Maximizing Your Research Mentorship Experience

https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/152359/1/2018-CIRHT-UM-Smith_ResearchMentoring.pd

Attitude, Subjective Norm, and Perceived Behavioral Control as Indicators for Nurse Educators’ Intention to Use Critical Thinking Teaching Strategies: a Structural Equation Model Analysis

Problem Deficiencies in new nursing graduates’ ability to use critical thinking skills have been documented. Researchers have found that the continued use of traditional teaching methods and less student-centered approaches for critical thinking development has contributed to this problem. This particular issue has evoked much concern for institutions and organizations involved with the safe delivery of patient care. The purpose of this study was to examine (a) the relationship between the factors educator characteristics, attitude, subjective norm and perceived behavioral control in a hypothesized model that may influence nurse educators’ intention to use instructional methods that promote critical thinking in this study referred to as evidence-based critical thinking (EBCT) teaching strategies for critical thinking development in baccalaureate nursing students and (b) the relationship between intention to use EBCT teaching strategies and actual use. Method A quantitative, non-experimental correlation survey and cross-sectional design was used to analyze the data in this study. An online survey was used to collect 244 responses from nurse educators who taught in 4-year degree nursing programs in the southeast region of the United States. The Statistical Package for Social Sciences Software (SPSS) and Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) with Analysis of a Moment Structures (AMOS) were used to analyze the data, test the hypothesized model, and provide descriptive statistics, correlations, and model fit results. One main research question and null hypothesis as well as five sub-questions and null sub-hypotheses were tested in this study. Results Results from the analysis of the hypothesized model showed that the initial model did not fit the observed data. However, an adjusted model provided an acceptable fit to the data (X2 = 398, X2/df = 1.51, GFI = 0.88, CFI = 0.92, TLI = 0.91, RMSEA = 0.05). Educator characteristics did not contribute to the initial or adjusted model due to non- significant loadings on the items. Attitude towards use of EBCT teaching strategies had a strong significant positive direct effect on intention to use (β = .95, p ˂ .05) and accounted for 90% of the variance in intention to use; subjective norm indicated a significant weak negative effect on intention to use EBCT teaching strategies (β = ̶ .12, p = .03). No statistically significant relationship was found between perceived behavioral control and intention to use EBCT teaching strategies (β = ̶ 0.03, p =0 .54). There was a statistically significant relationship between intention to use EBCT teaching strategies and actual use (β = 0.30, p = 0.01). While this was a significant finding, the number of nurse educators who rarely or never used any of the critical thinking teaching strategies addressed in this study warrants attention. Together, all three predictors (attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control) explained 77% of the variance in intention to use EBCT teaching strategies. Correlations between the latent factors showed that attitude had a positive strong correlation with subjective norm and a weak negative correlation with perceived behavioral control. The correlation between subjective norm and perceived behavioral control was weak and negative. Conclusions Overall, the relationships between the factors attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control and intention to use critical thinking teaching strategies partially supported the hypothesized effects based on the theory of planned behavior. As expected, attitude towards use of EBCT teaching strategies emerged as the stronger factor to influence intention to use, meaning that nurse educators in this study strongly valued the use of critical thinking teaching strategies that are evidence-based and had a positive attitude towards use. On the other hand, although subjective norm had a significant influence on intention to use, the effect was negative. Approval from others was important; however, social pressure was not perceived as having a positive relationship with intention to use EBCT teaching strategies. Perceived behavioral control was not a significant contributor to intention because issues of controllability and ability did not seem to be a factor affecting intention to use EBCT teaching strategies. Confirmation of some of the theoretical relationships in the hypothesized model validates the usefulness of the TPB in analyzing factors that may influence nurse educators’ intention to use and actual use of critical thinking teaching strategies. On the basis of the results, this study recommends among other actions the addition of a critical thinking instruction course to nurse educator preparation programs in order to facilitate critical thinking development in nursing students for preparation to practice. Professional learning communities should be established that will address educators’ professional needs as a response to the ongoing call to transform nursing education. Finally, the study presents suggestions for further research and implications for nursing education

