Multidimensional Rasch Analysis of the Arabic Occupational Fatigue Exhaustion Recovery Subscales.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Investigation of the psychometric properties of the Arabic version of the Occupational Fatigue Exhaustion Recovery (A-OFER) subscales. METHODS: Partial credit model (PCM) analyses of 2037 Lebanese nurses' responses to the chronic fatigue (CF), acute fatigue (AF), and intershift recovery (IR) subscales. RESULTS: The data were a better fit to the three-dimensional Rasch PCM; difference, χ2 = 2199.3, df = 5, p = .01; unidimensional Akaike information criterion (AIC) = 107355; multidimensional AIC = 105166. Rating categories were disordered and there was item dependence among negatively-keyed items. All items were free of subgroup bias. Inter-subscale correlations were contrary to expectations. CONCLUSION: The CF subscale has sufficient reliability for screening nurses in Lebanon and the Eastern Mediterranean region for low to moderate levels of occupational fatigue. The construct validity of the A-OFER requires further investigation.

Multidimensional Analysis of the Arabic Version of the Actual Scope of Nursing Practice Scale.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Data were analyzed from a national convenience sample of 3,000 bedside nurses in Lebanon to evaluate the psychometric characteristics of the first Arabic version of the Actual Scope of Nursing Practice (A-ASCOP) questionnaire. METHODS: The method used in this study was application of the partial credit model using the multidimensional random coefficients multinomial logit model. RESULTS: A-ASCOP subscales (r = .81-.94) and levels of item complexity (r = .95-.98) were highly correlated. CONCLUSIONS: As a 26-item scale, the A-ASCOP has high internal consistency (Cronbach's α = 0.93). The A-ASCOP subscales have acceptable multidimensional reliability Expected A-Posteriori/Plausible Value ratio (EAP/PV > .80) and are suitable for descriptive surveys. The three A-ASCOP levels of item complexity were not valid for this sample. We report norms for unidimensional Rasch and 0-100 transformed measures by category of participant.

'Philosophy Lost': Inquiring into the effects of the corporatized university and its implications for graduate nursing education.

Drawing on a comprehensive, pan-national analysis of the corporatization of Canadian universities, as well as the notions of 'parrhesiastic' mentorship and practice, the authors examine the effects of the corporatized university, its implications for graduate nursing education and nursing's relative silence on the subject. With the preponderance of business interests, the increasing dependence of universities on industry funding, cults of efficiency, research intensivity, and the pursuit of profit so prevalent in today's corporatized university, we argue that philosophical presuppositions so crucial to critical teaching, research, and reflection on nursing as a discipline are troublingly losing ground. We lament the erosion and fragmentation of philosophy, politics, and ethics as foundations for graduate education, which are increasingly perceived as less valuable, problematic, and in some cases, even burdensome. The effect of corporatization is the suppression of the critical engagement required of faculty in the everyday workings of institutions. We argue that, when the ideals of intellectual freedom, academic responsibility, duty, and obligation, as supported by philosophical thought, are smothered by the normalizing power of corporatized research agendas, philosophical approaches to inquiry and knowledge development become marginalized as scholars find themselves floundering in the face of a seeming 'philosophy lost'.