New Graduate Nurses\u27 Perception of the Impact of Dedicated Education Units on Transition to Practice: A Descriptive Study

PURPOSE: The purpose of this research was to identify the value of undergraduate nursing student clinical preparation within a dedicated education unit on transition to practice. SPECIFIC AIMS: Describe perceived competence, practice readiness, self-efficacy, job satisfaction, intent-to-stay and orientation length of students who participated in a clinical experience in a dedicated education unit upon graduation, 3- and 6-months employment. Explore new graduate nurses’ perception of the impact of a dedicated education unit clinical experience on transition to practice. Examine relationships between outcome variables. Explore associations between outcome variables and demographic and employment characteristics. FRAMEWORK: This research was guided by Albert Bandura’s Social Learning Theory. DESIGN: This study used a descriptive, longitudinal design with quantitative measures and qualitative interviews. RESULTS: 18 participants provided quantitative data, and five participated in an interview. Competence, practice readiness and job satisfaction were relatively high. Self-efficacy remained essentially unchanged at all three time points. Average orientation length was 13 weeks, with 41.7% reporting their orientation was shorter than planned. At 6-months employment, 91.7% planned to stay in their current position for one year. Competence and Self-efficacy were associated at 3- and 6-months. Prior healthcare work experience was associated with higher competence at 3- and 6-months. Participants valued the experience of working with a preceptor and the supportive learning environment that allowed them to develop technical and professional nursing skills. CONCLUSION: These findings support dedicated education units as having a positive impact on new graduate nurse’s transition to practice

Alien Registration- Berube, Irene A. (Lewiston, Androscoggin County)

https://digitalmaine.com/alien_docs/30295/thumbnail.jp

Alien Registration- Berube, Louis A. (Lewiston, Androscoggin County)

https://digitalmaine.com/alien_docs/30175/thumbnail.jp

Drug Proceeds Forfeiture and the Right to Counsel of Choice

As part of the current war on drugs, Congress enacted 21 U.S.C.section 853, the drug proceeds forfeiture statute. The statute authorizes criminal forfeiture of assets that are used in the commission of, or constitute the proceeds from, a federal drug felony. When prosecutors began to use the statute to seek forfeiture of defense counsel\u27s attorney\u27s fees, defendants and the law firms that represented them argued that the provision violated the sixth amendment right to counsel. The courts of appeals were divided on the question of whether the sixth amendment prohibits forfeiture of assets intended to be used to hire an attorney. The Supreme Court resolved this conflict in the companion cases of Caplin & Drysdale, Chartered v. United States and United States v. Monsanto.6 The Court held that the sixth amendment right to counsel did not mandate an attorney\u27s fees exception to criminal forfeiture under 21 U.S.C. section 853. This Note examines the Court\u27s decisions in Caplin & Drysdale and Monsanto in light of the history of the sixth amendment and the new drug proceeds forfeiture statute. Part II briefly surveys several relevant aspects of the sixth amendment right to counsel. Part III reviews the legislative history and key provisions of section 853. Part IV summarizes the Supreme Court\u27s holdings in Caplin & Drysdale and Monsanto. Part V balances the conflicting interests and suggests an alternative holding. Finally, Part VI concludes that the greater significance of the Supreme Court\u27s decision is its role in a larger erosion of constitutional protections motivated by the drug war

Alien Registration- Berube, Marie A. (Auburn, Androscoggin County)

https://digitalmaine.com/alien_docs/30892/thumbnail.jp

Quantum integrable systems in three-dimensional magnetic fields: the Cartesian case

In this paper we construct integrable three-dimensional quantum-mechanical systems with magnetic fields, admitting pairs of commuting second-order integrals of motion. The case of Cartesian coordinates is considered. Most of the systems obtained are new and not related to the separation of variables in the corresponding Schr\"odinger equation.Comment: 8 page

Letters

A Footnote to Tales Before Narnia by Douglas A. Anderson: Suggests an addition to the list of recommended reading in the author’s Tales Before Narnia: M.P. Shiel. C.S. Lewis was known to have owned several books by this author. The Origins of Dwarves by Pierre H. Berube: Following on Helios de Rosario Martinez’s article in Mythlore 109/110, suggests several avenues of exploration for the popular folkloric concept of dwarves as miners

Invertebrate Diversity under Artificial Cover in Relation to Boreal Forest Habitat Characteristics

We investigated invertebrate diversity in boreal forests using an experimental design that consisted of counting soil invertebrates under artificial cover. The aim was to assess the utility of using soil invertebrate diversity as a measure of ecosystem health. The study area was grouped into five habitats: upland hardwood, lowland hardwood, conifer, shrub, and conifergrass. Simpson’s and Shannon’s indices of invertebrate diversity were negatively correlated with percent herbaceous cover. Number of recognizable taxonomic units (RTU richness) was negatively correlated with percent litter cover. The number of individual invertebrates was positively correlated with soil moisture and negatively correlated with percent conifer cover. Invertebrate diversity varied among habitat types, with conifer forests (spruce, fir, pine) having the highest diversity and regenerating conifer-grass forests having the lowest diversity, suggesting that successional stages affect diversity. The most productive sites, upland and lowland hardwood habitats, had the highest abundance of soil invertebrates, although intermediate diversity compared to the other five habitats. The results are consistent with the view that diversity increases and then decreases with productivity and disturbance over succession (ca. 50-100 yr). Hence, maintenance of soil invertebrate diversity in managed boreal forests requires the provision of a varied landscape with a mosaic of disturbance regimes

Beyond the Point Charge: Equipotential Surfaces and Electric Fields of Various Charge Configurations

A laboratory experiment often performed in an introductory electricity and magnetism course involves the mapping of equipotential lines on a conductive sheet between two objects at different potentials. In this article, we describe how we have expanded this experiment so that it can be used to illustrate the electrostatic properties of conductors. Different configurations of electrodes can be used to show that the electric field is zero inside a conductor as well as within a cavity, the electric field is perpendicular to conducting surfaces, and the charge distribution on conducting surfaces can vary

Survey of Research Approaches Utilised in The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Publications

The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) has been described as the fastest growing academic development movement in higher education. As this field of inquiry matures, there is a need to understand how SoTL research is conducted. The purpose of our study was to inform this debate by investigating research approaches used in SoTL publications. We analysed 223 empirical research studies published from 2012 to 2014 in three explicitly focused SoTL journals. We classified the studies as either qualitative, quantitative, or mixed methods using an analytical framework devised from existing literature on research methods. We found that the use of the three research designs was fairly evenly distributed across the papers examined: qualitative (37.2%), quantitative (29.6%), and mixed methods (33.2%). However, there was an over-reliance on data collection from a single source in 83.9% of papers analysed, and this source was primarily students. There was some, but limited, evidence of the use of triangulation through the use of multiple data collection instruments (e.g. survey, assessment tasks, grade databases). Similarly, only one-third of publications classified as mixed methods integrated the analysis and interpretation of the qualitative and quantitative data equally within the study. We conclude that current SoTL research is characterised by methodological pluralism but could be advanced through inclusion of more diverse approaches, such as close reading, and adoption of strategies known to enhance the quality of research, for example, triangulation and visual representation