Sex Reassignment : Predictors and Outcomes Of Treatment for Transsexuals

Prospective research supports the therapeutic effect of sex reassignment (SR) for adolescent and adult transsexuals. Data were used from 345 patients who applied for SR. Of these applicants, 232 started hormone treatment, 113 did not. The group who completed SR consisted of 196 transsexuals. Follow-up data were gathered one to five years after SR. The results of 171 treated adult transsexuals showed improvement in many areas of functioning after SR. The main symptom for which the patients had requested treatment, gender dysphoria, had disappeared after treatment, which is the primary goal of SR. Improvement was also found in satisfaction of the patients with their sex characteristics. In addition, according to observers, the appearance of the transsexuals better matched that of the desired new gender after treatment. Psychological functioning of the group had also improved after SR. Most of the transsexuals also functioned well socially, sexually, and in the new gender role. Above all, the vast majority of the group expressed no feelings of regret about their SR. However, a few individuals expressed reservations about the beneficial effects of treatment at follow-up. In particular, one male-to-female expressed strong regret and another some feelings of regret, during and after treatment. Both assigned these feelings to the adverse reactions from society. By far the least explored and most controversial domain with respect to SR is early (hormone) treatment with adolescent transsexuals. Results of the present study support the decision to refer well-functioning adolescents for early (between 16 to 18 years) hormone treatment, considering the positive outcomes of SR on several areas of postoperative functioning of this group. Within the treated adolescent group the gender dysphoria was absent after SR. The adolescents also appeared to function quite well socially and psychologically, and they were more satisfied with their sex characteristics as well after SR. Not a single adolescent expressed feelings of regret concerning the decision to undergo SR. Other findings from this thesis led us to conclude that the distinction between subtypes of transsexuals is theoretically and clinically meaningful. The differences that were found between homosexual and nonhomosexual transsexuals suggest different developmental routes for each of these subtypes. The road along which the nonhomosexual subtype evolves the gender identity conflict is most likely to be accompanied with more obstacles. Taking into account that the nonhomosexuals were found to be psychologically more vulnerable than the homosexuals, especially before treatment, they may require additional guidance during treatment. Finally, we investigated which factors at assessment could predict the course and outcomes of SR. Eligibility for SR was largely based upon the factors gender dysphoria, psychological stability, and physical appearance. Transsexuals with a nonhomosexual preference, psychological instability, and strong dissatisfaction about their appearance, at assessment, are more at risk for worse postoperative functioning and more dissatisfaction after treatment. To conclude, the current study substantiates findings from previous, mainly retrospective, studies, that SR is indeed effective. However, alleviation of the gender identity problem is not equivalent with an easy life. Yet, for most of the transsexuals who participated in this study, the strict eligibility criteria and the standard professional guidance as currently provided, appears to be sufficient to help resolve their gender identity conflict

Developing a Research Protocol

https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/152366/1/Smith_ResearchProtocol.mp4https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/152366/2/2019-CIRHT-UM-Smith_ResearchProtocol.pd

Atmospheric chemistry of C4F9OC2H5 (HFE-7200), C4F9OCH3 (HFE-7100), C3F7OCH3 (HFE-7000) and C3F7CH2OH: temperature dependence of the kinetics of their reactions with OH radicals, atmospheric lifetimes and global warming potentials

The atmospheric chemistry of several gases used in industrial applications, C4F9OC2H5 (HFE-7200), C4F9OCH3 (HFE-7100), C3F7OCH3 (HFE-7000) and C3F7CH2OH, has been studied. The discharge flow technique coupled with mass-spectrometric detection has been used to study the kinetics of their reactions with OH radicals as a function of temperature. The infrared spectra of the compounds have also been measured. The following Arrhenius expressions for the reactions were determined (in units of cm3 molecule-1 s-1): k(OH + HFE-7200) = (6.9+2.3-1.7) × 10-11 exp(-(2030 ± 190)/T); k(OH + HFE-7100) = (2.8+3.2-1.5) × 10-11 exp(-(2200 ± 490)/T); k(OH + HFE-7000) = (2.0+1.2-0.7) × 10-11 exp(-(2130 ± 290)/T); and k(OH + C3F7CH2OH) = (1.4+0.3-0.2) × 10-11 exp(-(1460 ± 120)/T). From the infrared spectra, radiative forcing efficiencies were determined and compared with earlier estimates in the literature. These were combined with the kinetic data to estimate 100-year time horizon global warming potentials relative to CO2 of 69, 337, 499 and 36 for HFE-7200, HFE-7100, HFE-7000 and CF3CF2CF2CH2OH, respectively

A Fast Goal Recognition Technique Based on Interaction Estimates

Goal Recognition is the task of inferring an actor's goals given some or all of the actor's observed actions. There is considerable interest in Goal Recognition for use in intelligent personal assistants, smart environments, intelligent tutoring systems, and monitoring user's needs. In much of this work, the actor's observed actions are compared against a generated library of plans. Recent work by Ramirez and Geffner makes use of AI planning to determine how closely a sequence of observed actions matches plans for each possible goal. For each goal, this is done by comparing the cost of a plan for that goal with the cost of a plan for that goal that includes the observed actions. This approach yields useful rankings, but is impractical for real-time goal recognition in large domains because of the computational expense of constructing plans for each possible goal. In this paper, we introduce an approach that propagates cost and interaction information in a plan graph, and uses this information to estimate goal probabilities. We show that this approach is much faster, but still yields high quality results