Ten years of ENT Scotland meetings: an appraisal of the publication rates of trainee-presented scientific papers

OBJECTIVE

The ENT Scotland society (formerly known as the Scottish Otolaryngological Society) has two meetings a year and accepts oral presentations from trainees. This study aimed to identify publication rates from these meetings.

METHODS

Abstracts of the presentations are published in The Journal of Laryngology and Otology. A structured search on PubMed and Google Scholar was undertaken to identify which presentations from the 2005 to 2014 meetings have been published.

RESULTS

Of the 145 abstracts found, 60.7 per cent were presenting clinical research and 44.1 per cent were related to the head and neck subspecialty. Seventy-three abstracts (50.3 per cent) were associated with publication as a peer-reviewed article; otology papers were more likely to be published than those focusing on other subspecialties (64.3 per cent, p = 0.036). No correlation was found between publication and other factors.

CONCLUSION

Presentations at the ENT Scotland meetings undergo unbiased peer review and are as likely to be published as those of other conferences.

Perceptions of Bedside Cardiac Critical Care Registered Nurses on 24 Hour Attending Intensivist Coverage

OBJECTIVE

To elicit the perceptions of bedside critical care nurses toward continual in-house attending coverage and its effect on patient safety, communication, and nursing education.

DESIGN

A 5-point Likert-type questionnaire was designed to evaluate the perception of bedside nurses in the pediatric cardiac intensive care unit (PCICU) toward the presence of a 24 hour in-house attending physician.

SETTING

Single tertiary referral PCICU in Washington, DC SUBJECTS: The 46 PCICU nurses who participated in the study were separated into two groups based on exposure to the recent implementation of continual in-house attending coverage at our institution. Group one consisted of 14 nurses with only exposure to the new 24/7 in-house coverage while group two encompassed 32 nurses who had experienced both the new and old system (off-site on-demand attending physician).

MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS

Surveys demonstrated that both groups found that the new system has a positive impact on nursing education (median score of 5) as well as a positive impact on the communication between multidisciplinary teams and between care team and families (median score of 5). Nurses who experienced only the new system scored one point lower (median score of 4) regarding the effect of this staffing model on patient outcomes than nurses who had experienced both systems (median score of 5, P = .016). Between 83% and 98% of all 46 nurses who participated indicated they agree or strongly agree with each of the questions regarding the benefit of 24 hour in-house attending coverage.

CONCLUSION

Our study suggests that regardless of differences in experience, pediatric cardiac nurses believe the presence of an on-site intensivist to be beneficial to both nursing and patients.

Labor contractors: a conceptual overview

"The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of labor brokering or contracting that helps to explain why employers turn to foreign workers to fill certain vacant jobs, and how the presence of foreign workers brought to a country by labor contractors can affect the size and duration of migration flows. The major conclusion is that East Asian policies that aim to avoid the settlement of unskilled foreign workers also make labor brokering a prominent feature of labor migration and migrant labor markets in the region."

Decree No. 280, 26 February 1987

This Decree creates within the Secretariat of Human Development and the Family a Subsecretariat of Women and a Subsecretariat of Youth. The Subsecretariat of Women contains three directorates: a) the National Directorate for the Promotion and Participation of Women; b) the General Directorate of Institutional Relations and Coordination; and c) the National Directorate of Studies, Projects, and Investigation for Women. The functions of the Subsecretariat of Women are reproduced in the Appendix to this volume under Section 610.

An examination of reforms on the social security system of retirement based on practices in Hainan province

"The first task of this article is to analyze and dissect the seven major drawbacks of the current disjointed retirement system [in China] characterized by collection of pension for immediate distribution. This will be followed by an introduction of the reforms on the social security system of elderly support for enterprise retirees carried out in Hainan Province and specific social security and elderly support practices by private businesses in Haikou, capital city of Hainan Province....Special inquiries are made regarding the necessity and feasibility of establishing a national uniform social security system of elderly support covering civil servants, enterprise workers, private business owners, managers, and employees and farmers."

[Early retirement or prolonged working life? Aspirations of unionized professionals aged 50 years and over]

"Two opposing retirement options--early retirement or prolonged working life--are being presented in the burgeoning literature related to the ineluctable ageing of the work force. Both are allegedly proposed for economic reasons and claim to meet the expectations and needs of ageing workers. But what in reality are the retirement goals of older workers and which factors, individual and organizational, affect the decision to retire? In tackling this question, the article draws on a survey conducted among workers from 15 unions, mostly affiliated with the Quebec Council of Managers and Professionals. Based on data from 1,319 respondents, the findings indicate that the majority of professionals would prefer to retire earlier, that 60 is much more considered a normal retirement age than 65, and that only 8% of the respondents wish to continue working after 65--and this mostly out of economic necessity, not choice. The factors that underlie this preference for early retirement are then identified and discussed." (SUMMARY IN ENG AND SPA)

Population trends in resource-dependent counties

"Resource-dependent communities in the United States have a history of economic instability and population decline. In this article, national county-level data were used to compare population trends during the 1980s of resource-dependent counties with counties economically dependent on other sustenance activities. It was found that resource-dependent counties were significantly more likely to experience population declines during the 1980s than other types of counties. This relationship remained significant even when the effects of several variables were statistically controlled."

Determinants of migration values and expectations in rural Thailand

"Based on the argument that values and expectations underlie behavioral motives, this study explores the determinants of migration-related values and expectations, and whether they are intervening factors in explaining intentions to move among residents of rural northeast Thailand. Data from the 1992 National Migration Survey of Thailand identify four migration-related value-expectancy dimensions: income, affiliation, stimulation, and comfort. Logistic regression analysis shows that landownership and being married are associated with higher expectations, while a diversified village economy, a village economy development program, and a younger and extended household structure are associated with lower expectations of attaining valued goals in the local rural village. The analysis also shows that value-expectancy concepts are only partial intervening explanations for intentions to move or stay."