DEVELOPMENT OF A MEDICAL STAFF RECRUITMENT SYSTEM FOR TEACHING HOSPITALS IN NIGERIA

Recruitment of staff into teaching hospitals in Nigeria, acts as the first step towards creating competitive strength and strategic advantage for such institutions. However, one of the major problems associated with these institutions in the South Western part of Nigeria is their mode of staff recruitment. In this research paper, we developed a suitable staff recruitment system for some health institutions in Nigeria, focusing specifically on some teaching hospitals. Three teaching hospitals in south west Nigeria, were visited and relevant information was collated through personal interviews and questionnaires administration to the staff of Human Resource Departments and other relevant health professionals of these teaching hospitals. The design and development of the system employs 3-tier web architecture. System design of the staff recruitment system consisted of design activities that produce system specifications satisfying the functional requirements that were developed in the system analysis process. A formal model of the staff recruitment system was built using Unified Modeling Language (UML). The UML, as a modeling system, which provides a set of conventions that were used to describe the software system in terms of objects, offers diagrams that provide different perspective views of the system parts. The Web-based Medical Recruitment System (WBMRS) was designed to be user friendly and it is easy to navigate

The Influence of Some Demographic Factors on Job Satisfaction on Academic Staff in Tertiary Institutions in Ogun State, Nigeria

This study investigated the demographic factors on job satisfaction among academic staff in tertiary institutions in two universities in Ogun State, testing five hypotheses.  A total of one hundred and twenty respondents were randomly selected.  Male and female academic staff in three of the departments were used for this study.  A set of structured questionnaire were administered after the reliability and the validity of it had been tested.  The five null hypotheses were analyzed using chi-square statistics at 0.05 point significant level.  The findings of the study revealed that most of the academic staff in the universities were dissatisfied with their jobs because of inadequate salaries, allowances, high volume of work and inadequate facilities.  It is therefore recommended that greater efforts should be made to provide facilities and infrastructures that will encourage academic staff.  Moreover, a more responsive incentive package will relatively motivate and satisfy academic staff on the job.  The implications of this will allow effective administration of the system and therefore, avoidance of industrial strike of Unions in our tertiary institutions

Shoulder Surfing Resistant Graphical Authentication Scheme for Web Based Applications

Since the design and development of the first graphical authentication pioneered by Blonder in 1996, numerous research has been conducted on this area to be used in different scenarios especially on the Internet. One of the major motivators is the picture superiority which as studies have shown, states that images/pictures provide higher memorability as opposed to Text based authentication. However, graphical authentication is still faced with some challenges. In this paper, a shoulder surfing resistant graphical authentication scheme is proposed to tackle a major issue related to the graphical authentication schemes developed. The proposed scheme provides a high level of resistance to shoulder surfing attacks, mitigating the need to upload pictures and aids in finding chosen objects in the scheme. However, the schemes has some vulnerabilities which implies that there may not be a perfect graphical authentication scheme; each scheme has its merits and demerits making it a suitable candidate for different environment and/or event depending on its architecture

Software Development Top Models, Risks Control and Effect on Product Quality

In recent time considerable efforts have been made to improve the quality of software development process and subsequently the end product One of such efforts is finding a way to avoid or prevent risks in the overall process and where or when it is not possible to prevent risk alleviation readily comes handy Seve ral problem solving methods such as six thinking hat risk table and riskit analysis graph RAG applied along with generic models such as spiral waterfall prototyping and extreme programming have been used in the past to prevent risk and enhances both delivery time and product quality Howeve r some gaps were identified in the earlier works done in this area and in the generic models designed for evaluating and controlling risks prompting the development of modern ones Hence this work tries to investigate different types of risks and risk management models leaning on the gaps in research it attempts to create a framework for better risk prediction and alleviation with the aim of enhancing delivery time and product quality To enhance good understanding and reading of the work it has been structured into different sections It concludes on some recommendations for future research in this paradig

Registrars' profile and their perceived readiness for specialist training in the new family medicine registrarship programme in South Africa

Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the award of the MMed (Family medicine) degree at the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa October 2015Background: Since the formal training of Family medicine registrars was launched in 2008, a number of graduates have been produced but factors that influence registrars’ readiness for this training remain unknown. Registrars in this new programme also enter into training with some attributes that influence their ability to learn and attain certain academic outcomes. It is important to explore these attributes in order to identify characteristics that may influence learning. Where skills gap exists, interventions could also be made to bridge the gap. The aim of this study was to describe family medicine registrars’ pre-training characteristics, the factors that influence their training and their perceived readiness for specialist training in family medicine. Methods: This study had a cross sectional design that used a structured web-based online questionnaire sent by e-mail to 218 registrars who were currently enrolled for at least one year in the new family medicine specialist training programme at the time of the study. Responses were anonymous and received through a secure web-host server. It was a multisite cross-sectional study of registrars across the eight training universities in South Africa. Information on participants’ demography, their pre-registrarship clinical, ancillary and self-directed learning skills, and their current training in family medicine were collected. Main outcomes of data analysis included descriptive statistics of participants’ pre-registraship characteristics, the barriers and enhancers of their current learning and the perceived readiness of registrars for specialist training. Results: Out of 218 registrars that received the online questionnaire, 123 completed the questionnaire (56.4% response rate). Of these respondents, 45 (36.6%) perceived themselves as being ready for registrarship training in family medicine. Pre-enrolment into the registrarship program, except for ambulatory general practice skills, only a minority of respondents perceived themselves good or excellent in any other clinical, ancillary or self-directed learning skills. The majority of respondents reported that pressure of clinical work (85.9%) assignment load (75.6%), research requirements (67.2%) and training program design (56.9%) are barriers to their current learning. Clinical experience post-basic medical qualification (99.0%), the last work setting prior to joining the registrarship programme (95.0%), prior communication skills (64.2%) and additional qualifications (52.7%) were the main reported enablers of learning. Registrars with postgraduate qualifications were found to be 2.6 times more likely to be ready for specialist training in family medicine than those without postgraduate qualifications (ρ = 0.015). Conclusions: Registrars joined the training in family medicine with gaps in requisite skills for successful training. This finding calls for context-specific strategies to bridge the gap in skills and knowledge at an early stage in the training programme

A Study into the Use of Recycle Iron and Steel Slag as an Alternative Aggregate in Concrete Production

The study researches into the use of recycle iron and steel slag as an alternative aggregate to granite in concrete production. X-ray diffract meter (XRD) and scanning electron microscopic (SEM) were implored to assess the mineral composition and morphology of the aggregate; mechanical properties of the aggregates that were assessed includes sieve analysis, water absorption, bulk specific gravity and Los Angeles abrasion value. In this study the workability of fresh concrete was assessed using slump and compacting factor tests and the strength of the concrete was assessed using the uniaxial compressive strength test to establish the suitability of recycle iron and steel slag aggregate as alternative aggregate in concrete production. Concrete of M20 grade was considered for a water cement ratio of 0.60 using 1:2:4 mix ratio, slag aggregate replacements were observed from 0 to 100% at interval of 10%.  The results of experimental investigations carried out to evaluate the fresh and hardened concrete properties showed that the slump value at 100% granite was 17mm (true slump) while at 100% slag was 28mm (shear slump); while the compacting factor are 0.79 at 0% slag replacement and 0.87at100% slag replacement; which confirms that concrete casted with granite is more workable than concrete casted with slag aggregate. The compressive strength at 7,14, 21 and 28days for the control cubes of 0%, 50% and 100% slag content are; 23.11, 21.78, 24.44 and 27.79N/mm²;  13.78, 20.00, 20.67 and 29.89N/mm² ; and 19.56, 22.67, 24.00 and 23.33N/mm² respectively. The results showed that maximum strength is obtained at 50% slag replacement; though all the results met the requirement of 20N/mm² by standard BS 5328: part 1: 1997. The results of mineral composition and morphology showed that granite and slag aggregates contained (70.2, 11.56, 1.19, 1.12, 0.96, 0.75, 3.26, 3.41, 0.00, 0.08 and 0.05) % and (13.7, 1.68, 10.32, 24.08, 45.16, 7.31, 0.19, 0.04, 0.03, 0.81 and 5.89) % of minerals composition respectively. The water absorption, abrasion value and specific gravity of granite and slag aggregate are (0.12%, 20.0 and2.20) and (0.82%, 23.0, and3.54) respectively. The result showed that the slag aggregate is more porous and absorbed water than granite aggregate and great care must be taken when using slag aggregate in concrete production as reduced water-cement ratio as compared to granite aggregate is required for better performance ; adequate stalking is also required prior to usage.  Based on overall observations it could be recommended that slag could be utilized as coarse aggregate in concrete production either as partial or full replacement of granite aggregate. Keywords: granite, iron and steel slag, X-ray diffract meter (XRD), scanning electron microscopic (SEM), mineral composition and morphology

