Halil - The Man in a World of Babies

Halil scored his job as 8/10 (with ten being the most fantastic job imaginable).

We find Halil, who works in the babies’ room, welcoming children and chatting to parents. He is greeted by a baby with a smile and spread out arms, clearly delighted to see him. Trust is visible as we witness how easily the parents hand over their children.

Halil, just like his colleague Beth (see separate story), recognises the importance of teamwork for looking after children and in particular when there are "crazy moments". The great team he works with is one of the key reasons why he loves his job. Having a supportive team means that he gets to be himself - team members can "be silly together", and they complement and support each other, without him having to ask for help. Importantly, he sees his team members as “having the same moral compass”.

Halil initially was hired to walk Macca, the pig that lives in the Centre (and this is a story in itself!). 

However, it turned out that he was much better suited to look after children than the full-grown hog , and so he was hired as an educator. 

Halil, who describes himself as always having had a natural approach with children, recognizes he is a male in a traditionally female occupation. But he is not that bothered by this fact. He is used to spending a lot of time around women, having grown up with many sisters. But although not bothered himself, Halil is quick to help parents maneuver the confusion that they might experience when encountering a male educator. He clearly introduces himself, and addresses the issue head-on:

“It is not really on me. If someone has an issue with me being in here, they can talk to me and I can reassure them that I know what I am doing and can tell them about my upbringing and why I am here. It is not a thing for me and I will always have my boss as a backup. […] I love what I do and if they don’t like what I do, they shouldn’t be around me”.

Halil combines childcare with one of his other passions – soccer. He started a soccer program at the day-care. The children play in a league of their own. He goes out with the older children to kick some balls (admittedly the children are small, so a lot of soccer rules are being broken, "but it is all about the fun"). Halil welcomes the opportunity to be creative in his work, and that he can incorporate his ideas (see the "Autonomy" box below). He also values the lighter moments in his job. As he noted: “its brilliant, I get to play in a sandpit all day and I get paid.”

In the future, Halil would like to train toddlers to play football as his main job and set up a soccer program. This illustrates the flexible ways in which he maneuvers gender roles, introducing a traditionally male domain into a traditionally female work sector.

Halil, like Beth, identifies the fact that the center is nature-based and “outdoorsy” as one aspect that makes it so successful. We can’t help but think that people like Halil, with his laid-back approach towards others’ views about him being male in the female-dominated sector (and his colleague Beth, with her arguments for the value of child care) are doing their bit to loosen up some of society’s boundaries. As well as of course doing incredibly important work.

A little more...

Autonomy

Halil highlights the importance of autonomy that he is given in his job, and welcomes the chance to use his initiative.

The centre leader is "not afraid of change" and gives staff a chance to explore ideas and options. The manager also supports staff in both failure and success, always maintaining a focus on the children’s happiness.

In Halil's view, this openness of the leader is an important contributing factor to the progressive and creative character of the day care centre.

Emotionally and physically draining

Halil, just like Beth recognises the physical and emotional demands of his job.

”I am often tired at the end of the day, but that doesn’t stop me from looking forward to coming back when I get up the next morning”.

Sometimes several children experience an emotional melt-down at the same time, which he labels 'crazy moments'. As a carer he can only hold so many children even though he wants to help all of them at the same time. One hard part is when a new child is being dropped off for the first time and both.

Behind the scenes

by Laura Fruhen

We headed out to a day care centre to learn more about the experiences of staff who look after children and how they perceive their work, as well as others’ views onto what they do. At the centre, staff look after children ranging from ages of as little as six weeks to 6 years. The centre is located in beautiful and creative surroundings. It gives of a relaxed atmosphere, and we find it hard to believe that there are 100-120 children in one place: It seems lovingly calm and relaxed. You can tell the space was created with children in mind and with a close view towards nature, as the outdoor landscapes are crafted from natural materials. The rooms and the outdoor spaces convey are a world made for children, which will stimulate them to grow and to actively explore their environment. Most notably though, we are greeted by a pig, ducks and chickens as we enter!

Enlightening other on good Work Design

By Florian Kloneck

A group of organisational psychologists attended a workshop on good work design. The workshop involved a work design simulation game; “Lantern Production Factory”; in which participants learned about how structuring a task differently can affect an individuals’ motivation and productivity.

The game assigns one high autonomy self-managing team and one low-autonomy production chain. In the game, it is also possible to vary the level of work demands by increasing the number of orders for lanterns. The ‘green group’ had high levels of autonomy and high level of demands. This group experienced this setting as motivating, and met production goals. On the other hand, the ‘red group’ had low levels of autonomy and high level of demands. The workers in the red group experienced this setting as stressful, often not meeting production goals.

