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“In The University But Not Of The University”: Examining Institutionalized Counterspaces Through A Staff Perspective, Omar A. Ramirez

Master's Theses

Using a qualitative case study, this thesis examines a university counterspace that serves Students of Color through the perspective of the staff who work in that space. The case study aimed to explore four areas of investigation: the interviewees’ knowledge and perceptions of 1) the history of their counterspace; 2) the purpose of their counterspace; 3) the benefits of their counterspace; and 4) challenges of their counterspace. The counterspace was a program within a large, 4-year, public, R-1 research university. Five staff from the counterspace were interviewed. A thematic analysis of the data suggests that students were an essential part …

Deported Veterans: The Unintended Consequences Of “Good Moral Character”, Jonathan Deras

Master's Theses

The purpose of this research is to argue that U.S. immigration policy, specifically the 1996 IIRIRA (also known as IIRAIRA), needs to change regarding the legal treatment of immigrant U.S. military veteran deportees due to the following concepts. The first concept is to articulate how the criminalization of immigration, and how the military system intersects to facilitate the Deportation of U.S veterans. A key concept in this analysis is the standard of “good moral character” set by the U.S. government that enlistees need to meet to be accepted into the military; this standard is also used against immigrant veterans during …

Using Contextualized Materials To Teach English Grammar, Jingyi Yang

Master's Projects and Capstones

Grammar learning is the foundation of language learning. Despite its importance, many ESL adult learners consider grammar learning a challenging part, and the effectiveness of grammar instruction has been evaluated low. This is because of inappropriate teaching approaches and the lack of contextualized learning materials. Inappropriate teaching approaches include traditional PPP (Presentation, Practice, Production), which hinder the effectiveness of research-based teaching approaches. Decontextualized and meaningless grammar forms are additional underlying challenges of grammar learning. This field project uses task-based language teaching (TBLT) as a theoretical framework. The three literature review themes explore the importance and challenges of grammar, grammar instruction …

Diversity: Lack Of African American Presence In Nursing Leadership, Dawn Carroll

DNP Qualifying Manuscripts

Aim. The purpose of this manuscript is to synthesize the literature on the paucity of African Americans in nursing leadership, the importance of inclusion, and the barriers to advancement.

Background. The nursing workforce does not reflect the population served. Minorities remain underrepresented in nursing and nursing leadership despite efforts to close the diversity gap.

Evaluation. The literature reviewed examined the lack of diversity in nursing and nursing leadership, perceived barriers to career advancement, and current efforts to diversify nursing leadership. Nine peer-reviewed, critically appraised studies are included.

Key Issues. Ensuring the nursing workforce represents the patient population served can …

The Reality For Minorities Exploring Nurse Executive Leadership Roles: An Integrated Review, Trarina Harris

DNP Qualifying Manuscripts

While nurses in direct patient care are serving a growing minority population, nurse executives are not racially representative of the patient population. This integrated review sought to understand the benefits of formal mentorship. Results included 2 themes: increasing diversity and self-efficacy through formal mentorship. The themes are explored in the literature. Implications for organizations and leaders will be discussed.

Constructed Borders In Higher Education: A Critical Policy Analysis Of Undocumented College Students' Access To Study Abroad, Louise K. Hon

Master's Theses

Abstract Between 2012 and 2017, undocumented youth in the United States with Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival status were able to apply for Advance Parole permissions to travel abroad for educational purposes. During this time, DACA students attending colleges and universities across the nation engaged in study abroad through established education abroad programs. This qualitative study examines undocumented students’ decision to pursue educational abroad opportunities during their undergraduate education in the context of national, state and institutional policies and climate and compares and contrasts the experiences of the undocumented college students who successfully studied abroad with those who either attempted …

Using Simulation For Oncology Nursing Competency Evaluation In Hospitals, Dana N. Littlepage

Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) Projects

Problem: Hospitals in an integrated health system, are experiencing low levels of oncologic admissions to their medical surgical units. This is creating a challenge for the organization to maintain nursing competencies for this subset of patients.

