Satisfação profissional dos Técnicos de Diagnóstico e Terapêutica

Dissertação de mestrado em Gestão de Unidades de Saúde

Measuring university-to-work success: development of a new scale

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to develop a subjective multidimensional measure of early career success during university-to-work transition. Design/methodology/approach – The construct of university-to-work success (UWS) was defined in terms of intrinsic and extrinsic career outcomes, and a three-stage study was conducted to create a new scale. Findings – A preliminary set of items was developed and tested by judges. Results showed the items had good content validity. Factor analyses indicated a four-factor structure and a second-order model with subscales to assess: career insertion and satisfaction, confidence in career future, income and financial independence, and adaptation to work. Third, the authors sought to confirm the hypothesized model examining the comparative fit of the scale and two alternative models. Results showed that fits for both the first- and second-order models were acceptable. Research limitations/implications – The proposed model has sound psychometric qualities, although the validated version of the scale was not able to incorporate all constructs envisaged by the initial theoretical model. Results indicated some direction for further refinement. Practical implications – The scale could be used as a tool for self-assessment or as an outcome measure to assess the efficacy of university-to-work programs in applied settings. Originality/value – This study provides a useful single measure to assess early career success during the university-to-work transition, and might facilitate testing of causal models which could help identify factors relevant for successful transition.

A new perspective of students allocation satisfaction in engineering courses in Portugal

Publicado em "AIP Conference Proceedings" Vol. 1648

Aprendizagem baseada na resolução de problemas: uma experiência pedagógica com alunos de um Curso de Especialização Tecnológica

Relatório de estágio de mestrado em Ensino de Informática

The impact of PBL on transferable skills development in management education

Attention to transferable skills is growing in higher education. Problem-based learning (PBL) is increasingly used in management education for its promising potential to, amongst others, promote transferable skills, including problem-solving, critical thinking and teamwork skills. However, this relationship is seldom assessed. In this study, I use structural equation modelling to examine the effectiveness of PBL, measured through students’ perceptions of satisfaction and skills development. Results show the development of transferable skills is explained by interaction with tutors and a host company, and defining teamwork rules. Satisfaction is explained by skills development, assessment issues, defining teamwork rules and understanding how organisations work. I draw conclusions and recommendations.

Workplace ergonomics in lean production environments: A literature review

BACKGROUND: Lean Production Systems (LPS) have become very popular among manufacturing industries, services and large commercial areas. A LPS must develop and consider a set of work features to bring compatibility with workplace ergonomics, namely at a muscular, cognitive and emotional demands level. OBJECTIVE: Identify the most relevant impacts of the adoption of LPS from the ergonomics point of view and summarizes some possible drawbacks for workplace ergonomics due to a flawed application of the LPS. The impacts identified are focused in four dimensions: work pace, intensity and load; worker motivation, satisfaction and stress; autonomy and participation; and health outcome. This paper also discusses the influence that the work organization model has on workplace ergonomics and on the waste elimination previewed by LPS. METHODS: Literature review focused LPS and its impact on occupational ergonomics conditions, as well as on the Health and Safety of workers. The main focus of this research is on LPS implementations in industrial environments and mainly in manufacturing industry workplaces. This is followed by a discussion including the authors’ experience (and previous research). RESULTS: From the reviewed literature it seems that there is no consensus on how Lean principles affect the workplace ergonomics since most authors found positive (advantages) and negative (disadvantages) impacts. CONCLUSIONS: The negative impacts or disadvantages of LPS implementations reviewed may result from the misunderstanding of the Lean principles. Possibly, they also happen due to partial Lean implementations (when only one or two tools were implemented) that may be effective in a specific work context but not suitable to all possible situations as the principles of LPS should not lead, by definition, to any of the reported drawbacks in terms of workplace ergonomics.

Assessing student individual performance within PBL teams: findings from the implementation of a new mechanism

This paper reports on the experience of the implementation of a new mechanism to assess individual student contribution within project work, where students work in teams to solve a large-scale open-ended interdisciplinary project. The study takes place at the University of Minho, with first year engineering students, enrolled in the Industrial Management and Engineering (Integrated Masters) degree. The aim of this paper is to describe the main principles and procedures underlying the assessment mechanism created and also provide some feedback from its first implementation, based on the students, lecturers and tutors perceptions. For data collection, a survey was sent to all course lecturers and tutors involved in the assessment process. Students also contributed with suggestions, both on a workshop held at the end of the project and also by answering a survey on the overall satisfaction with PBL experience. Findings show a positive level of acceptance of the new mechanism by the students and also by the lecturers and tutors. The study identified the need to clarify the criteria used by the lecturers and the exact role of the tutor, as well as the need for further improvement of its features and procedures. Some recommendations are also issued regarding technical aspects related to some of the steps of the procedures, as well as the need for greater support on the adjustment and final setting of the individual grades.

