Understanding the Skills Necessary for Advanced Practice Nurses in Oncology to Deliver Bad News to Patients with Cancer: The Results of a Delphi Analysis

Overcoming the dichotomy of providing bad news in a compassionate, empathetic manner that strengthens dialogue and enhances a caring environment is the ultimate challenge advanced practice nurses (APN) face in oncology. This study aims to understand the skills necessary for APNs in oncology to deliver bad news to patients with cancer. Using a Delphi analysis, an established method of developing a consensus, a novel, patient-centered survey tool has been developed designed to extract as much information as possible about the present issue from an expert panel. Oncology APNs were recruited via Facebook. The survey tool was administered using a web-based survey tool. Content analysis was applied to the stories and responses to open-ended questions that panelists submitted. Results were collected and then presented back to the panel for ranking. Twelve expert panelists reached a consensus on a practice-based method focused on teaching empathy and self-awareness. The results of this pilot project serve as the foundation for future research and for the development of a curriculum to educate new APNs or those new to the field of oncology

Using a Prediction and Option Generation Paradigm to Understand Decision Making

In many complex and dynamic domains, the ability to generate and then select the appropriate course of action is based on the decision maker\u27s reading of the situation--in other words, their ability to assess the situation and predict how it will evolve over the next few seconds. Current theories regarding option generation during the situation assessment and response phases of decision making offer contrasting views on the cognitive mechanisms that support superior performance. The Recognition-Primed Decision-making model (RPD; Klein, 1989) and Take-The-First heuristic (TTF; Johnson & Raab, 2003) suggest that superior decisions are made by generating few options, and then selecting the first option as the final one. Long-Term Working Memory theory (LTWM; Ericsson & Kintsch, 1995), on the other hand, posits that skilled decision makers construct rich, detailed situation models, and that as a result, skilled performers should have the ability to generate more of the available task-relevant options. The main goal of this dissertation was to use these theories about option generation as a way to further the understanding of how police officers anticipate a perpetrator\u27s actions, and make decisions about how to respond, during dynamic law enforcement situations. An additional goal was to gather information that can be used, in the future, to design training based on the anticipation skills, decision strategies, and processes of experienced officers. Two studies were conducted to achieve these goals. Study 1 identified video-based law enforcement scenarios that could be used to discriminate between experienced and less-experienced police officers, in terms of their ability to anticipate the outcome. The discriminating scenarios were used as the stimuli in Study 2; 23 experienced and 26 less-experienced police officers observed temporally-occluded versions of the scenarios, and then completed assessment and response option-generation tasks. The results provided mixed support for the nature of option generation in these situations. Consistent with RPD and TTF, participants typically selected the first-generated option as their final one, and did so during both the assessment and response phases of decision making. Consistent with LTWM theory, participants--regardless of experience level--generated more task-relevant assessment options than task-irrelevant options. However, an expected interaction between experience level and option-relevance was not observed. Collectively, the two studies provide a deeper understanding of how police officers make decisions in dynamic situations. The methods developed and employed in the studies can be used to investigate anticipation and decision making in other critical domains (e.g., nursing, military). The results are discussed in relation to how they can inform future studies of option-generation performance, and how they could be applied to develop training for law enforcement officers

The Gavel of Delta Sigma Rho, Volume 31, Issue 4, Complete Issue

Complete digitized issue (volume 31, issue 4, May 1949) of The Gavel of Delta Sigma Rho

Education and Training of Specialist Sexual Offence Investigators in Victoria, Australia from 2009 to 2011

The topic of training specifically designed for investigators of sexual offences has received little attention from academic researchers to date. Previous studies have not described training provided to police investigators of sexual offences in Australia. This thesis developed Turnley’s Framework for the Examination of Police Training in Sexual Assault Investigation, to examine and describe a Sexual Offences and Child Abuse Investigative Teams (SOCIT) Course, provided to Victorian Police from 2009 to 2011. This entailed triangulation of findings from non-participant observations of one SOCIT Course, with quantitative and qualitative data sourced though an in-depth interview with course trainers; feedback sheets voluntarily completed by trainees who undertook the course and responses from an online survey of 44 police who completed a course between 2009 and 2011. A description of the course design, resourcing, content, delivery, individual and organisational outcomes are presented as findings. Trainees reported the SOCIT course to be highly relevant for the work of specialist sexual assault investigators, with 80% of survey respondents self-reporting a change in their attitudes towards victims of sexual offences as a result of the SOCIT training. Despite these self-reports, findings from the survey indicate the maintenance of negative attitudes by some police in relation victims. The findings of this thesis concur and support findings of the Policing Just Outcomes Project with regard to the need for police to focus on, and refine the process of selection and recruitment, for this specialised area of police work

