The study investigated how patients in the general wards of the Avenues Clinic perceive the nursing care they received. The study objectives were to identify how nurses in the general wards of the Avenues Clinic respond to patients' needs and if the nursing care received from the nurses matched patients' expectations. The study further sought to determine if patients would return to use Avenues Clinic nursing services and recommend services to family and friends. Data was drawn from 87 respondents by randomly distributing 100 questionnaires to three thirty-four bedded general wards of the Avenues Clinic. Findings of the study indicated that the majority of patients who received nursing care that was in line with their expectations would also return to use Avenues Clinic nursing services as well as recommend the services to family and friends. The theme "optimal care" was used to consolidate patient satisfiers while "suboptimal care" was used to describe patient dissatisfiers. / Health Studies / (M.A.(Health Studies ))

The nursing handover report belongs to everyday activities of nurses. In the work of a nurse it is important to know exactly who, when, where, what and how. This is what the following activity and responsibilities of the duty period are derived from. This diploma thesis, focused on the Nursing Handover Report at a Patient´s Bedside, has a theoretical and practical part. The first, theoretical part, is composed of three chapters, the modern trend of nursing, the nursing report and legislation. The second, practical part, is based on quantitative and qualitative surveys with three defined objectives and four hypotheses. The first objective was to determine what nurses regard as a major contribution of the nursing handover report at a patient´s bedside. The second objective was to define the greatest obstacle in the nursing handover report at a patient´s bedside. The third objective was assessing the patients´ attitude towards the nursing handover report at their bedside. All three objectives were met by the research. The qualitative part of this diploma work was based on a conducted kvasiexperiment and subsequent questions for patients and nurses. The research sample was 5 nurses and 5 patients from the intermediate care unit (IMCU) and 5 nurses and 5 patients from the resuscitation station (RES) of the České Budějovice hospital, PLC. The semi-structured interview consisted of six to eight questions, surveying the feelings, contents, visualization, integration, advantages, disadvantages, departments, nursing handover at the bedside and the quality. The data collection was carried out by means of an anonymous questionnaire designed for nurses to find out how nurses hand the report over or how they would like to hand it over. 303 nurses from the České Budějovice Hospital, PLC, and the Příbram Hospital, PLC, took part in the research. The results were used to confirm or to reject the hypotheses. The first hypothesis: Nurses do not consider an oral handover report as a quality one when done without a visual completion, this has not been confirmed by the investigation. The second hypothesis: In terms of the risk of the patient's damage, the quality of the handover report done by the nurses in the IMCU and the RES is better than that done by the nurses in a standard unit, this has been confirmed. The third hypothesis: Nurses consider the time consuming nature of the handover report at the patient´s bedside as the greatest difficulty, this has not been confirmed. The fourth and last hypothesis: Patients have a positive attitude towards the nursing handover report at the bedside, this has been confirmed by the research. The output of this thesis is to suggest a standard for the nursing handover report at a patient´s bedside. The results can be used for nursing managers, deputy directors of nursing, medical students and nursing professionals.