Context: In low volume, high risk acute care environments, where chemotherapy is to be provided, seasoned registered nurses grapple with maintaining their competencies, professional confidence and feeling safe enough to administer, monitor and care for this patient population (Muehlbauer, Parr, & Perkins, 2013). The purpose of this project was to ensure that both new and seasoned acute care oncology nurses have access …

The Importance Of Nutrition Education As A Recovery Component For Individuals With Severe Mental Illnesses, Emily Martinez

Master's Projects and Capstones

In efforts to challenge the Western medicine’s determination of nutrition as a holistic approach, this paper represents the intent for mental health facilities in California to improve or implement nutrition education curriculum by enhancing interprofessional teams with dietitians as an important component of recovery for severe mental illness patients. There is concrete evidence proving that individuals who are in facilities recovering from mental illnesses have benefited from optimal nutrition consumption. Nutrition education has become a component among the toolbox of recovery options, but unfortunately it is not encouraged enough. Pharmaceutical companies advertise drug therapy as the most effective way to …

The Evolutionary Global Vision Of Chinese Political Philosophy; China's Socio-Economic Transformation In The 21st Century, Meryem Gurel

Master's Projects and Capstones

Evolving relations of East Asia due to trade liberalization raised the search for financial stability for institutional development. It also increased the importance of China integrating the global economy into renewing its political philosophy in the new century. This capstone project aims to examine why China has transformed its socio-economic structure by generating outward investments and how it has affected international political relations in terms of the role of the economic institution Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB). Quantitative methodology aims to examine the impact of China’s export trade on income distribution and economic growth through linear regression analysis for the …

Unprecedented Immigration: The Ramifications On Japan’S Party Politics, Keiko Hirano-Lee

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Although the immigration discourse is a taboo subject in Japan, the aging demographics and the need for workers has brought the topic into discussion. Part of the OECD community, Japan remains the eldest liberal country who up till recently avoided immigration to maintain its unique image. This thesis builds on Japanese and immigration scholarship to examine how new pro-immigration policies of the conservative Liberal Democratic Party may affect their electoral standing. By looking at official statements, newspaper polls, and the wording of policies, it will help examine new spaces of contestation that have yet to be studied. As a forward …

Towards A Bioeconomy In The Southern Cone?:Analysis Of Official Bioeconomic Approaches In Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay And Uruguay, Marisa Mathó

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Every aspect of our world is impacted by climate change – our food, water, infrastructure and security systems. Bioeconomy and the biobased economy have emerged as two types of models with the potential to transform industries away from extractive practices without losing economic activity. By pivoting decisively to embrace sustainable bioeconomic and biobased economic strategies nations can contribute to their long term development, and make a real difference in the fight against climate change. This study seeks to analyze national bioeconomic policy documents to better understand the orientation, status and level of bioeconomic policy discourse in the founding MERCOSUR countries …

Oral Chemotherapy: Safe Handling In The Home, Cynthia Huff

DNP Qualifying Manuscripts

Background: According to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (2016), oral anticancer agents (OAC) are hazardous drugs (HD) and require the same safe handling interventions in the home setting as in controlled health care environments. The use of a safe handling checklist for OAC administration is a way nurses can provide safe handling education to patients and caregivers and assess for understanding and competency for critical tasks. Effective home management strategies outlining caregiver protections, proper storage, administration of OACs, spill clean-up, and waste disposal could reduce exposure risks to toxic agents.

