New development: A ‘journey of personal and professional emotions'—emergency ambulance professionals during Covid-19

IMPACTThis article explores the consequences of emotional labour on UK NHS ambulance staff and their response to the Covid-19 pandemic. It highlights the challenges faced by ambulance crews while dealing with their emotional labour within the context of organizational settings. Research findings also explain the importance of emergency responders' psychosocial wellbeing. The article has clear relevance as to how frontline staff manage their emotional labour in other emergency service settings, such as the police and fire and rescue services.Alternate :Managing emotions are essential aspect of many jobs, and frontline healthcare workers have to manage and control their emotions while caring for critically ill patients and working in an emotionally-charged dynamic environment;this was particularly the case during Covid-19. Ambulance workers are an important group in this respect but they are currently under-researched. Evidence behind this article comes from data collected from an NHS ambulance trust in England. One of the key contributions of this article is to highlight how frontline ambulance professionals manage their emotional labour while working within the stipulations of organizational constraints.

Corrigendum

Reports an error in "The impact of patient's fear of COVID-19 infection on neurology service in University Hospital Center Sestre Milosrdnice during COVID-19 epidemic outbreak" by Arijana Lovrencic-Huzjan and Marina Roje-Bedekovic (Archives of Psychiatry Research: An International Journal of Psychiatry and Related Sciences, 2021, Vol 57[2], 167-176). In the original article, one of the authors name was missing. The correction is given in the erratum. (The following of the original article appeared in record 2022-62540-005). Increasing evidence suggests that patients with medical emergencies are avoiding the emergency department because of fear of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) infection, leading to increased morbidity and mortality due to other diseases. In order to analyse the impact of patient's fear of COVID-19 on the admittance rate of stroke patients and severity of neurological diseases, we compared the stroke admittance rate, numbers of thrombectomies and thrombolysis and hospitalization refusal rate during the time period from March 1st until June 30th 2020 in temporal relationship with the rising numbers of COVID-19 cases in Croatia. We assessed the patients' neurologic disease severity measured by ventilation time and mortality rate in the same time period. We compared the data with the data obtained from the same time period in 2019. We observed dramatically decreased presentation in Neurologic Emergency Department due to stroke and neurologic disease in 2020 compared to 2019, increased refused hospitalization rate and similar stroke treatment rate despite bigger catchment area. Greater neurologic disease severity with almost 40% increased ventilation time and double mortality rate during the same time was observed. During the outbreak of COVID-19 epidemic, fear of infection had significant impact on neurologic service leading to decreased presentation to NED, resulting in increased stroke or neurologic disease-related morbidity and mortality. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

COVID-19 emergency operator support: Bologna Local Health Unit Prevention and Protection Service

At the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Bologna Local Health Unit Prevention and Protection Service began to receive a number of various requests. From this, the idea of setting up a programme for colleagues emerged, and a phone number was established to address the needs of operators. After an initial evaluation, operators were referred to specific professional figures. The service's psychologists dealt with the requests received by offering different types of interventions. This report presents and discusses the results of this experience regarding the operators who used the service, the interventions implemented and the feedback received. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved) (Italian) All'inizio della pandemia da COVID-19 sono iniziate a pervenire numerose richieste di diversa natura presso il Servizio Prevenzione e Protezione dell'AUSL di Bologna. Da questi elementi e nata l'idea di pianificare un percorso dedicato ai colleghi attraverso l'istituzione di un numero telefonico per l'accoglienza dei bisogni degli operatori. A una prima accoglienza si rimandava a figure professionali specifiche. Gli psicologi del Servizio hanno preso in carico le richieste pervenute offrendo diverse tipologie di interventi. Nel presente elaborato sono presentati e discussi i risultati di questa esperienza relativi ai lavoratori che hanno usufruito del servizio, gli interventi attuati e i feedback ricevuti. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

Coproducing Support Together: Sustainable and Reciprocal Civic Disaster Relief during COVID-19

COVID-19 changed society in terms of employment, food security, and mental health, affecting all segments of the population. Surging demands for a wide range of support could not be met solely by government-led disaster assistance that experienced breakdowns in the initial phase of the pandemic. The nature of the pandemic as a global, long-haul disaster necessitated sustained, diverse, and extensive civic disaster relief to complement government response. In this paper, we explore how civic disaster relief groups carry out online and offline coordination activities to engage different actors and their positive effects on individuals and local communities, drawing on interviews with civic disaster relief organizers and volunteers in the United States. We interpret our findings with the lens of coproduction that can increase the sustainability, diversity, and extent of civic relief efforts. We then suggest design implications for coproducing disaster relief and discuss the importance and benefits of involving stakeholders who are less likely to be engaged in producing relief. © 2023 ACM.

