Predictors and Outcomes of Postpartum Mothers\u27 Perceptions of Readiness for Discharge after Birth

Objective: To identify predictors and outcomes of postpartum mothers\u27 perceptions of their readiness for hospital discharge. Design: A correlational design with path analyses was used to explore predictive relationships among transition theory-related variables. Setting: Midwestern tertiary perinatal center. Participants: One hundred and forty-one mixed-parity postpartum mothers who had experienced vaginal birth or Cesarean delivery of normal healthy infants. Methods: Before hospital discharge, patients completed questionnaires about sociodemographic characteristics, hospitalization factors, quality of discharge teaching, and readiness for discharge. Three weeks postdischarge, mothers were contacted by telephone to collect coping difficulty and health care utilization data. Main Outcome Measures: Readiness for Hospital Discharge Scale, Post-Discharge Coping Difficulty Scale, Utilization of postdischarge services. Results: Quality of discharge teaching, specifically the relative difference in the amount of informational content needed and received and the skills of nurses in delivering discharge teaching, explained 38% of the variance in postpartum mothers\u27 perceptions of discharge readiness. Readiness for discharge scores explained 22% of the variance in postdischarge coping difficulty scores. Nurses\u27 skills in delivery of discharge teaching, coping difficulty, patient characteristics, and birth hospitalization factors were predictive of utilization of family support and postdischarge health care services. Conclusion: A trajectory of influence was evident in the sequential relationships of quality of discharge teaching, readiness for discharge, postdischarge coping, and utilization of family support and health care services. Transitions theory provided a useful framework for conceptualizing and investigating the transition home after childbirth

Attitudes, trust, and wildlife co-management in Igluligaarjuk, Qamani’tuaq, and Tikirarjuaq, Nunavut, Canada

Research has shown that trust is essential to the functioning of co-management. This is especially true in the Territory of Nunavut where wildlife is an integral part of the lifestyle and culture of Nunavummiut (the people inhabiting Nunavut). In Nunavut, wildlife is managed by a co-management board situated in between federal, territorial, regional, and community governments and organizations. This research explores Inuit attitudes and trust in managing wildlife as part of a co-management system in the Kivalliq Region of Nunavut, Canada. Interviews were conducted in the communities of Igluligaarjuk (Chesterfield Inlet), Tikirarjauq (Whale Cove), and Qamani’tuaq (Baker Lake). Even now with the 1993 settlement of the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement (NLCA) and the implementation of a public government in 1999, there is documented evidence that beneficiaries of the NLCA are dissatisfied with wildlife management decisions and do not trust the governing process of co-management. In this study, participants specifically indicated dissatisfaction with regulations and outcomes of current polar bear co-management. It has been predicted that conflicts specific to polar bear management could lead to regulations being ignored or even defied and endanger the entire system of wildlife co-management. Results from this research indicate that dissatisfaction over decisions involving polar bears is dominantly compartmentalized towards the outcomes of polar bear management and does not necessarily apply to the broader system of wildlife co-management. Therefore, in the Kivalliq Region, predicted impacts of dissatisfaction over polar bear co-management may apply directly to the polar bear co-management system but likely not the wildlife co-management system generally. This study provides a forum where Inuit trust in the wildlife co-management system is documented and I hope it will contribute to an increased understanding of Inuit goals in wildlife management and to the discourses on co-management in Nunavut

Tax Significance of Payments in Satisfaction of Liabilities Arising Under Section 16(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934

This article examines the income tax significance to the insider of his payment in satisfaction of a liability arising under section 16(b). Such taxpayers have usually sought a deduction against ordinary income in the year of payment. When the issue was first raised, the deduction was denied. Section 16(b) liability was held to be in the nature of a penalty; allowance of the deduction, it was found, would weaken an effective method of enforcing the sharply defined policy expressed in sectin 16(b).... In 1961 the Internal Revenue Service modified its earlier position by ruling that section 16(b) is not a penal provision. The purpose of the section, the ruling stated, is merely to remove all profit from the insider\u27s transactions, thereby placing him in the position he would have occupied had he not traded. Allowance of the deduction was held consistent with this purpose. The ruling concluded: The income tax significance of the capital stock dealings giving rise to the payment determines whether it is deductible as an ordinary loss or as a capital loss. The Tax Court\u27s recent refusal to accept this limitation upon the deduction reognized by the ruling gives renewed interest to the topic

Navigating the Total Institution: Locating the Collective Experience of a Physical Therapy Department within its Institutional and Professional Contexts

The majority of the literature related to physical therapist education tends to focus on factors related to stress, student satisfaction with faculty, and socialization into the role of the physical therapist. A few studies have looked at value fit between educational programs and their parent institutions and parent institutions and the work environment. This case study examined the experiences of a physical therapy program within its institutional and professional contexts through the lens of myth, ritual, and classification. The use of qualitative research provided a means to explain the society that is the physical therapy program and the affect this has on students’ lived experiences at a small private liberal arts college. The data included interviews with faculty, administrators, and students, document review, and personal reflection. The use of Goffman’s Total Institution model was useful in framing the data and as a means to further understand the nature of physical therapist education. The research illustrated how the use of theory related to modes of discourse can be instructive in understanding the dynamics of social interaction, both from an interpersonal perspective and an institutional perspective. Insights into physical therapy student socialization based on myth, ritual, and classification identified factors that led to student disenfranchisement from the parent institution while strengthening affinity to the physical therapy program. The use of discourse theory provided insights into the dynamics that can allow a long standing anomaly to continue. Perspectives gained from this study can be utilized by other organizations to reinforce practices that enhance the mission of the organization, a particular program, and the educational experiences of the students. General implications related to leadership are summarized

Maze Acquisition in the Zinc Deficient Rat

Interest in the role played by trace minerals in brain development and the subsequent effect on learning is recent. Biochemically a great number of studies on zinc have been done, but in only one other laboratory have the behavioral consequences of a zinc-deficiency been looked at. The present study attempts to partially replicate the previous studies and to explore the behavioral effect of a zinc-deficiency in a different manner. In the postnatal study, dams were made zinc-deficient from the day of delivery until weaning of the pups occurred (21 days). Paired animals were fed the same amount of food as that eaten by the zinc- deficient dams and a third group of dams were fed ad libitum. The pups were weaned at 21 days of life and fed ad libitum for 23 days at which time the behavioral study, using the elevated Tolman-Honzik maze, was begun. The results showed a significantly greater number of errors made by the formerly zinc-deficient animals when compared to the pair-fed and ad libitum-fed animals. For the prenatal study, dams were made zinc-deficient, pair- fed or ad libitum fed from day 14 through day 19 of their pregnancy. Rehabilitation was started on day 20. Randomly selected pups from each of the three groups were studied for behavioral differences using the alley Tolman-Honzik maze. The results of the analysis were just below significance at the .05 level and were in the same direction as the results in the first experiment