Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'User and staff experiences'
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1
Baker, Stephanie. "Staff and service user experiences of forensic mental health services." Thesis, University of Warwick, 2017. http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/90135/.
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This thesis consists of three chapters. Chapter one is a systematic review of the qualitative literature examining the experiences of clinicians working in mental health services with forensic service users (FSU). Following systematic searches and a process of quality assessment, a total of 14 articles were included and their findings were systematically compared. Staff members experienced both positive and negative emotional responses to their work, there are conflicting aspects to their role and additional challenges within the organisational context. Implications for clinical practice and further research are discussed. Chapter two uses Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) to consider the experiences of FSUs diagnosed with Personality Disorder (PD) in Forensic Services and the meaning given to recovery within their accounts. The findings discuss the disempowered position of FSU participants and suggest that feeling safe within relationships in their environment is important for those with this diagnosis. There was evidence in their accounts of attempts to establish new identities but there also appeared to be multiple barriers to this. Chapter three offers a reflective account of the researcher’s experience of carrying out this study. It demonstrates the reflexive strategies used that allowed the competing subjective roles alongside that of ‘researcher’, to be examined and their influence on the research process explored.
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Duffy, Megan. "Service user and staff experiences of the therapeutic relationship after physical restraint in a secure hospital." Thesis, Cardiff University, 2017. http://orca.cf.ac.uk/100057/.
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The therapeutic relationship is the relationship between service users and staff, based on collaboratively working towards the service users’ goals. Within a secure hospital environment, staff sometimes have to physically restrain service users, as a last resort to manage risk. The aim of this research was to explore both service user and staff perspectives of the therapeutic relationship after physical restraint in a secure hospital environment. This was investigated in an independent sector medium-low secure hospital in Wales. Ten semi structured interviews were conducted with five service users and five staff members; all of whom had been involved in at least one incident of physical restraint. These participants described their experiences of therapeutic relationships with those that they had been involved in a physical restraint with. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis was used to separately analyse the service user and staff member data. Four master themes emerged from the service user experiences: changes to the therapeutic relationship; appraisal of the necessity of physical restraint; emotional impact; and dependency and power. A further three master themes emerged from the staff member experiences: personal impact; conflicting professional roles and responsibilities; and making sense of the physical restraint. These findings are discussed in relation to implications for secure hospital services and recommendations for future research are outlined.
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Rendleman, Connie Jean. "Experiences and Perceptions of Staff Providing Substance Use Disorder Treatment for Adolescents." ScholarWorks, 2019. https://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/dissertations/7069.
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Substance Use Disorder (SUD) is associated with high mortality rates and remains a
public health concern in the United States. Although, numerous interventions are offered
for adolescents struggling with substance misuse, minimal research is available on the
effectiveness of treatments to reduce recidivism. Researching the most effective
treatment offered to adolescents is crucial to treatment adherence and recovery. The
purpose of this study is to determine the most effective SUD treatment for adolescent
patients by exploring the perceptions and experiences of treatment therapists providing
treatment. The trans-theoretical model was used with elements of the social cognitive
theory as a guide to, adolescent placement in treatment programs and behavior changes.
Twenty-three treatment therapists at Community Mental Health Centers from 23 counties
in the State of Indiana were interviewed using the Colaizzi phenomenological
methodological approach to obtain verification, validation, and validity for this study.
Results suggested that assertive post-discharge plans after SUD treatment, motivational
interviewing, cognitive-behavioral therapy, higher power faith for strength, and family
involvement was evidence of effectiveness. Seven themes emerged from 225 significant
statements. Among the dominant themes were understanding of SUD as a disease and the
importance of family involvement in the treatment process. The study findings have the
potential for positive social change to address the stigma of stereotyping of SUD through
educational campaigns.
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Taylor, Vikki. "An exploration into service users' and staff experiences of a medium secure setting." Thesis, Canterbury Christ Church University, 2016. http://create.canterbury.ac.uk/15019/.
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Despite a growing literature base related to both compassionate care and work-related stress in healthcare settings, there is a lack of empirical studies investigating the relationship between these concepts, particularly in medium secure settings. This mixed methods study explored the relationship between compassion (The Compassion Scale) and work-related stress (The HSE Management Standards Toolkit) from the self-report of 51 members of staff in a medium secure setting, including semi-structured interviews with 12 participants. On the quantitative measures, the relationship between self-reported compassion and work-related stress on the quantitative measures was found to be statistically non-significant. However, elements of compassion were found to significantly predict subscales of work-related stress such that high levels of elements of compassion were found to predict higher levels of subscales of work-related stress. Participants constructed several meanings of compassion and its role in the care of the patients they worked with. Several consequences of occupational demands were cited including an increase in work-related stress and less time to build therapeutic relationships or to develop compassion towards patients. The findings of this study can be used to inform the development of staff interventions. Increased consistency of staff groups, increased debriefing opportunities and a review of paperwork responsibilities within staff teams have also been recommended.
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Bacha, Karin. ""Like a human being, I was an equal, I wasn't just a patient" : service users' perspectives on their experiences of relationships with staff in mental health services." Thesis, University of Manchester, 2017. https://www.research.manchester.ac.uk/portal/en/theses/like-a-human-being-i-was-an-equal-i-wasnt-just-a-patient-service-users-perspectives-on-their-experiences-of-relationships-with-staff-in-mental-health-services(97a0f8ce-ddf6-4ffa-9e11-0913fadcc53b).html.
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Background: Therapeutic relationships in psychiatry services have been shown to have a significant impact on outcomes for people in severe mental distress. Service user experience-based studies consistently show relationships are an important factor in either helping or hindering recovery. Few studies have conducted a detailed exploration into the interpersonal mechanisms within these relationships by asking service users directly about what emotional impact these relationships have had on them. This is important knowledge for improving the quality of mental healthcare for people in severe mental distress. Aims: The purpose was to co-create a piece of research with a service user organisation that explored services users' experiences and perceptions of helpful and hindering relationships with mental health practitioners. The aim was to gain a greater understanding of the components in the relationship that brought about psychological change. Little research about relationships in psychiatry settings has been conducted in collaboration with service users outside of government-led mental health services. Participants: Eight participants were recruited from the service user organisation. The participants self-reported as having a mental health problem. Seven of the eight participants had long-term experience of using psychiatry services. Method: This research was service user-informed. The data was collected using single in-depth interviews focused on service users' views of their relationships with mental health practitioners. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) methodology was used to analyse the data and explore the participants' lived experiences of relationships in mental health services. Findings: The main themes identified were 'Trying to survive: am I a person or just an object in the system', 'Traumatic experiences and relationships' and 'Transformative relationships'. The findings showed the transformative components of these relationships were power, security and identity. The findings highlighted how the participants experienced a relationship to the system of psychiatry through their relationships with staff. Conclusions: How the components of power, security and identity were managed by practitioners determined whether relationships helped or hindered recovery. The responsibility for relationships in psychiatry needs to be broadened beyond the interpersonal relationship provided by practitioners. The systemic institution of psychiatry based on statutory control, risk aversion, the biomedical model and under resourcing were a cause of many of the problems in relationships in psychiatry settings.
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Burchett, Nicole. "Receiving a mental health diagnosis : an exploration of service users' experiences and staff responses to emergent themes." Thesis, Cardiff Metropolitan University, 2018. http://hdl.handle.net/10369/9916.
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In recent years, the personal and financial cost of mental illness has gained attention in the UK. Research indicates mental illness will affect one in four of the population at some point in their lives. This statistic is recognised in the increasing pressure on mental health services, which have historically been underfunded. Rhetoric surrounding the lack of investment, has led to a drive to ensure parity of esteem between physical and mental health services. To achieve full parity, it is essential this translates into the field of research. Although literature on mental illness is vast, the specific experience of receiving a mental health diagnosis has received little attention. This is an area of importance as it is an experience that can change people’s lives and impact on their identity. The current research, based in South Wales, gave voice to both service users and staff. Therefore it contributes to the knowledge base on the experience of receiving a diagnosis from two perspectives. This is achieved through the implementation of a novel concurrent multi-method design that incorporates a Research Advisory Panel of people with lived experience of mental illness. In-depth interviews and Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis were used to capture the experience of the service user (Study 1). Emergent themes from this analysis were taken to staff focus groups and Thematic Analysis was conducted (Study 2). Study 1 findings evidenced the ‘bitter sweet’ nature of receiving a diagnosis, where support could be accessed but diagnosis did not mean cure and was accompanied by stigma. Study 2 indicated staff were aware of the service users’ journey, however they highlight the problems in the healthcare system that led to difficulties in fulfilling their roles and supporting recovery. Synthesising these two sets of findings resulted in ‘Recommendations for practice’ which emphasised: the importance of the relationship between the service user and staff, the opportunity at diagnosis to positively ‘frame’ new knowledge and the need for a community approach to mental illness.
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Chen, Charlie Ting. "Exploring University Faculty and Staff Member Alcohol Use as it Relates to Leadership Style and Burnout Experiences." Miami University / OhioLINK, 2018. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=miami1543873234762976.
