The United States continues to be affected by a severe, long-standing nursing shortage that is not projected to resolve within the next 10 or more years. Unsuccessful passage of the National Council Licensure Examination for Registered Nurses (NCLEX-RN) among graduate nurses remains one of several key contributors to the nursing shortage. The goal of this study was to identify if either cumulative fall semester GPA; the overall prenursing science, mathematics, and English GPA; type of high school background; TOEFL score; clinical pass or fail; and on-time program completion best predicted passage of NCLEX-RN. Archived records from the academic years of 2006-2010 of students/graduates of a small, private BSN program were analyzed. A nonconcurrent, prospective design of secondary data was guided by the theoretical implications of the Seidman retention formula that surmises that early identification of academic problems is a necessary precursor to implementations that promote academic success. Significant, positive correlations were found between GPA of prenursing courses and achievement in clinical courses and on-time nursing program completion. Forward and backward, logistic regression procedures revealed that clinical performance was the strongest predictor of NCLEX-RN success but with an inverse relationship. Implications for positive social change include retention of BSN students to improve graduation rates. This ultimately will foster achievement on the NCLEX-RN, resulting in more graduates will be able to competently serve the health care needs of individuals and communities and alleviation of the nursing shortage.

For several decades, a national shortage of licensed clinical social workers has been growing in the United States. Licensed social workers provide counsel and advocacy for those affected by mental illness, addiction, abuse, and discrimination, among other economic difficulties, and are the largest group of providers of mental and behavioral health services. The research questions for this project addressed what challenges unlicensed social workers in central Florida identify as barriers to pursuing clinical licensure. This study also explored strategies that unlicensed social workers in central Florida reported to address these barriers and encourage the pursuit of clinical licensure. The purpose of this research was to identify both the barriers that social worker's report in seeking their licensure and effective strategies to address the barriers. The theoretical framework to inform the project was systems theory. An action research design was used including a focus group of 5 unlicensed social workers, selected through purposive sampling. Thematic analysis was used to analyze the data. Study outcomes showed that social workers in central Florida chose not to pursue licensure because of the cost and time associated with the process. Changes recommended as part of this research may bring about social change through an increase in the number of licensed social workers to assist Floridians who seek such services.

This ex post facto study sought to examine: the efficacy of Mosby's Assess Test as a valid predictor of NCLEX (National Council of State Boards of Nursing Licensure Examination) scores; significant correlations among semester averages, semester tests failed, Nelson Denny Reading Test scores, and NCLEX scores; and differences in NCLEX outcomes in relation to ethnicity, age, and prior practical nursing licensure for 558 associate degree nursing graduates who wrote the NCLEX in 1983 and 1984. Significant positive relationships were found among Mosby scores, Nelson Denny scores, semester averages, and NCLEX scores. A significant negative relationship was found between number of semester tests failed and NCLEX scores. The mean NCLEX score of older graduates was higher than the mean NCLEX score of younger graduates. LPN graduates had a higher mean NCLEX score than non-LPN graduates. White graduates' mean NCLEX score was greater than the average score for black graduates. Combined predictor variables which yielded the best estimate of the criterion variable (NCLEX scores) for all graduates included mean semester average, Mosby scores, age above thirty-three, and Nelson Denny scores, respectively. The most important predictor of black graduates' NCLEX success was prior practical nursing licensure. Other significant predictors for black graduates' NCLEX success were mean semester average, Mosby scores, mean number of semester tests failed, age above thirty-three, and Nelson Denny scores, respectively. Mean semester average, mean score of the Mosby test, mean number of semester tests failed, and age above thirty-three were the most significant predictors of white graduates' NCLEX success. Older graduates had a higher mean Mosby score, a higher mean semester average, and failed fewer semester tests than younger graduates. The study results will be of interest to nurse educators and counselors who are concerned with curricular revision, student counseling, and remediation procedures as these relate to enhancement of graduates' potential for success on the NCLEX.

