The theme of this thesis is "The Perception of Safety in Nursing Practice". While most of literaure of focused on the psyhisal aspects of safety, this thesis is focused on the psychological ones. This thesis has two goals altogether. Its firt goal is to find out the possibilities of securing patient´s and nurse´s feeling of safety from nurse´s outlook. The second goal is to find out nurses´s perception of their own feeling of safety while at work. The research questions are 1) How do patients perceive their safety during nursing care? 2) What does patient´s safety mean to nurses? 3) How does the personnel perceive their own safety during nursing care? The theoretical part describes safety, needs, communicaton, trust and the possibilities of securing psyhical and psychological safety of patients and nurses alike. The practical part consists of nurses and patient interviews about safety and factors, that may influence it. The data were collected by semi-structured interviews with nurses and patients located in hospitals of south and west Bohemia. The research involved 20 respondents, 10 nurses and 10 patients, of deliberate choosing and by the form of snowball sampling. The data were collected since May through to July 2019 and the collection was concluded at the moment of theoretical saturation. The interviews covered themes like safety, communication, trust, quality of care, EBN, teamwork and what do nurses find lacking while ensuring safety of their patients and their own. The results show that each person perceives their safety differently and it is necessary to fit the care to patient´s specific needs. The respondents agree on the importance of proper communication, of trust between patient and nurse and between personnel alike, and of informedness. Most of the nurses also responded that they miss more time to spend with their patients to build mutual trust and to develop their feeling of safety. Usually the blame lies on their ward being understaffed. This thesis mapped out the perception of safety of nurses and patients including some of the shortcomings involved in the current nursing practice. It can serve as a reference material for studying.

Implementing differentiated instruction in classrooms with students who have mixed skill levels often results in teachers facing many challenges. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore social studies teachers' perceptions of the challenges they faced when implementing differentiated instruction in classrooms with mixed skill levels and what teachers perceived they needed to help overcome these challenges. This project study was guided by the conceptual frameworks of constructivism from Piaget and Bruner along with the theoretical framework of Vygotsky's zone of proximal development. The research questions focused on the viewpoints of teachers on implementing differentiated instruction in their classrooms, what challenges they faced when implementing differentiated instruction in a social studies classroom with mixed skill levels, and what support teachers need to overcome these challenges. Data were gathered using structured interviews of the 10 individual teachers chosen through purposeful sampling from a school in metro-Atlanta, Georgia. Data were transcribed and analyzed using coding by highlighting common words to identify themes to answer the research questions. Data analyses revealed that teachers needed professional development that defined what differentiated instruction is, how to implement it, and how to get to know their students better, as well as time to observe other teachers implementing differentiated instruction. A professional development plan was developed to help meet these needs for teachers. Implications for social change include an improved understanding of differentiated instruction and how to support teachers to overcome the challenges of implementing differentiated instruction. This may lead to better instruction and more academic success for all students which may lead to better assessment scores.

Thesis (M.Ed. (Adult Education)) -- University of Limpopo, 2011 / Refer to document

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A pre-service needs inventory was field tested for possible use by counselors of the Utah State Division of Rehabilitation Services. The field testing was carried out by utilizing two groups of consultants for evaluating format, content, and usability of the inventory. Examination of the data collected from the consultants indicated that a pre-service needs inventory was helpful during the intake process and in filling out the Individual Written Rehabilitation Program. It also indicated that the checklist was broad enough to gather sufficient information and that the instructions were adequate. Finally the data indicated that over 75% of the counselors participating in the field test would use the checklist if it were optional.

This study involved analyses of an existing database conducted for the purposes of identifying and understanding factors that are associated with the delivery of school-based mental health services by school psychologists. The study examined the average number of hours per week in which school psychologists engage in mental health services and the types of mental health services in which they engage. Factors such as training, desire to deliver mental health services, time available and support for mental health services were investigated. The database that served as the basis for these analyses had been created by mailing a survey to 1000 randomly selected practicing school psychologists who were Regular Members of the National Association of School Psychologists. The survey asked for responses to questions relating to a range of issues about the delivery of school-based mental health services. Training and support for mental health services were also identified by school psychologists as major factors in their ability to deliver such services to students and families. The implications of the findings are discussed.

Magister Curationis - MCur / Background: Nursing as a profession is based on firm knowledge, values, clinical skills and attitudes. In the current dynamic healthcare system nursing students are challenged to be insightful and have clinical reasoning and psychomotor skills in order to apply theory to practice. Clinical teaching is therefore considered an essential part of the undergraduate nursing curriculum, as it provides the opportunity for students to apply theory to practice in the skills laboratory and then to transfer it into real life situations. Nursing students spend time in the clinical practice environment learning the skills and values of the nursing profession, with the goal of achieving the clinical learning outcomes, as prescribed by their nursing education institution and the South African Nursing Council. During this time nursing students depend on the support of clinical supervisors and nursing staff in the clinical practice environment to meet their learning outcomes. Clinical supervisors for the undergraduate nursing programme, at the university included in the study, are tasked with clinical teaching in the skills laboratory, supervision of nursing students in clinical practice and assessment of learning. Nonetheless, there are challenges ascertained by the clinical supervisors, which inhibits students from achieving their learning outcomes. Purpose of the study: The purpose of the study was to explore and describe the clinical supervisor’s perception of students’ skills transfer from skills laboratory to the clinical environment.

