Work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSDs) are prevalent among health care workers worldwide and underreporting among nurses may mask the true impact of these injuries. Nursing staff are consistently among the top 10 occupations at risk for experiencing WMSDs and patient-handling tasks are the precipitating event in the majority of back injuries experienced among nursing staff. Existing research has focused on patient-handling issues within long-term care facilities, and identifying physically demanding patient-handling tasks. The first study in this dissertation (Chapter 3) was conducted to determine whether nurses in acute care facilities are exposed to the same hazards as their cohorts in long-term care. The aim was to identify the top 10 patient-handling tasks being conducted and to rank these tasks by perceived physical demand. This two-phase study consisted of a procedural task analysis of patient-handling activities, and a questionnaire to identify the characteristics of the study population and obtain a ranking of physically demanding patient-handling tasks. All nurses providing direct inpatient care were recruited to participate in both phases of this study. Compared to long-term care facilities, in which the majority of tasks have been shown to be associated with performance of ADL tasks, the most frequently observed tasks in the acute care facility were repositioning tasks. Therefore, it is important to determine the patient-handling demands and needs that are unique to each type of healthcare facility. Generalizing across facilities or units may lead to incorrect assumptions and conclusions about physical demands being placed on nurses. A laboratory simulation was used for the second study (Chapter 4). The top four physically demanding patient-handling tasks (taken from Chapter 3) were simulated to determine the effect of an assistive device and assistance from another person. Sixteen nurse volunteers were recruited and provided perceptual responses regarding exertion and injury risk. Nurses perceived that assistance decreased their physical exertion and injury risk; however they consistently perceived exertion to be relatively higher than their injury risk. The aim of the third study (Chapter 5) was to determine the level of agreement between and within different expert groups. Three groups of participants were involved, with different levels of ergonomics expertise (i.e. researchers, consultants, and graduate students). These groups viewed digitized video clips from the laboratory simulation (Chapter 4) and provided ratings of perceived exertion, perceived injury risk and common WMSD risk factors (effort, posture, and speed). The major finding from this study was that poor agreement existed between nurses and the other expert groups (researchers, consultants and students). The current research laid the groundwork for measuring the magnitude of physical exposure to injury risk in the patient-handling environment. The research supports earlier evidence that suggests nurses underreport their discomfort and injury, which, in turn, contributes to increased exposure and risk. This knowledge will enable practitioners to focus interventions and designs on those factors in the work environment that contribute significantly to increased exposure and thereby more effectively reduce WMSD risk. / Ph. D.

Firms invest significant resources to improve the quality of their products but also to communicate to consumers about their efforts. However, information regarding quality of product offerings is now increasingly being generated by short or long term users of products or services. The growing popularity of critical reviews has prompted attention from both academics and practitioners alike. Current academic findings do not seem conclusive with respect to the impact critical reviews have on product performance on the market. The current dissertation aims to clarify the role critical reviews have in relation to economic outcomes such as sales, category market share, price premiums and product success. Using four years of cross-sectional data from the automobile market, the first essay of this dissertation conceptualizes consumer and expert ratings as market-based signals and investigates the impact critical reviews have on product performance of new and used automobiles. Results show that both consumer and expert ratings are positively related to market performance (sales and category market share of new automobiles) but they exhibit a non-synergistic interaction. More specifically, at higher levels of consumer ratings, the impact of expert ratings on product performance is decreased and viceversa. Furthermore, results show that critical ratings are significantly associated with the firm's ability to command higher price premiums. Comparatively, a firm-based driver of product performance, product improvement failed to show a significant association with product market performance but it exhibited a non-linear relationship with price premiums. Moreover, the impact of expert ratings proved to be significantly higher for utilitarian products than hedonic products whereas consumer ratings do not have a differential effect across product types. Finally, the results did not show that the impact of consumer ratings on sales of used automobiles is increasing over time. The second essay focuses on expert reviews (entertainment critics) and provides a more nuanced examination of the role of critics and critical reviews and their impact on probability of product success. Based on qualitative data, two types of expert reviews are distinguished to be influential (opinions and evaluations), however, their role differs in importance over time. The hypotheses are tested using data from the fourth season of American Idol. Results show that on average, opinions are significantly impacting the probability of success whereas evaluations do not. Moreover, the numbers of statements that contain evaluation negatively impact the success in early periods. Overall, the results highlight the facts that critical reviews from both experts and consumers should be monitored, that they are a key driver of product market-success and that select expert reviews may influence product success in early stages of product existence.

This study attempts to increase critical thinking among teams by making them cognizant of seven critical thinking dimensions. Forty three-person teams of undergraduates worked together on a complex decision-making task. Each team received training in and was asked to ensure their group exhibited the characteristics of cognitive skills, affective dispositions, both of these or neither. Critical thinking was assessed using self-report, behavioral observation rating, and expert outcome analysis. The findings suggest training in affective dispositions increases the exhibition of at least one dimensions of critical thinking. A behavioral measurement is presented and evaluated with respect to established critical thinking methods.