<p> The purpose of this directed project was to develop a nutrition education curriculum for competitive youth soccer players. This project is aimed to improve the nutrition knowledge deficit among female adolescents, thereby improving general health and athletic performance. This curriculum also considers the athletes&rsquo; familial dependence and provides nutrition resources to parents. </p><p> This is a five-part group and team education series designed to address the sport-, gender- and age-specific nutrition needs of the target population. Based on current research, adolescents perceive group education and discussion to be most useful. Each lesson includes handouts for reference and an interactive activity to enrich the educational experience. </p><p> An expert panel has reviewed this program and provided critical insight and recommendations for revisions. As verified by an expert review panel, this curriculum is evidence-based, current and applicable. This program was not pilot tested, but should be prior to implementation.</p>

<p> The current study focused is on the underrepresentation of registered nurses in hospital CEO positions. There are several existential gaps in chief executive officer (CEO) leadership in the United States. The gender gap in CEO positions across all sectors demonstrates that females represent 31% of CEO positions in the United States. However, females represented only 12% of hospital CEOs in 2007 (Plant, 2008). In 2016, females represented 36% of hospital CEOs. Nevertheless, a far greater gap exists as registered nurses represented 2.5% of hospital CEOs in 2007 (Plant, 2008), and 3.0% of hospital CEOs in 2016. The chronic underrepresentation of registered nurses (RNs) is irrespective of education, experience preparation, knowledge, attitude, skills, and habits as RN executives aspiring to become hospital CEOs often have more education and experience than their non-registered nurse counterparts have. The sample for the current qualitative grounded theory study had 30 participants including 10 RN executives currently employed and holding the title of hospital CEO, 10 non-RN executives currently employed holding the title of hospital CEO, and 10 decision-makers who have authority over the hospital CEO candidate selection process. The current study employed grounded theory method to develop a substantive grounded theory of why the phenomenon of the underrepresentation of registered nurses in hospital CEO positions exists. The substantive grounded theory developed in the study might help decision-makers involved in the hospital CEO selection process adjust their selection strategies so they evaluate hospital CEO candidates equitably. Registered nurses aspiring to become hospital CEOs might also benefit from the study by altering their career development strategies so the decision-makers perceive them as qualified candidates for the position of hospital CEO.</p><p>

Research on management and administration in the mental health and human services fields has dealt with top management and has not provided useful information concerning the work experience of middle clinical managers. The purpose of this study was twofold; (a) to determine whether or not there are differences in the way clinicians and clinical managers perceive their job characteristics as measured by the Job Diagnostic Survey (Hackman & Oldham, 1980), and (b) to determine whether or not the power and affiliation needs of clinicians and clinical managers as measured by the Job Choice Decision-Making Exercise (Stahl & Harrell, 1981) affect those perceptions. Thirty-six clinicians and fifty-seven clinical managers were classified according to power and affiliation need strengths as measured by the Job Choice Decision-Making Exercise (Stahl & Harrell, 1981). Measures of each subject's perceptions of his or her core job dimensions were obtained with the Job Diagnostic Survey (Hackman & Oldham, 1980). Several interviews with clinical managers were conducted and demographic, occupational, and agency information was gathered. There were no significant differences between clinicians and clinical managers in this study in their perceptions of job skill variety, task identity, task significance, job autonomy, feedback from the job itself, and feedback from job agents. Clinical managers with high power needs and low affiliation needs were not significantly different than clinical managers with low power needs and high affiliation needs in their perceptions of their job characteristics. Also, clinicians with high power needs and low affiliation needs were not significantly different than clinicians with low power needs and high affiliation needs in their perceptions of their job characteristics. Contrary to prediction, clinical managers reported a significantly greater degree of dealing with others on the job than did clinicians. Also, a trend was discovered, suggesting that the perceived degree to which feedback is received from the job itself may be lower for the clinical managers in this study than for the clinicians. Implications for practice focused on the need for more specialized training, job redesign, improvements in connection with extrinsic motivational factors, and changes in management practices.

