Digital Commons Network^™

A Delphi Study Of The Characteristics Of School Counselor Leaders Who Have Overcome Adversity, Anita Shirley

Dissertations

Purpose: This Delphi study aimed to identify essential qualities school counselor leaders need to navigate role confusion, drawing from Maxwell’s (2021) Leading in Tough Times strategies. The Delphi panel identified the following strategies: connecting their roles to the organization’s vision or big picture, promoting their roles through organizational teamwork, and making good choices or strategic organizational decisions which would assist them in meeting and exceeding their professional school counseling standards.

Methodology: A mixed methods Delphi multivariable research design was utilized to collect both qualitative and quantitative data. This approach aimed to gather consensus from 20 current or former school counselors …

Lost In Interpretation: The Lived Experience Of Nurse Interpreters In The Clinical Setting, Byron Batz

Dissertations

The use of language interpreters in the health care setting constitutes a vital part of provider-patient communication but remains a relatively unexplored phenomenon. Registered nurses (RNs) are often called upon to serve as interpreters when linguistically diverse patients constitute a large segment of the patient population. That RNs serve simultaneously in an interpreter role – in addition to clinical and advocacy roles – is a complex facet of contemporary nursing practice in a diverse U.S. culture. The purpose of this qualitative descriptive study was to examine the lived experience of RNs serving as interpreters in health care institutions in Southern …

How Exemplary Elementary School Principals Establish Common Ground And Produce Breakthrough Results By Using The Six Domains Of Conflict Transformational Strategies, Monica Berro

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this phenomenological conceptual replication study was to discover and describe how exemplary elementary school principals establish common ground and produce breakthrough results by using the six domains of conflict transformational strategies: collaboration, communication, emotional intelligence, ethical behavior, problem solving, and shared interest.

Methodology: This qualitative phenomenological conceptual replication study discovered and described the lived experiences of eight exemplary elementary school principals on how they used the six domains of conflict transformational strategies with their stakeholders to produce breakthrough results. Participants led public elementary schools in Los Angeles and Orange counties in California. Data were collected using …

Joint Sonar And Communication (Soncomm) System Using Solvable Chaos, Tamseel Mahmood Syed

Dissertations

An ever increasing number of actively interconnected wireless devices tend to exert congestion on the naturally limited resources provided by the electromagnetic spectrum. This fact imposes a significant engineering challenge on efficient utilization of communication channels. One method to lessen the stringency of the spectrum access is to combine functionality of wireless applications via jointly operational (multi-purpose) waveforms. Solvable chaos was previously shown to have inherent detection benefits when used independently in practical demonstrations of either acoustic ranging or communication. This dissertation focuses on the design of a joint sonar-communication (SonComm) system via solvable chaotic waveforms. First, individual hardware demonstrations …

Religiosity, Family Sexual Communication & Gender As Predictors Of Attitudes Toward Oral Sex Among College/University Students In The United States, Antoinette Napier

Dissertations

Purpose

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether religiosity, family sexual communication and gender were predictors of attitudes toward oral sex among college/university students in the United States.

Method

Participants completed several surveys, which measured participants' personal religiosity, family sexual communication, and attitudes toward oral sex. A path analysis model was used to analyze the relationship between the proposed variables.

Results

The path analysis hypothesized model resulted in a poor fit for the data. The model was respecified by removing three items which showed weak beta weights. The respecified model produced a good fit for the data. The …

Implementing A D/Deaf Educational Module For Graduate Nursing Students, Brenda J. Pauley

Dissertations

Problem: Nurse practitioners lack knowledge and skills to effectively communicate with D/deaf individuals which potentiates risk for health disparities and gaps in care. Graduate nursing programs rarely incorporate D/deaf-focused education in their curriculums.

Methods: This descriptive quality improvement project implemented the first D/deaf-focused educational online module at a Midwestern university’s College of Nursing. A purposive sample of 38 BSN-DNP students enrolled in the Spring Intensive completed a pre- and post-education survey. Both surveys assessed students’ D/deaf perceptions through Lewis and Keele’s (2020) D/deaf and Hard of Hearing Interaction Beliefs Scale for Registered Nurses (DdHH-IBS/RN) and evaluated students’ knowledge through a …

Implementing A Standardized Nursing Communication Tool To Improve Inpatient Nursing Communication, Ashley D. Nator

Dissertations

Implementing a Standardized Nursing Communication Tool to Improve Inpatient Nursing Communication

Ashley D. Nator

B.S. Nursing, University of Missouri-St. Louis, 2018

A Dissertation Submitted to The Graduate School at the University of Missouri-St. Louis in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree

Doctor of Nursing Practice with an emphasis in Family Nurse Practitioner

August 2022

Advisory Committee

Cathy Koetting, PhD, DNP, APRN, CPNP, PMHS, FNP-C

Chairperson

Sarah Jackson, DNP, APRN, FNP-C

Amy Terbrock, MSN, PCCN, SCRN, RN

Copyright, Ashley D. Nator, 2021

Original: 08/2021 Revised: 09/2021, 10/2021, 04/2022

Abstract

Problem: Patient handovers occur among nurses more than 4,000 times …

Digital Equity: Difficulties Of Implementing The 1:1 Computing Initiative In Low-Income Areas, Demetric D. Williams