The thesis "Working strategies of nurses on manager posts" deals with issues of the professional role and manager position of a head nurse. With regard to changes in the area of health policy and health care providing, as well as is the relationship with the issue of professional fulfilment of women on the labour market generally, it is important to know views, ambitions, and motivations of nurses, and their working strategies on managing positions. It includes aspects of harmonizing their family and work roles, as these are the moments determining the position of most women in our working conditions to a significant extent. It is to say, managing of the nursing personnel and health care is a typical feminine position in the Czech Republic, adapting to given rules of the work organization and hierarchical structure of health institutions. The purpose of the thesis is to outline such a frame of reference, which would enable to better understand values and attitudes of head nurses. An indispensable part of this outlook is to understand, how their carriers developed, to identify their managing styles and guiding of the nursing team, as well as to map how their personal and professional roles pervade and affect each other. In this process, revealing long-term working strategies of head nurses is an important source of knowledge and at the same time, an attitudinal reflexion of these contexts by nurses themselves. Therefore, the development of the role of a nurse - manager (specifically, the head nurse and the ward sister) was described as the first item in the framework of the professional live of managing nurses; and conclusions of a series of research studies, focused on these issues, were presented. Additionally, the specificity of management in the nursing conditions was analyzed, including changes after 1989, and possibilities of education of nurses - managers. Finally, an empiric probe into the explored points at issue was carried out. Data acquired by means of semi-structured interviews with selected head nurses in faculty hospitals were integrated with the help of one of classical approaches, through so-called Grounded theory method. On basis of the data analysis, a model of professional paradigm was created, demonstrating several phases of the professional career, through which a head nurse passes, which were called for illustration: Seeking of domain, Circle (changing of nursing lines and sites), Virtue of necessity (situation, where a nurse caring of a child chooses a workplace, which enables such care), and Anchoring in the nursing branch. Then, the manager's career of the nurse unwinds form the "Anchoring in the nursing branch" phase. Life stories of head nurses, built on information from qualitative interviews, include predisposing factors for a managing position. Last but not least, it is also about some imprinting aspects from the childhood and adolescence (e.g., number of siblings, reasons for the selected study). After certain time, a nurse becomes a shift leader and a deputy ward sister, and subsequently, a ward sister and a head nurse. According to circumstances, she uses a combination of several managing styles in this position, like authoritative, democratic, and consultative. The theoretical model of professional paradigm of head nurses, construed on basis of empiric data analyses, opens a trail for further investigations, where it may be possible to examine some consequences in more detail, like the course of the professional career of nurses, their managing styles, etc. The acquired and classified evidences contribute to enriching current state of knowledge of certain segments of nursing issues. For instance, the top management of health institutions may use them in planning and implementation of some policies in the area of human resources, or educational institutions may use it for better and more accurate setting of educational concepts of future head nurses.

This diploma thesis deals with the issues of a family of a newborn with a developmental risk. The theoretic part deals with the most common problems endangering the healthy development of a newborn, also with family and the process of coping with the crisis. Further on, it deals with possibilities of family support during their stay in hospital and also after the baby has been discharged into home care, using the support of non-health care groups. The objective of the diploma thesis was to detect possibilities of psycho-social support for the family of a newborn with a developmental risk. The thesis answers questions of, how parents feel in this situation after the birth of their child, during its stay in hospital and subsequently after the discharge into home care, what kind of support services they use to help them manage this period. Further on it deals with questions of whether the information of support options is sufficient and whether this support system works from the parent?s perspective.This diploma thesis was processed on a basis of qualitative survey results. The questioning method of half-format with parents was used and the method of document summary analysis. The investigated samples were parents of ten children treated in The Developmental Care Unit of Neonatology ward in the hospital of České Budějovice a.s. During the hospitalization of the child, it is important, that the medical team communicates openly, gives well timed and clear information and allows direct involvement in the child care. The outcome of this investigation points out the important role of the partner, family and friends as the main source of support. Also sharing feelings and needs with other parents is rand as a considerable source of support. However, the mothers especially, miss this sharing opportunity after their baby has been discharged into home care. Another interesting outcome is the absence of a psychologist, who specializes in newborn matters as an important source of support for parents. The survey shows, how important the psychosocial support is for parents, not just during hospitalization, but also after the discharge of their baby. Whereas they feel that the healthcare service is adequate, they especially miss the psychosocial support after the discharge from hospital. This is especially true of families of babies with developmental risk, without any serious health problem. Listed subjects could be used by professionals dealing with care of newborn with developmental risk, who provide complex care for families of the children with perinatal condition. Therefore, specialized psychological help should be an evident part of the care provided. The hypothesis were determined on the basis of qualitative survey results, which could be verified by further investigation:Hypothesis 1: For mothers of a newborn with developmental risk it is important to get help in the framework of supporting parental groups.Hypothesis 2: After the discharge of their child into home care, parents would appreciate psychosocial support in the framework of outpatient service.

