Exploring Belongingness in an Accelerated Nursing Program: A Qualitative Study

Accelerated baccalaureate nursing programs have proliferated to meet the demands of the current and projected nursing shortage. While these programs serve an important function, accelerated nursing students face unique challenges related to fast pacing, content-heavy courses, and swift transition into complex clinical learning environments. These challenges, coupled with the realities of a strained nursing educator workforce, are potential threats to learning environments that are supportive of students’ academic tenacity and social belonging. While a clear link between nursing students’ positive sense of belonging and their success in clinical learning environments has been established, there is scant research looking at the impact of students’ self-perception of belonging in academic nursing education contexts. The aim of this project was to explore the student experience of belongingness in an academic nursing education setting. A qualitative approach influenced by phenomenology and phenomenological analysis was used. Seventeen students from an accelerated Bachelor of Science in Nursing program volunteered as participants. Individual, semi-structured interviews were conducted with each participant. Three central themes emerged from the interviews: (1) Belongingness matters to students; (2) Belongingness is constructed and understood by the individual; and (3) Belongingness is relational and contextually situated. Additionally, participants described a number of experiences that they believe enhanced or facilitated belongingness. This study adds to the literature by confirming that accelerated nursing students perceive social belonging as important in supporting their motivation, well-being, and confidence in their developing nursing identity in academic, as well as clinical, education settings. Résumé Les programmes de baccalauréat en sciences infirmières accélérés se sont multipliés pour répondre aux demandes de la pénurie - actuelle et prévue - d’infirmières. Bien que ces programmes jouent un rôle important, les étudiantes de programmes de sciences infirmières accélérés sont confrontées à des défis uniques liés à un rythme rapide, à des cours denses en contenu et à une transition rapide vers des environnements d’apprentissage cliniques complexes. Ces défis, associés aux réalités d’un effectif d’enseignantes en sciences infirmières tendu, constituent des menaces pour les environnements d’apprentissage qui soutiennent la persévérance académique et l’appartenance sociale des étudiantes. Bien qu’un lien clair entre le sentiment d’appartenance positif des étudiantes en sciences infirmières et leur réussite dans des environnements d’apprentissage clinique ait été établi, il existe peu de recherches examinant l’impact de l’auto-perception d’appartenance des étudiantes dans les milieux universitaires de formation en sciences infirmières. Le but de ce projet était d’explorer l’expérience d’appartenance auprès d’étudiantes dans un tel contexte universitaire. Une approche qualitative inspirée de la phénoménologie et l’analyse phénoménologique a été utilisée. Dix-sept étudiantes d’un programme de baccalauréat en sciences infirmières accéléré se sont portées volontaires pour participer. Des entrevues individuelles semi-dirigées ont été menées auprès de toutes les participantes. Trois thèmes sont ressortis lors de ce processus : (1) l’appartenance est importante pour les étudiantes; (2) l’appartenance est construite et comprise par l’individu; (3) et, l’appartenance est relationnelle et contextuelle. De plus, les participantes ont décrit un certain nombre d’expériences qui, selon elles, ont renforcé ou facilité l’appartenance. Cette étude s’ajoute à la littérature scientifique en confirmant que les étudiantes dans un programme en sciences infirmières accéléré perçoivent l’appartenance sociale comme importante pour soutenir leur motivation, leur bien-être et leur confiance dans le développement de leur identité infirmière dans les milieux universitaires et cliniques

Application of the DRA method to the calculation of the four-loop QED-type tadpoles

We apply the DRA method to the calculation of the four-loop `QED-type' tadpoles. For arbitrary space-time dimensionality D the results have the form of multiple convergent sums. We use these results to obtain the epsilon-expansion of the integrals around D=3 and D=4.Comment: References added, some typos corrected. Results unchange

Magnetic variation anomalies in northern England and southern Scotland

Single-station transfer functions linking the time variations of the vertical and horizontal components of the magnetic field at stations in northern England and southern Scotland have been compiled into a uniform data set. From hypothetical event analysis we show here that there are two distinct anomalies in the Borders region. One runs south-west to north-east, immediately to the south-east of the Southern Uplands Fault; the second follows the Northumberland Basin, and seems to exist because the conductive sedimentary rocks filling the basin create a link between the Irish and North Seas. If the Iapetus suture is marked by a conductivity anomaly, as has been suggested, these results place it beneath the Southern Uplands, unless it is masked by the surface conductor in the Northumberland Basin

Is there a role for postoperative physiotherapy in degenerative cervical myelopathy? A systematic review.

