Project description:AimTo investigate concurrent changes in short shift intervals (< 11 h) and workload among hospital employees.Design and data sourcesThis cohort study of 1904 employees in one hospital district in Finland utilised data on employees' working hours for short shift intervals and workload based on the patient classifications aggregated to a 3-week period level across 2 years, 2018-2019. The data was analysed by group-based trajectory modelling and multinominal regression models.ResultsThe seven trajectories model had the best fit to the data-Group 1: very few short shift intervals that are decreasing and low workload (15.0%); Group 2: a low amount of short shift intervals that are decreasing and stable low workload (14.2%); Group 3: moderate amount of short shift intervals that are slightly increasing and low workload (25.1%); Group 4: a low amount of short shift intervals that are slightly decreasing and stable low workload that is slightly increasing (12.1%): Group 5: a moderate amount of both short shift intervals and workload (19.8%): Group 6: short shift intervals that are clearly decreasing, with higher than the average workload decreasing (5.6%); Group 7: moderate amount of short shift intervals and very high workload (8.3%).ConclusionsOnly a minority of hospital employees were found to have both high workloads and insufficient recovery possibilities, but the time-related increases in objective workload were not compensated by better recovery possibilities in working hours. For shift scheduling, it is noteworthy that older employees might seek to work at units in which the workload is lower, which could be considered to support workability.Reporting methodRecord.Patient or public contributionNo Patient or Public Contribution.
Project description:Digitalization of knowledge work is essential for today's organizations, responding to diversified employee needs. Many organizations are already implementing some form of flexibility to help workers perform work and non-work duties, while maintaining high productivity. While these changes in workplaces, "New Ways of Working (NWW)", have been discussed in the literature, a systematic appraisal of evidence of NWW has not been conducted. Relating to poor work-related mental health worldwide, this systematic review analyzed the psychological impacts of NWW, and the quality and quantity of NWW research. Following the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analysis (PRISMA) guidelines, NWW studies targeting psychological outcomes were evaluated. Initial literature search on ProQuest, PsycINFO, Science Direct, and Google Scholar retrieved 308 titles, from which seven articles fulfilled all inclusion criteria. Our appraisal revealed that NWW research evaluated diverse psychological outcomes. While NWW can help workers' engagement, work-related flow, and connectivity among staff, NWW can also increase blurred work-home boundary, fatigue, and mental demands. The quality of NWW research was overall medium, needing more rigorous studies. Our findings can inform decision-makers in the workplace to effectively implement NWW, and researchers to improve the quality and the usefulness of future NWW studies.
Project description:The increasing prevalence of inactivity and obesity, along with aging, has implications on work capacity of labor force. This study reports the relationships between activity level and BMI by age with objectively measured physical workload. Data were examined from a sample of 19 481 Finnish employees using an estimate of minute-to-minute oxygen consumption based on R-R interval recordings. The mean estimated %VO2max during the working day was 12.1 (±3.6) and 15.1 (±4.5)% for men and women, respectively. Based on a linear model, the mean %VO2max increased by 1.5%-unit per 10-year increase in age, by 2.1%-unit per 5 kg/m2 increase in BMI, and decreased by 1.6%-unit if improving physical activity class by two (p < 0.001 for all). Overweight and obesity, together with inactivity, notably increases workload throughout the career, even though at young adulthood, the daily workload is almost the same for each person regardless of the BMI, activity level, or gender. This study highlights the importance of regular physical activity and normal weight in protecting the worker from excessive physical (cardiovascular) workload during the whole working career.
Project description:The properties of the human mind affect the quality of scientific knowledge through the insertion of unconscious biases during the research process. These biases frequently cause overestimation of the effects under study, thereby violating the reproducibility of the research and potentially leading to incorrect conclusions in subsequent research syntheses. We explored the level of knowledge about biases and attitudes to this problem by analysing 308 responses of ecology scientists to a specifically developed survey. We show that knowledge about biases and attitude towards biases depend on the scientist's career stage, gender and affiliation country. Early career scientists are more concerned about biases, know more about measures to avoid biases, and twice more frequently have learned about biases from their university courses when compared with senior scientists. The respondents believe that their own studies are less prone to biases than are studies by other scientists, which hampers the control of biases in one's own research. We conclude that education about biases is necessary, but not yet sufficient, to avoid biases because the unconscious origin of biases necessitates external intervention to combat them. Obligatory reporting of measures taken against biases in all relevant manuscripts will likely enhance the reproducibility of scientific results.