Emergency response scheme selection with T-spherical hesitant probabilistic fuzzy TODIM-TPZSG approach

This paper aims to investigate an innovative framework to handle emergency response scheme selection (ERSS) issues by integrating TODIM and TPZSG (two-person zero-sum game) methods under novel T-spherical hesitant probabilistic fuzzy set (T-SHPFS) environments. First, T-SHPFS is defined as an extension of the existing tools, which can depict the complex assessment information including several possible values of the various membership functions' degrees and the associated statistical uncertainty information. Concomitantly, T-SHPFS's normalization method, comparison laws, operation rules, cross-entropy measure and Hausdorff distance are explored. Then, an objective attribute weight determining model is constructed, considering the credibility of T-SHPF evaluations and the divergence degrees between attribute assessments simultaneously. Next, an integrated TODIM-TPZSG decision-making approach is developed to select the most desirable emergency response scheme. Finally, an illustrative example concerning the selection of the best medical waste disposal method during the COVID-19 epidemic is conducted to verify the effectiveness of the proposed TODIM-TPZSG method. Sensitivity analysis and comparisons between the TODIM-TPZSG and other representative methods are also provided to demonstrate the superiorities of the proposed method. The results reveal that the developed T-SHPFSs give DMs more assessment freedom;the proposed TODIM-TPZSG approach considers the decision makers' psychological behaviors;the ranking results of the proposed method can reflect the specific divergence degrees among the alternatives;and the needed computation burden and computational complexity are low and less affected by the number of alternatives and criteria than most current ERSS methods. © 2023

Emergency medical service planning considering dynamic and stochastic demands of infected and non-infected patients during epidemics

During a large-scale epidemic, a local healthcare system can be overwhelmed by a large number of infected and non-infected patients. To serve the infected and non-infected patients well with limited medical resources, effective emergency medical service planning should be conducted before the epidemic. In this study, we propose a two-stage stochastic programming model, which integrally deploys various types of emergency healthcare facilities before an epidemic and serves infected and non-infected patients dynamically at the deployed healthcare facilities during the epidemic. With the service equity of infected patients and various practical requirements of emergency medical services being explicitly considered, our model minimizes a weighted sum of the expected operation cost and the equity cost. We develop two comparison models and conduct a case study on Chengdu, a Chinese city influenced by the COVID-19 epidemic, to show the effectiveness and benefits of our proposed model. Sensitivity analyses are conducted to generate managerial insights and suggestions. Our study not only extends the existing emergency supply planning models but also can facilitate better practices of emergency medical service planning for large-scale epidemics. © Operational Research Society 2023.

Enlightenment: The Covid-19 Pandemic

All efforts are for body and soul. All scientific theories and technologies, government policies, infrastructures, and spiritual activities are meant to protect the soul, body, and hunger. If we can protect the lives of all living entities in any eventuality, the country is said to be a developed country. Every incident exposes the system and gives the experience to learn for better operation with minimum fatalities. The sudden outbreak of deadly microscopic Corona virus had opened the eyes of all walks of people in the world and put all the countries in danger of human losses as well as the financial crisis. The pandemic covid-19 has taught valuable lessons and exposed many grave areas—loss of family members, loss of jobs, the closing of industries, offices, and schools, tireless work of emergency service providers, and what could be the severity of spreading of Covid-19 and health care systems after post lockdown. Apart from this pandemic disease, other critical areas for Disastrous Management due to the regular occurring natural calamities are droughts, cyclones, and industrial explosions, etc. pose challenges and need for improvement in the areas such as emergency services, agriculture sectors, shelters, sanitation, cleanliness, public parks and playgrounds, beautification of cities, old premises, cremation grounds, market places, slaughterhouses, etc. These essential services need to be investigated with quality assurance for the welfare of the people in terms of health, environment, investments, revenue, and the creation of jobs. These experiential challenges are critically analyzed in detail and presented in this paper for the policymakers to take appropriate steps to avoid any future epidemic diseases and disastrous situations like Covid-19. © 2023 DMICS.