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Hadziabdic, Emina. "The use of interpreter in healthcare : Perspectives of individuals, healthcare staff and families." Doctoral thesis, Linnéuniversitetet, Institutionen för hälso- och vårdvetenskap, HV, 2011. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:lnu:diva-14418.
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This thesis focuses on the use of interpreters in Swedish healthcare. The overall aim was to explore how individuals, healthcare professionals and family members experience and perceive the use of interpreters in healthcare. The study design was explorative and descriptive. The thesis included Serbo-Croatian(Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian)speaking individuals(n=17), healthcare professionals(n=24), official documents(n=60)and family members(n=10)of individuals using interpreters in healthcare. Individual interviews, written descriptions, review of official documents in the form of incident reports from a single case study and focus group interviews were used to collect data. Data were analyzed using phenomenography, qualitative content analysis and qualitative data analysis of focus group interviews. The overall finding from all perspectives was the wish to have a qualified interpreter whose role was as a communication aid but also as a practical and informative guide in healthcare. The perception of a qualified interpreter was someone highly skilled in medical terminology, Swedish and individuals’ native language with ability to adapt to different dialects, wearing non-provocative and neutral clothes, of the same gender, with a professional attitude and preferably in personal contact through face-to-face interaction. Besides being a communication aid, the interpreter was perceived as having an important role in helping individuals to find the right way to and within the healthcare system because foreign-born individuals were unable to understand information in healthcare. Another aspect was to have a well-developed organization with good cooperation between the parties involved in the interpretation situation, such as patients, interpreter, interpreter agency, family members and healthcare professionals to offer a good interpretation situation. In conclusion, the use of an interpreter was determined by individual and healthcare situational factors. Individualized holistic healthcare can be achieved by offering and using high-quality interpreters and cooperation within a well-developed interpreter organization. Keywords: communication, healthcare service, patient-safe quality care, qualitative data collection, qualitative data analysis, users’ perceptions/experiences, utilization of interpreters.
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Fitzpatrick, Madeleine. "Understanding the experiences of service users and staff in the promotion of responsive practices within the context of Health and Social Care." Thesis, Queen's University Belfast, 2018. https://pure.qub.ac.uk/portal/en/theses/understanding-the-experiences-of-service-users-and-staff-in-the-promotion-of-responsive-practices-within-the-context-of-health-and-social-care(8877bd91-c78f-4d74-81b1-d9abfb04b37c).html.
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Positive Behaviour Support and the reduction of Restrictive Physical Interventions for people with Intellectual Disability and Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Systematic Review. Positive Behaviour Support (PBS) has been effective in the reduction of challenging behaviour (MacDonald and McGill, 2013). However, research is only beginning to address the extent to which PBS is effective in the reduction of Restrictive Physical Interventions (RPI) within Intellectual Disability (ID) and Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) populations. The purpose of this review was to ascertain if an evidence base exists to suggest that elements of PBS reduce the need for RPI for people with ID and ASD, and the extent to which PBS is defined within this evidence base. To the author’s knowledge no other published reviews on PBS and the reduction of RPI within this population exist. Method: The PRISMA guidelines for systematic reviews were utilised and a search strategy was developed to identify studies that reported PBS and RPI outcomes. Studies were evaluated against inclusion and exclusion criteria. Eight studies were identified for review. A narrative analysis was then conducted. Findings: Results indicated that PBS may reduce the use of RPI, however these results need to be treated with caution due to methodological weaknesses. Results also highlighted the need for PBS to be more clearly defined within the evidence base. Clinical implications: This review has clinical implications for service users, staff and at an organisational level. However, future research is needed to expand the evidence base. Value: This review adds to the existing evidence base, highlighting the elements of PBS utilised in the reduction of RPI, as well as the need for clearer definitions of PBS. Parenting through adversity: An exploration of the lived experiences of same-sex adoptive parents within Northern Ireland:An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. Purpose: The current research aimed to explore the experiences of same-sex adoptive parents within the context of Northern Ireland (N.I.). Within N.I. the ban allowing same-sex couples to adopt was removed in 2013, bringing N.I. into line with the rest of the UK (Goldberg & Gartrell, 2014). To date same-sex parents are largely undocumented within official N.I. adoption statistics and the meaning of this populations’ experience is unexplored. Methodology: 10 participants were recruited; 4 gay fathers and 6 lesbian mothers. Semi-structured interviews were conducted and analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA). Results: Data analysis highlighted three master themes: (1) Catalysts and considerations, (2) Roadblocks and (3) ‘Circumventing the opposition’.Discussion: The current research demonstrated that the journey of same-sex adoptive parenthood within N.I. is both challenging and rewarding for parents and has provided a better understanding of the same-sex parent experience within N.I. These findings however may not be representative of all same-sex parent groups, as all participants were well educated with medium-high incomes. However, these findings provide a new and valuable contribution to the existing evidence base and they have the potential to influence future adoption training and assessment frameworks, as well as peer support within clinical practice.
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Braude, Shelley Rose. "Exploring the experiences and perceptions of school staff regarding their use of a distance travelled tool as part of a new initiative." Thesis, University College London (University of London), 2014. http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/10021594/.
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The growing emphasis on the application of evidence based practice (EBP) together with an increasing pressure on Local Authorities (LAs) to demonstrate the efficacy and cost-effectiveness of the services that they fund has lead to the introduction of evaluative tools across many of the public services. Distance Travelled Tools (DTTs) are considered to be a useful measure of progress made over time in response to an intervention and can therefore be used to provide this kind of evidence. A semi-rural LA in England developed a DTT for use across the services for children and young people. The implementation of the tool as part of the work undertaken by practitioners represented a significant change in practice. In this study I explored the perceptions and experiences of mainstream primary and secondary school staff in the implementation of this DTT. Semi-structured interviews were undertaken with twenty members of staff from eight mainstream education settings (five primary and three secondary). I transcribed the interviews verbatim and analysed them using thematic analysis. The analysis revealed two super-ordinate themes, six themes and 25 sub-themes, which shed light on staff’s experiences of applying the DTT. The first super-ordinate theme relates to the perceptions of staff regarding their use of the DTT to their work, specifically: in supporting holistic working; in enabling staff to elicit, share and understand the perspectives of stakeholders; and to formulate and support next steps. The second super-ordinate theme relates to school staff’s experiences of implementing the tool, including: the issues associated with the tool’s format; specific motivators and difficulties associated with the process of implementation; and the utility of the tool as a means of providing evidence for the LA. In highlighting the experiences and perceptions of the tool’s users, this study has implications for the application of this type of tool in supporting the work undertaken by a range of practitioners who work with vulnerable pupils and their families. By exploring the perceived issues and benefits of implementing a DTT, this study also has implications for the work undertaken by Educational Psychologists to support organisational change associated with the implementation of new evaluative procedures and practices.
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Waugh, Meghan. "The experiences of staff at children's hospices who use 'cold' facilities to care for families after the death of an infant : a qualitative study." Thesis, University of East Anglia, 2018. https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/67809/.
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Background: Children’s hospices in the UK have developed to incorporate various ‘cold’ facilities, which allow families to spend time with their baby after they have died. To date, no research has explored the impact on staff of providing this form of care alongside their usual roles within the hospice. This thesis aims to understand the experiences of stress in those providing palliative care through a systematic review, and explore the experiences of staff who are supporting families using ‘cold’ facilities within a paediatric hospice after the death of their infant. Methods: A mixed-method systematic review and narrative synthesis of the literature was conducted using electronic databases and relevant reference sections of papers to evaluate the experience of stress in staff members who provide care in palliative services. Alongside this, a qualitative study was conducted using semi-structured interviews with seven members of staff at regional children’s hospices to explore their experiences and the sense they made of their work. Data were transcribed and analysed using thematic analysis. Results: The systematic review found 12 studies which met the inclusion criteria. Quality was appraised and data was analysed using narrative synthesis. Results reported the levels of stress, types of stressor and coping strategies identified. The thematic analysis of the qualitative study identified two key themes (‘Challenges within the pathway’ and ‘Ways that challenges are met’) and 12 subthemes. Conclusions: The research highlighted the unique experiences of staff in providing care using ‘cold’ facilities. Some challenges are specific to this care pathway, though others appear in line with those faced in overall paediatric palliative care. Challenges are ameliorated through both cognitive and behavioural coping mechanisms and the 3 importance of an open and supportive workplace culture is emphasised in ensuring staff well-being. Limitations and directions for future research are considered.
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Connor, Caroline. "Service user engagement by assertive outreach staff." Thesis, Cardiff University, 2012. http://orca.cf.ac.uk/37504/.
