Title: Hope in Day to Day Living of Residents in Long-term Care

Authors: Moore, Sharon

Abstract: A project designed to focus on hope for residents was implemented in an ongoing support group in a long-term care facility in Western Canada. Because seniors frequently enter a care center when there has been a decline in function it is imperative to provide the necessary resources to enable them to maintain as much functional status as possible and to ensure an adequate quality of life. Hope is about envisioning a future in which they would be willing to participate, even in the face of adverse circumstances. With hope they are more willing to try things and risk participating in the programs offered. Without it they feel at the mercy of circumstances and can slip into depression. This project was implemented based on the belief that hope is a necessary element for seniors to achieve and maintain a good quality of life. An eight session pilot project (offered twice monthly) was delivered to residents who were members of an already existing small group. Each session focused intentionally on strategies that were designed to enhance hope. During the group sessions, residents explored their own understanding and conceptions of hope and participated in activities designed to foster hope. Residents were interviewed prior to and after the completion of the eight sessions regarding their understandings of hope and how the sessions impacted them. Hope focused strategies that were used will be presented. Since this project will be implemented during the winter of 2012 (February-May), preliminary findings will be presented.

Description: In May/June 2012, I had the wonderful opportunity to attend the IFA 11th Global Conference on Ageing, entitled ‘Ageing Connects’. As noted on the IFA website “it is taking place during the greatest demographic upheaval in the world’s history – the juncture between globalisation, urbanisation and population ageing. In the twenty years since the first IFA conference in India in 1992, the average life expectancy in the Czech Republic has increased by nearly 7% with a corresponding improvement in health status of older people in this region. Notwithstanding these improvements, today there are now more people globally living in poverty; family caregivers are an essential and expected partner in the health care system; and workforce trends across generations are volatile, as are the debates around social pensions and financial protection Despite the growing understanding of the role older people play in the day-to-day life of communities and society – even in the gravest times of natural and man-made disasters – there is a lingering and pervasive stigma toward older people which often results in a violation of their rights. This may also be marked by the lack of sound and proactive government policies and limited evaluation of promising programs. Furthermore there is a paucity of mechanisms to exchange information and learn from one another to the extent that we are able to help shape and influence future policy with the legitimate engagement of older people. Through the conference program the protection of human rights was expressed as the fundamental prerequisite to an effective response to population ageing. Equally critical is the recognition of important contributions older people make to the broader social and economic productivity of a nation. “Ageing Connects” provided an opportunity for the development and strengthening of powerful alliances” as academics, researchers and practitioners gathered together from across the world to share knowledge, expertise and to learn from each other.

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It's not only what we say but what we do”: Researching the rationales for the establishment of pay in five mixed sex, democratic worker cooperatives in Buenos Aires, Argentina

March 7, 2013, 9:02 am

≫ Next: Keeping clients safe on the night shift

≪ Previous: Hope in Day to Day Living of Residents in Long-term Care

Title: It's not only what we say but what we do”: Researching the rationales for the establishment of pay in five mixed sex, democratic worker cooperatives in Buenos Aires, Argentina

Authors: Oseen, Collette

Abstract: As I explored in my previous SSHRC* funded research in 2006, worker cooperatives are based on the ideals of democratic participation and of egalitarianism: in general assemblies all the workers vote on the general principles under which the worker cooperatives are run, vote in [and out] their coordinators or managers and executive, and vote on capital and wage expenditures. However, what the research on worker cooperatives does not confront is how those ideals, and particularly these ideals of egalitarianism, can be subverted without careful attention to patriarchy, specifically as patriarchy circulates in rationales for pay. The purpose of this follow up project and this subsequent paper is to detail the impact of these rationales for pay on five mixed sex worker coops in Buenos Aires and their commitment to egalitarian relations between women and men: my main objective in this paper will be to explore whether the rhetoric of egalitarianism continues to match the reality of pay. My specific objectives in this paper will be to analyse which rationales are used to justify equal pay between women and men; or conversely, which are used to justify unequal pay. This is to provide for others who are working within worker cooperatives an opportunity to learn what might work for them, given that they want to accomplish more egalitarian relations between women and men, pay as a tangible expression of that. It is also to provide other more conventional organizations an opportunity to use this information to analyse the rationales for pay, and then to construct more equal pay regimes. Pay rates between women and men and their rationales remain a problem even in the conventional academic literature, which continues to allude to the problems of analysing why women and men continue to be paid differently, the difficulty in analysing the rationales, and the difficulties of paying more equally. This research on the rationales for pay in alternative modes of working like worker cooperatives ostensibly committed to egalitarian forms of organizing is shaped by my adherence to the legacies of Freud and Marx as they inform the work of the contemporary French philosopher Luce Irigaray [1993,a,b; 2000, 2004] and her work on rethinking our hierarchical symbolic structures as contiguous in order to make a place for sexual difference next to sexual difference, difference next to difference, rather than difference as necessarily lesser than the same or the norm [which in almost all of our organizational theory is in reality the unacknowledged male who masquerades as the same or the norm against which the different is always found to be lesser]. The uniqueness of this approach lies in my focus, informed by Irigaray, on how these rationales can be understood in terms of their expression of egalitarianism as contiguous, and the tangible expression of contiguity as paying every member, women and men, the same, or contiguous forms of organizing given tangible expression in equal pay between women and men.