Merged nursing inpatient ward is in the last few years becoming a trend of smaller, but also medium-sized hospitals. Due to the restructuring of beds of acute inpatient care in the Czech Republic, separate inpatient wards are merged to one joint ward, in the context of surgical as well as internal medicine. Merged inpatient ward is a combination of various disciplines (specialisms) of inpatient care under one senior consultant, or there is a common nursing ward, where senior consultants of individual disciplines are retained, while nursing care is merged. The main reason for the establishment of a merged inpatient ward is the optimization of beds and the related effective use of bed capacity in connection with an effort to preserve access to health care. The aim of the thesis Merged Nursing Inpatient Ward from the Perspective of Nurses and Management was to evaluate the contribution of a merged nursing inpatient ward, to identify the reasons for the project and the complications that accompanied the project. This research should analyze the problems in nursing care in connection with the origination of the project, to assess the demands of nursing on the ward and map errors in the field of nursing care in the context of the realization of the project. The thesis should evaluate interdisciplinary collaboration and map the occurrence of conflicts in a multidisciplinary team. During the survey it was found that the main reasons for the project were the financial savings associated with the restructuring of acute care beds in the Czech Republic. The establishment of a merged nursing inpatient ward helped the hospital to keep some expertise and it unified nursing care of the separate wards. In connection with the establishment of a joint nursing care, some complications and disadvantages that accompanied the project initially were analyzed. The survey showed how sensitively employees responded to the major change in the organization and how the cooperation between superiors and subordinates functioned. The study analyzed in what form the selection of employees for a common bed fund was realized and whether managers themselves could choose subordinates for their departments. One part of the research was the evaluation of the quality of nursing care on the merged inpatient ward, which showed that the establishment of the project did not have a negative impact on the quality of nursing care. In contrast, nursing care was united and there was also unified organization of nursing on the ward. The research evaluated the feedback from the subordinates to the top managers which was implemented through meetings and sessions. The survey refers to the greater workload on nurses in the working process on the merged ward. The origin of the project had an impact on the creation of new multidisciplinary teams and interdisciplinary collaboration. The project of a joint nursing inpatient ward was realized that the hospital can continue to provide quality health services to all patients. Research has shown that although the project had certain disadvantages and complications, it was certainly beneficial for the organization. The conclusions of the thesis may be presented in seminars, conferences and may be offered to professional journals for publication. The results of the research can help organizations that are going to realize the project of merged nursing inpatient ward.

Due to the higher migration rates, there is more cultural diffusion. The healthe care personnel will be dealing with patients from different cultures more often. This is why it is important to use an appropriate approach and give competent heathcare considering cultural backround of the patients. The goal of this thesis was to map the cultural differences in care for an underage patient and to trend the minority groups that are being cared for by nurses in the children's ward. To achieve the goal of this thesis, there were four specified questions and to achieve the result, there was a threephase trial, specifically qualitative trial supplemented with quantitative method using a questionnaire. The first phase was the pilot poll and a techniquire "snowball slamping" was used. The second phase of the trial consisted of pre-structured interviews with the nurses. The third phase consisted of pre-structured interviews with the parents. On the basis of this trial, it was concluded that the nurses are caring for Romany and Vietnamese minority groups most often. The other most patiens from Ukraine, Russia, Germany, Poland, Muslims and Jehova witnesses. The most common problems that occur during the care are: language barrier, cultural customs, communication and co-operation. Based on the data collected from interviews with nurses and parents, there are specific variations in expectency of care, such as food, daily regime, differences in behavour, communication, reliability to adhere to given rules and consequent care after the hospital stay. There are other different specifics such as rituals and traditions during child labour or at the time of death, celebration of different festivals, fasting and other spiritual needs. Traditions relating to refusal or demand of specific care were also mentioned. Results of this thesis were presented at the 13th Student conference in Pardubice and will be published in a technical journal.

