Dataset Information

"The importance of awareness, support and inner strength to balance everyday life" - a qualitative study about women's experiences of a workplace health promotion program in human service organizations in Sweden.

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND:In many European countries, women have a higher sickness absence rate than men. Women also report higher levels of work-life conflict, which has a negative impact on women's self-perceived health. Interventions studies on work-life balance literature are scarce. This research adds knowledge about work-life balance by examining female employees' experiences of a newly developed intervention program, the BELE program (Balance in Everyday Life Empowerment program), aiming to enhance the work-life balance and wellbeing of female employees. METHODS:All participants in the BELE program were included in the sample (n?=?55) of the study. The methods used for gathering data were focus group interviews (n?=?8) and semi-structured individual interviews (n?=?8). A qualitative content analysis was used for the analyses. RESULTS:The results showed that a majority of the participants experienced a process of change for enhancement of wellbeing and balance in their everyday life when taking part in the BELE program. In the analyses, three main themes emerged. Reflecting and strengthening inner resource, Trying to change everyday patterns and habits and Experiencing more balance and well-being. CONCLUSIONS:The results point out the importance of awareness and reflection on everyday life to promote work-life balance and wellbeing. The BELE program was described as a wakeup call to one's own life and as an enhancer of empowerment processes and equality in the homes. Moreover, the results showed the need for health education in the workplace focusing on both work and private life to enhance balance and wellbeing among female employees'. The findings indicate that it is important to work at individual and group levels in work-life balance interventions and not merely at the organizational level or in the workplace setting.

SUBMITTER: Agosti MT

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6327387 | biostudies-other | 2019 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-other

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"The importance of awareness, support and inner strength to balance everyday life" - a qualitative study about women's experiences of a workplace health promotion program in human service organizations in Sweden.

Agosti Madelaine Törnquist MT Andersson Ingemar I Bringsén Åsa Å Janlöv Ann-Christin AC

BMC women's health 20190110 1

<h4>Background</h4>In many European countries, women have a higher sickness absence rate than men. Women also report higher levels of work-life conflict, which has a negative impact on women's self-perceived health. Interventions studies on work-life balance literature are scarce. This research adds knowledge about work-life balance by examining female employees' experiences of a newly developed intervention program, the BELE program (Balance in Everyday Life Empowerment program), aiming to enha ...[more]

PMID: 30630484

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Project description:Background:Everyday products can contain a multitude of harmful substances unnoticed by most consumers, because established risk communication channels reach only part of the society. The question is, whether at least interested and informed consumers are able to use risk communication tools and assess harmful chemicals in products. Results:An online survey investigated the awareness of 1030 consumers on harmful substances in everyday items. Participating consumers' education level, knowledge in chemistry, and motivation were above society's average. Although a large number of responses showed that survey participants were familiar with several aspects of the issue, the results revealed that knowledge in chemistry helped, but was not enough. Many participants assumed that products with an eco-label, natural personal care products, products without hazard pictograms or products produced in the European Union would not contain harmful substances. Most participants indicated to use hazard pictograms, information on the packaging, reports in the media, and environmental and consumer organizations as information sources, while information by authorities and manufacturers were not named frequently and did not receive high confidence. Smartphone applications were not indicated by many participants as information sources. The information sources most trusted were environmental and consumer organizations, hazard pictograms, and lists of ingredients on the containers. The declared confidence in certain risk communication instruments did not always correspond to the use frequencies indicated. Nearly all participants considered legislators as responsible for the reduction of harmful substances in consumer products. Conclusions:Misconceptions about harmful substances in products can be dangerous for the personal health and the environment. The survey indicates that motivation, educational level, and chemical expertise do not automatically provide an appropriate understanding of harmful substances in products. If well-informed consumers are not sufficiently capable to use risk information elements as revealed in this study, then this will be even more the case for the general public. Consumer awareness should be stipulated by an improved information strategy about chemical risks in consumer products with an extensive participation of the target groups and by more efforts by authorities and manufactures to build trust and to provide easily understandable information.

