A principal at work : a story of leadership for building sustainable capacity of a school

This study explores through a lifestream narrative how the life experiences of a female primary school principal are organised as practical knowledge, and are used to inform action that is directed towards creating a sustainable school culture. An alternative model of school leadership is presented which describes the thinking and activity of a leader as a process. The process demonstrates how a leader's practical knowledge is dynamic, broadly based in experiential life, and open to change. As such, it is described as a model of sustainable leadership-in-process. The research questions at the heart of this study are: How does a leader construct and organize knowledge in the enactment of the principal ship to deal with the dilemmas and opportunities that arise everyday in school life? And: What does this particular way of organising knowledge look like in the effort to build a sustainable school community? The sustainable leadership-in-process thesis encapsulates new ways of leading primary schools through the principalship. These new ways are described as developing and maintaining the following dimensions of leadership: quality relationships, a collective (shared vision), collaboration and partnerships, and high achieving learning environments. Such dimensions are enacted by the principal through the activities of conversations, performance development, research and data-driven action, promoting innovation, and anticipating and predicting the future. Sustainable leadership-in-process is shared, dynamic, visible and transparent and is conducted through the processes of positioning, defining, organising, experimenting and evaluating in a continuous and iterative way. A rich understanding of the specificity of the life of a female primary school principal was achieved using story telling, story listening and story creation in a collaborative relationship between the researcher and the researched participant. as a means of educational theorising. Analysis and interpretation were undertaken as a recursive process in which the immediate interpretations were shared with the researched participant. The view of theorising adopted in this research is that of theory as hermeneutic; that is, theory is generated out of the stories of experiential life, rather than discovered in the stories.

Pretreatment malnutrition and quality of life - association with prolonged length of hospital stay among patients with gynecological cancer: A cohort study

Background Length of hospital stay (LOS) is a surrogate marker for patients' well-being during hospital treatment and is associated with health care costs. Identifying pretreatment factors associated with LOS in surgical patients may enable early intervention in order to reduce postoperative LOS. Methods This cohort study enrolled 157 patients with suspected or proven gynecological cancer at a tertiary cancer centre (2004-2006). Before commencing treatment, the scored Patient Generated - Subjective Global Assessment (PG-SGA) measuring nutritional status and the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-General (FACT-G) scale measuring quality of life (QOL) were completed. Clinical and demographic patient characteristics were prospectively obtained. Patients were grouped into those with prolonged LOS if their hospital stay was greater than the median LOS and those with average or below average LOS. Results Patients' mean age was 58 years (SD 14 years). Preoperatively, 81 (52%) patients presented with suspected benign disease/pelvic mass, 23 (15%) with suspected advanced ovarian cancer, 36 (23%) patients with suspected endometrial and 17 (11%) with cervical cancer, respectively. In univariate models prolonged LOS was associated with low serum albumin or hemoglobin, malnutrition (PG-SGA score and PG-SGA group B or C), low pretreatment FACT-G score, and suspected diagnosis of cancer. In multivariable models, PG-SGA group B or C, FACT-G score and suspected diagnosis of advanced ovarian cancer independently predicted LOS. Conclusions Malnutrition, low quality of life scores and being diagnosed with advanced ovarian cancer are the major determinants of prolonged LOS amongst gynecological cancer patients. Interventions addressing malnutrition and poor QOL may decrease LOS in gynecological cancer patients.