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Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-27T16:58:40Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Leia Fernandes Perentelli.pdf: 621827 bytes, checksum: c18e6bfff0ad7fc16a00546def71a17b (MD5) Previous issue date: 2008-06-06 / The purpose of this research was to study the Mathematics Licensure Courses in two Great São Paulo Institutes of Higher Education, one university and one sole College. The intention of the study is to answer the following research question: How is practice being put into part of the curriculum load in the Licensure Course in Mathematics? In the bibliographic survey done in the Didactics and Teaching Practice National Meeting, it was possible to grasp few innovative experiences that would fit the ongoing legislation. Semistructured interviews were done with two of the course coordinators and with four professors of Teaching Practice, with the purpose of understanding how the 400 Practice hours as a part of the curriculum load are being put into the teaching projects and verifying how they are being understood by those who work with them. The researches done by Candau (1987) and Ludke (1997) had already pointed out the difficulties regarding the changes in the profile and structure of the Licensure program, in the magistrate as a profession and in the organization of the school work. It was observed in the two Institutes of Higher Education that, in their intentions to put Practice into a part of the curriculum, there is an attempt to restructure the curriculum load in a way to adapt them to the current guidelines. The university has put part of the Practice hours into nonattendance activities and the College has distributed a part of the hours to all other disciplines of the curricular load, under the responsibility of the professor managing the Teaching Practice discipline. One difficulty noticed by the teachers who were interviewed is relative to the assessment of these non-attendance and activities proposed, which the student does not take part and does not get involved in the same way as in the attendance activities. Both institutions are seen by the researchers as making an effort to diminish the existent divergences and to search for coherence between what is written in the teaching project and what really happens in the performance of the professor responsible in classroom / Esta pesquisa teve o objetivo de realizar um estudo em cursos de Licenciatura em Matemática de duas Instituições de Ensino Superior da Grande São Paulo, uma Universidade e uma Faculdade isolada. O estudo propôs-se a responder à seguinte questão de pesquisa: De que forma está sendo alocada a Prática como componente curricular nos cursos de Licenciatura em Matemática? No levantamento bibliográfico feito em anais do Encontro Nacional de Didática e Prática de Ensino, constatamos poucas experiências inovadoras para atender a legislação vigente. Realizamos entrevistas semi-estruturadas com os dois coordenadores de curso e com quatro professores de Prática de Ensino, bem como analisamos os projetos pedagógicos dos dois cursos, com o intuito de compreender como as 400 horas de Prática como componente curricular estão alocadas nos projetos pedagógicos e verificar como elas são entendidas por quem nelas atuam. As pesquisas realizadas por Candau (1987) e Lüdke (1997) já apontavam dificuldades relacionadas à mudanças no perfil e estrutura dos programas de Licenciatura, ao magistério como profissão e a organização do trabalho na escola. Observamos nas duas Instituições de Ensino Superior que, em suas propostas para alocar a Prática como componente curricular, há uma tentativa de reestruturação dos currículos de forma a adequá-los às diretrizes vigentes. A Universidade alocou parte das horas de Prática em atividades não presenciais e a Faculdade distribuiu parte das horas para todas as outras disciplinas da matriz curricular, sob responsabilidade do professor da disciplina Prática de Ensino. Uma dificuldade apontada pelos professores entrevistados refere-se à avaliação dessas atividades distribuídas e não presenciais, que o aluno não participa e não se envolve como nas disciplinas presenciais. Entendemos que as duas instituições fazem um esforço para diminuir as divergências existentes e buscar coerência entre o que está escrito no projeto pedagógico e o que acontece na ação dos professores formadores em sala de aula

My research studies immigrants’ learning experiences as socially organized practices. Informed by the sociocultural approach of learning and institutional ethnography, I treat learning as a material and relational phenomenon. I start by examining how fourteen Chinese immigrants learn to fit into the engineering market in Canada. I then trace the social discourses and relations that shape immigrants’ learning experiences, particularly their changing perceptions and practices and personal and professional investments. I contend that immigrants’ learning is produced through social processes of differentiation that naturalize immigrants as a secondary labour pool, which is dismissible and desirable at the same time. My investigation unfolds around four areas of learning. The first is related to immigrants’ self-marketing practices. I show that core to immigrants’ marketing strategies is to speak to the skill discourse or employers’ skill expectations at the “right” time and place. The skill discourse, I argue, is culturally-charged and class-based. It cloaks a complex of hiring relations where “skill” is discursively constructed and differentially invoked to preserve the privilege and power of the dominant group. The second area is immigrants’ work-related learning. I find that workplace training is part of the corporate agenda to organize work and manage workers. Amid this picture, workers’ opportunity to access corporate sponsorship for professional development is contingent on their membership within the engineering community. To expand their professional space, the immigrants resorted to learning and consolidating their knowledge in codes and standards, which serve as a textual organizer of engineering work. The third area is related to workplace communication. My participants reported an individualistic communication ‘culture’, which celebrates individual excellence and discourages close interpersonal relations. Such a perception, I argue, obscures the gender, race and class relations that privilege white and male power. It also leaves out the organizational relations, such as the project-based deployment of the engineering workforce that perpetuate individualistic communicative practices. My last area of investigation focuses on immigrants’ efforts to acquire Canadian credentials and professional licence. Their heavy learning loads direct my attention to the ideological and administrative licensure practices that valorize Canadian credentials and certificates to the exclusion of others.