Le véritable enseignement de la présente étude réside en ce que, comme déjà évoqué, le poids de l’appareil judiciaire finit par acquérir plus de consistance que le crime lui-même. A « l’aventure criminelle », c’est-à-dire celle, tragique, des faits à réprimer, se substitue « l’aventure judiciaire », celle de la marche de la justice en vue de parvenir au jugement des faits. Qu’il s’agisse du procès pénal français ou anglo-saxon, l’étude démontre que les règles applicables sont d’une telle complexité qu’elles génèrent une logique judiciaire spécifique et presque détachée des faits à traiter. Les praticiens sont souvent surpris du contraste entre les faits à juger, dont les mobiles et les circonstances sont toujours simples, et la solution judiciaire plus et/ou trop élaborée.L’étude démontre encore le caractère immuable et presque immobile de la justice pénale. Qu’il s’agisse de la France ou des pays anglo-saxons, les fondamentaux des deux systèmes judiciaires en concurrence –procédure inquisitoire ou procédure accusatoire- sont les mêmes depuis le Moyen Âge. Certes, des réformes interviennent, le poids du contradictoire s’accroit, les procédures de recours sont organisées, etc. Mais il s’agit toujours en France de faire faire une enquête approfondie avant procès par un organe d’état et, dans les pays anglo-saxons, de voir s’affronter deux thèses avec un avantage pratique à l’accusation.C’est que, comme le démontre aussi l’étude, la philosophie sociale de chacun des deux mondes français et anglo-saxon est différente sur le statut du suspect : objet d’une recherche de la vérité en France et presque coupable chez les Anglo-Saxons.Cette philosophie sociale en recoupe une autre : la philosophie politique. En France, l’individu est assisté car l’Etat est plus grand que lui ; dans les pays anglo-saxons, l’individu est un homme libre et seul responsable de son destin. Dès lors, en France, l’Etat veut forger sa propre opinion sur des faits délictueux ; dans les pays anglo-saxons, l’affrontement des individus (parquetiers et défenseurs) prime le reste. De plus, dans ces pays, la liberté et l’indépendance reconnues à l’individu le rendent davantage responsable de ses faits et gestes, d’où l’importance démesurée accordée à l’aveu. Pour autant, cette philosophie politique d’un citoyen libre et fort est un extraordinaire levier pour l’Histoire de la Liberté et celle aussi de l’Expansion économique. Sans elle, les pays européens du continent n’auraient sans doute pas pu se soustraire à la botte de conquérants. Sans elle, les Etats-Unis ne seraient pas une locomotive du développement.Il ne faudrait pas croire non plus que le monde anglo-saxon n’a fait que peu d’apports positifs au procès pénal. C’est à la loi britannique sur l’Habeas corpus de 1679 que l’on doit l’idée d’un délai raisonnable pour être jugé et, à défaut, le droit à être remis en liberté. C’est encore aux Britanniques que l’on doit l’idée de droits de la défense recensés en tant que tels, d’abord dans certains articles de la Magna Carta de 1212 puis dans le Bill of Rights de 1689. C’est aux Américains que l’on doit l’idée de sacraliser les droits de la défense en leur donnant un contenu constitutionnel par les amendements à la Constitution de 1787, ajoutés à partir de 1789, une idée qui sera reprise bien plus tard dans la Convention Européenne des Droits de l’Homme et des libertés fondamentales.L’étude montre donc que les pays anglo-saxons réputés pragmatiques ont plutôt fait des contributions de principe, sans mesurer que les applications pratiques qu’ils en tirent dénaturent le procès pénal. L’étude montre aussi que la France, réputée pour ses approches dogmatiques et rationnelles mais d’une raison déconnectée des réalités, a une vision bien plus juste du procès pénal.L’étude a enfin montré que, dans le domaine de la justice pénale, les mondes français et anglo-saxons s’ignorent. / This study shows that the criminal process finally acquires more consistency than the crime itself. The “criminal adventure”, namely the tragical story of the crime itself, turns into “the judicial adventure”, namely the path of justice towards the final decision (conviction or dismissal). Whether it deals with the French or with the Anglo-Saxon models, the legal rules are so complicated that they create a judicial logic which is specific and clipped from the facts of the case. In comparison, the motives and the circumstances of a crime are always simple. Accordingly, the judicial issue appears to be more (and often too much) elaborated than the crime itself.The study also shows the unchanging character of the criminal justice. Whether it is in France or in the Anglo-Saxon countries, the fundamentals of the two justices which are concurrent – inquisitorial model and adversary one- are the same that in the Middle Age. Of course, some reforms happened. The importance of the rule of the contradictory increases, etc. However, the main concern of the French justice still deals with a pretrial investigation which