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Study Aim: Despite ‘Assertive Outreach’ being a widely researched model of mental health delivery, previous research has mainly focused on how features of the service model encourage service users to engage with the service. Little is known about how the staff working in such services promote service user engagement, especially with service users who are particularly difficult to engage. This qualitative study explores how assertive outreach staff engage and maintain engagement with their service users. Design, Setting and Participants: Eight care co-ordinators were recruited from three assertive outreach teams in South East Wales. Participants were interviewed about how they engage and maintain engagement with service users. Transcribed interviews were analysed using Grounded Theory. Four of the participants also attended a subsequent focus group and discussed the preliminary analysis of the interview data. Findings: Three themes appeared to conceptualise the engagement process, ‘Building the therapeutic relationship’, ‘Maintaining the therapeutic relationship’, and ‘Service factors enabling engagement’. The first two conceptualise the personal factors (i.e. approaches, strategies and personal attributes) that staff use on a daily basis to engage and maintain engagement with service users. The final theme, ‘Service factors enabling engagement work’, focuses on the service related factors staff identify as being important in enabling them to engage with the people who use their service. Conclusion: Results from the current study provide a number of useful insights into the specific approaches, techniques and strategies used by assertive outreach staff to engage and maintain engagement with ‘hard to engage’ service users. The study also identified service elements and personal staff qualities that appear to facilitate the effective engaging of clients. Clinical implications are discussed and suggestions made regarding clinical practice and future research.
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Harris, Barbara. "Service user violence towards social care staff." Thesis, University of Nottingham, 2006. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.438550.
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Davies, Alice. "Patient and staff experiences of coercive care." Thesis, University of Warwick, 2012. http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/59329/.
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It is generally accepted that the use of compulsory powers in the treatment of mental health difficulties may be required to prevent harm to self or others. Exploring the experiences of patients and staff in relation to the use of coercive measures can offer a meaningful insight into how clinical settings might best meet the needs of their clients. Chapter 1 consists of a systematic review of the literature exploring inpatient experiences of coercion by asking 'what are patients' emotional experiences of psychiatric inpatient care?' and 'what can be done to help minimise the negative impact of patients' experiences of coercion?' Negative experiences were found to impact upon prognosis, engagement and later attitudes to accessing care; core emotions experienced included fear, anger and sadness. Suggestions for ways of minimising the negative impact of coercion have been discussed in depth. Chapter two presents an empirical study conducted in an Assertive Outreach Team (AOT) which explored staff experiences of working with Community Treatment Orders (CTOs). Eight multidisciplinary team members participated in interviews. Following the use of Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis, three superordinate themes emerged from the data. The findings emphasise the individual way in which clients were perceived to respond to the implementation of the CTO and explore the tension that staff experience between the use of engagement and coercion. Clinical implications were discussed as well as suggestions for further research. The final paper offers a reflective account of the research process. It is structured around the three superordinate themes which emerged from the empirical data and considers the way in which the researcher’s own experiences were closely related to issues arising from the research. Methodological limitations and ethical issues are discussed as well as an exploration of the way that personal style has influenced the process and facilitated future self-development.
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Lee, Young Seok. "Older adults' user experiences with mobile phones: identification of user clusters and user requirements." Diss., Virginia Tech, 2007. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/29003.
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This research addressed how older adults experience their mobile phones in their everyday lives and how mobile phones could be designed to best meet their needs. Two studies were conducted using a mixed-research method to identify representative user clusters and to understand user experiences. In Study 1, 154 older adult mobile phone users completed a questionnaire to investigate 1) functional usage, 2) perception about mobile phone quality, and 3) other aspects of user experiences (e.g., motivations of acquisition and learning method). Results showed that older adults are generally conservative mobile phone users who use a few functions of mobile phones and perceive their phone to be difficult to use. Understanding error messages, menu navigation, and text input were found to be most difficult for them. Female users perceived their phones to be more difficult to use than male users. Three user clusters (explorers, basicians, and minimalists) were identified based on mobile phone usage behavior, and their characteristics were described. User satisfaction was effected by three attributes of mobile phones: usefulness, ease of use, and pleasure of use, indicating that developers need to focus on improving all factors when designing a mobile phone for older adults.
Study 2 used a more holistic approach to describe older adultsâ user experiences. The aims of Study 2 were 1) to capture stories that reflected user experiences, 2) to identify barriers that older adults faced through the course of user experience and 3) to provide recommendations to improve user experiences. Qualitative data was collected in the form of existential phenomenology-based interviews. Twelve older adult mobile phone users (over age 56), representing the three clusters found from Study 1, participated in this study. The domestication of technology theory was adopted as a framework to describe instances and themes represented in usersâ utterances and behaviors. Results showed that, regardless of their abilities to operate technology, older adults used a limited number of mobile phone functions because of their parsimonious cost-benefit analyses when integrating technologies into their lives. A theoretical explanation for this phenomenon was provided using socio-emotional selectivity theory. Barriers (perceptual, cognitive, attitudinal, knowledge, and information barriers) were found to hinder older adultsâ utilization of mobile phone technology over the four dimensions of the domestication process (appropriation, objectification, incorporation, and conversion). Recommendations to resolve those barriers were provided and related to published literature. This study proved that the domestication of technology theory can be a useful analytical tool for describing and understanding user experiences and capturing users' needs. Detailed discussion about its applicability to user needs analysis process was provided. A set of user requirements along with diverse user profiles were developed as outcomes of this research.Ph. D.
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Howell, Gordon William, and res cand@acu edu au. "The Experience of University Academic Staff In their Use of Information Communications Technology." Australian Catholic University. School of Educational Leadership, 2007. http://dlibrary.acu.edu.au/digitaltheses/public/adt-acuvp164.10072008.
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This research explores issues encountered by academic staff in their adoption of technology within the teaching and learning environment. The context of this research is set within a global environment; where technology is seen as both underpinning and enabling the current period of rapid change. Both the literature and University documents purport that the use of technology is instrumental in the delivery of positive economic, educational and social change. The researcher identified a dissonance between administrative policy and practices, and academic practice in relation to the use of technology. Consequently, the purpose of this study was to explore the experiences of academic staff in their adoption of technology within the teaching and learning environment. The literature review generated following research questions: 1. Why do academic staff use information communication technology (ICT)? 2. How do academic staff use ICT? 3. What are the barriers to the use of ICT that have been identified by academic staff? 4. How do academic leaders promote the use of ICT in teaching and learning? As the adoption of technology is essentially a social process, the epistemological position of constructivism, using an interpretative perspective, was adopted for this research. The methodology of case study is utilised as it allowed detailed exploration of self-perceptions and lived experiences of the participants in relation to their use of technology within their professional practice. 21 participants were initially selected for this study. From this group of participants Rogers’ Theory of Diffusion was used to select those participants who could provide the most useful insights; resulting in the seven case studies documented in this thesis. Participants within the case studies ranged from those who were highly innovative, to those who were late technology adopters.This research concluded that for the academic mainstream, the deployment and availability of technology had reached a stage where hardware, software, internet connectivity and projection capability were no longer seen as impediments to their use of technology. All participants, ranging from the highly innovative to the late technology adopters, used technology for email, the world wide web (WWW), administrative tasks, and the preparation and presentation of their lectures. While the use of various technologies was universal among the participants, the predominant use of technology was to support the transmission mode of instruction. The research concluded that a constructivist educational approach was not closely linked to early technology adoption, but to the participants’ individual educational beliefs. The educational beliefs of the participants were in conflict with their experience of the University’s practices, which reflected a lack of instructional leadership in relation to the use of technology
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Howell, Gordon William. "The experience of university academic staff in their use of information communications technology." Thesis, Australian Catholic University, 2007. https://acuresearchbank.acu.edu.au/download/cb175bb01b854e4a993d3267f31d3e81c9cb7b6d80599f0ea3524056f8b7b55c/3486832/64922_downloaded_stream_147.pdf.
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This research explores issues encountered by academic staff in their adoption of technology within the teaching and learning environment. The context of this research is set within a global environment; where technology is seen as both underpinning and enabling the current period of rapid change. Both the literature and University documents purport that the use of technology is instrumental in the delivery of positive economic, educational and social change. The researcher identified a dissonance between administrative policy and practices, and academic practice in relation to the use of technology. Consequently, the purpose of this study was to explore the experiences of academic staff in their adoption of technology within the teaching and learning environment. The literature review generated following research questions: 1. Why do academic staff use information communication technology (ICT)? 2. How do academic staff use ICT? 3. What are the barriers to the use of ICT that have been identified by academic staff? 4. How do academic leaders promote the use of ICT in teaching and learning? As the adoption of technology is essentially a social process, the epistemological position of constructivism, using an interpretative perspective, was adopted for this research. The methodology of case study is utilised as it allowed detailed exploration of self-perceptions and lived experiences of the participants in relation to their use of technology within their professional practice. 21 participants were initially selected for this study. From this group of participants Rogers' Theory of Diffusion was used to select those participants who could provide the most useful insights; resulting in the seven case studies documented in this thesis.;This research concluded that for the academic mainstream, the deployment and availability of technology had reached a stage where hardware, software, internet connectivity and projection capability were no longer seen as impediments to their use of technology. All participants, ranging from the highly innovative to the late technology adopters, used technology for email, the world wide web (WWW), administrative tasks, and the preparation and presentation of their lectures. While the use of various technologies was universal among the participants, the predominant use of technology was to support the transmission mode of instruction. The research concluded that a constructivist educational approach was not closely linked to early technology adoption, but to the participants' individual educational beliefs. The educational beliefs of the participants were in conflict with their experience of the University's practices, which reflected a lack of instructional leadership in relation to the use of technology.
