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Primary Care Nurse Attitudes, Beliefs And Confidence Levels Regarding Alcohol Abuse And Its Treatment: Impact Of Educational Intervention., Raja Sekhar Vadlamudi

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Alcohol abuse has been a major burden on the society. In the fight against it a key issue the education of the primary care nurses has been ignored. This study evaluates the effect of education program on the attitudes, beliefs, and confidence levels of primary care nurses regarding alcohol abuse and its treatment. Data from the Project Mainstream educational intervention were used with permission from the investigators. Two hundred one students and faculty of nursing at Vanderbilt University participated in the intervention, which was designed to train primary care providers in the Brief Negotiated Intervention technique for early detection and …

Trapped In A State Of Mitigating Danger: Forgotten Process, Forgotten Women, Alva Hunt Reid

Doctoral Dissertations

Women who are in intimate partner abusive relationships undergo a change process, which is a spectrum of emotional and behavioral responses to violence that is identifiable in stages. The end result is that women terminate their relationships or renegotiate their circumstances to halt the violence: Treatment protocol for abused women is shifting to individualized intervention based on these stages. Leaving and returning to an abusive relationship is a predominant theme in the change process that has not been investigated.

The present study examined this forgotten leave-return process in a sample of forgotten women. Grounded theory methodology was utilized to describe …

Chlorpyrifos In Human Breast Milk?, Karyn Ann Casey

Doctoral Dissertations

The widespread use of pesticides by farmers, pest control operators and even the general public can pose significant risks to children's health. One particular pesticide, chlorpyrifos, was the most widely used pesticide in the United States with total use estimated at approximately 30 million pounds per year. Young children and the developing fetus are far more susceptible to the effects of pesticide exposure as a result of unusual exposure patterns and developmental immaturities. Transplacental transfer and lactational exposure are the pathways exclusive to the developing fetus and infant. Chlorpyrifos exposure is of special concern in this population because of its …

The Only Way Out Is To Die: Perceptions And Experiences Of Rural, Homebound, Older Diabetics, Sharon Robbins George

Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to investigate the meaning of diabetes, as perceived and experienced by rural, homebound, 65-year and older, diabetics requiring insulin. The sixty-five year and older persons are disproportionately affected by diabetes. They are more likely than younger diabetics to have co-morbidities, disabilities and difficulty preventing diabetic complications. Guidelines for diabetes management and treatment developed by the American Diabetes Association are not specifically targeted for the 65-year and older population. Phenomenological research was used to examine and describe the understanding of diabetes from perspectives of older diabetics.

A purposive sample of participants was recruited from …

Psychometric Evaluation Of The Shared Care Instrument In A Sample Of Home Health Care Family Dyads, Margaret Sebern

College of Nursing Faculty Research and Publications

Researchers have studied negative effects of caregiving on a family caregiver; however, less is known about positive aspects of exchanging assistance for both members of a family caregiving dyad. In a previous naturalistic inquiry the author indentified a basis for studying caregiving interactions was a construct called shared care. The three components of shared care identified in the naturalistic inquiry were communication, decision making, and reciprocity. The Shared Care Instrument (SCI) was developed to measure the construct. The purpose of this study was to assess the psychometric properties of the SCI, and to assess its construct and criterion-related validity. A …

Being Whole: Aligning Personhoods To Achieve Successful Childbirth With A History Of Childhood Sexual Abuse During Perinatal Services, Karla Kendall Richmond Phd, Msn, Rnc, Cns

Dissertations

Being a pregnant female is a temporary condition. A woman with a history of childhood sexual abuse aligns the personhoods of child victim, adult survivor and pregnant female to achieve a successful pregnancy, labor, delivery and postpartum experience. Female survivors desire to be recognized and function as whole being during the perinatal experience. It is estimated that 15 to 32 percent of females prior to the age of eighteen have unwanted sexual contact. Female survivors carry this history of childhood sexual abuse (CSA) with them throughout their lives which may involve childbirth. There are many long-term psychological consequences that can …

Perceptions Of High Risk Behaviors Among Culturally Diverse Adolescents And The Role Of Parental Influence And Parent Communication, Sharlene E. Junio

Master's Projects

Eighty seven ethnically diverse 9th and 1oth graders from an urban high school in Northern California were studied. Students were mostly female, between 14 and 16 years of age, and reported to be mostly Asian and Filipino. Students completed an 18-item Likert scale questionnaire requesting information about their overall relationship with their parents and their communication with their parents about drugs, sex, alcohol, birth control, and personal problems. Results of this study showed that participants rated their overall relationship with their parents as "good" or "very good." Despite this, communication was lacking among parents and adolescents in all topics of …

Chronically Ill Adolescents' Involvement In Health Treatment Decision Making, Edna B. Domingo Phd

