Remote usability evaluation is a usability evaluation method (UEM) where the experimenter, performing observation and analysis, is separated in space and/or time from the user. There are several approaches by which to implement remote evaluation, limited only by the availability of supporting technology. One such implementation method is RECITE (the REmote Critical Incident TEchnique), an adaptation of the user-reported critical incident technique developed by Castillo (1997). This technique requires that trained users, working in their normal work environment, identify and report critical incidents. Critical incidents are interactions with a system feature that prove to be particularly easy or difficult, leading to extremely good or extremely poor performance. Critical incident reports are submitted to the experimenter using an on-line reporting tool, who is responsible for their compilation into a list of usability problems. Support for this approach to remote evaluation has been reported (Hartson, H.R., Castillo, J.C., Kelso, J., and Neale, W.C., 1996; Castillo, 1997). The purpose of this study was to quantitatively assess the effectiveness of RECITE with respect to traditional, laboratory-based applications of the critical incident technique. A 3x2x 5 mixed-factor experimental design was used to compare the frequency and severity ratings of critical incidents reported by remote versus laboratory-based users. Frequency was measured according to the number of critical incident reports submitted and severity was rated along four dimensions: task frequency, impact on task performance, impact on satisfaction, and error severity. This study also compared critical incident data reported by trained users versus by usability experts observing end-users. Finally, changes in critical incident data reported over time were evaluated. In total, 365 critical incident reports were submitted, containing 117 unique usability problems and 50 usability success descriptions. Critical incidents were classified using the Usability Problem Inspector (UPI). A higher number of web-based critical incidents occurred during Planning than expected. The distribution of voice-based critical incidents differed among participant groups: users reported a greater than expected number of Planning incidents while experts reported fewer than expected Assessment incidents. Usability expert performance was not correlated, requiring that separate analyses be conducted for each expert data set. Support for the effectiveness in applying critical incidents to remote usability was demonstrated, with all research hypotheses at least partially supported. Usability experts gave significantly different ratings of impact on task performance than did user reporters. Remote user performance versus laboratory-based users failed to reveal differences in all but one measure: laboratory-based users reported more positive critical incidents for the voice interface than did remote users. In general, the number of negative critical incidents decreased over time; a similar result did not apply to the number of positive critical incidents. It was concluded that RECITE is an effective means of capturing problem-oriented data over time. Recommendations for its use as a formative evaluation method applied during the latter stages of product development (i.e. when a high fidelity prototype is available) are made. Opportunities for future research are identified. / Master of Science

This study was designed to determine the ability of the Critical Incident Technique (CIT) to advise changes to training regiments offered to Resident Advisers (RAs). The CIT was devised as a tool in the field of organizational psychology. Its purpose is to assist in analyzing the success of individual team members by examining the self-reported occurrence of incidents on the job, which are deemed critical. The Critical Incident Technique has been implemented with success in business and military applications. This powerful tool allows researchers to make valuable observations about the realities faced by individuals on the job. These observations make it possible to devise and improve existing training methods capitalizing on these realities. Data for this study came from an examination of incident reports (IRs). RAs generate IRs in response to different kinds of issues faced working with resident college students. Three regional institutions agreed to participate in this study and helped to diversify the data collected. This study addresses the following questions: What are the critical incidents RAs experience most often on the job? Is there a difference between the critical incident types reported in residence halls by institutional type? Is there a difference between the critical incident types reported by hall types? Is there a difference between the critical incident types reported by gender? What implications do the findings have for future RA training? Four types of demographic information were collected from the IRs: institution type (large public, midsize public, and small private), hall type (male, female, or coed), RA gender, and incident type. Conducting a survey of the literature concerning RA training and the CIT, generated five general categories of incidents on which RAs report. Crisis situations Policy enforcement Facilities management Administrative procedures Advising Specific measures including coding, and excision of sensitive information (such as sexual assaults sexual identity situations) from documents were used to protect the confidentiality and anonymity of the parties involved. When data collection was complete, a chi-squared test of significance was used to examine the relationships between the incident types reported and each of the other three variables (gender, institution type, and hall type). After analyzing the data using the statistical research methods described above, it was possible to make recommendations for future RA training. This study examines the impact of institutional environment, department philosophy, and personal bias on the training of RAs. The results suggest that each of these factors influences the success of RAs, and defines the environments in which resident students live. / Master of Arts

