Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to address two questions: what is the difference between relationship processes and purely product-oriented processes? And to answer this question we should bear in mind what we mean by relationship, and why a customer is willing to establish and maintain a relationship at all. Design/methodology/approach – An empirical analysis subjected the motives of cu...

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) mark a historic and eff ective method of global mobilisation to achieve a set of important social priorities worldwide. They express widespread public concern about poverty, hunger, disease, unmet schooling, gender inequality, and environmental degradation. By packaging these priorities into an easily understandable set of eight goals, and by establishing...

1. Pursuant to Economic and Social Council resolution 2006/18, the Commission for Social Development has included the agenda item entitled “Emerging issues” in its programme of work since its 2007-2008 review and policy cycle. Under this agenda item, the Commission addresses current issues affecting social development that require urgent consideration or new cross-cutting issues in the context ...

Most story plots contain multiple characters who are independent, interact, and often have conflicting goals. One would expect that narrative understanding would require monitoring of the goals, concerns, and situations of multiple agents. There is considerable evidence that understanders monitor the primary protagonist's goal plans (e.g., Suh & Trabasso, 1993). However, there is relatively lit...

BACKGROUND Western publicly funded health care systems increasingly rely on interdisciplinary teams to support primary care delivery and management of chronic conditions. This knowledge synthesis focuses on what is known in the academic and grey literature about optimal structural characteristics of teams. Its goal is to assess which factors contribute to the effective functioning of interdisci...

BACKGROUND Many young people with chronic ill health use technology for self-care activities, but little is known about the use of telehealth amongst those with spina bifida. The limited availability of specialist continence nurses in primary care settings, for this client group in the UK, exacerbates their reliance on parents or carers. OBJECTIVES 1. Exploring the way in which home-based and...

Sit-down patient rounding in hemodialysis units allows providers to focus collectively on each patient's needs and may affect patient outcomes positively. The objective was to examine whether sit-down rounding practices improve patient outcomes in a cohort of 644 adult hemodialysis patients from 75 outpatient dialysis clinics in 17 states throughout the United States who survived at least 6 mo ...

Medical and technological advances have increased survival rates and enhanced the quality of life for infants, children and youths with chronic life-threatening conditions. Advance care planning includes the process of discussing life-sustaining treatments and establishing long-term care goals. Paediatric health care practitioners have an ethical obligation to educate themselves about this aspe...

Usability has been increasingly recognized as an important factor in the acceptance of systems by end users. Usability requirements can be considered to be requirements that capture the usability goals and associated measures for a system under development. In order to ensure usable systems we must ensure identification of appropriate requirements regarding these critical aspects of systems. Th...

The authors review the principle features of the managed care system in an effort to understand the ethical assumptions inherent in managed care. The interrelationships among physician incentives, responsibilities of patients and the physician-patient relationship are examined in light of the ethical concerns identified in the managed care system. The managed care system creates ethical tension...