Shaping nursing praxis : some registered nurses' perceptions and beliefs of theory practice : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Educational Administration at Massey University

This thesis investigates the beliefs and perceptions of registered nurses in relation to the theory practice gap. In order to discover these perceptions and beliefs, this qualitative study used critical ethnography, a framework and process in which the paiticipants share in the journey of discovery which sets out to explore, describe and transform these beliefs and perceptions of theory-practice. The theory-practice debate has been highlighted in nursing for some time and is interpreted in many ways. This multiple interpretation causes confusion and has an impact on the development of the discipline of nursing. The participants were six nurse clinicians and six nurse educators from a large metropolitan hospital and a School of Nursing and Midwifery within a tertiary educational institution. Within the critical framework, the research methods used were interviews, observation, paiticipants' personal logs and triangulation between methods and within methods. Data analysis was through content analysis using themes, patterns, and categories arising from the data. The analysis of data indicated that through reciprocal dialogue, the paiticipants' theory-practice perceptions and beliefs had been transformed. This transformation was being premised on an assumption of the existence of a theory-practice gap to an acceptance of the theory-practice relationship as an integrated concept where nursing praxis is shaped by an ongoing development process. Empowering strategies and recommendations for the development of nursing praxis include coaching, clinical supervision, mentoring, case management, ongoing education, research, faculty practice, joint appointments and reciprocal advisory groups. These strategies provide opportunities for nurses to come together, and reflect on practice in that by becoming aware of their beliefs and perceptions, they gain the confidence and knowledge to begin transforming conditions of power and control, thereby promoting change which results in praxis and professional autonomy

The total mass of super-Brownian motion upon exiting balls and Sheu's compact support condition

We study the total mass of a d-dimensional super-Brownian motion as it first exits an increasing sequence of balls. The process of the total mass is a time-inhomogeneous continuous-state branching process, where the increasing radii of the balls are taken as the time parameter. We are able to characterise its time-dependent branching mechanism and show that it converges, as time goes to infinity, towards the branching mechanism of the total mass of a one-dimensional super-Brownian motion as it first crosses above an increasing sequence of levels. Our results allow us to identify the compact support criterion given in Sheu (1994) as a classical Grey condition (1974) for the aforementioned limiting branching mechanism.Comment: 28 pages, 2 figure

The Light Lexicographic path Ordering

We introduce syntactic restrictions of the lexicographic path ordering to obtain the Light Lexicographic Path Ordering. We show that the light lexicographic path ordering leads to a characterisation of the functions computable in space bounded by a polynomial in the size of the inputs

Physics of SNeIa and Cosmology

We give an overview of the current understanding of Type Ia supernovae relevant for their use as cosmological distance indicators. We present the physical basis to understand their homogeneity of the observed light curves and spectra and the observed correlations. This provides a robust method to determine the Hubble constant, 67 +- 8 (2 sigma) km/Mpc/sec, independently from primary distance indicators. We discuss the uncertainties and tests which include SNe Ia based distance determinations prior to delta-Ceph. measurements for the host galaxies. Based on detailed models, we study the small variations from homogeneities and their observable consequences. In combination with future data, this underlines the suitability and promises the refinements needed to determine accurate relative distances within 2 to 3 % and to use SNe Ia for high precision cosmology.Comment: to be published in "Stellar Candles", eds. Gieren et al. Lecture Notes in Physics (http://link.springer.de/series/lnpp

A study of pupil achievement in arithmetic problems containing extraneous data in grades V, VI and VII

Thesis (Ed.M.)--Boston UniversityIt was the purpose of this study (1) to discover to what extent, if any, extraneous numbers in problems increase the difficulty in problem solving for pupils in Grades 5-6-7 (2) to discover what effect, if any, a short period of concentrated work in problem solving has, on helping pupils at these grade levels in the solving of problems containing extraneous data

Racial/Ethnic Disparities in Diabetes Care and Outcomes: A Mixed Methods Study

Limited research has examined racial/ethnic differences in diabetes care and outcomes among primary care patients. This study examined racial/ethnic differences in diabetes care and outcomes among an ambulatory patient population and explored patient perceptions of the patient-provider relationship to inform strategies to improve care delivery. Using data from 62,149 adults with diabetes who received care within Atrium Health in 2013, regression models assessed associations between race/ethnicity and the following outcomes: glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) tests, low density lipoprotein (LDL) and blood pressure (BP) screening, foot and eye exams, and HbA1c, LDL, and BP control. Eleven patients with diabetes and uncontrolled hypertension participated in three focus groups about their perceptions of the patient-provider relationship. Compared to non-Hispanic Whites, non-Hispanic Blacks had 22% to 73% higher odds of receiving screenings (HbA1c, LDL, BP, foot and eye exams;

Improve permanent pastures with lespedeza, phosphate, lime, and supplementary grazing

Caption title.Digitized 2006 AES MoU

Good pastures pay

Cover title

Lawn culture in Missouri

Caption title.Digitized 2006 AES MU