How to best conduct a mentoring relationship has been confounded by the lack of a consistent definition of “mentoring” and the scarcity of studies addressing how to achieve a positive outcome. This study contributes new, operationalized definitions of “mentoring,” “mentor,” and “protégé,” and a modified version of the Critical Incident Technique and the Enhanced Critical Incident Technique, called the Adapted Critical Incident Technique (ACIT), which is more consistent with a qualitative methodology. The researcher interviewed 18 self-described mentors and protégés to obtain 207 quotes about what critical behaviours helped or hindered mentoring relationship outcomes. Independent judges confirmed the placement of quotes into 13 categories of behaviours that helped mentors and protégés to reach the mentoring goals and 10 categories of behaviours that hindered the mentoring outcome. The findings contribute to an increased understanding of the foundation upon which mentors and protégés in all fields may potentially build better programs and training under the guise of mentorship. / Graduate / 2018-12-01

Bakgrund: Sjuksköterskor driver självständigt egna mottagningar inom primärvården. Det bidrar till ökad livskvalité och hälsa för patienter. När en sjuksköterskeledd mottagning ställs in kan såväl patientens situation som sjuksköterskans arbetssituation påverkas. Det var därför angeläget att undersöka hur sjuksköterskor erfar och hanterar när sjuksköterskeledd mottagning ställs in.    Syfte: Syftet var att beskriva hur sjuksköterskor erfar och hanterar kritiska incidenter vid inställd sjuksköterskeledd mottagning inom primärvården.    Metod: En kvalitativ studie med Critical Incident Technique (CIT) genomfördes med induktiv ansats där 28 sjuksköterskor som är yrkesverksamma inom primärvården i Region Skåne besvarade utformat frågeformulär.    Resultat: Sjuksköterskorna erfor att inställda sjuksköterskeledda mottagningar skapade merarbete. De beskrev stress, irritation, ilska men även till viss del förståelse. Inställd sjuksköterskeledd mottagning drabbade inte bara patienterna utan även deras anhöriga samt sjuksköterskestudenter. Sjuksköterskorna hanterade inställd sjuksköterskeledd mottagning genom att de prioriterade sitt arbete och att de använde sin yrkeserfarenhet för att lösa situationen. De anpassade sig till underbemanningen och lyfte detta i arbetsgruppen för att förbättra arbetsmiljön.   Slutsats: Region Skåne hade arbetsvilliga och kompetenta sjuksköterskor. När sjuksköterskeledd mottagning ställdes in fick patienterna minskad kontinuitet och ibland fördröjd diagnossättning. Detta berodde till stor del på underbemanning inom primärvården och arbetsgivaren kunde inte ge den arbetsmiljö som sjuksköterskorna behövde. / Background: Nurses independently run their own clinics within primary care. It contributes to increased lifequality and health for patients. When a nurse-led clinical appointments is cancelled, both the patient situation and the nurse's work situation can be affected. Therefore, important to investigate how nurses experience and manage when nurse-led clinical appointments are cancelled. Purpose: The purpose was to describe how nurses experience and handle critical incidents during cancelled nurse-led clinical appointments in primary care.       Method: A qualitative study with the Critical Incident Technique (CIT) was carried out with an inductive approach where 28 nurses who are professionals in primary care in Region Skåne answered a designed questionnaire.   Results: The nurses' experience of cancelled nurse-led clinical appointments was that it created extra work. They described stress, irritation, anger but also to some extent understanding. Cancelled nurse-led appointments affected not only the patients but also their relatives and nursingstudents. The nurses managed cancelled nurse-led appointments by prioritizing their work and using their professional experience to resolve the situation. They adapted to the understaffing and raised this in the work group to improve the work environment.     Conclusion: Region Skåne had willing and competent nurses. When nurse-led clinical appointments were cancelled, patients experienced reduced continuity and sometimes delayed diagnosis. This was largely due to understaffing in primary care and the employer could not provide the working environment that the nurses needed.

