Are Rural and Urban Newly Licensed Nurses Different? A Longitudinal Study of a Nurse Residency Programme

Aim This study aimed to compare rural and urban nurse residency programme participants’ personal and job characteristics and perceptions of decision-making, job satisfaction, job stress, nursing performance and organisational commitment over time. Background Nurse residency programmes are an evolving strategy to foster transition to practice for new nurses. However, there are limited data available for programme outcomes particularly for rural nurses. Method A longitudinal design sampled 382 urban and 86 rural newly licensed hospital nurses during a 12-month nurse residency programme. Data were collected at the start of the programme, at 6 months and the end of the programme. Results At the end of the programme, rural nurses had significantly higher job satisfaction and lower job stress compared with urban nurses. Across all time-periods rural nurses had significantly lower levels of stress caused by the physical work environment and at the end of the programme had less stress related to staffing compared with urban nurses. Perceptions of their organisational commitment and competency to make decisions and perform role elements were similar. Conclusions Differences in these outcomes may be result from unique characteristics of rural vs. urban nursing practice that need further exploration. Implications for nursing management Providing a nurse residency programme in rural and urban hospitals can be a useful recruitment and retention strategy

Chapter 7 The Long Carry

For First World War stretcher bearers, wartime landscapes had a direct impact on the work they undertook. Trenches, shell holes, mud and sand all presented challenges to their ability to carry wounded men swiftly and safely from where they were injured to aid posts and beyond. At the same time, landmarks could assist bearers in navigating the landscape they worked in, enabling these men to develop particular skills in direction-finding. This chapter uses the diaries and memoirs of British stretcher bearers to examine experiences of carrying in a range of wartime landscapes. In exploring how different landscapes shaped the labour that bearers undertook and the physical and embodied nature of the bearer’s relationship with the landscape, it interrogates the masculine status of these men as non-combatant servicemen to uncover some of the relationship between landscape and masculine service identity in wartime

Groundwater Vulnerability to Hazardous Waste: A GIS-based Analysis of the St. Regis Paper Company Superfund Site

This body of research reviewed the first 36 years groundwater remediation at the St. Regis Paper Company Superfund Site. Thus far the remediation has not been effective at protecting human health and the environment. Available geologic cross sections of St. Regis Paper Company Superfund Site show the two gravel aquifers, but these investigations are non-conclusive about the constancy the clay confining layer. If the confining layer is discontinuous it could be affecting the groundwater flow as well as pollution spread between the aquifers. The existing 2016 groundwater model of the St. Regis Paper Company Superfund Site showed how the pump and treat extraction wells are capturing part but not all of the groundwater pollution. In 1985 when the St. Regis Site Superfund clean-up effort began, the pump and treat extraction wells near were planned where the disposal lagoons and landfills were located during the time of operation. A 2015 soil studies of the St. Regis Paper Company Superfund Site showed that the most polluted soil was not just in the former disposal lagoons and landfill areas. ESRI’s ArcGIS Hydrology Spatial Analyst Toolset was utilized to show the major stream drainage influents at the St. Regis Paper Company Superfund Site. This research found that the areas with most polluted soil unfortunately are located where water will gather and drain to due to the topography of the St. Regis Site. the non-remediated soil continues to contribute to the groundwater pollution as precipitation leads to the pollution in the soil to leach into the groundwater. These early assumptions about the locations of the contaminated areas have limited the site remediation ever since. This study recommends the EPA and the Potentially Responsible Parties engaged in remediation should consider other methods of groundwater and soil remediation at the St. Regis Site. Technology and remedial capabilities have improved greatly since 1984. There are many more options for remediation, including some that are much more affordable and effective than the pump and treat method