TEACHER SUPPORT An exploration of the concept of teacher support, investigating how secondary comprehensive school teachers perceive their classroom needs and define the support required to fulfil their professional role. DIANA WILSON Through a combination of narrative and ethnographic research methods, this research explores how secondary comprehensive school teachers perceive their professional role and define the support which they need to fulfil their role in the context of their classroom work. Building on research into the professional lives of primary school teachers carried out by Nias (1989) and Woods et al. (1997) and on the work of Poppleton and Riseborough (1988, 1990, 1991), I argue from the data that secondary school teachers have a dual commitment to the communication of subject and to the individual needs of pupils. A perceived inability to fulfil successfully this dual role within the constraints under which they are working causes teachers profound stress and distress, and may lead to distorted behaviour and confrontational situations. I explore the disjuncture which occurs when the gap between the self which the teacher strives to project (the conative self) and the professional persona which pupils and colleagues perceive (the apparent self) becomes too great. Support is defined as provisions which facilitate the expression of the conative professional self. The literature on teacher support and the perceptions of fieldwork participants suggest that collaborative initiatives based on shared values and purposes offer potential for fruitful development. This is also explored in the context of a whole school discipline system and a small self-help group. Ambivalent attitudes towards both collaboration and support are uncovered.

Bakgrund: Andelen äldre i befolkningen kommer att öka och som en konsekvens av detta ökar också antalet patienter med bensår. Inom vården av dessa patienter är specialistsjukvårdens roll att sätta in riktade behandlingar för en ökad sårläkning och minska lidandet för patienten. Inom den kommunala hemsjukvården är det distriktssköterskan som har huvudansvaret för patienter med bensår. Samarbete runt dessa patienter är nödvändigt. Syfte: Syftet med studien var att beskriva uppfattningar hos distriktssköterskor inom kommunal hemsjukvård om deras samarbete med specialistsjukvård avseende patienter med bensår. Metod: En kvalitativ ansats med fenomenografisk metod har använts i studien. Datamaterialet bygger på intervjuer som genomfördes med elva distriktssköterskor. Resultat: Ur analysen av datamaterialet framträdde tre beskrivningskategorier; möjligheter att konsultera ger trygghet, bristande förståelse för unika förutsättningar och utveckla ökad samsyn; med åtta uppfattningar. Konklusion: Det som framkommer i studien är hur viktig trygghet, förståelse och samsyn är för att ett samarbete ska uppfattas som positivt. Denna studie visar att det finns potential för förbättring av samarbetet och därmed en ökad förståelse för distriktssköterskornas perspektiv inom omvårdanden av patienter med bensår. / Background: The population of elderly will increase and as a consequence patients with leg ulcers will also increase. In caring for patients with leg ulcers the specialist healthcare uses targeted therapies with the purpose of enhanced wound healing and reduce the suffering for the patient. The district nurse has the main responsibility for patients with leg ulcers in the municipal home care and collaboration around these patients is nessecary. Aim: The aim of this study was to describe the perception of district nurses in the municipal home care of their collaboration with specialist healthcare, regarding patients with leg ulcers. Method: A qualitative approach with a phenomenographic method was used.  The data was collected through interviews with eleven district nurses in municipal home care. Results: Three major description categories emerged; opportunities to consult offers assurance lack of understanding for the unique conditions and procuring a greater consensus; with eight perceptions. Conclusion: This study showed how important assurance, understanding and consensus is for the collaboration to be perceived as positive and that there is potential to improve the collaboration. The study contributes to a better understanding for the district nurses perspective concerning the care for patients with leg ulcers.