is very thoroughly conducted by a state agency. The Anglo-Saxon model always lies in the confrontation of two thesis with a practical advantage given to the prosecution. These different approaches by the two justices are attributable to a different social philosophy. The status of the suspected person greatly differs whether he is prosecuted in France or in the Anglo-Saxon countries: in France, this status is a matter of the search for the truth; in the Anglo-Saxon countries, this status is in practice that of an almost guilty one, even if his guilt must be proved beyond a reasonable doubt.This social and/or ethic philosophy recuts another one: the political philosophy. In France, the individual is assisted since the State is deemed to be “stronger” than him; in the Anglo-Saxon countries, the individual is a free man; accordingly, he is solely responsible for his acts. Therefore, in France, the State wants to fix up its own opinion about the crime; in the Anglo-Saxon countries, the confrontation of the prosecution and the lawyer outdoes all the rest, in particular the truth. Moreover, in these countries, according to the freedom and the independence of the individual, an undue importance is given to confessions.However, the Anglo-Saxon political philosophy is an extraordinary lever for the history and the liberty and also for the economic expansion. Without it, the continental countries would not have been able to be freed from the conquerors of the two world wars and the cold war. Without it, the US would not be a forefront of the progress.We do not consider that the Anglo-Saxon world made few positive contributions to the criminal proceedings. Indeed, this is the famous English Habeas Corpus Act of 1679 which created the idea of a reasonable time to be tried in court and, if not, to be released from prison. From the English comes the idea of an explicit list of rights of the defence, in particular in some articles in the Magna Carta of 1212 and then officially included in the Bill of Rights of 1689. From the Americans comes the idea of making the rights of defence sacred through the amendments of the constitution. We remember that this idea arrived late in Europe with the ECHR.Therefore, the study shows that the Anglo-Saxons countries which benefit from a reputation of pragmatism have rather acted as theoreticians of criminal law. They have provided the world of criminal justice mainly with contributions close to symbols. They have underestimated the consequences of these symbols in the practice of the criminal proceedings. The study shows also that the French, who are often known for their dogmatic approach of problems, have a better understanding of the criminal proceedings.The study shows especially that the Anglo-Saxon world of criminal justice and the French one totally ignore each other.

This thesis explores the relationship between the Female Gothic novel of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century and the social context of women at that time. In the examination of the primary works of Ann Radcliffe, Mary Wollstonecraft and Mary Shelley, this study investigates how these female writers work within the Gothic genre to explore issues related to the role of women in their society, in particular those concerned with sexual identity. It is contended that the Gothic genre provides these authors with the ideal vehicle through which to critique the patriarchal definition of the female, a definition which confines and marginalizes women, denying the female any sexual autonomy. The Introduction defines the scope of the thesis by delineating the differences between the Female Gothic and the Male Gothic. Arguing that the Female Gothic shuns the voyeuristic victimisation of women which characterizes much of the Male Gothic, it is contended that the Female Gothic is defined by its interest in, and exploration of, issues which concern the status of women in a patriarchy. It is asserted that it is this concern with female gender roles that connects the overtly radical work of Mary Wollstonecraft with the oblique critique evident in her contemporary, Ann Radcliffe’s, novels. It is these concerns too, which haunt Mary Shelley’s texts, published two decades later. Chapter One outlines the status of women in the patriarchal society of the late eighteenth century, a period marked by political and social upheaval. This period saw the increasing division of men and women into the “separate spheres” of the public and domestic worlds, and the consequent birth of the ideal of “Angel in the House” which became entrenched in the nineteenth century. The chapter examines how women writers were influenced by this social context and what effect it had on the presentation of female characters in their work, in particular in terms of their depiction of motherhood. Working from the premise that, in order to fully understand the portrayal of female sexuality in the texts, the depiction of the male must be examined, Chapter Two analyses