Information systems assessment in pathologic anatomy service

Information technologies changed the way of how the health organizations work, contributing to their effectiveness, efficiency and sustainability. Hospital Information Systems (HIS) are emerging on all of health institutions, helping health professionals and patients. However, HIS are not always implemented and used in the best way, leading to low levels of benefits and acceptance by users of these systems. In order to mitigate this problem, it is essential to take measures able to ensure if the HIS and their interfaces are designed in a simple and interactive way. With this in mind, a study to measure the user satisfaction and their opinion was made. It was applied the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) on a HIS implemented on various hospital centers (AIDA), being used the Pathologic Anatomy Service. The study identified weakness and strengths features of AIDA and it pointed some solutions to improve the medical record.

The impact of work clothing design on workers’ comfort

Physical and physiological comfort, at work and during leisure time, is important to human health and motivation. A growing number of jobs require workers to sit. Most clothes, except those intended for wheelchair users, were designed for walking or the standing position. Clothing designs should be user-oriented and meet users’ needs. Garment design should conform to body position and posture, not just shape and size. In this paper we present the ergometric impact of a new type of trousers designed to adapt to changes in position. Concentrations of compression forces, temperature and pressure were documented in an exploratory pilot study and contrasted to traditional designs. The new trousers showed significant decreases in compression force concentration, especially in and around the knees and waist. Most participants identified comfort as an important factor when purchasing a pair of trousers and that, for working purposes, they would prefer these special trousers rather than traditional designs.

Contratação Pública Verde: work in progress

Dissertação de mestrado em Direito Administrativo

Impacto da alteração de um sistema de turnos semicontínuo para laboração contínua

Dissertação de mestrado integrado em Psicologia

Work engagement e enriquecimento trabalho - família: a influência das características de família

Dissertação de mestrado integrado em Psicologia

Satisfaction with Life Scale among adolescents and young adults in Portugal: extending evidence of construct validity

The paper presents three empirical studies designed to extend the test of the construct validity of the Satisfaction With Life Scale (SWLS) among Portuguese students. In the first study, the responses of 461 elementary and secondary education students were submitted to a principal component analysis. A solution of one single factor was chosen, accounting for 55.7 % of the total variance, with Cronbach alpha coefficient and inter-item correlation above .70 and .20, respectively. The second study used a sample of 317 undergraduate students and registered a similar factor solution for SWLS (/pq = 0.99), which accounted for 65.6 % of the total variance (Cronbach alpha .89 and inter-item correlation above .20). A test–retest analysis registered coefficients of .70 (T2) and .77 (T3) and no significant statistically differences between T2, T3 and T1. The third study used a sample of 107 foster care youths from elementary and secondary education. Confirmatory factor analysis results indicate adequate fit indexes for the one-factor solution (v2/df = 2.70, GFI = .96, CFI = .96), which showed convergent validity, reliability and homogeneity. In conclusion, there is psychometric evidence for the one-factor structure of the SWLS in Portugal.

Lideranças curriculares intermédias no contexto da avaliação externa das escolas em Portugal

Tese de Doutoramento em Ciências da Educação (área de especialização em Desenvolvimento Curricular).

Attachment, infidelity, and loneliness in college students involved in a romantic relationship: the role of relationship satisfaction, morbidity and prayer for partner

This study examined the mediating effects of relationship satisfaction, prayer for a partner, and morbidity in the relationship between attachment and loneliness, infidelity and loneliness, and psychological morbidity and loneliness, in college students involved in a romantic relationship. Participants were students in an introductory course on family development. This study examined only students (n = 345) who were involved in a romantic relationship. The average age of participants was 19.46 (SD = 1.92) and 25 % were males. Short-form UCLA Loneliness Scale (ULS-8), (Hays and DiMatteo in J Pers Assess 51:69–81, doi:10.1207/s15327752jpa5101_6, 1987); Relationship Satisfaction Scale (Funk and Rogge in J Fam Psychol 21:572–583, doi:10.1037/0893-3200.21.4.572, 2007); Rotterdam Symptom Checklist (De Haes et al. in Measuring the quality of life of cancer patients with the Rotterdam Symptom Checklist (RSCL): a manual, Northern Centre for Healthcare Research, Groningen, 1996); Prayer for Partner Scale, (Fincham et al. in J Pers Soc Psychol 99:649–659, doi:10.1037/a0019628, 2010); Infidelity Scale, (Drigotas et al. in J Pers Soc Psychol 77:509–524, doi:10.1037/0022-3514.77.3.509, 1999); and the Experiences in Close Relationship Scale-short form (Wei et al. in J Couns Psychol 52(4):602–614, doi:10.1037/0022-0167.52.4.602, 2005). Results showed that relationship satisfaction mediated the relationship between avoidance attachment and loneliness and between infidelity and loneliness. Physical morbidity mediated the relationship between anxious attachment and psychological morbidity. Psychological morbidity mediated the relationship between anxious attachment and physical morbidity. The present results expand the literature on attachment by presenting evidence that anxious and avoidant partners experience loneliness differently. Implications for couple’s therapy are addressed. Future research should replicate these results with older samples and married couples.