Masters of Science - Msc (Physiotherapy) / Rehabilitation services have been described as being necessary to maximize patient independence in order to enable them to participate fully in their communities. The Aim of the study was based on the problem statement and the research question, this study aims at exploring rehabilitation professionals' views on the experiences of patients with physical disabilities accessing CHCs in the Western. The objectives of the study were to explore the views of rehabilitation professionals regarding experiences by patients accessing rehabilitation services at the Community Health Centres (CHCs) in the Western Cape and to reach health experts consensus on how rehabilitation services should be provided at the CHCs based on the outcomes of objective 1. Methodology: This study used an exploratory design that used qualitative methods for data collection (workshops and focus group discussions (FGDs) and a Delphi study. The study was conducted at purposively selected CHCs in the Western Cape. The population in this study included all rehabilitation professionals who provide rehabilitation services in the CHCs, who were invited to participate in the study. Data collection: In the qualitative and the Delphi study, data was collected through workshops, focus group discussions and emails respectively. Data analysis: The workshops and the FGDs were audio recorded and then transcribed verbatim for content analysis.

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

The major of this study is to examine human resource professionals¡¦ competencies in car manufacturing industry and identify their affectability.This study perceived 20 competencies in four domains: strategic human resource expertise, general human resource functional expertise, self-development and support & service for employee to examine their importance through the Analytical Hierarchy Process, AHP.The results of this study indicate that the HRM expert of car manufacturing industry weighting the strategic human resource expertise with 51.1% related to the other three domains, general human resource functional expertise with 21.8%, self-development 10.5% and weighting support & service for employee for 16.7%.The result emphasizes the importance of strategic human resource expertise and the general human resource functional expertise follows. The HRM competencies in Taiwan are still ranged in training and development of employee, usage of HRM information system, performance review and compensations & benefits. But the experts reach the common consensus that the strategic human resource expertise will be the most important competency for the requirement as the circumstance changing.

This study aims to discover how Korean English language teachers navigate and negotiate their professional identities as they were immersed in the U.S. TESOL program. They would ultimately end up teaching English in Korea upon completing the U.S. TESOL program. For this purpose, this study examines the following research questions: (1) How did their experiences influence their teaching identities? (2) How do they come to reconstruct their teachers’ identities as a result of being matriculated in the U.S. Ph.D. TESOL program? And (3) how would they imagine their professional identities as Korean NNES professionals for their future teaching in Korea? In order to explore Korean NNES professionals’ identity changes, I used critical theory, as an epistemological consideration and narrative inquiry, as a methodological tool. I integrated the qualitative methods for the substantial investigation of different aspects of language ideologies through multiple sources: (1) casual conversation, (2) autobiographical accounts, (3) virtual discussions through blog entries, (4) in-depth interviews, and (5) E-interviews. I used a hermeneutic process to analyze data of the Korean NNES professionals’ identity constructions. From K-12 through graduate program, English was one of the gatekeepers and a form of capital for the participants in Korean society. The implementation of English-only classes led the participants, as NNES professionals, to be marginalized from English language education in Korea due to their lack of proficiency in English. The participants ended up enrolling in a U.S. TESOL program to gain U.S. degrees, to increase their oral proficiency of English, and to understand the theoretical background of TESOL. As the participants engaged in community of practice, they became members in an academic community, transformed their perceptions of English and of their teaching, and had constructed their hybrid teacher identities. The findings provide insights into experiences that would affect NNES professionals’ identity construction, paying attention to processes of ideological influences upon their beliefs and attitudes toward English language education in Korea and in the U.S. This study has implications for restructuring curricula in TESOL programs because its findings inform educators about NNES teacher candidates’ experiences and perspectives on English language education. / Gloria Park, Ph.D. Jeannine M. Fontaine, Ph.D. Lisya Seloni, Ph.D.

The process of recovery from addiction is a multifaceted process that involves the efforts of clients, professionals and the broader community. Additional challenges to recovery are present for individuals who use solvents. This study investigates how professionals, involved in the provision of services to clientele who use solvents, understand the process of healing in their collaborative work. Using a narrative methodology, semi-­‐structured interviews were conducted with professionals employed in providing recovery-based services to individuals who use volatile solvents. The stories of these professionals demonstrate how they view their clients as “just like everyone else” despite what the dominant cultural story says about their possibilities for recovery. The professionals told stories which are in extreme opposition to the story of dominant culture and involved groupings of “us” (professionals) versus “them” (others). These stories, and how they were told, are discussed in relation to hope for professionals who provide health and housing services.

The process of recovery from addiction is a multifaceted process that involves the efforts of clients, professionals and the broader community. Additional challenges to recovery are present for individuals who use solvents. This study investigates how professionals, involved in the provision of services to clientele who use solvents, understand the process of healing in their collaborative work. Using a narrative methodology, semi-­‐structured interviews were conducted with professionals employed in providing recovery-based services to individuals who use volatile solvents. The stories of these professionals demonstrate how they view their clients as “just like everyone else” despite what the dominant cultural story says about their possibilities for recovery. The professionals told stories which are in extreme opposition to the story of dominant culture and involved groupings of “us” (professionals) versus “them” (others). These stories, and how they were told, are discussed in relation to hope for professionals who provide health and housing services.

Thesis (M. P. A.)--Texas State University-San Marcos, 2009. / "Spring 2009." Includes bibliographical references (leaves 66-70).