Description: As I explored in my previous SSHRC* funded research in 2006, worker egalitcooperatives are based on the ideals of democratic participation and of egalitarianism: in general assemblies all the workers vote on the general principles under which the worker cooperatives are run, vote in [and out] their coordinators or managers and executive, and vote on capital and wage expenditures. However, what the research on worker cooperatives does not confront is how those ideals, and particularly these ideals of egalitarianism, can be subverted without careful attention to patriarchy, specifically as patriarchy circulates in rationales for pay. The purpose of this follow up project and this subsequent paper is to detail the impact of these rationales for pay on five mixed sex worker coops in Buenos Aires and their commitment to egalitarian relations between women and men: my main objective in this paper will be to explore whether the rhetoric of egalitarianism continues to match the reality of pay.

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Keeping clients safe on the night shift

October 29, 2012, 3:58 pm

≫ Next: Digital resilience in higher education

≪ Previous: It's not only what we say but what we do”: Researching the rationales for the establishment of pay in five mixed sex, democratic worker cooperatives in Buenos Aires, Argentina

Title: Keeping clients safe on the night shift

Authors: Gordon, Kathryn; Melrose, Sherri

Abstract: The night shift admission checklist helps night nurses to maintain a culture of safety when admitting a person to an inpatient mental health unit. Mental health symptoms can be pronounced on admission but, on night shift, nurses seldom have the opportunity to seek direction from experienced mental health practitioners. Routine safeguards are often adapted at night to promote clients' sleep. Documentation to assess clients' risks for self-harm, violence, comorbid medical conditions and prescribed medications may not be complete, although these are essential to maintain the person's safety on the unit. Although each hospital will have individual admission policies, the checklist can be adapted to include these. This article discusses safety issues at night and presents a checklist designed to promote safe care during night-time admission.

Description: The articles can be accessed by using the links below.

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Digital resilience in higher education

March 21, 2013, 11:53 am

≫ Next: Barriers to Participation: A Research Report

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Title: Digital resilience in higher education

Authors: Weller, M.; Anderson, T.

Abstract: Higher education institutions face a number of opportunities and challenges as the result of the digital revolution. The institutions perform a number of scholarship functions which can be affected by new technologies, and the desire is to retain these functions where appropriate, whilst the form they take may change. Much of the reaction to technological change comes from those with a vested interest in either wholesale change or maintaining the status quo. Taking the resilience metaphor from ecology, the authors propose a framework for analysing an institution’s ability to adapt to digital challenges. This framework is examined at two institutions (the UK Open University and Canada’s Athabasca University) using two current digital challenges, namely Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) and Open Access publishing.

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Barriers to Participation: A Research Report

March 27, 2013, 8:16 am

≫ Next: Mapping the Social Economy in British Columbia and Alberta: Final Report

≪ Previous: Digital resilience in higher education

Title: Barriers to Participation: A Research Report

Authors: Marois, Juanita; Gismondi, Mike

Abstract: To initiate the Unleashing Local Capital program, the Alberta Community and Cooperative Association, along with its project partners held a series of information sessions introducing the concept of local investment co-ops to communities throughout the province. Community members were then invited to apply to the program and develop an "Opportunity Development Co-op" within their own communities. The ULC project team provided a $60,000 grant and mentoring to communities. This research piece spoke to members of the communities who attended the information sessions and then chose NOT to apply. The purpose was to identify the barriers to participation with the goal of removing these for future communities.