Dissertations

The purposes of this study were to explore preferences for involvement of chronically ill adolescents in health treatment decision-making; describe, explain and predict relationships and differences in self-confidence in decision-making between older and younger chronically ill adolescents; and explore relationships between severity of symptoms and self-confidence in health treatment decision-making among chronically ill adolescents. Ten to twenty million American children have some type of chronic illnesses with 90% survival to adulthood. There is lack of current literature on adolescent preferences for involvement in health care decisions. Courts and legislators assume that minors lack the requisite capacity for information, and lack …

A Systematic Review Of Mammography Educational Interventions For Low-Income Women, Tatiana Bailey, Jorge Delva, Kimberlee A. Gretebeck, Kristine Siefert, Amid I. Ismail

College of Nursing Faculty Research and Publications

Objective

We conducted a systematic review to examine the effectiveness of educational interventions in increasing mammography screening among low-income women.

Data Sources

Bibliographic databases, including MEDLINE, The Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, and the ISI Web of Science, were searched for relevant articles.

Study Inclusion and Exclusion Criteria

Randomized, community-based trials targeting low-income women and published between January 1980 and March 2003 were included.

Data Extraction

The search yielded 242 studies; 24 met all inclusion criteria.

Data Synthesis

Three studies used mammography vans, three used low-cost vouchers or provided free mammograms, three used …

Psychosocial Responses By Adolescent Male Victims To Peer Bullying, Karin Eve Reuter-Rice Phd

Dissertations

Bullying remains a pervasive problem in most schools throughout the nation. Peer-bullied victims report higher levels of depression, suicidal ideation, anxiety, and concerns regarding their safety in school. Reactions of victims to peer bullying have been extreme, as in the cases of the rampage school shooters. Primarily, current research has not focused on the high school adolescent, although most school shooters arise from that age group. The overall purpose of this study was to examine the psychosocial responses by adolescent male victims to peer bullying. Research questions addressed the frequency and severity of peer-victimization, distress, anxiety, and their perception of …

Cigarette Smoking Among Low-Income African Americans: A Serious Public Health Problem, Jorge Delva, Marisol Tellez, Tracy L. Finlayson, Kimberlee A. Gretebeck, Kristine Siefert, David R. Williams, Amid I. Ismail

College of Nursing Faculty Research and Publications

Background

This study examines the current prevalence of cigarette smoking and the number of cigarettes smoked in a community-based sample of 1021 low-income African-American men and women.

Methods

Participants were selected using a two-stage, area probability sample design. Data were collected in 2002–2003 in face-to-face interviews and analyzed in 2005. All data and analyses were weighted to account for the complex sampling design.

Results

Fifty-nine percent of men and 41% of women were current smokers, with younger individuals apparently initiating smoking at an earlier age than older individuals.

Conclusions

The high prevalence of cigarette use provides further evidence that the …

Nursing Students' Knowledge And Attitudes Regarding Pain And Pain Management, Ruth L. Schaffler Phd

Dissertations

Pain is a universal human experience and is a primary reason people seek health care; however, undertreatment of pain has been reported in the literature as a significant clinical problem for more than three decades. Researchers have concluded that nurses have inadequate knowledge of pain assessment, are misinformed about opioids, and have inappropriate attitudes about pain and pain management that lead to the undertreatment of pain. One question is whether those misconceptions are acquired in nursing school or whether they are present when students enroll in nursing programs. The purpose of this quasi-experimental study was to examine the attitudes regarding …

A Pilot Study: The Effects Of Group Exercise On Fatigue And Quality Of Life During Cancer Treatment, Joanna M. Losito

Master's Projects

Fatigue affects 60-100% of all cancer patients, is difficult to manage, and can have a profound impact on everyday functioning and quality of life. Though seemingly counterintuitive, exercise has emerged as a promising intervention for the management of cancer related fatigue (CRF). Current research predominantly involves individual, home-based exercise programs with few studies exploring other modes of exercise delivery. The purpose of this pilot study was to determine if participation in a structured group exercise program (SGEP) was a feasible intervention for adult oncology patients receiving cancer treatment and to test the impact of a SGEP on reducing CRF and …

Workplace Organization, Labor Process Control And Occupational Health. Ph. D. Dissertation, Linda Treiber

Faculty and Research Publications

The purpose of this research is to understand the complex relationships between working conditions and occupational health. The research draws from labor process theory that generally views worker control over the labor process as essential to non-alienated labor and from epidemiologic models of host, agent/exposure, and environment. Using General Social Survey 2002 cross sectional data, I investigate the effects of standard epidemiologic factors and worker labor process control factors in multivariate models to predict the dependent variables of workplace injury, persistent pain, exhaustion, and general health status. I suggest that labor process autonomy, social cohesion and skill utilization generally have …

