The study was designed to investigate the relationship between the perceptions of public elementary school principals concerning the procedures for the voluntary accreditation of elementary schools by regional accrediting associations and how acceptable the idea of voluntary accreditation was to the same principals. Section I of the survey instrument developed for the study, "Survey of Perceptions about Voluntary Elementary School Accreditation," was a request for demographic information about the respondents. Section II was designed to assess the amount of congruence between the perceptions of the principals concerning North Central Association requirements for elementary school accreditation and the actual requirements as set forth in "Policies and. Standards for the Approval of Elementary Schools." In Section III, the respondents indicated where they would place themselves on a five-point scale in regard to each of ten statements expressing positive attitudes toward the voluntary accreditation of elementary schools. The first and last statements in Section III expressed a positive attitude toward involvement in the accreditation process. The other eight of the ten statements identified benefits which might be derived from accreditation. The five-point scale ranged from "strongly disagree" at one end of the scale to "strongly agree" at the other. It was postulated that there would be a strong positive correlation between perceptions of accreditation that were congruent with the North Central Association Policies and Standards and positive attitudes toward accreditation.Other related questions were also investigated. Is the relationship between principals' perceptions of North Central Association Policies and Standards and their acceptance of voluntary accreditation related to such other factors as geographical location, school size by enrollment, age, level of teaching experience, years of experience as elementary principals, years of experience in their present assignments, educational level attained, experience in number of school corporations, or previous experience with the North Central Association?The population for the study was the 1,345 public elementary school principals in Indiana. From the population, a random sample of 273 subjects, stratified by eight geographical districts and five categories of school size, was drawn. Usable returns were received from 14.8 of the 273 subjects, 54-.2 percent of the sample.Relationships between the main variables of the study, congruency of principals' perceptions of accreditation with actual North Central Association requirements and acceptability of the concept to the subjects, were tested statistically with Pearson product moment coefficients of correlation. The relationships between the main variables and each level of the potentially monitoring variables noted above were also tested with Pearson correlation coefficients.The main hypothesis of the study, stated in null form to facilitate testing, was rejected at the .01 level of statistical significance (r = +.391 and +.380). A positive relationship not due to chance appeared to exist between the extent to which the principals' perceptions of accreditation procedures were congruent with the actual procedures defined by the North Central Association and the acceptability of voluntary accreditation to the principals. None of the other eighteen hypotheses, which were concerned with relationships between each of the main variables of congruency and acceptability with each of nine potentially monitoring variables, were rejected. A few statistically significant relationships were discovered between some levels of the variables which were investigated for monitorial relationships and the congruency and acceptability measures; but, since statistical significance did not occur consistently among the various levels of each of the potentially monitorial relationships, the null hypotheses relating to these relationships were not rejected.

Thesis (Ed.D.)--Murdoch University, 2007. / Thesis submitted to the Division of Arts. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 290-318).

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Texas Christian University, 2009. / Title from dissertation title page (viewed June 2, 2009). Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (D. Min.)--Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary, 2000. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.S.)--Medical University of Ohio, 2005. / "In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Biomedical Sciences." Major advisor: Michael J. Dennis. Includes abstract. Document formatted into pages: iii, 82 p. Title from title page of PDF document. Title at ETD Web site: A positron emission tomography (PET) system comparison utilizing the American College of Radiology accreditation phantom. Bibliography: pages 43-44.

Thesis (Ed. D.)--West Virginia University, 2005. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains viii, 658 p. : ill. (some col.). Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 270-275).

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Ohio University, June, 2001. / Title from PDF t.p.

abstract: Composition historians have increasingly recognized that local histories help test long-held theories about the development of composition in higher education. As Gretchen Flesher Moon argues, local histories complicate our notions of students, teachers, institutions, and influences and add depth and nuance to the dominant narrative of composition history. Following the call for local histories in rhetoric and composition, this study is a local history of composition at Arizona State University (ASU) from 1885-1985. This study focuses on the institutional influences that shaped writing instruction as the school changed from a normal school to teachers` college, state college, and research university during its first century in existence. Building from archival research and oral histories, this dissertation argues that four national movements in higher education--the normal school movement, the standardization and accreditation movement, the "university-status movement," and the research and tenure movement--played a formative role in the development of writing instruction at Arizona State University. This dissertation, therefore, examines the effects of these movements as they filtered into the writing curriculum at ASU. I argue that faculty and administrators` responses to these movements directly influenced the place of writing instruction in the curriculum, which consequently shaped who took writing courses and who taught them, as well as how, what, and when writing was taught. This dissertation further argues that considering ASU`s history in relation to the movements noted above has implications for composition historians attempting to understand broader developments in composition history during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Notwithstanding ASU`s unique circumstances, these movements had profound effects at institutions across the country, shaping missions, student populations, and institutional expectations. Although ASU`s local history is filled with idiosyncrasies and peculiarities that highlight the school`s distinctiveness, ASU is representative of hundreds of institutions across the country that were influenced by national education movements which are often invisible in the dominant narrative of composition history. As such, this history upholds the goal of local histories by complicating our notions of students, teachers, institutions, and influences and adding depth and nuance to our understanding of how composition developed in institutions of American higher education. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. English 2011

