The courage of one's conviction: when do nurse practitioners report unsafe practices?

When and why do nurses report unsafe patient practices when they see them? This paper adds to our understanding of the characteristics of health care practitioners who report errors and their environment by introducing role identity as an important concept for understanding this communication behavior. We analyzed the results of a national survey of 330 nurses to address three questions: (1) What factors are associated with nurses stating that they have observed tolerance for unsafe practices; (2) what fosters reporting of unsafe practices; and (3) what is the impact on nurses' commitment to the organization and the profession as a result of observing unsafe practices? Results suggest that the probability of reporting unsafe practices increases as the frequency of unsafe practices increases; this relationship is moderated by nurse role identity and supervisory support for reporting. The probability of reporting of unsafe practices also increases when nurses have a strong role identity and strong organizational role identity.

Health benefits of volunteering in the Wisconsin longitudinal study.

We investigate positive effects of volunteering on psychological well-being and self-reported health using all four waves of the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study. Confirming previous research, volunteering was positively related to both outcome variables. Both consistency of volunteering over time and diversity of participation are significantly related to well-being and self-reported health.

Impact of helping behaviors on the course of substance-use disorders in individuals with body dysmorphic disorder.

Objective: Alcoholics Anonymous and 12-step facilitated treatments for substance-use disorders (SUDs) encourage individuals with SUD to consider the needs of others and engage in helping behaviors as a method to become sober. SUDs are one of the most common comorbid disorders among individuals with body dysmorphic disorder (BDD). The purpose of this study is to examine prospectively the relationship between helping behaviors and the likelihood of SUD and BDD remission.

First year donation patterns predict long-term commitment for first-time donors.

Background And Objectives: Converting first-time donors to become regular donors continues to be a challenge facing blood centres. We examined whether first-time donors with frequent return in the first 12 months were more likely to become regular donors.

Subjects And Methods: The donation histories of 179 409 community whole-blood donors, whose first-time donation in 1991 was negative on donor screening tests, were evaluated.

Prosocial behavior: multilevel perspectives.

Current research on prosocial behavior covers a broad and diverse range of phenomena. We argue that this large research literature can be best organized and understood from a multilevel perspective. We identify three levels of analysis of prosocial behavior: (a) the "meso" level--the study of helper-recipient dyads in the context of a specific situation; (b) the micro level--the study of the origins of prosocial tendencies and the sources of variation in these tendencies; and (c) the macro level--the study of prosocial actions that occur within the context of groups and large organizations.