Efficiency of consumer behaviour and digital ecosystem in the generation of the plastic waste toward the circular economy.

A circular economy can help reduce the impact of plastic waste using reaction, resilient, and digital approaches. In addition, it can facilitate reducing plastic consumption. In this regard, consumer behaviour and digitalization are deemed to be two main factors that play major roles in the implementation of a circular economy of plastic waste. The idea of this paper is to understand the relevance of consumer behaviour and digital ecosystem efficiency on plastic waste at the country level. Hence, the efficiency of eight European countries in the generation of plastic waste was analysed using international databases and the statistical method of receiver operation characteristic (ROC). For this purpose, the dependent actual state variables were defined as plastic waste generations, and the independent test variables were defined as digital ecosystem and consumer behaviour factors. ROC plots for the determination of the area under the curve (AUC) indices were produced between the mentioned state and test variables. The results revealed that consumer behaviour increases the higher generation of plastic waste (AUC >0.6), indicating that consumer behaviours have high effectiveness on the generation of plastic waste in European countries. Furthermore, the results indicated that the digital ecosystem has a controlling role in the generation of plastic waste in the study area (AUC <0.5), indicating the digital ecosystem factors associated with the low generation of plastic waste. The overall consumer behaviour in the selected European countries showed an unskilled role regarding the higher generation of plastic waste, while the digital ecosystem context showed a mitigating role in decreasing plastic pollution. The confirmation of the research hypotheses leads to some managerial propositions for the circular economy of plastic waste in the area of consumer behaviour and digitalization. The results propose an elaborated framework, including a reduction in waste generation, recycling in waste circulation, recovery in waste valorization, and efficiency in resource consumption by the digitalization of design technology and education in consumer behaviour for the circular management of plastic waste.

Nurse managers' preferred and perceived leadership styles: a study at an Italian hospital.

AIM: The aim of this cross-sectional descriptive study was to compare the different leadership styles based on perceptions of nurse managers and their staff. BACKGROUND: Nurse managers' styles are fundamental to improving subordinates' performance and achieving goals at health-care institutions. METHODS: This was a cross-sectional study. A questionnaire developed by Ekvall & Arvonen, considering three leadership domains (Change, Production and Employee relations), was administered to all nurse managers and to their subordinates at a city hospital in north-east Italy. RESULTS: The comparison between the leadership styles actually adopted and those preferred by the nurse managers showed that the preferred style always scored higher than the style adopted, the difference reaching statistical significance for Change and Production. The leadership styles preferred by subordinates always scored higher than the styles their nurse managers actually adopted; in the subordinates' opinion, the differences being statistically significant in all three leadership domains. IMPLICATION FOR NURSING MANAGEMENT: The study showed that nurse managers' expectations in relation to their leadership differ from those of their subordinates. These findings should be borne in mind when selecting and training nurse managers and other personnel, and they should influence the hospital's strategic management of nurses.

[The implementation of a pathway for Romanian medical assistants to obtain the Italian nursing degree]. / L'organizzazione in Romania di un percorso di acquisizione della laurea in infermieristica per infermieri in possesso di diploma di assistente medicale.

AIMS: This article describes management and outcomes of an academic pathway for the transition from Medical Assistant Diploma to Bachelor Science of Nursing (BSN) of Padua University for a group of Romanian nurses. METHODS: The course, repeated for two academic years, (2004-05, 2005-06), was 15 months long and it was performed mainly in Timisoara. It was managed by a partnership of public and private Italian and Romanian institutions. RESULTS: Forty-three nurses attended to the full course and 42 obtained the BSN with good results. Lectures were delivered locally and via long distance courses. Students attended Italian wards for their practical training. CONCLUSION: This project was performed in the framework of an international cooperation project for academic nursing knowledge diffusion in East-European countries, and for recognition and integration of nursing studies.