Robert Eugene Ward's impressive body of work encompasses almost every genre of music. He has composed symphonies, operas, large orchestral pieces, chamber works, solo instrumental pieces, extended choral works, short choral pieces, ceremonial works, a ballet, theatre pieces, and even jazz and swing band pieces. Ward's name is recognized in most musical circles but usually only for his opera The Crucible, a work for which he earned a Pulitzer Prize in 1962. In fact, a survey of all the dissertations, articles, interviews, and books written about Robert Ward shows that the vast majority of these studies focus on his most famous opera. His choral works, though they comprise some of Ward's most expressive work, have received little attention. Ward's works show a deliberate use of symbols and allusions. While this use is far from an innovative concept in composition, Ward distinguishes himself with a consistent and purposeful application of these devices establishing an unmistakable interweaving of text, composition, and context. This study examines several of Ward's short choral compositions as they relate to the composer's use of symbols and allusions. Comparisons are made to Ward's use of these devices in his operatic works as a means of determining the consistency of their use throughout his vocal works. Chapter 1 looks at the composer's background, influence, and experience as to their impact on his approach to composition. Chapter 2 lays the groundwork for the discussion of symbols and allusions in music by establishing their basis and function in literary arts in general. The final chapter explores Ward's use of symbols and allusions in four of his choral works.

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Master of Landscape Architecture / Department of Landscape Architecture/Regional and Community Planning / William P. Winslow III / MDI Superfund is an abandoned 36 acre metal casting foundry site in the Fifth Ward Houston, TX. The site was recently remediated and cleared of nearly all industrial remnants including more than 16,000 cubic yards of lead contaminated soil. Completion of the remedial action allows the removal of fences that have been separating this tract of land and the community for nearly ten years. Proximity to downtown Houston makes this a desirable location for new development, which has threatened to displace the poor and elderly in recent years. This project explores design alternatives that facilitate affordable housing without isolating it from new development. The integration of affordable housing with community needs is necessary to improve the dynamic in a mixed use, mixed income development. This research is intended to shape redevelopment of MDI Superfund, while providing community needs, minimizing gentrification, and improving quality of life of its inhabitants. The achievement of these goals relies upon the application of specific design principles that minimize conflict and increase success in similar communities.

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Background: Practical training on hospital wards is a major component of basic nurse training. With this in mind, there were concerns with respect to the ability to provide nursing students with the quality of clinical experience that is required as a result of changes in the Barbados nursing policy to increase the number of students. Aim: The overall aim of this research was to understand student nurses’ clinical placement learning experience at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Barbados, based on their current and desired clinical experiences. Research objectives: (1) to examine the student nurses’ current learning experiences at the hospital; (2) to determine the student nurses’ desired experiences at the hospital; and, (3) to compare and contrast their current clinical experience with their desired experience by integrating the data across the quantitative and qualitative studies. Design: A sequential explanatory mixed methods research. Methods: First study: The Clinical Learning Environment Inventory (CLEI) (current and desired form) and the Clinical Learning Environment, Supervision and Nurse Teacher (CLES+T) questionnaires were distributed to second and third year student nurses (n = 191) at the Barbados Community College. Descriptive and inferential analysis performed. Second study: Qualitative semi-structured interviews (n = 10) among second and third year student nurses analysed thematically. Results: Quantitative survey (First study): ‘Student satisfaction’ (mean 25.74 of 35), ‘Task orientation’ (mean 25.62 of 35), the ‘Leadership style of the ward sister’ (mean 4.02 of 5) and ‘Premises of nursing care on the ward’ (mean 4.01 of 5) greatly informed students’ actual hospital experience. The current and desired hospital experiences were statistically significant different (z = 6.68 to 8.07, p = 0.000). Qualitative interviews (Second study): Four overarching themes were generated: ‘Engaged, proactive and communicative team’; ‘No cohesion among team’; ‘Students – willing to learn and motivated’; and, ‘Consequences – positive and negative’. Overarching findings from both studies: Four major topics describe the student nurses’ experiences: ‘Engagement of the ward nursing team’, ‘The nature of nursing care delivery’, ‘Clinical supervision and teaching of nursing students on the ward’, and ‘Nursing student satisfaction’. Conclusion: The ward sister influences the ward team spirit and students’ clinical learning, negatively or positively. Nurse educators should acknowledge the value of clear, well organised ward activities on students’ learning. Clinical nursing curricula should be based on a blended educational learning perspective.

