Fadzli Baharom

According to Granovetter, weak ties link individuals to other social circles that place them in strategic positions to gain access to job information and opportunities otherwise not available in their innate networks. This paper affirms that weak ties, as a form of social capital, matter and that they assist in explaining variations in status attainment between ethnic groups in Singapore. I show that access to weak ties affects status attainment differently across ethnic groups and that the Malay’s weaker performance in the labour market is partly due to their lower access to weak ties. This paper would be of interest to scholars concerned with the intertwining of social stratification with social capital and ethnicity.

The interprofessional team meeting is a model of care in which members of the interprofessional team come together with their individual expertise to provide holistic care for the patient. Additionally, interprofessional team meetings serve as a platform for continuing interprofessional education as healthcare professionals come together to learn with, from, and about each other to enhance collaboration and patient care. Utilizing the transactive memory system (TMS) framework, this paper aims to demonstrate the utility of TMS as a measure of interprofessional collaborative practice based on a pilot study in an interprofessional geriatrics team. Questionnaires were administered to 78 members who regularly participated in the interprofessional team meetings. The quality of perceived TMS was measured by the cumulative scores on two previously validated scales. Logistic regression analyses revealed that TMS was a significant predictor of satisfaction with interprofessional team meeting experience and clinical work, whereas TMS scores significantly increased with greater number of interprofessional team meetings attended. Reliability analysis indicated high internal consistency while in factor analysis, each scale was predicated on a dual factor structure instead of the original tri-dimensional structure. Our results indicate the novel use of TMS as a valid and reliable measure of interprofessional collaborative practice. Implications for the role of TMS in continuous interprofessional education, collaborative practice, and patient care are also presented.

Applying Bourdieu’s theoretical framework on the correspondence between mental structures and social structures, this paper examines the persistence of educational underachievement among working class Malay youths in Singapore. Accordingly, my first objective is to document the social structure, namely a largely working class neighbourhood where these Malay youths have grown up. My second aim is to analyse how everyday cultural practices and interactions among peers in the neighbourhood significantly reinforced these youths’ levelled aspirations. I maintain that by believing in ‘taking the gravel road’, which is symbolically rough, uneven and uncertain, these youths justified the irrelevance of doing well in school. Succinctly, this essay demonstrates the close correspondence between the perceptions of the odds of success and the educational underperformance of the Malay youths. Hence, this paper would be of interest to scholars in the Malay Peninsula, as well as experts concerned w...

According to Granovetter, weak ties link individuals to other social circles that place them in strategic positions to gain access to job information and opportunities otherwise not available in their innate networks. This paper affirms that weak ties, as a form of social capital, matter and that they assist in explaining variations in status attainment between ethnic groups in Singapore. I show that access to weak ties affects status attainment differently across ethnic groups and that the Malay’s weaker performance in the labour market is partly due to their lower access to weak ties. This paper would be of interest to scholars concerned with the intertwining of social stratification with social capital and ethnicity.

The interprofessional team meeting is a model of care in which members of the interprofessional team come together with their individual expertise to provide holistic care for the patient. Additionally, interprofessional team meetings serve as a platform for continuing interprofessional education as healthcare professionals come together to learn with, from, and about each other to enhance collaboration and patient care. Utilizing the transactive memory system (TMS) framework, this paper aims to demonstrate the utility of TMS as a measure of interprofessional collaborative practice based on a pilot study in an interprofessional geriatrics team. Questionnaires were administered to 78 members who regularly participated in the interprofessional team meetings. The quality of perceived TMS was measured by the cumulative scores on two previously validated scales. Logistic regression analyses revealed that TMS was a significant predictor of satisfaction with interprofessional team meeting experience and clinical work, whereas TMS scores significantly increased with greater number of interprofessional team meetings attended. Reliability analysis indicated high internal consistency while in factor analysis, each scale was predicated on a dual factor structure instead of the original tri-dimensional structure. Our results indicate the novel use of TMS as a valid and reliable measure of interprofessional collaborative practice. Implications for the role of TMS in continuous interprofessional education, collaborative practice, and patient care are also presented.

Applying Bourdieu's theoretical framework on the correspondence between mental structures and social structures, this paper examines the persistence of educational underachievement among working class Malay youths in Singapore. Accordingly, my first objective is to document the social structure, namely a largely working class neighbourhood where these Malay youths have grown up. My second aim is to analyse how everyday cultural practices and interactions among peers in the neighbourhood significantly reinforced these youths' levelled aspirations. I maintain that by believing in `taking the gravel road', which is symbolically rough, uneven and uncertain, these youths justified the irrelevance of doing well in school. Succinctly, this essay demonstrates the close correspondence between the perceptions of the odds of success and the educational underperformance of the Malay youths. Hence, this paper would be of interest to scholars in the Malay Peninsula, as well as experts concerned with the intertwining of education with class and ethnicity.

