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Improving the rates of continuation and completion of nursing students is a priority to ensure there are sufficient qualified staff to deliver national healthcare services. In the literature, which is predominantly informed by research undertaken in traditional HE institutions with students studying conventional academic programmes, the development of a student identity and course commitment are identified as key components of persistence and success. This linear model assumes that student identity formation takes place during the transition into HE - and professional identities develop as graduates progress into the workplace. Qualitative research in the UK and Norway with nursing and midwifery students found that a strong desire to become a healthcare professional is often the starting point for enrolling in HE, rather than the culmination of the course. A strong future-facing professional identity and commitment sustain many students through the process of accessing and 'enduring' their nursing degree programmes that qualify them for practice. But these programmes do little to nurture professional commitment and identity, which could be harnessed to help these students to successfully complete their nursing studies. Recognising the differences between these professionally-oriented, future-facing students, and those studying traditional degree programmes, should inform approaches to improve the continuation and success of nurses. Their learning experience needs to be affirming and nurturing of this emerging professional identity to allow students to overcome academic and professional challenges they experience as they strive to become nurses, and allow them to fully embrace their professional identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are widespread concerns about a shortage of nurses in society, making it vital to educate and retain as many nursing students as possible. This paper interrogates the fit and relevance of established models for student retention, particularly Tinto's model of student departure and its central notion of 'integration'. Early social and academic integration of students is generally important to promote persistence and prevent early departure. We consider how integration plays out in degrees with extensive practice placements in clinical settings and large degree programme cohorts, investigating the challenges for persistence. Additionally, we question how well Tinto's understanding of integration fits with the structure and format of the nursing programme. Building on comparative interviews with 2nd and 3rd year nursing students in Norway and England, we argue that common understandings about how students are integrated into degree programmes are unlikely to fit the case of nursing. As this programme takes place at multiple sites, the integration process is often experienced as fragmented or interrupted. We find many nursing students describe a prolonged liminal state of disrupted integration, posing challenges for motivation, and greater risk of leaving. We suggest this is driven by shifts between practice and academic sites, combined with institutional practices which encourage frequent changes of peer group, physical location and academic network, all of which interrupt integration processes. Finally, the paper offers suggestions of institutional scope to promote integration within nursing degrees. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tinto's (1993) interactional model of student departure was initially developed for students in traditional academic degrees, at residential colleges in the US. This paper takes up Tinto as a fruitful starting point for a critical review of the aspects of the model which are more and less suitable for professional degrees: integration and commitment. Since nursing degrees are quite different from traditional academic degrees, particularly when it comes to the structure of the programme, this calls for a rethink of how the concepts can be used. The paper suggests that a Tinto-type model could be adjusted to offer a valuable tool with which to inform institutional work on retention and completion in nursing programmes, and potentially in other short professional degrees. While we identified limitations in how integration functions in a nursing programme, the existing model could be adapted to account for professional commitment, which in turn may counteract the fragmented integration nursing students experience. As nursing students' initial commitment is much stronger (compared to other student groups), and this is linked to professional identity, students seem less interested in developing a student identity. Institutions should therefore consider alternative integration activities, activities which build on and contribute to the professional commitment students come into the institution with. Additionally, the integration activities also need to consider teaching at several sites, as nursing students switch between their institution and various practice placements, and therefore have a more interrupted study path. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The new Irish and English poor laws of the nineteenth century were based on ideologies prevalent during the period of Improvement. The workhouse was the central instrument of these new Acts. Through an archival and archaeological methodology, this paper investigates the physical manifestations of the governing ideologies of reform and improvement and the manifestations of resistance to this reform in one type of institution, Ulster's nineteenth-century workhouses (a province that spans Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland). It also reflects on how these once despised institutions are now used, through community efforts, as recreational and 'reform' centers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Young people in urban slums adopt HIV risk behaviors influenced by their neighborhood factors. Three critical factors in urban slums of Southern and Eastern Africa-the region most affected by the HIV epidemic in the world-are unmet needs of housing, food, and health care, which are associated with HIV sexual risks. Yet, there has been limited attention on how the combination of unmet needs of housing, food, and health care-i.e., material deprivation-relates to sexual risk behavior among young people in urban slums. Cross-sectional data were extracted from the LoveLife survey in South African four provinces-KwaZulu Natal, Mpumalanga, Eastern Cape, and Gauteng, to examine the association between material deprivation and sexual risk behavior among young people aged 18-23 years (263 males, 267 females) in urban slums. Adjusted logistic regression models showed that material deprivation was significantly associated with increased odds of high sexual risk taking for young men (adjusted OR = 1.20; 95 % CI = 1.10, 5.58) and young women (adjusted OR = 1.43; 95 % CI = 1.35, 3.28). Financial difficulty-a proxy for other deprivations-was the most salient influence on young women's high sexual risk taking (adjusted OR = 2.11; 95 % CI = 1.66, 2.70). Localized behavioral HIV prevention interventions should target young people in deprived households. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]