilling in Industry 5.0. Full article

Reflection facilitates medical education and professional practice by enhancing active and deep learning from experiences. The reflection period is a time for self-awareness and self-assessment of learning events and experiences to improve future experiences (e.g., skill acquisition). Advocates for reflection suggest that reflective practice has the power to enhance professionalism as it provides an opportunity for critical thinking. It can be of variable length and depth; however, the process should be explorative and factual. Critical reflection is a broader and in-depth consideration of historical, cultural and political contexts to challenge and change one’s or a group’s assumptions and actions. Although the process is beneficial to achieving the intended learning objectives, its impact on educational and clinical outcomes remains unclear in anaesthesia. The usefulness of reflection in the learning process or work practices varies depending on personal, professional and organisational factors. Several models and approaches are described to facilitate the reflection process. However, assessment of reflection within the curriculum boundaries and for workplace-based learning activities is complex and challenging due to the lack of validated tools for different types of reflection. PubMed and Google Scholar were searched for articles on reflection and its application in anaesthesia. The anaesthesia literature has minimal information on the theoretical and research aspects of reflective learning and teaching. This review aims to outline the purpose of reflection, discuss the utilisation of commonly used reflection models and underline the intricacy of reflection in anaesthesia learning, teaching and practice. This article highlights crucial factors which may foster or hinder reflection and its effectiveness in achieving meaningful intended outcomes. Full article

The economic crises of recent years, the COVID-19 pandemic and growing dissatisfaction with the quality of education have proved that national education systems throughout the world require large-scale transformations. Effective implementation of these large-scale reforms also requires highly qualified professionals. Latvia has introduced reforms targeting issues in educational philosophy, teaching content, pedagogical approach and school management. The School as a Learning Organisation (SLO) model, which envisages continuous individual and collective learning of all stakeholders involved in the education process, has currently come into the spotlight of policy makers. The SLO consists of seven dimensions: (1) developing and sharing a vision centred on the learning of all students; (2) creating and supporting continuous learning opportunities for all staff; (3) promoting team learning and collaboration among all staff; (4) establishing a culture of inquiry, innovation and exploration; (5) embedding systems for collecting and exchanging knowledge and learning; (6) learning with and from the external environment and larger learning system; and (7) modelling and growing learning leadership. It is characterised by a broad set of performance indicators, the deeper understanding of which requires academic and practical knowledge. The purpose of the current study is to examine the perceptions of representatives of education policy institutions to predict the efficacy of the SLO implementation in Latvia. Three semi-structured focus group discussions were conducted with the participants and deductive and inductive content analyses were carried out. The findings showed that policy makers highlighted “promoting team learning and collaboration among all staff” and “modelling and growing learning leadership” dimensions as the most important and best understood dimensions of the SLO. On the contrary, “embedding systems for collecting and exchanging knowledge and learning” was the least understood dimension by education policy makers. The results of the study indicate that a comprehensive understanding of the SLO model is necessary in order to implement it effectively and for its implementation to promote the transformation of education in Latvia. Full article