Digital Commons Network^™

Student Nurse Behaviors And Barriers To Successful Completion Of The Traditonal Bachelor's In Science Of Nursing (Bsn) Program., Carri Shaw

Honors Theses

Change is often said to be the only constant in life. This holds true to the rapidly growing field of nursing. In order to meet the demands of new challenges that emerge in nursing, the way future nurses are educated also has changed. Not all nursing students find that the profession is for them. Therefore, some attrition from school is expected. This descriptive study will explore factors that the literature suggests are related to attrition at a mid-sized public university in the Midwest. A survey given to two different level nursing cohorts will give insight to pre-licensure nursing students’ experiences …

Outcomes Of Prediabetes And Diabetes Education Programs Tailored For Vulnerable Popuations, Diana Al Sayed Hassan

Dissertations

Diabetes is a debilitating disease and if not managed properly it can lead to multiple complications and even premature death. Diabetes continues to disproportionately affect vulnerable populations. The purpose of this three-paper method dissertation was to examine the implementation of a prediabetes and diabetes programs in a community setting to serve vulnerable populations in addition to understanding future diabetes-related educational needs.

The first paper is an evaluation of a shortened five-week diabetes prevention program for older adults with prediabetes or at a high risk for developing type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Chang in nutrition knowledge, eating and physical activity behaviors, …

Flow Experiences Among Individuals With Aphasia, Thomas W. Sather

Dissertations

Flow has been described as positive experiences of intense concentration, distorted time passage, and loss of self-consciousness. While flow has been reported for multiple populations in various settings, it has not been studied among individuals with aphasia. The purpose of this three paper dissertation is to examine flow experiences among individuals with mild aphasia, including environmental and personal factors associated with flow. Advocates of life participation approaches to aphasia stress the importance of interventions that support full engagement in life. Research on flow experiences and related environmental and personal factors may foster improved service delivery and outcomes for this population. …

Occupational Therapy Students’ Perspectives Of Professionalism: An Exploratory Study, Theresa M. Sullivan, Andrea K. Thiessen

The Open Journal of Occupational Therapy

Background: Professionalism is a dynamic, socially constructed idea, rendering it difficult to comprehend. Though characterized by the demonstration of values and behaviors, its meaning has not been fully explored and remains tacit. To explore how first- and second-year master’s of occupational therapy students conceptualize professionalism.

Method: This qualitative pilot study evolved from an interpretivist theoretical perspective. Convenience sampling yielded four first-year and seven second-year students from one entry-level master’s program to participate in two separate focus groups. Line-by-line constant comparison methods were used to analyze the data and identify categories. An audit trail, peer debriefing, and member checking were employed. …

Executive Functioning: Relationship With High School Student Role Performance, Donna P. Mann, Roberta Snover, James R. Boyd, Andrea J. List, Aaron J. Kuhn, Bridget N. Devereaux, Susan M. Chenoweth, Gina L. Middaugh

The Open Journal of Occupational Therapy

BACKGROUND. Student role performance for academic success in secondary education is under represented in the occupational therapy literature, despite the persistently high dropout rate in the United States (Stillwell & Sable, 2013). Executive dysfunction is one of many possible contributors to difficulties in the classroom (Dirette & Kolak, 2004) and is a better indicator of school performance than IQ (Diamond, 2012). This research examined executive functioning of both alternative and traditional high school students to determine if there is a relationship between executive function and academic success as measured by cumulative grade point average.

METHOD. 132 high school students from …

Personalized Medicine: Definitions, History, And Implications For The Ot Profession, Diane Powers Dirette

The Open Journal of Occupational Therapy

No abstract provided.

Understanding User Resistance To Information Technology In Healthcare: The Nature And Role Of Perceived Threats, Madison Ngafeeson

Transactions of the International Conference on Health Information Technology Advancement

Information technology (IT) in healthcare is here to stay. The United States government has made efforts in the past ten years to harness the power of information technologies in healthcare to improve legibility, lessen medical errors, keep costs low, and boost the overall quality of health care. However, IT user resistance in healthcare is continually cited as a major barrier to achieving desired outcomes. Understanding the nature and manifestation of resistance is clearly a key to successfully managing this industry-wide change, fostering adoption, and realizing positive outcomes. Earlier research had established perceived threats as a significant antecedent of user resistance; …

Can Psychology Research Inform Health Information Data Collection?, A. Michelle Wright

Transactions of the International Conference on Health Information Technology Advancement

Conclusions drawn from electronic medical records (EMRs) are only as accurate as the data provided. Recent findings by psychologists and health researchers may help streamline health information data collection and subsequent data analysis. Specifically, four areas will be discussed: (1) Standardization of terms between the patient and the health professionals, (2) Impact of patient inattention and fatigue when responding to health measures, (3) Importance of source labeling within the medical record (e.g., self-administered questionnaire, responded via phone, etc.), (4) Cognitive load on patients when using mobile health technology (e.g., apps, tablets, online patient portal, etc.). Research suggests consideration of these …

