The primary purpose of this study is to determine the nursing perceptions among prenursing students enrolled in a baccalaureate prenursing program. Objectives in the study included describing undergraduate baccalaureate prenursing student on selected demographic characteristics such as age, gender, ethnic background, etc., determining the perceptions of students about the nursing profession, and determining if a relationship existed between students' perceptions of nursing and selected personal characteristics such as classification, reason for choosing nursing, area of nursing practice most interested, etc. A total of 207 (66.35%) prenursing students enrolled in prerequisite courses for a baccalaureate nursing program participated in the study. Instrumentation consisted of a two-part researcher designed instrument, Cockrell-Punter Nursing Perceptions Scale Instrument. Data were obtained from students who were in a prenursing program of study and came to the prenursing advising office for counseling. The findings of the study indicated that prenursing students are unclear about their perceptions of the nursing profession, and direct experiences with the healthcare professions have an impact on students' decision making regarding nursing. The researcher concluded that most prenursing students recognize the need for career information about nursing, and the majority of students are willing to enroll in an Introduction to Nursing course even if for no academic credit. The researcher recommends that universities should consider implementing a Introduction to Nursing course, which includes a lecture and field experience component as an effective recruiting tool and for nursing programs to assist currently enrolled prenursing students to solidify their career choice. In addition, the researcher recommends that further research be done to follow the baccalaureate prenursing participants in this study through nursing school and into their early nursing career to compare prenursing students perceptions of nursing with their perceptions of nursing as senior nursing students and after 5 years of nursing practice.

This study was a secondary analysis of wave one data of the Rural Families Speak project, a multi-state longitudinal Agricultural Experiment Station project that focused on assessing changes in the well-being and functioning of rural low-income families in the context of welfare reform. Quantitative analysis was conducted to determine the housing situations of the families and the relationships of these factors with the family economic and cognitive well-being and employment circumstances of study participants. Discriminant analysis was used to develop a model to predict the employment circumstances (employed, not employed) of the participants. Housing costs usually take the first and largest portion of a family's budget, leaving the rest of the income to purchase food, clothing, health care needs, school fees, etc. Without supplemental assistance from family, friends, and government agencies, the housing costs for many of the families would be a burden to the family budget, limiting the funds available for human capital needs. Most participants in this wave of the study did not have housing costs greater than the government standard of 30% of monthly income. However, the majority of the families could not have afforded to pay fair market rents for housing in their geographic areas with their current monthly incomes. Variables included in the final model to predict the participant's employment status were the housing income adequacy of the family (fair market rent divided by monthly income), transportation assistance, child care assistance, Medicaid, TANF, and marital status. The model correctly classified over 70% of the cases. Family economic and cognitive well-being for rural low-income families was studied with housing tenure as the independent variable. Homeownership was found to increase the participant's level of family economic well-being, as measured by the perception of income adequacy and the family's total monthly income. Housing tenure was found to be independent of participant's health, community awareness, and life satisfaction. By tracking these families over time, the changes in their family economic well-being and their employment circumstances can be examined. Housing costs and circumstances can be monitored and analyzed for relationships to employment and family economic situations.

Employee performance appraisal is one of the most commonly used management tools in the United States. Over 90 percent of large organizations including 75 percent of state employment systems require some type of annual performance appraisal (Seldon, Ingraham & Jacobson, 2001). Performance appraisal is one of the most widely researched areas in industrial/organizational psychology (Murphy & Cleveland, 1993). However, the traditional research agenda has done little to improve the usefulness of performance appraisal as a managerial tool. Recent research has moved away from studies of rater accuracy and psychometric measures to themes of employee reactions towards performance appraisal as indicators of system satisfaction and efficacy. Employee perception of fairness of performance appraisal has been studied as a significant factor in employee acceptance and satisfaction of performance appraisal. This study investigated employee reactions to fairness of and satisfaction with an existing performance appraisal system utilizing a hypothesized four-factor model (Greenberg, 1993) of organizational justice as the theoretical basis. The underlying hypothesis was that the conceptualized four-factor model, which differentiated between the constructs of interactional and procedural justice, would best represent the underlying factor structure of the data. Data were obtained via a survey questionnaire from 440 participants from two organizations that were part of a large public employment system. Ten multi-item scales representing four factors of organizational justice and performance appraisal fairness and three scales indicating satisfaction were included. The findings of the study indicated that respondents perceived the performance appraisal system was to be fair as indicated by their agreement with 9 of the 10 scales used to measure reactions to fairness. The respondents also indicated their relative satisfaction with their most recent performance appraisal rating and with their supervisor. Less satisfaction (although not dissatisfaction) was indicated with the performance appraisal system overall. The conceptualized four-factor model was not found to represent the underlying factor structure substantially better than alternative plausible three-factor models. The best fit threefactor model, however, provided some support for the differentiation between procedural and interactional organizational justice factors, which is a distinction that has been debated in the organizational justice literature.