Project description:BackgroundThere is no global consensus on the use of prehospital triage system in mass casualty incidents. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the most commonly used pre-existing prehospital triage systems for the possibility of creating one universal translational triage tool.MethodsThe Rapid Evidence Review consisted of (1) a systematic literature review (2) merging and content analysis of the studies focusing on similarities and differences between systems and (3) development of a universal system.ResultsThere were 17 triage systems described in 31 eligible articles out of 797 identified initially. Seven of the systems met the predesignated criteria and were selected for further analysis. The criteria from the final seven systems were compiled, translated and counted for in means of 1/7's. As a product, a universal system was created of the majority criteria.ConclusionsThis study does not create a new triage system itself but rather identifies the possibility to convert various prehospital triage systems into one by using a triage translational tool. Future research should examine the tool and its different decision-making steps either by using simulations or by experts' evaluation to ensure its feasibility in terms of speed, continuity, simplicity, sensitivity and specificity, before final evaluation at prehospital level.
Project description:PurposeToday's clinical trial partnerships frequently join multi-disciplinary investigators and stakeholders, from different countries and cultures, to conduct research with a broad array of goals. This diversity, while a strength, can also foster divergent views about priorities and what constitutes success, thereby posing challenges for management, operations, and evaluation. As a sponsor and partner in such collaborations, we seek to assist and support their development and implementation of sound research strategies, to optimize their efficiency, sustainability, and public health impact. This report describes our efforts using an adaptation of the well-established Kaplan-Norton strategy management paradigm, in our clinical trials setting. We share findings from our first test of the utility and acceptance of this approach for evaluating and managing research strategies in a collaborative clinical research partnership.ResultsFindings from pilot studies and our first implementation in an ongoing clinical research partnership in Liberia, provide initial support for our hypothesis that an adapted version of the Kaplan-Norton strategy management model can have use in this setting. With leadership from within the partnership, analysis artifacts were gathered, and assessments made using standardized tools. Practical feasibility, resonance of the findings with partners, and convergence with other empirical assessments lend initial support for the view that this approach holds promise for obtaining meaningful, useable results for assessing and improving clinical research management.Conclusions and implicationsEngaged leadership, thoughtful timing to align with partnership planning cycles, support for the process, and an eye towards the collaboration's long-term goals appear important for developing model understanding and practice. Skepticism about evaluations, and unease at exposing weaknesses, may hinder the effort. Acceptance of findings and associated opportunities for improvement by group leadership, support a growing sense of validity. Next steps aim to test the approach in other partnerships, streamline the methodology for greater ease of use, and seek possible correlations of strategy management assessments with performance evaluation. There is hardly a better example than the COVID-19 pandemic, to spotlight the need for efficient and effective clinical research partnerships to address global health challenges. While heartened by the collaborative spirit driving the effort so far, we cannot let our enthusiasm lull us into thinking that nobility of purpose or an abundance of good will is sufficient. Careful monitoring and adjustment of clinical research strategy in response to changes (e.g., demographics, pathogen evolution, research acceptance, political and cultural environments) are vital to making the needed adjustments that can guide these programs toward successful outcomes. We hope that our work can raise awareness about the importance, relevance, and feasibility of sound strategy management in clinical research partnerships, especially during this time when there is so much at stake.
Project description:This paper introduces the advanced breath analysis (ABA) platform, an innovative scientific research platform for the entire breath research domain. Within the ABA project, we are investigating novel data management concepts and semantic web technologies to document breath analysis studies for the long run as well as to enable their full automatic reproducibility. We propose several concept taxonomies (a hierarchical order of terms from a glossary of terms), which can be seen as a first step toward the definition of conceptualized terms commonly used by the international community of breath researchers. They build the basis for the development of an ontology (a concept from computer science used for communication between machines and/or humans and representation and reuse of knowledge) dedicated to breath research.