Utilizing a Formative Program Evaluation Approach and an Application of Grounded Theory to Assess a Novel Harm Reduction Program

Formative program evaluation is conducted during development and early implementation to ensure a program is feasible, appropriate, and acceptable. The Harm Reduction Initiative (HRI), a program of KIRP, the Kentucky AIDS Drug Assistance (KADAP) Income Reinvestment Program, seeks to address some of the underlying causes of infectious disease vulnerability resulting from drug use by focusing on infectious disease testing and linkage to care among high risk individuals. The primary objective of the evaluation was to achieve the following aims: 1) characterize the need for the program, 2) clarify the theory and logic of the program, 3) inform implementation, and 4) improve the program where necessary. To conduct this formative evaluation, a focused ethnographic field study approach was used with the purpose of ascertaining, understanding, and describing the four categorical areas of formative program evaluation in the context of the Harm Reduction Initiative. The data collection activities included participant observation and semi-structured interviews. This data analysis was guided by grounded theory methodology to utilize inductive reasoning to develop a theory. All qualitative material gathered in this study (meeting observation and interviews) went through a systematic, three-step, manual coding process starting with open coding which was refined into axial coding by finding relationships in the data and finally emerging into selective coding by identifying core categories. The methodology and results revealed a program that was necessary, well thought out, carefully deployed, consistently checked for areas of improvement, and modified as necessary. This evaluation presented recommendations that are opportunities to further improve a well-structured program. In order to remain effective and relevant, services must be restructured when necessary to address real and current issues affecting individuals at any given time. In this regard, the Harm Reduction Initiative is as prepared as can be, as it has shown itself capable of the flexibility and adaptation necessary to continue vital services for communities in Kentucky

Telehealth Assessment in the Elderly Using the 4M\u27s

COVID-19 has accelerated an already urgent need for telehealth in the United States. While health care systems have been providing telehealth for years, the number of providers and patients who need to participate in telehealth has ballooned overnight. Though telehealth has been in use for a while, the geriatric population seems to be disadvantaged, especially those who reside in rural settings. Due to increased COVID 19 cases among the elderly population in North Dakota, the Geriatric Workforce Enhancement Program (GWEP) allocated a grant to the University of North Dakota to promote telehealth in the elderly receiving homecare services in rural and urban areas of North Dakota. The project aim was to promote the use of telehealth to reduce the risk of exposure of Covid 19 among the elderly populations in rural and urban areas in North Dakota. Upon completion of the project, the advanced practitioners will have used video monitoring technologies to complete geriatric modified assessments consisting of medication, mobility, mentation, and what matters most (4Ms)

PRINCIPALS’ LEADERSHIP STYLES AND THEIR RELATIONSHIP WITH TEACHERS’ JOB SATISFACTION IN SIAYA, KISUMU AND KAJIADO COUNTIES, KENYA

While there is a general agreement the world over, that the principal’s leadership style has a remarkable effect on teachers’ job satisfaction, little is known about Kenya, particularly in the area of full-range leadership. The purpose of this study was to examine principals’ leadership styles and their relationship with teachers’ job satisfaction in public secondary schools in Siaya, Kisumu, and Kajiado counties, Kenya. The study was guided by the Full Range Leadership theory and Herzberg’s two-factor theory. The study adopted a correlation research design. The target population comprised of all the 397 principals, 389 deputy principals, 1,190 heads of departments, and 2,208 teachers in public secondary schools in Siaya, Kisumu, and Kajiado counties who had served for at least two years in the same school. Proportional stratified and simple random sampling was used to sample 39 secondary school principals, 35 deputy principals, 97 heads of departments, and 181 secondary school teachers giving a total of 352 respondents. The data for this study was collected using Teacher Job Satisfaction Survey Questionnaire which assessed the intrinsic and extrinsic factors of job satisfaction. The Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire Form 5X was used to classify the leadership styles of principals as laissez-faire, transformational and transactional. The data was condensed and summarized before being analyzed using Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient. The findings of the study established a positive and significant correlation between transformational leadership style and teachers’ job satisfaction, no significant correlation between transactional leadership style and teachers’ job satisfaction, and a negative significant correlation between laissez-faire leadership style and teachers’ job satisfaction. The study concluded that the leadership style practiced by a principal has a significant effect on teachers’ job satisfaction. It was recommended that Teachers’ Service Commission should organize regular teacher professional development programs to train principals on the importance of using transformational leadership styles as opposed to transactional and laissez-faire leadership styles.  Article visualizations

AN INVESTIGATION IN TO THE STATUS OF KENYA’S INFORMATION COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY (ICT) POLICY IN THE EDUCATION SYSTEM