“The way these tasks are structured is really affecting my ability to be a good leader.” Participant from the ‘red group’; low autonomy/high demands

Power of Technology and Team Work to cope with Clinicians' complex work

Coping with Cognitively Complex Work: The Power of Technology and Team Work

Rare diseases are by definition uncommon, and hence are often extremely complex to identify. It can take some patients as long as 30 years, and many hundreds of visits with doctors, before they receive a diagnosis. Even then, the diagnosis can be wrong[1],[2]. These challenges in finding a diagnosis and the right treatment create a large financial and emotional toll for patients and their families. And, since in Australia around 1.9 million people are currently living with a rare disease, this is a large cost.

The process of diagnosis and treatment is also tough for clinicians. Gareth, who trained as a paediatrician but later specialised in clinical genetics at Genetic Services of Western Australia, sees his job as trying to solve “medical mysteries for children and youth”. As well as trying to diagnose rare diseases, he also guides patients’ treatments, sorts out the implications for other family members, and connects patients to other patients (since “having a rare disease can be very isolating”).  

Gareth describes the cognitive demands in his work as the biggest challenge. Identifying a rare disease requires processing vast amounts of patient-related information, digesting the published medical literature across a range of specialty areas, and then synthesising this information in a comprehensive and creative way. While having cognitive demands in one’s work is usually a contributor to job satisfaction[3], at excess levels, this mental ‘challenge’ can turn into pressure and stress, especially when, as here, the cost of not solving the problem is high[4]. As Gareth explains, he “is only getting an answer for half of the children that are affected by undiagnosed diseases”.

Fortunately, well-designed teams can help with this cognitive burden. To better meet the needs of children with undiagnosed rare diseases, and to help cope with the massive cognitive demands of the work, Gareth and an inter-disciplinary team of clinicians from across Western Australia, in partnership with the WA Department of Health Office of Population Health Genomics (OPHG), implemented the Undiagnosed Diseases Program in Western Australia (UDP-WA)[5].

The UDP-WA brings together clinicians in a monthly Expert Panel Meeting . In these one-hour meetings, clinicians work together as a team to creatively synthesize the patient information and brainstorm new (or previously abandoned) possible diagnoses and next-steps for the patient. Because they work together as a team, the vast complexity of diagnosing a rare disease is shared. The meetings provide clinicians with an opportunity to pool their expertise, and an environment in which ‘silly’ or ‘far-fetched’ ideas are welcome.

Developments in technology in the form of the Patient Archive also help in reducing the cognitive and information processing demands of the clinicians involved in the UDP-WA. The very first UDP-WA patient had their patient files (including their history, symptom information, and various inconclusive test results) brought into the meeting room and stacked in a pile that was almost two meters high. Patient Archive is an Australian digital platform that (1) stores this patient information digitally, so that it is easily accessible by all of the clinicians involved; (2) it also summarises the vast amount of patient information in easily digestible visualisations and tables; and, finally, (3) Patient Archive uses natural language processing and other algorithms to suggest possible diagnoses for the patient. Technology like Patient Archive helps clinicians ascertain and manage complex medical data, and to turn that into knowledge to help patients. It is like having another expert in the room that is part of the team to help the human brains comprehensively and effectively work together to get an answer.

The Expert Panel and Patient Archive together are changing the diagnostic paradigm to help solve the unsolved. . Gareth shared the story of one young girl who had been to hospital more than 200 times before she was even seven years old [6]. The UDP program diagnosed her case in just 45 minutes – a diagnosis with a prevalence of one in a million. The diagnosis has made an enormous difference to the quality of the young girl’s life and that of her families. This, in turn, makes Gareth very happy.

After all, the aspect Gareth most likes about his job is the chance to “serve children and families with a high need for help”.

References

1] European Organisation for Rare Diseases. Survey of the delay in diagnosis for 8 rare diseases in Europe (EurordisCare2). EURORDIS. 2007.

[2] Molster C, Urwin D, Di Pietro L, Fookes M, Petrie D, van der Laan S, et al. Survey of healthcare experiences of Australians living with rare diseases. Orphanet J Rare Dis. 2016;11:30.

[3] Morgeson, F. P., & Humphrey, S. E. (2006). The Work Design Questionnaire (WDQ): developing and validating a comprehensive measure for assessing job design and the nature of work. Journal of applied psychology, 91(6), 1321.

[4] Martin, R., & Wall, T. D. (1989). Attentional demand and cost responsibility as stressors in shopfloor jobs. Academy of Management Journal, 32(1), 69-86.

[5] UDP-WA is part of the Undiagnosed Diseases Network International (UDNI). For more information, see Baynam, G., Broley, S., Bauskis, A., Pachter, N., McKenzie, F., Townshend, S., ... & Schofield, L. (2017). Initiating an undiagnosed diseases program in the Western Australian public health system. Orphanet Journal of Rare Diseases, 12(1), 83.

[6] UDP-WA is part of the Undiagnosed Diseases Network International (UDNI). For more information, see Baynam, G., Broley, S., Bauskis, A., Pachter, N., McKenzie, F., Townshend, S., ... & Schofield, L. (2017). Initiating an undiagnosed diseases program in the Western Australian public health system. Orphanet Journal of Rare Diseases, 12(1), 83.