Play: Its meaning and being

Play suffers a pragmatic curse which at all costs, must be exorcised out. This paper seeks to extract the curse and the unwise in a process so complex wonder lives on. In play schlock and kitsch are processes of the ugly made beautiful and altering states of Ludia create a mutual world other than the real. Deep and corrupt play are then presented as abberations of unctive function as the process both destroys and extends. In play, perhaps meaning seeks the altered state, and, in so doing understanding comes.     

Medical Malpractice and Its Consequences: Does Physician Gender Play a Role?

Research suggests that female physicians have a more patient-centered communication style, characterized by more collaboration with the patient and discussion of treatment options. These same communication characteristics have been associated with patient satisfaction and malpractice prevention. Few empirical studies, however, have examined whether gender affects malpractice risk. The primary objective of this study was to determine whether gender was associated with malpractice among health maintenance organization (HMO) physicians. A secondary objective was to examine how malpractice affected physicians' psychological well-being. Data came from mail surveys of physicians practicing in two group model HMOs. The average response rate was 80% (N = 608). Female physicians were significantly less likely than male physicians to have been sued. Only 26% of the female physicians had been sued compared with 49% of the male physicians. These differences remained after adjusting for physician age, time in practice, specialty, workload, and characteristics of physicians' patient panels. Sued physicians were significantly more at risk for burnout than never-sued physicians and were less satisfied with the HMO. These findings did not differ by gender.     

对武汉市"看病难""看病贵"问题的原因分析及对策建议

近年来，“看病难”“看病贵”正逐渐成为中国老百姓所面临的普遍问题。2004年武汉市民反映最强烈的社会问题之一就是“看病难”、“看病贵”问题。根据第三次国家卫生服务调查分析数据：中国约有48．9％的居民有病不就医，29．6％的人应住院而不住院。2003年，武汉市武昌区参加了第三次国家卫生服务调查，结果发现将近有一半的患者有病不能及时就诊，特别是城市贫民看不起病，住不起院。这种状况不仅影响了群众身体健康，更不利于社会稳定。“看病难”、“看病贵”已成为构建和谐社会不可回避的一个重大问题。     

Eudaimonic Well‐being: Its Importance and Relevance to Occupational Therapy for Humanity

Contemporary critique of the philosophy and theory of occupational therapy has asserted that the mainstream of the profession holds a westernized view of the world and that occupational therapy has been shackled to notions of health/illness and the medical establishment for too long, hampering movement into social and political spheres. Strategies and developments have been proposed to combat these biases, which have included increased cultural relativism and a re‐focus on the subjective experience of occupation. The value placed on “being” in occupational therapy philosophy is described alongside the related terms of occupational integrity and spirituality. Drawing on theory and research from psychology, this paper proposes the construct of eudaimonic well‐being as both relevant and valuable to occupational therapy in re‐conceptualizing the profession, countering some of the central tensions in the identity of the profession and re‐asserting that well‐being through occupation is for all and for humanity. Finally, the paper proposes that well‐being, in a eudaimonic sense, should be advertised and evidenced as a routine outcome of occupational therapy and consolidated into occupational therapy models as a relevant and meaningful concept. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

浅谈"看病难"的成因与对策

近年来，我市卫生事业持续、快速、健康发展，医疗卫生服务能力不断增强，人民健康素质显著提高，为维护广大群众的身体健康和生命安全，促进经济社会协调发展发挥了重要作用。但是，随着城市化进程的加快，群众生活水平的提高，外来人口的涌入，社会对医疗卫生需求迅猛增长，新一轮的“看病难”逐渐凸现，群众的呼声日益提高。本文试图通过对“看病难”现状和成因的分析，提出肤浅对策，以期抛砖引玉。     

Managing meaning for strategic change: the role of perception and meaning congruence

This paper is a qualitative study of the cultural and strategic changes being made by a mid-sized hospital in the southwestern United States. The purpose of the paper is twofold. First, the paper examines the methods used by strategic managers in this hospital to manage meaning and create congruent interpretations of culture and strategy throughout the organization. This paper takes a social construction, interpretive position that culture and strategy are created through human interaction and involve shared meaning systems and interpretive schemes that individuals use to interpret and make sense of their world. Second, the study examines the effectiveness of the methods used by hospital management by examining perceptual similarities and differences among top leadership and other organizational members. This paper takes the position that perceptual and meaning congruence are necessary for the successful implementation of strategy that is given in a top-down fashion.     

Play and Play Areas for Hospitalized Children

Play is critical to children's development in social, cognitive, and affective domains Children actively construct meaning through playful interaction with people and objects Play materials and environments in turn, affect the level structure and content of children's play The following article discusses these issues and the application of contemporary architectural design and current research findings on play environments to the special problems of hospitalized children Concerns related to separation from family and routine unfamiliar hospital personnel and procedure institutionalization and temporary immobility can be constructively dealt with by thoughtful planning for childrens play Specific suggestions with respect to designing play spaces in hospitals are offered based on current theory and research.     

Play and Play Areas for Hospitalized Children

Play is critical to children's development in social, cognitive, and affective domains Children actively construct meaning through playful interaction with people and objects Play materials and environments in turn, affect the level structure and content of children's play The following article discusses these issues and the application of contemporary architectural design and current research findings on play environments to the special problems of hospitalized children Concerns related to separation from family and routine unfamiliar hospital personnel and procedure institutionalization and temporary immobility can be constructively dealt with by thoughtful planning for childrens play Specific suggestions with respect to designing play spaces in hospitals are offered based on current theory and research.     

