‘Management Standards’ and work-related stress in the UK: policy background and science

Is the introduction of a student-centred, problem-based curriculum associated with improvements in student nurse well-being and performance? An observational study of effect

AIMS

To explore the impact of curriculum redesign and innovation on student well-being and performance, including essay and examination marks and sickness absence.

BACKGROUND

While the emotional impact of preparing to be a health professional can be reduced by helping students to adapt, the positive effect of curriculum innovation and redesign is rarely evaluated. DESIGN, SAMPLE AND METHODS: Student nurse well-being and performance was compared at weeks 24/25 and 40/50 following course entry between comparable independent cohorts of students undertaking a traditional programme (N=406, 83% return rate) with those on an innovative, student-centred, problem-based educational programme (N=447, 79% return rate). The setting was a School of Nursing and Midwifery in the North-East of Scotland. Measures included stress and mental health outcomes and measures of performance including academic marks and sickness absence.

RESULTS

At week 25 into the course students on the innovative course had fewer academic, clinical and personal worries than students in the previous more traditional programme and were more likely to report using adaptive direct, problem-solving coping at week 50. While students on the innovative course reported less distress in their first year of the course, they scored less well on comparable essay assignments and had reliably greater sickness absence totals than those educated by traditional methods.

CONCLUSION

In this setting, curriculum innovation was associated with positive changes in student well-being but not on performance.

Workplace health promotion: the role and responsibility of health care managers

The World Health Organization's (WHO) Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion in 1986 provided the catalyst from which the Health Promoting Workplace movement emerged. Here, an extensive review of the available workplace-related health literature provides the basis for critical discussion and recommendations for health care managers. The findings suggest that health care managers, who practice in all health service settings, should be aiming to initiate and promote radical health promotion reform as set out in the WHO settings-based movement. Developing and implementing sustainable health promotion-orientated and organization-wide healthy workplace policy initiatives represent the most effective way for health care managers to directly benefit from the desirable outcomes that come from creating and maintaining a healthy workforce.

Negatively oriented personality and perceived negative job characteristics as predictors of future psychological and physical symptoms: a meta-analytic structural modelling approach

OBJECTIVES

There is evidence that perceptions of negative job characteristics (e.g., lack of control) and negatively oriented personality (e.g., negative affect) both predict symptom reporting. However, the relative contribution of these factors is rarely examined. This paper uses meta-analytic structural equation modelling (MA-SEM) to explore their relative contribution.

METHODS

A meta-analysis of recent longitudinal studies was conducted. Eight studies covering 10 separate samples met the inclusion criteria (N=2104) and were used in the MA-SEM. Meta-correlations were used to construct structural equations models in which perceived negative job characteristics (PNJC) and negatively oriented personality (NOP) at baseline were used to predict concurrent and future symptom reporting, controlling for symptom reporting at baseline.

RESULTS

The results indicated that a model based solely on NOP offered a more parsimonious account for baseline and future symptom reporting than did PNJC.

CONCLUSIONS

The evidence indicates interventions should focus on both individuals and organizations, and not just organizational-level interventions.