New Jersey's Nursing Faculty Shortage

Examines the state of the nursing faculty workforce in New Jersey, factors behind the shortage, issues that affect recruitment and retention, and promising practices. Recommends strategies to fill the gap, including re-examining the nursing curriculum

Chris Ofili\u27s, The Holy Virgin Mary , the Black Female Form, and the Problem of Postmodern Scholarship

Chris Ofili\u27s The Holy Virgin Mary, the Black Female Form, and the Problem of Postmodern Scholarship, explores the problems of postmodern scholarship in the visual arts by analyzing The Holy Virgin Mary by Chris Ofili and the circumstances involving the Sensation exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum in 1999. I placeOfili\u27s work in context and make the claim that Ofili\u27s work is largely an examination of his dual identities as a Catholic and person of African descent. I explore the larger cultural context by examining the black female figure in Ofili\u27s work and in other postmodern artists dealing with similar themes. In this thesis, I argue that postmodern scholarship of African Diaspora artists too often focuses merely on the biographical information of the artists as a shallow celebration of multiculturalism and ignores the work and its context. In this thesis I present a more in-depth analysis of The Holy Virgin Mary and attempt to offer solutions to the problem of postmodern scholarship

Pastoral Care and the Alleviation of Compassion Fatigue in Staff at St. Mary\u27s Hospice

This action research project studied compassion fatigue in hospice staff and the ways that Christian prayer practices can mitigate compassion fatigue symptoms and contribute to resiliency. The sample population included forty employees and the sample size was N=6. The participants answered four anonymous, self-report assessments to measure six areas, compassion satisfaction, self-compassion, secondary traumatic stress, burnout, perceived stress, and spirituality at the first of eight weekly sessions. These assessments included the Professional Quality of Life Scale (ProQOL), the Perceived Stress Scale, the Spiritual Intelligence Self-Report Inventory, and the Self-Compassion Scale. Six weeks of prayer interventions followed the initial assessments then on the eighth week, staff completed the same four anonymous assessments that they took at the beginning of the project. Employing a focus group format, participants discussed their findings at each session. Additionally, participants answered anonymous questionnaires on their opinions about the compassion fatigue project interventions which corroborated the data from the assessments. The assessments’ statistical results showed improvement in three out of six areas: burnout, perceived stress, and spiritual intelligence. Areas in need of further attention were self-compassion, compassion satisfaction, and secondary traumatic stress. Based on the assessment data and feedback from the participants, the writer recommends that St. Mary’s Hospice management provide monthly debriefing sessions and offer the Compassion Fatigue Prayer Project again for other staff members. This project showed that group self-care interventions including education of compassion fatigue, creative prayer practices, and debriefing can benefit hospice workers

Do grandparents matter? : The impact of Grandparenting on the wellbeing of children

This timely and important report shows the immense value of grandparents in 21st century family life. It reveals a unique relationship that exists between the older generation and the youngest: a relationship of love and trust that enables the children to use their grandparents as confidantes and counsellors as well as playmates and cookery instructors. The report shows that children value the non-critical support, emotional advice and guidance that grandparents offer and enjoy the quality time their grandparents give them. It also found that the relationship has benefits for grandparents adding to their raison d’être and contributing to their health and longevity. The report also notes the change in the nature of family relationships in Britain throughout the 20th century, from the extended family to the nuclear family to the current variety of relationships, formal and informal, in which both the elderly and the young suffer neglect. With today’s increased incidence of divorce and family breakdown, grandparents can sometimes provide the only stable family relationship in a child’s life, and yet grandparents often lose contact with their grandchildren during or after a divorce or relationship breakup and have no legal rights through the Family Court to continue offering loving care and support to their grandchildren. The report concludes that there is need for much greater understanding of the role and function of grandparents in family life today.Final Published versio

Burnout in Counselor Education: The Role of Cynicism and Fit in Predicting Turnover Intention

This study explored the experience of burnout in counselor education faculty, and how it relates to perceived worklife fit and turnover intention. Participants experienced a moderate level of burnout in the areas of exhaustion, cynicism, and professional inefficacy. The results of a MANOVA revealed that male and female participants differed on a composite measure of burnout, fit, and turnover intention, but there were no significant multivariate differences based on race or tenure status. Both cynicism and perceived worklife fit uniquely contributed to the prediction of turnover intention, together explaining 29% of the total variance in turnover intention. Further directions for research in this population were discussed

The Cross Section Principle as a Constitutional Right and the Use of Voter Registration Lists as an Administrative Technique to Insure a Defendant Due Process under the Law.

Abstract Forthcoming

Multimedia Bootcamp: a health sciences library provides basic training to promote faculty technology integration

BACKGROUND: Recent research has shown a backlash against the enthusiastic promotion of technological solutions as replacements for traditional educational content delivery. Many institutions, including the University of Virginia, have committed staff and resources to supporting state-of-the-art, showpiece educational technology projects. However, the Claude Moore Health Sciences Library has taken the approach of helping Health Sciences faculty be more comfortable using technology in incremental ways for instruction and research presentations. In July 2004, to raise awareness of self-service multimedia resources for instructional and professional development needs, the Library conducted a "Multimedia Bootcamp" for nine Health Sciences faculty and fellows. METHODS: Case study. RESULTS: Program stewardship by a single Library faculty member contributed to the delivery of an integrated learning experience. The amount of time required to attend the sessions and complete homework was the maximum fellows had to devote to such pursuits. The benefit of introducing technology unfamiliar to most fellows allowed program instructors to start everyone at the same baseline while not appearing to pass judgment on the technology literacy skills of faculty. The combination of wrapping the program in the trappings of a fellowship and selecting fellows who could commit to a majority of scheduled sessions yielded strong commitment from participants as evidenced by high attendance and a 100% rate of assignment completion. Response rates to follow-up evaluation requests, as well as continued use of Media Studio resources and Library expertise for projects begun or conceived during Bootcamp, bode well for the long-term success of this program. CONCLUSION: An incremental approach to integrating technology with current practices in instruction and presentation provided a supportive yet energizing environment for Health Sciences faculty. Keys to this program were its faculty focus, traditional hands-on instruction, unrestricted access to technology tools and support, and inclusion of criteria for evaluating when multimedia can augment pedagogical aims

Food, Fuel, and Freeways: An Iowa perspective on how far food travels, fuel usage, and greenhouse gas emissions

Most consumers do not understand today’s highly complex global food system. Much of the food production and processing occurs far away from where they live and buy groceries. External environmental and community costs related to the production, processing, storage, and transportation of the food are seldom accounted for in the food’s price, nor are consumers made aware of these external costs. Examples of external environmental costs are the increased amount of fossil fuel used to transport food long distances, and the increase in greenhouse gas emissions resulting from the burning of these fuels

A Study of Creativity and Education

This investigation is concerned with the identification of creative students in the classroom. One purpose of the study is a search of the literature to determine the emphasis given to creativity in education today. A second is to determine if a measure of creativity given to a group of students would reveal a discrimination between the students. The measure of creativity used in this study was the Christensen-Guilford Fluency Tests. The sample group for the study included fifty-two male and fifty-three female students in the ninth grade of the Richardson Independent School District in Dallas', Texas. This study concludes that measurements of mental abilities must include measurements of creativity as well as intelligence if the more gifted students are to be recognized