Objective: To present a safe-handling checklist …

A Compelling Case For Evidence-Based Practice Mentor Development Programs: An Integrative Review, Stacy Alves

DNP Qualifying Manuscripts

Background: In 2008, The Institute of Medicine (IOM) set a goal that by 2020, 90% of healthcare decisions would originate from the best evidence available. This goal remains intangible for many organizations. Despite reporting quality and safety as a top organizational priority, a survey of 276 Chief Nurse Executives (CNEs) found that only roughly 50% of the CNEs said that EBP was practiced in their hospitals only “somewhat” or “not at all” (Melnyk, Gallagher‐Ford, Thomas, Troseth, Wyngarden, Kzalacha, 2016). Many organizations struggle to systematically integrate EBP into practice (Melnyk et al., 2018; Warren et al., 2016a). The Advancing Research and …

Female Mentorship: A Study On University Of San Francisco President’S Advisory Committee On The Status Of Women (Pacsw) Mentorship Program, Maria Bluth

Master's Theses

Mentorship is one way to advance gender equity, and it can enhance a women’s career, but finding a mentor can be intimidating, the University of San Francisco President’s Advisory Committee on the Status of Women (PACSW) Women’s Co-Mentoring Program seeks to increase confidence, community, and capacity amongst women-identified employees at the University of San Francisco. The program aims to accomplish this through the creation of intentional, time-bound one-on-one relationships between University employees based on confidentiality and collegiality (PACSW Mission Statement). The ideal goal of the Co-Mentorship program is to benefit the co-mentors, as well as positively impact the whole University …

Usp <800> Compliance: A Hazardous Drug Safe Handling Ppe Toolkit For Infusion Nurses, Cynthia Huff

Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) Projects

Problem: Safety concerns have existed for more than 40 years about how hazardous drug (HD) exposure contributes to long- and short-term adverse health outcomes for healthcare workers (HCWs). Careless handling may cause toxic residues to infiltrate hospital environments and patient care areas, and can even be traced to patients’ homes. New government regulations will require healthcare organizations to minimize exposure risks to HCWs by fully implementing the U.S. Pharmacopeia (USP) Convention Chapter 800: Hazardous Drugs: Handling in Healthcare Settings (USP, 2016) on December 1, 2019. According to Polovich and Olsen (2017), “The implementation of the USP <800> Standards will represent …

Motivate Beginning Level Adult Esl Learners In Online Teaching, Mengjia Peng

Master's Projects and Capstones

ABSTRACT

This project is focused on using online materials to motivate beginning level adult ESL students. This project’s rationale was the great challenge that many educators faced during the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020. All courses have been moved online; both teachers and students feel anxiety about learning and staying healthy. In language study, when the language anxiety becomes higher, the study outcomes become worse. Stress impacts the learners’ affective filter, the mental block that impedes learners’ full use of comprehensible input. When the learning process gives students more anxiety, students also will feel a lack of motivation. For adult ESL …

Poetic Walking Across Mobile Boundaries: Contemporary Southeast Asian Narratives In The Work Of Trinh T. Minh-Ha And Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Weiying Yu

Master's Projects and Capstones

This research investigates how personal politics, the poetics of cinematic narrative form, and current Southeast Asian landscapes are embodied in the work of filmmakers/artists Trinh T. Minh-ha (b. 1952, Hanoi, Vietnam) and Apichatpong Weerasethakul (b. 1970, Bangkok, Thailand). Trinh and Apichatpong’s transnational reflections and radical poetics challenge the West as the authoritative domain of modern knowledge, evoking a border rupture that questions hegemonic definitions of culture, history, geography, and society. Synthesizing art and politics, their works create experimental spaces to navigate the multidimensional consciousness associated with the Asia Pacific and global political issues of immigration, refugeeism, military action resistance, and …

Safety Huddles: A Safety Net For Nurses Amid The Covid-19 Pandemic, Miranda Saint-Louis

DNP Qualifying Manuscripts

In March 2020, our 31-bed geriatric medical unit was designated the first COVID-19 unit in a teaching hospital located in a New York City COVID-19 hot zone. At the time, little was known about SARS-CoV-2 and the disease it caused. We needed to find a way to keep them calm, assure their safety, and provide competent and compassionate patient care in a situation where best practices had not yet been established. The concepts from this article can be applied to provide support staff in any crisis. Providing a safety net for staff enables a focus on life-saving patient care without …

