The Direct Support Workforce: An Examination of Direct Support Professionals and Frontline Supervisors During COVID-19.

Direct support professionals (DSPs) and frontline supervisors (FLSs) have critical roles in home and community-based services for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Low wages and high levels of responsibility created a long-term crisis in recruitment and retention and are exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. A national sample of DSPs and FLSs were compared on demographics and work-related circumstances using data from the third Direct Support Workforce COVID-19 Survey. Significant differences were found in demographics, hours worked, wages, wage augmentations, and quality of work-life. Policy recommendations to address the worsening workforce crisis are provided.

Workplace violence and associations with health outcomes in public health administration agencies in Taiwan: a survey during the COVID-19 pandemic

Objectives: To investigate the prevalence of workplace violence in public health administration agencies and its effects on health outcomes. Methods: A survey was conducted in March 2022. Staff who had been working for at least one year in the Ministry of Health and Welfare or its subordinate agencies, the Department of Health, or in public health centers were recruited. Data were collected anonymously with a structured, online questionnaire. A total of 492 valid questionnaires were collected. Results: A total of 48.17% participants reported having experienced workplace violence (physical, psychological, verbal, or sexual). The most common type of violence was verbal (43.50%), followed by psychological (31.71%). Supervisors were the primary perpetrators of verbal and psychological violence, followed by clients and colleagues. Staff reported long working hours and high levels of psychological and physical stress. Furthermore, 22.97% of workers reported poor self-rated health, 60.57% had personal burnout levels higher than 50, and 63.41% reported poor mental health. Regression analyses showed that low workplace justice was most strongly associated with internal verbal and psychological violence, whereas routine work requiring interaction with the public was most strongly associated with external verbal violence. Staff who had experienced workplace violence in the past year had significantly higher risks of poor self-rated health, mental health, and personal burnout, and poor health was more strongly associated with workplace violence that originated inside the organization than with workplace violence that originated from outside the organization. Conclusions: This survey was conducted on-line anonymously, so the representativeness of our findings might be limited. However, heavy workloads and workplace violence in public health administration agencies during the COVID-19 pandemic are important issues deserving urgent attention. (Taiwan J Public Health. 2023;42(1) :42-61)

How student-led wards can build skills and confidence: Nursing students on collaborative learning programmes make decisions about care and gain clinical experience

When Beth Dennis first set foot on a hospital ward as a Birmingham City University nursing student she felt underprepared. COVID-19 had disrupted everything, including face-to-face learning and time to practise clinical skills. Many of her student peers had worked previously in healthcare, but Ms Dennis had entered nursing straight from school. 'I basically knew nothing,' she says. But by her second year, with more experience, she felt she could offer help to others starting out who felt as anxious as she had. 'So me and a few other nursing students decided to run sessions to ease nerves about placements,' she says.

Leveraging resources to improve supervisors' vision in the remote workplace: MRN

PurposeDuring the COVID-19 pandemic, many organizations adopted remote work policies. Meanwhile, the loss of the collocated work environment made it challenging for the supervisors to have a clear vision of their employees, which may impact the quality of the performance evaluation and developmental decisions. This paper aims to resolve this problem by identifying resources in the remote workplace that can help supervisors restore their capacity for a clear vision of the remote employees.Design/methodology/approachThe authors take the perspectives of the job resource-demand model and illustrate the theoretical framework that recognizes resources and resource holders at various levels of the organization. The authors see this as the key for supervisors to meet the demand of "seeing” their employees in the remote workplace.FindingsSpecifically, the employees should offer their information resources via skillful communication because supervisors have lost opportunities for in-person observation. Further, the administration is urged to deliver competence resources through training and development because supervisors may lack the experience of remote work management. Moreover, the organizations should provide social support resources by creating avenues for virtual networking activities, so as to make up the random social opportunities available in the collocated work environment.Research limitations/implicationsImproving supervisors' vision is a new challenge coming with the installation of the remote workplace. Further research is called for to empirically test this theoretical framework and identify more ways to increase the resources and reduce the demands for supervisors;thus, helping them ease into the new ways of supervision in the virtual workplace.Practical implicationsThis research informs the organizations to adjust their strategy for management development to adapt to the remote workplace.Originality/valueThe authors noted that increasing concerns of the low visibility of remote workers was partially due to the impaired vision of supervisors, who lost the context of in-person observation. Supervisors' vision of their employees was taken for granted in the traditional work environment and there was not much research done on this topic. This prompted us to develop a theoretical framework based on the job resource demand model.

