A quantitative exploration of the death anxiety levels of nursing and medical students at the beginning and end of their course

Abstract Introduction: This study explores the death anxiety levels of medical and nursing students in their first and final years of study. The majority of all British deaths occur in National Health Service institutions (National statistics 2002) and health professionals are more likely to be exposed to death and the dying individual than other non-healthcare professionals. Care of the dying has been linked with death avoidance, anxiety and professional burnout (Gesser et al 1987, Redinbaugh et al 2003). The importance of understanding how a career in the health profession affects an individuals’ death anxiety is of great importance to support health professionals and mediate the psychological risk associated with care of the dying. Method: A cross sectional cohort study was undertaken using the revised death anxiety scale (Thorson and Powell 1993) to form a questionnaire. First and final year students enrolled on a medicine or nursing course were asked to participate with a total response of 350 students. Results: The most significant finding was that medical students had a statistically lower death anxiety than nursing students. Further analysis showed that it was the death anxiety scores of final year students where this difference was observed. It was also found that relevant work experience significantly lowered death anxiety. Discussion: It was suggested that because medical students had more relevant work experience this could account for their lower levels of death anxiety than the nursing students. The view that experience with care of the dying and death lowers death anxiety has been presented within the literature (Chen et al 2006, Servaty et al 1996) and this study supports that view. It has also been suggested that length of the medicine course could have caused this difference observed, however age and gender have been shown within this sample to have no effect upon death anxiety. Further research is needed to analyse this relationship in more detail which could allow for strategies to be implemented within a nursing course to help lower nursing students death anxiety. This exploration has given rise to many new questions regarding death anxiety and medical and nursing students, which will need to be investigated to establish more conclusive results and provide stronger rationale for the implementation of new education techniques aimed to lower death anxiety scores of nursing students

A quantitative exploration of the death anxiety levels of nursing and medical students at the beginning and end of their course

Abstract Introduction: This study explores the death anxiety levels of medical and nursing students in their first and final years of study. The majority of all British deaths occur in National Health Service institutions (National statistics 2002) and health professionals are more likely to be exposed to death and the dying individual than other non-healthcare professionals. Care of the dying has been linked with death avoidance, anxiety and professional burnout (Gesser et al 1987, Redinbaugh et al 2003). The importance of understanding how a career in the health profession affects an individuals’ death anxiety is of great importance to support health professionals and mediate the psychological risk associated with care of the dying. Method: A cross sectional cohort study was undertaken using the revised death anxiety scale (Thorson and Powell 1993) to form a questionnaire. First and final year students enrolled on a medicine or nursing course were asked to participate with a total response of 350 students. Results: The most significant finding was that medical students had a statistically lower death anxiety than nursing students. Further analysis showed that it was the death anxiety scores of final year students where this difference was observed. It was also found that relevant work experience significantly lowered death anxiety. Discussion: It was suggested that because medical students had more relevant work experience this could account for their lower levels of death anxiety than the nursing students. The view that experience with care of the dying and death lowers death anxiety has been presented within the literature (Chen et al 2006, Servaty et al 1996) and this study supports that view. It has also been suggested that length of the medicine course could have caused this difference observed, however age and gender have been shown within this sample to have no effect upon death anxiety. Further research is needed to analyse this relationship in more detail which could allow for strategies to be implemented within a nursing course to help lower nursing students death anxiety. This exploration has given rise to many new questions regarding death anxiety and medical and nursing students, which will need to be investigated to establish more conclusive results and provide stronger rationale for the implementation of new education techniques aimed to lower death anxiety scores of nursing students

Losing ground : locational formulations in argumentation over New Travellers

This thesis is an exercise in discursive psychology. The body of discourse analysed concerns the defence of rural space against New Travellers. In contrast to previous sociological and human geographical work in this area, instead of newspaper articles and Parliamentary discourse, participants' talk and texts are the starting point for the - investigation. The data corpora have been generated from a variety of sources: Focus groupd iscussionsw ith policeo fficers;i nterviewsw ith landowners(or their representatives);le tters to the editors of local newspapers;and private letters of complaint to a local council. The thesisf ocuseso n the participants's electiono f locational formulations,t he work this hast aken,a ndh ow this work partly constitutesin teractional business. The thesis makes a distinctive contribution to several different areas. This includes offering a disciplinaryc ritiqueo f how humanistg eographerasn de nvironmental psychologistsh avec onstructeda ttachmentto placea st he norm,w hilst problematising high residentiaml obility. Without takingu p a positioni n this debatet,h e thesis demonstratehso w a discursivea pproachc an offer a differentp erspectiveo n place discourse- includingt he way thatp lacei dentity / attachmenmt ight be reconceiveda nd studied. The first two analytic chapters provide a distinctive contribution to discursive psychology by bringing together, and building on, previous work around the analysis of Abstract place discourse. Chapter five demonstratesp articipants' use of location as a domain of warrant for making complaints about New Travellers. Chapter six demonstratesh ow participants used spatial descriptionst o construct New Travellers as transgressiveo r literally 'out-of-place'. The third andf inal analyticc hapter,c hapters evenp rovidesa contribution to social psychology by demonstrating citizenship in practice. The project concludes by considering these contributions and their implications, and outlining several reasons for further work on the discursive psychology of place. The thorny issues raised by a focus on place, such as realism vs relativism are also discussed.the Department of Psychology, University of Plymout