Supporting recovery in rural Indiana: From mobile to virtual

Many consumers, both youth and adults, are not accessing appropriate substance use treatment, necessitating the need for mobile response interventions. Choices Coordinated Care Solutions has developed a mobile response model that builds on Systems of Care values to engage consumers in intensive care coordination utilizing the evidence-based Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment approach and core values of wraparound. The choices emergency response team (CERT) model is an integrated, coordinated service delivery approach, relying on the skills and experience of its qualified staff to work with consumers in order to effectively identify the inherent strengths that all people have and to use those strengths to design innovative, trauma-informed approaches to treatment. A strong relationship with a broad network of stakeholders throughout the state and southeast Indiana serves as a foundation for the implementation of mobile response. These relationships with local resources empower consumers in their recovery journey. The evolution of the CERT model to strategically integrate technology, especially with incarcerated or justice-involved consumers, became an essential asset during the COVID-19 epidemic in 2020. The necessity of virtual consumer engagement has created opportunities for these recovery communities that may endure even after the pandemic is resolved. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved) Impact Statement Crises related to substance use create significant burdens on individuals, families, and communities. Mobile response facilitates access to substance use treatments. This article describes key components of an emergency response model and how technology played an essential role in engaging consumers during the pandemic. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

Educational Technologists during the COVID 19 pandemic: Recommendations for the post-pandemic Latin American University

During 2020, in the context of the health emergency caused by COVID19, Universidad de la República (Udelar) already had installed capacities (human and technological) that allowed it to continue teaching activities uninterruptedly. This was possible thanks to different factors that gave continuity to the educational processes of that year: the consolidation of the Virtual Learning Environments (VLE), as widely used spaces throughout the educational community, the deployment of highly trained human resources in charge of the VLE in each educational technology service and a basic technological infrastructure. This article tries to give an account of the state of the human resources associated with the educational technology services, its main characteristics. In addition, an approach to what has been the development of their tasks in the context of a health emergency is presented. A mixed methods study was carried out during the second semester of 2020 and first semester of 2021. The results obtained show a consolidation of the educational technologists role in the university. A greater visibility of the tasks they perform due to the increase in demand by the educational community caused by the Emergency Remote Teaching (ERT) was highlighted. However, no significant increases have been made in the assigned workloads or in new hires to enable a greater response from the educational technology services around the digital education activities during COVID 19 ERT. Analysis and recommendations on educational, organizational and technological dimensions can be extended to other Latin American universities to face the challenge of post-pandemic digital education. © 2022 IEEE.

Operations Sustainability During COVID-19 Pandemic

The paper aims to describe the experiences, challenges faced, and lessons learnt on how The Company Well Services division is managing the risks associate to COVID-19. The global COVID-19 pandemic spread in late 2019 and turned into one of the biggest challenges facing all industries including the oil and gas industry- in decades. The most challenging aspect of COVID-19 is its contagion rate, and its ability to spread from both non-symptomatic and symptomatic people to others who are in close contact through respiratory droplets, by direct contact with infected persons, or by contact with contaminated objects and surfaces. Today, we must consider this new reality into business continuity planning and take all necessary precautions to mitigate its spread within the organization. As the health and safety of the employees and contractors is paramount to the Company and based on the Company commitment to provide better service quality to its clients, a thorough emergency response system that includes precaution measures to help fighting against COVID-19 and its potential to negatively impact the business was created. Furthermore, The Company COVID-19 Management Standard set the minimum requirements, to manage the risks associate to the COVID-19. A Crisis Management Team was formed to oversee the implementation of COVID-19 decisions and raise awareness within the Company. All field personnel were required to comply to COVID-19 precautions during operations. With the implementation of new procedures, we were able to maintain the lowest confirmed case numbers among all the companies in our operational sector. Though it was challenging at the beginning for employees to comply, the new requirements have become the normal standard today. These new measures focus on the importance of employee health and safety when working through COVID-19 pandemic and has helped to educate people on the importance of following health and safety procedures as way of life for everyone while maintaining the Company Operational Sustainability. Copyright © 2022, International Petroleum Technology Conference.

