Thesis (Ph. D.)(Geography)--University of Pretoria, 2003. / Summaries in English and Afrikaans. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 147-160).

Thesis (MSW(Social Work))-University of Pretoria, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis PlanB (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Stout, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references.

Emergency Medical Services (EMS) is an institution and product of public health, health care, and public safety that is chopped and scattered across multiple jurisdictional deployment methodologies throughout Arizona. To fully-asses the EMS needs of the state, those jurisdictions are considered as a whole; for it is the whole that makes a system, and a system is what truly impacts patient outcomes. Evaluating the ""whole"" is the genesis and driver of the 2016 Arizona Statewide EMS Needs Assessment (ASENA). The primary objective of ASENA is to establish a current ""snap-shot"" of EMS in the state while simultaneously identifying needs and/or areas that can be targeted for further analysis and/or improvement as part of Population Health Management and Emergency Medical Services Integration under the AZ Flex Grant funded by the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA). In addition, the secondary objective of ASENA is to compare and contrast this current ""snap-shot"" with data obtained in a more narrow needs assessment conducted in 2001, allowing comparison of changes in Arizona's critical access EMS system over 15 years. To accomplish this, a 105-question needs assessment survey tool was developed and distributed to EMS agencies throughout the state. The fully-vetted survey tool collected information pertaining to sixteen core functional sections. Eighty-six agencies fully-completed the needs assessment survey tool, with respondents evenly distributed across the state's four EMS coordinating regions and representative of the various service-delivery methodologies. The combined service areas of the respondents cover over 85% of the state's population. Arizona's statewide EMS system is well organized and positioned to deliver advanced levels of prehospital care for the vast majority of its citizens and visitors, with some variation between urban and rural regions. Key needs identified relate to: patient care reporting between EMS providers, emergency departments and receiving hospitals; quality assurance activities; education and skills training programs; dispatch system capabilities; mass casualty and public health preparedness; equipment and supplies; and more robust use of data and analyses to inform continuous EMS system improvement.

The study was mainly to investigate the need for an Employee Assistance Programme at Reamogetswe Secure Care Centre, North West Province. EAP is a worksite programme aimed at assisting troubled employees to improve their work productivity and enhance their social functioning. The investigation was comprised of a literature study about EAP in order to gain an understanding of it. A questionnaire was designed and handed out to employees of the Secure Care Centre to complete. Empirical findings were gathered based on the information from the questionnaires, which were completed and returned by the respondents. The findings in the study suggested that there is a need for implementing an EAP at the Centre to assist with problems affecting employees. The findings suggested that 93.8% of the respondents agree that the Centre should take responsibility for employee’s welfare. The majority of the respondents further indicated that they prefer to have an EAP practitioner always at the Centre. The study also revealed that if employees experience problems be it personal or work related or a combination of both, they need to assist to enhance their social functioning. / Dissertation (MSD (EAP))--University of Pretoria, 2006. / Social Work and Criminology / unrestricted

Objective: Evaluation of surgical quality ensures consistency of care and facilitates improvements in the quality of care delivered. Methods: An overview of surgical quality measurement is presented. A system for monitoring thoracic morbidity and mortality (TM&M) at the Ottawa Hospital is introduced and evaluated. Results of a needs assessment survey on the involvement in thoracic surgical research and quality improvement initiatives are presented. Results: Structure, process, and outcomes reflect different viewpoints on how to evaluate surgical quality. The feasibility of the TM&M system is evaluated using descriptive and univariate statistics, while its inter-rater reliability is assessed amongst the Canadian Association of Thoracic Surgeons. Conclusions: Outcomes have been fundamental in the evaluation of surgical quality. TM&M classification system advocates for a practice of continuous quality improvement and provides standardized and reliable feedback on surgical outcomes. Results of the needs assessment have built a strong foundation of knowledge on prospective ways to enhance the monitoring of surgical quality.

Bibliography: leaves 199-204. / This thesis is concerned with developing a method for determining the Quality of Life of a group or community in quantitative terms. The method devised is aimed at providing decision-makers with a useful tool when allocating public funds. The method involves setting critical values for indicators and then applying a mathematical formula, in order to standardise information gathered from several different sources. A value for the indicator of a particular group or community is thus calculated. This procedure made it possible to compare data from these different sources. Arising out of this the values for individual indicators were aggregated to produce indices evaluating the Quality of Life, which are in a form that may be readily used by decision-makers. Surveys were run in Elsies River, a coloured suburb of Cape Town, and in Basuto QwaQwa, a homeland in the Orange Free State, using two questionnaires. The results were computed and the method developed here used to compare and aggregate the data. Other sources of data included opinions from experts and objective data concerning the two survey areas which were also standardised and aggregated. The results show that the method is pragmatic and could be useful to decision-makers. The standardisation provided the means for arriving at the indices which show how different aspects of the Quality of Life may be assessed. The results, however, are not absolute and could change through a process of negotiation: in fact this is an essential qualification.