Dissertations

Successful One-to-One Computing Initiative implementation requires educators to communicate and collaborate effectively with everyone in the learning community. However, other factors such as teacher’s professional development, student’s perception, and parent’s perception often affect the implementation of the One-to-One Computing Initiative. School districts, which serve low-income areas in Mississippi, have difficulties ensuring students and communities have access to the information technology they need to participate outside the school setting. The concept is often called digital equity. However, when officials do not address the capacity, there is a vital threat to the participants’ civic, cultural, employment, lifelong learning, and access to essential …

The Case For Alternate Media Requirement Expressions In Systems Engineering, Jason Kolligs

Dissertations

“Requirements” are often presented as a necessary, if not mandated, component or tool of the systems engineering process. Despite their place in engineering, low quality requirements are the first potential mistakes of an engineering project and their effects are potentially felt downstream in the form of increased costs and schedule overruns. Innovations to improve requirements engineering have historically omitted the requirement media. This research provides the rationale and process heuristics to include alternate media requirement expressions within systems engineering which shifts accountability to higher context requirement expressions that may require less cognitive load while decreasing effort and schedule thereby potentially …

Social-Emotional Experiences For Young Male Adults Who Are Deaf Or Hard Of Hearing In The Eastern Province Of Saudi Arabia, Abdulrahman Khalid Alsayed

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to provide an in-depth understanding of the social-emotional experiences in connection with language and communication development for Saudi individuals who are deaf and hard of hearing (DHH) who use spoken language as their main method of communication. The following research questions guided this study: Q1 What are the perceptions of Saudi individuals who are DHH and use spoken language regarding their social-emotional experiences currently and during their (K-12) education? Q2 What educational practices did teachers deliver and how did those educational practices promote social-emotional experiences for Saudi individuals who are DHH and who use …

Vocational Education: Cna Students’ Perspectives Of Soft Skills In Training And The Workplace, Kimberly S. Mcclendon-Payton

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this quantitative study was to identify CNAs’ perceptions about the most important soft skills used by CNAs in training and the workplace.

Methodology: This quantitative research study identified CNAs’ perceptions of the most important soft skills they used based on the composite model for soft skills. CNAs were selected based on purposeful sampling. Likert scores were collected from the survey responses.

Findings: Examination of the quantitative data from the 35 CNAs revealed that brainstorming is the most important collaboration soft skill in CNA training and the workplace.

Conclusions: Results based on the findings of this study …

Facilitating Implementation Of In-Room Whiteboards In The Skilled Nursing Environment Using The Parihs Framework, Ashley Lubbers

Dissertations

The application of research to practice is a difficult task to successfully carry out for many healthcare professionals and organizations. The Promoting Action on Research Implementation in Health Services (PARIHS) framework is a tool that acts as an implementation guide for translating research evidence to practice. This study explored the use of an adapted version of the PARIHS framework as a guide to implementing in-room whiteboards in a skilled nursing facility (SNF) on their short-term rehabilitation wing. While the utility of in-room whiteboards has been demonstrated in the acute care setting, there are few studies of their use in SNFs. …

The Influence Of Parent-Child Relationships On Female Sexual Functioning: A Review Of The Literature, Laura Tillman

Dissertations

This literature review is an examination of the impact of parental communication of sexual functioning in women. Women have many commonalities of sexual experiences and receive similar messages as children and adolescents in regards to their sexual behavior. Current attitudes towards women’s sexuality and sexual functioning and the outcomes that a lack of communication can warrant are areas of importance for this literature review. This Clinical Research Project (CRP) examines how frequently parents communicate about sexual topics with their child, how parents communicate, and parental feelings surrounding discussions. Parenting models and attachment styles are reviewed and how childhood experiences shape …

Promoting Information Exchange: Open-Minded Group Cognition And A Function Of Motivation And Task Type, Jeremy Ryan Winget

Dissertations

Open-minded cognition is a cognitive processing style that influences the manner inwhich individuals select and process information. An open-minded cognitive style is marked by a willingness to consider a variety of intellectual perspectives, values, attitudes, opinions, or beliefs, even those that contradict the individual’s prior opinion. However, people also process information and make decisions within groups, and their individual cognitive styles can influence how the overall group processes and shares information. Therefore, the present paper integrates the open-minded cognition and group decision making literatures, proposes and agent- based model of open-minded group cognition, and empirically tests the antecedents and consequences …

Bless Our Hearts: Towards A Model For Queer Oral History, Colin Whitworth

Dissertations

This dissertation offers an outlined proposal and a model for practicing queer oral history—a nuancing of oral history praxis. Queer oral history is rooted in performance studies’ call to consider everyday texts alongside Dwight Conquergood’s (1985) articulations of ethical and dialogic performance of the other. I propose that queer oral history exists as an alternative praxis to traditional oral history; in order for this distinction to emerge, a practitioner must accept two charges. The first is a commitment to destabilizing oral history through the inclusion of other diverse methodological practices. Further, the researcher must welcome the ethical imperative to reflexively …

Consumer Assessment Of Healthcare Providers And Systems In A Psychiatry Practice, Treacy Williams

Dissertations

Problem: Patient-centered care improves healthcare. Patient surveys are instruments used to assess the patient’s experience and is essential to providing patient-centered care. The aim of this quality improvement initiative was to assess patient perceptions of care delivered by nurse practitioner (NP) providers in a psychiatric mental health practice.

