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This chapter critiques the western cultural understanding of empowerment using a trinitarian framework by engaging two pertinent questions: What is the character of the church;and is the western encultured empowerment narrative a bridge or barrier to its renewed understanding of biblical empowerment in the face of suffering? This is especially relevant as the church responds to the Covid-19 global health crisis. In contrast to the western cultural value of autonomy-as-empowerment, this paper argues that God the Father as the Source of life, the church as the embodiment of the incarnate Christ, and the character-forming ecclesial implications of the Holy Spirit's presence empowers the church to live in the likeness of God. This paper is designed to stimulate dialogue among missiologists, theologians, and practitioners in order to strengthen the church's response to suffering. This paper argues for a trinitarian ecclesiology for a holistic mission, defining the church as a worshiping community (a people of God), joined to Christ in His sufferings (the body of Christ), and as expanding the presence of God (God's temple) now and into the new creation. © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023.
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P158 Table 1 2018–2019 2020–2021 No: of patients 33 38 Disease site Pulmonary Extra-pulmonary Pulmonary Extra-pulmonary 45.5% 55.5% 23.6% 76.4% Single site Multi-Site Single Site Multi-Site 87.9% 12.1% 78.9% 21.1% Sensitivity Sensitive Drug Resistant Sensitive Drug Resistant 62.5% 37.5% 81.2% 18.8% Treatment started by: Doctor Nurse Doctor Nurse Inpatient Outpatient Inpatient Outpatient 24.1% 75.9% 0% 7.9% 71.1% 21% Days from symptom onset to treatment(median) 73 65 Total clinic appointments Face to face Virtual Face to face Virtual 503 1 339 11 Clinic appointments per patient (median) 13 13 Follow-up appointments led by Doctor Nurse Doctor Nurse 52% 48% 28% 72% Patients lost to follow-up 3 1 Hospital admissions 7 1 Patient deaths 0 1 ConclusionA nurse-led model for TB services provides safe, effective, and timely care.An expanded TBSN role with the support of a proactive, easily-accessible consultant may present a good model for TB service provision going forward.Further research is needed to test this model outside of the pandemic context.ReferencesBritish Thoracic society. Tuberculosis services during the Covid-19 pandemic. Available at https://www.brit-thoracic.org.uk/covid-19/covid-19-information-for-the-respiratory-community/
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Objective: Assess the relationship of seasonal temperature and COVID-19 infection with the occurrence of cerebral venous thrombosis (CVT). Background: Increased thrombogenicity is associated with COVID-19. Warm environments cause intravascular constriction, promoting CVT. After COVID-19 began, CVT increased during South Carolina's (SC) warmer months. However, the interaction of seasonal temperature and COVID-19 with CVT has not been elucidated. Design/Methods: The Vizient database provided frequency of non-pyogenic CVT, with and without infarction, between 10/2017 and 7/2021. SC's monthly temperatures were obtained from the National Weather Service, and SC DHEC provided COVID-19 cases. This study initially explored the relationship between COVID-19, CVT, and temperature and the effect of COVID-19 on the occurrence of CVT in Greenville, SC. It then expanded to include all SC and nationwide Vizient hospitals. Results: A Pearson correlation assessed the relationship between CVT, temperature, and COVID-19 in Greenville. A significant positive relationship between CVT and both average daily and maximum temperature (r(46) = 0.343, p<0.05;r(46) 0.339, p<0.05, respectively) was identified. There was not a significant relationship between COVID-19 and CVT, even when controlling for temperature. Greenville's independent t-test compared CVT incidence and showed an increase in CVT cases after the COVID-19 pandemic began (t(20)= 2.71, p<0.01). This significance was also demonstrated from the total data from SC and nationwide (t(36) = 2.538, p < .01, t(44) = 4.050, p <.001, respectively). Conclusions: Increased maximum and average daily temperature is significantly correlated to increased CVT hospitalizations. Although COVID-19 cases were insignificantly correlated with CVT, CVT hospitalizations significantly increased from an unknown variable after the COVID19 pandemic. When relating statistics to observed patterns, it is still possible that the conditions surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic complete the increased risk of CVT hospitalizations during warmer months. Future study is needed to elucidate variables' effects and patterns on COVID-19, temperature, and CVT.