Embodied approaches to supervision: The listening body

Movement and the body are an essential aspect of supervision, whether we explicitly work with the body or not. The interest of this book is in the intentional focus on the body and movement and how this can serve the supervisory process. The book presents innovative approaches and reflective accounts of working with the body in supervision. The supervisory interventions open up new ways of seeing, listening and understanding through embodied processes. The authors, all experts in their fields, each bring a wealth of experience and knowledge, raising awareness of the value of working with the body in the supervisory relationship. The hybrid nature of the book reflects the current climate of cross-modality fertility in the world of psychotherapy. The book offers further insights into how embodiment is defined and can be attended to within supervision sessions. It presents with clarity diverse approaches to supervision practice where the body is at the center of facilitating the reflection and containment of supervisees, in both a one-to-one and a group context. In addition, each chapter contains case vignettes illustrating the application of a particular supervision model, whether working in person, online, indoors or outside or in the context of self-supervision. Taking shape in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, the book emerges at a time of unprecedented challenges. So, besides reflecting on their specific approach, some contributors offer reflections on the impact of the pandemic on their practice. The ten chapters present a variety of embodied approaches to supervision rooted in a diverse range of practices including body psychotherapy, psychodrama, eco-supervision, dance movement psychotherapy, family therapy and drama therapy. This text will be of value to supervisors and supervisors-in-training, psychotherapists, practitioners seeking supervision and anyone keen to learn more about embodied approaches in supervision. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

THE MICROPRUDENTIAL STRESS TESTING FOR BANKING SYSTEM. A STUDY CASE ON ALGERIAN PRIVATE BANK, USING ACCOUNTING APPROACH

The aim of this article is to highlight the importance and effectiveness of stress testing as part of microprudential policy. We focus on microprudential stress testing to assess financial stability, the resilience and solvency of one important private bank in Algeria in the face of liquidity risk. Our empirical analysis adopts a bottom-up approach based on an accounting method. It studies the relationship between the bank solvency ratio (ratio cook) and bank portfolios, such as loans to the construction, trade, industry, and automotive sectors. Microeconomic stress tests assess the credit risk of a bank's loan portfolio by bottom-up accounting approach, applying eleven pessimistic and plausible multi-variable scenarios with potential risks. The tests introduce several types of microeconomic shocks into the scenarios, which are designed to replicate those that occurred during the global financial crisis. The tests results show that this private bank is highly resistant to liquidity risk, despite significant losses on its investment portfolio. The stress tests prove once again, and especially after the 2008 financial crisis, that they are indispensable tools in the management of banking risks and against systemic risks.

Integrative work design for telework practices: lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic in Thailand

PurposeThis study aims to identify an effective work design for telework practices in Thailand by investigating the influence on employee work engagement and job stress of job demands and resources in three domains of work characteristics – task, social and contextual.Design/methodology/approachIn total, 1,052 high-intensity teleworkers participated in our online survey. Nested model comparisons and chi-square difference tests were used to test the significance of the three domains of work characteristics by comparing changes in model fit associated with the removal of the parameters associated with each domain. The best fit model was then used to examine the hypothesized relationships.FindingsThe results revealed that each domain of work characteristics provides additional and meaningful insights on employee outcomes. For telework practices in Thailand, supervisor support and work autonomy, the job resources specified respectively in the social and task domain can enhance work engagement. In contrast, supervisor surveillance and communication overload, the job demands in these respective domains can lead to job stress. Additionally, telework contextual demands of blurred work–life boundaries reduce employee work engagement. Communication overload has paradoxical outcomes of increased job stress and improved work engagement.Originality/valueThis study contributes to the work design and telework literature by applying an integrative work–design approach to demonstrate that organizations should consider both job demands and resources in a wider context of work design. This study also provides insights in respect of Thai cultural values to explain the effective design of telework practices in Thailand, a country where telework is relatively new and the work–design literature is very limited. This study is useful for international business managers wishing to adopt telework practices in Thailand to localize how telework is organized and ensure a smooth transition to the new world of work more successfully in the post-pandemic period.

