This thesis addresses two important issues in midwifery: I) the care and support provided by midwives to women and their families facing vulnerable circumstances during pregnancy and childbirth, and II) the role and tasks of clinical midwives in Dutch hospitals.

Background: Frailty is a common condition in older people, and its prevalence increases with age. With an ageing population, the adverse consequences of frailty cause an increasing appeal to the health care system. The impact of frailty on population level is often assessed using adverse health outcomes, …

Background Family participation in essential care may benefit patients and relatives. Aims To examine the needs, perceptions and preferences of health care providers about family participation in essential care in the adult intensive care unit. Study design A qualitative descriptive study using inductive …

Objectives Quality improvements (QIs) in dynamic and complex health care contexts require resilience and take variability into account in quality improvement. The Functional Resonance Analysis Method (FRAM) helps us understand resilience and gain insight into (un)desirable variability in the complex …

Background: Community nurses (CNs) play an important role in supporting healthy lifestyles, including healthy eating behaviour of patients. However, many CNs do not incorporate healthy eating support in their daily routines to the fullest extent possible. This study aimed to explore (1) the associations …

This empirical study investigated the relationship between the learning climate and training participation in Dutch organizations and how subsidies and the sharing of investments in time and costs between employers and employees affect this relationship. Our analyses are based on a survey of a representative …

1. Introduction Most western societies are currently faced with an ageing population, decreasing workforce and increasingly technology-supported care. Whilst digitalisation of healthcare and care technology developments are demonstrating their adequacy and benefits in replacing professionals for certain …

Crime script analysis as a methodology to analyse criminal processes is underdeveloped. This is apparent from the various approaches in which scholars apply crime scripting and present their cybercrime scripts. The plethora of scripting methods raise significant concerns about the reliability and validity …

Purpose – Social enterprises have proven to play a vital role in the transitions towards inclusive labour markets and sustainable economies. Yet, they often struggle to flourish within traditional economic systems due to the dual mission of pursuing social and commercial goals, leading to inherent tensions …

Background: the global population is ageing. As older people become more susceptible to frailty, an increase in frailty prevalence is also expected. Although frailty has been defined before in research, older peoples’ perceptions of frailty do not always coincide with those used in research or medical …