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Background: Research shows that healthcare professionals' personal hopefulness is associated with burnout and life satisfaction, highlighting the value of hope-enhancement interventions. Feldman and Dreher developed a single-session hope intervention, but this has been used rarely with oncology professionals, and only in in-person format (Shah, Ferguson, Corn et al.). Given SWOG Cancer Research Network's commitment to assessing hopeenhancement approaches and the need for online interventions given COVID-19, we report a feasibility study of a virtual hope workshop in SWOG members. Methods: The workshop was a single 2-hour session delivered live via Zoom to 6-8 participants at a time. The workshop comprises 3 components: A brief lecture on hope and two exercises-a "hope mapping" exercise (aided by a smartphone app created for the workshop) and a hope visualization exercise-both designed to build hope for a life goal of each participant's choosing. 29 SWOG members participated. A link to post-workshop measures was sent to participants, which they were given a week to complete. Measures included Thanarajasingamet al's 5-item Was-itWorth-it (WIWI) measure;Kirkpatrick's 4-item Training Evaluation Model (TEM;reaction, learning, behavior, results);and an item assessing the degree to which participants believe concepts from the workshop should be integrated into SWOG studies. Results: In all, 25 participants (86%) completed measures. Participants were physicians (n = 8), nurses (n = 4), patient advocates (n = 3), research staff (n = 3), and others (n = 7);mostly female (n = 17), mostly white (n = 18), with a mean age of 55.5 (SD = 13.95). Results for the WIWI items are as follows: "Was it worthwhile to participate in the Hope Workshop?" (23 Yes, 2 No/Undecided/Missing Answer);"If you had to do over, would you participate in the Hope Workshop again?" (22 Yes, 3 No/Undecided/Missing Answer);"Would you recommend participating in the Hope Workshop to others?" (22 Yes, 3 No/Undecided/Missing Answer). Two additional items on the WIWI asked participants to rate on a 3-point scale the degree to which they believe their quality of life had increased due to the workshop (M = 2.52, SD =.51) and their overall experience in the workshop (M = 2.70, SD =.64). Ratings for Kirkpatrick's TEM items likewise were high, ranging from 6.91 (SD = 1.31) to 7.70 (SD =.70) on an 8-point scale. Finally, participants gave a mean rating of 4.44 (SD =.59) on a 5-point scale to the item "To what degree do you believe it may be useful to integrate concepts from this workshop into SWOG trials/studies?" Conclusions: It is feasible to implement hope-enhancement workshops in an online platform that includes a smartphone app. Data obtained from two validated tools (WIWI instrument and Kirkpatrick's TEM) attest to an array of positive outcomes. Participants also overwhelmingly advocated integrating hope concepts into SWOG's research.
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Purpose: This study explains the variation of government responses to the pandemic by focusing on how centralization/decentralization in politics and administration creates conflicts and coordination problems. Specifically, the authors make comparisons between the U.S. and South Korea to reveal differences in macro-level structures and associated responses. One of the key points of comparison is the centralized, hierarchical governance system, which may thwart or facilitate a coordinated response. Design/methodology/approach: This is an in-depth comparative case study of the two countries that showed different trajectories during the initial response to COVID-19. The comparison allows us to highlight the long-standing debate about centralization/decentralization and offers implications for government responses to crises shaped by political systems and administrative structures. Findings: While there are inherent pros and cons to decentralization, the COVID-19 pandemic highlights the institutional limitations in American federalism and the advantages that centralized administrative coordination creates during times of crisis. American federalism has unveiled systematic problems in coordination, along with the leadership crisis in polarized politics. The response from South Korea also reveals several issues in the administratively centralized and politically polarized environment. Research limitations/implications: While the authors risk comparing apples and oranges, the variation unveils systematic contradictions in polarized politics and offers important implications for government responses in times of crisis. However, this article did not fully account for individual leadership as an independent factor that interacts with existing political/administrative institutions. Practical implications: There is certainly no one best way or one-size-fits-all solution to mitigating the COVID-19 pandemic in countries under different circumstances. This article demonstrates that one of the essential determining factors in national responses to the pandemic is how the political and administrative dimensions of centralization/decentralization are balanced against each other. Originality/value: Unlike previous studies explaining the country-level responses to COVID-19, this study focuses on the variance of political and administrative decentralization within each country from the political-administrative perspective and reveals the systematic contradictions in coordination and the leadership crisis in polarized politics. © 2021, Emerald Publishing Limited.