The migration of nurses is stimulating international debate around globalisation, ethics, and the effects on health systems. This thesis examines this phenomenon through nurses trained in Nepal who migrate to the UK. Since 2000, increasing numbers of Nepali nurses have started crossing national borders to participate in the global healthcare market, particularly in the affluent west. By using qualitative multisited research and in-depth interviews with key stakeholders in both Nepal and the UK, this thesis explores why nurses aspire to migrate, how they fulfil these aspirations, and their experience of living and working in the UK. The thesis begins by examining the historical development of nurse training in Nepal, particularly from the mid 1950s. This period saw profound socio-political transformations, including in the position of women in Nepali society and in the perception of nursing in Nepal. Previously, many families were very reluctant to send their daughters into nursing. By the late 1990s, middle-class women and their families were increasingly attracted to nursing, both as a vocation and as a means to migrate. The thesis explores the rise of private training colleges to meet the increased demand for nurse training, and the new businesses that have grown up around the profession to facilitate nurse recruitment and migration. Around one thousand nurses have migrated to the UK since 2000, and the second part of the thesis presents their experiences of the migration process and of working and settling in the UK. Nurses have faced complex bureaucratic and professional hurdles, particularly after UK nurse registration and work-permit policies changed in 2006. The thesis also highlights how highly qualified nurses with many years of work experience in Nepal have become increasingly deskilled in UK. Frequently sent to rural nursing-homes by recruiting agencies, they create and join new diasporic support networks. Further, many have left their loved ones behind, and experience homesickness and the pain of family separation. Often, they plan for their husbands and children to join them after several years, and the research explores this and the issues faced by their families, as they relocate and adapt to life in the UK. Finally, the thesis makes some important policy recommendations. For Nepal, these relate to greater regulation of nurse training and the brokering of nurses abroad. In the UK, they relate to increasing the flexibility of registration and visa regulations to assist in supporting Nepali nurses' work choices, and to value and utilise their professional skills in the UK better.

The nursing shortage in China is more serious than in most developed countries, but the loss of nurses through their voluntarily leaving nursing practice has not attracted much attention in Chinese society. The aim of this study is to add to the understanding of nurses leaving nursing practice in China by exploring the process from recruitment to final exit. The qualitative research method draws on a grounded theory approach, especially the constant comparative method of analysis. The indepth interviews were conducted with 19 nurses who have left clinical care. The selection of the study participants was guided by the principle of theoretical sampling. Two core conceptual categories emerged from leavers’ account of their leaving: “Mismatching Expectations: Individual vs. Organizational” and “Individual Perception of Power”. By illuminating the interrelationship between these two core categories, four nursing behaviour patterns are identified: (1) Voluntary leaving (2) Active staying (3) Adaptive staying (4) Passive staying. These behaviour patterns provide an explanation about why and how nursing wastage occurs. The analysis suggests: (1) the higher the degree of mismatch that the nurses recognised between individual and organizational expectations of nursing and the greater the extent of imbalance of power the individual nurses perceived, the more likely it is that the nurses intend to leave the powerless status of being a clinical nurse within the organization; (2) the more difficult it becomes for the nurses to achieve their individual expectations by exercising nursing autonomy in their nursing career, the more likely it is that they actually empower themselves to leave nursing practice. The study suggests that nursing wastage could be avoided if the individual and organizational expectations of nursing were more aligned, and the individual nurses were able to exercise nursing autonomy in their professional practice and career. Although the findings are limited in studying the current nursing workforce situation in China, the theoretical perspective may contribute to the international debate on nursing employment towards effective nursing workforce management and retention strategies.

