The occupation of waste picker has taken on new importance as a livelihood, especially since the last global economic downturn. Increasingly, waste pickers are being recognized for their valuable contributions to urban sustainability and development. Drawing from scholarship on waste pickers, and findings from a recent study conducted in five cities across three continents, this paper discusses the environmental and economic contributions of informal waste pickers to cities. This paper argues for the re-conceptualization of solid waste management systems that integrate waste pickers as partners, as key to building just, inclusive and livable cities for all. It also presents a specific model in which informal waste workers are integrated as key stakeholders as one example of best practice in this area, thus contributing to current discussions on integrated and inclusive solid waste models.

The study describes the skills and abilities required for working in Eye Banks, from the perspective of nurses, and offers subsidies for professional nursing practice in these services. This was an exploratory, descriptive study with a qualitative approach. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with seven nurses working in this service and analyzed with the support of content analysis. By analyzing the testimonies of the subjects in this study, the managerial dimension was perceived as relevant for the subjects, through their statements. Skills required to work in Eye Banks, from the perspective of nurses, included: skills related to education, communication, leadership to maintain team unity; ability to deal with the corpse; and, dexterity in the technical procedures involved. It became clear that nurses needed to devote greater attention to the dimensions of teaching and research. This is a new scenario for nursing practice and it is required that nurses acquire new professional skills.

O artigo reflete o papel de políticas institucionais voltadas para a garantia da permanência e desempenho escolar no contexto da ampliação do acesso ao ensino superior no Brasil. Considera a questão da evasão e as dificuldades enfrentadas, sobretudo dos alunos ingressantes e dos advindos de camadas antes alijadas do ensino superior. Relata experiências institucionais positivas para o sucesso escolar e coloca como desafio para a democratização do ensino superior a importância de se aliar a ampliação do acesso a políticas institucionais, que possibilitem a todos os acadêmicos condições propícias de inserção e desenvolvimento no ambiente universitário.

INTRODUCTION: Primary care visits of persons with dementia involve different types of communication, bringing together the patient, the family carer and the general practitioner (GP). A particular challenge is the necessary involvement of a third person (the carer) in patient-doctor encounters (or the patient in carer-doctor encounters, as dementia advances). These triad dynamics should be better understood, as health outcomes are expected to result from or be mediated by them.OBJECTIVE: Our aim is to explore triadic dynamics in Portuguese primary care consultations with persons with dementia, their family carers and GPs.METHODS: This is the first part of an ongoing project (Dementia in Primary Care: the Patient, the Carer and the Doctor in the Medical Encounter - Bayer Investigation Grant | NOVAsaúde Ageing 2018). Consultations with persons with dementia, their carers and GPs (purposive sampling) are audio-recorded, transcribed verbatim and thematically analysed. We report the analysis of interactions of the first six consultations, using NVIVO® software.RESULTS: The most frequent type of interaction was between GPs and carers, followed by interactions involving the whole triad. The patients who had more recent relationships with their GPs tended to participate less, irrespective of the stage of dementia. Carers were the ones most often initiating triadic interactions, and GPs the ones most often terminating them by directly addressing the patients. Doctor-carers interactions were very sparse in some consultations.DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: These preliminary findings suggest that doctor-patient interactions may be limited in a number of GPs’ consultations, seemingly compromising patient-centred approaches. Nevertheless, even when GPs were involved in triadic interactions they often tried to address the patient directly. We are looking forward to complete this part of the project: to our knowledge, there is practically no evidence from live-recorded primary care consultations about these triadic dynamics.

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