If it’s about me, why do it without me? : genuine student engagement in school cyberbullying education

This study reports on a three-year group randomized controlled trial, the Cyber Friendly Schools Project (CFSP), aimed to reduce cyberbullying among grade 8 students during 2010-2012. In each year, 14-15 year old student ‘cyber’ leaders acted as catalysts to develop and implement whole-school activities to reduce cyberbullying-related harms. This paper examines students’ leadership experiences and the effectiveness of their training and intervention efforts. A mixed methods research design comprising interviews and questionnaires was used to collect data from 225 grade 10 students at the end of their leadership years (2010 & 2011). Four to six cyber leaders were recruited from each of the 19 intervention schools involved in each year of the study. The cyber leaders reported high self-efficacy post-training, felt their intervention efforts made a difference, and experienced a sense of agency, belonging and competence when given opportunities for authentic leadership. They identified key barriers and enablers to achieving desired outcomes. Students greatly valued having their voices heard. Their engagement in the development and delivery of whole-school strategies allowed them to contribute to and enhance efforts to promote their peers’ mental health and wellbeing. However, a lack of support from school staff limits students’ effectiveness as changeenablers.peer-reviewe

We Wanted to do Something Innovative: Exploring Motivations of Arkansas Districts Adopting Four-Day School Weeks or Year-Round Calendars

Recent legislation has allowed Arkansas school districts increased flexibility to adopt a non-traditional calendar. Act 688 introduced four calendar options for districts: a traditional calendar, a four day calendar, a year-round calendar, and an alternate calendar based on the number of instructional hours. During the 2022-23 school year, 33 school districts throughout the state adopted new calendars. The motivations behind why districts adopted new calendars were unclear. This report aims to identify the rationale behind why these districts moved away from the traditional calendar. This report uses data gathered from interviews with twenty-three superintendents in districts that selected non-traditional calendars to identify the motivation for the change as well as the successes and challenges of adopting a new calendar. Arkansas\u27s district leaders will select calendars in the spring for the 2023-24 school year. The findings from this study will provide leaders and stakeholders with helpful information and items to consider

We Wanted to do Something Innovative: Exploring Motivations of Arkansas Districts Adopting Four-Day School Weeks or Year-Round Calendars

Recent legislation has allowed Arkansas school districts increased flexibility to adopt a non-traditional calendar. Act 688 introduced four calendar options for districts: a traditional calendar, a four day calendar, a year-round calendar, and an alternate calendar based on the number of instructional hours. During the 2022-23 school year, 33 school districts throughout the state adopted new calendars. The motivations behind why districts adopted new calendars were unclear. This report aims to identify the rationale behind why these districts moved away from the traditional calendar. This report uses data gathered from interviews with twenty-three superintendents in districts that selected non-traditional calendars to identify the motivation for the change as well as the successes and challenges of adopting a new calendar. Arkansas\u27s district leaders will select calendars in the spring for the 2023-24 school year. The findings from this study will provide leaders and stakeholders with helpful information and items to consider

‘I wasn’t aware at the time, I could actually say “no”': intimacy, expectations, and consent in queer relationships

Drawing on interview data collected in three projects exploring domestic abuse in LGB and/or T+ people’s intimate relationships, this chapter examines sexual consent in LGB and/or T+ people’s abusive relationships through a queer lens. Three themes are considered. First, Catherine Donovan and Marianne Hester’s two ‘relationship rules’ underpinning abusive relationships are applied. These determine that the relationship is for the abusive partner and on their terms; and that the victim/survivor is responsible for everything, including their partner’s abusive behaviour. Participants’ accounts show how these relationship rules can delegitimate victim/survivors’ attempts to exercise consent and conversely legitimate non-consensual sex. Second, Carole Pateman’s ‘sexual contract’ is drawn upon to demonstrate how abusive partners mandate sex whenever and however they wish, while victimised partners feel duty-bound to acquiesce. This, it is argued, reproduces cis-heteronormative sexual scripts based on public stories about love and intimacy and conventionally gendered binaries such as initiator/follower. Third, accounts demonstrating how more experienced LGB and/or T+ partners can exercise experiential power to instil norms about sex and intimacy are analysed. It is concluded that these abusive practices frame the context in which sexual victimisation occurs in LGB and/or T+ people’s intimate relationships and inhibit victims/survivors from recognising and naming sexual violence.</p