Search Results for
"education"

Collaborative management of chronic illness is undermined by neglect of emotional and psychological factors in both the patient and doctor.

Over the last decades educational researchers and politicians have shown a growing interest in the concept of learning in practice, i.e. learning in the workplace. Learning in practice plays an important role in connection with lifelong learning, as the workplace is an obvious setting for realizing this aim. Theories about learning in practice often include a critique of school-based learning by seriously questioning the idea that learning in school can be transferred to action and by emphasizing the context dependence of learning and acting. This article contributes to the debate by pointing out some advantages of combining school-based and workplace-based learning. The results of a study of learning in a vocational education and training (VET) programme for sales assistants show that both the theoretical training in the VET school and the practical training in the workplace are necessary to develop competency. Furthermore, the results indicate that a careful matching of specific parts of the curriculum with the learning setting (the workplace or the school) may improve the trainees' achievements. The matching is not only useful in improving VET programmes but is also generally useful in planning lifelong learning as work-related education. © 2005 Tayior & Francis Ltd.

Background: The incidence of occupational skin disease (OSD) in geriatric nurses (GNs) is increasing in Germany. Objectives: A prospective controlled study of secondary individual prevention (SIP) of OSD in GNs was conducted. Methods: Two hundred and nine participants completed questionnaires prior to the start of the program and 3 months after its conclusion. One hundred and two GNs participated in an interventional program (intervention group, IG). Severity of OSD was classified upon each visit. Δ-TEWL values were measured at regular intervals. Findings were compared with those for 107 control group (CG) participants consulting a dermatologist on demand. SIP was not offered to CG participants. Results: Upon entry, 89% of IG and 90% CG complained of OSD (NS). Dermatologic examination revealed skin changes in 90% of IG at first consultation. Upon study completion, 59% of IG was free of OSD. Questionnaires 3 months after study completion revealed skin lesions in 53% of IG and 82% of CG (p < 0.01). Δ-TEWL measurements reflected significant improvement of the epidermal barrier during SIP in IG (median 6.9-3.0 g/m2/h, p < 0.001). Three months after study completion, 96% of IG and 86% of CG were still employed. Conclusions: Objective dermatologic and skin physiologic data reveal that SIP in GNs is effective in the secondary prevention of OSD. Further, IG was superior to CG in terms of health maintenance and employment. © Springer-Verlag 2005.

The high unemployment figures in many European countries are often attributed to overgenerous unemployment benefits. However, proponents of benefit cuts tend not to recognize that unemployment benefits also facilitate longer job searches and, as a result, ultimately improve job matches. In this article, we investigate the effects of unemployment benefits on subsequent job quality by differentiating between transitions from unemployment to correctly allocated jobs and to over-education. Data are drawn from the West German Life History Study (GLHS). Results from Kaplan-Meier estimators and hazard regression models show that non-recipients of unemployment benefits indeed have a shorter unemployment duration, but that they also have significantly higher rates of transition to over-education than recipients of unemployment benefits. On the other hand, the receipt of unemployment benefits does not influence the transition to qualified jobs, which seems to be influenced more by labour demand. It is therefore important to bear in mind that reforming the unemployment compensation system by reducing unemployment benefits will not only shorten the average unemployment duration, but also increase the incidence of over-education and consequently reduce the overall job match quality in the labour market. Copyright © 2005 Scandinavian Sociological Association and SAGE.

[No abstract available]