OBJECTIVE: To review peer-reviewed literature relating to postoperative physiotherapy for degenerative cervical myelopathy (DCM), to determine efficacy in improving clinical outcome and recovery. DATA SOURCES: MEDLINE, EMBASE, CENTRAL, PEDro, ISRCTN registry, WHO ICTRP and Clinicaltrials.gov . References and citations of relevant articles were searched. METHODS: A systematic search was conducted in accordance with Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines (PROSPERO CRD42016039511) from the origins of the databases till 15 February 2018. Included were all studies investigating physiotherapy as an intervention after surgical treatment of DCM to determine effect on clinical outcome and recovery. Study quality was determined using the Grades of Recommendation, Assessment, Development and Evaluation guidelines. RESULTS: In all, 300 records were identified through tailored systematic searches, after removing duplicates. After screening, only one investigated postoperative rehabilitation using physiotherapy for DCM; however, this was retrospective with no controls. This study suggested that rehabilitation including physiotherapy improved postoperative recovery. There are currently two registered trials investigating the use of postoperative physiotherapy for DCM. CONCLUSIONS: The literature provides insufficient evidence to make any evidence-based recommendations regarding postoperative physiotherapy use in DCM.his report is an independent research supported by a Clinician Scientist Award by the National Institute for Health Research (grant no. CS-2015-15-023)

The Red Sea, Coastal Landscapes, and Hominin Dispersals

This chapter provides a critical assessment of environment, landscape and resources in the Red Sea region over the past five million years in relation to archaeological evidence of hominin settlement, and of current hypotheses about the role of the region as a pathway or obstacle to population dispersals between Africa and Asia and the possible significance of coastal colonization. The discussion assesses the impact of factors such as topography and the distribution of resources on land and on the seacoast, taking account of geographical variation and changes in geology, sea levels and palaeoclimate. The merits of northern and southern routes of movement at either end of the Red Sea are compared. All the evidence indicates that there has been no land connection at the southern end since the beginning of the Pliocene period, but that short sea crossings would have been possible at lowest sea-level stands with little or no technical aids. More important than the possibilities of crossing the southern channel is the nature of the resources available in the adjacent coastal zones. There were many climatic episodes wetter than today, and during these periods water draining from the Arabian escarpment provided productive conditions for large mammals and human populations in coastal regions and eastwards into the desert. During drier episodes the coastal region would have provided important refugia both in upland areas and on the emerged shelves exposed by lowered sea level, especially in the southern sector and on both sides of the Red Sea. Marine resources may have offered an added advantage in coastal areas, but evidence for their exploitation is very limited, and their role has been over-exaggerated in hypotheses of coastal colonization

Multifrequency Strategies for the Identification of Gamma-Ray Sources

More than half the sources in the Third EGRET (3EG) catalog have no firmly established counterparts at other wavelengths and are unidentified. Some of these unidentified sources have remained a mystery since the first surveys of the gamma-ray sky with the COS-B satellite. The unidentified sources generally have large error circles, and finding counterparts has often been a challenging job. A multiwavelength approach, using X-ray, optical, and radio data, is often needed to understand the nature of these sources. This chapter reviews the technique of identification of EGRET sources using multiwavelength studies of the gamma-ray fields.Comment: 35 pages, 22 figures. Chapter prepared for the book "Cosmic Gamma-ray Sources", edited by K.S. Cheng and G.E. Romero, to be published by Kluwer Academic Press, 2004. For complete article and higher resolution figures, go to: http://www.astro.columbia.edu/~muk/mukherjee_multiwave.pd