After immigrating to Canada, some foreign-trained professional women (FTPWs) enrol in adult high schoollevel upgrading to begin to reestablish their careers if their international credentials are unrecognized. To explore this phenomenon, the theoretical framework of possible selves was used as a mechanism to examine the effect of context (i.e., upgrading) on their personally relevant goals. Semistructured qualitative interviews were conducted with four FTPWs who attended two postsecondary institutes in central Alberta. The participants salient possible selves were related to familial duties and employment; they viewed upgrading as a mechanism to work toward these hoped-for selves. Upgrading was also found to increase the number of and clarify their hoped-for selves. Because of the significant impact of immigration on the participants possible selves, upgrading should also include referrals to immigration services and support for the credential assessment process, help to build confidence, and encourage the development of social networks for immigrants.

Internet es un fenómeno social de crecimiento exponencial que ha ocasionado cambios importantes en la adquisición de conocimientos en el mundo científico-médico. La información de contenido sanitario que hay en Internet ha cambiado la relación médico-paciente.Internet es un medio incuestionable en la recopilación y distribución de la información de contenido sanitario aunque hay dudas en cuanto a su autenticidad y control de calidad. Por ello aparecieron los sellos de calidad.Se diseña y valida un cuestionario de evaluación de páginas Web de contenido sanitario sobre temas de Gastroenterología, Hepatología y Nutrición Infantil que hay en Internet con el Buscador Google para usuarios no profesionales.HIPÓTESIS: Demostrar que la información que se encuentra en Internet y que podemos encontrar a través de Google es de poca calidad.OBJETIVOS DEL ESTUDIO: 1) Diseño y validación de un cuestionario de valoración de páginas Web de contenido sanitario. 2) Identificar y valorar la calidad de los recursos de información sanitaria disponibles en Internet de las páginas Web en español sobre temas de Gastroenterología, Hepatología y Nutrición Infantil para usuarios no profesionales. 3) Conocer los parámetros o ítems que aportan mayor información para valorar la calidad de las páginas Web.CONCLUSIONES: 1) La poca calidad de la información sanitaria en Internet hallada a través de un buscador como Google (Hipótesis inicial). 2) Los criterios de valoración que garantizan la calidad son la autoría, las credenciales y la fecha de actualización. 3) El cuestionario confeccionado y validado nos ayuda a evaluar la calidad de las páginas Web de contenido sanitario de manera fiable convirtiendo una información cualitativa en cuantitativa. 4) La presencia de un sello de calidad en una página Web de contenido sanitario no garantiza ningún control de calidad.

Bakgrund:Cirka 80 procent av Sveriges befolkning kommer någon gång i livet att drabbas av ryggsmärta. Ryggsmärta är en av de största anledningarna till att patienterna söker vård vilket ställer stora krav på sjukvårdspersonalen. Syfte: Syftet med studien var att beskriva hur patienter med långvarig ryggsmärta upplever möten med vårdpersonal. Metod: Under litteraturstudiens gång har elva vetenskapliga artiklar analyserats och sammanställts. Detta resulterade i två presenterade kategorier. Resultat: Att känna sig delaktig i sin egen vård visade sig vara viktigt för patienterna. När vårdpersonalen lyssnade på patienterna och accepterade dem som experter på deras egen smärta kände de sig mer delaktiga. Patienternas känsla av misstro berodde på att de kände sig betraktade som hypokondriker och lögnare. De önskade också att få tillbringa tillräckligt med tid med sin vårdpersonal. Slutsats: Det är viktigt att vårdpersonalen tillåter patienter att vara delaktiga i sin vård. Genom att erbjuda patienterna tillräckligt mycket tid för samtal om deras smärta blir det möjligt att skapa en förståelse för det individuella lidandet och att minska misstron.