The primary purpose of this study was to examine the influence of selected types of interaction: Student-Instructor interaction, Student-Student interaction, and Student-Content interaction; and selected demographic characteristics on achievement of graduate students enrolled in an online engineering course at a university in the southeastern region of the United States. The study sample included 181 graduate students enrolled in an introductory level 7-week online course that was offered at different times between the fall semester of 2014 and the spring semester of 2016. The variables instructor, instructor preparation, course content, and course structure were integrated into the study design. The sampling plan involved the selection of students who enrolled in the same course and that were taught by the same instructor who had completed a training program in online teaching. Moreover, a score for the cognitive skill level targeted by the course and the degree of course alignment between learning objectives, learning activities, and the final exam was calculated using the Blooms Taxonomy of Educational Objectives. The demographic variables studied included gender, age, prior online learning experience, and undergraduate GPA. The selected interactions: Student-Instructor, Student-Student, and Student-Content interactions were measured in terms of frequencies and average time spent on selected type of interaction for each student throughout the 7-week course. Student achievement was operationalized as the final grades in the course. Three variables were significantly correlated with student achievement: Student-Student interaction frequency, Student-Content interaction mean time occurrence, and undergraduate GPA. Also, male achievement scores were higher than female scores, a statistically significant difference of t(179) = 2.486, p = .014, d = .07. Furthermore, a hierarchical regression analysis determined a statistically significant model that explains the variance in student achievement from the selected demographic and interaction variables R2 = .175, F(10, 170) = 30.740, p = .0005. The variables gender, undergraduate GPA, Student-Student interaction frequency, and Student-Content interaction frequency, were identified as significant contributors to the model. Based on the study findings the researcher recommends the integration of collaborative activities in the design of online learning given the significant contribution that Student-Student interactions made to student achievement.

Principals are the gatekeepers of their school environment. Therefore, their beliefs and attitudes about social and emotional learning (SEL) will influence their staff, students and parents. The purpose of this grounded theory study was to explore school principals beliefs and attitudes about SEL. Researchers have focused on SELs success as it relates to academic achievement, but little is known about the adults roles in effective SEL integration. Findings from this study may inform how administrators (e.g., school system superintendents) structure training for principals to acquire skills in influencing and integrating programs into the overall school climate. The findings may also be used to assist program developers by providing key strategies that principals feel are needed to support their efforts to champion SEL adoption. The methodology used for data collection was semi-structured interviews with eight principals located in urbanized areas across Louisiana. The themes that emerged from this study included: lack of passion for SEL, lack of understanding of SEL, social influences on SEL school integration, and principal presence and staff proficiency in modeling and implementing. The lack of understanding of an SEL definition was a major barrier in this study making it impossible for a theory to emerge. However, valuable information was garnered. Late majority adopter principals exhibited an overall lack of passion for SEL integration into the school in contrast to early adopters who were passionate about SEL integration. Late majority adopter principals possessed neutral to no attitudes in contrast to early adopter principals who possessed positive attitudes regarding SEL. Principals have influence on everyone involved in the system, but do not seem to be easily influenced by others. Overall, being visible and accessible to everyone, providing adequate professional development for teachers, and boosting teacher competence were of importance to all principals included in this study. Finally, a few other notable ideas materialized relative to principals, students and the overall school environment.

The purpose of this study was to examine perceptions related to job expectations as described by 4-H agents in the state of Louisiana. The study explored feelings, skills and knowledge associated with job expectations. This study used a qualitative approach to examine perceptions related to job expectations. A phenomenological study captured the essence of this experience. The participants for this study included LSU AgCenter Extension 4-H agents who work in different parishes located in the state of Louisiana. The state is divided into five regions divided into parishes. Initially two agents from each region were identified to take part in the study. Because it is believed that all of the participants have had the same phenomenon, a purposeful sampling strategy was used. The 4-H Agents are all professionals in the area of Youth Development. Purposeful selection was done based on the defining demographics of gender, years of service and whether parish is rural or urban. Both male and female participants were chosen. Years of service were determined by a mix of agents having eight or more years and agents having less than eight years. The interviews consisted of questions about skills needed to meet job expectations, positive and negative perceptions of job expectations, parts of the job performed well and not well, priorities when it came to expectations and how expectations should be determined and communicated. The six overarching themes that emerged from the interview transcripts included: (1) agent accountability, (2) 4-H agent turnover, (3) not meeting expectations/expectations too high, (4) workload, (5) understanding of expectations and (6) numbers (quality vs quantity).

