An Exploratory Study of Stress in a British University

This paper reports an exploratory study of stress and psychological well-being in British University staff. Unlike previous studies of stress in University staff, this study examines stress not only in relation to lecturing staff, but also research and support staff. Principal components analysis of a fifteen item stressor scale revealed two orthogonal dimensions, relating to quantitative overload stressors and role stressors respectively. Both were found to be related to a measure of psychological well-being. Differences in these stressor factors were found between the various types of university employee; academic staff were found to report more work load and managerial stressors, but reported fewer role stressors.     

The successful resolution of armed hostage/barricade events in schools: A qualitative analysis

This article explores the perceptions and reactions of school and law enforcement personnel in the successful resolution of armed hostage and barricade events in schools. A total of 12 individuals from three schools were interviewed to determine (1) their salient roles related to the situations, (2) facilitative systemic conditions, (3) to what they attributed the successful resolution, and (4) their advice to other school professionals. Results suggest that establishment of trusting relationships between school personnel and all students is essential in successfully resolving school hostage and barricade events. In addition, respondents discussed the importance of awareness, training, and communications in resolving such events. Implications for school staff are included, along with limitations and future research directions. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Integrating Background Nursing Experience and Study at the Postgraduate Level: An Application of Problem Based Learning

The delivery of postgraduate courses to registered nurses is faced with the challenge of providing learning opportunities which accommodate a wide range of backgrounds and which draw upon the students' clinical experiences as well as upon conventional academic sources. Courses not providing such opportunities may be devalued by the students and perceived by them as removed from, and irrelevant to, clinical practice.

This paper describes a course which appears to have been successful both in providing for background diversity and in securing the integration of academic content and the clinical experiences of postgraduate nursing students. The course uses a problem based learning approach to cover concepts and principles relating to patient education and aspects of clinical teaching. The rationale of the approach and an outline of its features are provided.

The procedures used to evaluate the course are also described. The qualitative and quantitative data realised by these procedures indicate that the course was perceived by the students to be stimulating, interesting and consonant with their clinical needs and aspirations. The data also show that the main cognitive objective of the course was achieved by a substantial proportion of the students but that students would benefit from receiving more assistance with their learning skills.

It is concluded that the form of problem based learning used in the course can provide for the postgraduate educational needs of nurses from diverse professional and academic backgrounds.     

PCC: A Leader of Change

Abstract

From its beginnings, the Program for Cooperative Cataloging (PCC) has been an international leader of change in bibliographic and authority control and maintenance, and metadata creation and distribution. This article highlights some PCC achievements in these areas.     

An Exploratory Comparative Case Study of Employee Engagement in Christian Higher Education

Numerous studies have identified a positive correlation between employee engagement and overall organizational performance. However, research on employee engagement specifically within higher education is limited, and even less attention has been focused on engagement within the context of Christian higher education. An exploratory comparative case study research design was used to explore two faith-based universities that are atypical examples of excellence as measured by the Best Christian Workplace Institute (BCWI) “Employee Engagement and Organizational Culture” survey. Analysis of data gathered from 53 interviews with employees and document analysis led to the identification of institutional characteristics that fostered employee engagement at two universities that consistently exhibited high rankings of employee self-reported engagement based on the BCWI survey results. Despite substantial differences between the two institutions, commonalities were identified in many of the characteristics that fostered employee engagement on the two campuses. The findings revealed that the shared themes of mission, community, empowered human resource departments, and a sense of positive momentum all contributed to the atypically high employee engagement levels that resulted in a positive and empowering organizational culture.     

When everything is under control: Chronicling the affective containment experiences of Filipino elderly in institutionalized settings

Affective Containment has been recognized as a means to manage negative experience by projecting emotions to others. To date, there are no known literatures on the process of affective containment in the elderly context; hence, this grounded theory investigation. This study aims to describe the process by which affective containment is experienced by a select group of institutionalized Filipino elderly. To achieve the overall intent of this study, Strauss and Corbin’s Grounded Theory design was employed. Face-to-face, semi-structured interviews were carried out among 20 institutionalized Filipino elderly. Field texts were subjected to thematic analysis involving open, axial, and selective coding. The overall validity of the findings was ensured through member checking procedure. An interesting set of phases emerged relative to the layer of experience, namely: Holding-up, Gearing-up, and Opening-up; collectively known as the 3-Stage Analogy of Elderly Affective Containment. Said model describes how emotions can be contained to other individuals through interactions inside the institution. The study has eidetically described and examined the process of affective containment among the institutionalized Filipino elderly. Findings of the study invite nurses to put premium to nurse–patient relationship and provide timely interventions with a view to improving emotional health.     

Evaluating the success of deaf parents

Nineteen parent-child pairs completed the Parental Strengths and Needs Inventory (PSNI) and were interviewed about their relationships. Parent and child scores on the PSNI were above average, with parents expressing high interest in information about childrearing. Interviews revealed issues specific to deaf parents, such as using children as interpreters and frustration when children had poor sign language skills. Children with good sign language skills said they were generally willing to interpret for their parents, except during conflict situations. Children also reported advantages to having deaf parents: they enjoyed being bilingual and their parents tolerated noise and loud music. Study results underscore the importance of triangulation strategies in cross-cultural research.     

Patterns of Provision for Pupils with Behavioural Difficulties in England: A study of government statistics and behaviour support plan data

This paper gives as full an overview of the patterns of provision made in England for disaffected and excluded pupils and those said to have emotional and behavioural difficulties (EBD) in England as the available data allow. It draws upon government statistics, local education authorities' (LEAs') first 'Behaviour Support Plans' and related literature. The BSPs were intended by the English government, but sometimes failed to give, comprehensive accounts of current local provision and future inter-agency plans. However, when analysed alongside government figures, certain features become clear. While in 1998 local education authorities were attempting to move towards prevention and on-mainstream-school site interventions, the need for off-site special units ('Pupil Referral Units') continued to increase and the numbers of pupils in EBD special schools remained roughly constant. Despite national pressure to move towards the inclusion of all pupils, LEAs continued to find it impossible to educate a small percentage of pupils with behavioural difficulties on mainstream sites.     

Learning from Wang Yang-Ming: exploring oriental contributions to understanding action research

This article reports recent foraging for ideas in action research among the lives and intellects of Chinese society. It began and is reported as a personal journey, initially following the trail of the activist scholar Wang Yangming. The method is a roam through some of the resources that have so far been discovered. The style is autobiographical, in that it seeks to expose a degree of puzzling about the relationships between action research and some challenging concepts from Chinese culture. The outcome hoped for is to introduce others who find the ideas interesting to a conversation across generations and across cultures. The conclusions thereby remain to be heard.