Cognitive and neuronal bases of expertise

This thesis examines the cognitive and neural bases of expertise. In so doing, several psychological phenomena were investigated-imagery. memory and thinking-using different tasks, and a variety of techniques of data gathering, including standard behavioural experiments, questionnaires, eye-movement recording, and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Chess players participated in all the studies, and chess tasks were used. The data confirmed the versatility and power of chess as a task environment, since the results provided fruitful information for the understanding of different human cognitive processes. The role of practice in this domain of expertise was examined. The strong view that extended deliberate practice is a necessary and sufficient condition for the acquisition of expert performance, did not receive support in this thesis. Alternatively, a less extreme position was adopted: extended practice is a necessary, but not a sufficient condition for the acquisition of expert performance. A search for individual differences in factors unrelated to chess practice was carried out. The sources of these individual differences, as well as the cognitive abilities in which individual differences may exist, were considered. One of the sources-the age at which serious practice starts-was a good predictor of chess skill. Handedness, which is supposed to be determined by environmental factors in utero, slightly differentiated chess players from non-players, but no differences in this variable were found between strong and the weak players. Regarding the cognitive abilities, chess players performed slightly better than the non-chess players in a spatial task. Individual differences were also considered within a single leyel of expertise-master level. Differences in forgetting rate in long-term memory and reaction time were observed for one of the masters. These results contributed to the improvement of an extant theory of expertise-template/CHREST [CHunks and REtrieval STructures] theory-by estimating values for some of its parameters based on the empirical data obtained, and by proposing the addition of a spatial short-term memory

A Systematic Approach to Design of Distance Graduate Management Programmes

This study describes the systematic creation, application and evaluation of acomprehensive framework for the design of distance graduate programmes, the goal of which is to inform decision-making for sustainable curricula that suit the growing demand for flexible learning options. A wide range of challenges face educators, and existing models appear to be insufficient to guide such endeavours. Successful distance learning is rooted in the values of the institution and requires a significant amount of organizational support, needs assessment of stakeholders, strategic planning, implementation and evaluation. This first international study of distance masters degree programmes in Tourism and Hospitality Management (T&HM) employs an exploratory mixed method research design in a comprehensive investigation of the interrelated elements that contextualize and are part of the distance graduate curriculum. Director interviews and online surveys of alumni contribute insights into the graduate distance learning experience. A short case study within an Irish higher education institution pilots the draft framework; triangulating data by adding the perspective of traditionalinstructors transitioning into a blended learning format. This study provides a robust curriculum model linking new findings and rich eclectic sources that can assist distance programme planners in the selection of technologyenhancedapproaches to meet the unique needs and interests of learners whilebalancing change. Extending the academic plan of Stark and Lattuca (1997, 2009), this timely study offers a design framework to formatively stimulate quality interaction, foster high-level thinking and motivate both learners and instructors in a student-centred paradigm. Holistic design, not technology alone, opens the way to enhancing flexibility and programme competitiveness and resilience in a borderless academic community

Spatial-temporal reasoning applications of computational intelligence in the game of Go and computer networks

Spatial-temporal reasoning is the ability to reason with spatial images or information about space over time. In this dissertation, computational intelligence techniques are applied to computer Go and computer network applications. Among four experiments, the first three are related to the game of Go, and the last one concerns the routing problem in computer networks. The first experiment represents the first training of a modified cellular simultaneous recurrent network (CSRN) trained with cellular particle swarm optimization (PSO). Another contribution is the development of a comprehensive theoretical study of a 2x2 Go research platform with a certified 5 dan Go expert. The proposed architecture successfully trains a 2x2 game tree. The contribution of the second experiment is the development of a computational intelligence algorithm calledcollective cooperative learning (CCL). CCL learns the group size of Go stones on a Go board with zero knowledge by communicating only with the immediate neighbors. An analysis determines the lower bound of a design parameter that guarantees a solution. The contribution of the third experiment is the proposal of a unified system architecture for a Go robot. A prototype Go robot is implemented for the first time in the literature. The last experiment tackles a disruption-tolerant routing problem for a network suffering from link disruption. This experiment represents the first time that the disruption-tolerant routing problem has been formulated with a Markov Decision Process. In addition, the packet delivery rate has been improved under a range of link disruption levels via a reinforcement learning approach --Abstract, page iv

