Theseshttp://hdl.handle.net/10034/6230272024-03-29T10:56:36Z2024-03-29T10:56:36ZHow is play expressed amongst Undergraduate Students from Medicine, Nursing & Allied Health Professions Programmes and does it relate to Psychological Wellbeing? An IPA StudyRylance-Graham, Rebeccahttp://hdl.handle.net/10034/6281252023-10-04T01:49:47Z2023-02-01T00:00:00ZHow is play expressed amongst Undergraduate Students from Medicine, Nursing & Allied Health Professions Programmes and does it relate to Psychological Wellbeing? An IPA Study
Rylance-Graham, Rebecca
The psychological wellbeing (PWB) of students undertaking Medicine, Nursing and Allied Health Professions (AHP) programmes is at crisis point. Manifested as stress and mental health conditions, this group of students’ experience detriment to
wellbeing before they join what is arguably a stressful clinical environment at the end of their professional programme. Strategies to improve the wellbeing of students and healthcare workers have yet to bear fruit and the issue of declining wellbeing appears to be escalating. Empirical studies within business literature suggest that play in the organisational context may improve PWB. This Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) study explores the lived experiences of undergraduate students from Medicine, Nursing and AHP programmes and their expression of play in the clinical environment. The findings contribute to a sparse body of knowledge about play in the healthcare organisational context and offers some unique and original insights into the types of play that the participants engaged in, the facilitative and limiting factors of play, and how the enactment of play contributes to improved PWB.
2023-02-01T00:00:00ZThriving at Work (Integrated Learning): An investigation into adult learners’ experiences of vitality and learning when successfully engaging with work integrated learningWeston, Philippahttp://hdl.handle.net/10034/6267702023-05-12T12:47:03Z2021-08-01T00:00:00ZThriving at Work (Integrated Learning): An investigation into adult learners’ experiences of vitality and learning when successfully engaging with work integrated learning
Weston, Philippa
Higher Education (HE) has a key role in re-educating an aging UK workforce through part-time programmes aimed at older (30+) working adults. However, since 2010 HE enrolments have plummeted further compounded by high attrition rates. As such, there is an urgent need for HE to research this important but overlooked student category in order to attract and support them. As a HE lecturer in work integrated learning, the researcher has a vested interest in addressing this gap as well as contributing to the thriving at work literature. Taking a social constructivist stance, narrative inquiry has been applied to explore eleven adult work integrated learners’ experiences of thriving to gain a deeper understanding of what positively influences their vitality and learning and how HE can facilitate them.
Her findings show learners’ vitality towards work integrated learning mirror their vitality towards work. The opportunity to shape and share learning helps elevate and maintain vitality levels as well as deepen the learning experience so enabling them to thrive. Further, attitudes are not only influenced by the current context but also experiences and events from childhood. However, although HE tutors can positively influence learners’ experience of work integrated learning, most of HE appears to have little impact.
As well as exploring thriving in the context of work integrated learning, this study contributes to the thriving at work literature by providing insights which suggest vitality exhibits state-like and trait-like qualities. When vitality combines with work integrated learning, it creates a virtuous circle where one construct builds on the other to enable the learner to thrive. This is further enhanced by learners’ shaping and sharing their learning experience with others. However, learners’ ability to engage with HE successfully in the present is also influenced by their experiences from the past and can impact on their needs and expectations. To attract and retain this important learner category, HE must understand and respond to learners’ needs and expectations not just via interactions with specific tutors but through the HE systems and processes laid down to support them.
2021-08-01T00:00:00ZExperiences of international students studying in a UK university: how do international students studying in the UK’s Higher Education sector build academic resilience?Brogden-Ward, Anthony J.http://hdl.handle.net/10034/6256122022-06-09T15:51:39Z2021-05-01T00:00:00ZExperiences of international students studying in a UK university: how do international students studying in the UK’s Higher Education sector build academic resilience?
Brogden-Ward, Anthony J.
With the ever-increasing number of international students entering the global market, many of which enrol on post-graduate Higher Education (HE) programmes in the UK, current research offers limited insight into the key role academic resilience plays in enabling international cohorts’ progression and achievement. This study aims to fill the gap by investigating how international students studying in the UK build academic resilience, contributing to the literature and informing governmental policies and university practices. Guided by Bourdieu’s seminal concepts of social capital generation and conversion, this work develops the theories of other researchers in building capital to enhance the academic resilience of students. It achieves this by adopting a qualitative interpretivist paradigm aligned to similar studies, using a longitudinal representative case study in the UK. Over a period of 42-months, 36 respondents formed four non-probability samples. Data was collected using semi-structured interviews, a focus group and questionnaire, the findings of which were analysed using grounded theory methods and supported by computer-aided qualitative analysis software. The results identify six prevalent capitals that students either generate prior to their arrival in the UK or are socially constructed with newly formed peer-groups. Notably, the emergence of neo-familial capital akin to concepts of fictive kinship offers a fresh perspective on the need to formally address the importance academic resilience has on the international student’s learning experience and progression. The findings provide insight into the sources of international students’ academic resilience and how these can change over space and time. This insight offers universities with theoretical and practical guidance on the need to embed proactive student support systems that stimulate academic resilience amongst its international students. It also informs governmental policies on attracting students from overseas as it seeks to enhance the UK’s HE offer to global markets.
2021-05-01T00:00:00ZCategory management and strategic sourcing processes in local government: A phenomenographic investigation of the lived experiences of procurement managersBenn-Ohikuare, Gregory A.http://hdl.handle.net/10034/6243532022-06-09T15:52:57Z2020-09-01T00:00:00ZCategory management and strategic sourcing processes in local government: A phenomenographic investigation of the lived experiences of procurement managers
Benn-Ohikuare, Gregory A.
Increasingly tight financial constraints have meant category management (CM) and strategic sourcing (SS) processes have been adopted and integrated into the public sectors including English local government authorities (LGAs). The extant literature,
however, argues that empirical research in these areas are underdeveloped especially in relation to competency and competencies. Therefore, this study aims to qualitatively investigate the different experiences of procurement managers in LGAs
in England in terms of competency for accomplishing effective job performance through the use of CM and SS processes.
The research methodology adopted is phenomenography, and data were collected through semi-structured interviews from a purposive sample of ten procurement managers. The data were analyzed following phenomenographic principles to identify the referential and structural aspects of experience. Ultimately, three main conceptions of competency for accomplishing effective job performance through the use of CM and SS processes are identified: Stakeholder Management; SocioTechnical Knowledge; and Achievement Orientation.
This study not only expands the research context of phenomenography, but also contributes to the understanding of procurement managers’ conceptions of competency for accomplishing effective job performance through the use of CM and SS processes. The implications for procurement professionals are discussed.
2020-09-01T00:00:00Z