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Grady, Carolyn Ann. "Math Teachers' Experiences with Math Staff Development Training." ScholarWorks, 2018. https://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/dissertations/5083.
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As a result of low student scores on math assessments and teachers' seeming inability to raise those scores, professional development (PD) interventions were developed to address teachers' knowledge and understanding of math instruction. The purpose of this case study was to gain a deeper understanding of teachers' experiences with the math staff development training and how those experiences influence their teaching and students' learning. Guided by constructivist theory, the key research questions addressed the math teachers' experiences with the math PD and what teachers perceive to be their needs for effective math PD. Data for this case study were collected through interviews and observations of 25 secondary math teachers at 3 high schools. The data were coded using an analytic method to discern themes and patterns. The findings indicated that PD should have a focus on strategies that are relevant, include team collaboration and time to observe demonstration lessons. As a result, a 3-day PD was designed to focus on specific course content taught by teachers, opportunities to observe lessons, and team collaboration to design lessons. This project study affects positive social change via a PD training program with consistent, pertinent and content-specific support for math teachers in the classroom. Teachers will be more engaged in the process, students will be more engaged in their learning, and the community will benefit from increased student success. Effective PD has the potential to improve teacher practice, thus student learning, enabling student success in school and beyond. Successful students make successful adults who live independent, constructive and fulfilled lives.
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Coffey, Kathleen M. "Designing Mobile User Experiences for Community Engagement." Miami University / OhioLINK, 2019. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=miami1556039507640102.
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Speirs, James C. "Website Adaptive Navigation Effects on User Experiences." BYU ScholarsArchive, 2012. https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/3536.
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The information search process within a website can often be frustrating and confusing for website visitors. Navigational structures are often complex and multitiered, hiding links with several layers of navigation that user's might be interested in. Poor navigation causes user frustration. Adaptive navigation can be used to improve the user's navigational experience by flattening the navigational structure and reducing the number of accessible links to only those that the user would be interested in. This examines the effects on a user's navigational experience, of using adaptive navigation as the main navigational structure on a website. This study measured these effects by gathering survey responses from over 1,000 users. The survey recorded users' perceptions of navigational effectiveness and efficiency as well as user satisfaction and efficacy. Users were assigned into nine treatment groups that provided variations in navigational change frequency and the order of navigational links. Surveys were used to identify the effects of navigational change frequency and navigational link ordering on the user's navigational experience. The survey found that adaptive navigation works best when change occurs on a page-by-page basis and links are ordered alphabetically.
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Le, Roux Philippa. "Interpersonal staff relationships and the healthy school : educators' experiences." Thesis, Stellenbosch : University of Stellebosch, 2004. http://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/1050.
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Thesis (MEdPsych (Educational Psychology))--University of Stellenbosch, 2004.ENGLISH ABSTRACT: My study aims to ascertain whether interpersonal staff relationships have a role to play in the healthy development of a school as an organisation. My specific focus is on how educators experience these relationships, and how they impact on the educators' commitment to a particular school. My research design consisted of three case studies. I used a semi-structured questionnaire with each case and at a later date had a group discussion. My analysis of the questionnaires' data provided tentative themes for inclusion and further exploration in the group discussion. The combination of two data production phases resulted in the confirmation and expansion of the data. My study shows that various factors impact on interpersonal staff relationships within a school. These interpersonal staff relationships have a bearing on the continuance, moral and alienative dimensions of commitment, and impact on staff retention and job performance. They also impact directly on the health of the educators. Thus interpersonal staff relationships would seem to have an important role to play in the development of healthy schools. I conclude by acknowledging the limitations of this study, and recommending further research.
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Law, Katharine. "Long-term dementia care : staff experiences and family satisfaction." Thesis, University of Warwick, 2015. http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/75482/.
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This thesis focuses on the care of people with dementia in long-term care settings. It considers both the experiences of staff working with people with dementia in such settings as well as the perceptions and satisfaction of family members of people with dementia who reside in long-term care. It is hoped that these papers will contribute to understanding how staff working with people with dementia in long-term care settings can be supported to improve the quality of care provision to this population. Chapter 1 is a systematic literature review investigating the staff factors which contribute to family satisfaction with ongoing care provision for their relatives with dementia who reside in long-term care. Empirical evidence from 14 articles was critically evaluated in order to identify relevant staff factors which contribute to family satisfaction. Relevant staff factors in three broad areas were found to contribute to family satisfaction with care provision for their relatives with dementia. Each area is explored and consideration is given to the implications for future research and clinical practice. Chapter 2 is an empirical study exploring the lived experience of healthcare assistants working with clients with dementia in residential care homes. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis was used to analyse the data derived from semi-structured interviews with eight healthcare assistants. Three superordinate themes and nine subordinate themes emerged following the data analysis. Each theme is explored and consideration is given to the implications for future research and clinical practice. Chapter 3 is a reflective account of the researcher’s personal experiences of working with people with dementia. It explores the change in the researcher’s perceptions and attitude towards working with people with dementia as their knowledge and experience has increased over time and the impact that this has had on their outlook regarding working with people with dementia in the future.
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Norén, Beata. "User-centered program interface for people with autism and their staff." Thesis, Linköpings universitet, Institutionen för teknik och naturvetenskap, 2010. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:liu:diva-93480.
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I detta examensarbete utforskas möjligheterna att skapa en mediaspelare för personer med autism och autismliknande funktionshinder. Målet med mediaspelaren är att användarna ska kunna se på film och lyssna på musik via en dator på önskat sätt samt kunna hantera spelaren helt på egen hand. Ett antal existerande mediaspelare och olika utvecklingssätt för att skapa en helt ny spelare testades och utvärderades gentemot en framtagen kravspecifikation. Resultatet av detta var att ingen av de testade existerande spelarna eller utvecklingssätten kunde uppfylla de viktigaste kraven. Därefter skapades ett gränssnittsförslag för att visa hur en framtida mediaspelare skulle kunna se ut, där enkelhet och tydlighet var några av nyckelorden. Ett användbarhetstest med fem experter gjordes på gränssnittsförslaget, vilket ledde till ett antal förslag på hur gränssnittsförslaget skulle kunna ändras till det bättre.
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Petitt, Carlton Sutherland. "Simulating user experiences in computer-based multimedia instruction." Thesis, This resource online, 1994. http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/theses/available/etd-08042009-040530/.
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Coates, Alice. "Understanding the psychological health and experiences of dementia care staff." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2015. https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:30bf5010-f4e8-4bc0-9a79-196140804020.
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Care work is emotionally and physically demanding and is coupled with organisational challenges. As such, care work has been associated with emotional exhaustion which not only negatively impacts staff but also the care that they provide. Greater understanding of the psychological health of dementia care staff and their perceptions of their work will provide insights into how this group may be better supported. The first paper provides a review of the literature relating to psychological outcomes in dementia care staff. The literature identified was viewed in terms of an existing model of psychological health, the BASIC Ph, with the aim of evaluating the evidence and enhancing understanding of psychological health in this group. The utility of this model was also evaluated. The model highlighted areas for potential intervention as well as those for future research. Clinical implications for Clinical Psychologists were also discussed. The second paper aimed to increase understanding of the experiences of dementia care assistants who perceived themselves to be competent in their role. Eight care assistants who had high levels of self-efficacy were interviewed. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) revealed four superordinate themes. Accounts of experiencing dilemmas provided important contextual information and constituted the first superordinate theme. The second theme 'togetherness and connection' described participants' experience of the need for support, closeness and the value of engaging with older people with dementia. The third theme encompassed the attunement between care assistants and the older people for whom they cared and described empathy, personal perspective-taking and circularity of emotion as guides to care. The final theme 'caring as part of life' described the link between caring and identity as well as a genuine interest in people, an accepting attitude and motivation to care. These themes provide fruitful areas for further research and have implications for care staff training.
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Hayward, Laura Emily. "Inappropriate sexual behaviour and dementia : an exploration of staff experiences." Thesis, University of Leicester, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/2381/7699.
