The purpose of this study was to document the perspectives and experiences of five Indigenous Elders on the potential for Indigenous and Western healing paradigms and practices to be integrated in mental health service delivery for Indigenous peoples. Semi-structured qualitative interviews were held with each participant, and a narrative analysis was used to generate research themes and findings. Results indicated that all five Elders perceived a potential for Indigenous and Western approaches and practitioners to work collaboratively together in the future, and Elders reported varying levels of experience with integrated healthcare delivery. However, all five Elders identified numerous issues requiring attention and steps to be taken prior to integrated practice taking place. These included the need to reclaim Indigenous knowledge, an acceptance and respect for Indigenous knowledge and practices by the Western healthcare system, and the need for increased and formalized education related to Indigenous knowledge and healing approaches.

The purpose of this study was to document the perspectives and experiences of five Indigenous Elders on the potential for Indigenous and Western healing paradigms and practices to be integrated in mental health service delivery for Indigenous peoples. Semi-structured qualitative interviews were held with each participant, and a narrative analysis was used to generate research themes and findings. Results indicated that all five Elders perceived a potential for Indigenous and Western approaches and practitioners to work collaboratively together in the future, and Elders reported varying levels of experience with integrated healthcare delivery. However, all five Elders identified numerous issues requiring attention and steps to be taken prior to integrated practice taking place. These included the need to reclaim Indigenous knowledge, an acceptance and respect for Indigenous knowledge and practices by the Western healthcare system, and the need for increased and formalized education related to Indigenous knowledge and healing approaches.

With the rapid development of terminal hardware, mobile users and network environments, the scale of the mobile Internet appears to be catching up with the desktop Internet. Positioning System, phone sensors and applications which are able to be used anywhere have caused the arrival and increase in usage of the smart phone, and the world has become mobile-first. Within medical fields, the smart phone is also regarded as an acceptableassistant for nurses and patients as based on the advantages of mobile Internet. It is possible for healthcare personnel to assign tasks for the patients from a different place if there is a computer connected to the Internet. In addition,the smart phones is able to act as a nurse and remind the patients to complete their tasks. Accordingly, it has become a necessity to achieve this electronic healthcare system for hospitals. The objective of this research project is to summarize the procedures of this development, and release the relevant software based on an Android platform. Additionally, a corresponding website is to be designed so that healthcare personnel are able to sign in in order to deal with the tasks. The entire system has been tested in real scenarios, at this point only by the authorbut has still not been used by other organizations. The final part of the report involves the conclusions drawn and provides suggestions for further work about the whole project.

Stress within healthcare environments can be the result of uncertainty, illness, or the environment itself. In order to promote better health outcomes for dialysis users, scientific literature advocates stress reduction within healthcare environments. Dialysis patients are subject to numerous stressors, including the threat of potential losses and lifestyle change. Studies have revealed that patients who suffer from chronic illness perceive different levels of quality of life than those who are considered healthy and because of these lifestyle changes they employ various coping mechanisms when dealing with stress. There is a rising movement to mitigate stress through the use of holistic healing, an approach that addresses a person’s mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual elements to create a total healing environment. In accordance with this growing movement, the intent of this practicum is to create an outpatient centre for Manitoba’s dialysis patients that increases their perceived quality of life. The inquiry process began by questioning dialysis patients and conducting observational research at the Winnipeg Health Sciences Centre. Literature and precedent reviews were conducted, and the design programme was developed. The result of this research-based design proposal is an outpatient hemodialysis centre located within the Winnipeg Health Sciences Centre that helps mitigate stress while patients attempt to cope with lifestyle changes. The resulting design is one that is warm, welcoming, home-like and comfortable, which is supported by the theories explained in the literature review. This environment provides a greater sense of control, creates positive distractions and allows spiritually evoking opportunities to take place for all users of this new facility. / February 2009