An Exploratory Study Of Functional Status In Post Cardiac Arrest Survivors Discharged To Home, John J. Whitcomb Phd

Dissertations

Cardiopulmonary arrest is a major health problem, claiming 350,000 to 450,000 lives per year in the United States, but survival has increased to 49% from the use of Automated External Defibrillators (AED) by lay personnel. Leidy's work on functional status is a comprehensive framework to describe functional status and has not been used in this population. The specific aims of the project were to describe perceived functional capacity, physical functional performance, mental health, symptom distress, and demographic factors in survivors of cardiopulmonary arrest after discharge to home and to examine the relationship among perceived functional capacity, mental health and physical …

Incidence And Clinical Predictors Of Risk Factors For Inappropriate Shock In Patients With Implantable Cardioverter-Defibrillators, Shu-Ling Lo Phd

Dissertations

Sudden cardiac death (SCD) is a major unresolved medical problem worldwide. Although Implantable Cardioverter-Defibrillators (ICD) are highly effective in diagnosing and treating life threatening arrhythmias, inappropriate shock therapy (IST) occurs in approximately 5-20% of ICD recipients. IST results in pain, anxiety, induction of ventricular arrhythmias, decreased battery longevity, and even death. Researchers studying clinical predictors of IST have drawn findings based on single case studies with small samples or with outdated data. This study filled this gap by describing the incidence and co-existing clinical predictors of IST. Methodology This descriptive, retrospective study analyzed the incidence and clinical predictors of IST …

Workplace Organization, Labor Process Control And Occupational Health. Ph. D. Dissertation, Linda A. Treiber

Linda A. Treiber

Adult Suicide Attempts In Relationship To Life Experiences And Familial Tendencies, Laura S. Ford

Graduate Research Projects

The purpose of this project was to describe the variables age, gender, child or adult abuse, educational level, family history of suicide, depression, economic level as factors related to adult attempted suicides. The Lazarus framework was used to examine factors contributing to adult attempted suicide. A suicide prevention community education project was developed with Lazarus’s theory of cognition and unconscious processes in mind. Lazarus’s theory focuses on the relationship between development of coping skills learned during childhood and how a person will respond using those skills as an adult. This project explored links between child and adult abuse, education or …

Workplace Empowerment And Job Satisfaction In Primary Care Nurse Practitioners In Southeast Kansas, Karen Zafuta Johnson

Electronic Theses & Dissertations

The purpose guiding this study was to identify perceptions of workplace empowerment and levels of job satisfaction in a group of primary care nurse practitioners in the southeast Kansas area. A quantitative study was conducted and examined as to what background variables are significant for empowerment to be fully realized. This will add knowledge to other studies that have been done on nurse practitioner's job satisfaction so that more will be known about this vital and growing profession.

The population for this study included 30 nurse practitioners that currently work in a primary care setting in the southeast Kansas area …

Beyond The Patient: Nursing Presence With Families During The Perioperative Period, Joyce P. Miller

Theses and Graduate Projects

Nurses have used the intervention of caring for many years, but little attention has been given to describing the phenomenon of nursing presence in the perioperative setting. The purpose of this research was to learn more about the experience of the connection of the family to the nurse who kept them informed during the perioperative period. A hermeneutic phenomenological approach was utilized to identify patterns of caring, connecting, and transpersonal nursing presence described by the family of surgical patients. Five women were interviewed for this study. Transcribed interviews became the phenomenological texts for my hermeneutic analysis. Essential themes were uncovered …

Unintended Pregnancy Prevention And Active Duty Women, Min S. Chung-Park Phd, Msn, Whnp

Dissertations

Studies have shown that a structured education program for women decreases risky sexual behavior identified as vulnerable for AIDS. However, the outcomes from a structured, repeated, educational intervention in reducing the rates of unintended pregnancies have not been studied in military females who are considered as a high risk. The purpose of this quasi-experimental longitudinal study was to implement and evaluate the effects of a reproductive health educational program regarding knowledge, attitudes, decisional balance, self-efficacy, stages of change, and contraceptive use, and to identify independent variables most likely to predict behavior change in the use of contraceptives among single, active …

Self-Efficacy And Sexual Transmitted Disease Prevention Among College Women, Dominique M. Ly

Master's Projects

According to the Center of Disease Control (2002), sexual transmitted diseases (STDs) are on the rise, especially among women. By far, women bear the greatest burden of STDs because they suffer more frequently and develop more serious complications than men. This study explored the relationship between self-efficacy and safe sex behaviors among college women. The data was collected by using questionnaires from the General Perceived Self-Efficacy Scale (GPSE) and the Condom Use Self-Efficacy Scale(CUSES). The sample was composed of 38 unmarried female college students between the ages of 18 and 25 years-of-age who had been sexually active within the last …

