ECDL produktų diegimo Lietuvos rinkoje galimybių įvertinimas. / The Research of new ECDL Products Introduction in the Lithuanian Market.

Depuis 2002, la lutte contre l'insécurité routière est devenue une priorité nationale. Cette dernière s'est traduite par une politique répressive dite de « tolérance zéro » à l'égard des contrevenants et délinquants au Code de la route. Cette répression, à la fois administrative et pénale peut cependant se heurter à certaines difficultés lorsque l'infraction revêt un caractère d'extranéité, car commise par un conducteur titulaire d'un permis de conduire délivré par une autorité étrangère ou à l'aide d'un véhicule immatriculé à l'étranger. L'absence ou quasi-absence de répression de ces infractions, outre ses conséquences sur l'insécurité routière, est source d'un profond sentiment d'inégalité tout particulièrement dans les zones transfrontières et nécessite donc de nouvelles réponses. Sur le plan administratif, ces nouvelles réponses résident entre autres dans l'extension de la portée transfrontalière d'une mesure administrative mais également par le développement d'un permis de conduire à points propre à l'Union Européenne. Sur le plan pénal, ces nouvelles réponses passent par une coopération renforcée entre les États afin de pouvoir identifier les propriétaires de véhicules dans les cas où le véhicule n'est pas intercepté par les forces de l'ordre. L'instauration de systèmes automatisés de contrôle de la circulation routière nécessite de la part des États et de l'Union européenne un développement de l'échange transfrontalier d'informations. / Fighting to achieve road safety has been a top national priority since 2002. It has led to the so-called « zero-tolerance » policy with highway code delinquents and traffic offenders. This repression which is both administrative and penal may however prove problematic should the offence bear an extraneous aspect, when it is committed by a driver with a foreign driving licence or when the vehicle was registered abroad. That such offences never or quasi-never be punished besides the consequences on road safety, gives rise to a deep feeling of inequality particularly in cross-border areas and therefore calls for new answers. Administratively speaking, the new answers lie, among other things, in a widening of the cross-border range of administrative measures, but also in developing a driving licence with a penalty point system specific to the EU. Penally speaking such new answers suppose a closer cooperation among states so as to be able to identify vehicle owners should the vehicle fail to be intercepted by the police. Introducing automated control systems of road traffic requires that states and the EU increase cross-border information exchange.

Background: The Swedish driving licence test is a criterion-referenced test resulting in a pass or fail. It currently consists of two parts - a theory test with 65 multiple-choice items and a practical driving test where at least 25 minutes are spent driving in traffic. It is a high-stakes test in the sense that the results are used to determine whether the test-taker should be allowed to drive a car without supervision. As the only other requirements for obtaining a licence is a few hours of hazard education (and a short introduction if you intend to drive with a lay instructor) it is important that the test result, in terms of pass or fail, is reliable and valid. If this is not the case it could have detrimental effects on traffic safety. Examining all relevant aspects is beyond the scope of this licentiate thesis so I have focused on reliability. Methods Reliability for both the theoretical and practical test results was examined. As these are very different types of tests the types of reliability examined also differed. In order to examine inter-rater reliability of the driving test 83 examiners were accompanied by one of five selected supervising examiners for a day of tests. All in all 535 tests were conducted with two examiners assessing the same performance. At the end of the day the examiners compared notes and tried to determine the reason for any inconsistencies. Both examiners and students also filled in questionnaires with questions about background and preparation. As for studying decision consistency and decision accuracy of the theory test, three test versions (a total of around 12,000 tests) were examined with the help of methods devised by Subkoviak (Subkoviak, 1976, 1988) and Hanson & Brennan (Brennan, 2004; Hanson & Brennan, 1990). Results The results from two research studies concerning reliability were presented. Study I focused on inter-rater reliability in the driving test and in 93 per cent of cases the examiners made the same assessment. For the tests where their opinions differed there was no correlation to any of the background variables or other variables examined except for three, which had logical explanations and did not constitute a problem. Although there were cases where the differences were due to different stances on matters of interpretation the most common suggested cause was the placement in the car (back seat vs. front seat). Although the supervising examiners gave both praise and criticism as to how the test was carried out the study does not answer the question whether the tests were equal in terms of composition and difficulty. In Study II the focus was on decision consistency and decision accuracy in the theory test. Three versions of the theory tests were examined and, on the whole, found to be fairly similar in terms of item difficulty and score distribution, but the mean was so close to the cut-score (i.e. the score required to pass) that the pass rate differed somewhat between versions. Agreement coefficients were around .80 for all test versions (between .79 and .82 depending on method). Classification accuracy indicated an .87 probability of a correct classification. Conclusion It is important to examine the reliability and validity of the driving licence test since a misclassification can have serious consequences in terms of traffic safety. In the studies included here the rate of agreement between examiners is deemed as satisfactory. It would be preferable if the classification consistency and classification accuracy, as estimated by the methods used, were higher for the theory test, given its importance. While reliability in terms of agreement between raters/examiners or consistency and accuracy of classification are routinely examined in other contexts, such as large-scale educational testing, this is not often done for the driving licence tests. At the same time, the methods used here can be transferred to contexts where such properties are generally not examined. Collecting information about test-takers and examiners, like in Study I, can provide evidence concerning possible bias. Examining to what extent decisions are consistent is one important aspect of collecting evidence that shows that test results can be used to draw conclusions about driver competence. Still, regardless of outcome, validation is a process that never ends. There is always reason to examine various aspects and make further improvements. There are also many other relevant aspects to examine. A prerequisite for the validity of the score interpretation of a criterion-referenced test like this one is that the cut-score is appropriate and the content relevant. This should therefore be the subject of further research as the validation process continues.