Project description:ImportanceGender differences in interprofessional conflict may exist and precipitate differential achievement, wellness, and attrition in medicine.ObjectiveAlthough substantial attention and research has been directed toward improving gender equity in surgery and addressing overall physician wellness, research on the role of interprofessional conflict has been limited. The objective of this study was to understand scenarios driving interprofessional conflict involving women surgeons, the implications of the conflict on personal, professional, and patient outcomes, and how women surgeons navigate conflict adjudication.Design, setting, and participantsA qualitative approach was used to explore the nature, implications, and ways of navigating interprofessional workplace conflict experienced by women surgeons. The setting was a national sample of US women surgeons. Purposive and snowball sampling were used to recruit women surgeons in training or practice from annual surgical society meetings. Participants were eligible if they were currently in a surgical training program or surgical practice. Nearly all participants had experienced at least 1 workplace conflict with a nonphysician staff member resulting in a formal write-up.ExposuresA workplace conflict was defined as any conflict resulting in the nonphysician staff member taking action such as confronting the woman surgeon, reporting the event to supervisors, or filing a formal report.Main outcomes and measuresInterviews were conducted between February 19, 2019, and June 21, 2019. Recordings were transcribed and deidentified. Inductive thematic analysis was used to examine data in relation to the research questions.ResultsThirty US women surgeons (8 [27%] age 25-34 years, 16 [53%] age 35-44 years, 5 [17%] age 45-54 years, and 1 [3%] age 55-64 years) of varying surgical specialties were interviewed. Conflicts were often reported as due to a breakdown in communication or from performance-related disputes. Participants perceived personal and professional implications including self-doubt, depression, frustration, anxiety, loss of sleep, reputational harms, and delays to advancement. Participants also described potential patient safety implications primarily due to decreased communication resulting from some surgeons being hesitant to engage in subsequent interactions. Participants described a variety of navigation strategies including relationship management, rapport building, and social capital. The success of these processes tended to vary by individual circumstances, including the details of the conflict, practice setting, level of support of leadership, and individual personality of the surgeon.Conclusions and relevanceThis qualitative study highlights women surgeons' experiences with interprofessional workplace conflict. Interprofessional culture building, broader dissemination of implicit bias training, and transparent and equitable adjudication systems are potential strategies for avoiding or mitigating the implications of these conflicts.

Project description:BackgroundIncentives for accountable care organizations (ACOs) to limit health care use and improve quality may enhance or hurt patients' experiences with care.MethodsUsing Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (CAHPS) survey data covering 3 years before and 1 year after the start of Medicare ACO contracts in 2012 as well as linked Medicare claims, we compared patients' experiences in a group of 32,334 fee-for-service beneficiaries attributed to ACOs (ACO group) with those in a group of 251,593 beneficiaries attributed to other providers (control group), before and after the start of ACO contracts. We used linear regression and a difference-in-differences analysis to estimate changes in patients' experiences in the ACO group that differed from concurrent changes in the control group, with adjustment for the sociodemographic and clinical characteristics of the patients.ResultsAfter ACO contracts began, patients' reports of timely access to care and their primary physicians' being informed about specialty care differentially improved in the ACO group, as compared with the control group (P=0.01 and P=0.006, respectively), whereas patients' ratings of physicians, interactions with physicians, and overall care did not differentially change. Among patients with multiple chronic conditions and high predicted Medicare spending, overall ratings of care differentially improved in the ACO group as compared with the control group (P=0.02). Differential improvements in timely access to care and overall ratings were equivalent to moving from average performance among ACOs to the 86th to 98th percentile (timely access to care) and to the 82nd to 96th percentile (overall ratings) and were robust to adjustment for group differences in trends during the preintervention period.ConclusionsIn the first year, ACO contracts were associated with meaningful improvements in some measures of patients' experience and with unchanged performance in others. (Funded by the National Institute on Aging and others.).

Dataset Information

"The importance of awareness, support and inner strength to balance everyday life" - a qualitative study about women's experiences of a workplace health promotion program in human service organizations in Sweden.

Publications

"The importance of awareness, support and inner strength to balance everyday life" - a qualitative study about women's experiences of a workplace health promotion program in human service organizations in Sweden.

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