Bakgrund: Vetenskapliga artiklar visar att patienter som får stroke under sin sjukhusvistelse får sämre omhändertagande än strokepatienter som direktinläggs. Litteraturen visar även att det behövs mer kunskap om vilka förbättringar som kan behöva göras för att få en säker, kunskapsbaserad och effektiv stroke sjukvård. Syfte: Studiens syfte är att identifiera händelser som har varit kritiska i omhändertagandet av inneliggande patienter som insjuknar i stroke. Metod: CIT (Critical Incident Technique) har använts som datainsamlingsmetod, denna har använts inom flygvapnet men har på senare tid fått större användning i bl. a hälso- och sjukvården. Kvalitativ innehållsanalys enligt Burnard (1996) ligger till grund för bearbetning av materialet. Analysen utgick ifrån 10 intervjuer med sjuksköterskor som har erfarenhet av patienter som insjuknat i stroke på vårdavdelning. Intervjuer är genomförda på 5 (fem) olika typer av avdelningar inom Sahlgrenska sjukhuset under våren 2016. Resultat: Kritiska händelser förekommer i samband med omhändertagande inom alla delar av vården av patienter som insjuknar i stroke under sin sjukhusvistelse. Övergripande kategorier är: oförutsedd händelse, bristande resurser riskerar patientsäkerheten och specialistvårdens baksida/organisatoriska hinder. Kategorierna identifieras inom mikro-, meso- och makrosystem för sig samtidigt som de interagerar mellan de olika systemen. Slutsatser: Tillgång till aktuella mätningar är viktig för att få en överblick över det aktuella läget för inneliggande strokepatienter i form av antal och var de inträffar. Studien visar att det finns ett stort behov av en välfungerande strokekedja för inneliggande strokepatienter och att det finns genomförda projekt i USA som kan vara till hjälp för framtida förbättringar i stroke vården. Det är även viktigt att lägga fokus kommunikation och information till anhöriga. / Background: Scientific articles has shown that patients that have had a stroke during their hospitalization receive lesser degree of care, than patients that has been admitted with a stroke. Literature has shown we need more knowledge how to improve stroke care to get a secure, knowledge based and effective stroke care in hospitals. Aim: The study aims to identify the events that have been critical in the management of hospitalized patients who suffer a stroke. Method: CIT has been used as a data collection method to bring in information, it has been used in the airforce and more recently has been used more widely in national healthcare. Qualitative contents analysis, according to Burnard (1996), gives basis for analyzing the material. The analysis was based on 10 interviews with nurses who have experience of patients diagnosed with stroke during hospitalization. Interviews were conducted at 5 (five) different departments within the Sahlgrenska Hospital in spring 2016. Result: Critical events occur in connection with care in all parts of the care of in-hospital patients who suffer a stroke. Overall categories: unexpected event, the safety of patients affected by department resources and the backside of specialist care. The categories identified in the micro, meso and macro systems are interacting between the different systems. Conclusion: Access to current measurements is important to get an overview of the current state of in-hospital stroke patients in the form of numbers and where they occur. The study shows that there is a great need for a well-functioning stroke chain for in-hospital stroke patients and that there are implemented projects in the US that could be helpful for future improvements in stroke care. It is also important to focus on communication and information to relatives.

Syftet: Syftet med studien var att beskriva hur omvårdnadspersonal inom kommunens särskilda boende och korttidsboende upplever att vårda personer i livets slutskede.Metod: Studien bygger på åtta kvalitativa intervjuer med undersköterskor. Datainsamlingsmetoden baserades på Critical Incident Technique och som analysmetod användes kvalitativ innehållsanalys. Resultat: I intervjuerna framkom att samarbetet till de övriga i teamet och närstående hade en stor och avgörande betydelse för hur vården utvecklades. Omvårdnadspersonalen kände ibland att sjuksköterskan saknades i vissa omvårdnadssituationer. Fördelning av personal under dygnet bidrog till kontinuitet i samverkan. De upplevde att olika faktorer i miljön kunde vara både till hjälp eller till hinder i samspelet till den döende och närstående. De intervjuade talade också om vikten av att respektera patientens vilja. Omvårdnadspersonalen gav även stöd till de närstående och de kom familjerna nära. De upplevde att närvaro utan krav och stress var av betydelse för interaktionen till den döende och dess närstående. Det var viktigt att både den döende och de närstående var tillfreds med symtomlindringen. Det var viktigt att få ge ett värdigt omhändertagande efter döden. Slutsats: Det genomgåendet temat visade att interaktion och samverkan med vårdteamet, närstående och patienten var av avgörande betydelseför hur vården i livets slut skulle bli trygg och värdig. / Aim: The aim of this study was to describe how the nursing staff within themunicipality's special housing and short term care perceived their caring forpatients receiving palliative care.Method: The study is based on eight interviews with enrolled nurses. The datacollection method was based on the Critical Incident Technique. The analysis ofinterviews was carried out with qualitative content analysis.Result: Cooperation between the care team and the relatives had a great andsignificant impact on how care was delivered. At times the nursing staff felt thatthe nurse was not present during various nursing interventions. Distribution ofstaff during the day contributed to the continuity of the interaction. The enrollednurses expressed that different environmental factors were either helpful orobstacles in the interaction between the dying person and their relatives. Theenrolled nurses illuminated the importance of respecting the patient's wishes. Thenursing staff provided the families with support which contributed to a feeling ofcloseness. Furthermore, the enrolled nurses felt that their presence withoutdemands and stress were significant in the interaction between the dying personand their family. It was important that the dying patient and their families weresatisfied with symptom control. It was significant to provide a dignified treatmentafter death.Conclusion: The overall theme was that the nursing staff perceived that interactionand collaboration between the care team, family and the patient was of significantimportance for a secure and dignified end of life care.