Discovering Strengths Of Homeless Abused Women, Jean Croce Hemphill

Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this qualitative study was to investigate the experience of discovering strengths of homeless abused women. An emancipatory feminist and existential phenomenological research design was used. Seventeen homeless abused women participated in facilitative dialogues that explored experiences of strength, and assisted in consciousness raising and then discovery of each woman’s own strengths. There were four levels of analysis used to identify a thematic structure. The thematic structure was derived from the various themes of strength that were facilitated in the dialogue and expressed in the words of the women. These various themes were clustered and organized within a …

Exposure To Secondhand Smoke And Nicotine Dependence, Chizimuzo T.C. Okoli, Ellen J. Hahn, Steven R. Browning, Mary Kay Rayens

Nursing Presentations

Background

• Nicotine dependence (ND) : “the smoking behavior accompanied by a reluctance to quit (Khurana, Batra, Patkar, & Leone, 2003).

• The US Public Health Service Clinical Practice Guideline ‘Treating Tobacco Use and Dependence’: A chronic condition that often requires repeated interventions (Office of the Surgeon General, 2000).

• Secondhand Smoke (SHS) is a potential source of exposure to high levels of nicotine. (Dimich-Ward, Gee, Brauer, Leung,1997)

• No current studies addressing the contribution of SHS to Nicotine Dependence (ND) or smoking behaviors

Validation Of The Caregiving At Life’S End Questionnaire, Jennifer R. Salmon, Jung Kwak, Kimberly D. Acquaviva, Kathleen A. Egan, Katherine E. Brandt

Kimberly D. Acquaviva, PhD, MSW

The researchers in this study developed and validated a questionnaire to measure the needs of end-of-life (EOL) caregivers. The model is used to facilitate meaningful and supportive experiences for both the patient and caregiver. The questionnaire was developed using existing scales of meaning, self acceptance, burden, and gain as well as new scales of caregiver comfort, importance of caregiving tasks, and caregiver closure. The sample included 34 current and 17 bereaved caregivers affiliated with The Hospice Institute of the Florida Suncoast. The scales performed well in terms of concurrent validity, internal consistency, and reliability.

Quality Of Life And Medical Compliance In The Adolescent Kidney Transplant Population ---A Pilot Study, Catherine Costaglio

Master's Projects

Introduction: Post renal transplant medical non-compliance is a leading cause of renal graft loss, in the adolescent population. The pwpose of this study was to determine if there was a relationship between quality of life and medical compliance. Method: A pilot study was conducted using a convenience sample of 10 post renal transplant adolescents during their routine transplant clinic appointment. Demographic data was collected and the KIND L Quality of Life questionnaire was completed by study participants. Medical compliance was measured by evaluating transplant clinic appointment attendance, laboratory appointment attendance, and immunosuppressant drug levels. Results: Despite positive correlations reported in …

Analysis Of Contraceptive Self-Efficacy In Clients Requesting Emergency Contraception, Jennifer L. Nordeen

Master's Projects

No abstract provided.

Perceived Social Support Among Chinese American Hemodialysis Patients, Kaklam Wong

Master's Projects

Social support is linked to improved health outcomes both in Western and Asian societies and is a vital factor in a patient's adjustment to end-stage renal disease and its treatment regimen. This study explored perceived social support among 46 Chinese American hemodialysis patients in San Francisco's Chinatown using the Norbeck Social Support Questionnaire plus open-ended questions. Findings unexpectedly revealed low levels of perceived social support and lack of tangible support especially in elder patients. We can no longer assume that traditional family cultural values are providing adequate social support for this population.

From Presence To “E-Presence” In Online Nursing Education, Lisa M. Kaiser Phd, Msn, Bsn, Rn

Dissertations

Online web-based course offerings are now common in many institutions of higher education In response to the current and severe nursing shortage, estimated to represent a 20% vacancy rate by the year 2015, (Tarkin, 2003) many more universities have created online nursing courses for registered nurses wishing to continue their education in nursing. The National League for Nursing (NLN) set research priorities that urged exploration of the impact that technology has on the content and nature of teaching and learning in nursing education (1999). Using a series of separate synchronous, online focus groups and 1:1 interviews with nurse educator experts …

Sexuality And The Aging Adult: The Attitude And Practice Of Physicians And Nurse Practitioners, Susan Runsvold

Master's Projects

Background: As the population ages, many quality of life issues will generate discussion. One such issue is sexuality of the aging adult. While there is substantial documentation related to the physiology and desires of the aging adult, little is known about medical practitioners' beliefs and practices regarding sexuality. Method: A 14 question survey with a comment section was developed and mailed to 269 physicians and nurse practitioners in Santa Clara County, California. The responses were evaluated using descriptive statistics. The comments received were grouped related to intent or topic. Results: There was no discernible difference between the beliefs and practices …