Prime Minister Versus the Premiers: COVID and the Premiers' popularity

The National Cabinet, designed as a much more agile, flexible and dynamic alternative to the former Council of Australian Governments' (COAG) approach, initially brought a sense of policy cohesion and unanimity of purpose to the national conversation around COVID-19, reassuring the public that all was in hand. The prospect of spending two weeks in isolation was challenging for some people who exhibited mental health symptoms. [...]Australia did have its own program in Queensland, but it was abandoned due to complications in the early trials which related to false positives. Australia's constitution, little known and even less understood, retains state governments' operational control over public health, law and order, education, and most emergency services.

A 360degree view of psychiatric boarding in the emergency department

This dissertation utilizes a three article approach to examine the current status of psychiatric boarding in the emergency department (ED). The number of ED visits for mental health concerns in the United States has been increasing for the past several decades as the number of inpatient psychiatric beds has decreased. This has created a psychiatric boarding crisis where patients are waiting in ED for extended periods of time across the country. This dissertation provides a 360degree view of psychiatric boarding in the ED by critically examining the literature surrounding the effects of psychiatric boarding, analyzing the characteristics of patients undergoing psychiatric boarding through a large national dataset, and by analyzing mixed methods data from ED nurses who care for these patients.The first article presents a systematic review of the status of psychiatric boarding while also addressing the involvement of civil commitment during a psychiatric boarding stay in the ED. Boarding times in the selected 31 articles varied greatly and patients were rarely started on new psychiatric drugs while in the ED. Common diagnoses for patients included suicidal ideations or suicidal behaviors.The second article presents an analysis of the 2016-2017 combined Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project Nationwide Emergency Department Sample. Patients that had a psychiatric evaluation in the ED were considered at risk for psychiatric boarding. Patients that boarded for longer than one calendar day and had a psychiatric evaluation were compared to patients that had a psychiatric evaluation but it not ultimately board. Patients that boarded had a greater number of billable procedures performed compared to patients that did not board. The two most common diagnoses of patients undergoing psychiatric boarding for greater than one calendar day were chronic obstructive pulmonary disease with major complication or comorbidity and diabetes.The final article utilizes data gathered from ED nurses about their experience with psychiatric boarding at their hospital. Nurses that had greater positive attitudes toward patients undergoing psychiatric boarding were associated with greater perceived competency for providing care for persons with mental illness, and fewer stigmatizing attitudes of patients with mental illness. Through a mixed method approach, this study found that nurses perceptions of psychiatric boarding as a problem varied greatly as well as the different practices that can occur during a psychiatric boarding stay. Suggestions for improvement centered on improving the physical environment because of the high pressure and chaotic nature of the ED.Overall, the details about what occurs during psychiatric boarding in the ED are still poorly described. The lack of research on the short-term and long-term effects of spending extended periods of time in the ED is also concerning, given that this dissertation found that 54.55% of nurses believe that psychiatric boarding is currently a problem at their hospital. Future research that focuses on creating a best practices protocol for patients spending more than 24 hours in the ED is greatly needed to improve the experience and safety of psychiatric boarding for both patients and ED staff members. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