The purpose of this study was to determine program participants knowledge and perceptions of the effectiveness of the French Quarter Formosan Termite Program. The management of the Formosan subterranean termite is critical to the economic well-being of not only Louisiana, but the U.S. Estimates of property damage, repairs, and control measures exceed $1 billion per year in the U.S., of which $500 million is in Louisiana and $300 million is in the New Orleans area. In 1998, the LSU Agricultural Center, a statewide agricultural research and extension campus of Louisiana State University, in cooperation with the Agricultural Research Service, began a large area pilot test in New Orleans French Quarter. The goal of the program was to reduce densities of the Formosan termite and validate the effectiveness of area-wide management. Five years after the beginning of the program, data indicate that the Formosan termite population in this test area has been reduced by about 50%. Another aspect of the program was a termite management education program designed to teach and inform property owners and managers, about the Formosan termite. The major objective of this part of the project was to provide and deliver information designed to educate the public on the biology and control of the Formosan termite. The French Quarter program needed to be evaluated from the viewpoint of the participants of the study in order to assess their perceptions of the effectiveness of the program and to measure their knowledge of educational aspects of the program. All 225 property owners and managers in the original 15-block area of the French Quarter Program were surveyed with a 70.7% response rate. Based on results of the study, it was concluded that the majority of the participants thought that the program was important, effective, and should be continued and expanded to other areas of the French Quarter. Knowledge scores derived from specific survey questions indicated that the participants were knowledgeable about termite biology, identification, prevention, control, and management. Continued funding for both further research and education directed towards the Formosan subterranean termite is warranted based on the results of the study.

The purpose of this study was to examine the level of cultural competence among faculty teaching in baccalaureate nursing programs in Louisiana and to identify associated factors. A survey was mailed to all 313 faculty members identified as actively involved in teaching in any baccalaureate nursing program in Louisiana and 163 valid responses were obtained. The Cultural Diversity Questionnaire for Nurse Educators, a researcher designed instrument intended to measure cultural competence, was the instrument used. It included Likert-type items organized into five subscales representing the components of cultural competence according to Campinha- Bacotes model of cultural competence (i.e., cultural awareness, cultural knowledge, cultural skills, cultural encounters and cultural desire), and a sixth subscale on the teaching of trancultural nursing concepts. An index was developed for the respondents overall cultural competence, and each cultural competence subscale as well as for the transcultural teaching behaviors subscale. The categories used to interpret the responses were five, ranging from least favorable (i.e., <1.5 = strongly disagree) to most favorable (> 4.5 = strongly agree). The participants responses were in the agree response category for overall cultural competence, as well as for all subscale indexes, with the cultural awareness index being highest (4.14), and the cultural encounter index being lowest (3.56). Findings also indicated that the subscales cultural knowledge and cultural encounter explained 87% of the variance in overall cultural competence. The study results also indicated that a significant model does exist that enables the researcher to explain cultural competence on each subscale as well as overall cultural competence. The variable that had the highest positive correlation with each subscale index, as well as with the index of overall cultural competence, was continuing education in transcultural nursing within the previous five years. The nursing specialties womens health, childbearing nursing and community health were also associated with increasing the indexes on selected subscales. The researcher recommended faculty development programs on cultural competence and opportunities for cross cultural interaction as strategies for improving the overall cultural competence of nursing faculty. The researcher also encouraged further investigation of the differences in cultural competence among faculty in selected nursing specialties.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Calif., Dec. 1920. / Bibliography: p. 295-301.

Thesis (Ed. D.)--Teachers College, Columbia University, 1970. / Typescript; issued also on microfilm. Sponsor: Harold J. Noah. Dissertation Committee: James Kelly. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Xianggang Zhong wen da xue, 2002. / Dao shi: Lu Naigui jiao shou. 880-03 Includes bibliographical references (p. 356-364).

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1969. / eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis--Wisconsin. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 154-161).