The objective of this study is to analyse the formation of older and ageing drivers in Swedish transportation policy. Documents from the Swedish Government, the Riksdag and, in a few cases, public authorities and newspapers are analysed. The discourse-analytical framework is inspired by Foucault’s archaeology, which is used as a tool box. The study identifies/constructs three periods in the formation of older and ageing drivers. In the first period (1934–1967) there is a discursive gap between statements about driver selection and traffic safety. Driving in ‘old age’ is a problem for medical expertise and mandatory tests are proposed. The proposals are rejected, as older people’s driving is not a problem in the discourse of traffic safety. In the second period (1967–1991) ‘older drivers’ is made up as a category of interest. ‘Older drivers’ become an accident population in the discourse of traffic safety due to changes in statistical practices. In the third period (1991–2006) a discourse of older peo-ple’s mobility is appearing alongside the discourses of traffic safety and driver selection. Moreover, the study traces how the statements of older and ageing drivers are ordered by more general ideas of the aged and ageing. Double discourses of ageing are followed by a dichotomisation in ‘healthy’ and ‘sick older drivers’ in the 1990s. The idea of an abrupt exit in old age alters to a more gradual exit, in its turn followed by challenging the very idea of exit.

Det ingår i ögonsjuksköterskans arbetsuppgifter att mäta synfunktioner och att informera om undersökningsresultat. Det kan kännas svårt att lämna information om att patientens syn inte uppfyller gällande synkrav för körkort, då informationen kan påverka patientens livskvalité negativt. Syftet med studien var att undersöka ögonsjuksköterskans erfarenheter av att informera patienten om att synkraven för körkort inte uppnås. En intervjustudie genomfördes där nio ögonsjuksköterskor medverkade. En kvalitativ innehållsanalys utfördes sedan på insamlad data. Tre kategorier framkom: personcentrering vid informationstillfället, patientreaktioner påverkar informationstillfället samt omständigheter påverkar informationstillfället. Resultatet visade att ögonsjuksköterskorna var djupt involverade i körkortsärenden och de flesta kände ansvar att informera patienten när synkraven för körkort inte uppnåddes. Genom ett personcentrerat förhållningsätt försökte ögonsjuksköterskorna skapa de bästa förutsättningarna för att göra patienten delaktig. Informationstillfället påverkades av patientens reaktioner samt andra omständigheter så som vilken diagnos patienten hade och vilka konsekvenser informationen skulle kunna innebära för patienten. Det visade sig vara av betydelse att ögonsjuksköterskorna hade goda kunskaper i handhavande och bedömningar i körkortsfrågor varför sådan utbildning rekommenderas. Oftalmologiska verksamheter bör avsätta tillräckligt med tid till dessa patientbesök då även detta visade sig vara viktigt. För att ytterligare förbättra den oftalmologiska omvårdnaden är det angeläget att i kommande studier belysa patientens upplevelse av informationstillfället. / It is part of the ophthalmic nurse’s duties to measure functions relating to sight and to report outcomes of such examinations. It can feel difficult to deliver information about sight no longer being sufficient to fulfil the requirements for a drivers’ licence, as such information may negatively impact quality of life. The purpose of this study was to examine the experiences of ophthalmic nurses in informing the patients that their vision no longer fulfils the requirements for holding a drivers’ license. The study comprised interviews in which nine nurses participated. A qualitative content analysis of the collected data was conducted. Three categories emerged: person-centering the delivery of information, reactions of patient affect the delivery of information and circumstances affect the delivery of information. The results show that ophthalmic nurses were deeply involved in drivers’ licence cases, and most of them felt a responsibility to inform patients when their sight fell short of requirements for drivers’ license. By means of a person-centred approach, nurses attempted to create the best conditions in which to involve patients. The time of information delivery was impacted by the reactions of patients, as well as other circumstances such as the type of patient diagnosis and the consequences this information might have for the patient. It was deemed significant that ophthalmic nurses had good knowledge of process and judgment in matters of drivers’ licenses, why such education is recommended. Sufficient time for those meetings was shown to be important. In order to further improve ophthalmic caring, it is important to also highlight the patients’ experience at the time of information.

