Tobias Arvemo

Working together — primary care doctors’ and nurses’ attitudes to collaboration

Background: Multidisciplinary teamwork is recommended for various disorders and it has been suggested that it is a way to meet the new challenges and demands facing general practitioners (GPs) in modern society. Attempts to introduce the method in primary care have failed partly due to GPs’ unwillingness to participate. The aim of this study was to measure attitudes towards collaboration among GPs and district nurses (DN) and to investigate whether there is a correlation between a positive attitude toward collaboration and high self-esteem in the professional role. Methods: The Jefferson Scale of Attitudes toward Physician Nurse Collaboration and the Professional Self-Description Form (PSDF) was used to study a cohort of 600 GPs and DNs in Västra Götaland region. The purpose was to map differences and correlations of attitude between DNs and GPs, between male and female GPs, and between older and younger DNs and GPs. Results: Four hundred and one answers were received. DNs (mean 51.7) were significantly more positive about collaboration than GPs (mean 49.4). There was no difference between younger and older, male and female GPs. DNs scored higher on the PSDF-scale than GPs. Conclusions: DNs were slightly more positive about collaboration than GPs. A positive attitude towards collaboration did not seem to be a part of the GPs’ professional role to the same extent as it is for DNs. Professional norms seem to have more influence on attitudes than do gender roles. DNs seem more confident in their profession than GPs.

A teachable-agent arithmetic game's effects on mathematics understanding, attitude and self-efficacy

A teachable-agent arithmetic game is presented and evaluated in terms of student performance, attitude and self-efficacy. An experimental prepost study design was used, enrolling 153 3rd and 5th grade students in Sweden. The playing group showed significantly larger gains in math performance and self-efficacy beliefs, but not in general attitude towards math, compared to control groups. The contributions in relation to previous work include a novel educational game being evaluated, and an emphasis on self-efficacy in the study as a strong predictor of math achievements.

Different measures of economic growth lead to different conclusions

Economic growth is defined as the percentage output increase in an economy, e.g. a nation, a region or a municipality. The economic growth is closely related to the industrial structure, health, demography and income distribution of the economy. The most used measure for national economic growth is the change in Gross Domestic Product (GDP). GDP measures the value added of all goods and services produced in the economy. The production of goods and services generates primary incomes for households and another method of measuring GDP is therefore to add up all incomes. One part of this income consists of the sum of all wages paid to households. When regional growth studies are conducted, a common measure of economic growth is the wage sum. One reason for this may be the limited access to GDP data on regional level. However, in Sweden there exists GDP data on municipal level, which enables studies where the effects of using GDP data or wage data can be compared. The aim of the present study is to investigate the difference the use of the measures GMP (Gross Municipal Growth) and the sum of wages has on growth models. Since the two measures are similar but not identical the choice of measure of growth can influence the conclusions of an investigation. This might lead to contradictory results on for instance how the access to university research influences the economical growth (Andersson, GrasjA¶ & Karlsson 2007, 2008). Preliminary results indicate high positive correlations between changes in GMP and wage sum on municipal level. However, when data on GMP per capita and wage sum per capita are used, the correlations are still positive but much smaller. References Andersson M., GrasjA¶ U. & Karlsson C. (2007), Regional Growth and Accessibility to Knowledge Resources: A Study of Swedish Municipalities, The ICFAI Journal of Knowledge Management, July 07 Andersson M., GrasjA¶ U. & Karlsson C., (2008), Human Capital and Productivity in a Spatial Economic System, Annals of Economics and Statistics, No 87/88 - 2008.

Employment and economic activity in different Swedish border regions: Implications for Regions and Industries

This study investigate how the effect of cross border activities between Sweden and its three Nordic neighbours influence the Swedish local economies along the border using municipal data from 2009. Two measures for the local economies are examined, economic activity (measured by gross pay per inhabitant) and employment rates. The Swedish border regions where divided into four regions: The Swedish border to Finland, The Swedish border to the part of Norway not included in the Oslo labour market, The Swedish border to the Oslo labour market, and the Swedish-Danish border region. The regression models show how the the regions compare to the Swedish average when controlled for market structure and accessibility to population. For Swedens border regions to Denmark and the Oslo labour market there are significant improvements in both economic activity and employment rates when the border activity is included. The improvement is highest for the Oslo border regions. For the Swedish border to Finland and to the part of Norway not included inte the Olso labour market the border activity has no significant influence on either economic activity or employment rates.

Indicators of economic development – an exploratory study using Swedish municipal data contrasting economic development and growth

This paper explores different definitions of Economic Development and possible measures for Economic Development and how they relate to measures commonly used for studying Economic Growth. The data ...

Productivity and cross-border accessibility to human capital: a study comparing Norwegian and Swedish border regions: Innovations, Networks and Collaborations

While border regions are peripheral areas on a national scale, they gain a more central position in the actual border region, due to their location at the interface of domestic and foreign markets. ...

University colleges’ effect on economic growth in Swedish middlesized municipalities

The contributions in this volume extend our understanding about the different ways distance impacts the knowledge conversion process. Knowledge itself is a raw input into the innovation process which can then transform it into an economically useful output such as prototypes, patents, licences and new companies. New knowledge is often tacit and thus tends to be highly localized, as indeed is the conversion process. Consequently, as the book demonstrates, space or distance matter significantly in the transformation of raw knowledge into beneficial knowledge.