In 1992,Virginia created a system of care that was designed to address the needs of troubled youth and their families. Known as the Comprehensive Services Act, the legislation mandated that family and service system interactions were intended to be child-centered, family-focused, and collaborative in nature. Whether at the assessment, planning, implementation, or evaluation phase of a family's individualized service plan unfolding, strong collaborative linkages between families and professionals were encouraged. The present study focuses on determining perceptions of collaborative experiences from the point of view of parents of emotionally disturbed children who have been served by the system of care's Family Assessment and Planning Team, and the perceptions of experiences of professionals who comprise that team. In addition, the study will attempt to show a relationship between a parent's collaborative experiences and a child's treatment outcome. Data suggest that differences exist between parents and professionals in their perceptions of collaborative experiences during the FAPT process, and that the group to which one belongs is a determining factor in shaping those perceptions. Secondly, no statistically significant relationship was found between parent perceptions of collaborative experiences and treatment outcomes of their children. [App. C and D removed per Dean DePauw, 3/28/2014, GMc] / Ed. D.

Medication management constitutes a large part of registered nurses' (RNs) daily work in municipal elderly care. They are responsible for monitoring multimorbid older persons with extensive treatments, and they often work alone, without daily access to physicians. RNs’ drug monitoring is, in this thesis, based on the concept of pharmacovigilance. Pharmacovigilance is about the science and the activities that aim to improve patient care and safety in drug use, that is, to detect, assess, understand and prevent drug-related problems. The overall aim was to explore conditions for pharmacovigilance from a nursing perspective, focusing on implications of RNs’ competence and use of a computerized decision support system (CDSS). Both quantitative and qualitative research methods were used, including a questionnaire (I), focus group discussions (II), individual interviews (III) and an intervention study (IV). In total 216 RNs and 54 older persons participated from 13 special accommodations, located in three different regions. RNs who had completed further training in pharmacovigilance rated their medication competence higher than those who had not. However, there was no difference between groups in the number of pharmacovigilant activities they performed in clinical practice (I). The RNs appeared to act as “vigilant intermediaries” in drug treatment. They depended on the nursing staff's observations of drug-related problems. The RNs continuously controlled the work of staff and physicians, and attempted to compensate for shortcomings in competence, accessibility and continuity (II). RNs’ use of a CDSS was found to affect drug monitoring, including aspects of time, responsibility, standardization of the work, as well as access to knowledge and opportunities for evidence-based care (III). The CDSS detected significantly more drug-related problems when conducting medication reviews, than the RNs did. Nevertheless, this did not result in any significant improvement in the quality of drug use in the follow up, three and six months later (IV). This thesis contributes to the recognition of pharmacovigilance from a nursing perspective. Increased medication competence seems to be insufficient to generate pharmacovigilant activities. RNs depend on other health care professionals and organizational conditions in order to perform their work. A CDSS has the potential to support RNs, both in structured medication reviews and in daily clinical practice. Inter-professional collaboration is crucial, with or without a CDSS, and the entire team needs to be aware of and take responsibility. Other important conditions is the existence of well-functioning communication channels, competence across the team, and established procedures based on current guidelines.

The purpose of this qualitative study is to understand how the professions within the human service organization experience and describe inter-professional collaboration. The questions that the study discusses is the negative versus positive aspects that inter-professional collaboration entails and what conditions that are necessary for such cooperation to work.   The results are analysed with the help of Blumers (1969) theory of symbolic interactionism and Goffmans (2014) theory of team and appearance. The empirical material for the study is collected from semi-structured interviews with eight informants: two counsellors from the neuropsychiatric unit, two counsellors from kids and youth psychiatry, one counsellor and one sexologist from the youth clinic and three school nurses from different schools. The studies informants find that the inter-professional collaboration is crucial for the care that is provided for the patients. The informants believe that the consequences of non-cooperation would be longer treatments, misconceptions among the professionals and reduced overall visibility of patients' needs. The difficulties that the studies informants find with the cooperation are mainly the cooperation between different organizations. The difficulties include the different routines, loyalties, laws and objectives that organizations have. The conditions that the studies informants think is needed for a working inter-professional collaboration are effective communication, knowledge about each others professions, the staff’s willingness to cooperate and to increase learning about inter-professional collaboration.