This study investigated the development and implementation of methods and procedures as generic administrative function, with specific reference to issuing drivers licences in the Driving Licence Testing Centre of the Madibeng Municipality. The contribution of the study to the discipline, Public Administration, is found in the basic framework for the development of standard operating procedures. Furthermore, a set of standard operating procedures to issue drivers licences was developed. In essence, the systems theory inspired the design of the basic framework for the development of standard operating procedures, while the phases of the ADDIE instructional design model simplified the drafting of the standardised procedures to issue drivers licences. Although the empirical data collection commenced with a quantitative research methodology, a qualitative dimension was required to fully understand the problem why the Driving Licence Testing Centre at the Madibeng Municipality lacks contemporary and relevant standard operating procedures to issue drivers licences. A mixed methods research design was eventually adopted to explore the phenomenon because a second research method was needed to strengthen the primary research method. Data was initially collected through a questionnaire, and follow-up personal interviews were conducted to clarify issues that were not responded to or unclear from the self-administered questionnaires. This conforms to pragmatism - the research philosophy adopted for this study because predetermined research questions dictated the path towards realising the research objectives. Since this study utilised a mixture of qualitative and quantitative research designs, the research methodology was shaped by various strategies, techniques and data collection instruments, such as literature reviews, document analyses to draft the standardised procedures, case study (Driving Licence Testing Centre of the Madibeng Municipality), a structured questionnaire and semi-structured personal interviews. In this study, the administrative generic function of determining and revision of methods and procedures was referred to as ‘methods and procedures’. Within the context of Public Administration, the study revealed that methods and procedures specify the sequence, processes and techniques necessary to execute certain actions and operations during service delivery. Moreover, it states how tasks must be exercised within the public sector, as well as indicate who must take action. Consequently, methods and procedures are built into all public service activities, regardless whether these are administrative, functional or auxiliary activities. It was concluded that methods and procedures form an indispensable part of any public institution’s activities. However, the study focused on methods and procedures to issue drivers licences at the Driving Licence Testing Centre of the Madibeng Municipality. The study realised its overall aim when recommendations were made to the Driving Licence Testing Centre of the Madibeng Municipality of how to develop and implement standard operating procedures to issue drivers licences. In essence, it was recommended that the basic framework for the development of standard operating procedures be applied when updating and/or developing methods and procedures. Moreover, it was recommended that the set of newly developed standard operating procedures be adopted and implemented. It was also suggested, amongst other proposals, that the management and the staff at the Centre engage from the initial stages in the procedure development process, that clear steps and instructions of how to reach organisational short-term objectives, be specified, and caution be taken by the Madibeng Municipality against the implementation of an overly multifaceted internal control system at its Driving Licence Testing Centre. / Department of Public Administration and Management / D.Admin. (Public Administration)