Thesis (M.C.S.)--Regent College, Vancouver, BC, 2007. / Abstract and vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 177-187).

Magister Curationis - MCur / Background: Nurses, because of their close contact with these patients, are frequently victims of assault. The aim of the study is to explore and describe the lived experiences of nurses, who have been assaulted by patients at a Western Cape psychiatric hospital. Research Design: A qualitative approach, using a phenomenological research design was used to achieve the aim of the study. The target population was nurses, who are employed at the hospital under study. A purposive sampling, consisting of six nurses, was selected to participate in this study. Data were collected by means of unstructured interviews with nurses who met the inclusion criteria. Data saturation was reached after the sixth individual interview. The interviews were audio taped and transcribed, verbatim, and field notes were taken, as well. Collaizi’s method of data analysis was used to analyse the data and to identify themes and categories. The major themes that emerged were: Self-care incongruent to intrapersonal interest; Personal responses to trauma; Incongruence between patient behaviour and participant work experience; unprotected staff vulnerable to patient aggression; required and received supportive interventions. Ethical clearance was obtained from the Senate Ethics Committee at the University of the Western Cape. Permission to conduct the study was obtained from the Research Ethics Committee at a psychiatric hospital under study, as well as from the Department of Health, Western Cape. Participants were drawn from different units of the hospital. Findings: The findings revealed that nurses working at this psychiatric hospital frequently encounter assault and violence by patients, while providing care, to the extent that they view the workplace environment as unsafe and insecure. The way they experienced the assaults had some similarities; they all complained that they felt neglected by management after the assaults and that they experienced multiple bodily reactions to trauma. Recommendations: From the data gathered, it appeared that nurses were calling for support from those in authority, be it supervisors or hospital management. Some of the recommendations made by the researcher were: regular refresher courses on self-awareness training; counselling/debriefing; skills development workshops on management of aggression; and the feasibility of paying a special allowance to staff. Conclusion: The study revealed that lack of management support perpetuates the cycle of violence experienced, which, in most incidents, has a spill over effect in the personal lives of the nurses, who have been assaulted by patients. It is the researcher’s belief that nurses should be supported in this stressful environment.

Orientador: César Donizetti Pereira Leite / Banca: Carmen Maria Aguiar / Banca: Amanda Regina Gonçalves / Resumo: Experiência Audiovisual e Infância: em busca do que escapa ao primeiro olhar se apresenta como uma possibilidade de ampliar a compreensão das relações existentes entre a infância e a experiência audiovisual, para além da dimensão constitutiva dos processos de produção de subjetividades em nossa cultura. Dessa forma, passamos a considerar aquilo que escapa aos 'efeitos' que as mídias podem provocar nas crianças, olhando para as potencialidades que a infância/criança possui de encontrar espaços para reelaborar tal experiência. Diante disso, esse trabalho de pesquisa se propôs a refletir acerca dos modos de modulação e dos processos de produção de subjetividades inerentes à experiência audiovisual. Em nossa pesquisa, procuramos entender como, a partir desse contexto, as crianças buscam/encontram linhas de fuga para 'escapar', criar, recriar, inventar, reinventar outros e novos sentidos, profanar os sentidos considerados sagrados, mas que são dados/postos/definidos - modulados. Para tanto, partimos do projeto de pesquisa denominado Ação, Câmera, Luz: Entre imagens e olhares - Experiência de infâncias e montagens, que buscava pensar a experiência audiovisual desprovida das amarras da roteirização constitutiva da consagrada frase do cinema Luz, Câmera, Ação! - por meio da livre manipulação de filmadoras e câmeras fotográficas pelas crianças, privilegiando-se a ação. Dessa forma, o presente estudo preocupou-se com dois dos campos de ação previstos por este projeto de pesquisa, as sessões de filmes e os encontros destinados à produção imagética no espaço do SESI da cidade de Rio Claro/SP. Nessa direção, concebemos a pesquisa como experiência, na medida em que procuramos focar no que surge e emerge no decorrer da pesquisa, enfatizando o que faz sentido para as crianças, e não os indicativos que deram origem às nossas hipóteses iniciais / Abstract: Audiovisual Experience and Childhood: in search of what escapes from the first sight shows itself as a possibility of broadening the comprehension of the existing links between childhood and the audiovisual experience, beyond the constitutive dimension of processes of subjectivity production of our culture. This way, we then considered what escapes from the 'effects' media may provoke on children, looking at the potentials that childhood/child has for finding spaces to rework on such experience. Given this, the present research work proposes reflecting on modulation modes and processes of subjectivity production inherent to the audiovisual experience. In our research, we sought understanding how, from that context, children seek/find lines of flight to 'escape', create, recreate, invent, reinvent other and new meanings, desecrate meanings considered sacred, but that are given/put/defined - modulated. To this end, we left from the research project called Action, Camera, Lights: Among images and looks - Experiences of childhoods and assemblies, which sought thinking about the audiovisual experience deprived of shackles of constitutive routing of the time-honored cinema phrase Lights, Camera, Action! - by means of freely handling camcorders and still cameras by children, thus privileging action. This way, the present study concerned about two fields of action foreseen by the research project: the film sessions and the meetings reserved for imagery production at Rio Claro/SP's SESI. In this direction, we conceived the research as experience, to the extent that we tried to focus on what arises and emerges during the research, emphasizing what makes sense for children, and not the indicative that led to our initial hypotheses / Mestre

