Pascale Carayon, Ph.D. - US grants

This study examines the impact of computers on job stress and quality of working life. The main characteristic of the conceptual model in this study is that stress effects are determined by a combination of technology and job characteristics. The way work is organized and jobs are structured plays an important role in the relation between computer technology and job stress. The research model is tested with a population of office work (clerical workers and professionals) using various computer technology from one public service organization. The research uses multiple data collection methods (questionnaire, interviews and log-in's), multiple sources of information (employees, supervisors, information systems personnel), and multiple times of data-collection (2 times separated by one year). The longitudinal design will allow testing of the time-lagged and cumulative effects of computer technology on job stress, and the study of "natural" changes in computer technology characteristics. A four-week diary is conducted to measure computer technology characteristics and mood states and to examine the relationships between these variables, and job design and other measures of job stress. This focused study of the use of computers by office workers in one organization can increase our theoretical knowledge about the impact of computer use on job stress and quality of working life.

This research proposes to examine the transformation to quality in local government agencies. The research is based on an on-going partnership between a research team from the Center for Quality and Productivity Improvement at the University of Wisconsin - Madison, and the City of Madison. For over ten years, the City of Madison has been recognized as a pioneer in implementing total quality concepts and principles in government. A conceptual framework is proposed by which the degree of institutionalization of quality principles is a function of the implementation process, the organizational structure and culture. In turn, the degree of institutionalization is believed to influence the perceived impact of quality initiatives. Feedback loops are an integral part of the model whereby positive impact increases degree of institutionalization and institutionalization contributes to a change in organizational structure and culture. The objective of the project is to collect employee level data to test the hypothesized relationships among these constructs. Implementation will focus on employee development, while structure will include employee participation and labor/management relations, and culture will include leadership and management style. The study is designed around the department/agency as a second unit of analysis, providing variability in quality implementation, structure and culture. An action research paradigm will be used to guide the design and conduct of research. A variety of data collection methodologies will be utilized, including surveys of employees and citizens, and an analysis of archival material. Regression and path analyses will be performed to test relationships specified in the model.

ABSTRACT

Information Technology Workforce (ITWF)

Information Technology Workforce (ITWF)

Proposal Id: EIA-0120092
PI: Pascale Carayon
Institution: U. Wisconsin
Title: Paths to Retention and Turnover in the IT Workforce: Understanding the Relationships Between Gender, Minority Status, Job and Organizational Factors

This ITWF award provides support for the University of Wisconsin to conduct a study that will identify the job, organizational and quality of working life (QWL) factors that influence turnover intention within the current IT workforce, and the way gender and minority status play a role in the relationships between job and organizational factors, QWL and intention to turnover. Two different models of the role of gender and minority status will be used and tested and compared in a sample of IT employees across a range of companies and jobs. The first research model postulates that gender and minority status have direct effects on job and organizational factors and both direct and indirect effects on QWL and intention to turnover. The second research model postulates that gender and minority status play a moderating role in the relationship between job and organizational factors and QWL and intention to turnover.

PROJECT ABSTRACT
CT proposal #0627682
"Violations in computer and information security"



Anchored in the human factors engineering discipline, this research explores systematically the reasons or factors contributing to computer and information security (CIS) violations. The focus is on CIS violations committed by network administrators. A mixed-methods research approach combines qualitative (focus groups) and quantitative (survey) research in order to understand CIS violations, their consequences and the factors contributing to violations, and to develop solutions to deal with CIS violations. This research can help identify solutions for improving CIS-related behaviors of network administrators (i.e. reducing the occurrence of violations or mitigating their impact on CIS vulnerabilities).

This research can shed light on the human factors involved in CIS, in particular the role of wrongful behaviors (i.e. violations) of network administrators and methods for dealing with those violations. The proposed research effort takes advantage of the expertise in computer and information security of Sami Saydjari, president of the Cyber Defense Agency (CDA). The collaboration with the University of Wisconsin E-Business Institute will strengthen the dissemination efforts, such as the organization of a workshop for companies to learn about human factors in CIS.

This research will also contribute to the training of diverse undergraduate and graduate students in industrial and systems engineering (ISyE). Several links between the research and teaching activities will be organized, in particular with the ISyE courses taught by the PI (Carayon) and the co-PI (Veeramani). The publication plan contributes to the dissemination of information on this research to several communities (e.g., computer security, human factors engineering).

Nurses in virtual Intensive Care Units (ICUs) function in virtual teams whose configuration and membership is fluid and rapidly changing. They face many challenges related to the development and management of simultaneous dynamic relationships. This study will examine the role trust across these various relationships, and the role of communication and technological support for communication that can affect trust and conflicts. An in-depth analysis of five cases of a virtual ICU will be conducted to understand the strategies and methods that virtual ICU nurses use in developing and managing dynamic interactions with multiple ICUs. Virtual ICUs evolved out of the need to provide around-the-clock care of ICU patients in the face of national shortages of both nurses and intensivists, a 250% increase in hospital ICU beds over the past 20 years, and pressure from external organizations. Understanding virtual ICU sociotechnical systems and their impact on the workers (e.g., virtual ICU nurses) and their performance is critical as this technology may be a solution for the shortage of practitioners, as well as a tool for providing access to healthcare services in remote rural areas. Anchored in the literatures on virtual teams, human factors engineering and sociotechnical systems, this research will identify solutions for improving performance and quality of working life of practioners involved in multiple virtual teams. The results will be broadly applicable beyond virtual ICU?s to other contexts, including academic science and engineering. Increasingly researchers are not only working in one but instead across many distributed teams, and understanding the role of trust, prioritization, and decision management in these new modalities of scientific practice is crucial to the success of science and engineering in the twenty-first century. Undergraduate and graduate students in industrial and systems engineering will be involved in the research and dissemination activities. Results from the project will be used disseminate findings of our research to a broad and public audience.

