Nova Reader - Subject

Connecting Philosophy and Public Administration

2025-10-24T18:30

This open access book provides a novel framework for understanding the connections between philosophy and public administration. It proposes four key directions of inquiry to help better understand the relationship between these two areas of research and practice: philosophy for public administration, mapping backwards, aligning philosophy and public administration, and philosophy of public administration. Each of these directions of inquiry are analyzed in turn, underlining the functions that philosophy applied to public administration perform, and the ways in which philosophy and philosophical thinking can benefit the development of public administration and governance. A research program outlining the features of a philosophy of public administration for the 21st century is delineated. An essential read for both academics and practitioners, the book will appeal to all those interested in public administration, public management, governance, and philosophy.

Analyzing patient trust through the lens of hospitals managers—The other side of the coin

2021-04-26T00:00

Trust is an essential element in patient-physician relationships, yet trust is perceived differently among providers and customers exist. During January-February 2020 we examined the standpoints of medical managers and administrative directors from the private and public health hospitals on patient-physician trust, using a structured questionnaire. Thirty-six managers in public and private hospitals (24 from the public sector and 12 from the private sector) responded to the survey. Managers in the private sector rated trust higher in comparison to managers in the public sector, including trust related to patient satisfaction, professionalism and accountability. Managers from public hospitals gave higher scores to the need for patient education and shared responsibility prior to medical procedures. Administrative directors gave higher scores to various dimensions of trust and autonomy while medical managers gave higher scores to economic considerations. Trust is a fundamental component of the healthcare system and may be used to improve the provision and quality of care by analyzing standpoints and comparable continuous monitoring. Differences in position, education and training influence the perception of trust among managers in the health system. This survey may allow policy makers and opinion leaders to continue building and maintaining trust between patients and care providers.

Visualizing changes to US federal environmental agency websites, 2016–2020

2021-02-25T00:00

Websites have become the primary means by which the US federal government communicates about its operations and presents information for public consumption. However, the alteration or removal of critical information from these sites is often entirely legal and done without the public’s awareness. Relative to paper records, websites enable governments to shape public understanding in quick, scalable, and permissible ways. During the Trump administration, website changes indicative of climate denial prompted civil society organizations to develop tools for tracking online government information sources. We in the Environmental Data & Governance Initiative (EDGI) illustrate how five data visualization techniques can be used to document and analyze changes to government websites. We examine a large sample of websites of US federal environmental agencies and show that between 2016 and 2020: 1) the use of the term “climate change” decreased by an estimated 38%; 2) access to as much as 20% of the Environmental Protection Agency’s website was removed; 3) changes were made more to Cabinet agencies’ websites and to highly visible pages. In formulating ways to visualize and assess the alteration of websites, our study lays important groundwork for both systematically tracking changes and holding officials more accountable for their web practices. Our techniques enable researchers and watchdog groups alike to operate at the scale necessary to understand the breadth of impact an administration can have on the online face of government.

Are Ethiopian diabetic patients protected from financial hardship?

2021-01-27T00:00

Background

Globally, diabetes mellitus exerts an economic burden on patients and their families. However, the economic burden of diabetes mellitus and its associated factors were not well studied in Ethiopia. Therefore, the aim of this study is to assess the economic burden of diabetes mellitus and its associated factors among diabetic patients in public hospitals of Bahir Dar city administration, Ethiopia.

Methods

Across sectional study was conducted on 422 diabetic patients. The patients were selected by simple random sampling method. The prevalence-based model was used to estimate the costs on patients’ perspective. Bottom up and human capital approaches were used to estimate the direct and indirect costs of the patients respectively. Wealth index was constructed using principal component analysis by SPSS. Forty percent of nonfood threshold level was used to measure catastrophic diabetic care expenditure of diabetic patients. Whereas, the World Bank poverty line (the $1.90-a-day poverty line) was used to measure impoverishment of patients due to expenses of diabetes mellitus care. Data were entered by Epi data version 3.1and exported to SPSS version 23 for analysis. Simple and multiple logistic regressions were used.

Results

Four hundred one respondents were interviewed with response rate of 95%. We found that 239 (59.6%) diabetic patients incurred catastrophic diabetic care expenditure at 40% nonfood threshold level. Whereas, 20 (5%) diabetic patients were impoverished by diabetic care spending at the $1.90-a-day poverty line. Educational status of respondent, educational status of the head of household, occupation and wealth status were statistically associated with the catastrophic diabetic care expenditure.

Conclusions

The study revealed that the economic burden of diabetic care is very disastrous among the less privileged populations: the less educated, the poorest and unemployed. Therefore, all concerned stakeholders should design ways that can reduce the financial hardship of diabetic care among diabetic patients.

Pressure ulcer prevention practices and associated factors among nurses in public hospitals of Harari regional state and Dire Dawa city administration, Eastern Ethiopia

2020-12-15T00:00

Introduction

Pressure ulcer is one of the major challenges in hospitals; which endanger patient safety, prolonging hospital stay and contributed to disability and death. Data regarding to pressure ulcer prevention practice are very important to take action. However in Ethiopia, there are limited researches that have been conducted and there is clearly paucity of information on this regard. Hence, this study aimed to assess pressure ulcer prevention practice and associated factors among nurses in public hospitals of Eastern Ethiopia.

Methods

A cross-sectional study was conducted among randomly selected 422 nurses who were working in the public hospitals of Eastern Ethiopia. Data were collected from the 1^st February to the 1^st March 2018 using pretested structured self-administered questionnaire and observational checklist. The collected data were entered into EpiData version 3.1 and exported to SPSS version 22.0 for analysis. Bivariable and multivariable logistic regression with crude and adjusted odds ratios along with the 95% confidence interval was computed and interpreted accordingly. Pressure ulcer prevention was determined based on mean calculation; a result above the mean value was categorized as good pressure ulcer prevention practice, and a P-value of <0.05 was considered to declare a result as statistically significant.

Results

In this study 51.9% (95% CI: 47.1%, 56.4%) of nurses were reported that they have good pressure ulcer prevention practice. On observation 45.2% of nurses were practicing proper pressure ulcer prevention activities. Pressure ulcer prevention practice were statistically associated with nurses with bachelor degree and above qualification level (AOR = 1.7, 95% CI: 1.02, 2.83), availability of pressure-relieving devices (AOR = 2.2, 95% CI: 1.34, 3.63), being satisfied with their job (AOR = 1.65, 95% CI: 1.09, 2.52) and good knowledge (AOR = 2.3, 95% CI: 1.48, 3.55).

Conclusions

In this study the self-reported practice and results from observation was substantially low. Continuing education and training should be considered for nurses to enhance their practice regarding pressure ulcer prevention practice.

City Makers and the Politics of Urban Diversity Governance

2024-10-18T18:30

This open access book examines the rising challenges of managing diversity in European and Asian cities. It spotlights the roles of varied city makers - from urban leaders to migrant communities and civil society activists - in negotiating and transforming their city’s diversity governance. The book brings together the contributions of urban studies and migration studies scholars, which offer rich empirical analyses on various European and Asian cities, such as Paris, Singapore, Barcelona, and Guangzhou. Adopting a comparative lens, the book presents a decentered understanding of 'super-diverse' cities, examining shifts in urban policy-making within different geographical contexts, with distinct patterns of migration and diversification. By advancing urban comparison as a research tool, it contributes to the contemporary discussions on the local turn of migration and diversity policies.