A Technology-Based, Mixed Methods Approach To Examining The Psychosocial Determinants Of Maternal Health Disparities, Hannah M. Ming

Theses and Dissertations

Background: Exposure to racism and discrimination in the U.S. increases Black women’s risk for experiencing maternal health disparities. Additionally, racism and discrimination affect maternal psychosocial well-being, creating evidence for a biopsychosocial relationship between racism and maternal health outcomes. However, current research does not define the psychosocial Black maternal self well. Given the dynamic relationship between racism, psychosocial well-being, and Black maternal health outcomes, research must comprehensively examine the Black maternal self. The operationalization of a comprehensive construct for Black maternal psychosocial well-being can improve understanding of the relationship between racism, psychosocial well-being, and Black maternal health outcomes.

Purpose: …

Beyond The Basics: Educating Nurses At The Bedside About Evidence-Based Practice, Katherine D. Simpson

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The nursing profession is a large and dynamic part of the healthcare industry with the greatest percentage of nurses practicing at the bedside. An increase in nursing professionalism with evidence-based practice has emerged over the past several decades. However, evidence continues to support a lack of knowledge among registered nurses in implementing evidence-based patient care at the bedside and the need for education related to evidence-based practice. The analysis, design, development, implementation, and evaluation model of instructional design framed this Doctor of Nursing Practice project. The purpose of the project was to fill the practice gap through the planning, implementation, …

Healthcare Equity For Transgender Individuals, Mollie Staggs

DSW Capstone Projects

In the field of social justice and integrity, Social Work has dedicated itself to improving the welfare of the world, in which we all participate and interact. There are countless issues in our society that warrant professional attention for the fundamental purpose of positively impacting the livelihood of subcategories of people. For this particular Capstone Project, the focus is on transgender individuals’ systemic healthcare barriers that cisgender people within the United States do not similarly experience. The purpose is to unveil these disparities to then pose progressive alterations within the healthcare system to make the navigation and accessibility better for …

The New Mainers: An Exploratory Analysis Of Healthcare Experiences In The Somali Bantu Community, Jordan R. Mcclintock

Honors Theses

Healthcare inequities within the United States’ Western model of medicine have existed for hundreds of years. The purpose of this year-long project was to analyze the existing qualitative and quantitative studies of healthcare barriers for the Southern Maine Somali Bantu population, as well as compiling narrative pieces from Maine non-governmental organizations that provide community resources. In doing so, the idea of healthcare access and literacy was analyzed through means of understanding systemic barriers. Overall, the findings of this exploratory project point to a lack of cultural humility within medicine, the importance of recognizing intersectional identities in quality of healthcare, and …

Examining Cognitive Empathy Elements Within Ai Chatbots For Healthcare Systems, Lamia Alam

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Empathy is an essential part of communication in healthcare. It is a multidimensional concept and the two key dimensions: emotional and cognitive empathy allow clinicians to understand a patient’s situation, reasoning, and feelings clearly (Mercer and Reynolds, 2002). As artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly being used in healthcare for many routine tasks, accurate diagnoses, and complex treatment plans, it is becoming more crucial to incorporate clinical empathy into patient-faced AI systems. Unless patients perceive that the AI is understanding their situation, the communication between patient and AI may not sustain efficiently. AI may not really exhibit any emotional empathy at …

Occupational Injuries Associated With Workplace Violence In An Academic Medical Center, Rebecca J. Bonacci

Capstone Experience

Violence is a major source of workplace injury in the medical profession. Peer reviewed literature is lacking for workers that have injuries through violence from clients who have intellectual disabilities. Literature for hospital security is also lacking. In this study of workplace violence, we compared injuries among the occupational groups at an academic medical center from 2017-2020. We hypothesized that violence will be similar across the years. Occupational injury and illness data was obtained from an academic medical center. The number of violence cases was divided by the total number of injury cases and reported as a percentage. We found …

Who To Choose? Rating Broker Best Practices In The Medicare Advantage Industry, Darwin R. Hale

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to help navigate the U.S. Healthcare system in a way that maximizes value and minimizes risk to Medicare Beneficiaries. We do this through the creation of a tool that will aid in the selection of an independent health broker. Brokers are the trusted resource who have the responsibility and expertise to optimize client value through needs analysis, education, and expectations setting. Beneficiaries need help with life impacting health and wellness decisions and ongoing support across the continuum of care. The qualitative research included interviews of industry experts with combined Medicare experience of more than …

Exploring Provider Perspectives To Understand How To Best Inform Patients In South Dakota, Isabelle M. Lehman