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Literature Review Dementia care in acute services is under researched, not least an examination of the emotional impact of the work. This review aimed to explore and synthesise the available literature regarding the experiences of staff in acute care settings. A systematic review was conducted using systematic and transparent methods. Themes, as experienced and described by staff, included environmental inadequacies and insufficient knowledge of dementia. The emotional impact of the work was elicited and areas of enlightened practice were indicated. Supporting patients with a dementia in the acute care setting appears to be complicated by a range of influences including case complexity, insufficient resources and staff constructions of the patient. The review highlighted areas of need as identified by staff. Empirical Paper Research assessing the impact of Inappropriate Sexual Behaviour (ISB) on staff working in dementia care is circumscribed. This study explored staff experience of ISB exhibited by older adults with a dementia. Interviews with fourteen staff working within an inpatient setting were undertaken and analysed using a Grounded Theory methodology. The core category, ‘A Question of Attribution’ was identified, describing the process experienced when confronted with ISB. Four main categories were inducted representing participants initial experiences, their contextualising of the behaviour, their process of interpretation and pragmatic management of ISB. Staff’s feelings about ISB appeared equivocal with some staff reporting indifference, others feeling violated. Findings imply that the impact of ISB should be more routinely considered in preparing staff for working with patients with a dementia. Critical Appraisal This paper outlined numerous reflections and observations made during the research journey with consideration of the chosen methodology, study limitations and the personal impact of conducting the research, in addition to the learning experience.
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Wellman, Joshua. "An exploration of staff experiences of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO)." Thesis, University of East London, 2017. http://roar.uel.ac.uk/6732/.
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Intensive care unit (ICU) staff are exposed to a broad range of professional, ethical and clinical practice issues such as when to offer and withdraw potentially life-saving care, which are most apparent when working with hyper-advanced technologies such as extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO). Despite the rapid increase in use of ECMO to support adults with critical heart and lung conditions, few studies have documented staff experiences of working with this technology. This study aimed to explore ICU doctors and nurses conceptualisations of key professional, ethical and clinical practice issues relating to ECMO, and the psychological impact of managing them. A qualitative design was utilised, in which semi-structured interviews were conducted with 10 ICU staff (five doctors and five nurses), working in a specialist ECMO centre in the United Kingdom (UK). Data were analysed using thematic analysis, underpinned by a critical realist epistemological stance. Three key themes were identified. 1) Embodying the ECMO Specialist: Staff experienced a sense of mastery when managing technical aspects of the work, but felt inept when dealing with abstract ethical issues. Specialists sought to drive forward clinical practice, and learning was considered important for developing clinical abilities. 2) Team dynamics: Staff came together as a team to address the technical, professional and ethical challenges associated with their work with ECMO, however ECMO was also described as a divisive force in the ICU. 3) Riding the Emotional Rollercoaster: Life or death outcomes were associated with intense emotions and staff reported various ways of managing them. These findings add a new dimension to the professional and ethical discussions in the academic literature and have several implications for clinical practice, which are discussed. Further research may wish to focus on more specific aspects of ECMO care, such as the processes involved in decision-making.
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Daly, Zuleika. "Women's experiences of communication with medical staff during complicated pregnancy." Thesis, Middlesex University, 2015. http://eprints.mdx.ac.uk/21266/.
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This study explored the ways in which women experienced non-facilitative communication with medical staff during a complicated pregnancy. Complicated pregnancy has been associated with a higher risk of mental health difficulties. The research was carried out in Ireland and focused on women’s relationships with medical hospital staff during this time as they are ideally placed to offer relational support, and potentially prevent longer term problems. In-depth interviews were conducted with six women. The qualitative methodology of interpretive phenomenological analysis was used to understand their experiences. Four superordinate themes emerged. These were ‘Information difficulties' ‘Disempowerment', ‘Empathic failure’ and ‘Relational impacts’. Crucial information was withheld, private details were discussed in public spaces and key aspects of women’s experiences were omitted from their hospital notes. Participants spoke of feeling disempowered and manipulated by staff. All participants referred repeatedly to feeling that the majority of staff failed to demonstrate empathy. Women felt isolated and unseen, with staff focused on tasks rather than holistic treatment and their infant’s needs but not those of the women. Finally, women described how their relationships with themselves, partners, and crucially, their infants had been impacted. Participants’ accounts may represent a gap in the care of women who experience the trauma of serious pregnancy complications. Findings suggest a role for counselling psychologists in providing training and consultation for medical staff in order that they might develop the capacity to offer improved support to women and infants during this time when they are more susceptible to mental health difficulties.
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Johnson, Clair Louise. "Systemic consultations in intellectual disability services : experiences of care staff." Thesis, University of Hertfordshire, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/2299/17960.
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This research used interviews and Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) methodology to explore the experiences of care staff who attended systemic consultations within an Intellectual Disability (ID) service. A systematic literature review revealed limited research in the area of systemic approaches used with people with IDs and their networks. Research questions encompassed 'How do care staff experience systemic consultations that they have attended in ID services'?, 'What do care staff find helpful in systemic consultations'?, and, 'What do care staff find unhelpful in systemic consultations'?. Seven participants were interviewed, and interview data was transcribed and analysed using IPA. Five superordinate themes emerged; 'Not knowing what to expect; it was something different', 'Our relationships improved', 'An outside person shone a new light enabling us to think and work differently', 'Making sense of what we have achieved', and 'They made us feel validated'. The research findings highlighted important clinical implications. These included a need for the context to be 'warmed' and relational reflexivity (Bunham, 2005) to be applied in order to help care staff prepare for systemic consultations and feel supported. Future research directions are also discussed in order to develop the evidence-base for systemic approaches within ID services.
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Palm, Jessica. "Moral concerns : treatment staff and user perspectives on alcohol and drug problems /." Stockholm : Department of Criminology, Stockholm University, 2006. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:su:diva-1003.
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Buie, Elizabeth. "Exploring techno-spirituality : design strategies for transcendent user experiences." Thesis, Northumbria University, 2018. http://nrl.northumbria.ac.uk/33799/.
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This thesis presents a study of transcendent experiences (TXs) — experiences of connection with something greater than oneself — focusing on what they are, how artefacts support them, and how design can contribute to that support. People often find such experiences transformative, and artefacts do support them — but the literature rarely addresses designing artefact support for TXs. This thesis provides a step toward filling that gap. The first phase of research involved the conduct and analysis of 24 interviews with adults of diverse spiritual perspectives, using constructivist Grounded Theory methods informed by relevant literature and by studies performed earlier in the PhD programme. Analysis found that TXs proceed in three phases — creating the context, living the experience, integrating the experience — and that artefacts support two phases and people desire enhancements to all three. This TX framework supports and extends experience structures from the literature: it recognises the top-level categories as phases in a cycle where integration may alter future contexts, and it extends the structure of TX by incorporating the relationships of artefacts and of enhancement desires to the phases of these experiences. This extended structure constitutes a grounded theory of transcendent user experience (TUX). The second phase involved the design and conduct of three “Transcendhance” game workshops for enhancing transcendence, which incorporated themes from the grounded theory and aimed to elicit design ideas in an atmosphere of imagination, fun, and play. Participants sketched 69 speculative ideas for techno-spiritual artefacts, and analysis mapped them to TX phases and identified possible extensions inspired by relevant research. The great majority of ideas mapped to the phase Creating the Context, with very few mapping to Living the Experience, which suggests that context may be easier than lived experience to understand and address directly. This point is especially important for experiences such as TX that are tricky to define, impossible to arrange or anticipate, and thus unsuitable for straight-forward “classic” user experience methods. The final phase involved the elaboration of workshop ideas to explore the extension of design fiction for TUX. Analysis related design fiction to the TX phases and suggested features that affect design ideas’ potential for TUX design fiction. This phase ended with the proposal and analysis of three new forms of design fiction — extended imaginary abstracts, comparative imaginary abstracts, and design poetry — using workshop ideas to illustrate the forms, their construction and use, and their benefits to TUX design. Transcendhance workshops and TUX design fictions approach techno-spiritual design peripherally, “sneaking up” on lived experience by addressing context and enabling the consideration of ineffable experience through storytelling, metaphors, and oblique imagery. This thesis combines the grounded theory of transcendent user experience with the Transcendhance workshop process and new forms of design fiction, presenting peripheral design as a promising strategy for facilitating design to enhance transcendent experience.
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Orozco, Eduardo S. B. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "User-centered product design of live-action game experiences." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2018. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/119945.
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Thesis: S.B., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Mechanical Engineering, 2018.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references (page 48).
Recently, escape rooms, or live-action physical and mental adventure games that require players to solve puzzles and riddles to complete certain objectives in order to "escape" the room have been very popular. The design of this type of game demands knowledge and expertise in user-oriented product design in a live-action game scenario that engages and challenges participants of all ages. 5 Wits Productions is in the process of producing a live-action game experience based around dozens of "rooms" that each contain physical and mental challenges for small groups of guests to solve. Using the elements of user-centric design such as storyboarding and sketch modeling, a room theme was created and refined to give users a one of a kind experience that transports them to that theme. The theme was based off of the board game "Battle Ship" where players have to sink a ship using balls to defeat the game within the time limit. The final product was a display board ball detection system that showed the players their progress in the game and what areas they needed to hit in order sink the ships.
by Eduardo Orozco.
S.B.
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Hooper, Clare J. "Towards designing more effective systems by understanding user experiences." Thesis, University of Southampton, 2010. https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/194995/.
