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Bedside handover is the delivery of the nurse-to-nurse handover at the patient's bedside. Although increasingly used in nursing, nurses report many barriers for delivering the bedside handover. Among these barriers is the possibility of breaching the patient's privacy. By referring to this concept, nurses add a legal and ethical dimension to the delivery of the bedside handover, making implementation of the method difficult or even impossible. In this discussion article, the concept of privacy during handovers is being discussed by use of observations, interviews with nurses, and interviews with patients. These findings are combined with international literature from a narrative review on the topic. We provide a practice-oriented answer in which two mutually exclusive possibilities are discussed. If bedside handover does pose problems concerning privacy, this situation is not unique in healthcare and measures can be taken during the bedside handover to safeguard the patient. If bedside handover does not pose problems concerning privacy, privacy is misused by nurses to hide professional uncertainties and/or a reluctance toward patient participation. Therefore, a possible breach of privacy—whether a justified argument or not—is not a reason for not delivering the bedside handover. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to examine if and how the reclassification of platform workers from self-employment status to employment status can provide them with adequate social security protection. Little is known about how this transition would guarantee platform workers adequate social protection within the social protection scheme for employees. National social security schemes, in particular income replacement benefit schemes, often (still) depart from the standard employment relationship, leading to lower protection for atypical work forms. Platform workers combine several of the characteristics of atypical forms of work, such as low earnings, irregular working patterns and working. Integrating platform workers into employee social security schemes faces additional challenges due to the online nature of their work, algorithmic management, high levels of unpaid labor, and employer identification difficulties. This paper focuses on unemployment protection, as EU Member States struggle to provide adequate protection for workers with irregular work patterns and income fluctuations, in the case of (short term) income replacement benefits. By constructing nine ideal work patterns reflective of diverse nature of platform work and current practices among platform work, we analyse how different types of 'employed' platform workers may fare within the legislation of three EU countries (Belgium, Italy, and the Netherlands). This approach allows us to assess the applicability of unemployment protection to different working patterns among 'employed' platform workers, considering formal, effective, and adequate access to unemployment schemes as outlined in the Council Recommendation on access to social protection for workers and the self-employed (2019). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Palliative care is insufficiently integrated in the continuum of care for older people. It is unclear to what extent healthcare policy for older people includes elements of palliative care and thus supports its integration. Aim: (1) To develop a reference framework for identifying palliative care contents in policy documents; (2) to determine inclusion of palliative care in public policy documents on healthcare for older people in 13 rapidly ageing countries. Design: Directed documentary analysis of public policy documents (legislation, policies/strategies, guidelines, white papers) on healthcare for older people. Using existing literature, we developed a reference framework and data extraction form assessing 10 criteria of palliative care inclusion. Country experts identified documents and extracted data. Setting: Austria, Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, England, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Singapore, Slovenia, South Korea, Spain. Results: Of 139 identified documents, 50 met inclusion criteria. The most frequently addressed palliative care elements were coordination and continuity of care (12 countries), communication and care planning, care for family, and ethical and legal aspects (11 countries). Documents in 10 countries explicitly mentioned palliative care, nine addressed symptom management, eight mentioned end-of-life care, and five referred to existing palliative care strategies (out of nine that had them). Conclusions: Health care policies for older people need revising to include reference to end-of-life care and dying and ensure linkage to existing national or regional palliative care strategies. The strong policy focus on care coordination and continuity in policies for older people is an opportunity window for palliative care advocacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Researchers' reflexivity usually focuses on the spatiality and sociality of their ethnographic fieldwork. As a result, the temporal context of their positionality, whereby their various identities interact with one another at different research phases, is often overlooked. This paper adopts an agentic intersectional approach and draws from our separate studies of Thai migrant women in Belgium and Hong Kong to unpack the temporality of the power dynamics between study participants and us (the researchers). Through this reflexive exercise, we identify three salient aspects: first, different identities of the researchers intersect at each phase of the study; second, researchers are dependent on gatekeepers and study participants, notably during the data-gathering phase; and third, the changing researcher–participant dynamics throughout the research process are embedded in broader relations of power that encompass social institutions and migrant/ethnic networks. Hence, researchers' self-discipline and constant awareness of positionality are of utmost importance for achieving well-situated knowledge (re)production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When conducting a postal survey, a traditional recommendation is to use paper postage stamps instead of an automated postage system, to make sure that invitations have a more personal and attractive appearance. In this research note, we investigate whether this traditional recommendation is still valid. In the autumn of 2020, a postal survey was conducted among high-school teachers in Belgium strictly adhering to the Dillman protocol. The overall response rate was 43.4%. Invitations with a real paper postage stamp had a three-percentage points higher response rate (44.9% versus 41.8%), but this difference proved not to be significant. There are no significant gender or age differences between the groups. In addition, the presence or absence of a paper stamp did not influence the respondents' choice for answering the questionnaire online or on paper, as those who received a stamped envelope were equally likely to choose the online answering tool. