Professional development and accountability: working with newly appointed staff to foster quality

The aim of this paper is to examine some issues in professional development and the accountability of academic staff particularly in regard to newly appointed staff. It examines ways in which universities can assist new staff develop their skills in the various aspects of their academic role and identifies the responsibilities of the university and heads of departments in this task. It illustrates these issues by reference to a case study of a major Australian university which has recently adopted a department-based scheme for the professional development of academic staff. This scheme, amongst other things, involves new staff in planning sessions with the head of their department and the keeping of records of responsibilities, achievements, needs for professional development and the resources which will be provided to assist staff. The introduction of any scheme for accountability of staff or of professional development is likely to encounter some resistance in the prevailing academic ethos. The paper will examine ways in which the genuine fears of some groups can be addressed and how such schemes may be developed and introduced in a sensitive fashion.

So you want to be a journalist?: unplugged

So you want to be a Journalist? Unplugged is a fully revised guide to the world of journalism. This new edition of Bruce Grundy's guide for journalists takes us through new media's impact on the structure and practice of journalism today, with its 24-hour news cycle of multi-platform, interactive media audiences. The book contains instructions on writing for news media as well as practical advice on all facets of reporting. Skills involved in finding information, interviewing, writing news and features, research and investigation, basic subbing, layout and design are covered, along with the essentials of grammar, the law, and practical tips on ethical and professional behaviour. New to the second edition: • online journalism incorporated throughout the text • vignettes and case studies that bring the text to life • examples from Australian, New Zealand and international media • extended section on ethics • extensively updated research section, to help students recognise quality internet research • extensive companion website including further writing practice

The effect of transition to specialty practice programs on Australian emergency nurses' professional development, recruitment and retention

BACKGROUND: To date, emergency nursing Transition to Specialty Practice Program (TSPP) evaluations have been single-site observational studies. The aim of this paper was to examine the professional development, recruitment and retention outcomes of Australian emergency nursing TSPPs. METHODS: An explanatory sequential design was used. Data were collected via online surveys and interviews of emergency Nurse Unit Managers and Nurse Educators. Survey data from EDs with TSPPs and EDs without TSPPs were compared. Qualitative data were analysed using content analysis. RESULTS: Data were collected from 118 EDs, and 13 interviews. TSPPs were offered in 72.1% of EDs. EDs with TSPPs had higher proportions of nurses with postgraduate qualifications (Mdn 28.3% vs. 22.1%, p=0.45) and Clinical Specialists (Mdn 16.4% vs. 6.3%, p=0.04). The median proportion of currently rostered nurses with TSPP completion was 34.2% in EDs with TSPPs introduced in 2000-2005 indicating ED high levels of retention. CONCLUSION: Emergency nursing TSPPs have had a positive effect on nursing professional development, recruitment and retention. To ensure consistency in outcomes and optimise reliability of emergency nursing skills and knowledge, a national emergency nursing TSPP framework is needed.

MOJO: the mobile journalism handbook : how to make broadcast videos with an iPhone or iPad

MOJO: The Mobile Journalism Handbook is the first book devoted specifically to training citizens, journalism students and media professionals to produce professional-quality videos with only a mobile device. As journalism becomes increasingly competitive, students and emerging professionals need a broader skillset to make themselves more employable, whether as mainstream or entrepreneurial journalists. This book by Dr. Ivo Burum and Dr. Stephen Quinn, world experts in mobile journalism, provides comprehensive coverage of all the skills and practices needed to be a mobile journalist.

The establishment and development of neurosurgery services in Papua New Guinea

BACKGROUND: Papua New Guinea (PNG) is a developing Pacific Nation of 7.3 million people. Although neurosurgery training was introduced to PNG in the year 2000, it was in 2003 that a neurosurgery service was established. Prior to this time, neurosurgery in PNG was performed by general surgeons, with some assistance from visiting Australian neurosurgeons. Neurosurgical training was introduced to PNG in 2000. The model involved a further 3 years of training for a surgeon who had already completed 4 years of general surgical training. We aim to review the output, outcomes and impact achieved by training the first national neurosurgeon. METHODS: The data on activity (output) and outcomes were collected prospectively from 2003-2012. Ongoing mentoring and continuing professional development were provided through annual neurosurgical visits from Australia. There were serious limitations in the provision of equipment, with a lack of computerized tomographic or MR imaging, and adjuvant oncological services. RESULTS: There were 1618 neurosurgery admissions, 1020 neurosurgical procedures with a 5.74 % overall mortality. Seventy percent of cases presented as emergencies. There were improved outcomes, particularly for head injuries, whilst hydrocephalus was managed with an acceptable morbidity and revision rate. CONCLUSIONS: The training of a neurosurgeon resulted in PNG patients receiving a better range of surgical services, with a lower mortality. The outcomes able to be delivered were limited by late presentations of patients and lack of resources including imaging. These themes are familiar to all low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) and this may serve as a model for other LMIC neurosurgical services to adopt as they consider whether to establish and develop neurosurgical and other sub-specialist surgical services.

Professional development for medical educators

This book is for health professionals who are becoming involved in the education of people entering their professions.

Professional Development for Newly Tenured Faculty

After receiving tenure, faculty acquire new responsibilities, experience less pressure to produce research, and receive significantly less guidance than during the probationary period. Despite these changes, few institutions provide intensive support to newly-tenured faculty. This report highlights institutional efforts to support this faculty cohort and to encourage newly-tenured faculty to craft professional goals that will lead to outstanding research and promotion to full professor. Differences between pre-tenure and tenured faculty responsibilities and professional challenges are also explored.