Honors Thesis

Patients in rural areas are more likely to experience worse health outcomes than patients in urban or suburban areas. The reasons for this discrepancy are multi-faceted, including inequities in resources and access, as well as differences in the environment. Rural providers understand what education and resources patients are missing as they often interact with patients in multiple contexts. We interviewed rural providers and performed an inductive thematic content analysis of the interviews to shed some insight into what information rural patients would need to be better healthcare advocates for themselves. Three themes emerged from the interview data: health education, access, …

The Future Of Artificial Intelligence In The Healthcare Industry, Erika Bonnist

Honors Theses

Technology has played an immense role in the evolution of healthcare delivery for the United States and on an international scale. Today, perhaps no innovation offers more potential than artificial intelligence. Utilizing machine intelligence as opposed to human intelligence for the purposes of planning, offering solutions, and providing insights, AI has the ability to alter traditional dynamics between doctors, patients, and administrators; this reality is now producing both elation at artificial intelligence's medical promise and uncertainty regarding its capacity in current systems. Nevertheless, current trends reveal that interest in AI among healthcare stakeholders is continuously increasing, and with the current …

Behavioral Economic Modeling Of The Effects Of Symptom, Severity, And Cost On Seeking Medical Care, Mark J. Rzeszutek

Dissertations

While the United States has some of the highest healthcare spending in the world, it has some of the worst health outcomes. For example, maternal mortality in the United States is almost five times as high as in other similarly wealthy countries. It also has the highest rates of avoidable deaths. One of the reasons for this may be the cost of accessing healthcare due to privatized insurance. For example, Americans may avoid important preventive medical visits and other health screeners due to cost. While lack of health insurance has been correlated with decreased health utilization, a precise understanding of …

Barriers, Challenges And Fears From Immigrants In Access To Healthcare: A Proposal For Undocumented Immigrants To Being Insured, Jose Gonzalez-Ibarra

Community Engagement Student Work

Access to healthcare is a global issue that needs to be addressed. Worldwide organizations have put efforts in place to overcome this problem and offer solutions and recommendations to various countries. However, these efforts have not been entirely successful. Receiving the highest attainable standard of health or only receiving care is extremely difficult or impossible for individuals who are considered vulnerable such as immigrants, especially those who are undocumented immigrants. Through the recognition of barriers, challenges and fears from immigrants accessing healthcare and a shape of social determinants of health, institutions of government, nonprofit sector and community members organized could …

Human Trafficking: Empowering Healthcare Providers And Community Partners As Advocates For Victims, Marielle A. Combs

Doctor of Nursing Practice Projects

Human trafficking (HT) is a public health crisis and the need for education is dire. Healthcare providers lack confidence in victim recognition and aid provision all while encountering victims in their practice. The project leader aimed to empower healthcare providers in recognizing signs of HT and making appropriate referrals. Ten community volunteers, including registered nurses, who assist with a mobile medical unit and spiritual 12-step program, participated in a Human Trafficking 101 training. The application of holistic nursing core principles and Human Caring Science was integrated as vital in victim identification. A pretest posttest design was utilized to administer the …

Understanding Perspectives Of Clinical And Non-Clinical Healthcare Administrators On Culture And Diversity In The Healthcare Workplace, Katherine Counts

Theses and Dissertations--Community & Leadership Development

The racial and ethnic composition of the U.S. population is becoming increasingly more diverse. The 2010 U.S. Census reported a 29% increase in minority groups other than non-Hispanic Whites. In response to these changing demographics, healthcare organizations have struggled to keep pace with these trends in their hiring of a diverse staff. Healthcare leaders appear to be lagging in their efforts to make adequate changes to increase diversity in their organizations. What factors may be contributing to this inequity? One possible explanation is a limited knowledge of healthcare leaders regarding culture and diversity within the workplace. To this end, this …

Datashare Monterey County Website, Audra Ketchem

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

The DatashareMontereyCounty website was created by combining Conduent technology and knowledgeable staff from the Monterey County Public Health Department. This project attempted to solve the disengagement between many people in Monterey County and health interventions/prevention initiatives set in place by the health department. Two contributing factors related to community disengagement were that residents were not always aware of works the health department was attempting to promote and the complexity of health data (statistics). The main focus of the project demonstrates how understanding health information may or may not impact decision making. When concepts are difficult to understand this can deter …

The Multilevel Factors Facilitating Or Impeding Healthcare Access Among Refugees Residing In Bexar County Texas, Howaida Werfelli

Dissertations & Theses (Open Access)

The goal of this study was to increase understanding of healthcare access among refugees by investigating the multilevel factors that facilitate or impede healthcare access among refugees who have resettled in Bexar County, Texas. The multilevel factors facilitating or impeding access to healthcare for refugees resettled in Bexar County were identified as follows: health literacy, level of educational attainment, proficiency (reading, writing and, speaking) in English, proficiency (reading, writing and speaking) in native language, translation services, public transportation, income level, a shortage of healthcare providers, navigation of the healthcare system, the fragmentation of the healthcare system, insurance status, staff shortages …