För att handha patienter drabbade av akut stroke finns inom Region Gävleborg en rutin kallad Rädda hjärnan. Siffror från kvalitetsregistret Riksstroke visade att det på Gävle sjukhus tog längre tid till livsavgörande behandling än genomsnittligt i Sverige. Orsaken var okänd.   Ett förbättringsarbete inleddes enligt Vanguard metoden, som stipulerar att systemet måste granskas innan förändringar kan testas. Det uppdagades att patienterna ofta handhas av läkare under upplärning och att trombolysbehandlingen kunde tidigareläggas i flödet. En studie genomfördes samtidigt med critical incident technique (CIT). Sex intervjuer och fyra observationer utfördes kring personalens agerande och upplevelser.   Syftet med förbättringsarbetet var att förändra rutinen för att göra tiden till trombolys så kort som möjligt samt att höja kompetensen i två steg. Syftet med studien var att finna kritiska händelser som påverkar patienternas väg mot behandling.   Resultatet av förbättringsarbetet visar att det skett en förändring kring kompetensen i läkargruppen som handhade rädda hjärnan flöden. En ny rutin hann delvis införas, men arbetet pausades på grund av den världsomspännande Covid-19 pandemin. Delaktighet och samverkan över klinikgränser var avgörande för att åstadkomma förändring. Studien fann 123 kritiska händelser som påverkade patientens väg mot behandling, vilka bekräftade nyttan av förbättringsarbetets intentioner, samt fann ytterligare förslag till förändringar. / To treat patients suffering from acute stroke, there is a routine in the Gävleborg Region called Save the Brain. However, data showed that the time to life-decisive treatment was longer than average in Sweden. The cause was unknown.   An improvement project was initiated according to the Vanguard method. It was discovered that patients were often handled by physicians during training and that thrombolysis could be moved to the X-ray department. A study was conducted simultaneously using the critical incident technique (CIT), consisting of six interviews and four observations.   The purpose of the improvement work was to implement a new routine and to increase competence in two steps. The purpose of the study was to find critical events that affect patients' path to treatment.   The result showed that there had been a change in the competence of the medical team that handles the patient. A new routine was partially introduced, the work was paused due to a worldwide pandemic. Participation and collaboration across clinic boundaries were crucial in bringing about change. The study found 123 critical events that affected the patient's path to treatment. They confirmed the intentions of the project, and at the same time found new suggestions for change.

<p>Syftet med denna uppsats är att analysera hur tjänstekvalité inom B2B kan utvärderas samt att analysera om ViewsCapture, en frågeteknik med öppna frågor där respondenten själv kategoriserar sina egna kommentarer, kan tillföra något till befintliga metoder. Vidare avses att koppla samman utvärderingsmetoder med de olika syften företag har för att mäta kvalité.</p><p>Uppsatsen byggs upp av en omfattande litteraturstudie om vad tjänster och tjänstekvalité är, samt varför det är viktigt att utvärdera tjänstekvalité inom B2B. De utvärderingsmetoder som beskrivs i uppsatsen är dels attributbaserade och dels händelsebaserade metoder. Empiridelen består av material från Unified Dialogs AB som har utvecklat frågetekniken ViewsCapture som sedan analyseras tillsammans med befintliga metoder.</p><p>Undersökningen visar att tjänstekvalité handlar om att infria de förväntningar kunden har på en tjänst. Om kunderna skiljer sig signifikant ifrån varandra faller det sig naturligt att mer kvalitativa och mindre standardiserade metoder bör passa bättre. Det beror på att varje kund är unik och tillvägagångssättet många gånger inte är standardiserat, därför är det svårare att på förhand generalisera kring vad företagets kunder finner problematiskt. Genom användning av ViewsCaptures frågeteknik med öppna frågor skapas förutsättningar för att vidareutveckla de befintliga mätmetoderna i syfte att bättre tjäna företags och forskares syften för mätningen. Detta görs exempelvis genom att inhämtning av djupare information från attributbaserade mätmetoder möjliggörs samt att analys av de öppna svaren från en händelsebaserad metod underlättas.</p>