Socio-Economic Dimension Of Indoor Radon Gas In West Michigan - A Public Health Discourse And Merit To Use Hit In Shaping Health Behavior, Azizur Molla

Transactions of the International Conference on Health Information Technology Advancement

This study focuses on indoor radon levels and socioeconomic data from West Michigan, MI. It was designed to: i) analyze the relationship between indoor radon levels and socioeconomic status of the participating households, and ii) assess the degree of public awareness about the danger of indoor radon gas. The study participants expressed that they knew that radon was negative, and a health risk, but were not equipped with the knowledge to test for or mitigate radon. With nearly half of the participants affected in some way by cancer, radon is a concern and a source for worry among many citizens. …

The Expert Survey-Based Global Ranking Of Management- And Clinical-Centered Health Informatics And It Journals, Michael S. Dohan, Alexander Serenko, Joseph Tan Phd

Transactions of the International Conference on Health Information Technology Advancement

The goal of this study is to develop an expert survey-based journal ranking for the Health Informatics & Information Technology (HIIT) field. Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association and Journal of Medical Internet Research were ranked as top HIIT management-focused journals, and BMC Medical Informatics & Decision Making and IEEE Journal of Biomedical & Health Informatics were ranked as top HIIT clinical-focused journals. This ranking benefits academics who conduct research in this field because it allows them to direct their research to appropriate journals, convey their accomplishments to tenure and promotion committees, and experience other benefits.

First Generation College Students And Mobile Device Acceptance In Nursing Education, Deanna Gapp, Tsu-Yin Wu

Transactions of the International Conference on Health Information Technology Advancement

The National League for Nursing (2009) states that nurse educators must commit to diversity in education by reviewing practices that favor and exclude students. First generation college students (FGCS) have a background that may hinder success and require support to overcome barriers in a nursing program- including mobile device acceptance. A cross-sectional survey of 37 students showed significant differences; FGCS have higher results than non-FGCS in six of the eight key constructs of mobile device acceptance. Mobile devices may help bridge the digital divide. By increasing emphasis on mobile device functioning in the nursing curriculum, nurse educators can continue to …

Breastfeeding With The Bronson Mothers’ Milk Bank, Marykate Bodnar

Masters Theses

Bronson Methodist Hospital in Kalamazoo is home to one of only 15 certified breast milk banks in the United States. Women have shared breast milk for centuries through wet nurses, but this institutionalized and regulated version of sharing is distinct from previous forms. Breastfeeding has become a symbol of successful motherhood; donor milk adds a new dimension to this aspect of idealized motherhood. This study explores how the milk bank works: its organizational structure within a hospital, how donors are selected, and how recipients qualify for donor milk. It is grounded in Feminist and Medical Anthropology literature. Using semi-structured interviews …

A Review And Case Exemplifications Of Health Enhancement Lifestyle Profile (Help) And Its Screener (Help–Screener) For Older Adults, Eric J. Hwang, Terry Peralta-Catipon

The Open Journal of Occupational Therapy

Growing interest in promoting healthy lifestyles as a way to enhance successful aging has led to the necessity of screening and monitoring lifestyle behaviors among older adults. The 56-item Health Enhancement Lifestyle Profile (HELP) and its screening version, the 15-item HELP-Screener are a set of instruments designed for assessing various health-related lifestyle behaviors in older adults, including exercise, diet, social and productive activities, leisure, activities of daily living, stress management and spiritual participation, and other health promotion and risk behaviors. This article depicts the critical features (e.g., administration and scoring) and clinical usefulness of the two instruments and reviews the …

Examining The Purdue Pegboard Test For Occupational Therapy Practice, Debra K. Lindstrom-Hazel, Nicole Vandervlies Veenstra

The Open Journal of Occupational Therapy

Background: Occupational therapy ethics require that therapists use current assessment tools that provide useful comparison data. When an assessment only has normative data that is more than 40 years old, it cannot be considered current. The purpose of this study was to examine the past and current use of the Purdue Pegboard Test by occupational therapists and other professionals and to determine if it is beneficial to conduct a large normative study on the Purdue Pegboard Assembly Task (PPAT) in order to bring the test up to date.

Method: This was a psychometric study of inter-rater reliability and a small …

Performance-Based Tools For Assessing Functional Performance In Individuals With Mild Cognitive Impairment, Patricia Da Cunha Belchior, Melanie Holmes, Nathalie Bier, Carolina Bottari, Barbara Mazer, Alexandra Robert, Navaldeep Kaur

The Open Journal of Occupational Therapy

Background: It is now recognized that individuals with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) face subtle functional declines that can compromise performance in everyday tasks. However, it is still not clear how to capture these declines in the clinical setting. Thus, the goal of this study was to conduct a scoping review to identify performance-based tools for which the psychometric properties have been evaluated with the MCI population.

Methods: A scoping review of the scientific literature was performed with the guidance of a health science librarian in searching the MEDLINE, PsychINFO, CINAHL, and EMBASE databases from their inception until May 2014.