Description: This is a action research report completed for the purpose of program enhancement of the Unleashing Local Capital project in Alberta. The project is funded by the Rural Alberta Development Fund and administered through the Alberta Community and Cooperatives Association along with project partners, Athabasca University, Community Futures, Conseil de developpement economique de l'Alberta, Alberta Rural Development Network, and University of Alberta's School of Family Business

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Mapping the Social Economy in British Columbia and Alberta: Final Report

April 10, 2013, 2:59 pm

≫ Next: Relocation stress in long term care: How staff can help

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Title: Mapping the Social Economy in British Columbia and Alberta: Final Report

Authors: Gismondi, Mike; Marois, Juanita; Ross, Lynda; Affolderbach, Julia; Soots, Lena; Smith, Ashley

Abstract: This report begins to paint an interesting portrait of the social economy in BC and Alberta. It was created through the BC-Alberta Social Economy Research Alliance (BALTA). This alliance was initially started as a 5 year project in March 2006 funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, and then later extended to 2012. The purpose of this alliance was to build a better understanding of the social economy sector in Alberta and BC. The Mapping and Portraiture team, in particular, implemented a survey to better describe the size and scope of the social economy in these provinces. Development of the mapping program began in September 2006, and the survey was launched in January 2008. This report is the culmination of that work.

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Relocation stress in long term care: How staff can help

October 29, 2012, 3:58 pm

≫ Next: Developmental disabilities co-occurring with Mental illness

≪ Previous: Mapping the Social Economy in British Columbia and Alberta: Final Report

Title: Relocation stress in long term care: How staff can help

Authors: Melrose, Sherri

Abstract: Relocating can be stressful and even traumatic for older adults, particularly when the relocation is involuntary. Reports that relocating older people is detrimental to their wellbeing, health and survival are well documented (Holder and Jolley, 2012). For over two decades, relocation stress, previously known as Relocation Stress Syndrome, has been recognized as a real and approved nursing diagnosis (Morse, 2000; NANDA, 1992). And yet, supporting residents through the stress and trauma of relocating remains a challenge. This article defines relocation stress and suggests that gathering resources, extending a minimum four month welcome, and celebrating contentment can help.

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Developmental disabilities co-occurring with Mental illness

October 29, 2012, 3:58 pm

≫ Next: Asynchronous online peer assistance: Telephone messages of encouragement in post licensure nursing programs

≪ Previous: Relocation stress in long term care: How staff can help

Title: Developmental disabilities co-occurring with Mental illness

Authors: Melrose, Sherri

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Asynchronous online peer assistance: Telephone messages of encouragement in post licensure nursing programs

October 29, 2012, 3:58 pm

≫ Next: Uses of published research: An exploratory case study

≪ Previous: Developmental disabilities co-occurring with Mental illness

Title: Asynchronous online peer assistance: Telephone messages of encouragement in post licensure nursing programs

Authors: Melrose, Sherri; Swettenham, Steve

Abstract: Peer assistance activities can strengthen online learning environments. And yet, like other professional adult learners, working post licensure nurses attending university part time to upgrade their credentials may have limited interest in student-to-student interaction. Some intentionally choose asynchronous self-paced courses so they can work on their own. This Telephone Messages of Encouragement educational innovation illustrates a peer assistance activity suitable for asynchronous courses in both undergraduate and graduate programs. Students’ recorded messages of encouragement to their peers are collected on a telephone answering machine as MP 3 files and then embedded in courses. The activity provides an option for students to ‘hear’ from other students at any time.

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Uses of published research: An exploratory case study

December 29, 2012, 2:58 pm

≫ Next: Findings from a survey of openness in assessment and accreditation practices in post-secondary institutions

≪ Previous: Asynchronous online peer assistance: Telephone messages of encouragement in post licensure nursing programs

Title: Uses of published research: An exploratory case study

Authors: Fahy, P. J.

