Mentoring-- how does it address nurses' learning needs?: a thesis presented as partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Education (Adult Education) at Massey University, Wellington, New Zealand

Mentoring is regarded as a valuable process to support development in a variety of practice orientated disciplines, and nursing is no exception. The diversity of mentoring required within the clinical and academic context provides challenges for the nursing profession. The New Zealand Nursing Council (NZNC) requires nurses to develop a mentoring relationship to support postgraduate study. Learning and development can be supported both personally and professionally, I believe, through sound mentoring relationships. This study offers insights into mentoring experiences of nurses, seeking to understand the impact of mentoring on learning. The cohort is a group of New Zealand Registered Nurses who completed a Postgraduate Speciality Nursing Practice programme. A qualitative interpretive research design was employed using interpretive phenomenology, to explore nurses' experiences of the mentoring phenomenon. A review of the literature supported by data collection using focus group conversations during late 2006 and early 2007 provided the basis for data generation. Nursing education has been in transition over the past decade. Training programs have moved from the hospital base into the polytechnics and universities. This transitional process has resulted in a diverse mix of nurses in current practice bringing different views and perspectives to the practice setting and their educational pursuits and therefore provides challenges for mentoring relationships. Transition theory was integrated to understand the relationship of learning during times of transition and change. Findings indicate the mentoring process is complex and highly individual, often ill defined and confusing. This study illuminates some of the issues and complexities seeking to identify areas for future initiatives

Alien Registration- Johnson, Mary Anne (Sanford, York County)

https://digitalmaine.com/alien_docs/3217/thumbnail.jp

National Aeronautics and Space Administration Biological Specimen Repository

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration Biological Specimen Repository (Repository) is a storage bank that is used to maintain biological specimens over extended periods of time and under well-controlled conditions. Samples from the International Space Station (ISS), including blood and urine, will be collected, processed and archived during the preflight, inflight and postflight phases of ISS missions. This investigation has been developed to archive biosamples for use as a resource for future space flight related research. The International Space Station (ISS) provides a platform to investigate the effects of microgravity on human physiology prior to lunar and exploration class missions. The storage of crewmember samples from many different ISS flights in a single repository will be a valuable resource with which researchers can study space flight related changes and investigate physiological markers. The development of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Biological Specimen Repository will allow for the collection, processing, storage, maintenance, and ethical distribution of biosamples to meet goals of scientific and programmatic relevance to the space program. Archiving of the biosamples will provide future research opportunities including investigating patterns of physiological changes, analysis of components unknown at this time or analyses performed by new methodologies

A Framework for Developing Social Capital Indicators

Previous papers (Puerto et al; Johnson et al., this issue) have defined social capital and explained its relevance to agricultural (and other) extension approaches. The strong linkage between social capital and economic development was also described. It was also noted that social capital is an elusive concept to measure. Consequently “indicators” are frequently used to assess changes in social capital. However, deciding on an appropriate set of indicators is a nontrivial task and is dependent upon the settings in which the indicators are to be used. This paper first describes the initial steps taken in implementing an improved model of agricultural extension. This provides a context for the derivation of the social capital indicators relevant to the project discussed in detail in later papers (see Vock et al.; Meguito et al., this issue). A framework is then produced for deriving a set of indicators, followed by the indicators themselves and guides to measurement. At the micro level, the identified indicators were the following: farmer group is established and functioning; farmer group expanding their networks; level of trust within the farmer group and community is increasing; and the farmer group is contributing to community solidarity. At the meso level, the identified indicators are the following: local institutions and key personnel are present and accessible; local institutions are actively engaged with farmer groups; and local institutions are well networked within the target area and externally. The framework was then expanded to encompass measurement guidelines for each indicator along the lines of “what can change,” “how to measure,” “measurement outcome,” and “importance of the measure.” The framework has potentially broad application beyond the project for which this was developed. The framework is more “local” in nature compared to most previous attempts to derive social capital indicators

Approaches to Understanding Social Capital in Farm Communities of Western Mindanao

Previous papers (Menz; Puerto et al., this issue) have defined and developed the concept of social capital as it relates to agricultural extension in general and specifically to the our proposed extension model. This paper emphasizes and describes various innovative approaches to understanding the nature of social capital within farming communities in conflict-vulnerable areas of Mindanao, Philippines. The relevance of each approach is explained in the context of the project, along with the practical outcomes from applying those approaches. Lessons learnt in each case are detailed and should be useful to field practitioners. It is not possible to select any particular approach as preferable as this decision will depend upon the specifics of the situation along with the relative cost of data collection. Indeed the various approaches are complementary and can be used in concert. The tools described here have proven to be feasibly applied in the difficult and complex environment of Western Mindanao