The Covid-19 Pandemic: An Analysis Of Its Inequitable Impacts Towards The Black Population With Recommendations To Dismantling Institutional Racism, Elena Peterson

Master's Projects and Capstones

Due to the novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the 2020 coronavirus disease pandemic uncovered health inequities throughout the United States. This paper explores institutional racism as the reasoning behind these health inequities. A discussion of the United States’ failure to implement preventative precautions once notified initially of the coronavirus is featured. Events that took place after the recognition of the coronavirus, such as the economic impacts and passed legislation, are highlighted as well. An overview of the Trump Administration’s lack of focus towards vulnerable populations, which includes the Black communities, is included. Also, there are highlights on …

Improving Clinical Communication And Collaboration Through Technology, Michelle Machon

Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) Projects

Problem: Over the last 30 years, clinical communication methodologies in healthcare have evolved to become such disparate systems that they lead to confusion, wasted time, and clinician dissatisfaction. The Joint Commission (2016) reports up to 78% of sentinel events in hospitals are linked to communication failures, which have obvious implications for hospital systems in the quality and safety of their current communication systems.

Context: The purpose of this project was to determine the effectiveness of implementing a unified clinical communication technology platform in an acute care hospital setting and to make recommendations from that implementation to the organization’s larger health …

Improving Nurse Engagement Through Unit Practice Councils: A Literature Review, Pavna Sloan

Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) Projects

Problem: According to The Advisory Board Company, nurses are the least engaged group of healthcare employees (The Advisory Board Company, 2014). This finding concerns healthcare organizations because those with a high percentage of disengaged nurses have increased nurse turnover rates and decreased patient satisfaction and safety scores (Kutney-Lee et al., 2016). Shared governance, in the form of the Unit Practice Councils (UPC), is a model healthcare organizations implement to increase nurse engagement. A review of the current literature is needed to evaluate if the model is effective.

Purpose: The purpose of this article is to provide a comprehensive literature …

Creation Of A Covid-19 Community Testing Team For Home Health And Hospice, Lilah Raja

Master's Projects and Capstones

The novel SARS-CoV-2 strain (COVID-19) was identified in Wuhan, China in December 2019 (Eddy et. al, 2020). The resulting US outbreak has affected the Kaiser Permanente (KP) Oakland health care system. With the threat of COVID-19 highest among immunosuppressed and elderly clients, KP Oakland home health and hospice (HH/HO) department is rapidly mobilizing to provide community and in-home testing for eligible clients. A project was created to build a COVID-19 testing team workflow to provide diagnostic and preventative testing. This project focuses on team-based interventions that will change the pre-existing practice of requiring HH/HO clients to travel to remote testing …

Implementing Simulation In Icu New Graduate Nursing Orientation: Introducing Two Practice Innovations, Aiza Quinday Msn

Master's Projects and Capstones

A change project involving the use of innovative wearable simulation technology was integrated into the 12-week new graduate nurse ICU training program at one community hospital in Northern California. Project implementation was interrupted by the Covid-19 pandemic, so only the first pilot training session was conducted. Initial results from this training session suggest that the simulation training had a positive impact on the nurses’ ability to assess patient breath sounds and to recognize and treat a rapidly deteriorating patient. This training session also allowed the project team to identify additional areas of skill assessment and opportunities for improvement for the …

Standardizing Patient Handoffs In The Icu – Implementing The “I Put Patients First” Tool., Wislande Joseph

Master's Projects and Capstones

Abstract

Background. Ineffective patient handoff can result in poor nurse communication, increasing the likelihood of adverse events including medication errors and documentation errors.

Context/Problem. In one 20-bed ICU unit in a northern California community hospital, 48 patient handoffs were observed over 2 weeks. Only 29% occurred at the patient’s bedside; 39.5% used a standardized handoff tool; and 54% included the patient and/or family. This indicated concerning quality gaps in the unit’s ICU patient handoff processes.