Tutored-Untutored Dramatic Play: Similarities and Differences

Untutored dramatic play is the children's free undirected play, where they adopt roles real or imaginary, using symbols: to represent real beings (e.g., mothers) objects (e.g., telephones) that are not presented; or to represent imaginary beings (e.g., witches) and objects (e.g., magic hat). Tutored dramatic play or creative drama is the dramatic play which is directed by a flexible teacher, who helps children to develop their imagination, or to encourage their creativity through various and appropriate dramatic exercises. Untutored and tutored dramatic play have differences in many ways; a) in the spontaneity that children have in playing, b) in the inconsistency of playing, c) in the amount of props that children use in play, d) in the using improvised or not dialogue, e) in the need of having an audience, and f) in the guiding of the story by different individuals (children or teacher). However, activities have some important similarities: that both involve interaction, transformation and imagination, and serve the child's artistic, emotional and intellectual needs.     

Play therapy: a review

This article discusses the current issues in play therapy and its implications for play therapists. A brief history of play therapy is provided along with the current play therapy approaches and techniques. This article also touches on current issues or problems that play therapists may face, such as interpreting children's play, implementing effective techniques, limit setting and how to deal with cultural issues, as well as using play therapy with children from special populations (e.g. children with disabilities and post‐traumatic stress disorder).     

Medical Play and Preparation: Questions and issues

Medical play and preparation have become increasingly visible components of psychosocial programming for children in health care settings Each strategy varies to the extent to which adults structure and direct, which may influence children s responses and posthospital adjustment Medical play and preparation represent different philosophies and theories on children s learning, adaption, and development The ever-changing medical environment may currently favor adult-directed experiences over those that are spontaneous or child initiated, with potentially differing impacts on children issues are raised regarding the potential impact as well as that of programs with various combinations of adult- versus child-structured experiences.     

Professional language: understanding and being understood

Language is a vital means of communication and education plays a key role in developing both our general language capabilities but also our use of ‘Professional language’. Learning a professional language is like being inducted into the profession through the shared use of arcane and often obscure words and terminology. What makes sense to a ‘Professional’ could well be gobbledygook/meaningless/nonsense to anyone else. This CPD activity is designed to encourage us to think about how we speak and communicate. In a multicultural country, we have to be aware of both how we communicate and also how colleagues and patients are communicating.     

Heidegger and meaning: implications for phenomenological research

Abstract Recently the relevance of the philosophy of Martin Heidegger has been critiqued in nursing literature. However, this critique is based primarily upon an appropriation of Heidegger that does not reflect an understanding of meaning as grounded in temporality. Therefore, this paper aims to (1) explicate Heidegger's grounding of meaning, (2) briefly contrast Heidegger's and Husserl's notions of the origin of meaning, (3) describe how Heidegger was first introduced to nursing, and (4) illustrate through examples from a research study how the philosophy of Heidegger might inform the phenomenological researcher.     

How I Play: Roles and Relations in the Play Situations of Children with Restricted Mobility

The purpose of this grounded theory study was to gain knowledge and understanding of how children with restricted mobility play in different play situations. The group investigated consisted of 10 children with restricted mobility, aged from 6 to 12 years, living in northern Sweden. In this study, the child with restricted mobility is defined as a child unable to move around without the aid of a wheelchair, walking trolley, crutches or other walking device. The children were interviewed about play and were observed in different play situations. The transcribed interviews and observations were analysed according to the constant comparative method of grounded theory described by Glaser and Strauss (1967). The analysis resulted in a model (How I play, core category) describing the child's relations in different play situations, the factors that gave rise to different types of play and the consequences of the play. The different types of play were: (A) play with friends - (a) interactive play and (b) onlooker play; (B) play alone; and (C) play with adults. Most play came to be placed in categories B and C, that is the children played mostly alone or with adults. The results were discussed on the basis of Mead's theory of identity development and Bronfenbrenner's theory of developmental ecology, that is how children's play influences their development when adults are so often present.     

Make Room for Play: An Evaluation of a Campaign Promoting Active Play

In the context of rising screen time, only a third of Canadian children are achieving adequate amounts of active play, an important source of physical activity. ParticipACTION, a national not-for-profit organization, created the “Make Room for Play” campaign targeting parents with television advertisements depicting how screen time takes away from active play. The advertisements featured children engaging in active play (e.g., jump rope) while a black screen progressively sequesters the room for them to play. This study’s purpose was to evaluate the campaign using the hierarchy of effects model, a framework for conceptualizing the impact of mass media campaigns. It was hypothesized that recall would relate to intermediate (e.g., cognitions, self-efficacy) and distal (e.g., parental support) factors. Twenty-six percent of the general population and caregiver samples surveyed (N = 1576) recalled (unaided) the advertisement and 45.9% recalled when prompted. Parental support was significantly higher in those recalling the campaign, p = .009. Twenty-four percent of parents reporting unaided recall (versus 14.0% of those not) tried to engage in active play with their children and 21.2% (versus 12.0%) tried to create opportunities for children to engage in play. Strengths and limitations of mass media approaches targeting active play and screen time are discussed.