Transition to intensive care nursing: A state-wide, workplace centred program-12 years on

In November 1999, the Queensland Health (QH) Transition to Practice Nurse Education Program - Intensive Care (TPNEP-IC) was initiated in QH Intensive Care Units (ICUs) across Queensland. This 12-month, state-wide, workplace based education program has set minimum standards for intensive care nursing education and therefore minimum standards for intensive care nursing practice in QH. In the 12 years of operation, 824 nurses have completed TPNEP-IC, 761 achieving academic credit status and 453 utilising this academic credit status to undertake postgraduate study in critical/intensive care nursing at three Queensland universities. These outcomes were achieved through the appointment of nurse educators within ICUs who, through a united and strong commitment to this state-wide approach formed collaborative professional networks, which resulted in the development, implementation and maintenance of the program. Furthermore, these networks enabled a framework of support for discussion and dissemination of evidence based practice, to endorse quality processes for TPNEP-IC and to nurture leadership potential among educators. Challenges to overcome included obtaining adequate resources to support all aspects of the program, gaining local management and administrative support, and embedding TPNEP-IC within ICU culture. The 12 years of operation of the program have demonstrated its long term sustainability. The program is being launched through a new blended learning approach utilising e-learning strategies. To capitalise on the current success, a strong commitment by all stakeholders will be required to ensure the ongoing sustainability of the program.

Monocular amblyopia and higher order aberrations

This study compared the corneal and total higher order aberrations between the fellow eyes in monocular amblyopia. Nineteen amblyopic subjects (8 refractive and 11 strabismic) (mean age 30 ± 11 years) were recruited. A range of biometric and optical measurements were collected from the amblyopic and non-amblyopic eye including; axial length, corneal topography and total higher order aberrations. For a sub-group of eleven non-presbyopic subjects (6 refractive and 5 strabismic amblyopes, mean age 29 ± 10 years) total higher order aberrations were also measured during accommodation (2.5 D stimuli). Amblyopic eyes were significantly shorter and more hyperopic compared to non-amblyopic eyes and the interocular difference in axial length correlated with both the magnitude of anisometropia and amblyopia (both p < 0.01). Significant differences in higher order aberrations were observed between fellow eyes, which varied with the type of amblyopia. Refractive amblyopes displayed higher levels of 4th order corneal aberrations C(4, 0)(spherical aberration), C(4, 2)(secondary astigmatism 90°) and C(4, −2)(secondary astigmatism along 45°) in the amblyopic eye compared to the non-amblyopic eye. Strabismic amblyopes exhibited significantly higher levels of C(3, 3)(trefoil) in the amblyopic eye for both corneal and total higher order aberrations. During accommodation, the amblyopic eye displayed a significantly greater lag of accommodation compared to the non-amblyopic eye, while the changes in higher order aberrations were similar in magnitude between fellow eyes. Asymmetric visual experience during development appears to be associated with asymmetries in higher order aberrations, in some cases proportional to the magnitude of anisometropia and dependent upon the amblyogenic factor.

Supporting siblings of children with a rare chromosome disorder

Siblings play an important role in children’s learning and development. Interactions with brothers and sisters provide opportunities to learn about sharing and emotional reciprocity, to develop social skills, to express thoughts and feelings, and to practise resolving conflict. But for children whose brother or sister has a disability, such as a rare chromosome disorder, some of these sibling experiences may be different. Many parents worry about how their non-disabled child will be affected by the experience of living with a brother or sister with a disability, and a great deal of research has explored both the possible negative consequences and also the potential benefits for siblings. In this article, we summarise the research findings and provide suggestions for ways that parents can support the positive development and well-being of all their children.

Transition to higher education

This chapter in a monograph covering many different transitions, focuses on the variables contributing to a successful or problematic transition from High School to a tertiary institution and is based on responses from a sample of students at a large city university who encountered difficulties.

Navigating in a sea of change : second set of working papers of the higher education policy project

This volume represents teh second collection of working papers and articles by participants in the Higher Education Policy Project (HEPP), a project funded by the Australian Research Council and based in the Graduate School of Education at the University of Queensland. The first volume, 'Higher Education in Transition: Working Papers of the Higher Education Policy Project (Bella, McCollow and Knight, 1993), took the broad theme of "higher education in transition" in order to introduce readers the HEPP and give them some idea of the breadth of the research being pursued by the HEPP research team itself and by the cohort of post-graduate students also associated with the project. Since then, higher education has remained in transition. Stubborn and resurgent questions continue: such as what a university ought to be, what forms of research should be supported in a mass system, and how institutional accountability can be demonstrated. In differing ways and using a variety of research perspectives and methodologies, the contributors to this volume explore these and other questions of relevance to higher education today.

