Training in first aid at the workplace

All workers, including seafarers and fishermen, may be confronted with life-threatening situation, and they should be trained in the cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CRP) techniques. In this paper, which was presented during the meeting of the co-ordinators of the EU Project on the health of seafarers held in Gdynia in April 1996, the Author reports on the experiences in the CPR training, which was conducted by occupational physicians, who were responsible for the medical aspects of the disaster plan of the Province of Antwerp including the Antwerp port.     

The head nurse role in redesign

As administrators review how best to meet patient's needs and redesign patient care givers' job content, as well as introduce multiskilled workers to the patient care unit, the head nurse role must be reviewed and revamped at the same time. The author describes the experiences of two different institutions in overloading the head nurses with reporting relationships that they were ill-equipped to supervise. The solution in both institutions was the same, and emphasizes the need for interactive planning for these complex and interdependent models.     

Intersecting losses: Working with the inevitable vicissitudes in therapist and client lives.

Therapists working with clients with severe trauma histories over long periods of time may find themselves managing traumatic events in their own lives—illness, divorce, death—at the same time as they are assisting their clients to live productively with their painful pasts. While a few accounts exist describing how therapists deal with single overwhelming events, very little has been written about how therapists manage ongoing or prolonged episodes of severe stressors with a busy clinical practice of clients with severe trauma histories. Yet, we know that support for therapists is crucial to longevity in the field and we also know that learning from the experience of others is a highly recommended form of support. This paper is an account by a senior clinician of how she has maintained a productive clinical practice despite personal losses. Therapists who struggle with personal losses probably deal with choices related to self-disclosure more than therapists who do not have such experiences; they have repeated opportunities to establish appropriate and effective levels of self-disclosure for them and the people with whom they work. The paper presents a template for thinking about the risks and benefits of self-disclosure while at the same time modeling a level of self-disclosure that may be beneficial to therapists looking for examples. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Parenting their adolescents: the experiences of Jordanian immigrant women in California

Having their children enter adolescence presents new demands on the role functions of Jordanian immigrant women in the United States. Such demands require modifications in traditional parenting approaches. The authors attempted to uncover and describe the experiences of Jordanian immigrant mothers (N = 30) in parenting their adolescents in the United States. Content and narrative analysis revealed the dynamic processes that the mothers used in raising their children. They continuously attempted to balance the need for their teens to maintain a Jordanian ethnic identity and the need for them to become integrated into the new community. Their parenting was driven by an attempt to avoid loss of honor and bad reputation. Four aspects of the maternal role emerged from the analysis: mothering through nurturing the adolescents and promoting cultural identity, disciplining for cultural adherence, advocacy and mediation, and vigilant parenting. The findings support a dynamic interplay between cultural and structural conditions in shaping the experiences of Jordanian immigrant women.     

Psychosocial Interventions in the Early Phases of Disasters.

Interest in the emerging field of disaster psychology has significantly increased after such events as the Oklahoma City bombing and the September llth (2001) terrorist attacks. Consequently, a massive response has ensued from clinicians seeking to provide mental health services to disaster victims, highlighting the need to ensure timely and clinically effective service provision. The present article is directed toward clinicians and trainees interested in learning more about the disaster mental health field. It describes the impact of disasters on communities and individuals and the most commonly employed interventions. The authors emphasize the distinction between the fields of disaster psychology and traumatology and stress that expertise in treating trauma-related disorders is not sufficient preparation for conducting psychosocial disaster intervention. Finally, information is provided on how to obtain adequate training and experience as a disaster mental health professional. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Community psychology, networks, and Mr. Everyman.

Proposes and defends the separation of community psychology from clinical psychology and community mental health. The proposal is not intended to assert the superiority of one field over another but rather to demonstrate that they require different conceptual rationales to achieve their different purposes. Clinical psychology and the community mental health movement rest on theories and practices that cannot provide an understanding of a community; indeed, they stand in the way of coming to grips with the complexity of a community. The need for a "divorce" is illustrated in several ways, with particular attention paid to the potential productiveness of the concept of a network as a way of looking at and studying a community. The characteristics of a community psychologist are defined, and their similarities to the "Mr. Everyman" of historian C. Becker (1935) are stressed. (17 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Mental health promotion and the media: Community response to the Kansas City hotel disaster.