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This thesis is about social technologies, user experiences and the problems of creative design. It is motivated by a desire to give people who are offline the access to social technologies that is currently provided via the web. There exist technologically- oriented approaches to solving this problem, but their focus on technology comes at a cost of neglecting the experiential aspects which motivate the work. This focus can result in systems which are functional but unappealing to (or even unusable by) their target audiences. After describing the motivation for the work, this thesis explains the state of the art and presents an exemplar system built with a technological focus. This thesis then presents Teasing Apart, Piecing Together (TAPT), a Software Engineering design process developed to address this gap in the field of software design. TAPT enables the understanding of user experiences and scaffolds the redesign of these for new contexts. After explaining the TAPT process and how it was built, a three-phase mixed methods evaluation is described. This consists of a large-scale comparative evaluation, an expert review of the outputs of that evaluation and case studies grounded in industrial and academic practice. The results of these evaluations show that TAPT, which can be used in an agile manner, provides a strong analytical framework for understanding experiences and supports the redesign of experiences in new contexts.
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Chen, Lu. "Mining and Analyzing Subjective Experiences in User Generated Content." Wright State University / OhioLINK, 2016. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=wright1472164969.
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Bergström, Emil. "Exploring User Experience designers experiences working with Machine Learning." Thesis, Högskolan i Halmstad, 2021. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hh:diva-44633.
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The user experience (UX) design practice (c.m.p interaction design practice) has started to make profound changes in designing intelligent digital services using Machine Learning (ML) to enhance the UX. ML has the capability to enhance the user’s experience, for example, facilitating more accurate decisions or improving efficiency in achieving one's goals. However, research suggests that ML is a challenging design material in design practice, such as not envisioning the best-suited solution because of not comprehending data dependency when prototyping or the lack of tools and methods for evaluating the solution. Without a doubt, ML opens new doors for UX designers to be creative in their practice. However, research indicates that lack of knowledge transfer into UX design practice may hamper this potential. This paper explores how UX designers experience ML. The findings resulted in 5 experiences: 1) Absence of competence, 2) Lack of incentive for competence development, 3) Challenging articulating design criteria, 4) Mature vs. Immature customers, 5) Lack of support for ethical concerns. I discuss the implications of these findings and propose how we can understand UX design practice and opportunities for additional design research to support designers working with ML.
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Helgesson, Emil. "Evaluating User Experiences of Mockup Data created through Regex." Thesis, Umeå universitet, Institutionen för datavetenskap, 2021. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-184482.
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The purpose of this study is to evaluate the possibility of having a library function capable of creating SQL inserts. The values for the inserts were created through regex. The study is conducted through a user study where the test participants tested three methods to create inserts for SQL, including the library function. The results show that the test participants performed on average the worst in terms of time while using the library function. When analysing the results manual insertion was preferred for a few inserts and the web-client was the preferred method for many inserts. This study indicated that the library function does not simplify the creation of SQL inserts under the circumstances of this study.
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Hassan, Ehab. "Event-Based Recognition Of Lived : Experiences In User Reviews." Thesis, Sorbonne Paris Cité, 2017. http://www.theses.fr/2017USPCD021/document.
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La quantité de contenu généré par l'utilisateur sur le Web croît à un rythme rapide.Une grande partie de ce contenu est constituée des opinions et avis sur des produits et services. Vu leur impact, ces avis sont un facteur important dans les décisions concernant l'achat de ces produits ou services. Les utilisateurs ont tendance à faire confiance aux autres utilisateurs, surtout s'ils peuvent se comparer à ceux qui ont écrit les avis, ou, en d'autres termes, ils sont confiants de partager certaines caractéristiques. Par exemple, les familles préféreront voyager dans les endroits qui ont été recommandés par d'autres familles. Nous supposons que les avis qui contiennent des expériences vécues sont plus précieuses, puisque les expériences donnent aux avis un aspect plus subjective, permettant aux lecteurs de se projeter dans le contexte de l'écrivain.En prenant en compte cette hypothèse, dans cette thèse, nous visons à identifier, extraire et représenter les expériences vécues rapportées dans les avis des utilisateurs en hybridant les techniques d'extraction des connaissances et de traitement du langage naturel,afin d'accélérer le processus décisionnel. Pour cela, nous avons défini opérationnellement une expérience vécue d'un utilisateur comme un événement mentionné dans un avis, où l'auteur est présent parmi les participants. Cette définition considère que les événements mentionnés dans le texte sont les éléments les plus importants dans les expériences vécues: toutes les expériences vécues sont basées sur des événements, qui sont clairement définis dans le temps et l'espace. Par conséquent, nous proposons une approche permettant d'extraire les événements à partir des avis des utilisateurs, qui constituent la base d'un système permettant d'identifier et extraire les expériences vécues.Pour l'approche d'extraction d'événements, nous avons transformé les avis des utilisateur sen leurs représentations sémantiques en utilisant des techniques de machine reading.Nous avons effectué une analyse sémantique profonde des avis et détecté les cadres linguistiques les plus appropriés capturant des relations complexes exprimées dans les avis. Le système d'extraction des expériences vécues repose sur trois étapes. La première étape opère un filtrage des avis, basé sur les événements, permettant d'identifier les avis qui peuvent contenir des expériences vécues. La deuxième étape consiste à extraire les événements pertinents avec leurs participants. La dernière étape consiste à représenter les expériences vécues extraites de chaque avis comme un sous-graphe d'événements contenant les événements pertinents et leurs participants.Afin de tester notre hypothèse, nous avons effectué quelques expériences pour vérifier si les expériences vécues peuvent être considérées comme des motivations pour les notes attribuées par les utilisateurs dans le système de notation. Par conséquent, nous avons utilisé les expériences vécues comme des caractéristiques dans un système de classification, en comparant avec les notes associées avec des avis dans un ensemble de données extraites et annotées manuellement de Tripadvisor. Les résultats montrent que les expériences vécues sont corrélées avec les notes. Cette thèse fournit des contributions intéressantes dans le domaine de l'analyse d'opinion. Tout d'abord, l'application avec succès de machine reading afin d'identifier les expériences vécues. Ensuite, La confirmation que les expériences vécues sont liées aux notations. Enfin, l'ensemble de données produit pour tester notre hypothèse constitue également une contribution importante de la thèseThe quantity of user-generated content on the Web is constantly growing at a fast pace.A great share of this content is made of opinions and reviews on products and services.This electronic word-of-mouth is also an important factor in decisions about purchasing these products or services. Users tend to trust other users, especially if they can compare themselves to those who wrote the reviews, or, in other words, they are confident to share some characteristics. For instance, families will prefer to travel in places that have been recommended by other families. We assume that reviews that contain lived experiences are more valuable, since experiences give to the reviews a more subjective cut, allowing readers to project themselves into the context of the writer. With this hypothesis in mind, in this thesis we aim to identify, extract, and represent reported lived experiences in customer reviews by hybridizing Knowledge Extraction and Natural Language Processing techniques in order to accelerate the decision process. Forthis, we define a lived user experience as an event mentioned in a review, where the authoris among the participants. This definition considers that mentioned events in the text are the most important elements in lived experiences : all lived experiences are based on events,which on turn are clearly defined in time and space. There fore, we propose an approach to extract events from user reviews, which constitute the basis of an event-based system to identify and extract lived experiences. For the event extraction approach, we transform user reviews into their semantic representations using machine reading techniques. We perform a deep semantic parsing of reviews, detecting the linguistic frames that capture complex relations expressed in there views. The event-based lived experience system is carried out in three steps. The first step operates an event-based review filtering, which identifies reviews that may contain lived experiences. The second step consists of extracting relevant events together with their participants. The last step focuses on representing extracted lived experiences in each review as an event sub-graph.In order to test our hypothesis, we carried out some experiments to verify whether lived experiences can be considered as triggers for the ratings expressed by users. Therefore, we used lived experiences as features in a classification system, comparing with the ratings of the reviews in a dataset extracted and manually annotated from Tripadvisor. The results show that lived experiences are actually correlated with the ratings.In conclusion, this thesis provides some interesting contributions in the field of opinionmining. First of all, the successful application of machine reading to identify lived experiences. Second, the confirmation that lived experiences are correlated to ratings. Finally,the dataset produced to test our hypothesis constitutes also an important contribution of the thesis
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McFarlane, H. M. "Experiences of sickness absence among NHS staff : a grounded theory analysis." Thesis, University of the West of England, Bristol, 2014. http://eprints.uwe.ac.uk/23147/.