My research studies immigrants’ learning experiences as socially organized practices. Informed by the sociocultural approach of learning and institutional ethnography, I treat learning as a material and relational phenomenon. I start by examining how fourteen Chinese immigrants learn to fit into the engineering market in Canada. I then trace the social discourses and relations that shape immigrants’ learning experiences, particularly their changing perceptions and practices and personal and professional investments. I contend that immigrants’ learning is produced through social processes of differentiation that naturalize immigrants as a secondary labour pool, which is dismissible and desirable at the same time. My investigation unfolds around four areas of learning. The first is related to immigrants’ self-marketing practices. I show that core to immigrants’ marketing strategies is to speak to the skill discourse or employers’ skill expectations at the “right” time and place. The skill discourse, I argue, is culturally-charged and class-based. It cloaks a complex of hiring relations where “skill” is discursively constructed and differentially invoked to preserve the privilege and power of the dominant group. The second area is immigrants’ work-related learning. I find that workplace training is part of the corporate agenda to organize work and manage workers. Amid this picture, workers’ opportunity to access corporate sponsorship for professional development is contingent on their membership within the engineering community. To expand their professional space, the immigrants resorted to learning and consolidating their knowledge in codes and standards, which serve as a textual organizer of engineering work. The third area is related to workplace communication. My participants reported an individualistic communication ‘culture’, which celebrates individual excellence and discourages close interpersonal relations. Such a perception, I argue, obscures the gender, race and class relations that privilege white and male power. It also leaves out the organizational relations, such as the project-based deployment of the engineering workforce that perpetuate individualistic communicative practices. My last area of investigation focuses on immigrants’ efforts to acquire Canadian credentials and professional licence. Their heavy learning loads direct my attention to the ideological and administrative licensure practices that valorize Canadian credentials and certificates to the exclusion of others.

Submitted by Cristiane Oliveira (cristiane.oliveira@fgv.br) on 2011-05-23T21:07:12Z No. of bitstreams: 1 71060100678.pdf: 1801115 bytes, checksum: 987b6b7177bf9ad0310228c6a72dced1 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Vera Lúcia Mourão(vera.mourao@fgv.br) on 2011-05-23T21:24:54Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 71060100678.pdf: 1801115 bytes, checksum: 987b6b7177bf9ad0310228c6a72dced1 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Vera Lúcia Mourão(vera.mourao@fgv.br) on 2011-05-23T21:25:49Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 71060100678.pdf: 1801115 bytes, checksum: 987b6b7177bf9ad0310228c6a72dced1 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2011-05-23T21:47:17Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 71060100678.pdf: 1801115 bytes, checksum: 987b6b7177bf9ad0310228c6a72dced1 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010-02-25 / Migration is inevitable and it can be beneficial if well managed. Medical migration is an opportunity to attract new talents and to increase workforce. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the importance of international medical graduates in Brazil's health workforce. A search of current legislation on the matter was carried out. Using a qualitative methodology information on diploma revalidation was collected from universities and internationally trained doctors working in Brazil. Results showed incipient policy on this issue, influenced by governmental and corporate interests leading to an unequal process. A coordinated approach including the Ministries of Health and Education and Conselho Federal de Medicina, and a comprehensive debate on workforce planning would increase Brazil's competitiveness in international labor market and lower the risk to its population's health. / A migração de pessoas pode ser benéfica quando bem administrada. No caso dos médicos é uma oportunidade de atração de talentos ou de oferta adequada de força de trabalho. Partindo do referencial do médico imigrante, esta tese se propôs estudar a sua importância no Brasil e a sua inserção no mercado de trabalho. Para isso, foi feita pesquisa sobre a legislação correspondente - incluindo as determinações das universidades e do Conselho Federal de Medicina. Foi adotada uma metodologia qualitativa para a coleta de informações sobre revalidação de diplomas nas universidades e foram realizadas entrevistas com médicos graduados no exterior trabalhando no Brasil. Observou-se a incipiência das políticas em relação ao tema, influenciadas por interesses governamentais e corporativos, resultando num processo heterogêneo em relação aos seus objetivos. Sugere-se que a aproximação entre os Ministérios da Educação e da Saúde e o Conselho Federal de Medicina, além de um debate abrangente sobre planejamento de força de trabalho, possam aumentar a competitividade do Brasil na atração de talentos e diminuir o risco à saúde da população atribuível à atuação de médicos cuja competência não tenha sido aferida.

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