Role Of Graduates Research Articles

Graduate attribute for minimising environmental harm – Assessing effectiveness in the graduates’ workplaces

Over recent times concern about the physical environment has fluctuated. Even after the coverage of environment and sustainability issues in the education of many professions, a decline of community concern suggests that the potential for the inclusion of environmental issues in the work of professionals could be limited. This situation raises the question of whether recent graduates have the ability, through their workplaces, to act to minimise environmental harm. To assess this ability, based on the Theory of Planned Behaviour, a survey instrument was developed and tested on a sample of graduates, of an Australian university, associated with the building and construction fields. Results indicated, firstly, that the model provided a valid approach to the assessment of influences on a graduate's behaviour. Secondly, that factors associated with their workplaces are very influential, especially support from their employers and clients. Further, behavioural enablers are especially important influences on behaviour: specifically the resources available to the graduate, workplace support and assistance, and the scope and power associated with the graduate's role. These findings provide insights for the curriculum and pedagogy that is needed if graduates are to enter the workforce and be effective in minimising environmental harm from their professional activities.

Integrating public health practice into the graduate's role through pre-registration education

Public health is now clearly defined in policy and statute as an integral part of the midwife's role and this work continues to develop as health challenges emerge and diversify. To clarify the knowledge and skills required by contemporary midwives, this article provides an overview of health promotion and public health concepts and discusses how these are embedded in midwifery policy. The approaches and processes midwives should adopt are considered and an analysis of public health learning in midwifery education highlights areas that need to be addressed. This paper concludes with recommendations for midwifery pre-registration education to develop the underpinning public health knowledge and skills that midwives require for optimum practice.

Transition shock: the initial stage of role adaptation for newly graduated Registered Nurses

The aim of this paper is to provide a theoretical framework of the initial role transition for newly graduated nurses to assist managers, educators and seasoned practitioners to support and facilitate this professional adjustment appropriately. The theory of Transition Shock presented here builds on Kramer's work by outlining how the contemporary new graduate engaging in a professional practice role for the first time is confronted with a broad range and scope of physical, intellectual, emotional, developmental and sociocultural changes that are expressions of, and mitigating factors within the experience of transition. This paper offers cumulative knowledge gained from a programme of research spanning the last 10 years and four qualitative studies on new graduate transition. New nurses often identify their initial professional adjustment in terms of the feelings of anxiety, insecurity, inadequacy and instability it produces. The Transition Shock theory offered focuses on the aspects of the new graduate's roles, responsibilities, relationship and knowledge that both mediate the intensity and duration of the transition experience and qualify the early stage of professional role transition for the new nursing graduate. Transition shock reinforces the need for preparatory theory about role transition for senior nursing students and the critical importance of bridging undergraduate educational curricula with escalating workplace expectations. The goal of such knowledge is the successful integration of new nursing professionals into the stressful and highly dynamic context of professional practice.

Letter: No medical school for many Americans.

<i>To the Editor</i>.–I read with special interest the article on "The Foreign Medical Graduate's Role in American Medicine" (<i>Arch Surg</i>107:476-482, 1973). I am writing in regard to this article as I am interested in the 20,000 young Americans who now cannot find places in American medical schools each year. My interest in this has been building over the last several years. I have been called upon to advise and assist in finding places for these young men and women from our neighboring community, as I am interested in them and willing to counsel and help them. It is a great tragedy that these young people cannot find places of admission when they are well qualified, and I find that there is a definite increase in bitterness on their part when they see foreign medical graduates practicing in this country in ever-increasing numbers. I am quite confident that if

The foreign medical graduate's role in American medicine. A seminar.

Dr. Warren: Dr. John Homans used to deplore the necessity of putting people and things into pigeonholes to classify them for discussion. No group is more subject to the danger of pigeonholing than the one labeled Foreign Medical Graduate (FMG). Of the 57,000 FMGs in the United States in 1970, a total of 87 countries and 570 medical schools were represented. Ten percent were United States citizens. Of the remainder, only 7% came from countries where English was the first language. Some pigeonhole! Differences in educational and cultural backgrounds within the whole group are so enormous that they defy analysis. But the problem created by the difficulties in communication and understanding, so important for the health care team, must be discussed and, if possible, analyzed. This symposium will focus primarily on this aspect of the problem as it affects the team in general and the FMG personally. Dr. William Sodeman