This study explored teamwork in two hospitals implementing Total Quality Management. Its objectives were to: document and describe the social process of constructing teamwork in the two hospitals and the patterns of interaction that emerged; to compare the experiences of teamwork in the hospitals to the conceptualization of teamwork prescribed by TQM and to compare the experiences of the two hospitals to each other; and to understand how teamwork is interpreted by members of TQM hospitals. A multi-site case design was used; data was collected through participant observation, interviews, and document analysis. Results suggested that quality improvement teams represent a means for creating teamwork in hospitals by providing a forum for members to understand each other's needs, work, and problems through which respect and cooperative relationships emerged. Team leaders played a key role in the construction of teamwork by managing the meaning of teamwork, guiding the work of teams, assuring equal participation and facilitating the establishment of meaningful ground rules and mutually shared objectives. Identified obstacles to teamwork included the lack of physician involvement in team efforts; managers and staff who would not cooperate with team recommendations; the time required to improve work processes; managers who attempted to control a team's work; and leaders who failed to provide clear direction and guidance. In exploring the practice of teamwork outside the boundaries of QIT's, the data revealed that barriers between departments still existed. Management efforts to forge teamwork across functional areas were fragmented. Department heads who promoted teamwork tended to be those who had been involved in QIT's. In both hospitals conflict, distrust and a lack of mutually shared objectives among senior managers was identified by middle managers as antithetical to TQM and an obstacle to building a sense of "all one team" hospital-wide. Recognizing that the hierarchical, departmental structure in hospitals prevents the construction of teamwork across departments and recognizing the ability of quality improvement teams to break down departmental barriers, this study recommends that organizational restructuring be explored for hospitals which might include the management of processes or systems vs. departments and incorporates the team structure.

This research examines how front line managers (FLMs) in a NHS Mental Health Trust responded when Electronic Rostering technology was introduced into their wards, with intentions of improving efficiency, transparency, fairness, skill matching, and safety, and potentially increasing control from above. The study applied a theoretical framework developed from previous research to investigate relationships between the organisational context and FLMs’ characteristics, change management processes and technology efficacy, and analyse their impact upon FLMs’ responses to E-Rostering adoption and consequent outcomes. The research questions focused upon the influences of organisational background and the change management process. The research strategy was an in-depth case study with data collection through semi-structured interviews with managers at ward, service/general, project and senior levels, observation of meetings and training, examination of system records and Trust documents. The theoretical framework was used to design interview guides to help researcher and subjects investigate perceptions of salient factors and FLMs’ responses, and help structure analysis. Cross referencing of data supported reliability and validity of interpretations. The FLMs were ward managers perceiving themselves as professional clinical leaders and operational managers, running wards semi-autonomously. Control of deployment was vital to their authority. They showed power to resist pressures to adopt technology which threatened their control and to resist changes not congruent with their priorities. They negotiated with the project team and adapted practices to produce locally acceptable rosters. Although electronic staff records helped administration, automatic rostering was not efficacious. Rosters needed considerable manual adjustment, meaning ward managers recovered control of deployment and maintained local customs. The study confirms the importance of organisational structure and culture and of political and change management processes, in explaining responses to IT innovation. Change leaders should investigate operational practices, unit cultures and contexts to prepare for technology adoption because these factors will strongly influence FLMs’ responses.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Oregon State University, 2001. / Typescript (photocopy). Includes bibliographical references. Also available on the World Wide Web.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Lehigh University, 1997. / Includes vita. Bibliography: leaves 179-195.