While it is apparent that the information revolution has changed the way the world learns, conducts business or governs, there is a compelling divide between the digital ‘Haves’ and the ‘Have nots’. Despite the many initiatives taking place in our educational institutions, there is no uniformity in the adoption and implementation of ICTs in our secondary schools. The central problem of this study was the vexed question of the status of the Kenya National ICT Policy on Education and Training. The study adopted a descriptive research design which involved collecting data in order to determine the status of ICT Policy in Education and Training in Kenya. Out of a target population of five ICT experts in the Ministry of Education Science and Technology, six from Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development, seven from Teachers’ Service Commission and eight from Computer for Schools Kenya, all the respondents were purposively sampled giving a total of 26 respondents. The sample responded to items in the research instruments which were administered by the researcher. The instruments were Questionnaires and Interview Schedules for TSC ICT Department, Ministry of Education ICT Department, Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development Media Department and Computer for Schools Kenya officials. The researcher visited all the three sections of the Ministry of Education and the Computer for Schools Kenya offices and administered the instruments. The vast field of collected data was condensed and summarized before being analyzed using statistical methods such as the mean, percentages, frequency tables and graphs. The findings of the study have shown that Kenya adopted her ICT Policy on Education and Training in the year 2006. It further emerged that the Ministry of Education developed ICT curriculum for secondary schools in 1996. The study noted that computer studies are optional and most public secondary schools lacked the facilities needed for the subject. This means that computer curriculum could not be implemented in most secondary schools and the objective of making all secondary schools graduates computer literate is far from being achieved. Most teachers were found to be computer illiterate thus hindering the use of computers in secondary schools as an instructional tool. For effective implementation of the National ICT Policy on Education and Training, the study noted that the government re-look into the ICT policy on education and training and come up with clear-cut implementation strategies and policies. The government should ensure that computer studies are made a core unit in secondary schools and in all teacher training programs. It was also noted that the government should fast track the digitization of the curriculum and provision of e-books to all secondary schools for equitable access. This would ensure uniformity in the ICT policy on education and training implementation process and help the government to achieve her objective of making all secondary schools graduates computer literate.  Article visualizations

A Gendered Critique of Women in Peace and Conflict Situations in Africa

Many African nations have faced conflicts that have caused many deaths, loss of property and the displacement of the populations. Women always represent the majority of the refugees and internally displaced people after the occurrence of a conflict in Africa. In order to build peace in Africa, women must have an active role prior to and after conflicts just like men. In many peace-building processes, women have taken a back seat even though they are the most affected by conflicts. There are many challenges that prevent African women from participating in peace building processes including domestic roles of women, lack of resources, stereotypes against women, low levels of education, lack of empowerment among other challenges. Women in countries such as Liberia, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, and many other African countries managed to organize themselves into groups in order to agitate for the peace of their countries. Many reforms in African countries are attributed to women; women’s groups ensured that there were constitutional changes that could recognize the rights of women. Women have been very successful in ensuring there is peace because they often taken moderate positions and ensure that the welfare of every citizen is protected. African women such as Liberian President have been recognized for their efforts in peace building. However, despite the efforts of many women in mediation, some women took up arms and joined men to go and fight against enemies. Some of the women willingly joined armed groups, but others were compelled to join these groups or face death. The paper looks at different conflicts that have occurred in Africa and the role of women in peace in such conflicts. In a detailed manner, the paper discusses challenges women face in the process of agitating for peace and proposes how these challenges can be overcome. Keywords: Women, Peace and Conflict, Afric

Non-Thermal Emission From Jets of Massive Protostars

This thesis details the outcome of a study of non-thermal radio emission from a sample of massive protostellar jets. The jets are ionized and can interact with magnetic fields within their vicinity to generate non-thermal emission. A search for the emission was conducted on a sample of fifteen massive protostars, observed using the JVLA at 1.5GHz in 2015. Emission from the objects was characterised based on their spectral indices and spectral index maps, generated from their 1.5GHz (L-band) data, and previous observations at 6.0GHz (C-band) and 44.0 GHz (Q-band). 40% of the jets have characteristic non-thermal lobes, associated with synchrotron emission, especially sources of higher bolometric luminosity. All the cores, on the other hand, were found to be thermal, driving out material at rates that lie in the range 3×10^{-7} to 7×10^{-6} solar masses per year. Spectral energy distributions (SEDs) and spectral index maps of some of the protostellar jets displayed evidence of variability. As a result, four protostellar jets, previously observed in 2012 at C-band were identified and re-observed in 2018, at the same frequency, to study their variability property. Two of the protostars, S255 NIRS3 and W3 IRS5, displayed significant flux and positional variabilities respectively. S255 NIRS3 was in outburst while W3 IRS5 manifested clear proper motions and precession. Lastly, some of the observable properties of the protostellar cores were used in simulating their features. Numerical calculations of their hydrodynamic properties were performed, followed by computation of their spectra using a ray-tracing code. Examples of the properties that were used to initiate the hydrodynamic simulations include; mass-loss rates, velocities and opening angles. The radio emission of the cores were generally found to be stable unless the input parameters were varied. Indeed, a change in the velocities and mass-loss rates of the thermal jets led to a corresponding change in their fluxes