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Reducing sickness absence and speeding up return to work following absence is usually beneficial for employees and organisations. However, current theory on sickness absence is not sophisticated enough to meaningfully inform policies which adequately promote employee wellbeing. This research aimed to explore employees’ decisions about taking sickness absence and returning to work and to identify factors which help employees to remain in or return to work. Two studies are presented. Study 1 was a systematic review evaluating the evidence that cognitive-behavioural (CBT) pain management improves work outcomes (return to work, sickness absence and hours worked) in employees with chronic pain. Fifteen studies were reviewed. A meta-analysis of a subgroup of four good or adequate quality studies showed no effect of intervention. Other high and adequate quality studies found no effect of intervention, with one exception. Lower quality studies lacked appropriate control groups, therefore conclusions could not be drawn about their effectiveness. Overall, insufficient evidence was found that CBT pain management improves vocational outcomes. Complex interventions, which target workplace and health issues, may be required. Study 2 was a grounded theory study of sickness absence among NHS staff in South Wales. Face-to-face interviews were conducted with 18 employees. Interviews were transcribed verbatim and analysed using Charmaz’s (2006) approach to grounded theory. A new process model of sickness absence is presented which goes beyond established theories. The establishment of the legitimacy of absence and its negotiation with others, particularly health professionals and managers, were core to the model. The absence process was complex, with different factors becoming important at different points in time, including the type and severity of illness; the work context; the employees’ beliefs about illness and work; their values and support. Line managers had a key role in managing absence but may require additional support and training. Health psychologists should now turn their attention to understanding the specific beliefs which are relevant to absence from work in order to further develop theories of sickness absence.
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Pegg, Elinor. "Experiences of staff working in services for adults with intellectual disabilities." Thesis, University of Edinburgh, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/1842/9876.
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Background: As a result of the changes in support for adults with Intellectual Disabilities (ID) and the increasing emphasis on independent living within the community, individuals commonly live in their own homes with support provided by voluntary or private services. As a result, support staff play a huge role in the lives of adults with ID and are often the mediators of interventions aimed at reducing distress or the occurrence of challenging behaviour. Issues relating to the well-being of support staff and how they manage behaviours that challenge services are central to the quality of the lives of adults with ID. Method: A systematic review was carried out regarding interventions aimed at reducing stress felt by staff supporting adults with ID, with the aim of informing the clinical practice of psychologists that work with such staff groups. An empirical study employing the qualitative methodology of grounded theory was also conducted to explore the experiences of staff working with clinical psychologists outside of their organisation in the development of support guidelines aimed at reducing challenging behaviour. Results: Findings from the Systematic Review highlighted the lack of high quality intervention studies aimed at reducing stress in staff. Some tentative support was found for interventions based on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and those taking a more practical problem-solving approach. The empirical study resulted in a tentative model within which the role of expectations was highlighted as key to staff’s experiences of working with professionals. Conclusion: Further research is required in order to identify the most effective ways to reduce stress experienced by staff working with adults with ID. The constructed theoretical model suggests ways in which psychologists can understand the experience of staff and has implications for their practice.
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Kirkham, Rosie. "Exploring the experiences of staff working in forensic mental health settings." Thesis, Lancaster University, 2017. http://eprints.lancs.ac.uk/89009/.
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Forensic mental health (FMH) is described as a complex and challenging specialism to work in. The experiences of staff working within FMH settings have important influences on the quality of care provided to patients. This thesis explored the experiences of both multidisciplinary staff and clinical psychologists. A meta-synthesis of international qualitative studies was conducted to explore the experiences of staff working in FMH settings. Sixteen papers were synthesised, revealing five themes: 1) The impact of safety; 2) Psychological and emotional impacts; 3) Trying to maintain control; 4) The double-edged sword of support; and 5) A special insight into humanity. The findings point to the importance of understanding how staff manage the impacts of working in FMH settings in order to develop effective support systems. Eight clinical psychologists were individually interviewed to explore their lived experiences of compassion satisfaction when working in UK forensic mental health settings. Five themes were identified using interpretative phenomenological analysis: 1) The magnitude of trust; 2) Adjusting expectations; 3) Being both lock and key; 4) Needing time and resources; and 5) Variety and complexity. The results highlighted important distinctions in how compassion satisfaction can be experienced by clinical psychologists in this specialty, and what may influence these experiences. A critical appraisal of the process of carrying out the research was conducted. Issues regarding ethical approval, recruitment, and methodology were discussed, in addition to the impact of the study on the researcher.
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Kalaiselvan, Kasthuri Brindha, and Hanyu Yan. "Virtual Reality as a Communication Process: User Perceptions and Experiences." Thesis, Linnéuniversitetet, Institutionen för informatik (IK), 2017. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:lnu:diva-68607.
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This thesis addresses the Virtual Reality (VR) as an efficient communication process, furtheremphasizes on the importance of Haptic Feedback in Virtual Reality applications. HapticFeedback plays a pivotal role in Virtual Reality simulations by enhancing users’ interactivityand immersion. Considering the human perceptions and experiences in line with technology isextremely significant for an effective Virtual Reality. The aim of this research is to study theperceptions and experiences of human participants about Virtual Reality applications,importance of Haptic Feedback, and to explore the advantages and limitations of suchapplications. The need to integrate Haptic Feedback in today’s Virtual Reality applications, andits advantages were emphasized. In order to acquire in-depth understanding of user’sperceptions and experiences about Virtual Reality as a communication process, a qualitativecase study was employed in this study with interpretive research approach and purposefulsampling. After interviewing the selective participants, the outcomes of the study would be toconsider Virtual Reality as an effective communication medium and to propose improvementplans for IKEA VR Experience with Haptic Feedback. Based on the outcomes of this study,organizations can strive towards providing richer Virtual Reality experience to their customersin the years to come.
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Williams, A. E. "An interpretive phenomenological study of user experiences of therapeutic footwear." Thesis, University of Salford, 2008. http://usir.salford.ac.uk/2080/.
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Therapeutic footwear is provided to patients with the primary aims of reducing foot pain and improving foot health. Therefore, it is of concern that patients choose not to wear it. This choice has been attributed to its poor appearance. However, there may be other reasons for this choice and the reasons may be more complex than previously acknowledged. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the users’ experiences of this footwear. In the context of this study the ‘users’ are women with rheumatoid arthritis. This study was based on an interpretive phenomenological approach (IPA) that employed conversational style interviews to gather data. Ten women with RA and experience of wearing the footwear were recruited and following ethical approval the interviews were carried out, transcribed, organised and analysed. Five organising themes emerged as findings. These were the participants: • feelings about themselves, • feelings about the footwear, • unmet needs and expectations, • behaviour with the footwear and • feelings about the consultation with the practitioner. The final, global theme was that the patient/practitioner consultation has a powerful influence on the women’s feelings about themselves, the footwear, their expectations of it and their behaviour with it. This study has provided insight into their experiences of this footwear in that, unlike any other intervention, it replaces something that is normally worn and is part of an individual’s perception of self and their perception of how others see them. The footwear impacts more on women’s emotions than previously acknowledged and in addition, it has been found that the consultation influences their emotions and behaviour with the footwear. As well as improvements in footwear design and the service that delivers it, the training of the practitioners in a more patient focussed consultation style could improve the women’s experience and engagement in the footwear as a health intervention, as well as something that is ‘worn’.
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Emery, Leigh M. "Experiences of service user involvement and their influence on identity." Thesis, Canterbury Christ Church University, 2015. http://create.canterbury.ac.uk/13901/.
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Identity can be considered to be socially constructed and developed through narratives about ourselves and our experiences. Having socially valued roles may thus facilitate a positive identity. This study aimed to explore how the experiences of service user involvement (SUI) in health and social care services (specifically, being involved in staff recruitment) influenced the narrative identities of people with learning disabilities. Interviews were conducted with seven people with learning disabilities who had been service user representatives on NHS interview panels. These were analysed using thematic narrative analysis as a framework. All described positive narrative identities, but the degree to which SUI featured in the construction of narrative identities varied. Whilst some found the experience transformative, for others it was not an important part of their narratives. The findings suggest that such experiences formed just one of many narratives that participants drew from to construct their narrative identity.
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Möller, Rebecka. "How to create interaction moments at concerts : Designing user experiences." Thesis, KTH, Skolan för elektroteknik och datavetenskap (EECS), 2018. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-232128.