Leadership development is a widespread and burgeoning global enterprise, as well as a rapidly growing field of academic study. An estimated $50 billion is spent on leadership programmes annually (Kellerman, 2012) and yet, there is a large degree of confusion regarding what is known regarding optimal approaches, especially those that are tied to organisational outcomes. There is further confusion in terms of the evidence to reinforce such claims, as well as effective forms of measuring leadership, particularly after interventions. The aim of this dissertation is to address those two topics, as well as to assess the current state of literature in terms of leadership development for professionals. A novel methodology was employed called a systematic evidence analysis (SEA), which isolates multiple data sets and involves several stages and layers of analysis. This study involved three separate, but related literature reviews to generate these data sets. The first was a systematic review of leadership development for professionals in multiple domains that identified 56 studies. The second was a review of existing literature reviews on leadership development for physicians that included one non-systematic and six systematic reviews. The third was a systematic review of leadership development for physicians that included 25 studies. A validated instrument, the Medical Education Research Study Quality Instrument (MERSQI), was applied to each of the 25 aforementioned studies to critique their quality. Categories of evidence groupings were then devised based on commonalities among the included studies’ designs. The categories of evidence are: strong, good, moderate, limited, and anecdotal. Further stages of analysis involved investigating two of the conclusions from the best available studies in detail, as well as developing a prototype theoretical model of leadership development and evaluation. The results are that the overall quality of literature is quite low. None of the 25 studies qualifies as strong evidence, two are good evidence calibre, four are moderate, and the remaining 19 are either of either limited or anecdotal quality. The overall mean was in the anecdotal calibre range. Likewise, there were common flaws in the seven literature reviews that were analysed, including failing to tier the findings and conclusions according to the quality of evidence. Conclusions from the strong and moderate evidence studies include that workshops followed by videotaped simulations with expert feedback can improve observable leadership behaviour and contribute to self-awareness. Action-learning is effective in enabling participants to achieve organisational and benefit to patients/clients outcomes, among others. Leadership development has been found to lead to a variety of individual outcomes, such as increased confidence, self-efficacy, and career advancement. Further analysis revealed that Knowles’s (1984) principles of adult education is perhaps the most common educational theory applied to leadership development design. This thesis adapted and expanded his theory by adding two principles, as well as providing examples from the included studies. A second finding was explored in detail, which is the collection of factors before, during, and after interventions that facilitate or inhibit the application of leadership following programmes. These are important not only to enhance the impact of programmes, but to avoid common pitfalls that led several programmes to fail. The beginnings of a theoretical model are offered concerning the cardinal and complementary functions of different developmental activities, which can maximise their utility, especially in reference to specific programme objectives. Another product of the systematic evidence analysis is an outcomes-based prototype theoretical model of leadership design and evaluation. Finally, elements of quality research design and evaluation are presented, as is an overarching proposal to ameliorate the thin nature of the evidence in the field. The conclusions suggest that the state of the literature in the field needs to be improved. This can be done through a combination of stronger individual study and literature review research designs, better reporting, and tiered findings and conclusions based on the quality of the evidence. Outstanding specific gaps in, or extensions of, the knowledge base are included. This thesis provides a clear and transparent elucidation of what is known in terms of optimal leadership development for professionals and the evidence to reinforce it, which can potentially inform practitioners and serve as the foundation for further research. Similarly, those designing and delivering programmes can potentially use aspects of the two conclusions explored, as well as the two theoretical models, to guide their interventions. The intention is that doing so could increase the impact of programmes, as demonstrated by improved outcomes.

One of the challenges for a manager in a creative profession is how to turn the creative energy of the designers into profitable energy for the company. Creativity and productivity are frequently seen as opposing forces, therefore trying to simultaneously nurture both the innovation and the efficiency of a creative design team can become a frustrating balancing act for managers of these organisations. This research demonstrates how the performance of creative people can be aligned to the commercial goals of a design organisation, and that the perceived clash between creativity and productivity is a result of an incompatibility between the creative style of the company and the management techniques being employed. Executives and employees from fifteen organisations of varying levels of success and creativity, across a spectrum of creative design professions, were interviewed regarding how they accommodate a range of productivity and creativity indicators. In analysing the findings qualitatively, it was discovered that rather than one fixed answer to this question, a range of management techniques are applied and many different creative styles are employed. The research findings show that identifying the creative style of the organisation and the appropriate management technique to match is critical in overcoming this perceived paradox. It provides a diagnostic tool for the creative design organisation to enable them to establish where they are on a spectrum of creativity, or decide where they want to be strategically, and then either adapt or adopt an appropriate management technique to complement rather than constrain their creative style. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2013. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / MBA / Unrestricted

Class of 2012 Abstract / Specific Aims: The goal of this project was to assess perceptions of medication reconciliation from medical professionals who perform them. Specific areas of interest included the perceived: amount of time spent on medication reconciliation; process complexity; and effectiveness of the current process. Opinions concerning the use of alternative processes were also solicited. Methods: This prospective qualitative study involved four focus group sessions at one tertiary referral teaching hospital in Tucson, Arizona. Nurses involved in admissions medication reconciliation in the emergency department were invited to participate, and their perceptions were categorized and summarized. Main Results: Participants reported a range of times to complete the medication reconciliation from zero to greater than 20 minutes. According to the participants, the time spent on each patient depended on patients’ medication knowledge and the complexity of their regimens. Participants wanted the medication list entry screen to be easier to use, and they also suggested patients’ medication lists from previous visits and from outpatient clinics associated with the medical center be easily accessible. Participants felt that emergency triage may not be the most ideal time in which to perform medication reconciliation, and they expressed concerns about accuracy of these medication lists. While some were interested in the possibility of using a patient medication database and expected that it would improve accuracy and save time, others were less open to a perceived additional step. Concusions: Participants provided suggestions for changes in the current medication reconciliation process that they feel could improve patient satisfaction and increase efficiency.