Like our page : using Facebook to support first year students in their transition to higher education

Facebook is approaching ubiquity in the social habits and practice of many students. However, its use in higher education has been criticised (Maranto & Barton, 2010) because it can remove or blur academic boundaries. Despite these concerns, there is strong potential to use Facebook to support new students to communicate and interact with each other (Cheung, Chiu, & Lee, 2010). This paper shows how Facebook can be used by teaching staff to communicate more effectively with students. Further, it shows how it can provide a way to represent and include beginning students’ thoughts, opinions and feedback as an element of the learning design and responsive feed-forward into lectures and tutorial activities. We demonstrate how an embedded social media strategy can be used to complement and enhance the first year curriculum experience by functioning as a transition device for student support and activating Kift’s (2009) organising principles for first year curriculum design.

Can Beijing become a global media capital?

The commercialization of Chinese media has taken place over the past two decades; it has become a significant force since 2001 when China joined the World Trade Organisation. With demand for original content increasing and China contemplating a cultural trade deficit in media content, there is much discussion of agglomeration and clustering. Beijing, as the national media centre of China, witnesses a process of media agglomeration while bearing the problem of cultural export during the media commercialization. Michael Curtin‟s idea of media capital, which absorbs media resources and personnel and exports media products transnationally, provides a dynamic perspective of understanding media agglomeration and dispersion under different political social and cultural circumstances. Hence the question whether Beijing is going to transform into a transnational media capital is worth studying, in order to observe and comprehend China‟s media industry in transition. Drawing on Michael Curtin‟s three media capital trajectories, the paper interprets tensions and challenges generated in the process of media industry agglomeration and growth in Beijing. Emphasis is placed on the third trajectory, socio-cultural variation.

Becoming professionals : partnerships reshaping preservice teachers’ transition to full-time teaching

While strengthened partnerships between University and Schools have been proposed in recent reviews of teacher education (House of Representative Standing Committee on Education and Vocational Training, 2007; Caldwell & Sutton, 2010; Donaldson, 2010), there is a need to understand the benefits and challenges for participants of these partnerships. The Teacher Education Centre of Excellence (TECE) in this study is a preservice teacher preparation partnership between a Queensland University, Queensland Department of Education, Training and Employment (DETE) and an Education Queensland school. It was established in response to a mandated reform within the Improving Teacher Quality National Partnership Agreement (Department of Education Employment and Workplace Relations, 2011). High-achieving Bachelor of Education preservice teachers apply to be part of the 18-month program in the third year of their four-year Education degree. These preservice teachers experience mentoring in partner schools in addition to course work designed and delivered by a DETE appointed Head of Mentoring and a university academic. On completion of the program, graduates will be appointed to South West Queensland rural and remote Education Queensland schools. This paper analyses participant perspectives from the first phase of this partnership in particular identifying the benefits and challenges experienced by the preservice teachers and the leaders of the program from the participating institutions. A sociocultural theoretical perspective (Wenger, 1998) informed the analysis examining how preservice teachers experience a sense of becoming a professional teacher within a specific employment context. Data from interviews with 6 pre-service teachers and 8 program leaders were analysed inductively through coding of interview records. Findings indicate the importance of strong relationships and opportunity for reciprocal learning through ongoing professional conversations as contexts for preservice teachers to develop an identity as an emerging professional. This research has significance for the ongoing development of this partnership as well as informing the principles for the design of future similar partnerships.