Correlates Of Maternal Health Service Use And Women’S Experiences Using Antenatal Care In Ghana: A Mixed-Methods Study, Anna Cofie

Theses and Dissertations

The pace of improvements in maternal mortality has been slow in Ghana. While Ghana’s maternal mortality ratio (MMR) decreased from 635 per 100,000 live births to 319 per 100,000 live births between 1990 and 2015, the country failed to meet the 75% reduction target set by Millennium Development Goal (MDG) goal 5A, to reduce maternal mortality ratio by 75% between 1990 and 2015. Antenatal care (ANC) is critical to improving maternal morbidity and mortality and child deaths. In 2003, Ghana introduced the National Health Insurance Scheme to ensure that all pregnant women have access to free maternal care, and in …

Development Of A Hospital Readmission Reduction Program For Patients Discharged To Skilled Nursing Facilities: An Application Of Artificial Intelligence And Machine Learning Techniques, Anna Stachel

Dissertations and Theses

Background

Hospital readmissions within 30 days after discharge have drawn national policy attention as they are a reflection of suboptimal patient care. Readmissions are costly, accounting for more than $17 billion in potentially avoidable Medicare expenditures - nearly 78% of readmissions may be avoidable. Rich electronic data from medical records, growing computing capacities, and open source machine learning algorithms offer new opportunities to predict patients at high risk for readmission and prevent readmission through focused interventions. Prediction models might also serve to provide a more nuanced context of patient characteristics that lead to variations in readmission rates. Furthermore, transitional care …

Examining The Possibilities Of Telehealth In Tallahatchie County, Taran Carrasco

Honors Theses

This thesis aims to analyze Tallahatchie County and determine the feasibility of establishing a telehealth program in the county. Telehealth is an evolving aspect in the medical field that incorporates technology with healthcare. This thesis used sociotechnical theory to explain how the feasibility of telehealth could be made more likely as the technology is used over time.Through interviewing UMMC telehealth directors, Tallahatchie Wellness center workers, and citizens of Charleston, this study aims to gauge professional and personal opinions on how feasible it would be to implement telehealth into the Charleston community, as well as how positively telehealth would be accepted …

An Examination Of The Association Between State Medicaid Perinatal Services And Birth Outcomes, Joy Morgan Myers

Honors Theses

This thesis investigated the connection between socioeconomic status, healthcare coverage, and birth outcomes. The research question that was posed specifically looked at twenty perinatal services that states covered under Medicaid to varying degrees to see their association, if any, with premature birth rates and low birthweight rates. State-level and Mississippi county-level data were compiled regarding preterm birth rates, low birthweight rates, presumptive eligibility adoption, and coverage of twenty different perinatal services. Using these data, the correlation between state Medicaid expansion status and birth outcomes was first calculated in order to determine if variation in birth outcomes was associated with expanded …

Feminism And Low Breastfeeding Rates In France, Megan Wadsworth

Honors Theses

Breastfeeding rates in France are among the lowest in high-income countries, indicating that French mothers do not breastfeed for nearly as long as is recommended by healthcare professionals and international health organizations. French government, society and conflicting feminist perspectives all influence the likelihood that mothers will breastfeed. The French government has regulations in place to protect women’s right to breastfeed in public and in the workplace, but it is unclear if these are truly beneficial for French women. French society is a seemingly inhospitable environment in which mothers do not feel safe and secure to breastfeed publicly. Motherhood and feminism …

Health Care Access For Children In Latinx Immigrant Families In The Greater Philadelphia Area, Sophia King

Politics Honors Papers

This work examines the gap that exists in access to health care in the Greater Philadelphia Region for children of Latinx immigrant families in comparison to other children in the nation. It provides a critical analysis of the gap in access to coverage, noting that this exists despite wide support for a human right to health. This study draws on existing scholarly research as well as interviews with staff at two health clinics and one community outreach center that are located in Greater Philadelphia. It demonstrates that Latinx immigrant families are less likely to have health insurance and get primary …

Rest Homes: Their Value On Massachusetts Healthcare Continuum, Ronald Pawelski

School of Professional Studies

In Massachusetts, rest homes provide cost effective care for elderly residents in a community setting. Rest homes, however, are not well-understood and the rest home industry itself suffers greatly, not only from a lack of understanding of the services they provide, but also from the strain on their financial resources due to both competition from other healthcare options and insufficient reimbursement rates for residents’ care.