Abstract: Academic publications are too often ignored by other researchers. There are various reasons: researchers know that conclusions may eventually be proved wrong; publications are sometimes retracted; effects may decline when studied later; researchers occasionally don’t seem to know about papers they have allegedly authored; there are even accusations of fraud (Cohen, 2011). In this exploratory case study, ten papers were examined to determine the various ways they were used by others, whether there were cases of reported effects declining, and whether, among those who referenced the papers, there were suggestions that anything in the papers ought to be retracted. Findings showed that all the papers had been referenced by others (337 user publications were found, containing a total of 868 references). Other findings: single references were far more common than multiple references; applications/replications were the least common type of usage (23 occurrences), followed by contrasts/elaborations (34), and quotations (65); unlike reports regarding publications in the sciences, whether the paper was solo- or co-authored did not affect usage; appearance in a non-prestige journal was actually associated with more usage of some kinds; and well over eighty percent of uses were in heavily scrutinized sources (journal articles, or theses/dissertations). The paper concludes with recommendations to writers about how to avoid producing publications that are ignored.

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Findings from a survey of openness in assessment and accreditation practices in post-secondary institutions

June 7, 2013, 9:20 am

≫ Next: NEXT GENERATION: TRANSFORMATION TO A 21ST CENTURY UNIVERSITY VIA CORE STRATEGIC PROJECTS

≪ Previous: Uses of published research: An exploratory case study

Title: Findings from a survey of openness in assessment and accreditation practices in post-secondary institutions

Authors: Murphy, Angela; Witthaus, Gabriele

Abstract: This working paper shares the findings and lessons learned from a small-scale survey on perceptions, practices and policies relating to openness in assessment and accreditation in post-secondary institutions. The study was carried out jointly in mid-2012 by Dr Angela Murphy at the University of Southern Queensland (USQ), Australia, as part of the ORION project, and Gabi Witthaus at the University of Leicester as part of the TOUCANS study, which was a project in the SCORE programme in the UK. One of the aims of both projects was to ascertain perceptions of stakeholders in tertiary education towards the Open Educational Resources university (OERu) concept. The OERu is a global consortium of post-secondary institutions collaborating around the assessment and accreditation of learners’ achievements based on the study of OERs, with the aim of providing affordable opportunities on a massive scale for students who lack the financial means to access traditional higher education.

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NEXT GENERATION: TRANSFORMATION TO A 21ST CENTURY UNIVERSITY VIA CORE STRATEGIC PROJECTS

July 9, 2012, 3:58 pm

≫ Next: The Cento, Romanticism, and Copyright

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Title: NEXT GENERATION: TRANSFORMATION TO A 21ST CENTURY UNIVERSITY VIA CORE STRATEGIC PROJECTS

Authors: Kennepohl, Dietmar; McGreal, Rory; Ives, Cindy; Stewart, Brian

Abstract: thabasca University (AU) is recreating itself as a 21st century university. As an open and distance learning (ODL) university, its mandate is to remove barriers to university-level education. This is the vision and institutional context for any changes. Herein, we describe a series of projects with particular focus on two recent major initiatives that challenged our capacity to deal with large complex programs. An analysis of the effect of the start-up and operation of these two major programs with particular emphasis on project management, organizational change, acceptance by the academy, and absorbing the additional work is given. We offer, in the form of lessons learned, our experience for successful systematic integration of ICTs within an open university. These lessons, we believe are relevant for technology integration at any large educational organization.

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The Cento, Romanticism, and Copyright

October 29, 2012, 3:58 pm

≫ Next: Online Interest Groups: Virtual Gathering Spaces to Promote Graduate Student Interaction

≪ Previous: NEXT GENERATION: TRANSFORMATION TO A 21ST CENTURY UNIVERSITY VIA CORE STRATEGIC PROJECTS

Title: The Cento, Romanticism, and Copyright

Authors: McCutcheon, Mark A.

Abstract: This article excavates the obscure literary genre of the cento – a genre of poetry defined by its wholly derivative composition from quotations of other works – and its supplementary relation to Romantic literature and the period’s transformations of copyright regulation. The cento’s Romantic reworkings position this genre as a precedent for later appropriation art, especially digital culture’s sampling and remix practices. Specific uses of the cento form by the essayist William Hazlitt and the poet William Wordsworth suggest precedents in the period’s culture of literary production for fair dealing, the “user’s right” to the limited appropriation of copyrighted works that has more recently become ensconced in copyright law. By investigating the place of the cento in Romantic literary production, this study argues for the importance of fair dealing to both creative and critical forms of writing, and contributes historical context to the present-day “copyfight.” This reprint of "The Cento, Romanticism, and Copyright" is made available for Open Access distribution with the author's grateful acknowledgement of English Studies in Canada (ESC) for the original publication of the article.

