The structure of conversation is a subject of many empirical researches along the Conversational Analytical point of view. Scholars have agreed that nonverbal signals which are called regulators act ...as a kind of traffic signals that aid in the flow of interactions. This paper studies the use of nonverbal regulators in Hausa social interactions, through the use of data consisting of natural face-to-face interactions taken from multiple settings. The research discovers that Hausa peoples’ interaction, especially in face-to-face settings, is marred with different gestures and postures acting as conversational regulators. Beyond regulating the interaction, these gestures and postures contribute to meaning making and influence communication outcomes.
Frameworks offer opportunities for better understanding of the efficacy of patient empowerment. However, some of these frameworks appear to be constituted in different ways by professional body ...involved in healthcare and research. Through review of existing frameworks and an articulation of patient demands, weaknesses in current structures to support empowerment are explored, and distinction between the frameworks, as well as key constituents of a framework for patient empowerment are determined. Approaches to frameworks aiming at patient empowerment in the ehealth system vary in the dominant motif within the construct. Health centred, patient centred, provider centred, technology centred, and hybrid models are the most common categories of empowerment framework. Current patient empowerment frameworks are complementary concepts, which do not oppose one another but there exist a clear distinction between them.
The empowerment of citizens in relation to personal healthcare management includes consideration of a multi-faceted collection of elements. Simplistic forms of understanding, which link empowerment ...to access provide limited acknowledgement for the requirement to facilitate a greater sense of health ownership in patients and collaborative working practices in practitioners. More complex attitudes to the delivery of empowered patients encompassing knowledge development, technological awareness and partnership approaches to healthcare delivery are steps in the right direction but strain to fit currently emerging ideas around patient centered care. Models and frameworks open avenues for better understanding of the efficacy of patient empowerment in the healthcare system. However, the dominant motif within the constructs of some patient empowerment models, which tends to focus mainly around a specified area within health system have reduced the strength and potentials of a patient empowerment framework. This paper posits that existing frameworks aiming at empowering patients for a patient centered healthcare system are insufficiently presented. The frameworks, which are mostly focused on one aspect, fail to factor in the invaluableness of holism and technological innovation. Through a review of existing frameworks and an articulation of patient demands, weaknesses in current structures to support empowerment are explored, and key constituents of a framework for patient empowerment are determined. For a patient empowerment framework of the 21st century, aspects of systems theory such as holism and iteration are vital. Consequently, the paper articulates a model, which would consider these systems theory ideas to present a robust framework of patient empowerment. A robust framework is key to ensuring an empowered patient in the 21st century e-health system.
This study assessed the impact of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) on employee productivity. The study utilized data from the Federal College of Education (FCE, Yola) and American ...University of Nigeria (AUN) using a structured questionnaire. A sample of 200respondents was drawn from the two institutions. Count data models were used to examine the effects of the benefits offered by NHIS on the productivity of workers. The findings from this study reveals that awareness and prevention campaign, drug quality, health treatment and dental care service reduce the probability of a worker falling sick and missing work days. The result shows 61% of workers who are insured have never missed work due to sickness in the last 12 months. The study recommends that, the services offered by the NHIS should be more strengthened and sustained since they are found to be impacting much on workers. Thus, proper monitoring and supervision of the programme are important to ensure that the goal of the scheme is attained. Awareness and prevention campaigns should be conducted at regular intervals to bridge the information asymmetric among individuals. When workers are enlightened and informed about certain diseases, for example, diabetes, blood pressure, cancer, etc. They will be able to take both preventive and curative measures. Health treatment should also be improved at the various healthcare centers enrolled in NHIS scheme to ensure that there is efficiency and effectiveness in the treatment given to the beneficiaries.
Keywords: Productivity, Health Insurance, NHIS
Strategic Information Systems Planning (SISP) as a means for technology optimization plays important role along with Information system as the key player. Security information as the major resource ...for Information Systems is produced from the massive data collected by security agencies on daily basis. While other countries continuously strive to be several steps ahead of crime and their perpetrators, map out crime pattern, and implement efficient security personnel allocation by mining the voluminous data from their Information Systems (IS) as a means of achieving their organization goals, the absence of both hard and soft working infrastructure that can serve the purpose of collecting adequate data further complicates matters for Nigerian security agencies. These different security challenges can be identified and linked with strategic planning, obsolete computing resources, Information Systems features, data collection and Information Systems adoption. This study targets the audience of the top decision makers and managers of Nigerian security agencies by provides a framework for integrating SISP into security agencies. This is in order to facilitate the achievement security agencies organizational goals and make them benefit from a functional IS and put them on track to catching up with their counterparts around the world within the shortest possible time.
The spectrum of cardiovascular diseases in an outpatient low-resource rural specialty tertiary center is not well documented. The study aimed to determine the spectrum of cardiovascular diseases in ...this setting. We analyzed the medical records of 748 patients with complete data between June 1 and December 31, 2017. The mean age was 49.11 ± 14.47 years. The females were younger than the males (46.21 ± 14.78 vs. 53.64 ± 13.29 p value < 0.001). Hypertensive heart disease was the most common disorder (416 cases, 55.6%). Two hundred and five patients had heart failure (49.28%), while peripartum cardiomyopathy occurred in 8.33%. Seventy-five patients had valvular heart disease, 68% due to rheumatic heart disease.
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