Magister Curationis - MCur / Background: Clinical supervision or clinical accompaniment is considered an integral part of nursing education and is crucial for the development of nursing students’ clinical competence. In order to achieve this, clinical supervision requires skilled human resources which vary from one educational institution to another and may include lecturers, clinical supervisors/facilitators and professional nurses. Clinical supervisors are required to be good educators as well as excellent clinicians. In addition, they often draw on their individual, personal and professional experiences to guide their teaching to meet the demands of both the clinical and academic contexts in which they work. However, the clinical teaching model or framework used by educational institutions is often not aligned to clinical practice activities and vice versa. This poses challenges for students due to the different expectations of educators and professional nurses in practice. Inadequately prepared clinical supervisors can have a detrimental effect on the delivery of the nursing programme that may include poor clinical teaching and inadequate integration of theory and clinical competencies, which ultimately leads to poorly trained nursing students. Aim of the study: The aim of this study was to explore the perceptions of clinical supervisors regarding their preparedness for clinical teaching. Methods: The study adopted a qualitative research approach, utilising an exploratory descriptive design. A non-probability purposive sampling method was used to select 12 clinical supervisors in the undergraduate programme. The researcher collected the data by means of semi-structured interviews with open-ended questions and analysed this data using content data analysis. Analysis of the data using ATLAS, ti 8 research software programme generated four themes and 18 categories. Findings: The findings indicated that clinical supervisors required time to adapt to their role and improve their knowledge and skills despite them having a positive experience during their orientation. Although appreciative of the support and guidance, clinical supervisors stated that not all colleagues were supportive, which in some instances had a negative impact on interpersonal relationships. The findings furthermore indicated that clinical supervisors apply all the steps of the five phases in the skills lab methodology employed by the School of Nursing at the university where the study was conducted. Clinical supervisors are required to be well informed and committed to continuing education in order to incorporate theory into practice with the latest developments and equipment in facilities. Furthermore, the findings indicated that inconsistency and failure to attend to students’ clinical learning needs can have a negative impact on student learning. Ethics: The researcher adhered to all principles of research ethics throughout the study.

Traditionally, organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs) have been conceptualized within a social exchange framework, implying that individuals perform citizenship behaviors in response to fair treatment by the organization (Zellars & Tepper, 2003). In accordance with this social exchange framework, researchers have identified a number of OCB antecedents, like perceived organizational support (Moorman, Blakely, & Niehoff, 1998; Settoon, Bennet, & Liden, 1996), job satisfaction, organizational commitment, organizational justice (LePine, Erez, & Johnson, 2002; Organ & Ryan, 1995), and leader-member exchange (Connell, 2005; Settoon, Bennett, & Liden, 1996; Wayne & Greene, 1993). Recently, however, research has shifted from viewing OCB as a reactionary behavior in response to positive attitudes and emotions toward the organization to perceiving OCB as functional (e.g., Finkelstein & Penner, 2004, Rioux & Penner, 2001) - opening the door to exploration of both altruistic as well as self-serving motives to engage in OCB. Applying Schwartz's (1992) values theory and expanding on Rioux and Penner's (2001) three-dimensional OCB motives model, the goal of the proposed research was to identify additional underlying mechanisms for performing citizenship behaviors through the development and validation of the Good Soldier Motives Scale (GSMS). The 46-item scale, consisting of two subscales - (1) motives to perform OCBI (MOCBI) and (2) motives to perform OCBO (MOCBO) uncovered the following motives - Prosocial Values, Organizational Concern and Obligation, Instrumental, Intimacy, Achievement, and Guilt. Construct validation data revealed significant differential relationships between OCB motive dimensions and established constructs in the literature (i.e., regulatory focus, self-identity, Machiavellianism, self-monitoring, and values). Criterion validation results supported the predictive validity of the GSMS subscales with OCBI and OCBO. Furthermore, OCB motives accounted for significant variance beyond that of established attitudinal and personality OCB antecedents, replicating and expanding upon Rioux and Penner's (2001) findings. Lastly, the research took an initial pass at empirically examining the impact of motives on the quality of OCB through the assessment of OCB effectiveness. Findings revealed significant differences in OCB effectiveness when comparing self-enhancing motives versus the more traditional altruistic motives. Establishment of a valid, theoretically-derived OCB motives scale offers researchers an avenue to further investigate burgeoning research on self-serving motivations for OCB as well as altruistic ones. Alternatively, practitioners can leverage the GSMS in a variety of human resource applications, such as performance appraisals and training in order to enhance the participation in quality OCBs.

Most departmental policy statements on the education of gifted and talented students recommend their retention, where possible, in mainstream classes in neighbourhood schools. The educational experience in such classes, of 14 students identified as academically gifted by their teachers, was investigated using a case study approach. Their cognitive style was studied by reference to information processing strategies as revealed in WISC-R subtest scores. Interpersonal and communication skills were investigated through classroom observation and structured interviews. The theories of deviance and authority were applied in interpreting this data. Results indicated relationships between students' cognitive style and teachers' identification methods, and between students' cognitive style and their school satisfaction. Sex differences in teacher response and student interaction were also noted.