Precarious Employment, Ill Health, and Lessons from History: The Case of Casual (Temporary) Dockworkers 1880–1945

An international body of scientific research indicates that growth of job insecurity and precarious forms of employment over the past 35 years have had significant negative consequences for health and safety. Commonly overlooked in debates over the changing world of work is that widespread use of insecure and short-term work is not new, but represents a return to something resembling labor market arrangements found in rich countries in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Moreover, the adverse health effects of precarious employment were extensively documented in government inquiries and in health and medical journals. This article examines the case of a large group of casual dockworkers in Britain. It identifies the mechanisms by which precarious employment was seen to undermine workers and families' health and safety. The article also shows the British dockworker experience was not unique and there are important lessons to be drawn from history. First, historical evidence reinforces just how health-damaging precarious employment is and how these effects extend to the community, strengthening the case for social and economic policies that minimize precarious employment. Second, there are striking parallels between historical evidence and contemporary research that can inform future research on the health effects of precarious employment.

Limited access: gender, occupational composition, and flexible work scheduling

The current study draws on national data to explore differences in access to flexible work scheduling by the gender composition of women's and men's occupations. Results show that those who work in integrated occupations are more likely to have access to flexible scheduling. Women and men do not take jobs with lower pay in return for greater access to flexibility. Instead, jobs with higher pay offer greater flexibility. Integrated occupations tend to offer the greatest access to flexible scheduling because of their structural locations. Part-time work is negatively associated with men's access to flexible scheduling but positively associated with women's access. Women have greater flexibility when they work for large establishments, whereas men have greater flexibility when they work for small establishments.

Moving in circles: a brief history of reports and inquiries relating to mental health content in undergraduate nursing curricula

Since the abolition of specialist, undergraduate education in mental health nursing, serious concerns have been raised about the inadequate amount of theory and clinical experience devoted to this specialty in most pre-registration nursing programs in Australia. A number of government initiated reports and inquiries have been undertaken to scope the problem and provide recommendations with the aim of overcoming the identified deficits. Most inquiries have agreed that mental health nursing is under-represented in undergraduate programs and this has serious consequences for establishing a sustainable mental health nursing workforce and for providing optimal care for people experiencing a mental illness. The recommendations tend to support the continuation of comprehensive nursing education, but emphasise the need for increased mental health content. Terms like significant and substantial are often used which are not easily quantifiable. The repetitive nature of the recommendations and findings of the reports suggests that real change is not likely to occur unless specific minimum standards for the mental health content of undergraduate nursing programs are set.

[One hundred years of the Association of Surgeons in the Netherlands. VI. The training]

Over the last 25 years the organisation and content of the residency training program for general surgeons have been adapted to meet the needs of changing surgical practice. Recently more profound changes have been dictated by the Dutch Working Hours Act, which has strictly limited the working hours of resident physicians. With this the emphasis will be on improving theoretical and practical training methods. Because of the limiting working hours resident physicians will have a smaller role in patient care. These changes will require a huge effort from both the teaching surgeons and the resident physicians, as well as substantial financial investments from the government and healthcare providers.

An oral history of the "joint" nursing experience at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center

In 1993, the U.S. Army and U.S. Air Force undertook long-term joint staffing of Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, a 180-bed facility in Germany. With little historical precedence, the Nurse Corps from each service worked diligently to integrate. Initial collaboration suffered because of confusion, ignorance of the other service's capabilities, and differences in mission emphasis and personnel management. Eventually, the nursing staffs built a cohesive team. Lessons learned for future multi-service nursing integration include extensive planning before implementation, flexibility and a willingness to learn, and full integration of service members throughout the organization. Staffing by two or more military medical services can be done successfully.

Nursing studies laid end to end form a circle

As early as 1915, leaders in the nursing profession were concerned with the "image problem of nurses," which they saw as needing improvement. Since then, countless studies, reports, and commissions have attempted to explain and solve perceived shortages of registered nurses, which have occurred regularly after brief periods of quiescence or oversupply. Usually, their recommendations have hinged on nurses changing their image. In fact, few of these studies have dealt with the real issues of nursing work, which are a narrow pay range, little extra pay for working on undesirable shifts, disincentives for full-time work, pay unrelated to education, and education unconnected to job level. The multiple studies and commissions do nothing more than recycle data and in the process obscure fundamental problems. Educational funding has been no more successful. Their ineffectiveness suggests the need for less "image enhancement" and more support from physicians and employers to bring about systemic reform. This includes licensing nurses according to their education, assigning them according to their competencies and education, and paying accordingly. These measures, and only these, will eventually curtail the cycles of nursing "shortages."