A significant amount of research in the field of small business management has correlated small firm performance with the sophistication of overall management skills (see, for example, Gasse, 1997; Gadenne, 1998; Zinger, leBrasseur and Zannibi, 2001; Balderson, 2003) and more particularly problem solving skills. Yet, even though problem solving skills are at the core of the small business management process (Jennings and Beaver, 1997), there has been little research to date that has focused on understanding the actual approach small business owner-managers take to solve the problems they encounter as the present study has done, through the utilization of an interpretive research design applied to a sample of small firms. The primary purpose of this exploratory study is to investigate the nature of problem solving practices adopted by 11 small business owner-managers on Central Vancouver Island, Canada, by identifying the types of problems encountered in the years following their establishment, the actions taken to solve these problems and the outcomes of these actions for the firm. It examines the characteristics of the problemm solving approaches utilized by owner-managers as they encountered problems, and identifies how they perceived the impact of the approach taken on the continued survival of their firm. The methodological approach taken in this study is positioned within an emergent body of research in the field of small business and entrepreneurship that applies an interpretive paradigm to uncover the complex facets of how individuals develop their capabilities and management practices (Chell and Allman, 2003) with a particular emphasis on the small business owner-manager. The interpretive assumptions guiding the research process have allowed new understandings to emerge about problem solving in small firms within the wider context of managerial capability as a critical contributor to small business survival. More specifically, the critical incident technique method (Flanagan, 1954; Chell, 1998), along with an approach to data analysis and coding that draws from grounded theory (Glaser, 1992; Glaser and Strauss, 1999; Strauss and Corbin, 1998), are combined and applied as a qualitative research strategy. This strategy has not previously been used in relation to the study of problem solving in small firms. This interpretive paradigm allows the exploration of how small business owner-managers attach meaning to their subjective experiences and the implications of these perceptions for the business outcomes of the firm, specifically as they relate to solving critical business problems. As a result, the interpretive methods applied in the course of this study make a novel contribution to the field, since they have yielded new interpretations on the nature of problem solving processes in the sample of small firms studied. The findings presented here reveal the intuitive, improvised and non-linear nature of how problems are actually solved in these small firms, in contrast to a number of well-known theoretical research frameworks that propose well-defined and delineated steps in the problem solving process. The results of this study make a valuable contribution to building new theory in this area of inquiry by demonstrating how more dynamic processes occur in practice. An alternative way to conceptualize problem solving in small firms is presented in Chapter 6, A Holistic Framework for Problem Solving in Small Firms.

Introduktion: En patient som genomgår en operation har många behov. De vaknar upp i en ny främmande miljö där sjuksköterskan ansvarar för att säkerställa patientens mående. Sverige är idag ett mångkulturellt samhälle med människor med olika bakgrund och språk. Studier visar att språkbrister i vårdmötet mellan sjuksköterska och patient leder till ett sämre omhändertagande och minskar patientsäkerheten. Syfte: Syftet med studien var att identifiera strategier hos specialistsjuksköterskor vid omhändertagande av patienter med annat språk än svenska eller engelska på en postoperativ avdelning. Metod: Studien genomfördes med en kvalitativ, icke-experimentell deskriptiv design. Femton semi-strukturerade intervjuer genomfördes. All insamlad data analyserades med hjälp av Critical Incident Technique. Resultat: Fem generella strategier vid omhändertagande av patienter med annat språk än svenska eller engelska på en postoperativ vårdavdelning identifierades; att kommunicera utan ord, att kommunicera med ord, att nyttja någon som förstår, att skapa en säker vårdmiljö, att använda hjälpmedel. Resultatetvisade att omhändertagande av patienter med ett annat språk än svenska eller engelska i en postoperativ kontext, är komplext.  Slutsats:Specialistsjuksköterskor upplevde att omhändertagandet fungerade bra i sin nuvarande form, trots språkliga svårigheter i kommunikationen med patienter.  Då vissa situationer ändå beskrevs kunna förekomma går det inte dra slutsatsen att de strategier som framkom i denna studie fungerar fullt ut för att skapa en trygg och säker vård. Forskning bör utföras på patienternas upplevelse av situationen i denna kontext.    Nyckelord: Omvårdnad, Postoperativ avdelning, specialistsjuksköterska, strategier, språkbarriärer, kommunikation, Critical Incident Technique Keywords: Nursing, PACU, Nurse specialist, strategies, language barriers, communication, Critical Incident Technique