1,721,047 research outputs found
Examination of socio-demographics and job satisfaction in Australian registered nurses
No full textAims and Objectives\ud
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To examine relationships between socio-demographic factors and job satisfaction and to identify if these factors predict job satisfaction levels in an Australian registered nurses.\ud
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Background\ud
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Reports indicate that in Australia there are 30,000 qualified nurses no longer working in the healthcare and that current nursing shortages vary as a result of certain socio-demographic variables including type of nurse, geographic, location, sector, service and organisation. Furthermore it has been revealed that there is not only a real shortage but also a pseudo-shortage (i.e. either there are not enough nurses are available, or not enough are willing to work under existing workplace conditions). International studies have found significant relationships exist between some socio-demographic factors and job satisfaction in registered nurses however there is limited information available on relationships between socio-demographic factors and job satisfaction in nurses in the Australian context.\ud
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Design\ud
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A cross sectional survey was undertaken of Australian registered nurses. \ud
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Methods\ud
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Two thousand Australian registered nurses who were members of an industrial and professional organisation were sent the questionnaire in 2008. They were stratified and randomised according to gender. Six hundred and thirty-nine registered nurses responded. Descriptive analyses, correlation analyses, one- way ANOVA tests, simple linear regression and multivariable analyses were conducted to examine further if any relationships existed between the variables.\ud
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Results\ud
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The majority of respondents showed positive job satisfaction scores. An ANOVA found significant positive relationships existed between job satisfaction, specialty area, health sector and Australian states. Multivariable analyses found relationships existed between specialty area, health sector, and job satisfaction. \ud
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Conclusions\ud
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The variables specialty area and health sector were found to be significantly associated with job satisfaction. The different specialty areas and health sectors in relation to job satisfaction should be investigated further.\ud
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Clinical Relevance\ud
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The study results have provided new knowledge for policy makers, organisational and nursing leaders of the socio-demographic variables that may affect job satisfaction in registered nurses in the Australian context
Validity and reliability of instruments designed to measure factors influencing the overuse of antibiotics
No full textBackground: Antibiotic overuse is a global public health issue that is influenced by several factors. The degree and prevalence of antibiotic overuse is difficult to measure directly. A more practical approach, such as the use of a psycho-social measurement instrument, might allow for the observation and assessment of patterns of antibiotic use. \ud
Study objective: The aim of this paper is to review the nature, validity, and reliability of measurement scales designed to measure factors associated with antibiotic misuse/overuse. \ud
Design: This study is descriptive and includes a systematic integration of the measurement scales used in the literature to measure factors associated with antibiotic misuse/overuse. The review included 70 international scientific publications from 1992 to 2010. \ud
Main results: Studies have presented scales to measure antibiotic misuse. However, the workup of these instruments is often not mentioned, or the scales are used with only early-phase validation, such as content or face validity. Other studies have discussed the reliability of these scales. However, the full validation process has not been discussed in any of the reviewed measurement scales. \ud
Conclusion: A reliable, fully validated measurement scale must be developed to assess the factors associated with the overuse of antibiotics. Identifying these factors will help to minimize the misuse of antibiotics
The University Stress Scale: Measuring Domains and Extent of Stress in University Students
No full textObjective\ud
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Excessive stress and poor coping skills can put university students at risk for mental health problems. The University Stress Scale (USS) provides a measure of both the categories of stress experienced by university students as well as the overall intensity of the stress experienced.\ud
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Methods\ud
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This study evaluated the psychometric properties of the USS and its clinical utility. Participants were a convenience cross-sectional sample of 2,596 Australian university students.\ud
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Results\ud
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Exploratory factor analysis provided support for a six-factor model comprising the categories of academic, relationships, equity, parenting, practical, and health. This structure was confirmed using confirmatory factor analysis. The measure had good discriminant and convergent validity and good internal consistency. A cut-off of 13 on the USS indicates students most likely to be experiencing depression and anxiety symptoms as a result of excessive stress. This study used a broad sample of Australian students; however, further replication is needed to confirm the utility of the measure for students in other countries.\ud
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Conclusions\ud
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The total stress score and the categorical breakdown of stressors makes the USS a useful, brief screening measure for clinicians working with university students
A comparison of two methods for generating artificial multi-assemblage ecological datasets
No full textSimulated ecological datasets have been widely used to assess the ability of ordination techniques to portray patterns in ecological assemblage data. Such datasets typically contain a single assemblage sampled over an environmental gradient or set of gradients. Little has been done on the generation of artificial datasets that contain a number of different species assemblages, to aid in the evaluation of multivariate techniques that test for differences between assemblages of species. This paper describes and compares two simulation methods that generate ecologically realistic artificial multi-assemblage datasets. Both methods provide multivariate data (e.g. species abundances) for replicate sites within discretely different assemblages. The first technique is a coenocline model based on species' responses to variation modeled by a five-parameter ߭function, where variation in species abundances both within and between assemblages is governed by differences in the positions of sites and assemblages along environmental gradients. The second technique, the resampling method, involves bootstrap resampling of real assemblage datasets, with the addition of selected types of controlled differences between assemblages. Here we use it to generate turnover in species composition. We calibrate both simulation methods based on a field assemblage of bird species. The two different simulation methods portray different levels and types of between-assemblage variation. The resampling method allows greater control over some aspects of assemblage difference (e.g. independently varying differences in species richness and compositional turnover) than the coenocline method. Both can generate usable replicated simulated datasets for assessing the ability of multivariate tests to detect ecological variation among assemblages.No Full Tex
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Get PDF“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Get PDFWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Get PDFWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
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