Agriculture teachers are responsible for a wide variety of students in their classrooms. It was unclear before this research how much preservice teacher instruction agriculture teachers were receiving to prepare them to teach students identified as gifted. This research aimed to measure teacher attitudes, characterization of gifted students, professional development needs, and related demographic information. Of the agriculture teachers who completed a traditional teacher preparation program, 54.50% felt that they were adequately prepared to meet the needs of gifted students in their classroom. Participants characterized gifted agriculture students as outstanding problem solvers, quick to memorize information, and excellent in science. They did not characterize this group of students as excellent entrepreneurs, very active in FFA, and excellent leaders. These characteristics have implications for how to work with this population of students, such as using problem-based learning and integrating more science content into the classroom. By analyzing results of the importance and ability needs assessment, professional development is needed in creating challenging classroom content, differentiating instruction, and teaching problem solving skills specifically to teach gifted students in their classrooms.

The payment of bridewealth is a near-universal cultural practice among the Igbos of SouthEast Nigeria. Bridewealth used to be a symbolic legitimator of marriage. However, its symbolism has been distorted by expensive items on marriage lists. In this context, bridewealth payment provides an excellent analytical tool for the structure-agency debate, which has, in varying degrees, engaged academic interest for centuries. Underlying this debate is the extent to which institutions determine human behaviour and its attendant power relations. While structure refers to the self-replicating, complex elements that sustain institutions, agency refers to the volitional, purpose-driven nature of human activities. In this debate, the structuralfunctionalist-Marxist view, symbolic interactionism, and complementarity view are prominent. From these views, this dissertation develops a needs-based approach to structure-agency interaction, arguing that a focus on the primacy of structure or agency obscures their underlying motivations. It posits that the structure-agency interaction is both the process and product of logical assessments and dialogue, which are driven by socio-economic needs. In the context of this framework, it explored one central question: In what ways do power relations play out in the negotiation process of bridewealth payment in South-East Nigeria? Using literature review, non-participant observation of bridewealth negotiations, and in-depth interviews of 47 key informants, it reveals an interdependent, complex web linking the custodians of culture with agentic tools such as wealth, religion, and education. Despite cultural inhibitions in spousal selection and bridewealth negotiation, prospective spouses have a range of creative tools for reducing exorbitant items on marriage lists, thereby deconstructing high bridewealth. These agentic tools are driven by socio-economic elements such as desire to marry, economic coercion, cohabitation, threat of extramarital pregnancy, and religious values. The study concludes that bridewealth negotiation reflects socio-economic dynamics within hybrid cultural spaces in which potential couples and their parents may navigate the powerful constraints of tradition or sustain tradition through their inaction. These socio-economic dynamics are so powerful that they produce widespread disregard for legislation limiting bridewealth amounts. The study’s findings demonstrate the ineffectiveness of a top-down approach to law, the value of policy sensitivity to people’s lived realities, and the importance of in-depth consultation in the formulation of legislation.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to collaborate with a community partner to administer a current needs assessment of persons with epilepsy (PWE) and determine the types of resources that PWE would like to access through the community partner. Methods: A self-report needs assessment survey was administered to caregivers and PWE across the state of South Carolina during a community partner educational workshop (n= 20) and via secure software distributed through an email link (n= 54). Key findings: The most frequently reported challenges (>. 50%) were concerns about finding time to participate in epilepsy community activities, the personal safety of the PWE, finding social connections or social support, finding mental or behavioral health services, and work concerns. However, top ranked concerns centered on personal safety (27.8%), lack of insurance/not enough money to pay for epilepsy treatment (15.3%), and difficulty with daily management of epilepsy (13.9%). Participants reported likely engagement with the epilepsy community partner via in-person meetings, over the phone, and through social media contacts; however, there were differences between PWE and caregivers regarding preferences for communication. Almost 60% endorsed that they would likely participate in a brief program to learn skills to manage their epilepsy daily. Significance: Persons with epilepsy in South Carolina continue to have many unmet needs and would access resources, if available, from a state-wide epilepsy community partner via various modes of communication.