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The concert industry has been expanded enormously the last couple of years. At the same time as the increasing engagement for concerts, the digital market is growing rapidly. Today during concerts, people use their smartphones to send text messages, connect on social media, take photos, record film clips, and use the flashlight function in a replacement of a lighter. This behaviour may be perceived as a distracting moment and instead moves the person’s focus from the live performance to the phone. The distracting moment can be solved by making an application that makes the interaction more enjoyable through the study of user experience. This can lead to more focus on the music and therefore, enhance the concert experience. In this project, the work behind the development of designing prototypes is described. The method used in the thesis is the process of Design Thinking. The process is divided into a five-step model: empathize, define, ideate, prototype and test. The result presents three prototypes that are based on digital competitions that interact the audience during a concert experience. At the end of the thesis, a discussion about how to secure a positive outcome of interacting the audience and the artist is presented. The conclusion was that the interactions have good potential to work in a concert environment, but the interactions need to be additionally tested to secure a positive outcome. Another conclusion was that the time before a concert has more scope to make interactions work well and to not distract the users from the live performance.Konsertindustrin har expanderat enormt de senaste åren. Samtidigt som det ökande engagemanget för konserter, växer den digitala marknaden snabbt. Idag använder publiken sina mobiltelefoner under en konsert för att skicka textmeddelanden, ansluta på sociala medier, ta foton, spela in filmklipp och använda ficklampans funktion som en tändare. Det här beteendet kan uppfattas som ett distraherande ögonblick och i stället flytta personens fokus från konserten till telefonen. Det distraherande ögonblicket kan undvikas genom en studie av användarupplevelse som gör att en mobilapplikation gör samspelet smidigare. Det kan leda till mer fokus på musiken och genom det förbättra konsertupplevelsen. I det här projektet beskrivs arbetet bakom utvecklingen av prototyper. Metoden som används i rapporten är processen Design Thinking. Processen är uppdelad i en femstegsmodell: sympatisera, definiera, föreställa, prototyp och testa. Resultatet presenterar tre prototyper som bygger på digitala tävlingar som interagerar publiken under en konsertupplevelse. I slutet av rapporten presenteras en diskussion om hur man kan få ett positivt resultat av att interagera publiken och artisten med varandra. Slutsatsen var att interaktionerna har god potential att fungera i en konsertmiljö, men interaktionerna måste testas ytterligare för att säkerställa ett positivt resultat. En annan slutsats var att tiden före en konsert har mer spelrum för interaktionerna att fungera bra och att inte distrahera användarna från konsertupplevelsen.
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Bhogal, Satbinder Kaur. "A qualitative study of staff experiences of working with South Asian service." Thesis, University of Birmingham, 2007. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.486623.
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Volume I This volume comprises oftwo parts. Firstly a review ofthe literature that has contributed to the understanding ofthe prevalence of psychosis in the Asian community, as well as pathways to mental health services for this population. Secondly, an empirical study investigating the experiences and understandings of professionals in an Early Intervention Service working with Asian service-users and their families. The literature review considers recent research surrounding the prevalence ofpsychosis amongst the Asian population and identifies variations in pathways to specialist mental health care for such a group. This paper has been prepared for submission to The British Journal ofPsychiatry. The empirical study utilising qualitative methodology, examines the experiences and understandings of professionals in the Early Intervention Service working with Asian service-users and their families. This paper has been prepared for submission to The Journal ofMental Health. The Public Domain Briefing Paper is also submitted in this volume. Volume II Five Clinical Practice Reports (CPR) are presented in this volume. The first report details a case of a woman with a learning disability, experiencing depression, formulated from a Cognitive and Psychodynamic perspective. The second report is a service evaluation ofa Sexuality and Personal Relationship group for individuals with a learning disability. The third report is the case ofa six year-old boy in foster care with attachment difficulties. The fourth report details the treatment ofa forty year-old women with Depression, discussed from a Cognitive-Behavioural approach. The fifth piece ofwork was assessed orally and so the abstract is presented in this volume. All names and identifYing features have been changed to ensure confidentiality.
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Simpson, Emma. "The experiences of administrative staff working in Child and Adolescent Mental Health." Thesis, Lancaster University, 2008. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.525333.
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Howcroft, Kerry. "A qualitative study of staff perceptions of men's experiences of sperm banking." Thesis, University of Leicester, 2005. http://hdl.handle.net/2381/31214.
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In 2000 alone 134, 272 men were newly with diagnosed with cancer in the UK. Treatments for neoplasms may result in sterility, and as such sperm cryopreservation is recommended for all men about to undergo treatment. Whilst research in the field of psycho-oncology is expanding the area of fertility preservation, and sperm banking in particular, has remained largely medically dominated. This study begins by reviewing the existing literature on the psychological implications of sperm cryopreservation for the oncology patient. Whilst scanty, research is available from the paediatric population, however there is an absence of research focusing upon the adult male. Interviews were undertaken with six healthcare professionals, four based within a reproductive medicine centre and two within oncology. Interviews focused upon exploring professional's perceptions of men's psychological experiences of sperm banking, and their perceived role in the process. The interview transcripts were analysed using Grounded Theory methodology, which also informed the data collection. A core category was developed termed 'negotiating threat'. This category details how sperm banking is used as a way of managing the threat generated by a diagnosis of cancer and possible infertility. A process model was also proposed containing four areas of negotiation, labelled: the threat and impact of existing attitudes, knowing enough, accessing and using supportive relationships, and coping and defence. Each area refers to a specific task encountered, and details how threat can also permeate sperm banking itself. The limitations of the study are discussed. Clinical recommendations made include the provision and development of training for staff and the possible introduction of a support group for men. Further research is required into the direct experiences of men and also into the difficulties for staff in suspending normed beliefs and attitudes regarding fatherhood.
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Mbolekwa, Hombakazi Portia. "Staff and students’ experiences of internationalisation at Cape Peninsula University of Technology." Thesis, Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2018. http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11838/2660.
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Thesis (MTech (Business Administration))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2018.Service delivery is one of the most important aspects of the Higher Education sector not only when dealing with international students. It is imperative that higher education institutions should monitor and evaluate its administrative and academic employees. There is a need for a good performance system, which includes standards that define whether staff performances have merits or shortcomings. This will encourage staff to be proficient in their work environment. It is also important to equip staff with service delivery training. This research project examines staff and students’ experiences of internationalisation at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology. The researcher identified problems that international students encountered at CPUT, subsequently made recommendations, which deal with how to improve CPUT services to international students. The researcher undertook a quantitative research approach by administering a closed-ended questionnaire, which was compiled by a registered statistician. The study found that most of the participants did not understand or were not aware of internationalisation at CPUT. A majority of the participants did not understand their role when it came to assisting international students. They perceived that whatever international students required had to be sought from the international office. They understood their role within CPUT in terms of meeting the university’s objectives, as being that, which is set out in the university’s Vision and Mission.
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O'Connor, Sophie. "Experiences of the relationship between hospital staff and people who self-harm." Thesis, University of Hull, 2015. http://hydra.hull.ac.uk/resources/hull:12305.
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The portfolio thesis consists of three parts: a systematic meta-synthesis, an empirical study, and appendices. Part one is a meta-synthesis of hospital staffs’ relationships with people who self-harm. The review aimed to gain an insight in to staffs’ experiences of their interactions with people who self-harm, and how that may influence the delivery of care. Three main themes emerged from nine papers detailing experiences, and the influence of contextual factors on their interaction with people who self-harm. The themes were discussed in relation to theory, and the implications for clinical practice are described. Part two is an empirical study exploring experiences of people who re-attend Accident and Emergency with self-harm. Six people were interviewed and the data was analysed through Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis. Three superordinate themes encompassed the experiences of peoples’ relationships with A&E, but also of additional support networks in times of crisis. Implications on the delivery of care for people in crisis are discussed. Part three is an appendix that provides additional information for the meta-synthesis and the empirical study, as well an epistemological, reflexive and reflective statement.
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Broomhead, David Peter. "A realist evaluation of NHS managers' experiences of managing staff poor performance." Thesis, Sheffield Hallam University, 2015. http://shura.shu.ac.uk/20634/.
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Managing staff underperformance is one of the most difficult things that a manager is required to do and is often avoided. The management of staff underperformance has not previously been explored from the managers' perspective. This study examines NHS managers' experiences of managing staff underperformance using a realist methodology in order to deal with the complexity of research in a social situation and to offer explanations of the described events. Seven NHS managers that had managed staff underperformance using the Trust's 'Managing Employee Performance Policy' were interviewed using a semi structured interview format. The interviews covered 21 cases. The interviews were recorded and analysed to identify specific case studies, features and themes associated with their experiences. Further literature searches were carried out based upon these themes and the case studies and the themes discussed in relation to the literature, and realist explanatory theories proposed. The main themes were that: there was no organisational culture of performance management (which included a lack of training for managers in how to manage staff underperformance and staff not knowing how to respond to critical feedback on performance); the performance management process was time consuming, took longer than was necessary and was expensive; and more time and resources were devoted to supporting non-compliant than compliant staff. The time and financial costs of managing underperformance had not been previously described. The management of underperformance hinges on the delivery of negative feedback to staff which can trigger one of three responses; i) acceptance, ii) overt (explicit) rejection or iii) covert (hidden) rejection of the feedback; these require different management strategies to deal with them. Covert rejection of feedback has not been previouslydescribed in the literature; consequently managers fail to recognise covert rejection and do not manage it appropriately. Managing underperformance had the potential to have a large emotional impact on the manager especially when staff members rejected feedback. The emotional impact on managers from their perspectives was not described in the available literature. Avoidance of the emotional impact played a large part in managers not managing underperformance. Twenty one interacting theories were proposed relating to performance management as a change management process, staff responses to negative feedback, the staff contexts that led to these responses, manager training and credibility, the impact of managing or not managing performance on the managers and on the organisation. These theories were refined with the addition of information from secondary literature searches and two were discounted as there was a lack of corroborating evidence or it was felt that the theory could be explained by an alternative means. It is intended that this thesis may offer useful theories that inform organisational change with respect to performance management of staff, the training of managers and organisational norms and form the basis for future research.