The research analysis shows that children in mainstream schools suffered from psychological deterioration (aggressive behaviour, depressive moods, despair about academic underachievement, etc.) when governments implemented measures to manage the COVID-19 pandemic, and children’s education took place remotely for a significant period. This was caused by the lack of social contact, which in turn contributed to the lack of knowledge in individual subjects, a deterioration in physical condition (spinal problems, visual impairment, insufficient muscle development), and the development of specific illnesses related to low physical activity. The research aims to identify the factors of distance learning that may affect student learning achievements. The research methods included an analysis of the scientific literature, and document and content analysis. A summary of the research findings found that the COVID-19 school quarantine had adverse effects on the students’ knowledge, social skills, socialisation, and psychological and physical health. It also caused macro- and micro-economic problems. In summary, the research demonstrated that distance education resulted in a decline in the students’ achievements and knowledge, miscommunication with their peers and conflict situations. Because of that, there are health-related concerns and additional financial challenges for parents and educational institutions organising distance education. Households also experienced additional expenditure on the infrastructure necessary for distance learning and tutoring services.

The analysis of the concept of human capital shows that this form of capital includes a set of different components that are used in economic activities and generates different kind of benefits. Health is one of the main components of human capital. Hence, considering its importance authors of this article tried to investigate the impact of public health expenditure on the health component of human capital. Ordinary least square, fixed and random effects panel data models for 28 European Union countries were used to reach this purpose. The main variables used in this study is life expectancy at birth (related to the health component of human capital) and general government health expenditure. It is known that there are other factors affecting health and human capital in general. Hence variables such as GDP grow, GINI coefficient, education level, alcohol consumption, old age dependency and urbanization rate were added in the models as explanatory variables. The results of the performed study show that public health expenditure has a positive and significant impact on the improvements of life expectancy. Selected fixed-effects panel data models also show significant and positive effects of the GDP growth, old age dependency while a negative effect is identified by alcohol consumption. The existing close relationship between health and education also is confirmed by this study. Results suggest that higher education level is positively and significantly related to life expectancy while a lower education has a negative impact on life expectancy.

A skilled, competent, and motivated nursing workforce is crucial for a well-functioning health care system. Nurses’ professional activities done on a regular basis, their workload, and occupancy are related to the patient’s health status, dependence level and care needs. Therefore, managing human resources in nursing by effectively distributing nurses’ working time and monitoring their workload for safe and high quality care, managers should rely on the severity of patients’ health status and their independence level. In this article the results on how nurses’ working time depends on patients’ independence are provided. The research was carried out at a regional hospital, in departments of medical profile. The time-and-motion study was implemented with 72 observations made in total, which amounted to 777.2 hours of nursing time. A questionnaire was used to assess the level of patients’ independence by assessing the four activities of the patient’s daily living. The results revealed that the largest amount of nurses’ working time, i.e. almost half of a day’s shift, was spent on direct patient care by administrating medication use and performing various nursing procedures. Nurses would spend almost half of the time for direct patient care on completely dependent patients, while one third would be spent on dependent patients. The relative number of nurses’ contacts with a patient is directly proportional to patient’s level of independence; a strong or fairly strong linear relationship was established betweenn the level of patients’ independence and the relative amount of nurses’ working time. Keyword : nursing human resource management, nurses’ working time, workload management, patients’ classification systems, patient’s independence level This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

The paper aims to define the top of the crucial transversal competences for non-routine tasks in case of SMEs managers. The paper provides better perception of the content of transversal competences that are urgent for solving non-routine tasks. The article also introduces the results of the empirical research that has been performed in Lithuania, Italy, Austria, Sweden, Bulgaria, France and the United Kingdom. The empirical research has been performed while implementing Life Long Learning program Leonardo da Vinci Innovation transfer project “New non-routine skills via mobile game-based learning” (No. 509893-LLP-1-2010-1-SE-LEONARDO-LMP). 62 respondents from European SMEs whose activities are related to business services have been interviewed. Top 10 transversal competences for competitiveness have been indicated and grouped according to each country. The research indicated that competences urgent for managing non-routine tasks in fast-changing environment consist of two blocks: (1) competences required for process managing and (2) competences required for partnership and self-managing. There are cases related to the argumentation of the competences’ importance presented in the paper. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.em.19.1.5485