Children with developmental disabilities often exhibit problem behaviors, such as physical aggression, tantrums, and self-injury. These behaviors can detrimentally affect the family's lifestyle. Research has shown that such families should take an active role in developing and implementing a behavior plan. However, families need support to promote effective changes in their child's behavior. This study investigated how a positive behavior support workshop that used the Family HOPE program affected behavior problems and parent/child relationships in families with children with developmental disabilities. Parents of eight children with disabilities and challenging behaviors participated in this research. A Project Director and Principal Investigator taught the six systematic steps to changing behavior. They were assisted by graduate students who provided behavioral education to families, helped families complete a Functional Behavioral Assessment, appropriate interventions, and analyze intervention data. The Parent-Child Relationship Inventory (PCRI) and Scales of Independent Behavior-Revised (SIB-R) were given to the families to study the effects of parent trainings on parents' perceptions of limit setting, parental support, and the frequency and severity of problem behaviors. Results showed a significant difference in the pre- and post-intervention data on limit setting and parental support. There were no significant differences in the frequency and severity of problem behaviors on the SIB-R. Implications for further research are suggested concerning teaching parents Positive Behavior Support principles in a workshop setting.

Darbe atlikta teorinė tėvų pasitenkinimo logopedo teikiamomis paslaugomis bei pagalba vaikui ir šeimai ikimokykliniame amžiuje probleminių klausimų analizė Lietuvoje ir lyginimas su kitomis Europos šalimis. Tyrimo tikslas – įvertinti tėvų, auginančių ikimokyklinio amžiaus vaikus, pasitenkinimą logopedine pagalba. Taikyti teoriniai (mokslinės literatūros ir dokumentų, antrinių dokumentų analizė), empiriniai (anketinė apklausa ir interviu) bei statistiniai metodai. Statistinėms tendencijoms nustatyti, taikyti aprašomosios statistikos metodai (absoliutiniai ir santykiniai dažniai). Anketinėje apklausoje dalyvavo198 tėvai, auginantys ikimokyklinio amžiaus vaikus, kurie gauna logopedinę pagalbą ikimokyklinėse įstaigose. Interviu raštu dalyvavo 4 respondentai (N=4), siekiant išsiaiškinti nuomonių bei nuostatų į teikiamą pagalbą ir pasitenkinimą ja turiniui atskleisti. Svarbiausios empirinio tyrimo išvados: 1. Mokslinės literatūros bei dokumentų analizė rodo, kad Lietuva, orientuodamasi į Europos Sąjungos švietimo politiką, pereina nuo orientacijos į siaurą pagalbą vaikui, grindžiamą tradicine institucine logopedo pagalba vaikui ugdymo įstaigoje, prie sisteminio ugdymo modelio, kai pagalba teikiama ne tik vaikui, bet ir šeimoms, įtraukiant jas į vaiko ugdymą. 2. Tyrimo rezultatų analizė leidžia teigti, kad dauguma tėvų teigiamai vertina logopedinę pagalbą vaikui. Itin gerai vertinamas bendravimas su vaiku bei logopedo taikomi pagalbos būdai. Tyrime dalyvavę tėvai teigiamai... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / The theoretical part of the research analyses the main focuses concerning parents' satisfaction with the services provided by speech therapists and support to their children as well as to the families in pre-school in Lithuania as well as in other European countries. The aim of the research is to assess the parents’ raising up pre-school children, who need speech therapy, satisfaction with speech therapy support. There were applied the theoretical analysis of literature and documents, secondary analysis of documents as well as empirical (questionnaire and interview), and statistical methods. Methods of descriptive statistics (absolute and relative frequencies) were applied for statistical analysis. The sample of research (questionnaire survey) consists of 198 parents with pre-school children, who receive speech therapy at pre-school, as well as 4 respondents who took part in an interview in order to ascertain the views and attitudes towards the given support and its contents. The main conclusions of the empirical part of the research: 1. The scientific literature and analysis of documents show that Lithuania, focusing on the European Union's education policy, shifts from a narrow orientation to the child‘s and the support to him/her, based on the traditional institutional assistance of a speech therapist to a child in educational institution, to a systemic educational model focused not only on a child but also on a families, involved into the child's education. 2. The... [to full text]