Tongue in education in Nigeria

This paper critically investigated the linguistic aspect of Nigerian education policy. It examined the relevance of language of instruction in classroom learning. The philosophical nature of the study necessitated the analytic and speculative modes of research. The concept of mother tongue was analytically examined in other to give a clear-cut definition and facilitate a quick understanding; while the prescriptive mode was used to assess the place of indigenous languages in Nigerian curricula. The paper x-rayed arguments for and against the use of mother tongue in Nigerian schools. Among several works considered, the experimental work of Fafunwa was particularly showcased. The famous Ife Six Year Primary Project (SYPP), which was conducted between 1970 -1979, had established beyond any reasonable doubt that the Nigerian child will benefit immensely if schooled with mother tongue. Despite the success, it was however discovered that some challenges are constantly militating against the use of mother tongue in Nigerian schools. Such challenges range from one-nation-one-language myth; perception of English language as a global language; absence of orthography of some Nigerian languages; lack of trained teachers in the use of indigenous languages; lack of political will; among others. These challenges were addressed in this paper. The researchers, laconically, submitted that for education in Nigeria to function as it should, as elsewhere, her language policy should be revisited; and to actualize this, the researchers recommend that teacher education in Nigeria be revitalised, while adequate training is given to teachers, so as to enable them to comfortably and conveniently teach their subjects in indigenous languages. It was suggested that for cognitive, cultural purposes and national interest, use of mother tongue is a necessity as education is to the society what fuel is to a vehicle, and language is to education what blood is to humans.Keywords: Mother tongue, Nigerian education, relevance and us

Assessment of Sexual Abstinence and the Use of Condom among Undergraduate Students (Youths) in Nigeria Universities

The epidemic of pre - marital sex, teenage pregnancy, sporadic illegal abortion and widespread of sexually transmittable infections (STIs) can be traced to the out - growing rate of unprotected sex behaviour among the youths in Nigeria. Therefore, this cross cultural study explored and investigated the socio – cultural factors associated with sexual abstinence and the use of condom as control mechanisms of unwanted pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections (STIs) amongst the undergraduate students in some selected universities in Nigeria. It examined the views and beliefs of the youths about sexual abstinence and the use of condom as contraceptives. The study was conducted among the undergraduates in Twelve purposively selected universities, which cuts across the North, East and Southern part of Nigeria. The study period was from April 2015 to December, 2015. A self administered questionnaire (360) was given out and 345 questionnaires were returned among the undergraduate students in the selected universities in Nigeria. The study revealed that, the youths are aware of sexual abstinence and the use of condom as reliable ways to prevent sexually transmitted infections, unwanted pregnancy and many more; yet they do not apply it as a result of socio – cultural factors. The study found out that, sexual abstinence has a lot of implications on the youths’ development. At last, the study gave some recommendations on the use of sexual abstinence and condom as measures to prevent unwanted pregnancy, STIs and others. Keywords: Abortion, Condom, Contraceptive, Infections, Sexual Abstinence, Unwanted pregnanc

Assessment of Entrepreneurship Education and Employment Generation among University Graduates in Nigeria

The study investigated the impact of entrepreneurship education on employment generation and the effect of entrepreneurial skill acquisition on entrepreneurial performances. It also examined the impact of the university attended on employment generation among Nigerian graduates. Survey research design was employed for the study. 72 graduates’ entrepreneurs which form our respondents were selected from 6 Local government Areas (LGAs) of Oyo State, South West, Nigeria, through the use of multi-stage sampling technique. Primary data were used for the study and were gathered through the use of structured questionnaire. The relationship among entrepreneurship education, training, university type, employment generation and entrepreneurs’ performances were tested using t-test and Pearson Product Moment Correlation. The results showed that majority (82.6%) of the respondents agreed that entrepreneurial education empowered them to start a business of their own (r= 0.826, p < 0.05). Also, the results indicated that skill acquisition by majority (61.4%) of the respondents had improved their performance (r= 0.614, p < 0.05). Furthermore, the results showed that there exist significant differences between types of university attended and employment generation among the graduates’ entrepreneurs. The study concluded that increased entrepreneurial education and training had led to increased employment generation among university graduates in Nigeria. Keywords: Entrepreneurship Education, Training, Employment Generation and Entrepreneurial Performances

Attitudes towards female genital cutting among pregnant women in Owo, Nigeria

Background: This study aimed to determine the attitudes of pregnant women attending the antenatal clinic at Federal Medical Centre, Owo, Ondo State, Nigeria, towards female genital cutting.Method: The study was conducted over a period of six months, between November 2010-April 2011, at the antenatal clinic of the hospital. Prior to commencement of this study, ethical clearance was obtained from the ethical review committee of the hospital. The respondents were interviewed by the authors and three trained research assistants, with the aid of aquestionnaire. The obtained data were collated and analysed with SPSS® 15.0.1 statistical software.Results: Most respondents (72; 56.3%) had undergone female genital cutting. The majority (90; 70.3%) were aware of female genital cutting. Less than half supported discontinuation of female genital cutting (63; 49.2%) and legislation against it (57; 44.9%). A quarter of respondents (33; 25.8%) would allow their daughters to undergo female genital cutting.Conclusion: The majority of the respondents had undergone female genital cutting, which was sometimes carried out by a medical practitioner. Less than half supported the discontinuation of female genital cutting and legislation against it. Medical practitioners should be prevented from performing female genital cutting