There is an increasing need for a local comprehensive cancer treatment centre that caters primarily to children. This design proposes a paediatric facility that will be located in Waterloo Region to meet the needs of the area’s rapidly increasing population. It will serve children under the age of eighteen, their families, and the surrounding community. The proposed site will be in Floradale, a small rural community in Waterloo Region, approximately 15 km from Kitchener/Waterloo. This site is located directly adjacent to the Woolwich Reservoir and was chosen because of its close proximity to this natural environment. Although it is located in a rural area, the proposed facility is still close to the urban core and the two existing general hospitals in the region. Based on the rapid population growth of the region, the city boundaries are quickly expanding outwards, closing the gap between Floradale and Kitchener/Waterloo. The thesis offers a series of design principles that have been applied to the proposed facility. The design principals were established by completing a historical review, researching a variety of architectural precedent studies, and through various site visits to healthcare facilities. In order for the proposed paediatric facility to be a successful, functioning component of the community, it will recognize and incorporate the existing services present in Floradale and Waterloo Region and build upon them. The design explores the existing community groups, organizations, services, and community needs in order to propose a holistic approach connecting services to the healthcare facility, which will in turn enhance community vitality. The purpose of a healthcare facility is to access, treat, and heal the patients and families that visit. This design creates a facility where the natural and the built environment will aid in the healing process.

There is an increasing need for a local comprehensive cancer treatment centre that caters primarily to children. This design proposes a paediatric facility that will be located in Waterloo Region to meet the needs of the area’s rapidly increasing population. It will serve children under the age of eighteen, their families, and the surrounding community. The proposed site will be in Floradale, a small rural community in Waterloo Region, approximately 15 km from Kitchener/Waterloo. This site is located directly adjacent to the Woolwich Reservoir and was chosen because of its close proximity to this natural environment. Although it is located in a rural area, the proposed facility is still close to the urban core and the two existing general hospitals in the region. Based on the rapid population growth of the region, the city boundaries are quickly expanding outwards, closing the gap between Floradale and Kitchener/Waterloo. The thesis offers a series of design principles that have been applied to the proposed facility. The design principals were established by completing a historical review, researching a variety of architectural precedent studies, and through various site visits to healthcare facilities. In order for the proposed paediatric facility to be a successful, functioning component of the community, it will recognize and incorporate the existing services present in Floradale and Waterloo Region and build upon them. The design explores the existing community groups, organizations, services, and community needs in order to propose a holistic approach connecting services to the healthcare facility, which will in turn enhance community vitality. The purpose of a healthcare facility is to access, treat, and heal the patients and families that visit. This design creates a facility where the natural and the built environment will aid in the healing process.

Alarming S.T.I’s percentages and low condom use motivated this research. Healthcare professional’s risk-behavior and attitudes towards risk-behavior were reviewed. Three hypotheses, aimed to test whether healthcare professionals working with S.T.I’s should have a different attitude, knowledge and behavior to condom use compared to healthcare professionals that did not work with S.T.I’s. Ninety-five participants working at a hospital in middle-Sweden answered a questionnaire, based on the Swedish UNGKAB09 research. Mann-Whitney analyses showed no significant difference between the two groups on knowledge, attitude and behavior. A high percentage of steady relationships, high homogeneity between groups as well the same attitudes and intentions could have been a reliability problem. The collected data was however interesting as a base for further research

In recent years, the healthcare policies and medical environment in Taiwan are changing, many hospitals face the pressure of their operating, and the surviving problems encounter many hospitals, especially for community hospitals. Because the development of hospitals in Taiwan is polarized, the number of community hospitals decreases abruptly in recent years. Foreseeably, community hospitals will face more difficult challenges and surviving problems. Therefore, the case study hospital wants to build a strategic performance system by using balanced scorecard (BSC) and chooses the hemodialysis center as the first unit to implement BSC. To introduce BSC into the hospital, we expect that BSC can transform organization¡¦s objectives into real actions, increase the competitive ability, and establish the foundation of the hospital¡¦s everlasting operation. In the initial stage of the research, we developed a BSC team through SWOT analysis and group thinking to make the mission, core value, and vision of the community hospital and hemodialysis center, developed the strategies of the hemodialysis center, and completed the components of BSC. Afterwards, according to the four perspectives of BSC: customer, finance, internal processes, and learning and growth, we made some measurable indicators of performance to evaluate the performance of the hemodialysis center through the paper review and team discussion. Moreover, the strategy goals are achieved, and the strategies are successfully implemented to help the hemodialysis center fulfill the mission, vision, and core value on the basis of the balance status of the performance measurement inside and outside. The research used some measurable indicators to measure the performance of the hemodialysis center, and compared the information that is before and after BSC has been implemented. In addition to showing the implemented results, we also correct and update the BSC of the homedialysis center through the learning and feedback processes and make a more efficient BSC to build a better strategic performance management system. We also take care about the issue of resource invested and cost, and make some brief discussions. The most important thing is, during the research time, that we recorded some problems and obstacles when implementing BSC, and the information can provide some following researches as reference resources. Through the experience sharing, we hope that other community hospitals wanting to use BSC to build a strategic performance management system can reduce some obstacles and implement BSC more efficiently.