Company size, organisational culture and human resource management in small to medium sized professional services firms: a case study

Cultura organizacional e gestão de recursos humanos (GRH) são componentes fundamentais para a estratégia corporativa raramente estudada no contexto das pequenas e médias empresas (PME) no setor de serviços profissionais, um ambiente no qual o capital humano das empresas companhias é particularmente importante. Um estudo de caso de uma empresa de gestão de investimentos inglesa foi realizado. A PME quase triplicou o seu quadro de funcionários, de menos de 50 a mais de 140, nos últimos seis anos. Cultura e GRH foram pesquisadas tanto historicamente quanto no momento atual por meio de uma combinação de entrevistas individuais, observação direta durante as visitas ao local e análise documental. Foi verificado que a G RH (junto com um número de outras estruturas e processos internos) tornou-se mais formal, apesar do fato de que a empresa começou com políticas de RH relativamente desenvolvidas, em comparação com outras pequenas empresas. Uma possível explicação para esta estruturação das práticas de RH é que empresas do setor de serviços profissionais tendem a dar uma importância especial à qualidade da sua força de trabalho. Esta relativa estabilidade cultural pode ser explicada pelo fato da cultura ser forte e é mantida tanto inconscientemente quanto conscientemente, por meio de mecanismos como o planejamento de pessoal, recrutamento e remuneração. As conclusões, por conseguinte, demonstram que as atitudes e percepções nem sempre mudam tão rápido quanto sistemas organizacionais, e que a relação entre cultura e gestão de recursos humanos pode ser complexa; a formalização da GRH pode reforçar a mudança cultural em certos aspectos, ao mesmo tempo abrandá-lo em outros.

MYCELIAL DEVELOPMENT of Lentinula edodes IN CULTURE MEDIA WITH DIFFERENT ORGANIC SUBSTRATES

The radial mycelial growth of Lentinula edodes (Berk) Pegler, strain LE-96/13, was studied in culture media prepared with organic residues extract, by using substrates prepared with pineapple (Ananas comosus (L.) Merril) crown, Astrocaryum aculeatum Meyer peel, Theobroma grandiflorum Schum shell, Musa sp. (genomic group AAB, subgroup Pacovan) peel, and Musa sp. (genomic group AAB, subgroup Praia) peel, with three supplementation levels with wheat bran (0, 10 and 20%), and incubated at 25 degrees C. The experimental design was totally randomized, in a 5x3 factorial scheme, adding up 15 treatments with 4 repetitions, and each repetition corresponding to a Petri dish. The diameter of the colony was evaluated daily during nine days of incubation. After that period, it was verified that the highest mycelial growth averages of strain LE-96/13 of L. edodes were found in culture media prepared with T. grandiflorum Schum shell (whose supplementation with wheat bran was favorable for Mushroom development) and A. aculeatum Meyer peel (whose supplementation did not favor the mycelial growth of L. edodes in relation to the medium not supplemented).

A esfera como metáfora: representações do futebol no campo da literatura (leituras do tema no conto de ficção)

Football, understood as a phenomenon of sports practice and nearly universal coverage, can also be seen as a game whose operation circumvents the cultural universe of people who practice it. Much more than just a sport, so this game is a cultural phenomenon par excellence, bearing a communicational and aesthetic dimension whose occurrence has been spotted in various fields of scientific and cultural. Therefore, it is as game and as a phenomenon of culture, we intend to focus on football here as an object of study. Our aim is to investigate the sport in Brazil taking the Literature and Journalism as privileged instances of their representation in the media. Thus, the central idea of this research is to show when and how football has become a recurrent theme in Brazilian literature, starting with its journalistic approach until we get an overview of the aesthetic representation of the game, Literature as the main focus of attention and taking the genre of fiction story as material fact of their representation. With this approach, we intend to develop an overall view, overview of the literature about football in our country and at the same time, particularize this vision in some representative authors of it, like the writer-journalist Mario Filho (the historian, essayist on the modernization of chronic specific theme), José Lins do Rego (writer passionate about the game), Nelson Rodrigues (the esthetician that elevated the sport to the status of art by chronic), Lima Barreto (who along with Antonio de Alcantara Machado pioneered the formalized within the fiction) and the storytellers of the topic itself. In the end, we intend to infer the results of evaluations and reviews of books and authors listed, we have examined a wide sense, but also vertical (and which were focused on a socio-historical perspective and critical-aesthetic) within the assumption that seems be a homology between the way football practice amongst us will historically winning characteristics as to form a Brazilian school of football, and how our writers, journalists will be addressing the topic, which also would focus on creating a "Brazilian way" of telling literary football. The proof of this hypothesis operational work together with the development of historiography and the necessity arising from it, creating a "Guide to Reading football theme in fictional tale of Brazil" shut the focal perspective of this study

Competência em informação: um fator crítico para a comunicação na atualidade

Information is one of the most essential raw materials of the journalist. Therefore, for a positive professional development in all means of communication, one must use it with quality. Thus, the development of information proficiency can help with the execution of the job in a more efficient and responsible manner. All of which is indispensable facing the importance of the journalistic discourse as a mediator nowadays, as well as the challenges that the journalist faces with the advent of new information and communication technologies.