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Online Interest Groups: Virtual Gathering Spaces to Promote Graduate Student Interaction

October 29, 2011, 3:58 pm

≫ Next: Sharpest Knives in the Drawer: Culture at the Intersection of Oil and State

≪ Previous: The Cento, Romanticism, and Copyright

Title: Online Interest Groups: Virtual Gathering Spaces to Promote Graduate Student Interaction

Authors: Getzlaf, Beverley; Melrose, Sherri; Moore, Sharon L.; Ewing, Helen; Fedorchuk, James; Troute-Wood, Tammy

Abstract: This article discusses a 15 month educational innovation project, the objective of which was to investigate the perceptions of health profession students about their participation in a program-wide virtual community gathering space (Clinical Interest Groups) during their online graduate studies. Participants were students in two graduate programs who joined online forum discussions of the Clinical Interest Groups. The project was developed as action research and employed an exploratory, descriptive methodology to generate data from three sources: participant responses to a 15-item Likert type questionnaire, five open-ended questions included on the questionnaire, and online postings contributed by participants to the forum discussions. Findings of use to online educators are that the Clinical Interest Groups provided a gathering place in which graduate students could discuss common interests and support one another, and that participation in the groups was limited due to competing demands on students’ time from other commitments.

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Sharpest Knives in the Drawer: Culture at the Intersection of Oil and State

July 9, 2013, 1:49 pm

≫ Next: N/A

≪ Previous: Online Interest Groups: Virtual Gathering Spaces to Promote Graduate Student Interaction

Title: Sharpest Knives in the Drawer: Culture at the Intersection of Oil and State

Authors: Wall, Karen

Abstract: The infusion of the petroleum industry into the social and cultural imaginary goes deep in Alberta, where the oil economy and provincial governments have together shaped discourses of prosperity, identity and citizenship for generations. Cultural production and consumption is deeply implicated in these processes, and art has been instrumental as well as oppositional in the shaping of meanings around environment, natural resources, and extractive industries. This paper considers the potentially paradoxical role of the visual arts in practices of democratic dissent and social change in the context of oil capitalism.

Description: The paper presented, “’Sharpest Knives in the Drawer’: Culture at the Intersection of Oil and State”, is an expanded version of a chapter written for a book collection on Oil and Democracy currently under review with AUP (Eds. L Stefanick and M. Shrivasteva). The presentation also drew on previous work in the area of Alberta cultural history, and visual arts in particular. The text was supplemented for the presentation with slides of historical and contemporary works created with the oil industry as subject matter and as context of production. Compilation of this visual presentation helped to develop some of the ideas behind the theoretical framework and supplemented discussion to expand upon ideas. These ideas will be developed further in subsequent work on the topic. Conference participation was valuable in allowing new perspectives on the theme of the panel and on my own paper from an audience composed mainly of political scientists, which is not usually a primary area of my own research. Two of the audience members also approached me later with instances of oil industry visual culture that they had collected or remarked upon, which I will acquire for my project.

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N/A

July 10, 2013, 7:44 am

≫ Next: N/A

≪ Previous: Sharpest Knives in the Drawer: Culture at the Intersection of Oil and State

Title: N/A

Authors: Fabbro, Mark

Abstract: “Collaborating Towards a Global Community: Bridges to the Future” Workshops and sessions at the AACRAO Annual Meeting will demonstrate the development and implementation of a vision that guides decision makers toward student and institutional success. Attend the Annual Meeting and invest in your professional development, your students and institution, and the future of higher education.

Description: This conference was very informative, and although focused principally on admissions and registration functions and related tasks, future attendance could be of benefit to AU staff in other areas of the University given the wide array of session topics offered. Although I am not engaged in formal research, the information, tools, and ideas provided through the conference will allow me to more effectively fulfill my current and future responsibilities at AU – that’s why I attend AACRAO regularly.

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