Master-Arbeit Univ. St. Gallen, 2006.

Techn. Universiẗat, Diss., 2003--Berlin.

The past 30 years have seen rapid expansion in nursing roles, and the provision of education that supports them. However, the nature of the knowledge that characterises advanced practice, and the pedagogical strategies that are utilised in catalysing its development have yet to be extensively evaluated. Whilst a number of frameworks which purport to conceptualise this knowledge do exist, such structures remain somewhat provisional. Likewise, the pedagogical approaches employed in the development of knowledge for advanced practice are derived as much from teacher preference, organisational expedience, and external policy drivers as educational efficacy. The study presented within this thesis addresses these challenges by examining the knowledge conceptualisation process in relation to two student cohorts undertaking ‘Advanced Practice’ study at Masters level within the author’s employing university. A programme utilising a conventional pedagogical approach has been contrasted with one employing a more collaborative modality; this facilitates an evaluation of the impact of the respective learning and teaching approaches upon the dynamic creation and modification of the practitioners’ knowledge base. A Constructivist Grounded Theory methodology was selected in order to explore these processes. A purposive sample of 24 participants was recruited from across both programmes; a series of interviews was undertaken, and data analysis resulted in both the induction of a substantive theory of Developing A Personal Knowing, and the identification of a range of pedagogical strategies that catalyse its growth. The findings are of particular utility for those involved in the development of advanced practice curricula, and have been used illustratively to underpin a nascent curriculum framework presented in the latter part of the thesis. A number of significant findings emerge; a need to maintain the primacy of clinical practice, the importance of a collaborative approach to learning and teaching in which individual learner agency is maintained, and the key role of group reflection in assimilating the plurality of knowledge forms that ultimately constitute an individual’s personal theory of practice.

Abstract The subject of this study is the content description of fictional works, especially novels. Study is divided into two sections. In the first part of it the aim is to investigate the communicative process of fiction, the previous studies on the content description of fiction and the making of thesauruses for fiction. In the second part the aim is to create means for the analysis of fictional content description (based on the first part's theoretical discussion) and to make a general model for fiction search and retrieval system. The material for the empirical part of the study was gathered in Finnish public libraries. The aim of the empirical part of the study is to find out how the clients and the library professionals of public libraries describe novels by indexing and abstracting them - what differences they have and what is the consistency between them. The basic theoretical approach in this study is qualitative and specifically as seen within the grounded theory. The corpus of this study was analyzed both with qualitative and quantitative methods. Qualitative methods were mainly used when analyzing the abstracts and the indexings were analyzed with the the basic statistical methods as well as with the calculated consistency values for indexers. The main finding was that the abstracts and indexings were very unconsistent. One could also typify the abstracts in four categories: plot/thematical abstracts, cultural/ historical abstracts, abstracts that describe the reading experience and critical abstracts. Also, with the aid of statistics one could make a typical indexing string of each novel that consisted about 10-15 indexing terms which described the basic contents of each novel. In the end of the study a model for search and retrieval system for fiction is presented. Methodologically, the triangulative approach with different kinds of methods turned out to be fruitful. Especially when studying the human behaviour, both quantitative and qualitative methods are needed. When used together they test the findings and results and thus give more validity to the final results.

Most of the existing research on relationships between counselling and religion has addressed how practitioners provide services to religious clients or on strategies for working with people from specific religious traditions. The focus of this study is on how counselling professionals’ religious identity may impact on their clinical work. All the participants had at least one year of post-qualification experience working with religious and non-religious clients. Nine participants (6 female and 3 males) were interviewed and the data were analysed using a social constructionist version of Grounded Theory. This gave rise to four different yet highly related sub-categories. These were as follows: 1) Meaning making: Identity within the context of religion, 2) Keeping my faith life and my psychotherapy life separate, 3) Disclosure: The Unavoidable Blend between Religion and Counselling, 4) The Impact on Therapy. The findings of this study suggest that there is a tension in the way counselling professionals are managing their religious identity within their professional environment (i.e. training, supervision and counselling room). This tension seems to be centred on a need to protect their religious self from challenges imposed by professional colleagues, and a need, at least for some participants, to use the counselling room to reinforce their religious beliefs. While some participants have consciously chosen to keep their religious self out of the therapy room, others emphasise this split between religious and professional self is not possible when it comes to their counselling practice. The participants’ need to protect themselves from potential negative judgment was identified as a complex phenomenon that formed the basis of the core category ‘Protection’. The findings have added a novel perspective in recognising the impact a counselling practitioner’s religious beliefs has on their clinical, supervisory and training experiences.

This thesis demonstrates how systems ideas and grounded theory have been applied to provide a broader approach to researching hedgerows in England, drawing on the idea that holistic thinking brings together different people’s relationships with hedgerows and with each other concerning hedgerows. The cultural dimensions of hedgerows and their implications for future hedged landscapes were investigated through the collection and exploration of different groups perspectives - public, farmers and experts - in England and Canada, using a diversity of primary and secondary data sources. English hedgerows were important to all groups. Everyone liked hedged landscapes for aesthetic, visual and wildlife reasons. They were important for the way they break up the landscape; provide signs of the changing seasons; their sense of mystery and intimacy; their connections with the past and childhood memories. They are also seen as part of England’s history and national identity. Such cultural identity was absent in the Canadian data. However, some groups also held a rational or objective view which was dominant over this subjective or emotional view and which affects where they draw the boundaries to their systems of interest. Farmers were most concerned with their farms (and the hedgerows they owned) as a business, while experts dealt mainly with the ecological aspects of hedgerows. There was found to be little awareness of others groups views with different groups seeing the same action in very different ways. Even where there was contact between farmers and experts, there could be a lack of trust. Finally, it is noted that policy and practice towards hedgerows have ignored many of these relationships and that the approach used here offers opportunities to examine the different systems of interest.

