Good Helping Relationships in Child Welfare: Co-authored Stories of Success (FULL REPORT)

This project involved multiple, in-depth interviews with six worker-client dyads from child welfare. The dyads were selected on the basis of workers and clients agreeing that they had worked through some degree of negative interpersonal process toward the achievement of a good working relationship. For each dyad, two individual interviews with the worker and the client were followed by a joint interview. These interviews produced stories that described from workers\u27 and clients\u27 perspectives how the relationship developed over time, how difficulties were dealt with, and what impact the relationship had on the participants. Although these stories were written by the researchers, they were co-authored by workers and clients in the sense that the participants reviewed drafts of their stories, made suggestions for revisions, and agreed that the final product fairly represented their experience. Across story analyses yielded common themes with regard to worker and client contributions to the development of a good relationship, the qualities of a good relationship, and central issues and turning points in relationship development and client change. The results paint a picture of a good working relationship that is deeply human, integrates personal and professional elements, and takes time and effort to develop. Findings also provide insights about how the challenges of developing good relationships in child welfare, and in any helping endeavour, can be dealt with productively

What are the benefits and challenges of mentoring in midwifery? An integrative review

Aim: The aim of this review was to synthesize best available evidence on mentoring programmes for midwives who have worked within the clinical setting for more than 1 year. Background: Lack of job satisfaction, stress, burnout and limited managerial support contributes to midwifery workforce attrition and the ongoing global shortage of midwives. Mentoring may be one way to improve staff retention, leading to positive clinical and organizational outcomes. Design: A five-step integrative review approach, based on a series of articles published by the Joanna Briggs Institute for conducting systematic reviews, was used to develop a search strategy, selection criteria, method for quality appraisal and the extraction and synthesis of data. Methods: Relevant articles were sought from the following databases: Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature, MEDLINE, PubMed, MIDIRS and Scopus. The search and screening process was guided by the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta Analysis 2009 checklist. Narrative analysis was used to develop four main categories derived from the results from the included studies. Results: Eight studies were included in this review from which four themes were developed that are relevant to mentoring in midwifery; the impact on midwives\u27 direct environment, their immediate relationships with peers and management, and the overarching influence of the organization directly impact the accessibility and support midwives receive in mentoring programmes. Conclusion: To enhance staff retention in the workforce, midwives require support from the wider organization in which they work. Relevance to clinical practice: Understanding midwives\u27 perspectives of mentoring programmes will directly influence the development of midwifery-specific mentoring programmes, which may lead to improved staff retention in the midwifery workforce

Female computer science and engineering undergraduates: reflections on participation in the academic landscape

Women continue to be underrepresented in computer science and technology related fields despite their significant contributions. The lack of diversity in technology related fields is problematic as it can result in the perpetuation of negative stereotypes and closed-minded, unchecked biases. As technology tools become integral to our daily lives it is essential that a diverse group of people contribute to the sociocultural environments where we participate and live. This dissertation is a phenomenological, interview-based, study designed to investigate the lived experience of women in undergraduate computer science and engineering programs. The purpose of this study was to better understand the factors that might encourage or discourage the participation women in the major and in the field. In order to grow the number of women in technical fields it is important to first understand what attracts them to the field and what supports they find helpful or not helpful. This study illuminated some recommendations that might guide the work of practitioners in secondary schools as well as higher education. Among other things, participants appreciated being challenged by the content and assignments, feeling support from faculty and peers, feeling a connection to the culture, effective encouragement to persist, and engaging interactions. All of the participants described having gone into their field to make a positive impact on society and they also all described the importance having at least one supportive female mentor. Participants described the importance of having spaces where they felt included and appreciated their professors and peers who pushed back against the historical CS-world stereotypes. While the experience of each participant was unique, and there were some very negative experiences, all six participants reported having mostly positive experience in their undergraduate programs

Good Helping Relationships in Child Welfare: Co-authored Stories of Success (SUMMARY REPORT)

This project involved multiple, in-depth interviews with six worker-client dyads from child welfare. The dyads were selected on the basis of workers and clients agreeing that they had worked through some degree of negative interpersonal process toward the achievement of a good working relationship. For each dyad, two individual interviews with the worker and the client were followed by a joint interview. These interviews produced stories that described from workers\u27 and clients\u27 perspectives how the relationship developed over time, how difficulties were dealt with, and what impact the relationship had on the participants. Although these stories were written by the researchers, they were co-authored by workers and clients in the sense that the participants reviewed drafts of their stories, made suggestions for revisions, and agreed that the final product fairly represented their experience. Across story analyses yielded common themes with regard to worker and client contributions to the development of a good relationship, the qualities of a good relationship, and central issues and turning points in relationship development and client change. The results paint a picture of a good working relationship that is deeply human, integrates personal and professional elements, and takes time and effort to develop. Findings also provide insights about how the challenges of developing good relationships in child welfare, and in any helping endeavour, can be dealt with productively

Empowering international and culturally diverse honours and project students through mentoring activities

This paper reports on an initiative to develop a successful school based student mentoring program in the context of a Computer Science based school which has a high proportion of international and culturally diverse student population. A review of literature was made of three areas of research related to mentoring and peer support. This provided evidence for the role of mentoring and peer support in empowering student learning, with particular emphasis on how mentoring can provide both social and academic support; on the role of mentoring in different contexts; within the Computer Science field and within an international and culturally diverse education perspective and finally on the role of and qualities required by the mentor in the mentoring process. The paper examines the findings from an email based survey of current and former members of student mentor group which has existed since 2003. The questionnaire was categorized into five sections including demographic information, factors influencing choice of the group, reflections on the mentoring experience (joining the group, project activities), on commitments and skills development (commitments, interpersonal/interaction, improving skills) and additional support services. The overarching finding from the research was that the mentoring experience was a positive one for both mentor and mentees. The mentor group provided a supportive respectful environment which could offer both academic and technical skills development and provide social support. Students also identified the most important qualities and obligations that the mentor group leader should provide to include, subject knowledge and technical expertise, and quality traits of trustworthiness, intercultural understanding and friendliness. From the research findings a framework was proposed to support the implementation of a school based mentor group program. This is seen as beneficial to project and research students especially in an international and culturally diverse student population