Time keeps on changing our perception of what is possible in our personal life and around us. Over time, jobs such as elevator operator was essential to make the elevator keep its speed, stop parallel to the floor and keep passengers safe in case of emergency. Nowadays elevator passengers just have to enter their destination and wait to be transported there. An operator would be superfluous for this, today, simple procedure. This paper aims to create a set of interaction strategies to provide an efficient and pleasurable journey for the passenger traveling with an autonomous bus, as well as evaluate concepts where these strategies have been applied. The strategies and concepts will be developed from an extensive user- and literature research where the situation of today will be analysed and looked upon with the eyes of tomorrow, to find challenges and needs. Findings shows that passengers have to trust the vehicle and service. At the same time vehicle and service providers have to provide a reliable and consistent service. Four design directions were created to establish this trust between the user and vehicle and service. To enable control and give passengers an efficient journey, passengers have to be provided with adequate and reliable information. The information regarding the bus’s behaviour should be communicated in a transparent way so the bus’s intentions and actions are understandable from a passenger point of view. Also, passengers have to be enabled to stay safe when using the bus, during commuting and emergency, through giving them cues in how an emergency should be handled.

The work here aims to evaluate the usability of software applications and define their quality for stakeholders in the music industry. Initial work focuses on standardised tools and procedures and sets benchmarks for performance times and completion rates across software packages, before aiming to make some suggestions about how improvements could be made in the design of said interfaces. Further work goes on to explore industry tools in the context of the real world, live performance tools, categorising them according to purpose and evaluating their success. Finally, a series of workshops and discussion groups aim to identify problems and solutions, suggesting a novel way of evaluating music information systems from a usability perspective. The work here explores usability issues in terms of efficiency, effectiveness and user satisfaction, showing that systems can fail in all three categories. While typical software tools such as Cubase are found to be somewhat usable, the changing requirements of users mean that software systems are no longer effective in performing day to day tasks required of them. There is further exploration into how software tools are used incorrectly or inefficiently, where learning curves are too steep to overcome and where systems inevitably fail. The thesis culminates in a suggested set of heuristics which can be used to evaluate current systems and used as a guideline in developing human-centred systems within the context of music performance and production. The work highlights the strengths of existing systems in terms of enabling creativity and providing an efficient platform for content creation, while making suggestions about future directions of such systems including a discussion in social web integration and pervasive interfaces.

A Thesis submitted to The University of Arizona College of Medicine - Phoenix in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Medicine. / Research Question: Will trained volunteers significantly affect patient experience compared to educational fliers or no intervention? Background: Patient experience continues to be an important issue with our nation’s healthcare system especially with the adoption of Value Based Purchasing for hospital reimbursement. With the use of Honor Health Scottsdale’s large number of volunteers, we hoped to design and develop a program that will improve experience for patients presenting to a community based Emergency Department. Objective: To evaluate the impact of Emergency Department Volunteers on the patient experience.

Victor Turner (in Dodds, 1992: 82) suggests to take every day elements and rearrange them in ways not experienced every day is to create a “monster”, which will achieve liminality in architecture. The titel of this dissertation is a result of this phenomenon. In this design investigation ways to transform liminality into a building are explored. Smith (2000) states, “liminality or the liminal refers to transitional space; neither one place nor another; neither one discipline nor another; rather a thirdspace in-between”. Various devices were examined to facilitate the transition from abstract concept into architectural possibility. The following devices: typology, technology, spatial experience, interlocking volumes, superimposition, programmatic bands and atmospheric effects have been examined. The final product is a fusion of theoretical notions and technology expressed as a hybridized typology, all these qualities are arranged in ways not experienced every day, resulting in a building called the Monster. / Dissertation (MArch(Prof))--University of Pretoria, 2009. / Architecture / unrestricted