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In many European countries, one needs a permanent address to be entitled to social rights. To address this minimum prerequisite, mechanisms for administrative inclusion are in place for persons experiencing homelessness, such as the reference address in Belgium. This paper disentangles the non-take-up mechanisms behind this reference address by drawing on interviews with professionals. Our evidence suggests this is a minimum minimorum of social protection, albeit it can reflect and reinforce exclusion of the beneficiaries. This article contributes to the debate on the entitlement and non-take-up of rights, and the possibility of an administrative address that includes the most excluded. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ample work in political communication showed that high-level politicians get more media attention than their lower ranking colleagues. With power comes media attention. More than hard work, charisma, or experience, it is the political function performed by politicians that is the crucial factor in explaining how much media attention they receive. But what about the opposite relationship: does media attention also generate power? In this paper, we examine the media path leading to power. Basically, two important career steps of politicians are assessed: becoming a party leader and becoming a minister; we test whether, compared to those who did not make a top career, the politicians who came to take these steps were more prominent in the media before they moved up and became elite politicians. We draw on the case of Belgium here and leverage on a longitudinal automated media content analysis (2000–2020) combined with a data set of 532 national/regional politicians and their careers. The study finds that media occurrences matters for being promoted to a top function in Belgium, more so for becoming a minister than for becoming a party leader. Furthermore, rejecting our initial idea based on political mediatization theories, the influence of media occurrence does not seem to increase through time for both functions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims: socNAMs provides a comprehensive and comparative dataset for researchers to identify how students' recent migration and their school setting relates to their social wellbeing, particularly regarding their feelings of loneliness. Results: This study design article delineates a quantitative cross-sectional research study (socNAMs) which successfully developed three questionnaires that were administered with unique and hard to reach populations, newly-arrived adolescent migrants (NAMs) and school staff offering reception education in Flanders, Belgium. Methods: At the individual level, socNAMs collected information on: (1) socio-demographic variables of NAMs; (2) migration and family context; (3) social relationships; (4) school experiences; (5) self-perceived wellbeing (physical and social); and (6) experiences with discrimination. The questionnaire developed for NAMs is available in 16 languages. To gain a further understanding of the impact of the school environment on NAMs, socNAMs collected contextual information primarily concerning school social capital by including data collected from teachers and reception-class coordinators. The final sample included 1379 NAMs, 50 teachers and 26 reception-class coordinators, from 35 schools offering reception education. Conclusions: In this article, we present the rationale for this study, the methodology of sampling and recruitment, the development and content of the questionnaires, some preliminary descriptive results and the strengths and limitations of the study. Future empirical studies will address the research aims outlined in this protocol paper. In addition, we highlight the opportunities that the dataset provides for advancing research regarding the social wellbeing of NAMs in varying school and national contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using detailed Global Navigation Satellite System tracing data emitted by all trucks having a gross vehicle weight of over 3.5 tons in Belgium, this paper assesses the efficiency of the current Belgian distance tax system by analyzing its spatial coverage and the matching of the distance taxes with the external costs, globally and locally. Specifically, three research questions are addressed. First, how well do the present charge rates match with external costs? Second, the operationalization of the system requires a good spatial coverage of truck movements. Does the present system guarantee an almost universal coverage? Third, do the distance charges match the external costs? We find that if the distance tax scheme differentiates regionally, it still misses large variations in noise costs. The current tracing infrastructure also captures only part of the truck operations on the territory. If distance tolls for trucks remain the backbone of the taxation of truck operations, it then needs further refinement in time and space if one wants it to be the major tool to correct for the external costs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While research on migration and diasporas tends to be heteronormative, research on sexual minorities tends to ignore migrants and ethnic minorities. The current paper aims to problematize both tendencies by taking a queer perspective on migration and a diasporic perspective on sexuality. As part of a larger project on diasporic LGBTQs living in Belgium, this paper discusses the social positions and identifications of six non-heterosexual women with a migration background, as narrated in individual in-depth interviews. Drawing on intersectionality theory, the relative importance and mutual interplay between their sexual and ethno-cultural identifications are analysed. This analysis discloses the irreducible individuality of each narrative, where the balance and interaction between ethno-cultural and sexual identifications is part of an intricate interplay of social positions and contexts. The participants' migration background is a key structuring element, leading to a combination of geographic and/or social distance from their family and ethno-cultural community in which religious, family and gender norms lead to a range of expectations and pressures. Sexual identifications tend to be more salient when they are strongly rejected, in which case they lead to more social and often also geographic