The focus of this study is the attempt of one school, Loreto Normanhurst, to draw from its values base and traditions to develop and implement a new holistic paradigm of schooling, more relevant to the needs of its 21st century students. Loreto Normanhurst is a Catholic secondary day and boarding school for girls in the northern suburbs of Sydney, Australia. It is a school over 100 years old, associated with the 400 year old, Mary Ward, international tradition of educating women. The aims of the study were threefold: to document and analyse the process of reinvention from a ‘living systems’ perspective (Senge et al., 2000; Sergiovanni, 2000), while it was happening, thereby enhancing the reinvention process itself through a reflexive approach; to document and acknowledge the efforts of the members of the school community in seeking to meet the needs of its students in a 21st century context; and, through its blend of theory and practice, to contribute both to the literature on educational leadership and school reform, and to practice in schools. The study was limited to Loreto Normanhurst, the school in which the researcher is principal. A mixed methodology was adopted, although the study was chiefly qualitative. As an ethnographic case study, it incorporated phenomenological data from the school community, as well as some quantitative data. The particular situation of the researcher, however, as an insider researcher in a position of power within the community studied, necessitated some innovative methodological strategies in order to protect both the participants and the integrity of the research. The situation of the researcher led also to the incorporation of the research traditions of autoethnography and transpersonal research methodologies. The researcher drew from the literature on change, culture and leadership to analyse and interpret data gathered, predominantly, over a five-year period. The study traces the process of reinvention within the school from 2001 to 2005. Most of the data were gathered between 2001 and 2004, although antecedent data, particularly from 1994 to 2000, were included, as well as some data from 2005, by which stage the new paradigm had been implemented for two years within the school. The study presents findings in three main areas: change processes in schools; educational leadership; and insider research methodology. Findings related to change processes are addressed in two parts. The first of these relates to the development, implementation and evaluation of the new educational paradigm, while the second relates to the school’s attempt to ‘continually reinvent’ itself, thus institutionalising change (Schein, 1992). The school’s values played an important role in both of these aspects of change. Findings related to educational leadership are derived from the study of the school’s reinvention processes. These findings include insights into how a range of leadership theories supported, or failed to adequately support, leadership of the reinvention process as well as the identification of twelve dilemmas associated with leadership for change in a Mary Ward school. Findings related to methodologies for insider researchers in positions of power address the need for techniques, methods and research traditions which will protect participants and the research, as well as assisting the researcher in managing the multiple roles entailed in research of this kind. The study concludes with important contributions to the fields of school reform, educational leadership, and insider research methodology. First, it offers a framework for the reinvention of a school and the development of a culture of continual reinvention. This is the eight-step ‘Framework for Reinventing a School’. Second, it proposes a model of leadership for such a reinvention, identified as ‘Contemplative-reflexive leadership for reinvention’. Third, it presents a more fully developed method for conducting insider research, which can be used by school principals and others in positions of authority. This is known as ‘PIRM – Powerful Insider Research Method’: a research method for use by insider researchers in positions of power in their own organisation.