Preliminary Assessment of the Application of the LIFE Model in Barangay Salman, Ampatuan

This paper contains some initial positive results of farmer surveys assessing lifestyle, economic, and social effects from the application of the model in one case study site—Salman, Ampatuan, Maguindanao. These are interim results rather than final as the project is ongoing within an action research framework. The paper merely aims to describe changes that are occurring in the spirit of making a preliminary judgement about the impact of applying the LIFE extension model that was described in Vock et al. (this issue). If the impact would be found to be negligible or negative, a total rethink of the model would be required. It is not a “final” assessment of the whole project, or even a final assessment of impacts at that particular site. The assessment involved primary data collection through personal farmer interviews. This paper combines economic and sociological parameters. This continues a theme of the project which is to maintain a joint socioeconomic perspective whenever possible. Economic impacts from applying the extension model were found to be positive and these translated strongly into lifestyle changes with respect to matters such as health, education, food, and shelter

Women and BIPOC in Aerospace: Where Did They Come From and How Did They Get Here?

The low number of women and black, indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) compared to their population, is well-documented in engineering, engineering technology, and other STEM fields. Through this and ancillary documentation there is agreement that increasing the numbers of women and other minorities in these areas will enhance productivity and the breadth of new innovation. Many efforts have been made to increase the number of women and BIPOC in STEM fields. The result of those efforts has been disappointing as they have resulted in minimal growth in engineering and virtual stagnation in other areas of STEM. The aviation and aerospace industries are facing significant difficulties in filling technical positions for people with STEM credentials. One may argue that current conditions create a slowdown in the demand for people in these positions; however, the current slowdown in aerospace provides time to further develop the pipeline to be ready for the expected resurgence of need in this area. To meet this demand, targeted efforts need to be designed and implemented to attract, educate, employ, and retain these highly skilled women and the BIPOC demographic. Since these groups are historically underrepresented in STEM, an added opportunity to bridge the population gap in fields such as those identified in the aerospace industry. This study aims to review the existing research on why women and BIPOC enter technical fields, the challenges they find, what makes them stay or leave, and what are some of the alternative pathways to increase the population of women and BIPOC in the aerospace industry

Public Perception of Engineering Technology: A Literature Review

Engineering technology describes a field closely related to engineering in which practical application of learned concepts is emphasized over theoretical knowledge. Although an increasing amount of emphasis is being placed on the importance of this experiential learning in all engineering curricula, and the specifics of engineering technology’s place among engineering and technical fields is becoming clearer, there are still significant gaps in our understanding of several key aspects of this field. One of these aspects is its perception by the general public, which is important in, among other things, determining the employability of engineering technology program graduates and encouraging the development of engineering technology curricula. Currently, existing literature on the subject is sparse, especially compared to the number and extent of similar studies done in related fields; the studies that are performed on the topic are generally restricted to a very specific demographic, and are not easily applicable to the entire population of engineering technology students and professionals. However, what information does exist suggests that this lack of research impedes the professional growth of those who are involved in engineering technology, including restricting the ability of faculty to recruit students interested in engineering technology programs, decreasing the effectiveness of guidance available to those students through advisors and outside programs, and preventing inequities currently present in the engineering field as a whole from being addressed. By acknowledging the gaps in current knowledge, direction for future research may be provided; thus, this review seeks to outline what research already exists on the public perception of engineering technology, and thereby highlight specific areas in which our understanding of this perception is particularly poor

Witness: The Modern Writer as Witness

Editor\u27s Note [Excerpt] Magic can mean many different things, especially for writers. Magic can be an illusion, a sleight of hand designed to trick onlookers into believing the impossible. Or magic can be a supernatural force in a world of harsh reality, a set of beliefs that sits just outside the realms of organized religion and advanced technology. Wizards and demons, Las Vegas entertainers and houngans --they all practice a kind of sorcery. For poets and prose writers, though, magic affords an opportunity for us to stretch the limitations of the physical world in search of new themes, settings, and characters. Magic is a door we eagerly walk through to reach new lands. We at Witness have thoroughly enjoyed the process of selecting the themed works we have collected here, mainly because the idea of enchantment is inspiring. There is the possibility of positive charms; there is a chance for dark witchery. And sometimes the spell cast by a character is nebulous, difficult to categorize. It’s arguable that we cherish these incantations the most, since they leave us in a state of wonderment bordering on disorientation. Yes, magic can also leave us bewildered and thankful for the bewilderment.https://digitalscholarship.unlv.edu/witness/1001/thumbnail.jp