distancing. This is further modulated by race, as non-white participants tend to identify more strongly along racial lines because they are continuously reminded of their otherness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper intervenes in critical debates on the role of charitable food aid in meeting the material, social, emotional, and cultural needs of the people who depend on this aid. It offers a detailed case study of a social grocery in Belgium that attempts to circumvent the power inequalities and negative social and emotional impacts of charitable giving through staging consumer culture, and treating clients as customers. This is accomplished with supporting performances of consumption norms around product choice, the act of paying, and the selection of appropriate foods – which improves the ability of participants to meet their personal needs as well as the broader standards of consumer society that they are otherwise excluded from. These other ways of doing food aid are theorized through the lens of consumer culture, to explain what is at stake in performing the norms of market exchange in a consumer society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Because of a growing older population, the sexual health (SH) of older adults, including sexual violence (SV), is becoming an increasingly important public health concern. Yet, reliable SV prevalence rates and risk factors are lacking, due to methodological shortcomings in current studies. SV research involves challenges regarding safety and disclosure, especially in older adults. In this paper, we reflect on the methods used in a sexual health and violence (SH&V) study in older adults balancing between privacy rules imposed by the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and ethical and safety guidelines. To ensure the acceptability of the questionnaire, it was tested in a two-phase pilot study. To maximize SV disclosure, the questionnaire built up gradually towards the more sensitive SV modules. Interviewers were trained to approach participants in a non-judgmental manner. Due to GDPR, our data collection method was changed from a random sampling via the National Register to a cluster random probability sampling with a random walk finding approach. Older adults were willing to discuss SH&V during a structured face-to-face interview with trained interviewers. Following strict safety guidelines, no major incidents were reported. The cluster random probability sampling with random walk finding approach provided an adequate sampling frame, but was inefficient and time-consuming. Doing research on SH&V in older adults is feasible but requires a substantial investment of time and the challenges involved may incur greater costs. In order to guarantee further research on sensitive topics in older adults, we recommend that an interdisciplinary expert group consisting of researchers, donors, and policymakers investigates how GDPR and public health research in hard-to-reach populations can be better matched. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous studies have demonstrated that auditors are reluctant to issue going-concern opinions. Some suggest this reluctance is strategic and stems from the auditor's desire to avoid loss of clients or reputation. This paper investigates the threat of loss resulting from auditor switching and client bankruptcy in the regulatory context of Belgium. Belgium requires companies to engage an audit firm for a three-year period. Consequently, the client's threat of switching auditors is potentially more credible in the third year than in the first two years. The empirical results support the hypothesis that going-concern opinions significantly increase the probability of bankruptcy. Thus, going-concern reports remain relevant even in a country where debt financing is dominant. In addition, clients are four times more likely to switch auditors at the end of the mandatory term if they receive a going-concern opinion in the final year of the term relative to the previous two years. This strongly suggests that mandatory terms influence the association between going-concern opinions and auditor switching. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite mounting evidence of disparities in health service provision for migrants and ethnic minorities (MEM) across EU countries, there has been limited research into how services (meso) and policy (macro) can contribute to reducing these disparities. In Flemish (Belgian) substance use treatment (SUT) policy making, no systematic attention is given to MEM. Nevertheless, preliminary studies have identified some disparities, especially among non-Belgian MEM. For this paper we studied the factors related to these disparities and ways forward based on 21 semi-structured interviews with SUT coordinators and experts. The low representation of MEM populations in psychiatric hospitals due to language exclusion criteria stands out as the main disparity. Moreover, respondents indicated that exclusion may be anticipated by general practitioners in the referral process, causing additional disparities. The exclusion of MEM from policy making processes, waiting lists and the structure of the federalized Belgian health system are identified as indirect macro contributors to disparities. Respondents specified four main ways to reduce disparities in SUT among MEM: targeted treatment and policy making, installing diversity policies in SUT services, enhancing training and education, and community-based treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the employment of communication, engagement and relationship-based practice skills by a Flemish social worker working with a parent who was alleged to have assaulted his child. We deploy insights gained from ethnomethodology to analyse extracts from an ethnographic observation. We show how a respectful approach can be developed between two parties who seek to find meaning from the chain of events they are presented with. In doing so, we establish how practice can be conducted differently depending on the context in which professionals and families find themselves. We argue that social workers' identities revolve around being competent members of their professional community by working within the recommended guidelines and keeping children safe. However, this does not mean that organisational rules determine the activities that take place. Instead, we show how social workers can use their experience and skills to develop effective working relationships and still achieve their intended outcomes without blaming or shaming parents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes some results of a large experimental programme on unsteady flow through the rotor of a transonic turbine stage in the large Compression Tube Turbine Facility at the von Karman Institute for Fluid Dynamics. The tests were carried out as part of a Brite EURAM project. The test programme covered the investigation of the effects of a variation in the rotational speed of the rotor, the axial stator–rotor distance and the stator trailing-edge coolant flow ejection. The paper aims at presenting the measurements of the relative inlet total pressure and the rotor blade surface pressure at rotor mid-span. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to reflect on the results of the project Community Intervention in Urban Areas: a youth driven initiative. This project envisioned the development of a Transnational Seminar that gave origin to the development of youth arts intervention projects and to the elaboration of the document "Youth Policies for Urban Neighborhoods". The project started from the youth's reflection on the physical, social, economic, and cultural degradation of specific spaces/territories and communities in Portugal, Italy, the Netherlands, and Belgium (spaces in ruins, non-places and other abandoned areas), exploring these territories as spaces for transformation and future renovation. The idea is to explore the ways youth may contribute to the transformation of these spaces, therefore enhancing their civic knowledge, capacity to intervene and influence policy and research under this theme. We wish to explore the role of younger generations, and youth in particular, through a change of paradigm. That is, by developing alternatives of intervention, through Participant Action Research and through the exploration of its connections with artistic practice and the cultural field in general. We hope this approach can influence local, national and European youth education policies and enhance different approaches to research in general. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the meaning of the ‘governance of security’ in Belgium and the Netherlands will be explored. It is argued that the role of the mayor is substantial in both countries. This is why this article focuses explicitly on the political leadership of the mayor. The first section provides a comparison between Belgium and the Netherlands, contrasting their different constitutional-legal settlements and the relationship of these two cultures of control in the two countries. The consequences for which authorities and actors are ‘responsibilized’ for undertaking strategies of urban security governance are discussed. In a following section, the paper examines the current and potential challenges for governing urban security across both countries. In the final section, the dilemma of politics and science as drivers of policy responses to urban security problems is considered, identifying in particular certain deficits in mayoral expertise and training. The paper concludes that, despite a common tendency in comparative politics to group the ‘Low Countries’ together (given their strong historical and cultural connections), a powerful contrast is highlighted between the effects of federal and unitary constitution-legal settlements on policy responses to urban security. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Objectives: This study compares the follow-up rates of non-normal cervical screening samples between Denmark and Flanders (Belgium) to illuminate whether organizational differences between the health systems might affect the follow-up rates, e.g. sending of reminders in Denmark since 2012 compared to Flanders with no such system in place. Methods: The study population included 48,082 Danish women and 22,271 Flemish women who received abnormal or inadequate primary screening results from 2014 to 2016. The participants were followed for 24 months, and the timeliness and appropriateness of the recommended follow-up, according to national guidelines, were evaluated. Results: After 18 months over 90% of the Danish women had received some form of follow-up, while in Flanders, this level is achieved only for those who test positive for human papillomavirus. The analysis also revealed that 10–28% of follow-ups were performed too early, with Danish women showing the highest proportions. In both regions, general practitioners (GPs) exhibited better follow-up rates compared to gynaecologists, with gynaecologists displaying a tendency towards earlier re-testing than recommended. Conclusions: An important factor influencing the follow-up rate may be the sending of reminders in Denmark since 2012, as the follow-up rates in general were higher in this period. It is noteworthy that a reminder system is currently being implemented in Flanders and further studies on the potential effects should be studied. Additionally, the organization of the health system might influence the follow-up rate, as engaging the GP for screening in Denmark may have had a positive effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary The informational context in which social work has been operating over the past decade has gained much more significance. In this context, Electronic Information Systems are often implemented with the aim of being responsive to the needs of children and families. However, research has critically identified some major concerns with using Electronic Information Systems in ways that tend to reduce social work to a technical practice. As a result, practitioners and managers are using their discretion to shape and bend regulations precisely in order to achieve responsive social work practice. In this paper, our aim is to capture the meaning of these strategies for the development of responsive social work. To do so, we interviewed social practitioners working with Electronic Information Systems on a daily basis. Findings Our results show how practitioners develop a diversity of strategies to recreate the relational aspect of social work, thereby challenging the hypothesis that this was curtailed by the use of Electronic Information Systems. Applications By fleshing out the meaning of the strategies practitioners use in their daily practice, we aim to contribute to the contemporary debate about the use of these strategies in social work practice. At the same time, it is also important to understand the meaning of these strategies in relation to the development of responsive social work as this development cannot be reduced to a mere relational practice where principles of justice, equality and solidarity are not equally considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents opinion of the author, a Belgium-based oncologist about the paper on euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide prepared by the European Association of Palliative Care Ethics Task Force. Approval to physician-assisted suicide by general public in Belgium; Opposition to the concept of euthanasia by palliative care workers.