The ISO 9000 series of standards for international quality control and quality assurance, released by the International Standard Organization (ISO) on March 15, 1987 for establishing universal quality standards as a basis for international division of administrative responsibilities, had caught international attention. The second edition of ISO 9001-9003 standards was revised and released in 1994 to address the transition in entrepreneurial environment. The third edition of ISO 9001 standards was further revised and released on December 15, 2000. The manufactory and construction industries have demonstrated significant outcomes in improving corporate cultures and systems, reducing cost while increasing productivity, enhancing quality and market competition, and gaining clientele satisfaction after investing in vast amount of human resources and funds to introduce the ISO. The healthcare organizations had been less cognizant of the ISO series. The comprehensive national health insurance, which has been put into practice for six years since March 1995, has forced the healthcare organizations into fierce competitive edge. Hospitals take client-satisfaction as a competitive advantage for ongoing management and survival by providing higher quality medical services. This study investigates a case of hospital experiences in establishing international quality assurance system, such as : the definition and content of ISO, the reasons for establishment, education and training, control policy for persistence, auditing and perpetual improvements. Further, a detailed introduction is given following a review of literature to depict the successful experiences of the case hospital. Through surveys and interviews, practical knowledge and applicable experience can be identified. It is firmly believed more hospitals and healthcare centers will adopt ISO and benefit from adoption. The research findings are as follows : 1. Promoting ISO motivates hospital quality management and increases client confidence and satisfaction. 2. Success to certification basically lies in decisiveness, supportiveness of high-level management, and consensus among staff. 3. Most common obstacles in certification process are : insufficient manpower, heavy workload, and employee repulsiveness. 4. Perpetual participation in quality control practices is based upon leadership and team cooperation. 5. Significant improvements are demonstrated in standardization of documentation and workflow and elevation of management levels. 6. Hospital induction requires the management emphasis, educational training of the employees, accumulation of ISO-relevant information, and in-field observation of certified and successful hospitals. Keywords : ISO 9000s, healthcare management system, quality assurance

ABSTRACT Due to the continuous variation of medical policies, the competition of healthcare services markets are even more drastic and face more challenges. Among them, the advantage in competition for each hospital and clinic is information service, as a result, the superintendent of information unit in hospitals must obtain not only knowledge about information specialty but also general disposition of healthcare system; the superintendent of routine interactions between authorized superior officials and the subordinates with academic technique, under the huge pressure of heavy responsibility with minor power, how can women leaders overcome obstacles and which kinds of career development philosophy they adopt to distinguish themselves and achieve success; in the other hand, they choose to be a housewife. This study mainly explores the reasons for their choice of either working or not working. The purpose of this study is revealing the insight of the pressures and the strategies of career development as a female supervisor in healthcare information unit. Research topics focus on the roleplay under the tradictional social expection, the pressures from both family and workplace, and the strategies of career planning. I employ the depth interview as the data collection method. The research results are summarized in three parts, they are: (1). In the concept of tradictional value: the tradictional value affects the attitude of the gender roleplay; the stablilty becomes the most critcal critera of career evaluation; the traditional gender roleplay affects the development of strategy of career development; (2). The adjustment between family and workplace pressur: the conflict is derived from the tradictional value; the lower the conflict the higher the accomplishment they achieve; (3). Strategies of career development: looking for the support from family; create the opportunity of competion advantage; self-promotion; receiving advice from friends and advisors. Keywords: Healthcare Information Unit, Female Information Supervisor