Moving beyond transition pedagogy: Maturity models and student engagement

Australian higher education institutions (HEIs) have entered a new phase of regulation and accreditation which includes performance-based funding relating to the participation and retention of students from social and cultural groups previously underrepresented in higher education. However, in addressing these priorities, it is critical that HEIs do not further disadvantage students from certain groups by identifying them for attention because of their social or cultural backgrounds, circumstances which are largely beyond the control of students. In response, many HEIs are focusing effort on university-wide approaches to enhancing the student experience because such approaches will enhance the engagement, success and retention of all students, and in doing so, particularly benefit those students who come from underrepresented groups. Measuring and benchmarking student experiences and engagement that arise from these efforts is well supported by extensive collections of student experience survey data. However no comparable instrument exists that measures the capability of institutions to influence and/or enhance student experiences where capability is an indication of how well an organisational process does what it is designed to do (Rosemann & de Bruin, 2005). This paper proposes that the concept of a maturity model (Marshall, 2010; Paulk, 1999) may be useful as a way of assessing the capability of HEIs to provide and implement student engagement, success and retention activities. We will describe the Student Engagement, Success and Retention Maturity Model (SESR-MM), (Clarke, Nelson & Stoodley, 2012; Nelson, Clarke & Stoodley, 2012) we are currently investigating. We will discuss if our research may address the current gap by facilitating the development of an SESR-MM instrument that aims (i) to enable institutions to assess the capability of their current student engagement and retention programs and strategies to influence and respond to student experiences within the institution; and (ii) to provide institutions with the opportunity to understand various practices across the sector with a view to further improving programs and practices relevant to their context. The first aim of our research is to extend the generational approach which has been useful in considering the evolutionary nature of the first year experience (FYE) (Wilson, 2009). Three generations have been identified and explored: First generation approaches that focus on co-curricular strategies (e.g. orientation and peer programs); Second generation approaches that focus on curriculum (e.g. pedagogy, curriculum design, and learning and teaching practice); and third generation approaches—also referred to as transition pedagogy—that focus on the production of an institution-wide integrated holistic intentional blend of curricular and co-curricular activities (Kift, Nelson & Clarke, 2010). The second aim of this research is to move beyond assessments of students’ experiences to focus on assessing institutional processes and their capability to influence student engagement. In essence, we propose to develop and use the maturity model concept to produce an instrument that will indicate the capability of HEIs to manage and improve student engagement, success and retention programs and strategies. References Australian Council for Educational Research. (n.d.). Australasian Survey of Student Engagement. Retrieved from http://www.acer.edu.au/research/ausse/background Clarke, J., Nelson, K., & Stoodley, I. (2012, July). The Maturity Model concept as framework for assessing the capability of higher education institutions to address student engagement, success and retention: New horizon or false dawn? A Nuts & Bolts presentation at the 15th International Conference on the First Year in Higher Education, “New Horizons,” Brisbane, Australia. Kift, S., Nelson, K., & Clarke, J. (2010) Transition pedagogy - a third generation approach to FYE: A case study of policy and practice for the higher education sector. The International Journal of the First Year in Higher Education, 1(1), pp. 1-20. Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations. (n.d.). The University Experience Survey. Advancing quality in higher education information sheet. Retrieved from http://www.deewr.gov.au/HigherEducation/Policy/Documents/University_Experience_Survey.pdf Marshall, S. (2010). A quality framework for continuous improvement of e-Learning: The e-Learning Maturity Model. Journal of Distance Education, 24(1), 143-166. Nelson, K., Clarke, J., & Stoodley, I. (2012). An exploration of the Maturity Model concept as a vehicle for higher education institutions to assess their capability to address student engagement. A work in progress. Submitted for publication. Paulk, M. (1999). Using the Software CMM with good judgment, ASQ Software Quality Professional, 1(3), 19-29. Wilson, K. (2009, June–July). The impact of institutional, programmatic and personal interventions on an effective and sustainable first-year student experience. Keynote address presented at the 12th Pacific Rim First Year in Higher Education Conference, “Preparing for Tomorrow Today: The First Year as Foundation,” Townsville, Australia. Retrieved from http://www.fyhe.com.au/past_papers/papers09/ppts/Keithia_Wilson_paper.pdf

Stable strong order 1.0 schemes for solving stochastic ordinary differential equations

The Balanced method was introduced as a class of quasi-implicit methods, based upon the Euler-Maruyama scheme, for solving stiff stochastic differential equations. We extend the Balanced method to introduce a class of stable strong order 1. 0 numerical schemes for solving stochastic ordinary differential equations. We derive convergence results for this class of numerical schemes. We illustrate the asymptotic stability of this class of schemes is illustrated and is compared with contemporary schemes of strong order 1. 0. We present some evidence on parametric selection with respect to minimising the error convergence terms. Furthermore we provide a convergence result for general Balanced style schemes of higher orders.