Implementation of new vision’s digital strategy: analysis of the website, e-paper, and social media platforms

There is an increased shift from traditional to digital media operations in Africa. The general objective of this study was to analyse the adoption and implementation of the digital strategy of the New Vision with a focus on the challenges and opportunities to help understand the shift from traditional to digital media. This study investigated the implementation of New Vision’s digital strategy, focusing on the website, e-paper and social media platforms. The study employed an in-depth interview guide for data collection: The collected data was transcribed and organized following the research questions. The data was reviewed and explored deductively, then grouped into themes and presented logically. The study findings were; that a number of factors cause slow progress towards total digital transformation. However, the major ones include a lack of mind shift by staff from traditional to digital ways of operation and a lack of adequate skills, especially for writers and other content creators. The study revealed that writers compile long stories meant for hardcopies and post on digital platforms, website stories are not updated in real time, and sometimes a technological breakdown hinders seamless access to the e-paper. Transformation and implementation of the New Vision digital strategy is a work in progress. On paper, New Vision has impressive plans to become a digital paper. However, digital transformation has not fully taken place. Media practitioners and managers need to appreciate the digital revolution and pragmatically walk the talk of transformation from traditional to digital at both strategic and operational levels. The study recommendations were: Staff training on digital story writing skills, the company needs to utilise the website, social media and e-paper analytics to inform them of readers’ interest, the company needs to give staff the freedom to try out new things because digital transformation is about experimentation

EFFECTS OF REWARD PRACTICES ON EMPLOYEE JOB SATISFACTION OF KENYA AIRWAYS, NAIROBI CITY COUNTY, KENYA

The human resource department plays a vital role in assuring that the employees are satisfied with the job that they do every day. Research has shown that satisfied workers are more productive and committed to their teams. Recently, Kenya Airways have faced numerous challenges resulting from a reduced rate of productivity for their workers and high turnover for its technical staff as a result of an increased level of dissatisfaction ensuing from poor pay, slow career progression, and hiring of expatriates. The main objective of this study was to investigate the effects of reward practices on employee job satisfaction at Kenya Airways in Nairobi County, Kenya. This study was anchored on two theories that include Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory, and Expectancy theory. The study used descriptive research design to gather data on different subjects based on the research problem. Kenya Airways has 1501 staff; hence the study focused on a sample size of 150 employees from flight operations, HR, finance, operations, and commercial departments representing 10% of the workers’ population. The research collected both primary and secondary data to ensure that adequate data were gathered for analysis. A pilot study was carried on the instruments for collecting data to ensure the vital components of the main study are feasible. The testing of the instrument was carried out to guarantee reliability and validity. Additionally, the study adopted Cronbach’s Alpha to measure reliability and validity. Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) V22 was utilized for the interpretation and analysis of data. Multiple regression analysis was achieved using SPSS to determine the association of the variables used in the study. The findings showed the correlation study to determine the relationship between reward practices was positively correlated with job satisfaction (r = 0.751,

Influence of culture on strategic human resource management (SHRM) practices in multinational companies (MNC) in Kenya: a critical literature review

Presented By proffesor Peter K’ObonyoBeatrice DimbaExtant theories of strategic human resource management (SHRM) practices and cultures have generally adopted on the one hand the assumption that organizations develop a culture of their own that is distinct from the national and industry contexts in which the organization is embedded, thus ignoring the potential impact of external environmental factors on organizational culture. On the other hand, some researchers and scholars have questioned the validity and reliability of national culture-SHRM practices research. The current paper explores the employee cultural values in the Kenyan multinational companies (MNCs) and the influence of culture on SHRM practices. Hofstede’s cultural dimensions of collectivism, power distance, uncertainty avoidance, and femininity are applied. These value dimensions reflect human thinking, and feelings of people, which pose basic problems that any society has to cope with but for which solutions differ.Extant theories of strategic human resource management (SHRM) practices and cultures have generally adopted on the one hand the assumption that organizations develop a culture of their own that is distinct from the national and industry contexts in which the organization is embedded, thus ignoring the potential impact of external environmental factors on organizational culture. On the other hand, some researchers and scholars have questioned the validity and reliability of national culture-SHRM practices research. The current paper explores the employee cultural values in the Kenyan multinational companies (MNCs) and the influence of culture on SHRM practices. Hofstede’s cultural dimensions of collectivism, power distance, uncertainty avoidance, and femininity are applied. These value dimensions reflect human thinking, and feelings of people, which pose basic problems that any society has to cope with but for which solutions differ