The aim of the present study was to experimentally test the Undeutsch Hypothesis, which holds that children's statements based on self-experienced events are qualitatively and quantitatively different from statements based on coaching. Specifically, this study tested the validity of Criteria-Based Content Analysis (CBCA, a system for assessing the credibility of eyewitness reports) for discriminating between credible and non credible eyewitness reports by children. As well, two other tests of the quantitative and qualitative differences between credible and noncredible eyewitness reports were included. One hundred and forty-two children (74 Grade4, 68 Grade 2) were tested in three conditions: (1) Live Event, in which children were actively involved in a staged event (the event was complex and included many features considered relevant to credibility), (2) Heavily Coached, in which children did not experience the event but were told in detail about it (including details which, if reported, would be assigned significance by CBCA),and (3) Lightly Coached, in which children did not experience the event but were provided with a brief account of it, with the expectation that they would fill in details to make their reports believable. Children were asked to recall the event in individual interviews. Transcribed interviews were evaluated using CBCA. Results of the study provided mixed support for the Undeutsch Hypothesis. For Grade 4 children, CBCA significantly discriminated between the Live Event and Lightly Coached conditions, but not between the Live Event and Heavily Coached conditions. Thus, although CBCA accurately distinguished credible from lightly coached reports by this older group of children, reports of the heavily coached children fooled CBCA evaluation. For Grade 2 children, CBCA did not discriminate between the three conditions. This result raised questions about the applicability of CBCA to the reports of younger children. Results of the other two tests of quantitative and qualitative characteristics indicated that these systems did not aid in discriminating between credible and noncredible reports. The implications of these findings for the empirical validation of CBCA and for the use of this system in making credibility decisions in the forensic context are discussed. At this point in time, the assessment of CBCA is still taking place. Until further testing is completed, CBCA should be viewed as one approach to credibility assessment that has clinical support but limited empirical validation. / Arts, Faculty of / Psychology, Department of / Graduate

Coaches learn from a number of different situations and their past experiences influence what they choose to pay attention to and learn (Werthner & Trudel, 2009). Understanding the process of learning to coach can be explored holistically over the course of an individual’s lifespan. This thesis is guided by Jarvis’ (2006, 2007, 2009) theory of human learning, which takes a psychosocial perspective to understanding the way that individuals perceive their social situations, change their biographies, and become who they are over the course of their lives. The purpose of this dissertation is to explore the biographies of five Canadian women coaches to understand how the multitude of experiences throughout their lives have contributed to their learning and coaching development. Four in-depth interviews were conducted and transcribed verbatim with each coach. From these interviews a biographical narrative analysis was created to document how each coach learned throughout her life. The transcripts and narrative analyses were member checked to augment trustworthiness. Four articles and one research note comprise the results section. The main points in this dissertation are as follows: (a) experiences in primary and secondary socialization influenced the coaches’ approaches to coaching; (b) specific meaningful learning experiences helped the coaches develop and become experienced as coaches; (c) values develop throughout life experiences and influence coaching actions; (d) Jarvis’ theory is used to explore my own process of learning throughout the PhD degree, and how this learning was influenced by my lifetime of experiences to date; and (e) a brief research note highlights how the research process was a co-creation between the researcher and the participants. These findings add to the emerging body of literature on female coaches and coach learning by further understanding how the coaches’ biographies determined what kinds of learning opportunities they each found meaningful; the importance of social connections in learning to coach; and the importance of reflection in understanding the interconnections of learning from life experiences. The study may motivate women coaches in understanding how lifelong learning influences their career paths and it informs coach education programs about the muddled reality of coaches’ learning and development.

Relatively little research exists on the life significance of outdoor education (OE) programs and courses. There is increasing interest in the OE field to move beyond simply focusing on program-specific outcomes to developing more evidence-based models that analyze the influence of specific mechanisms of change. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the significant life effect of a university OE course upon participants after the course, including the effect of the course upon participants’ intrapersonal, interpersonal and environmental relationships. The present investigation was a two part qualitative-quantitative study. The overarching research question was: What is the perceived life significance of a university undergraduate OE course? The current study involved in-depth interviews with a purposive intensity sample of 17 University of Ottawa alumni who had taken one of the university’s OE courses more than 20 years ago, followed by a web-based survey questionnaire completed by 46 University of Ottawa alumni and students who had taken one of the university’s OE courses between 1975 and 2009. Some of the survey participants had taken both the summer and winter OE courses offered by the University of Ottawa so there was a total of 65 separate course responses in the quantitative study. The findings from this study suggested that the OE course led to development of interpersonal skills, self-discovery, environmental impacts, leisure style change, and increased outdoor knowledge and skills amongst the participants. The idea that this outdoor knowledge and skills was transferred to others (e.g., students and children) also emerged from the data. In addition, in some instances participants expressed the idea that the OE course helped confirm or reinforce already-held beliefs about the outdoors. It is hopeful that the current findings can contribute to OE professional practice and demonstrate the need for OE in university settings.