The paper explores the financial challenges facing the industry and outlines the data that speaks to the value of the rest home care option for both the residents themselves and Massachusetts state healthcare budget. It …

Health Care Access And Utilization By U.S. Farmworkers, Genesis Bojorquez

Dissertations

Background: Agriculture industry has the highest fatality rate among all United States industries. Farmworkers experience high rates of occupational injury, illness, and mortality, yet have limited access to health care. Implementation of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) of 2010 increased health care accessibility and broadened farmworker eligibility for health insurance, yet no study has measured the impact of the ACA upon U.S. farmworkers.

Purpose: The purpose of this research was to examine health care access and health care services utilization among U.S. farmworkers following the implementation of the ACA in 2010.

Specific Aims:

1. Apply the …

Influence Of Work Values On Rural-Practice Intentions Among American Students Attending A Rural University, Nicholas Best

Murray State Theses and Dissertations

Rural areas in the United States frequently face difficulties regarding the prevalence of healthcare-related professionals. To better address this issue, it is important to understand how various demographic factors as well as individual work values influence the workplace setting decisions of future "helping" professionals. Previous research has studied the impact of various work values and how they relate to working with underserved populations (Aviram & Katan, 1991; Krous & Nauta, 2005). The current study aimed to compare various demographic factors and work value's ability to predict intentions to work in rural areas among students attending Murray State University (N …

Use Of Managerial Epidemiology By Healthcare Leaders In Ambulatory Settings, Chantelle Schenning

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Despite many health reforms, the United States continues to struggle with limited healthcare access, exponential healthcare costs, and poor quality of care. Overcoming these challenges requires healthcare leaders’ effective navigation of industry transformation towards population health and a shift in patient volume to ambulatory healthcare settings. Research has demonstrated that the use of managerial epidemiology, an application of epidemiology tools and principles to management decision-making within healthcare organizations, can better serve the health of the population and could improve the triple aim of inadequate access, high costs, and poor quality. However, the adoption of this practice is weak and its …

Knowledge, Attitudes, And Practices Of Healthcare Professionals Working In Schools Regarding Tickborne Disease Prevention And Lyme Disease In New York State And Maryland, Kristen Howard

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Background: Ticks, Lyme disease, and other tickborne diseases are a concern of public health entities in Maryland and New York State. Children are at an increased risk of contracting a tickborne disease. Healthcare professionals working in schools (HPWS) are often front-line providers and health educators for school-aged children. The knowledge, attitudes, and practices of HPWS regarding ticks and tickborne disease is currently unknown. While there are educational materials available, uptake and use of these programs is also unknown.

Medical Utilization In The Context Of Culture: Analyzing The Concepts, Benefits And Drawbacks Of Sri Lankan Biomedical And Ayurvedic Healthcare, Miriah Rajaguru

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

Sri Lanka is an island inhabited by a culture more than 5,000 years old. The primary medicine utilized by this culture in precolonial times is known as Ayurveda. During colonization, Sri Lanka was introduced to biomedicine and forced to negate Ayurvedic medicine. Throughout the years, rather than abandoning their indigenous medical practice, Sri Lanka incorporated biomedicine and Ayurvedic medicine into their medically plural society. Today, Sri Lankans utilized both medicines for different ailments, concerns and conditions. Utilizing a variety of anthropological methods and theories, this study gathered qualitative information from 39 Sri Lankan informants. These informants were recruited to find …

Insured And In Debt, Virginia Jeffries

Capstones

Many Americans with employer-sponsored health insurance are still going into debt to pay medical bills.

http://virginia-jeffries.com/cap/

Individual- And Community- Level Associations With Healthcare Utilization Among A Health System, Emergency Department Population, Carlene A. Mayfield

Theses and Dissertations

AIM: The primary aim of this study was to examine individual-level and community- level characteristics associated with ambulatory or primary care utilization, emergency department (ED) utilization, and ED charges among a sample of ED patients.

DESIGN AND SAMPLE: Data for this cross-sectional study were obtained from three distinct sources: (i) electronic medical records (EMR); (ii) billing records; and (iii) the 2013-2017 American Community Survey (ACS). The individual-level EMR and billing sample included all adults residing in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina who visited an Atrium Health ED in 2017. The ACS sample included population and demographic estimates from Mecklenburg County’s 27 …

Timely Access To Maternal, Neonatal And Child Healthcare For Rural Communities In Rwanda: The Role Of Community Health Workers, Jean Bosco Bigirimana

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Abstract

Introduction: In Rwanda, although there has been some progress in health care delivery as expressed in the reduction in maternal and child mortality, rates are still high and geographically variable. Improving equitable access to quality healthcare services for maternal, neonatal and child healthcare (MNCH), community-based maternal, neonatal and child healthcare (CBMNCH) depends upon using “community health workers” (CHWs). Yet CHWs program faces difficulties that upset delivery of the quality of the comprehensive package of services. Unfortunately, little is known about CHWs` performance and job satisfaction in the provision of CBMNCH.

Goal: The study aimed to provide insight into …