Bakgrund: En stor del av vårdskadorna som uppstår i vården beror på brister i kommunikation. Rapportering är en del av det dagliga arbetet som sjuksköterska, där målet är att föra vidare information om en patientens tillstånd för att säkerställa den fortsatta vården och patientsäkerheten. Syfte: att beskriva hur anestesisjuksköterskan och vårdavdelningens sjuksköterska ser på rapportering vid överföring av patient från UVA till vårdavdelning. Metod: Kvalitativ studie. Studien har analyserats med hjälp av innehållsanalys där ett tema, två kategorier och nio subkategorier har framkommit. Fokusgruppsintervjuer med sammanlagt tio sjuksköterskor från vårdavdelningar med erfarenhet av att hämta patienter på UVA samt åtta sjuksköterskor från anestesin. Resultat: För att en rapport skall bli bra krävs att rapporten följer en viss procedur och struktur. Det är viktigt att rapporten följer en röd tråd och att informationen inte blir överflödig. Vårdmiljön vid rapporteringen har också stor betydelse. Det blir svårt att lämna en bra rapport då det är mycket stress runtomkring och då det är svårt att hålla sekretessen. Från både anestesin och vårdavdelningarna finns en vilja att ha förståelse för varandra för att skapa en god miljö vid rapporteringen. I rapporteringen är det viktigt att lagom mycket information om patienten lämnas annars finns risk att personen som tar emot rapporten slutar lyssna. Diskussion: Vårdavdelningarnas sjuksköterskor saknar kunskap om de specifika läkemedel som administreras av anestesisjuksköterskan under narkosen. Detta kan få ödesdigna konsekvenser då det finns en risk att drabbas av återfall av läkemedel med andningshämmande effekt, en så kallad recurarisering. / Background: A great deal of the related care injuries that develops in the hospitals often depends on communications failures. Reporting handovers is a great part of nurse’s daily work, the where report handovers purpose is to transfer information related to the patient between staff so that the patient safety can be ensured. Aim: To describe how the anaesthesia nurse and the ward nurse perception in the report handover of an postoperative patient. Method: Qualitative studies where made. Focus group interviews with total of ten nurses from the wards, nurses with experience from giving and taking reports in handover situations from the postoperative anaesthesia care unit (PACU), and eight nurses from the anaesthetic ward. The result where analysed with help from a content analysis, that resulted in one theme, two categories and nine sub categories. Result: Areport requires that the reporter follow a particular procedure and structure. It’s important that the report makes a common line for the listener, and that the information is not redundant. The environment is also important, it becomes difficult to make a good report when it’s stressful around, that also makes it difficult to maintain confidentiality. From both the anaesthesia and ward it’s a willingness to understand each other when it comes to patient handover, regarding to the stressfulness and the lack of care places at the wards. It’s important that the right amount of information about the patient is given, otherwise there’s a risk that the person receiving the report, stop listening. Discussion: The ward nurses lack the knowledge about the specific drugs during anaesthesia that are administrated by the anaesthesia nurse. That can bring a fatal consequence if the patient gets a residual paralysis of the muscle relaxant drug.

According to the progressive era and technical development, many industries have already input emerging technology. In the medical industry of Taiwan, most of the hospitals have set up the operating system, data management and case history in electric facilities. It can help to deliver the information more accuracy and convenient. However, there are still many traditional models in medical regulation. The main reason is that the processes of care usually involve face to face communication. Therefore, to insure safety to the patients, human observation and communication are needed in traditional concept. To give an example of inpatient healthcare, patients always need intimate observation and treatment because the function of ward is to keep the patients safe and easy to observe. In recent years, the tradition care models have been challenged by the lack of human resources and the rise of patient safety conscious. In consequence, the service quality of ward has also been focus. According to the official data record in 2007, there were 2 million people affected with Nephrology disease, and this population content 50 thousands patient of long term dialysis. Nephrology disease has become the most popular disease in Taiwan. This thesis is trying to focus on the huge amount of Nephrology patients, and enhance the care process with forward-looking solutions. After inducing traditional problems and collecting emerging technologies, this research is going to produce an emerging health care model on Nephrology inpatients. The conventional process of IO record, medicament allocation, fall injury prevention, nursing record and home care after discharged from hospital would be improved in many technologies, such as lover¡¦s cup, electric scale, barcode, RFID, urgent button, PDA, mobile nursing station, intouch message board and monitoring stool. Not only building the model, the evaluation of time cost, quality and innovative services would also discuss in the research to make the emerging health care model more suitable for clinical demand.

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Thesis (doctoral)--Universität Greifswald.