Retour d'expérience des transferts en HéliSmur de patients Covid-19

L'augmentation du nombre d'hospitalisations en réanimation de patients graves atteints de la Covid-19 a nécessité le transfert d'un certain nombre d'entre eux vers des régions moins touchées que le Grand Est et l'Île-de-France afin de ne pas dégrader la qualité des soins. Les HéliSmur ont fait partie intégrante du dispositif d'évacuation de ces patients. Utilisés au quotidien, ils ont confirmé leur utilisation en cas de crise où la problématique des élongations est une difficulté. Cependant, le recours aux HéliSmur a nécessité une adaptation de tous à de nouvelles modalités opérationnelles. Le transport de patients critiques, le port d'un équipement de protection individuelle par l'équipe médicale et les membres d'équipage ainsi que les procédures renforcées de bionettoyage ont impacté les temps d'intervention mais aussi la charge mentale des personnes à bord. La mise en place d'équipes médicales dédiées et rompues aux transferts héliportés a permis d'optimiser la prise en charge complexe de ces patients tant sur le plan médical qu'aéronautique. Nous présentons notre retour d'expérience des transferts en HéliSmur que nous avons réalisés au départ de la région francilienne.Alternate : The increase in the number of hospitalizations in intensive care units of serious patients with COVID-19 has required the transfer of many of them to regions less affected than the Grand Est and Ile-de-France in order to not degrade the quality of care. The Helicopter Emergency Medical Service was an integral part of the evacuation system for these patients. Used on a daily basis, they have confirmed their use in the event of a crisis where the problem of elongations is difficulty. However, the use of Helicopter Emergency Medical Service requires everyone to adapt to new operational methods. The transport of critical patients, the wearing of personal protective equipment by the medical team and crew members as well as the reinforced bio-cleaning procedures have impacted the intervention times but also the mental load of the people on board. The establishment of dedicated medical teams experienced in helicopter transfers has made it possible to optimize the complex care of these patients, both medically and aeronautically. We present our feedback from the Helicopter Emergency Medical Service transfers that we carried out from the Ile-de-France region.

Code blue! Implementing a COVID-19 emergency response, supported by an HIV community program: Communities without borders, a Spanish-Speaking intervention in Toronto, Canada

COVID-19 a new infections agent took the world by surprise. Governments, medical systems, communities, and individuals soon would become familiar with many new terms and many new prevention measurements to avoid infection. To this day, it is unknown what would be the final consequences and impact in populations in the world, how those came to be a "new normal" in our daily lives. Also, it is unknown the number of victims, and economical after-effects result from the new pandemic. This article aims to establish a para parallel in relation to the early days of HIV/AIDS in the world. Keeping in mind the slow governmental, and even irresponsible response in different countries, both cases (HIV/AIDS-COVID-19), present a dimension that shows intermediately from HIV/AIDS organizations response to help communities. The article argues that is precise because we have learned as marginalized communities that reacted at the beginning of the AIDS early days, that HIV/AIDS educators adapted very fast interventions, programs, and counseling to alleviate societal effect pandemic against COVID-19 new infections. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

A Surveillance System Controlling Covid-19 in Office Environments

COVID-19 is one of the pandemic diseases that has hit the world including Sri Lanka. He has a virus that became the target of bids to stop its spread. Including the implementation of health protocols, to provide information about the spread of the virus emergency response, detection services for suspicious persons infected with the virus, and programs to contain the spread of the virus ensuring that the whole of Sri Lanka gets vaccinated. Here, the research focuses on the minimal spread of the face mask in the office e nvironment a n i dentification system that uses a deep learning model that prioritizes object recognition for the identification o f e mployees w ho w ear a f ace m ask and detects social distancing and crowd gathering, if any if there is a violation, it will inform via a voice notification. L oss o f Smell after the next component. One person can use one disposable card to check the smell of sniffing. E ach d isposable c ard has QR codes, and all QR codes are encrypted by adding data. The user scans the QR code on their ticket and then scratches off and smelled the smelling area and selected the corresponding scent on the disposable card. Employee company attendance is a proposed automated attendance system using facial recognition. Because it requires minimal human influence a nd o ffers a high level of accuracy and marking employee attendance and employee body temperature measurement, facial recognition will appear to be a practical option. This system aims to provide a high level of protection. Automated Attendance systems that detect and recognize are safe, fast, and time-consuming savings. This technique can also be used to identify an unknown person. © 2022 IEEE.