<p>The purpose of this constructivist grounded theory study was to explore women's experiences with endometriosis through diagnosis, treatment, and coping. Conducted using a health geography, medical sociology, and medical anthropology theoretical framework and a constructivist grounded theory methodology, the following research objectives guided this study: (a) document the experiences and consequences of receiving a medical diagnosis of endometriosis from the perspective of a group of women living in Hamilton, Ontario; (b) explore the iterative process the women experienced while seeking relief from the symptoms of endometriosis; (c) interpret the meaning of 'coping' that women on the journey for a reliable diagnosis and effective treatment for endometriosis experienced; and (d) formulate a coherent, middle-range interpretive substantive theory of the women's journey, in order to help others better understand the endometriosis experience from the patient's perspective.</p> <p>Seventy women were interviewed, and the middle-range substantive theory that emerged from this study is grounded in their experiences. The results indicate that the women experienced endometriosis as a journey through constant interaction with the social worlds they had defined through diagnosis, treatment, and ultimately coping. Studying their everyday life experiences and mapping those in the context of their biomedical, personal, and informational social worlds allow for a broader understanding of the varying ways that the women interviewed perceived the treatment processes and their treatment options, made sense of their symptoms, and experienced uncertainty about the influence change could have on their everyday lives. By incorporating their individual experiences and knowledge, their social world and descriptions of these worlds reflect the entirety of the endometriosis experience. Finally, if one examines endometriosis only from the perspective of being diagnosed, treated, and learning to cope with the disease, many facets of the journey are missed. Understanding these individual experiences as a journey, instead of just diagnosis, treatment, and coping, has practical implications for healthcare providers treating endometriosis.</p> / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Introduction Simulation-based learning is an example of learning in context in which clinical contexts are recreated in controlled settings to facilitate deliberate practice. While widely regarded as effective, unanswered questions exist about what elements of the clinical context must be recreated in simulated settings to promote authenticity. Moreover, the degree of authenticity (or fidelity) required for optimal learning is not known, with current thinking often deemphasizing the importance of physical realism. We therefore sought to explore contextual influences on performance in a ‘context-rich’ clinical setting: paramedicine. Methods We followed constructivist grounded theory principles and recruited currently practicing paramedics to participate in one-on-one, semi-structured interviews. We asked the participants to describe a recent experience in which they attempted to resuscitate a victim of sudden cardiac arrest and asked them how to recreate their experiences in simulated settings. Results Fourteen paramedics provided a total of seventeen interviews, each describing a distinct cardiac arrest event, yielding over ten hours of audio data for analysis. We iteratively identified three major interrelated themes describing contextual influences: the event – its physical characteristics, circumstances and people present; the conceptual response – the cognitive processes and challenges encountered; and the emotional response – the degree of emotional engagement in the management of the resuscitation. We also identified a major theme related to how to simulate these events. Collectively, our results suggest a complex and dynamic interplay between the physical, conceptual and emotional domains of context. Conclusion In contrast to other conceptualizations of context and fidelity, our results suggest that conceptual and emotional responses occur as a result of physical features in the practice environment, arguing in favour of physical authenticity in simulation. / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc) / Educators in the health professions have the important task of preparing their students – future physicians, nurses, paramedics, etc. – to perform effectively in clinical practice. This transition from healthcare student to healthcare professional is challenging, in part because classrooms and clinical contexts are different entities: the environment, the people within it, the way knowledge is generated, recalled and applied are all different. To narrow the gap between classroom and clinical practice, educators often promote learning in context, using various strategies to make the classroom more like the clinic (or any other setting in which health care is delivered). The challenge, however, is that exactly what features of the practice setting (context) should be recreated to promote learning is not known. We undertook this study, viewing the clinical context through a paramedic lens, to better understand what features present in real world conditions might influence learning and performance.

Vad försöker man göra inom ungdomsinriktad drogprevention och vad uppfattas som viktigt? Syftet med denna studie var att undersöka vad som händer inom preventionsarbete i Thailand. Analys med grounded theory av intervjuer med 27 personer, främst thailändare, med praktisk erfarenhet av drogpreventiv verksamhet. Motkrafter till missbruk i Thailand genomsyras av en moraliskt betingad grundhållning med en i grunden autonom människosyn. Genom sociala och pedagogiska nätverk, positiva alternativ, utveckling, relevanta budskap och kritiskt tänkande arbetar man med målgruppen för de preventiva insatserna som en autonom och aktiv part. Arbetet kräver en problemanalys och stödinsatser ges baserade på tillit. Likaså vill preventionsarbetarna bli betraktade med tillit av exempelvis överordnade instanser. Skillnader finns mellan hållningen på basnivå och centralt deklarerade "krig mot narkotikan". Målgruppen för drogpreventiva insatser bör betraktas som en aktiv part att samverka med för att uppnå hållbara resultat.

No description available.