BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE

There is a call for changes in health professions education to help address current and future challenges. For the effective management of change in institutions involved with health professions education, it is important to consider organizational readiness for change and psychological safety. In organizations, the presence of psychological safety facilitates learning that is integral in organizational development, especially those undergoing changes. There are tools available to measure organizational readiness to change and psychological safety but they are separate and tend to be lengthy. The study developed and validated a brief, straightforward tool that integrates psychological safety in the measurement of organizational readiness for change. It can be useful in the assessment of academic organizations undergoing change in order to facilitate implementation and promote effective change.

The study used a sequential exploratory mixed methods design. A conceptual framework on organizational readiness to change which included psychological safety was developed from a review of literature. Relevant constructs were defined and corresponding questions were constructed and scaled. Five content experts qualitatively assessed the scale and removed items which were redundant, lacked clarity, or were irrelevant. The items were then reviewed by selected participants to ensure face validity. Finally, the questionnaire was administered to members of a unit (N=89) which was undergoing organizational change to ensure construct validity. Construct validity, internal consistency, convergent validity, and discriminant validity were determined using PLS-SEM and yielded acceptable results.

The scale developed addressed components of organizational readiness to change and psychological safety. The scale was deemed to have good content validity by five experts, good face validity as tested by a small pilot group, and acceptable construct validity, internal consistency, convergent validity, and discriminant validity.

The quantitative scale developed for measuring readiness to change was assessed qualitatively and quantitatively, and deemed to have relevance and validity. It can be used by academic units embarking on change initiatives to assess organizational readiness with due consideration for psychological safety. Quantitative results from the tool can be supplemented with qualitative measures such as observations, interviews or focused group discussions to better identify and address areas needing attention. The study has the potential to make a significant contribution to both the theory and practice of change management.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the symptom prevalence and aspects of symptoms for cumulative trauma disorders in dentists and elucidate their associated factors. METHODS: A questionnaire-based investigation on demographic factors, work-related characteristics, psychosocial factors and symptoms of 512 dentists practicing in Daegu metropolitan city was conducted. Subsets of psychosocial characteristics, including job demand(5 items), psychosomatic strain(5 items), job insecurity, and type A behavior were also assessed. For the evaluation of symptoms early developed questionnaire by Song(1997)was used to investigate the parameters related to pains in the neck, shoulder, arm and elbow, wrist, finger, back or discomforts, such as pricking and numbing. RESULTS: The symptom prevalence of cumulative trauma disorders, calculated based on NIOSH criteria, was high at 63.3 %; the most frequent site of complaint was the shoulder, followed by neck, back, hand and wrist, knee, foot and ankle. The most common approach position was direction of 9 to 10 o'clock. Most subjects had 5-10 years of work experience and those with such years of experience also complained most frequently of symptoms in the neck and shoulder areas. As to rate of symptom complaint according to the type of dental procedure, the highest rate was associated to periodontic treatment. According to age, those between the age of 30-40 had the highest symptom prevalence rate at 70 %. According to sex, women had the higher symptom prevalence rate. Unmarried subjects also had higher symptom prevalence rate. The results of logistic analysis showed that the higher the psychosomatic strain and job demand, the higher the symptom prevalence rate of cumulative trauma disorders. Moreover, the higher the score of type A behavior, the higher the symptom prevalence rate, and even those who changed the location of their practice for the last three months also showed high symptom prevalence rate. CONCLUSIONS: The results of multiple logistic regression analysis, which incorporated demographic, work-related and psychosocial characteristics as independent variables, showed that women were at a higher risk than men in developing cumulative trauma disorders; and that the higher the psychosomatic strain and more frequent type A behavior, the higher the risk of developing cumulative trauma disorders. The above results seem to suggest that not only continual, repeated fine and skillful musculoskeletal movements and lengthy hours in an uncomfortable position but also the psychological stress related to patient satisfaction, can lead to cumulative trauma disorders.
Ankle ; Arm ; Cumulative Trauma Disorders* ; Daegu* ; Demography ; Dentists* ; Elbow ; Female ; Fingers ; Foot ; Hand ; Humans ; Knee ; Logistic Models ; Male ; National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (U.S.) ; Neck ; Patient Satisfaction ; Periodontics ; Prevalence ; Psychology ; Questionnaires ; Shoulder ; Single Person ; Stress, Psychological ; Wrist