The Relationship between Occupational Stress, Mental Health and COVID-19-Related Stress: Mediation Analysis Results

The COVID-19 pandemic led to serious psychological consequences that negatively affect workers' mental health, leading to post-traumatic symptoms. In this scenario, employees may be exposed to multiple stressors that ultimately drain their resources. Drawing on the Conservation of Resources Theory (COR) and the stress–strain perspective, we analyzed the relationship between different dimensions of work-related stress and psychological distress in a sample of 294 workers in the industrial sector. Specifically, we hypothesized a series of mediation models in which the dimensions of work-related stress are associated with a lower level of mental health directly and indirectly through higher levels of COVID-19-related post-traumatic symptoms. The results partially support the hypotheses, showing that COVID-19-related trauma plays a mediating role between the stress experienced and the resulting decrease in mental health, except in the case of job control and colleague support. These results will hopefully offer insights into possible organizational interventions for the promotion of workers' well-being in the postpandemic setting.

The CUPA-HR 2022 Higher Education Employee Retention Survey: Focus on Supervisors

Higher ed continues to face a retention crisis. Turnover in any role can impact an institution, but turnover in a supervisor role has more far-reaching implications. This report explores higher ed supervisors' likelihood of looking for new employment, their current challenges and working environments, and which job aspects specific to supervisors are associated with their retention. Results from the 2022 CUPA-HR Employee Retention Survey reveal nearly 2 in 5 (36%) supervisors indicated they are likely to look for other employment in the next 12 months. Most supervisors work additional hours beyond full-time, whereas most non-supervisors do not. Further, supervisors absorbed more responsibilities of vacated positions and experienced more increases in job expectations than did non-supervisors after the onset of COVID-19. Supervisors reported their top challenges as filling empty positions and maintaining staff morale. Finally, higher ed supervisors are less likely to look for other employment if they have more support and power to make decisions in their supervisory roles. Specific recommendations for retaining supervisors in higher ed are provided.

Learning in a real-life escape room: an explorative study on the supervisory relationship in GP residency during the COVID-19 pandemic.

BACKGROUND: The relationship between supervisors and residents plays a prominent role in the professional development of general practice (GP) residents. When disruptions occur in the normal course of healthcare, due to effects of e.g. war or emerging epidemics, we need to consider how this may affect the training of the next generation of general practitioners. As both supervisors and residents face new and unprecedented challenges that impact overall quality of the training. In this study, we examined the characteristics of the supervisory relationship in GP training during the disruptions early on during COVID-19. Our aim was to understand better how resident learning is affected in these circumstances, which is a first step in enabling supervisors, residents and faculty to anticipate disruptive situations better in the future. METHODS: We conducted a qualitative case study with a constructivist approach. Seven GP residents at the start of their second placement, and their 10 supervisors participated in this study. Participants came from a University Medical Centre in the Netherlands. Semi-structured interviews were held between September 2020 and February 2021. The subjects were (1) interviewed individually about what they had learned regarding COVID-19, and (2) they were interviewed in supervisory pairs about how they had learned. Data were iteratively analysed; thematic analysis for (1) and template analysis in (2). RESULTS: We identified notable changes in the supervisor-resident relationship attributable to COVID-19. Supervisors and residents were confronted with an all-encompassing uncertainty in the workplace, and disruptive changes in patient care and learning opportunities for residents. Supervisors and residents addressed these emerging workplace challenges through three types of collaboration, (1) getting the job done; (2) residents' learning; and (3) collective learning. Each type had a different focus and distinctive characteristics of the supervisory relationship. CONCLUSION: With the outbreak of COVID-19, supervisors and residents were faced with disruptive uncertainty. In these circumstances, learning occurred not only between residents and their supervisors, but also with non-supervising GPs and assistants in collective learning. We propose to complement collective learning in the workplace with reflection between residents and supervisors at the training institution.

Online Telesupervision: Competence Forged in a Pandemic

Online telesupervision (OTS) is synchronous (real-time) audio and video interactions between a supervisor and a clinician who are not in the same physical location. The COVID-19 pandemic created an abrupt pivot to OTS, requiring systemic supervisors and clinicians to adopt and utilize technologies which were unfamiliar to many. To facilitate the effective adoption and implementation of OTS we draw attention to three distinct competencies critical to the effective use of OTS: technological, contextual, and relational. These competencies are in no way exhaustive but lay the ground work for systemic supervisors to engage and connect with supervisees using video conferencing technology. In addition to the competencies, specific techniques and strategies are suggested to assist supervisors hone their skills in OTS and subsequently improve the quality and effectiveness of supervision in a virtual environment.