the male characters in terms of their relationship to the heroines and/or the concept of the “feminine”. Although the male characters differ from text to text and author to author, it is argued that in their portrayal of “heroes and villains” the authors were providing a critique of the patriarchal system. While some of the texts depict male characters that challenge traditional stereotypes concerning masculinity, others outline the disastrous and sometimes fatal consequences for both men and women of the rigid gender divisions which disallow the male access to the emotional realm restricted by social prescriptions to the private, domestic world of the female. It is contended that, as such, all of the texts assert the necessity for male and female, masculine and feminine to be united on equal terms. Chapter Three interprets the heroine’s journey through sublime landscapes and mysterious buildings as a journey from childhood innocence to sexual maturity, illustrating the intrinsic link that exists between the settings of Gothic novels and female sexuality. The chapter first examines the authors’ use of the Burkean concept of the sublime and contends that the texts offer a significant revision of the concept. In contrast to Burke’s overtly masculinist definition of the sublime, the texts assert that the female can and does have access to it, and that this access can be used to overcome patriarchal oppression. Secondly, an analysis of the image of the castle and related structures reveals that they can symbolise both the patriarchy and the feminine body. Contending that the heroine’s experiences within these structures enable her to move from innocence to experience, it is asserted that the knowledge that she gains, during her journeys, of herself and of society allows her to assert her independence as a sexually adult woman.

The correspondence of stationary, axisymmetric, asymptotically flat space-times and bundles over a reduced twistor space has been established in four dimensions. The main impediment for an application of this correspondence to examples in higher dimensions is the lack of a higher-dimensional equivalent of the Ernst poten- tial. This thesis will propose such a generalized Ernst potential, point out where the rod structure of the space-time can be found in the twistor picture and thereby provide a procedure for generating solutions to the Einstein field equations in higher dimensions from the rod structure, other asymptotic data, and the requirement of a regular axis. Examples in five dimensions are studied and necessary tools are developed, in particular rules for the transition between different adaptations of the patching matrix and rules for the elimination of conical singularities.

Community Economic Development (CED) in South Africa is shaped by the historicalprocesses of the former Apartheid regime that discriminated the social and economic rights of the majority of people, thus disempowering them to participate in development. The notion of Integrated Community Economic Development (ICED) enhances the concept of participation in community economic development in that it advocates for an empowerment dimension in development. In order to facilitate this participation, the government has introduced the participatory mechanisms of the IDP and ward committee system. Paradoxically, inequalities in development persist in previously disadvantaged homelands which were excluded from participation in developmental initiatives of the former regime. Consequently, these mechanisms for ICED have not been able to achieve participation of communities in ICED. Winterveldt is one such area with a legacy of social exclusion through racial and ethnic discrimination. The goal of the study was to explore the lack of participation of the Winterveldt community in ICED guided by the research question: “What are the reasons for the lack of participation of the Winterveldt community in ICED?” A qualitative research approach was followed and the research design was a case study. Data was gathered through focus group interviews and document studies. The focus groups were comprised of 13 community participants and 10 ward committee personnel from Winterveldt. Research findings revealed various reasons for the lack of participation in the ICED of Winterveldt including role confusion, the lack of information and training on the IDP and political power abuse. The study concluded that participation flows along lines that safeguard the interests of local government with little respect for the community’s capacity to make decisions concerning their development. Recommendations towards the achievement of participation in the ICED of Winterveldt include training on the Integrated Development Plan (IDP), the development of a guideline for implementing the IDP and changes in attitudes of all actors in the ICED of Winterveldt. Copyright / Dissertation (MSW)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Social Work and Criminology / unrestricted