Describes how Kansas City mental health organizations responded to the community-wide mental health crisis that resulted from a hotel disaster in which 111 persons were killed and over 200 were injured. The mental health organizations provided mental-health-related education through the media, training for local psychologists and other caregivers, and support groups for those affected by the disaster. More than 500 persons contacted the community mental health centers for assistance. Outstanding aspects of the mental health organizations' response to the disaster were the rapidity and coordination of their efforts, and their success in obtaining cooperation from the media for the public education campaign. Information in that campaign was based on psychological research on the effects of disasters on mental health. (2 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Medical image informatics infrastructure design and applications

This study reports on the experience of women in four community breast cancer self-help groups in Ontario, Canada. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 24 women, asking them about benefits and limitations of their group involvement, and about their perspectives on group processes and structures. Overall, participants reported their group involvement to be extremely helpful for navigating the short and long-term impact of breast cancer. Emotional support benefits included connecting with other breast cancer survivors, feeling understood and sharing experiences, providing hope, and sharing healing laughter. Informational and practical support benefits included sharing of important information and learning how to get what you want. Even where there were concerns about limitations or tensions of group experience, these occurred against a backdrop of appreciation and commitment. From the discussion of group processes and structures, a number of issues were identified as problematic. Most notable were how to deal with deaths of group members and how to balance the group's primary purpose of providing mutual support with secondary goals of dealing with group business and engaging in meaningful advocacy.     

The interpretation of life experience and well-being: The sample case of relocation.

Social psychological theories of the self postulate mechanisms through which individuals interpret their life experiences to ensure positive self-evaluation. This framework was applied to a sample of 120 aging women (mean age 74.9 yrs) who had experienced community relocation. The authors measured their reasons for moving (push factors), reasons for selecting the new setting (pull factors), and interpretive mechanisms, including how they compared with others in their new setting, how they were viewed by significant others following the move, how their behaviors changed following relocation, and whether the above evaluations occurred in life domains central to their sense of self. Regression analyses showed that push–pull factors and interpretive mechanisms accounted for substantial variance in multiple aspects of psychological well-being, particularly environmental mastery, purpose in life, and positive relations with others. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Continuing education in psychology: Outcomes, evaluations, and mandates.

How effective is continuing education (CE) for maintaining professional competencies, how should its effects be measured, and should it be mandated for licensure renewal? These and other questions were addressed in a review of the existing literature and a survey of 6,095 professional psychologists regarding their CE experiences, perceptions, and preferences. The substantial majority of respondents reported their CE experiences to be good to excellent. Overall, they reported learning a great deal that frequently translated into their practices and contributed to their more effective and ethical practice. Most also supported the idea of mandated CE, although they preferred the use of participant satisfaction ratings to knowledge or skills assessments as mechanisms for evaluating their learning. Significant differences were found between psychologists who were operating with CE mandates and those operating without mandates; mandated psychologists completed significantly more CE credits than nonmandated psychologists and were stronger supporters of CE mandates. Findings are discussed in relation to critical issues that confront the field of professional psychology and its continuing commitment to the development and documentation of professional competencies. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Becoming a consultant: The real stories.

This article uses interview responses given by leaders and early career consulting psychologists to understand the similarities and contrasts between beginning a consulting career a generation ago and today. It also explores the progression of leaders' careers in order to understand the events and experiences that launched their careers. Broad themes in the interview data are identified to answer the following questions: (a) Why do psychologists become interested in consultation ? (b) What developmental process prepared them to become consultants? (c) What critical incidents shaped their careers? (d) What were their most valuable preparation experiences? (e) What skill or experience do they wish they had had or will they need? and (f) Why should psychologists consider consulting psychology as a career? Suggestions for changes in the way consulting psychologists are trained are offered. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

“The Hyatt Horror”: Failure and Responsibility in American Engineering

Nearly 20 years ago, an elegant Kansas City, Mo., hotel was the site of one of the most famous engineering failures in recent history. The collapse of two elevated walkways in the lobby left 114 people dead and nearly 200 injured, and plunged the engineering profession into a dilemma over how to deal with the engineers who were involved. In the mid-1970s, as the Kansas City Hyatt Regency was under construction, the engineering profession's codes of ethics were under construction as well. ASCE leaders argued that their society's new code should reflect a new hierarchy of engineers' responsibilities. “Public welfare,” they agreed, should be the “primary concern” of engineers, followed by engineers' duty to “clients, employer or employees,” and loyalty to the profession. The implications of the new ethics code became disturbingly clear with the Hyatt. This paper tells the story of how the engineering profession struggled to transform an unspeakable disaster into a powerful, if painful, lesson about the meaning of ethics in engineering.     

Minimally invasive surgery. Implications for hospitals, health workers, and patients

Minimally invasive surgery is one of the great innovations of health care in the 20th century. It promises to revolutionise surgery by allowing many more operations to be performed with minimal hospitalisation. Pressure from patients has caused many techniques to spread rapidly before they have been adequately assessed. This must be resisted, and policy makers must pay more attention to minimally invasive surgery to ensure that good assessments are made. The widespread use of minimally invasive techniques has important implications for hospitals and health workers. As more patients are treated on an outpatient basis, fewer hospital beds will be needed, and traditional operating rooms will have to adapt to a greater turnover of patients. Surgeons will have to acquire new operating skills, possibly requiring formal training and accreditation, and, as different specialties fight for control of new technologies, surgery may eventually be merged with internal medicine so that specialists will deal with organ systems. Postoperative care will have to be carried out in the community rather than in hospitals, and policy makers will need to reorganise their health systems to cope with these developments.     