The primary purpose of the study was to determine the influence of selected demographic and academic characteristics on success in nursing education among first year baccalaureate nursing students enrolled in a private college in the Southern region of the United States. The participants in the study were 102 baccalaureate students admitted to the nursing program in Fall, 2013. For the purpose of the study, success was defined as a grade of C or higher in two clinical nursing courses in the first year of the nursing program. Academic and demographic criteria were examined and compared using means, standard deviations, Independent t tests and a binary logistic regression analysis to determine the criteria which predicted success in the first year clinical nursing courses. Findings indicated that none of the three grade point averages required for admission (Prerequisite GPA, Institutional GPA and Cumulative GPA) entered the binary logistic model as a predictor of success. The means of all three GPAs were higher than the GPA required for admission, yet of the 102 students admitted in Fall, 2013, only 69 students successfully completed the first year of clinical nursing courses. It was also found that grades in non-clinical nursing courses of Nursing Pharmacology, Nursing Assessment and Nursing Pathophysiology were related to the students success, however only the Nursing Pharmacology course was found to significantly predict student success. The nature of this relationship was such that students who had completed the Pharmacology course with higher grades were more likely to be successful in the first two clinical nursing courses. Grades in this course significantly increased the researchers ability to correctly classify nursing students on their ability to successfully complete the first year clinical nursing courses.

Perhaps the most influential device in modern society is the smartphone. Over 90% of Americans aged 18-29 own a smartphone and 74% of teenagers reported using a smartphone as their primary internet connection. Students perceived that using smartphones in the classroom aided learning. However, two-thirds of American high schools ban students from using phones in the classroom. Secondary science curriculum focuses on subjects that regard the biodiversity of plant and animal species, but disregard the students ability to identify species. Consequently, secondary students in general are very poor at identifying species of trees. Previous research supports the idea that advanced smartphone applications in student centered learning environments can improve achievement and motivation. There is little in the agricultural education literature pertaining to smartphone enhanced learning among secondary agriculture students. Further, no research has focused on the use of smartphone applications in forestry education at the secondary level. This dual-purpose study compared achievement levels between two groups of students in a forestry curriculum learning with smartphones or printed materials and determined motivational differences between groups. Specifically, one group of students used the smartphone apps Leafsnap, V-Tree, Tree Book, and Quizlet to identify leaf samples while a comparison group utilized Leaf Key to Common Trees of Louisiana (Dozier & Mills, 2005), Important Forest Trees of the Eastern United States (Brockman & Merrilees, 1991), and Louisiana Trees (Hodges, Evans & Garnett, 2015). A non-equivalent comparison group design was employed. Secondary agricultural students (n = 263) from 13 schools across Louisiana completed a criterion referenced pretest and post-test created by the researcher via Test Generator Web©. Motivation was measured using the Course Interest Survey (Keller, 2010). Data were analyzed using Hierarchical Linear Modelling (HLM) for fixed effects with maximum likelihood estimation to determine if any statistically significant differences existed between the groups in achievement or motivation. HLM accounted for differences between individual students in schools and prior knowledge. The analysis rendered no statistically significant differences between the groups in achievement or motivation. It was concluded that smartphones do not reduce learning and should be considered a learning enabler in agricultural education where policy permits.

The business of logistics and transportation is increasing in demand and complexity and will do so into the future. As with many businesses in the digital age, large amounts of data is being generated at increasing speeds leading us all into the era of big data. A common result is that organizations are left data rich and information poor. At ABC Logistics, and many other third party logistics and transportation companies, the question is how to harness the data and create centers of excellence through business intelligence methodologies. This research project goes through the steps taken to identify an area where business intelligence and data transformation could be an advantageous prospect and how to present it in a way that would be of great benefit to the organization as a whole. Third party logistics companies, such as ABC Logistics, operate under a business model where they do not produce or own any of the product they manage through the supply chain process. What they sell is their expertise in logistics services from the inbound of product, processing of orders, and outbound shipping to and from the customer. This makes the third party logistics business very competitive. Competitive advantages are key to success in this type of business and one area that is underutilized is measuring and managing labor productivity. Currently, ABC Logistics utilizes an AS400 system for warehouse management and Kronos for timekeeping. The problem lies in how to get all the information together in one location where transactional master data is shared across the organization. Once we do that, then the second problem would be analysis and decision management i.e., how we analyze the data and present the information in a human readable format for frontline supervisors and middle management to be able to interpret the data and take action. The solution will be to create a data warehouse to normalize all the various data sources for timekeeping and warehouse production transactions. In order to build the data warehouse, we will utilize an SQL Database with SQL Server Integration Services to transform the data into our data warehouse. With the data transformed into a structured and consistent format, the data is analyzed and the results presented in a human readable format. This will be done through business intelligence tools such as Power BI that allows us to create custom dashboards. This solution will lead to a better understanding of our operation, increase profit, and give ABC Logistics a competitive advantage over their competitors.