The expectation that employees of large organisations will work extended working hours (EWH) is a phenomenon of discourse at the societal and organisational levels. This occurs in spite of the detrimental effects that working long hours can have on employees’ mental and physical health and the well-being of their families. This thesis investigates why employees comply with this expectation by focussing on managers and professionals because they are the categories of Australian employees who work the longest hours. Texts derived from a focus group and extended interviews of 30 managers and professionals are analysed and interpreted using a computer-assisted text analysis program, linguistic analysis, and discourse linguistic interpretation. Of particular emphasis is the deontic modality that research participants use to express their obligation to expectation and their attitudes about other organisational imperatives. Also crucial to this research is the agency of the participants in terms of their capacity to make and follow their own decisions. This investigation is informed by critical post-structuralist theory of Foucaultian origin involving a pragmatic distinction between analysis for meaning potential at the text level and context for meaning at the discourse level. This empirical research found that participants commonly feel cognitive dissonance from the contradiction that EWH and work-life balance (WLB) co-exist in their same organisational discourse. This paradox complicates their responses to expectation whether the participants comply or resist. Participants’ agency is therefore judged on their level of reflexivity to these organisational challenges. The professional cohort was found to be more reflexive and thus agentically stronger because their work paths are clearer. They know what work is required and, even though their working hours may be long, they see them purely as the means to achieving prescribed ends. Public sector managers’ work is also extensive but they do not have clear boundaries and thus find the boundaries between work and nonwork non-existent or blurred. Financial service managers are more agentic than public sector managers but less than the professionals. The women in this research relate to work time and life balance differently and less easily than men, particularly those who break for motherhood and / or work part-time. The theory built in this thesis can inform organisations of the ubiquitous presence of the expectation of EWH and the dangers it provides for employees and organisations. It also provides practice guidance to organisations as to how EWH may be common but do not necessarily benefit organisations or their employees. This thesis finds that it is more sensible to support employees’ agency by acknowledging their diversity and giving them choice in determining for how long they should work. This would allow employees to identify and experience obligation to their organisation and their part in negotiated knowledge production.

The expectation that employees of large organisations will work extended working hours (EWH) is a phenomenon of discourse at the societal and organisational levels. This occurs in spite of the detrimental effects that working long hours can have on employees’ mental and physical health and the well-being of their families. This thesis investigates why employees comply with this expectation by focussing on managers and professionals because they are the categories of Australian employees who work the longest hours. Texts derived from a focus group and extended interviews of 30 managers and professionals are analysed and interpreted using a computer-assisted text analysis program, linguistic analysis, and discourse linguistic interpretation. Of particular emphasis is the deontic modality that research participants use to express their obligation to expectation and their attitudes about other organisational imperatives. Also crucial to this research is the agency of the participants in terms of their capacity to make and follow their own decisions. This investigation is informed by critical post-structuralist theory of Foucaultian origin involving a pragmatic distinction between analysis for meaning potential at the text level and context for meaning at the discourse level. This empirical research found that participants commonly feel cognitive dissonance from the contradiction that EWH and work-life balance (WLB) co-exist in their same organisational discourse. This paradox complicates their responses to expectation whether the participants comply or resist. Participants’ agency is therefore judged on their level of reflexivity to these organisational challenges. The professional cohort was found to be more reflexive and thus agentically stronger because their work paths are clearer. They know what work is required and, even though their working hours may be long, they see them purely as the means to achieving prescribed ends. Public sector managers’ work is also extensive but they do not have clear boundaries and thus find the boundaries between work and nonwork non-existent or blurred. Financial service managers are more agentic than public sector managers but less than the professionals. The women in this research relate to work time and life balance differently and less easily than men, particularly those who break for motherhood and / or work part-time. The theory built in this thesis can inform organisations of the ubiquitous presence of the expectation of EWH and the dangers it provides for employees and organisations. It also provides practice guidance to organisations as to how EWH may be common but do not necessarily benefit organisations or their employees. This thesis finds that it is more sensible to support employees’ agency by acknowledging their diversity and giving them choice in determining for how long they should work. This would allow employees to identify and experience obligation to their organisation and their part in negotiated knowledge production.

Master of Pharmacy / Medicines are a fundamental healthcare intervention, but the benefits they provide depend entirely on the way in which they are used. This begins with prescribing, a complex task with substantial risks. Systematic evaluation of biomedical factors may be viewed as an essential component of this task, but prescribers also integrate an array of individual, social, cultural, environmental and commercial factors into their prescribing decisions. Furthermore, social and cultural characteristics of the prescriber’s workplace may influence how well prescribing decisions are carried out. Whilst numerous research efforts have helped to construct an in-depth understanding of non-biomedical influences on GP’s prescribing patterns, the characteristics of corresponding sorts of influences in teaching hospitals have not been well determined. In hospitals, supervised medical trainees, registrars and consultants prescribe within the framework of medicines management systems involving nurses, pharmacists and patients. Currently, little is known about whether each of these groups has distinct beliefs, attitudes and values that may affect either prescribing behaviour or how prescribing skills of medical trainees are acquired. The aim of this study was to explore the social and cultural dynamics of prescribing and prescriber training in teaching hospitals. To do this, established qualitative methods were employed. Junior doctors, registrars, consultants, nurses, and pharmacists from two metropolitan teaching hospitals were sampled purposively and invited to participate in semi-structured interviews. A brief questionnaire was used to collect demographic and contextual information. In the interviews, participants were asked about their attitudes towards prescribing, their perceptions of roles and responsibilities, how they communicated prescribing decisions, their perceptions of influences on prescribing, and their perceptions of factors contributing to prescribing errors. Participants were also asked for their opinions on various aspects of new prescriber training. Sampling proceeded until redundancy of themes was established. A pilot study was conducted with one participant from each professional group to optimise the interview schedule, and then using this tool, a further 38 participants were interviewed. In total, eight consultants, eight registrars, nine junior doctors, eleven pharmacists, and seven nurses participated. Using reiterative content analysis of a third of all transcripts, a coding scheme was developed, which was used to label and categorise the remaining transcripts. Categories were further developed and refined. The resultant core themes were cross indexed against the five different health professional types using thematic charts to explore patterns. The main lines of enquiry for this research were mapped, the properties of these categories and interrelationships explored in detail, and a model of the prescribing process was developed. Prescribing at the teaching hospitals was a complex process consisting of multiple steps undertaken by several different health professionals of varying levels of experience from three different health care disciplines. Because of the intricate separation of responsibilities, the operation of the process was highly reliant on the behaviours of each player and their relationships with each other. Key prescribing decisions associated with patient admissions were made, almost exclusively, by medical teams. Prescribing was therefore chiefly characterised by factors influencing the behaviours of the doctors. Their behaviours were influenced by factors relating to their individual characteristics (eg, knowledge, skills, experience); but also by a web of socio-cultural determinants inherent to the environment in which they worked. These factors were related to: the organisational structure of the prescribing process; the knowledge characteristics of the doctors; the communication patterns they used; the underlying assumptions they made about prescribing; and the work environment.