Applying Granovetter's theoretical framework on the strength of weak ties, this thesis examines how ethnic inequality in the Singaporean labour market has been formed due to deficits in weak ties, specifically in ethnic minorities. Accordingly, using the World Values Survey (WVS) data set on Singapore in 2002, my first objective is to document categorical differences among ethnic groups in terms of their socioeconomic status. I will show that these differences correspond with variations in their frequency of interaction with weak ties and their membership in social organizations. By employing correlation and multinomial regression analyses, my second aim is to test the impact of weak ties in achieving occupational success and whether it varies across ethnic groups. I maintain that weak ties matter significantly after controlling for human capital and assist in explicating the variations in status attainment process among ethnic groups in Singapore. Succinctly, this essay demonstrates the close correspondence between the access to weak ties and ethnic inequalities in the labour market. Hence, this paper would be of interest to scholars concerned with the intertwining of social stratification with social capital and ethnicity.

"Background & Hypothesis:
Clinical rotations represent a critical transition from  lecture-based to patient-based learning. Although different learning environments might suggest that dispositions and behaviours expected out of medical students could be different, this issue has received little attention in the literature. This study
explored students’ clinical experiences in adapting to the rarely articulated expectations of healthcare workers.

Methods:
We interviewed doctors (n = 12) and nurses (n = 8) of varying levels of seniority who interacted with students regularly in a public hospital in Singapore, and third-year medical students (n = 12) doing their final rotations there.

Results:
Students’ expectations of learning, which were shaped by their pre-clinical interactions, were sometimes at odds with the healthcare workers’ expectations. Through initial struggles, students discovered the need to overcome fears in their interactions and be self-directed in learning in an intense clinical environment. These dispositions and behaviors were manifested in the form students described as “being thick-skinned” in their desire to learn.

Discussion & Conclusion:
“Good medical students,” as perceived by healthcare workers, are those who successfully balance their academic workload and adapt to the demands of the clinical environment. The struggles these students faced resonated with Bourdieu’s concept of habitus. Habitus is a set of dispositions and practices that are influenced by interactions in the environment. For these students, the transition from the educational to clinical environment gave rise to a habitus of “being thick-skinned.” This study has shown the importance of habitus in understanding students’ learning and professional socialisation. Further attention is needed to examine how “being thick-skinned” guides students in their future
actions.

FADZLI BAHAROM ADZAHAR, ISSAC LIM, LOIS
HONG, ABEL CHEN, BENJAMIN DING, KEITH TAN,
National Healthcare Group HQ, National University of Singapore"

"Background & Hypothesis:
Transactive memory system (TMS) describes a system where group members rely on one another to attain, accumulate and communicate information from different knowledge areas of expertise. Studies affirmed that TMS is related to positive team outcomes. This study aims to explore TMS within the context of multidisciplinary rounds (MDRs) in an acute geriatrics ward by studying the dimensions of 2 validated scales of TMS.

Methods:
We studied members of the geriatrics multidisciplinary team (n = 78) who have participated in MDRs. Lewis’(2003) 15-item scale measured 3 dimensions of TMS behavior while Faraj’s (2000) 11-item scale measured 3 dimensions of expertise coordination. We performed principal component analysis (PCA) with varimax rotation to determine the factor structure of both scales. The optimal number of factors was determined by parallel analysis.

Results:
Factor analysis was appropriate (Lewis: KMO = 0.803, Bartlet t = 355.39, P <0.001; Faraj: KMO = 0.791, Bartlett = 325.72, P <0.001). As opposed to the conventional tri-dimensional structure of both scales, we identified an optimal 2-factor structure instead. The Lewis scale comprised the dimensions of teamwork and team functioning, while the Faraj scale highlighted team culture and team knowledge. A higher percentage of variance was explained by Faraj (55%) compared to Lewis (45%). Both scales exhibited a high degree of internal reliability (Cronbach’s α = 0.84).

Discussion & Conclusion:
Our study demonstrates the viability of TMS in MDRs within an acute geriatrics setting that is predicated on the 2 core components of knowledge resource and team processes. Future studies are needed to study the applicability of TMS in other settings and its relation to team outcomes."

FADZLI BAHAROM, KT TAN, MPC CHAN, I LIM, WS LIM
National Healthcare Group HQ, Tan Tock Seng Hospital,