Results: …

Does The Role Checklist Measure Occupational Participation?, Tore Bonsaksen, Ursula Meidert, Deana Schuman, Hildegunn Kvarsnes, Lena Haglund, Susan Prior, Kirsty Forsyth, Takashi Yamada, Patricia J. Scott

The Open Journal of Occupational Therapy

Background: Among the Model of Human Occupation (MOHO) assessments, the Role Checklist is one of the most established. In spite of its widespread use, no studies have examined role examples and their association with the three embedded levels of doing, as established in the MOHO theory.

Method: A cross-sectional survey of 293 respondents from the US, the UK, Japan, Switzerland, Sweden, and Norway produced 7,182 role examples. The respondents completed Part I of the Role Checklist and provided examples of each internalized role they performed. Responses were classified as occupational skill, occupational performance, or occupational participation.

Results: …

Understanding The Sympathetic Nervous System In Response To Food In Children With Autism And Typically Developing Children, Jonathon D. Haskell

Occupational Therapy Graduate Student Evidenced-Based Research Reviews

Previous research behind sympathetic nervous system functioning in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder has shown disturbances in their ability to regulate their arousal level (Miller et al., 2003; Tomcheck and Dunn, 2000). Depicting this notion in previous research, children diagnosed with autism are likely to be comorbid with Sensory Over-responsitivity (SOR) or Sensory under-responsitivity (SUR), and could ultimately elicit variable sympathetic nervous system functioning in response to their sensory environment-whether it be taste, smell, auditory, tactile, or visual stimuli. Although previous research depicts inconsistent measures involving sympathetic responses to stimuli in children with autism, research specifically involving food selectivity provided …

Effect Of A 7-Week Rock Climbing Class On Physical Fitness And Performance, Justin Scott Cargo

Masters Theses

The purpose of this study was to assess changes in physical fitness and performance by rock climbing twice a week over a 7-week time period. Rock climbing is on the rise in popularity as seen in the rise of indoor climbing gyms and the increase in rock climbing competitions (Wall, C. B., Starek, J. E., Fleck, S. J., & Byrnes, W. C., 2004). Notably, the International Federation of Sport Climbing has held the Climbing World Championships biennially since the first event in 1991 (Schoffl, Burtscher, & Coscia, 2013), which emphasizes the importance of this research to apply to training programs. …

Sleep Hygiene Practices: A Cross Cultural Survey Of Sleeping And Dreaming In College Students, Ivan Noe Martinez Salazar

Masters Theses

There is consensus that a sizeable percentage of people in most developed countries do not obtain adequate amounts or quality of sleep. These disruptions in sleep, when chronic and severe, can lead to psychological, behavioral and health consequences. The focus on behavioral and contextual factors that impact sleep has been termed “sleep hygiene”. An on-line anonymous survey collected sociodemographic information, as well as self-reports on sleep, sleep hygiene practices and dreaming across two cultural groups (English & Spanish speaking responders). A total of 204 participants (majority of them college and graduate students) answered the survey. Both cultural groups, English and …

Reproductive Genetics: Desired Genes, Gendered Ethics, And Eugenic Echoes, Marykate K. Bodnar

The Hilltop Review

Present knowledge of genetics and assisted reproduction make fertile ground for a new type of eugenics: reproductive genetics. Proponents of reproductive genetics aim to separate these techniques from the problematic and negative connotations associated with historical eugenic policies by claiming them as part of the liberal eugenic movement. In-vitro fertilization (IVF), the market for sperm and eggs, and prenatal genetic testing allow conscious decision-making regarding the potential genetic make-up of children. Decisions are made in a gendered and politicized environment, shaping understandings of genes, eggs, and sperm around stereotypes and ideal social norms. In choosing “desirable” characteristics, whatever they may …

Clinical Efficacy Of Music Therapy In Addiction Counseling: A Systematic Review, Marissa Renee Rinehart

Masters Theses

A previous systematic review study by Mays, Clark, and Gordon in 2008 reviewed music therapy research to look into the clinical efficacy of music therapy and addiction counseling. Their research concluded that the present literature contained few articles that had quantitative evidence and the music therapy that was presented was not an independent therapy for treatment for patients with substance abuse. This systematic review sought to research literature within the past six years that studied the effects of music therapy on clients who were dealing with substance abuse to review the progress of music therapy research since the 2008 article …

A Comparison Study Of Diagnostic Outcomes Between The Music Therapy Assessment Tool For Awareness In Disorders Of Consciousness (Matadoc) And The Coma Recovery Scale-Revised (Crs-R), Caitlyn E. Bodine

Masters Theses

The purpose of this study was to explore preliminary external validation of a standardized music therapy assessment tool used in the detection of awareness with the DOC patient population with an external reference standard. Eight subjects were administered both the MATADOC and the CRS-R within five days of one another, and results were compared on the levels of overall diagnosis, analogous domain subscales, and intra-assessment relationships between individual domains and overall diagnosis. Results indicated a very strong level of agreement for overall diagnosis (r_s = .85, p < .01), very strong relationships between the auditory and visual components of the two assessments (r_s = .76, p < .05, and r_s = .81, p < .05, respectively), and a strong, but non-significant relationship between arousal scores on the two assessments (r …