Life expectancy and overall health have improved in recent years for most Americans, thanks in part to an increased focus on preventive medicine and dynamic new advances in medical technology. However, not all Americans are benefiting equally. This suggests a level of urgency for need to assist our public health professionals in obtaining specific skills sets that will assist them in working better with ethnic and racial minority populations. The overall goal of the research was to assess cultural competence knowledge and programmatic skill sets of individuals employed by an urban department of health located in the southwest region of the US. The Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) guided the research design to effectively evaluate the correlation between behavior and beliefs, attitudes and intention, of an individual, as well as their level of perceived control. Within the program design, 90 participants were identified using convenience sampling. In order to effectively evaluate these constructs, a quantitative research approach was employed to assess attitudes, beliefs, knowledge and competencies of the subject matter. Participants completed the Cultural Competence Assessment (CCA), which is designed to explore individual knowledge, feelings and actions of respondents when interacting with others in health service environments (Schim, 2009). The instrument is based on the cultural competence model, and measures cultural awareness and sensitivity; cultural competence behaviors and cultural diversity experience on a 49 item scale. It seeks to assess actual behaviors through a self report, rather than self-efficacy of performing behaviors. In addition, information was obtained to assess participant perception of organizational promotion of culturally competent care and; availability of opportunities to participate in professional development training. The analysis suggested healthcare professionals who are more knowledgeable and possess attitudes which reflect increased cultural sensitivity, are more likely to engage in culturally competent behaviors. In addition, positive attitudes and increased knowledge were associated with diversity training participation. Respondents reported high levels of interaction with patients from ethnic and racial minorities. Observing the clinical and non-clinical respondents, approximately 47% and 57% respectively, stated their cultural diversity training was an employer sponsored program.

The primary purpose of this study was to determine if a relationship exists between specific demographics of U.S. Army Company Grade Officers that have completed the U.S Armys Captains Career Course (CCC) in Maneuver, Fires and Effects and their self-perceived capacity to perform as a successful Company Commander. This study included six objectives. The research hypothesis states: Company Grade Officers in the U.S. Army who have held a command position prior to completion of the CCC will have higher self-perceived abilities to function as a successful company commander than those who have not held a command position. The instrument was a combination of a U.S. Army Leader Behavioral Scale (LBS) consisting of 87 items and a researcher designed, 21 item, personal and professional demographic questionnaire. A total of 903 surveys were personally distributed and collected by the researcher with 844 surveys identified as usable for the study. All respondents remained anonymous. Findings of the study revealed Very Good to Good degrees of self-perceived command ability by the majority of the respondents. Factor analysis was used to verify the existing eight LBS sub-scale factors. Within the regression analysis none of the variables explained a significant portion of variance in the self-perceived command abilities, resulting in zero significant regression models. Finally, the researcher could not reject the null hypothesis, leaving the alternative hypothesis unproven. A conclusion of the study found OD CCC completers hold a Very Good self-perception of their ability to command. This conclusion is based upon study data, where, 67.3% of the LBS means were within the researchers survey response scale score of Very Good, and the remaining 32.7% identified as Good. Recommendations for research is the additional study of the self-perceived command abilities of both OSD and FSD officers completing the CCC, not just OD. Furthermore, the establishment of a longitudinal study beginning with an officers commissioning source to investigate self-esteem versus self-perceived ability. Overall, the variables considered within the study provided no significance or influence outside the expected random error with regard to an officer who has completed an OD CCC and self-perceived command ability.