Project Summary/Abstract The combination of the aging population with increasingly complex care needs produces a major challenge for the healthcare delivery system. Older patients are at high risk for patient safety issues and healthcare- associated harm, especially when receiving care in the Emergency Department (ED) and the hospital. Our project focuses on vulnerable older patients over 65 who are diagnosed with fall or suspected urinary tract infection (UTI) in the ED (AHRQ priority population). These patients experience a range of patient safety issues, such as repeated falls, diagnostic and medication errors (e.g. unnecessary use of antibiotics or drugs that increase fall risk), venous thromboembolism related to immobilization, and healthcare-associated infections (e.g., C-difficile). Our transdisciplinary team of engineers, health services researchers, nurses, physicians and pharmacists will collaborate with UW Health, a large health system with both academic and community EDs, to create and evaluate a system of care that supports the safe journey of older adults after presentation to the ED. In order for older adults to transition safely in their journey that begins in the ED, we propose to create a `patient safety passport' that will provide opportunities for error detection and recovery, for anticipating patient safety issues in the subsequent steps of the journey, and for improving communication and coordination. We will use the SEIPS (Systems Engineering Initiative for Patient Safety) model as the conceptual framework for addressing multiple patient safety issues and healthcare-associated harm experienced by older adults during their care journey. We will apply a participatory human-centered design approach to implement the 5- step methodology described in the AHRQ RFA (problem analysis, design, development, implementation and evaluation). This will involve the creation of a multidisciplinary Intervention Implementation Team (IIT) with representatives from (1) patients/caregivers, (2) clinicians and staff from ED, hospital and SNF, (3) UW Health stakeholders, and (4) researchers. We will evaluate the impact of the patient safety passport on the most frequent and inter-related patient safety issues experienced by older adults in the domains of fall, VTE, diagnostic and medication errors, and HAIs. In line with the SEIPS model, the evaluation will assess care process and outcomes (EHR data), the perspective of patients and caregivers (survey and interviews), and the perspective of ED, hospital and SNF clinicians and staff (survey and focus groups). We will develop a transdisciplinary PSLL aimed at engineering safe care journeys for vulnerable patients, including older adults. Our PSLL will build on long-standing, strong research collaboration between engineering and the health sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, which led to the official launch of the Wisconsin Institute for Healthcare Systems Engineering (WIHSE) in 2017.

The Planning Grants for Engineering Research Centers competition was run as a pilot solicitation within the ERC program. Planning grants are not required as part of the full ERC competition, but intended to build capacity among teams to plan for convergent, center-scale engineering research.

Between 2016 and 2050, the number of older adults (age>65) in the US will grow from 49 million to 84 million. The combination of the growing aging population with increasingly complex care needs presents a major societal challenge to deliver safe, effective and efficient health care. While older adults prefer to stay in their home or a familiar environment, they also require health services, but are at high risk for patient safety issues and healthcare-associated harm when interacting with the healthcare delivery system. We need to develop technologies that can help older adults stay healthy and safe longer: this includes supporting safe interactions of older adults with the healthcare system (e.g. emergency room, hospital). We plan to develop an ERC for Healthy and Safe Aging (ERC-HSA) that will engage multiple disciplines (engineering, health sciences) and older adults and their caregivers to develop older-care-application-specific smart sensing technologies and integrate them into the overall coordinated older adult care system. The proposed ERC-HSA will be integrated in the newly created Wisconsin Institute for Healthcare Systems Engineering at UW-Madison and will benefit from complementary expertise of researchers at other Universities. During the ERC planning stage, we will work with various universities and local groups to develop strategies and programs aimed at enhancing diversity of our future students and addressing ageism, i.e. biases targeted at older adults. We will also build stronger ties with the health technology industry in the Greater Madison area as well as along the ?Health Highway?, a 600-mile Midwestern stretch that spans four states and represents a growing healthcare ecosystem.

The proposed ERC-HSA will develop a convergent research agenda organized around expertise in sensor technologies, data analytics and system design that will be combined with deep knowledge about aging care to develop technologies that effectively address the societal problem of healthy and safe aging. With advice of experts in strategic planning, team science, diversity and aging, we will coordinate various activities, including webinar on team science and team research, targeted roundtables and a workshop with industry. We will organize roundtables to develop the innovative convergent research program and create opportunities for conversations among researchers from various backgrounds. Older adults and their caregivers and healthcare professionals will actively participate in these activities as we propose to do research not on older adults, but with and for older adults. We will blend expertise in three thrust areas: (1) human-centered modeling, simulation and design of patient work and clinical workflow, (2) health/healthcare data analytics, and (3) sensors and sensing technologies. Our goal is to go beyond designing siloed and fragmented technologies and promote innovative convergent research that will design the next generation of technologies for healthy and safe aging.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.