Working from Home During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Lessons Learned About the Relationship Between Flexible Work and Work–Family Conflict

During the COVID-19 pandemic, working from home (WFH) has become the norm for many employees and their families in Germany. Although WFH has been suggested as a form of flexible work to foster work–life integration (especially for workers with greater care responsibilities), studies have also pointed to its risks when the boundaries between these two life spheres become blurred. To help disentangle these inconsistent findings in relation to work–family conflict, this study focuses on two main concerns: the relevance of additional forms of flexibility for those who work from home (i.e., temporal flexibility, job autonomy, fixed rules about availability) and the implications of WFH for employees' social relationships with co-workers and supervisors. Based on linked employer–employee data collected in the spring of 2021, the study examined work-to-family conflict (WFC) and family-to-work conflict (FWC) among a sample of 885 employees who worked from home. The results indicate that three factors – temporal flexibility, job autonomy, and fixed rules about availability as a way to set boundaries between work and family life – are important predictors of fewer work–family conflict. This equally applies to employees with caring obligations who overall experience more work–family conflicts while WFH. For those who cared for relatives, autonomy contributed even to fewer work–family conflicts. Supportive relationships with supervisors and co-workers are certainly directly beneficial when it comes to avoiding conflict, but they also reinforce the positive implications of flexible work, whereas poor relationships counteract the benefits of such flexibility. Thus, employers need to provide additional forms of flexibility to employees who work from home and should pay attention to social relationships among their employees as a way to support families and other individuals.

Is there a fit between PhD candidates' and their supervisors' perceptions on the impact of COVID-19 on doctoral education?

PurposeThe COVID-19 pandemic has had its impact on research and researchers, potentially influencing the future of academia. Yet, to the best of the authors' knowledge, there are no empirical studies on the alignment between supervisors' and supervisees' estimates of the impact of COVID-19. This study aims to contribute to bridging this gap by exploring PhD candidates' and supervisors' perceptions of the impact of COVID-19 on candidates' study progress and study well-being, and whether the estimates were related to supervisors' and supervisees' well-being.Design/methodology/approachA total of 768 PhD candidates and 561 doctoral supervisors from a large multifield research-intensive university in Finland participated in this quantitative study. Data were collected with the doctoral experience survey and the supervisory experience survey.FindingsIn general, the results show that both supervisors and supervisees recognised the negative impact of the pandemic on candidates' well-being and progress, and their perceptions were quite well aligned. However, supervisors estimated that the impact had been more detrimental than the supervisees did. The results also show that the supervisors' perceptions of the negative impact of COVID-19 on candidates' progress and well-being were related to reduced levels of their own well-being.Originality/valueResults can be used in developing effective support means for both the supervisors and supervisees to overcome the hardships caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and to avoid long-term negative consequences for the candidates in degree completion, career trajectories and the future of the academy.

The impact of the COVID‐19 pandemic on school psychology internship outcomes

The Ohio Internship Program in School Psychology was forced to adapt abruptly to the changing circumstances brought on by the novel coronavirus (COVID‐19) pandemic beginning in March 2020. The purpose of this study was to determine the extent to which the school psychology internship outcomes were negatively affected by the COVID‐19 pandemic in terms of supervisors' ratings of intern competencies, the number of students served by interns, and the outcomes of academic and behavior interventions supported by interns. Findings of the annual evaluation of the Ohio Internship Program in School Psychology for the school year directly affected by the pandemic (2020–2021) were compared to the findings for the year the pandemic began (2019–2020) and the 3 years before the start of the pandemic. The results provide evidence of gains in professional competencies and positive outcomes for students served by interns. The results also highlight racial disparities in the counts of students provided school psychological services during the pandemic. Implications for school psychology graduate preparation and practice are discussed.Alternate abstract:Practitioner Points1. School psychology interns advanced their competencies and provided effectively support to students despite the upheaval created by the COVID‐19 pandemic.2. The COVID‐19 pandemic created opportunities for innovation in school psychological training and practice.3. Racial disparities were evident in the number of students provided school psychological services during the pandemic.

Satisfaction with Work-Life Balance During the COVID-19 Pandemic for Full-Time Workers Forced to Work from Home

The global pandemic caused by Coronavirus disease of 2019 (COVID-19) severely disrupted peoples professional and personal lives making many employees required to work from home. Our study examines family-supportive supervisory behaviors (FSSB) impact on in-role behaviors through satisfaction with work-life balance and psychological availability at work to gain insight into the effects of the pandemic on work and home domains. Based on three waves of data and a sample of 179 full-time employees (32+ hours per week) forced to work 100% at home because of the pandemic, the findings suggest satisfaction with work-life balance and psychological availability at work serially mediated the relationship between FSSBs and in-role behaviors. Also, satisfaction with work-life balance mediated the relationship between FSSB and psychological availability at work, and psychological availability at work mediated the relationship between satisfaction with work-life balance and in-role behaviors. Practical and theoretical implications, along with future research, are discussed.