Management of depression: A daily challenge in psychiatric emergencies

Depression is the most common psychiatric disorder in the general population, and emergency room visits for depression have been increasing for several years. In addition, the Covid-19 pandemic may lead to an explosion of psychiatric emergency room visits for this reason, with an overall prevalence of anxiety and depression that appears to be increasing since 2020. The Centre Psychiatrique d'Orientation et d'Accueil is a regional psychiatric emergency service located in Paris which records approximately 10,000 consultations per year. Among these consultations, the main symptoms are those of depression (depressive ideations, anxiety) and nearly 40 % are diagnosed with mood disorders, including depression. The management of the patient in the emergency room is based on a global evaluation, which should not be limited to the psychiatric interview. In the best case, and if compatible with the organization of the service, an initial evaluation by the nursing reception staff determines the context of the arrival of the patient, the reason and the degree of urgency of the consultation can thus be assessed from the outset. The request for care can come from the patient themself, but also from family and friends who are worried about a decline in the patient's previous condition. The consultation may also be triggered by the intervention of emergency services, particularly in the case of attempted suicide or agitation. The context of arrival, the environment, and the patient's entourage must be taken into account in order to achieve an optimal orientation. Particular attention must be paid to the first episodes (elimination of a differential diagnosis, screening for a possible bipolar disorder). The existence of an external causal factor or a comorbid personality disorder should not trivialize the consultation and lead to a faulty diagnosis of a characterized depressive episode. Drug treatment in the emergency room is usually symptomatic (anxiolytic treatment with benzodiazepines or neuroleptics, depending on the situation), and outpatient referral should always be preferred. Therapeutic adaptations can then be considered. The decision to hospitalize must always be justified, and consent for care must be rigorously evaluated. It is almost always necessary to take the patient's entourage into account as well as the potential support of the patient by the entourage. All these elements must be recorded in the file. Suicide risk assessment must be systematic for all patients consulting psychiatric emergencies, and the use of the RUD (Risk, Urgency, Dangerousness) grid can be useful. Any decision to release a patient with suicidal tendencies must be made strictly following certain conditions:a rapid psychiatric re-evaluation of the crisis, with for example the proposal of a post-emergency consultation, a supportive entourage, accepted symptomatic treatment. The registration of the suicidal patient in a monitoring system such as VigilanS can also be beneficial and reduce the risk of recidivism. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved) Abstract (French) La depression est le trouble psychiatrique le plus frequent dans la population generale, et les consultations aux urgences pour depression seraient en hausse depuis plusieurs annees. Le Centre Psychiatrique d'Orientation et d'Accueil est un service d'urgences psychiatriques a vocation regionale situe a Paris qui recense environ 10 000 consultations par an. Parmi ces consultations, on retrouve pres de 40 % de diagnostics de troubles de l'humeur. La prise en charge du patient aux urgences repose sur une evaluation globale, qui ne doit pas se limiter a l'entretien psychiatrique. Le contexte d'arrivee, l'environnement et l'entourage du patient doivent etre pris en compte afin d'aboutir a une orientation optimale. Une attention particuliere doit etre portee aux premiers episodes (elimination d'un diagnostic differentiel, depistage d'un eventuel trouble bipolaire) et a l'evaluation du risque suicidaire. L'existence d'un facteur causal externe ou d'un trouble de personnalite comorbide ne doit pas faire banaliser la consultation et mener a un sous-diagnostic de depression caracterisee. Le traitement medicamenteux aux urgences est le plus souvent symptomatique (traitement anxiolytique par benzodiazepines ou neuroleptiques selon les situations), et l'orientation ambulatoire doit toujours etre privilegiee. Des adaptations therapeutiques peuvent alors etre envisagees. La decision d'une hospitalisation doit toujours etre argumentee, et le consentement aux soins rigoureusement evalue. La prise en compte et eventuellement l'accompagnement de l'entourage sont presque toujours necessaires. Tous ces elements doivent etre argumentes dans le dossier. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