In recent years the provision of out-of-hours training for general practice (GP) registrars has become a difficult issue in the North Western Deanery and across the United Kingdom. The nature of out-of-hours care has changed, with a diminishing personal commitment by general practitioners (GPs) in favour of out-of-hours centres and co-operatives. Out-of-hours care now requires different skills and competencies from doctors providing it and there is less opportunity for GP registrars to gain experience if their trainers are undertaking less out-of-hours work. Similarly, the style of educational supervision for out-of-hours training has also changed. The New GMS Contract creates new challenges; it allows many GPs, including trainers, to Opt out' of out-of-hours care, with primary care trusts (PCTs) becoming the responsible organisations. The challenge for the deanery is how to ensure that provision of training and assessment of competence. A qualitative survey was conducted in the North Western Deanery, taking views from GP trainers and GP registrars about the provision of out-of-hours training and their concerns about that process. The purpose of the survey was to assess the most important objectives for out-of-hours training, checking the level of concordance of views between GP trainers and GP registrars; to determine current levels of activity in training and supervision by GP registrars and trainers, defining the level of exposure necessary to gain the desired competencies; and, using a qualitative method, identify themes and issues of importance and concern to be addressed by organisations involved in the provision of out-of-hours training. The results suggested that the average activity for out-of-hours duty for trainers was one to two sessions per month. This was matched by the level of duty by registrars as one to two per month, although there were difficulties matching sessions and supervision. Most trainers will opt out of out-of-hours care with the introduction of The New GMS Contract, and there are concerns from both GP trainers and GP registrars as to how out-of-hours training and supervision will be provided post contract. Both GP trainers and GP registrars favour a standardised model of out-of-hours training, with a clearly denned curriculum and competency assessment as opposed to the current 'number of sessions' approach. However, many GP registrars question the relevance of out-of-hours training given the changing agenda for primary care. The themes identified as important aims and objectives for out-of-hours training will provide a useful starting point for curriculum and assessment development. Managing emergencies; telephone communication and triage skills; gaining experience and expertise were ranked highly by both GP trainers and GP registrars. The higher skills, such as problem solving, negotiation, managing risk and uncertainty, were ranked more highly and identified more often by GP trainers than by GP registrars. As a result of the survey, areas of need have been identified across the deanery; there is widespread approval for the development of a standardised competency-based curriculum and assessment package. Key objectives have been identified and ranked and will form the basis of the curriculum. We propose to offer a model of competency-based training and assessment in those co-operatives where training and education is well developed, which could be commissioned by out-of-hours providers locally. This work was done to give guidance for a deanery policy on out-of-hours training for GP registrars. Its findings correlate with work done for the Committee of General Practice education Directors (COGPED) on key competencies, developing a competency-based log and implications of The New GMS Contract on out-of-hours training for GP registrars. The results from both papers have been used to develop a COGPED Out-of-hours Training Workbook, co-ordinated by Kent, Surrey and Sussex Deanery, setting standards nationally (in committee stage at time of writing). © 2005 Radcliffe Publishing Limited.

The high rates of injury among young workers are a pressing public health issue, especially given the demand of the job market for new workers. Young and new workers experience the highest rates of occupational injuries of any age group. Incorporating occupational safety and health (OSH) information into the more than 20000 vocational and other workforce preparation programs in the United States might provide a mechanism for reducing work-related injuries and illnesses among young and new workers. We assessed the status of including OSH information or training in workforce preparation programs and found there is an inconsistent emphasis on OSH information.

Further education colleges in England offer a wide range of post-school education and training provision. Recently they have undergone major transformations that have resulted in considerable changes to the work of those teaching in them. In this paper we examine how cultures of learning and teaching in colleges are affected and how the nature of professional identity has changed. The paper considers the formation of professional identity amongst a group of trainee lecturers completing a one-year full-time teacher-training course at a university in the English Midlands. Lave and Wenger's work on apprenticeship to communities of practice is used to examine the effect of trainees' teaching placement on the development of professional identity. Rather than identifying effective processes of increasing participation in existing communities of practice, a strong sense of marginalisation and alienation amongst trainees was observed. The paper argues that this is detrimental both to trainees and experienced lecturers if they are to actively engage in building new forms of professionalism for the future. © 2005 Taylor & Francis Group Ltd.

Compiles an integrated series of comparative empirical analyses of education-to-work transitions in European Union countries. Individual chapters describe the educational background of young people entering the labour market, address the scope of educational expansion over the past decades, and chart basic structures of transition patterns in European labour markets. Moreover, several chapters examine the role of individual qualifications, and also the impact of recent employment turbulences and structural change in the economy on school leavers' integration into the labour market. From these, the structure of education and training systems emerges as a key institutional factor for facilitating smooth transitions into the labour market. At the level of intermediate skills, vocational training and apprenticeships have retained their advantages, in particular with respect to youth unemployment. As devaluation trends have empirically been limited so far, tertiary level qualifications similarly continue to provide a most attractive inroad into the upper segments of the occupational structure. Youth labour markets, in particular for low-skilled leavers, clearly deteriorated during the macroeconomic turbulences of the early 1990s, however. © Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.

Both nationally and internationally there is a drive to increase participation in post-compulsory education. Yet with existing participation rates already high by historical standards, it is not easy to see how this can be done. Now Liz Thomas provides a comprehensive guide. From an analysis of the motives for expansion and the reasons why students enroll--or fail to enroll--through to a critical analysis of existing and innovative schemes, the author highlights good practice and explains ways to develop a strategic approach to widening participation. © 2001 Elizabeth Thomas. All rights reserved.