Human resources management, that is the management of the most valuable thing hospitals possess, is currently a much debated issue. Human resources are the key factor for success in all activities a medical facility deals with. The theoretical part provides the readers with information concerning the issue of human resources management in general; the paper focuses on individual SAK CR standards relating to human resources management. The second part is devoted to research, which took place in two stages. It was a qualitative and quantitative research. In the qualitative part, we addressed the deputy managers of nursing care from selected hospitals, with whom we had semi-structured interviews. The questions for the interviews were based on the SAK CR standard on human resources management. Ritchie and Spencer framework analysis was used for processing the qualitative data. After processing the talks, the quantitative part of the research was prepared. We defined hypotheses; we developed a questionnaire for nurses working in the above-mentioned hospitals for the verification of the hypotheses. The entire survey was carried out in January - March 2010. The main objective of the survey was to map the compliance with the SAK CR standards in human resources management of nursing care in the selected hospitals. Based on the master objective, we identified seven sub-goals: 1. To determine whether the hospitals define the number of qualified staff needed to ensure adequate nursing care for their patients and a plan to develop the qualifications of the nursing staff. 2. To determine whether the hospital keep individual files for each member of their nursing. 3. To map whether the hospitals have a job description for each nursing care worker corresponding to their qualifications. 4. To determine whether nursing care workers are trained with respect to their positions at the beginning. 5. To map whether the hospitals define clearly general competences for nurses. 6. To determine whether the hospitals carry out training of their nursing staff on OSH. 7. To map whether the hospitals monitor in an appropriate form the satisfaction of their nursing staff. All the objectives of the paper have been met. Hypotheses H1: The hospitals plan a sufficient number of qualified nursing staff, H2: the nursing staff is enabled continuous training for skills upgrading, H4: Each nursing care worker knows their job description their corresponds to their qualification, H5: The nurses are familiar with the aspects of the adaptation process of new employees, H6: The nursing staff knows the determined scope of their competence, H7: The hospitals carry out the training of their nursing staff in OSH, and H8: The employees are free to express their views on satisfaction with their jobs at least once a year, have been confirmed. The nurses believe that the number of nursing staff in their departments is sufficient; they have the opportunity to participate in lifelong learning but they must bear the expenses themselves. Nurses know their job description and they observe it and they know the scope of their competences as well. The nurses have information about the existence, duration and method of completing the adaptation process of new employees. The nurses confirmed that regularly participate in OSH training, and they have an opportunity to express their satisfaction with the job at least once a year. Only one hypothesis, H3: Each member of the nursing team has some knowledge about their personal file, has not been confirmed. The nurses are unaware of the documents contained in their personal files, and they do not know where their personal files are stored. This paper may be useful to members of nursing teams who would like to learn more about the issue of human resources management with regard to the SAK CR standard.

Magister Public Health - MPH / Breastfeeding impacts on the health of both the mother and infant and has been noted as being influenced by physiological, physical, socio-economic and environmental factors. The undisputed benefit of exclusive breastfeeding for both the mother and child has led to the global prioritisation of the promotion, protection and support of breastfeeding with the adoption of the Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative (BFHI) strategy. Baby Friendly Hospital (BFH) status is awarded to a maternity unit when they are found to be complying with set criteria Ten Steps to successful Breastfeeding. South Africa has implemented a re-evaluation system for retention of accreditation status, by reassessing accredited facilities every three years. The respective provinces are tasked with monitoring the implementation of BFHI in their public health facilities. Internal monitoring reports, completed by the Western Cape Provincial Department of Health, reflect erosion of key steps between national reassessments. Aim: To describe the experiences, challenges and successes of BFHI implementation in the BFH accredited facilities in the Cape Town geographical health district. Methodology: An explorative qualitative study was conducted. One key informant interview, ten in-depth interviews with champions for BFHI in the maternity facilities and two focus group discussions with frontline staff working at these facilities were used to collect data. The data was analysed using thematic content analysis to identify the main themes related to the successes and challenges experienced with the maintenance of the required practices related to BFHI accreditation. Results: Participants reported that the implementation of the BFHI impacted positively on the health of both mothers and infants. Fewer children were being admitted for common childhood illnesses such as diarrhoea subsequent  to BFHI implementation. Mothers were recovering more quickly after delivery and less complications related to delivery, such as postpartum bleeding, were observed after the implementation of BFHI. BFHI implementation had a positive impact on the attitudes of maternity staff to breastfeeding promotion, protection and support. Subsequent to being awarded BFH status, facilities are tasked with maintaining the implemented practices. Challenges to maintaining the practices included lack of implementation of BFHI practices at clinics, lack of support from facility managers and support staff such as counsellors. The internal assessments implemented as supportive monitoring structures are considered by participants to be a demotivating process and concerns were raised about non nursing staff assessing nursing practices. Conclusion: The potential impact of this strategy on infant and maternal health must be realized by the implementers of BFHI, before the strategized aim is achieved. Co-ordination and support by all role players is vital to the success and elimination of challenges experienced with implementation and maintenance of the BFH strategy. / South Africa