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Mandatory Influenza Vaccination for Healthcare Workers: Do Nurses Agree?
Get PDFInfluenza is a significant cause of morbidity and mortality among hospitalized patients. Health care workers are considered a high-risk group for influenza, and annual vaccination is the most effective way to prevent getting influenza. Increasing concern about inadequate levels of healthcare work vaccination has led many groups to recommend mandatory vaccination for healthcare workers. The state of Rhode Island was considering mandatory vaccination in 2012 for all healthcare workers, with only medical exemption, but this movement was halted. Research focused on the perception of nursing personnel toward mandatory influenza vaccination is lacking, and considering that registered nurses are one of the largest healthcare groups that would be affected, this is an area of concern. The purpose of this research study was to examine the perception of nursing staff toward mandated vaccination at a hospital in Rhode Island. The survey used a mixed methods design, including forced choice questions and an open-ended question, developed for purposes of this research. The study participants included RNs employed in inpatient units. Most of the nurses disagreed that healthcare workers should be mandated to get immunization and disagreed that a vaccine policy requiring mandatory vaccination was fair. They also disagreed that hospital policy requiring influenza vaccination keeps them from getting influenza or keeps their patients from getting influenza. In one of the first states considering mandatory vaccination statewide, these results are an important consideration before implementation of this potential measure
A Palliative Care Program Evaluation
Get PDFPalliative care is a growing field in response to the healthcare needs of people suffering with the consequences of serious health issues. As an evolving specialty, palliative care needed criteria to denote and measure quality. National leading specialist in palliative care have developed and promoted standards for care and excellence in this field, however, it is critical for palliative care programs to evaluate the manner and extent to which these standards are incorporated into their care. A program evaluation of an existing Palliative Care Program at a VA hospital was undertaken. National guidelines and standards, that specify preferred structures and practices for quality palliative care, were compared to the VA Hospital’s Palliative Care Program implementation and operationalization. The program demonstrated and met most of the attributes and characteristics identified as essential markers of a quality palliative care program. Strengths of the program and opportunities for growth and development were discussed as well as implications for future programs including the role of the advanced practice nurse in this important specialty
Connecting School and Child Welfare Systems to Students in Foster Care
Get PDFBarriers to collaboration between professionals in the school and child welfare systems are impeded by poor communication, a lack of cross-disciplinary language, and confusion regarding professional practices. This study, the Education Collaboration Project (ECP), addresses the importance of understanding school success for students in foster care through the voices and actions of the key constituent groups: students with foster care histories and professionals from the school and child welfare systems. Also included in a small component of this study were foster parents who participated via an anonymous survey. The theoretical framework combined critical pedagogy, elements of critical discourse analysis, adaptive change theory, and communities of practice (COP) theories from which an empowering intervention emerged. Within this study, the intervention was delivered through a graduate course, Connecting Public School and Child Welfare Systems to Children in Foster Care cross-disciplinary, where students with foster care histories and professionals from school and child welfare systems united in shared problem solving and action to promote school success. The methodology was predominately qualitative but was enhanced by the use of surveys and a modified Q-sort method. The study and its empowering intervention allowed for a transformative process where participants evolved from disconnected youth, school, and child welfare Education Collaboration Project (ECP) participants to collective ECP participants and finally emerged as members of the Education Collaboration-Community of Practice (ECP-COP)
Social Work in a Digital Age: Ethical and Risk Management Challenges
Get PDFDigital, online, and other electronic technology has transformed the nature of social work practice. Contemporary social workers can provide services to clients by using online counseling, telephone counseling, video counseling, cybertherapy (avatar therapy), selfguided Web-based interventions, electronic social networks, e-mail, and text messages. The introduction of diverse digital, online, and other forms of electronic social services has created a wide range of complex ethical and related risk management issues. This article provides an overview of current digital, online, and electronic social work services; identifies compelling ethical issues related to practitioner competence, client privacy and confidentiality, informed consent, conflicts of interest, boundaries and dual relationships, consultation and client referral, termination and interruption of services, documentation, and research evidence; and offers practical risk management strategies designed to protect clients and social workers. The author identifies relevant standards from the NASW Code of Ethics and other resources designed to guide practice
Gender and Ideology in Disney\u27s Beast Fables
Get PDFThe Walt Disney Corporation is one of the dominant ideological state apparatuses of the last eighty years. One of the ways in which the Walt Disney Corporation naturalizes a particular ideological value system is in the animated feature film’s representation of gender. Using Judith Butler’s work on gender representation as the critical framework, along with Louis Althusser’s concept of ideology, and Michel Foucault’s definition of cultural discourse, I analyze and interpret key representations of gender in anthropomorphized animal protagonists within the Disney “Beast Fable” films, Bambi (1942), Lady and the Tramp (1955), and The Lion King (1994). My analysis of Disney’s beast examines moments of ideological consensualization and resistance within the films’ narratives with regards to the representation of sexuality and gender in anthropomorphized animal characters
Woonsocket: St. Germain Manor, Elderly Housing
No full textNamed for Congressman Fernand J St. Germain, the elderly high rise was one of two new high rise structures to be built during the 1970s in Woonsocket. It was part of a greater city revitalization that developed the Social Flatlands into the new downtown.https://digitalcommons.ric.edu/smolski_images/1957/thumbnail.jp
View of Downtown Woonsocket from Court Street Bridge
No full textDowntown Woonsocket photographed from the Court Street Bridge which spans the Blackstone River. The largest building, just left of center, is the Main Street Lonlley building, which was built in 1890.https://digitalcommons.ric.edu/smolski_images/1956/thumbnail.jp
Woonsocket: Depot Square
No full textFormerly a railroad depot, Woonsocket Depot was rehabilitated as retail & office space during the process of urban renewal that revitalized the city in the 1970s. The station is located in Depot Square.https://digitalcommons.ric.edu/smolski_images/1955/thumbnail.jp
Eye on Ethics: \u27Tis the Season: Managing Client Gifts
No full textWhenever a social worker seriously considers accepting a gift or favor from a client, of whatever value or tangibility, the practitioner should consult with thoughtful colleagues and supervisors, when feasible, and critically examine the clinical and ethical implications, including current ethical standards and agency policy, the client’s and practitioner’s motives, and any alternatives. The social worker should carefully document in the case record the client’s offers, the process the practitioner used to make the decision (e.g., relevant consultation and review of the NASW Code of Ethics), the nature of the decision, and the rationale. This documentation can prove to be enormously helpful if the client or some other party raises questions about the appropriateness of the practitioner’s judgment
Eye on Ethics: Preventing Ethics Blindness in Social Work
No full textThis widely publicized case sharpened researchers’ focus on the concept of inattentional blindness. Inattentional blindness is the failure to notice a fully-visible, but unexpected object because attention was engaged on another task, event, or object