Master of Pharmacy / Medicines are a fundamental healthcare intervention, but the benefits they provide depend entirely on the way in which they are used. This begins with prescribing, a complex task with substantial risks. Systematic evaluation of biomedical factors may be viewed as an essential component of this task, but prescribers also integrate an array of individual, social, cultural, environmental and commercial factors into their prescribing decisions. Furthermore, social and cultural characteristics of the prescriber’s workplace may influence how well prescribing decisions are carried out. Whilst numerous research efforts have helped to construct an in-depth understanding of non-biomedical influences on GP’s prescribing patterns, the characteristics of corresponding sorts of influences in teaching hospitals have not been well determined. In hospitals, supervised medical trainees, registrars and consultants prescribe within the framework of medicines management systems involving nurses, pharmacists and patients. Currently, little is known about whether each of these groups has distinct beliefs, attitudes and values that may affect either prescribing behaviour or how prescribing skills of medical trainees are acquired. The aim of this study was to explore the social and cultural dynamics of prescribing and prescriber training in teaching hospitals. To do this, established qualitative methods were employed. Junior doctors, registrars, consultants, nurses, and pharmacists from two metropolitan teaching hospitals were sampled purposively and invited to participate in semi-structured interviews. A brief questionnaire was used to collect demographic and contextual information. In the interviews, participants were asked about their attitudes towards prescribing, their perceptions of roles and responsibilities, how they communicated prescribing decisions, their perceptions of influences on prescribing, and their perceptions of factors contributing to prescribing errors. Participants were also asked for their opinions on various aspects of new prescriber training. Sampling proceeded until redundancy of themes was established. A pilot study was conducted with one participant from each professional group to optimise the interview schedule, and then using this tool, a further 38 participants were interviewed. In total, eight consultants, eight registrars, nine junior doctors, eleven pharmacists, and seven nurses participated. Using reiterative content analysis of a third of all transcripts, a coding scheme was developed, which was used to label and categorise the remaining transcripts. Categories were further developed and refined. The resultant core themes were cross indexed against the five different health professional types using thematic charts to explore patterns. The main lines of enquiry for this research were mapped, the properties of these categories and interrelationships explored in detail, and a model of the prescribing process was developed. Prescribing at the teaching hospitals was a complex process consisting of multiple steps undertaken by several different health professionals of varying levels of experience from three different health care disciplines. Because of the intricate separation of responsibilities, the operation of the process was highly reliant on the behaviours of each player and their relationships with each other. Key prescribing decisions associated with patient admissions were made, almost exclusively, by medical teams. Prescribing was therefore chiefly characterised by factors influencing the behaviours of the doctors. Their behaviours were influenced by factors relating to their individual characteristics (eg, knowledge, skills, experience); but also by a web of socio-cultural determinants inherent to the environment in which they worked. These factors were related to: the organisational structure of the prescribing process; the knowledge characteristics of the doctors; the communication patterns they used; the underlying assumptions they made about prescribing; and the work environment.

Diss. Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, 2008. / Business and Economics (German Language) (Springer-11775) (GWV).

Diss. Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, 2008. / Business and Economics (German Language) (Springer-11775) (GWV).

Diss. HHL - Leipzig Graduate School of Management, 2008. / Business and Economics (German Language) (Springer-11775) (GWV).