Authors:Monica G. Brînzac, Marius I. Ungureanu, Mara Bumbu, Cătălin O. Baba Pages: 5 - 20 Abstract: Digital health literacy has been defined as the ‘ability to seek, find, understand, and appraise health information from electronic sources and apply the knowledge gained to address or solve a health problem’ (Norman and Skinner, 2006). Health literacy and digital health literacy are essential in order to reach universal health coverage and to reform the processes of the healthcare systems (WHO, 2018). Healthcare professionals need to treat patients in a continuous evolving structure (WHO, 2013). The research question that guided the paper is ‘How can Romanian health professionals’ digital health literacy be used to improve communication with their patients'’. The aim of the study is to explore Romanian health professionals’ level of digital literacy, to identify how it can improve the communication with the patients. 20 interviews with resident and senior medical doctors, medical students and nurses were conducted. The interviews were audio recorded, transcribed and then stored as Word documents in a password-secured environment. From the data gathered in the interviews four major themes emerged: (a) digital health literacy; (b) communication with the patients; (c) improvements for the National Health Strategy 2014-2020; (d) time as a barrier in communication. Data was analyzed using thematic analysis through the MAXQDA2018 software. DOI: 10.24193/tras.72E.1 Issue No:Vol. 20, No. 72
Authors:Mihaela Ghența, Aniela Matei Pages: 21 - 39 Abstract: Social, economic, and technological challenges have imposed transformations of the long-term care services in order to improve the system efficiency, the quality of services and the satisfaction of beneficiaries. The article aims to provide a review of the policy reforms and performance of the long-term care system in Romania. To support the effects of these transformations, a review of the scientific literature was conducted. We then highlighted characteristics of the current long-term care system that are evolving in response to the changing social and economic environment. Several issues related to the public financing, labor force, quality assurance, and unmet needs are discussed.The analysis suggests that evaluation of the long-term care system in terms of sustainability, health and quality of life of beneficiaries and their families impose a good coverage with long-term care quality services. Policy makers should ensure adequate collection of data to substantiate further policy measures, as well as full implementation of the long-term care policy. DOI: 10.24193/tras.72E.2 Issue No:Vol. 20, No. 72
Authors:Yongbeom Hur Pages: 40 - 56 Abstract: Extensive research indicates that enhancing employee satisfaction and motivation leads to improved organizational performance. Given the crucial role public managers play in delivering quality public services, ensuring their satisfaction becomes paramount. This study, based on survey data from approximately half a million U.S. federal government employees, explores the factors influencing public managers’ job satisfaction and investigates whether managerial positions moderate these effects.The findings reveal that overall job satisfaction is positively impacted by satisfaction with both intrinsic and extrinsic job aspects, irrespective of managerial status. However, the influence of intrinsic and extrinsic factors on overall job satisfaction undergoes significant changes when a public employee assumes a managerial position. DOI: 10.24193/tras.72E.3 Issue No:Vol. 20, No. 72
Authors:Hoyong Jung Pages: 57 - 77 Abstract: Municipal mergers are a common administrative reform worldwide, but their effects on public employment size and citizen satisfaction remain poorly understood. This study investigates these effects by focusing on a city-county merger in South Korea after 2000. Using the synthetic control method and multivariate regression, we find that municipal mergers increase the number of public employees, primarily low-ranking officials, while negatively impacting citizen satisfaction. This suggests that the goal of enhancing administrative efficiency through local government consolidation does not yield positive outcomes for organizations’ personnel or residents’ welfare. DOI: 10.24193/tras.72E.4 Issue No:Vol. 20, No. 72
Authors:Octavian Moldovan, Felicia Corneia Macarie, David Barnes Pages: 78 - 97 Abstract: Although multiple studies focused on the effects that the Covid-19 pandemic had on students and the strategies adopted for dealing with the effects, few authors looked at what was on the other side of the educational process – teachers. The pandemic had the same influence on teachers as it had on any other social or professional group, leading to increased levels of stress, insomnia, anxiety, uncertainty, fatigue or burnout. However, even faced with these issues, educators had to continue their activity and adapt at a moment’s notice to a different paradigm of doing their job and shift from on-site to online teaching.The current qualitative research looks at the multiple effects the public health crisis had on professors in terms of personal and professional life. The paper reviews the measures adopted by educators to adapt to online education, ranging from updates of the course Syllabuses, educational contents, new evaluation methods, video services, and educational platforms used, to communicate and motivate students or the positive and negative facets of e-learning. The interview guide also includes elements related to the future of teaching PA in the post Covid-19 era, the sustainability of online education, and the prospects of returning to the previous paradigm. The empirical research was conducted using semi-structured interviews, the respondents being educators from the Public Administration programs of Babes-Bolyai University of Cluj-Napoca, Romania. Male and female respondents (N=19) ranged from PhD students at the beginning of their teaching activity to full professors with more than two decades of experience. The lessons derived from the Covid-19 pandemic are useful for understanding how universities as a whole and professors in particular deal with the uncertainties and turbulence generated by crises, focusing on systemic and individual resilience. DOI: 10.24193/tras.72E.5 Issue No:Vol. 20, No. 72
Authors:Adriana Elena Porumboiu, Petre Brezeanu Pages: 98 - 120 Abstract: The fiscal balance is an indicator of the health of public finances and a result of the fiscal policy that differs from one state to another, even in similar macroeconomic conditions. Especially after the Covid-19 crisis which showed that governments need a more permissive fiscal space for adjustments and a good knowledge of the fiscal vulnerabilities to which they are exposed, budget deficit or surplus can be used as a tool to measure fiscal risk or fiscal security, respectively. Based on data from Eurostat and World Bank databases, our analysis concerns the current 27 European Union member states between 2000 and 2021. Our study demonstrates that general government debt, foreign direct investments, military and unemployment expenditures negatively impact the budget balance, while economic growth and pension expenditures are revealed as positive determinants of the budget balance. Considering the calculated coefficients, economic growth stands out as the most important source of competing fiscal risks and improving budget balance, proved by all the statistical methodologies employed in the study. DOI: 10.24193/tras.72E.6 Issue No:Vol. 20, No. 72
Authors:Alina Georgiana Profiroiu, Ionuț Ciprian Negoiță, Vladimir Adrian Costea, Cătălin Pîrvu Pages: 121 - 136 Abstract: This article aims to investigate the jurisprudence of the Constitutional Court regarding the public administration reform in Romania. We take into consideration the motivation of the public authorities involved in the law-making process, as well as the interpretation of the judges of the Constitutional Court concerning the legislative steps regarding the adoption of an Administrative Code, decentralization, the transfer of competences, the status of civil servants, and finally the legal regime of the newly established or reorganized institutions/authorities. The study also evaluates the steps to reform the public administration concerning the observance of the principles of constitutional loyalty, the separation of powers, the supremacy of the Constitution, and the role of the Parliament. DOI: 10.24193/tras.72E.7 Issue No:Vol. 20, No. 72
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