Burnout negatively impacts the delivery of mental health services. Psychiatric nurses face stressors that are distinct from other nursing specialities. The research was conducted in Ireland and captured a relatively large sample of respondents. The results compared the stressors, coping strategies and burnout levels between hospital and community-based psychiatric nurses. Occupational stress can negatively impact on the well-being of psychiatric nurses, which in turn can lead to poor client care. There is a dearth of published research conducted in Ireland that examines stress within the discipline. A between-groups study, undertaken in February 2011, investigated stressors, burnout and coping strategies between hospital and community-based psychiatric nurses in a Dublin region. Sixty-nine participants (8 males and 61 females), aged between 18 to 60 years voluntarily completed the Mental Health Professional Stress Scale, the Maslach Burnout Inventory and the PsychNurse Methods of Coping Scale. The findings revealed that nurses were operating in a moderately stressful environment. Stressors focused on organizational issues as opposed to client issues. The main stressors identified were lack of resources, workload and organizational structures/processes. Both groups reported average levels of emotional exhaustion, low levels of depersonalization and average levels of personal accomplishment. A Mann-Whitney U-test and Independent Samples t-test found significant differences between hospital and community-based nurses regarding depersonalization and personal accomplishment, respectively. Hospital nurses reported higher depersonalization scores, and community nurses had a greater sense of personal accomplishment. The personal accomplishment scores of hospital nurses were below mental health professional norms. No significant differences emerged regarding coping strategies. Avoidant coping strategies were favoured by both groups. It is recommended that interventions aimed at increasing personal accomplishment be implemented for both groups of nurses. An investigation of perceived job control and the use of social support would also be insightful.

Aircraft maintenance is a highly regulated, safety critical, complex and competitive industry. There is a need to develop innovative solutions to address process efficiency without compromising safety and quality. This paper presents the case that in order to improve a highly complex system such as aircraft maintenance, it is necessary to develop a comprehensive and ecologically valid model of the operational system, which represents not just what is meant to happen, but what normally happens. This model then provides the backdrop against which to change or improve the system. A performance report, the Blocker Report, specific to aircraft maintenance and related to the model was developed gathering data on anything that 'blocks' task or check performance. A Blocker Resolution Process was designed to resolve blockers and improve the current check system. Significant results were obtained for the company in the first trial and implications for safety management systems and hazard identification are discussed. Statement of Relevance:Aircraft maintenance is a safety critical, complex, competitive industry with a need to develop innovative solutions to address process and safety efficiency. This research addresses this through the development of a comprehensive and ecologically valid model of the system linked with a performance reporting and resolution system.

No abstract

IntroductionThere is accumulating evidence implicating the role of leadership in system failures that have resulted in a range of errors in healthcare, from misdiagnoses to failures to recognise and respond to patient deterioration. This has led to concerns about traditional hierarchical leadership structures and created an interest in the development of collective ways of working that distribute leadership roles and responsibilities across team members. Such collective leadership approaches have been associated with improved team performance and staff engagement. This research seeks to improve our understanding of collective leadership by addressing two specific issues: (1) Does collective leadership emerge organically (and in what forms) in a newly networked structure? and (2) Is it possible to design and implement collective leadership interventions that enable teams to collectively improve team performance and patient safety?Methods and analysisThe first phase will include a social network analysis, using an online survey and semistructured interviews at three time points over 12 months, to document the frequency of contact and collaboration between senior hospital management staff in a recently configured hospital group. This study will explore how the network of 11 hospitals is operating and will assess whether collective leadership emerges organically. Second, collective leadership interventions will be co-designed during a series of workshops with healthcare staff, researchers and patient representatives, and then implemented and evaluated with four healthcare teams within the hospital network. A mixed-methods evaluation will explore the impact of the intervention on team effectiveness and team performance indicators to assess whether the intervention is suitable for wider roll-out and evaluation across the hospital group.Ethics and disseminationFavourable ethical opinion has been received from the University College Dublin Research Ethics Committee (HREC-LS-16–116397/LS-16-20). Results will be disseminated via publication in peer-reviewed journals, national and international conferences, and to relevant stakeholders and interest groups.

This paper presents the overall learning process that evolved during the MASCA project (MAnaging System Change in Aviation-EU FP7 funded project (2010-2013), specifically focusing on the one of the key elements of the overall learning approach, the development of a Serious Game (SKYBOARD) and the role the game played in supporting the implementation of Airport Collaborative Decision Making (A-CDM) in a major European airport. The underlying principles of the learning process was based on ongoing and collaborative learning in the workplace, with each phase of learning involving preparation and guidance, collaborative learning, consolidation of that learning and practically focused next steps that can be deployed to support overall change management. The aim of SKYBOARD was to aid communication and collaboration when introducing A-CDM, and thereby supporting the cultural change that comes with this introduction. The development of SKYBOARD was based upon an initial training needs analysis and an iterative development and implementation approach at a major airport. The research demonstrated that we are at the beginning of a fundamental shift in the way both learning and working is happening in organisations. Therefore the establishment of a collaborative learning process and integrated learning package needs to focus on supporting continuous performance improvement and learning (competency and capability at all levels) and to ensure this overall learning is fully aligned to the overall strategic blueprint of the organisation. The evaluation of SKYBOARD demonstrated that Serious Games can support collaborative learning and enhanced communication and that such games should be key resource in any learning environment and proved to be a highly effective support to the implementation of A-CDM in this case.