The Policy Alignment of the British False Memory Society and the British Psychological Society

This paper describes the alignment between the goals of the British False Memory Society (BFMS) and a group of sympathetic academics within the British Psychological Society (BPS). Since the 1990s, the policy formation process of the BPS has excluded critical colleagues concerned with child protection and the demonstration of the link between childhood adversity and adult mental health problems. Those involved in the nexus between the BPS and BFMS have focused singularly on the experimental evidence for false-positive outcomes and have systematically excluded a consideration of false negatives. We describe how this biased policy development emerged and was maintained. We discuss this skewed policy formation with reference to social network formation in professional life, as well as the wider context of child abuse in society.

Integrating Graduates of a National Faculty Development Program Into a Community of Practice

PURPOSE

The Educational Scholars Program (ESP) started as a national 3-year faculty development (FD) program for pediatric educators. Fourteen years later, the ESP has grown into a larger community of practice (CoP). The purpose of this study was to identify programmatic processes that serve as bridges or barriers to integrating ESP graduates into the CoP.

METHODS

A cross-sectional survey was sent to 126 ESP graduates. Based on their self-reported level of engagement, graduates were categorized into 4 groups: Core, Active, Peripheral, and Outsider groups. Factors contributing to engagement with the ESP community, and the impact of varying levels of engagement on outcomes related to the organization and the graduate were ascertained.

RESULTS

Half of the ESP graduates completed the survey. Thirty-five percent of the respondents were in the Core or Active groups. Almost all ESP graduates in the Core and Active groups felt a sense of belonging to the ESP community. Opportunities provided to network, collaborate, and receive mentorship were reported as highly significant influences on their decision to remain engaged.

CONCLUSION

Purposeful integration of graduates of an FD program within a CoP, by allowing varying levels of involvement, enhances engagement within the CoP.

Expectations and experiences of practising veterinarians throughout an 8-week mindfulness-based stress reduction programme

AIMS

To explore practising veterinarians' expectations of an 8-week mindfulness training programme, their perceived barriers to participating in the programme, their experiences of the programme and the extent to which they continued to engage in mindfulness practices following training.

METHODS

Participants were 10 companion animal veterinarians practising in Auckland, New Zealand. All took part in an 8-week mindfulness-based training programme. A longitudinal qualitative design was used: data were collected by structured interviews prior to the programme, upon completion of the programme and 3 months after completion. Data were analysed using thematic analysis to identify recurring themes, or patterns, within the data.

RESULTS

Before commencing the programme, participants generally thought mindfulness training would provide some benefits for wellbeing but were otherwise not clear on what to expect. The main concerns about taking part were time constraints and apprehensions about potentially having to share personal information, and consequently how they might be perceived by other participants. On completion of the training programme, the opportunity to share experiences within the group with the support of a trained facilitator was reported as the most valuable aspect of the programme, rather than the mindfulness practices themselves. At the 3-month follow-up, participants reported they had learnt some useful techniques for managing stressful thoughts and situations, but despite the perceived benefits, few were still practicing mindfulness techniques.

CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE

Training in mindfulness practices may have some value for helping practicing veterinarians manage their wellbeing, but it is not a complete solution in itself. Participants reported that the greatest benefits came from facilitated peer support.

Practicing Integrated Care Pathways in Norwegian Hospitals: Coordination through Industrialized Standardization, Value Chains, and Quality Management or an Organizational Equivalent to Improvised Jazz Standards

The goal of coordinating pathways for cancer patients through their diagnostic and treatment journey is often approached by borrowing strategies from traditional industries, including standardization, process redesign, and variation reduction. However, the usefulness of these strategies is sometimes limited in the face of the complexity and uncertainty that characterize these processes over time and the situation at both patient and institutional levels. We found this to be the case when we did an in-depth qualitative study of coordination processes in patient pathways for three diagnoses in four Norwegian hospitals. What allows these hospitals to accomplish coordination is supplementing standardization with improvisation. This improvisation is embedded in four types of emerging semi-formal structures: collegial communities, networks, boundary spanners, and physical proximity. The hierarchical higher administrative levels appear to have a limited ability to manage and support coordination of these emerging structures when needed. We claim that this can be explained by viewing line management as representative of an economic-administrative institutional logic while these emerging structures represent a medical-professional logic that privileges proximity to the variation and complexity in the situations. The challenge is then to find a way for emergent and formal structures to coexist.