<p> Participation in youth sports is increasingly popular with estimates of 35&ndash;40 million U.S. children playing an organized sport each year. Current concussion education has not been shown to be consistently effective. The risk of concussion exposure is present in a number of youth sports. Much of the research surrounding concussion reporting has targeted older adolescents. A better understanding of the reporting process among younger athletes is needed. </p><p> <b>Purpose of the Study:</b> The purpose of this study was to generate a grounded theory that explained concussion reporting in youth sports from the perspective of the young athletes. </p><p> <b>Design and Methods:</b> A grounded theory approach was used to gather and analyze data from semi-structured interviews with soccer players ages 5 to 12. The sample consisted of eleven athletes (8 male, 3 female) from non-elite soccer leagues in two counties; Maricopa, Arizona and Santa Barbara, California. </p><p> <b>Results:</b> Data analysis induced four conceptual categories; trusted environment, self-monitoring, being a player and incentive structure. The resultant theoretical model explains injury reporting from the perspective of young athletes. This study suggests that there is an incentive structure related to injury reporting, that young athletes have a good understanding of the incentives in relation to their perception of self as a player. Athletes demonstrate self-agency in terms of self-monitoring, however important adult others provide a trusted environment that makes children feel safe with their decisions. </p><p> <i>Implications:</i> This study suggests that a better understanding of the incentive structure embedded in the reporting process is needed to design effective prevention and education strategies. Important other adults such as parents and coaches may play a pivotal role in injury reporting among younger athletes when compared to adolescents.</p><p>

<p> The purpose for this qualitative research was to provide comparative data to determine if there was areas in need of improvement when it pertained to medical errors. Researchers have validated that initiating measures for continuous improvement would minimize error rates and benefit the clinicians and their patients. Patient safety was important and cause major concerns, therefore this research explored categories that influenced decision-making processes or conditions that causes deficit in reasoning, which could have an impact on cognitive abilities. Therefore, medical errors are a research worthy problem; since they cause phenomenon, conflict within managerial processes, and was a contributing factor for malpractice payouts, per a report from 2015 Institute of Medicine. As a result, researchers validated that initiating measures for continuous improvement would benefit the clinicians and their patients by minimizing errors or keeping them at a minimum. Utilizing the qualitative approach provided the best framework to narrow down cause and effects to validate the importance of support that relates to memory and relational network through retrieval-mediated learning. This research provides evidence that medical errors occurred during decision-making processes with (90%) cognitive errors, anchoring (75.7%), and (78.6%) premature closure. As a result, this qualitative research concentrated on constructs, such as, data collection from observation of prior research from scholarly, empirical, peered reviewed articles; <i>Medical Journals</i>, and education materials to provide pertinent information on diagnostic medical errors for the material within this investigation. The results from this study indicated, although, there was suggestions to improve patient-safety no significant decrease in medical harm occurred, therefore additional investigations will provide a valuable contribution to the body of knowledge and conditions for continuous improvement.</p><p>

<p> Public health leaders lead a diverse workforce and organizations that are comprehensive in their breadth and scope of services. The purpose of this descriptive quantitative study was to describe the transformational and transactional leadership behaviors of federal public health leaders, their coaching practices, and the relationship between those leadership and coaching behaviors. Researcher recruited a convenience sample of 91 U.S. Public Health Service (USPHS) officers from training events between March-July 2014. Participants self-selected to voluntarily complete an internet-based survey comprising a researcher-designed questionnaire, the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire 5X Form, and Get Fit for Coaching self-assessment. The first two research questions related to leadership and coaching behaviors were analyzed in SPSS 22 using Kruskal-Wallis H, Yates&rsquo; correction, and Monte Carlo significance tests. The Pearson&rsquo;s product-moment correlation analyzed the third research question examining the relationship between leadership and coaching behaviors. No difference was found in the leadership or coaching behaviors of junior and senior officers when examined by actual rank or seniority. The data revealed several relationships between leadership and coaching behaviors, with significant correlations found for 24 dichotomous pairs, indicating transformational and constructive transactional leadership and coaching behaviors as similar, complementary, and interrelated. The findings showed the act of providing feedback improved performance, while failure to take action or implement change stifles learning and growth. Recommendations for future research included: examining these behaviors among non-uniformed and non-federal public health leaders; exploring their leadership outcomes; and the inclusion of the 360-assessment to validate the self-reported leader data.</p><p>