Dynamics and Development of Shortleaf Pine in East Tennessee

The shortleaf pine resource in the Ridge and Valley region of Tennessee is in peril of being eradicated. A study of the resource was conducted at the Oak Ridge Forestry Station and Chuck Swan State Forest to determine the historical development, current conditions, and future potential of the resource in this physiographic region. Where once shortleaf pine flourished as a major species in pure· and mixed stands in the Ridge and Valley, conditions are now such that the species does not regenerate well and is slowly fading from the ecosystem. Aerial photography, historical documentation, interviews with current managers and historians, stem analysis, and field data collection from homogeneous sites were used to construct a dendrochronological series tracing shortleaf pine development. Through varied and frequent disturbances such as southern pine beetle, wildfires, diseases, and various harvesting conditions, the species was able to reproduce and perpetuate. The growth of the individual shortleaf stem can be categorized as space enduring ; continuing to stay a member of the forest without regards to the changing conditions around it. Shortleaf pine remnants added an average of one inch of diameter every decade. This growth pattern was consistent, regardless of competition levels, topography, age, height, and live crown ratio. As mixed hardwood species asserted their dominance on the landscape, the shortleaf pine remnants were able to endure even with comparatively lower live crown ratios. Shortleaf pines\u27 diameter and height were equal to or greater than the hardwoods that developed with them. Stem analysis conducted discovered two separate cohorts intermixed in the Ridge and Valley. The younger of these two cohorts became established in the mid-1930\u27s as disturbances such as fire and harvesting created ideal conditions for shortleaf pine regeneration. However, management. changes, beginning with the Tennessee Division of Forestry\u27s fire suppression program in 1950, have limited the disturbances that otherwise would have created favorable regeneration conditions. There has been no regeneration of the species since the early 1970\u27s. The current state of the resource is that of an ovennaturing remnant collection that lacks the ability or conditions to regenerate. The study was conducted on publicly managed lands; however the state of the resource may be direr on private lands where economics is often the determining management criteria. Management practices such as plantation establishment, underplanting, and natural regeneration through gap promotion are suggested to perpetuate the ubiquitously growing species in the Ridge and Valley. If these practices are not implemented, the current remnant state will continue to succumb to the mixed hardwood forests

Textbook vs assassin's creed unity : comparing their engagement with second-order historical thinking concepts with reference to the French revolution.

Master of Education. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban 2016.This research aims to ascertain the manner in which two grade 10 CAPS-approved History textbooks and the historically-situated electronic game Assassin’s Creed Unity engage with second-order historical thinking concepts with reference to the French Revolution, in an attempt to create a historically literate learner. Historical education has become an ideological playground, dominated by official forms of education, such as the ubiquitious textbook, which aim to inculcate particular values into a historically literate learner. Yet history education is increasingly, and unpredictably, influenced by unofficial forms of pedagogy, such as the historically-situated electronic game which impact not only on learners’ schema, but their educators too. Adopting Seixas’s six second-order historical thinking concepts (historical significance, source evidence, continuity and change, cause and consequence, historical perspective taking and the moral or ethical dimension) as categorical filters, similarities and differences across the three tools were identified. Within an interpretivist framework, these similarities and differences were studied and recorded utilising a Qualitative Comparative Content Analysis approach, a method which amalgamates the Qualitative Content Analysis and Qualitative Comparative Analysis approaches. These similarities and differences, as well as the manifest and latent negotiations of each, were, in turn, qualitatively contemplated to gain an understanding of what each revealed about the ideological implications of the divergent pedagogical tools and the manner in which these are expectant within a historically literate learner. Through latent analysis of the findings, it became apparent that, while both the textbooks and the electronic game were created within an ideological framework, it was this framework which specifically drove the depiction of the French Revolution within the textbooks. Through repetition and implicit reinforcement of the democratic establishments of the French Revolution and its connection with the South African Revolution of 1994, which saw the demise of the Apartheid era, the textbooks illustrate that a suitable historically literate learner must be one encompassed of and perpetuating the ideals fought for in the South African Revolution. The electronic game, in dichotomy of this as an artefact of the counter-culture, adopts an ideology which pushes against grand narratives and questions whose history is correct and deserves to be witnessed. For educational practictioners, researchers and those immersed in designing games for learners, the findings suggest that any integration of electronic games into official educational practice will require that they devote themselves to establishing a particular historically literate learner in line with the DBE and South African government’s agenda. For textbook researchers, the findings open the door to similar explorations into other sections within the CAPS-approved History textbooks, particularly in relation to the South African Revolution