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Hensikten: med denne studien er å få kunnskap om lærernes og ledelsens oppfatninger av, og erfaringer med, tverrprofesjonelt samarbeid. Deres oppfatning av behovet for, og muligheter for, å implementere tverrprofesjonelt samarbeid i arbeidet med skolens psykososiale miljø, søkes også belyst. I tillegg undersøkes om motivasjon for et strukturert samarbeid påvirkes av tidligere erfaringer. Metode:Fenomenografi ble brukt som tilnærmingsmetode og fokusgruppeintervju som datainnsamlingsmetode. 15 ansatte i en ungdomsskole, fordelt på tre fokusgrupper, deltok i studien. Resultat:Det ble identifisert tre beskrivelseskategorier og seks delkategorier. Begrepet tverrprofesjonelt samarbeid oppfattes som lite kjent. Samarbeid med andre profesjoner beskrives som lite, til dels besværlig og preget av tilfeldigheter. Skolens rolle i forpliktende samarbeid oppfattes å forvanskes ved at det i utgangspunktet stilles mange krav til skolen. Det er vanskelig å prioritere mellom fagopplæring og tema som sorterer under sosial kompetanse og trivselsgivende tiltak. Motivasjon for samarbeid begrunnes i behov for økt kunnskap om faktorer som påvirker elevenes individuelle og totale opplevelse av skolen. De fokusgruppene som har hatt befatning med et strukturert tverrprofesjonelt samarbeid tilkjennegir en mer positiv holdning til samarbeid med andre profesjoner. Formelle rammer oppfattes som en begrensende faktor for samarbeid. Konklusjoner: Funn i studien indikerer et behov for å avklare meningsinnhold i begrep som beskriver samarbeid mellom ulike profesjoner og sektorer. Metoder og formelt grunnlag for å utvikle et godt psykososialt miljø i et tverrprofesjonelt perspektiv etterlyses. Det å ha en positiv erfaring fra et strukturert tverrprofesjonelt samarbeid, øker motivasjonen for ytterligere samarbeid. / Purpose: This study aimed to increase knowledge about teachers' and management's perceptions of, and experiences with, the concept of interprofessional collaboration. The study also sought to determine perceptions about the need and opportunity for implementing interprofessional collaboration in their work environment. Finally, the studie investigated whether past experiences influence motivation for structured cooperation. Method: This study used a fenomenografic approach and interviewed 15 employees of a Norwegian junior high school. Study participants were divided into three focus groups; participants from the management, teachers with experience from structured interprofessional collaboration and teachers without such experience. Results: Data analysis identified three categories and six subcategories. All participants described interprofessional collaboration as not well known and collaboration with other professions is described as rare, sometimes difficult, and random. They perceived the school's role in committed cooperation as difficult because it increases demands on the school. The study participants find prioritization between vocational training and topics that fall under the social skills difficult. Motivation for cooperation is based on a need for increased knowledge about the factors that influence students' individual and overall experience of school. Focus groups having greater experience with a structured interprofessional collaboratio, showed a more positive attitude toward cooperate with other professions. Participants perceived formal frameworks as a limiting factor for collaboration. Conclusions: This study showed a need to clarify the meaning of the term interprofessional collaboration. The school should work to develop a good psychosocial environment in an interprofessional perspective. A positive experience with structured interprofessional collaboration, increases motivation for further cooperation. / <p>ISBN 978-91-86739-35-5</p>

School-based professional learning communities (PLCs) have become an important means of “building capacity” among teachers in a wide variety of areas, including those with a subject focus. Very often, these PLCs are mandated by administration, and operate under an established structure. This paper describes an attempt by a mathematics coordinator and school level “lead’ teachers to establish relatively informal PLCs in mathematics in an effort to improve mathematics teaching, and thus student learning, in an environment that focused very much on literacy. The four PLCs created are discussed, as are the opportunities and the challenges that go with the relative freedom offered to the teachers. Sustainability is a central challenge to these groups.