The impact of "training the trainers" course for helping tsunami-survivor children on Sri Lankan disaster volunteer workers.

The authors evaluated the impact of a "training the trainers" course for helping Sri Lankan tsunami-survivor children on education and mental health disaster volunteers. Sixty-two disaster volunteers were randomly assigned to either a school-based (ERASE Stress) "training the trainers" course or to an alternative "befriending" program that served as a control group. Participants in the ERASE Stress course significantly improved their perception of self-efficacy as tsunami survivors' helpers (Disaster-Helper Self-Efficacy Scale), self-mastery (Mastery scale), and optimism about their personal future (item from the Children's Future Orientation Scale). In addition, the perceived ability to use cognitive coping strategies (Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire) such as refocusing on planning, positive reappraisal, and putting the trauma into perspective was enhanced. The ERASE Stress course may be an effective method for strengthening local community capacity to deal with trauma survivors in developing countries. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effect of Foremen on Construction Apprentice

Construction apprentices in a Midwestern city were surveyed to find out their perceptions on their foremen. Based on the analysis of our data, seven foreman factor scales were identified. These scales are: Performance Improvement, Work Facilitation, Achievement Orientation, Support, Work Participation, Bias, and Recognition. These dimensions have varying relationships with motivation and performance of the construction apprentice. These dimensions provide important issues that need to be addressed in developing foremen training programs and in particular how they affect apprentice. Further research may encompass various segments of the construction industry to analyze motivation of craft workers.     

Black churches as therapeutic systems: a group process perspective

This article examines Black churches as therapeutic systems that provide psychological and physical support to African American communities. Systems theory and group relations theory are used as conceptual frameworks to discuss Black churches as indigenous community resources. Instrumental to a systems approach is an understanding of Black churches and the religious experiences they support as part of a dynamic process that may vary across churches while maintaining certain basic similarities. It is also important to explore how Black churches may function differently from one another in addressing the needs of their membership and surrounding community. Consequently, a group process perspective is used to examine how roles and functions of the church may vary as they relate to their particular congregation. Examining the role of Black churches as supportive networks provides invaluable information to professional health providers who are interested in working with Black churches as community-based organizations.     

Learning in an increasingly multitheoretical psychoanalytic culture: Impact on the development of analytic identity.

The purpose of this study is to examine the analytic trainee's increasingly complicated learning experiences, the environmental and contextual challenges candidates face, and the unique internal battles often engaged throughout the development of professional identity. The method aims to chart the internal and external learning processes of the trainee as they interact and remain distinct. Students of psychoanalysis face a culture of exploding theoretical growth, ongoing intense debate, and decreasing popularity within the community at large. Furthermore, trainees are immersed within specific training contexts that inevitably shape their advancing understanding of analytic theory and technique. Clinical vignettes, developmental theory, and an examination of conviction are offered to further understanding of the current stressors influencing the trainee's pursuit for analytic identity. It is suggested that analysts need to better understand the ongoing nature of developing an analytic identity within specific contexts, and become more aware of how they affect this process. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Motivational Implications of Construction Work

A survey was conducted of unionized construction workers in a major midwestern city to collect data on their perceptions of the jobs and environment within which they perform their jobs. Construction workers have growth needs that are similar in strength to other blue collar workers. The individuals with stronger needs should respond to jobs that are high in motivating potential. Contractors need to improve worker satisfation with job context. The qualifications of the workers appears to be more than adequate for the great majority of construction tasks. Contractors need to structure jobs to improve their motivating potential. As currently structured, construction jobs are low in motivating potential.     

When social workers and physicians collaborate: positive and negative interdisciplinary experiences

Interdisciplinary collaboration is becoming increasingly important as the current complexity and cost of health care require an efficient and well-coordinated service delivery system. To understand the factors contributing to positive and negative collaboration, 53 social workers and 50 physicians in 12 hospital settings were interviewed about their best and worst experiences collaborating on a case. Thirty precoded items were classified into three constructs that reflect aspects of collaboration related to the case, to interaction between collaborators, and to the competence of the collaborator. Differences between the two professions were greatest on the interactional factors, with social workers valuing them much more than physicians did. Communication appeared to be the only intrinsic or universal aspect of collaboration equally important to both groups in both types of cases. Implications for social work practice and leadership are discussed.