Intervention. The project intervention consisted of an introductory and two follow-up teaching sessions on handoff processes and implementing the I PUT PATIENTS FIRST …

Standardizing Patient Handoffs In The Icu – Implementing The “I Put Patients First” Tool., Wislande Joseph

Master's Projects and Capstones

Abstract

Background. Ineffective patient handoff can result in poor nurse communication, increasing the likelihood of adverse events including medication and documentation errors.

Context/Problem. In one 20-bed ICU unit in a northern California community hospital, 48 patient handoffs were observed over 2 weeks. Only 29% occurred at the patient’s bedside; 39.5% used a standardized handoff tool; and 54% included the patient and/or family. These findings indicate significant quality gaps in the unit’s ICU patient handoff processes.

Intervention. The educational intervention consisted of one introductory and two follow-up teaching sessions related to best practices for handoff processes followed by implementation …

Reducing Hospital Acquired Pressure Injuries Through A Standardized Prevention Bundle, Austin Lee Stoker

Master's Projects and Capstones

Abstract PROBLEM: Currently healthcare acquired pressure injuries (HAPIs) in the United States result in significant and unnecessary costs along with lost revenue for healthcare facilities. These costs are estimated to be between 9.1 and 11.6 billion dollars annually. Pressure Injuries (PIs) are directly associated with decreases in patient outcomes and are deemed preventable incidents. HAPI prevention can mitigate this clinical and financial problem for patients and organizations. CONTEXT: Unnecessary patient harm related to four HAPI occurrences in the last quarter on the 2B Medical Surgical Telemetry Unit in an integrated managed care delivery system continue to be of concern. Adherence …

Professional Development And Care Planning, Maninder Deol

Master's Theses

The Covid-19 infection trend revealed to the Californian Prison healthcare system the importance of offering top-quality preventive and care services to control diseases. Irrespective of the understanding, there have been challenges in the transitional gap as older nurses are retiring and replaced by new ones. However, the lack of technical experience among the new nurses has exposed the patient population to human errors, which might be costly to amend. As a result, the initiative embarked on a project to train and empower nurses on preventive and care techniques.

Critical areas of concern include reporting, data collection, patient symptomology, results interpretation, …

Reducing Hospital-Acquired Pressure Injuries Through Measure-Vention, Rachel Wyatt

DNP Qualifying Manuscripts

The Braden scale may be outdated in the critical care setting to prevent hospital acquired pressure injuries (HAPIs). Applying evidence from the literature on Braden subscales and using “Measure-vention” for quality improvement, a quality improvement project using Braden subscales implemented in a 30-bed ICU reduced HAPIs by 63.5 percent.

Crisis Within A Crisis: A Comparative Analysis Of Covid-19’S Implications On Greece And Spain’S Migrant And Refugee Processing Policies, Injy Elhabrouk

Undergraduate Honors Theses

With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic came a collective global panic regarding health, safety, and security. Since the major outbreak of the coronavirus in March of 2020, few issues have received scrutiny and attention in the public sphere. Yet, the problems that existed before COVID-19 have not become obsolete, however, they were removed from the public eye. One such issue to receive less scrutiny is the treatment of the most vulnerable populations in the world—migrants and refugees. Spain and Greece’s locations on the Mediterranean Sea mean they are often the first place migrants seek refuge in their journey to …

Noted Mirrors, Dennis Spears

Master's Theses

Noted Mirrors seeks exploration, it seeks discovery it seeks experience. I think, like most of us, I’ve often had far more wonders than answers, but I often like it that way. Noted Mirrors tries to understand a romance that frightened, a friend taken away too soon that crippled. An unconditional love from grandparents and a mother that rescued. A relationship with an absent father that poisoned. Revelational relationships with familiar strangers that taught so much in the form of freeing. A fascination with Redwoods and Orcas that brought so much life into merely being. And a curiosity of the abstract …