Effective Real Time Disaster Management Using Optimized Scheduling

In recent years we face many types of natural and man-created disasters such as tsunamis, earthquakes, hurricanes, Covid-19 pandemic, terrorist attacks, floods, etc. which cause diverse and worse effects on our daily lives and economy. In order to mitigate the impact of such disasters and reduce the causality, economic loss during disaster response cycle, the different disaster management resources such as rescue teams, transportation, healthcare and related services must be schedule and allocated efficiently. In this research, we proposed the Cluster-Based Real–Time Disaster Resource Management Framework which used edge and computing-based real-time scheduling of various resources and emergency services in disaster management. The edge computing resources are grouped into the cluster and a set of tasks is assigned to the cluster and scheduled on the edge computing cluster to increase resource utilization and acceptance rate which is the problem of existing partitioned scheduling and reduces response time, and overhead due to communication and migration which is the issue in exiting scheduling. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

Scenario-based incident response training: lessons learnt from conducting an experiential learning virtual incident response tabletop exercise

Purpose: This paper aims to discuss the experiences designing and conducting an experiential learning virtual incident response tabletop exercise (VIRTTX) to review a business's security posture as it adapts to remote working because of the Coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19). The pandemic forced businesses to move operations from offices to remote working. Given that this happened quickly for many, some firms had little time to factor in appropriate cyber-hygiene and incident prevention measures, thereby exposing themselves to vulnerabilities such as phishing and other scams. Design/methodology/approach: The exercise was designed and facilitated through Microsoft Teams. The approach used included a literature review and an experiential learning method that used scenario-based, active pedagogical strategies such as case studies, simulations, role-playing and discussion-focused techniques to develop and evaluate processes and procedures used in preventing, detecting, mitigating, responding and recovering from cyber incidents. Findings: The exercise highlighted the value of using scenario-based exercises in cyber security training. It elaborated that scenario-based incident response (IR) exercises are beneficial because well-crafted and well-executed exercises raise cyber security awareness among managers and IT professionals. Such activities with integrated operational and decision-making components enable businesses to evaluate IR and disaster recovery (DR) procedures, including communication flows, to improve decision-making at strategic levels and enhance the technical skills of cyber security personnel. Practical implications: It maintained that the primary implication for practice is that they enhance security awareness through practical experiential, hands-on exercises such as this VIRTTX. These exercises bring together staff from across a business to evaluate existing IR/DR processes to determine if they are fit for purpose, establish existing gaps and identify strategies to prevent future threats, including during challenging circumstances such as the COVID-19 outbreak. Furthermore, the use of TTXs or TTEs for scenario-based incident response exercises was extremely useful for cyber security practice because well-crafted and well-executed exercises have been found to serve as valuable and effective tools for raising cyber security awareness among senior leadership, managers and IT professionals (Ulmanová, 2020). Originality/value: This paper underlines the importance of practical, scenario-based cyber-IR training and reports on the experience of conducting a virtual IR/DR tabletop exercise within a large organisation. © 2023, Emerald Publishing Limited.

Did state COVID-19 stay-home orders influence the trauma population? A level-1 trauma center retrospective cohort study

The governor of Tennessee issued an order on March 30, 2020, directing Tennesseans to stay home in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Recent studies demonstrated a decrease in emergency department (ED) visits and in trauma during the pandemic. We wanted to see the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the East Tennessee trauma population presentation patterns and outcomes. The trauma population at an American College of Surgeons-verified Level-I trauma center in East Tennessee was examined 6 months before and after the stay-home executive order was issued. The data examined included demographic information, patient disposition, complications, and mortality. 7,587 patients were reviewed, with 3,509 (46.3%) patients presenting prior to shelter in place vs 4,078 (53.7%) patients presenting after shelter in place. Following stay-home orders, the trauma population was younger (54.55 vs 51.85, p = .001) and more likely to be male (p = .016). There was a higher rate of penetrating injuries post the stay-home order (p = .001). Patients were more likely to be admitted from the ED (65.4% vs 65.9%, p = .009) and less likely to be discharged home from the ED (30.3% vs 29.3%, p = .009). Admitted patients were less likely to be discharged to a skilled nursing facility (15.4% vs. 10.3%, p < .001) and more likely to be discharged home with services (6.5% vs 10.4%, p < .001). There was no difference in mortality between groups. Trauma volume was sustained during the pandemic. Demographics and dispositions were statistically different. Penetrating trauma increased following stay-home orders, which may prompt preventative measures in future pandemics. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)