An exploratory analysis of internal communication in times of the COVID-19 pandemic

Communication is a key element for the success of any organization. The present study aims to construct and validate a scale of perception of internal communication. It is also intended to assess whether there are differences in internal communication between employees who are teleworking and those who are in-person work in times of the COVID-19 pandemic. The methodology used is quantitative in nature based on a questionnaire survey, with the sample consisting of 837 Portuguese individuals in a work context. The results show that the structure of the scale of perception of internal communication is composed of three factors: organizational information, communication with supervisors, and communication between colleagues. The perception of internal communication in the factor organizational information showed higher levels in workers who are in telecommuting situations. It is hoped that this work will enrich the academy and enable managers to use communication more effectively so that the organizations they manage become more competitive. © 2023 Wiley Periodicals LLC.

Using Electronic-Collaborative Mentoring in Higher Education-Bettering ELT Student Teaching Practice Processes

This study aims to improve English Language Teaching (ELT) student teachers' teaching practice process with comprehensive and diverse feedback from four different mentors (two national and two international) and to help them better prepare lesson plans and micro-teaching considering intercultural perspectives. Non-parametric tests were used to analyze quantitative data gathered from the scores of five lesson plans and micro-teachings. Qualitative data were obtained from the written feedback to lesson plans, oral feedback to micro teachings and interviews, and analyzed by content analysis. Results showed that mentees' lesson plan and micro teaching scores increased significantly over the semester and this was especially notable in mentees' first three lesson plans and micro teaching. All participants favoured the study activities and suggested that e-co mentoring should be implemented together with face-to-face mentoring in some periods.

Police stress: the role of occupational culture and officer characteristics

PurposeThe purpose of the current study was to augment the police culture and stress literature by empirically examining the impact of features of the internal and external work environment, as well as officer characteristics, on police officer stress.Design/methodology/approachThe current empirical inquiry utilized survey data collected from street-level officers in a mid-sized urban police department in a southern region of the United States (n = 349).FindingsThis study revealed that perceived danger, suspicion of citizens and cynicism toward the public increased police occupational stress, while support from supervisors mitigated it. In addition, Black and Latinx officers reported significantly less stress than their White counterparts.Research limitations/implicationsWhile this study demonstrates that patrol officers' perceptions of the external and internal work environments (and race/ethnicity) matter in terms of occupational stress, it is not without limitations. One limitation related to the generalizability of the findings, as results are gleaned from a single large agency serving a metropolitan jurisdiction in the Southeast. Second, this study focused on cultural attitudes and stress, although exact connections to behaviors are more speculative. Finally, the survey took place prior to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and the killing of George Floyd (and others), which radically shook police–community relationships nationwide.Practical implicationsPolice administrators should be cognizant of the importance that views of them have for patrol officer stress levels. Moreover, police trainers and supervisors concerned with occupational stress of their subordinates should work toward altering assignments and socialization patterns so that officers are exposed to a variety of patrol areas, in avoiding prolonged assignments of high social distress.Originality/valueThe study augmented the police culture and stress literature by empirically uncovering the individual-level sources of patrol officers' job-related stress. This study builds off of Paoline and Gau's (2018) research using data collected some 15 years ago by examining a more contemporary, post–Ferguson, context.

Reimagining Social Work Placements in the Covid-19 Pandemic

The Covid-19 pandemic has fundamentally changed how social work education is provided, and these changes are particularly pronounced in field education. Globally, the introduction of restrictions on mobility and social interaction have contributed to the cancellation, postponement and early termination of social work field placements. Accrediting bodies, social work field education departments and industry partner agencies have needed to rapidly adapt how placements are conceptualised and provided. This article examines the experiences of agencies who have continued to provide student placements throughout the pandemic. Interviews were conducted with placement supervisors employed at twelve human services agencies partnering with a university social work department in Melbourne, Australia. Whilst experiencing challenges, agencies outlined how they adapted to the environment to enable meaningful student placement experiences. This article contributes to an ongoing discussion around the trajectory of social work field education and the significance of agency-based placements in this evolution.