Methods: An observational, descriptive design with a customized Consumer Assessment of Health Care Providers and Systems (CAHPS) survey administered in an outpatient psychiatric mental health practice for six weeks. A structure, process, outcomes framework was used. The structure of study was care delivered by the NP, the process of interest was communication …

Evaluating The Impact Of Marriage Renewal Workshop On Marital Satisfaction, Communication, Conflict Management, And Forgiveness: A Quantitative And Qualitative Analysis, Hien T. Kim Nguyen

Dissertations

The objectives of this study were to examine the impact of the Marriage Renewal Workshop (MRW) program for relationship satisfaction, communication skills, conflict resolution skills and levels of forgiveness among Vietnamese American married couple participants and their perceptions of the program's impact regarding these outcome variables. This evaluation mixed-method study employed a group of 64 participants who participated in before, after (using 4 closed-ended and open-ended questions) and six-week follow-up surveys and a group of 11 program participants who volunteered for in-depth interviews. Quantitative data were examined by using the Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test and Mann-Whitney U Test, whereas qualitative …

Discursive Leadership: Exploring The "Black Box" Challenge In Transcultural Leadership Studies, Christopher Patrick Brown

Dissertations

The increasingly globalized U.S. workforce includes significant numbers of adult immigrants integrating into the North American professional sphere. As such, it is important to have concrete ways to study and interpret different cultures’ thinking about teamwork, and their models of enacting shared leadership and communication in a multicultural context. Since 2006, hundreds of millions in federal grant funding has been invested in university-based language and culture programs focused on training government personnel and heritage populations in the languages and cultures of the Middle East and Central and Southeast Asia. Little is known about the performative strengths and challenges of the …

How Exemplary Suburban Superintendents Build Trust With And Between School Board Members, Daniel Scudero

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this explanatory sequential mixed-methods study was to identify and describe what leadership strategies exemplary suburban superintendents perceive as the most important to build trust with school board members using the 5 domains of competence, consistency, concern, candor, and connection. In addition, it was the purpose of this study to identify and describe what leadership strategies suburban superintendents perceive as the most important to build trust between board members.

Methodology: This explanatory sequential mixed-methods study analyzed quantitative surveys and qualitative interviews to answer the research questions in regard to each element of trust in The Values Institute …

How Exemplary Urban Superintendents Build Trust With And Between School Board Members, Damon J. Wright

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this explanatory sequential mixed-methods study was to identify and describe what strategies exemplary urban superintendents perceive as most important to build trust with school board members using the 5 domains of competence, consistency, concern, candor, and connection. In addition, it was the purpose of this study to identify and describe strategies exemplary urban superintendents perceive as most important to build trust between board members.

Methodology: In this explanatory sequential mixed-methods study, surveys and interviews were used to secure data from exemplary superintendents to identify, emphasize, and highlight the strategies they used to build trust with and …

A Look Inside The Black Box: Understanding Communicative Exchanges In Online Learning Environments, Sara Douglas

Dissertations

Participation in academic discussions and peer collaboration activities is instrumental to student engagement, motivation, and mastery of course content. These activities also improve 21st century skills, such as listening, managing diverse viewpoints, and communicating effectively. Although online learning options in the United States have dramatically increased in the past decade, there is limited evidence that online high school courses offer sufficient opportunities for students to communicate and collaborate with teachers and peers. The purpose of this mixed-methods study seeks to find out if, how, and why students interact with others in online courses. Findings from observations of five high school …

Exemplary California School District Superintendents Leading The Social Media Charge, Jamie Hughes

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this mixed-methods study was to identify the social media tools used and the role of social media when communicating with parents as perceived by exemplary California school district superintendents. In addition, the purpose of this study was to describe the benefits and challenges perceived by exemplary California school district superintendents when using social media to communicate with parents.

Methodology: A mixed-methods study was applied to identify the social media tools used, the role of social media, and the benefits and challenges of using social media to communicate with parents as perceived by exemplary California school district …

Community College Presidents And The Role Of Conversational Leadership, Jennifer K. Labounty

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this phenomenological research study was to describe the behaviors that exemplary community college presidents practice to lead their organizations through conversation as depicted by Groysberg and Slind’s (2012) four elements of conversational leadership: intimacy, interactivity, inclusion, and intentionality.

Methodology: This qualitative, phenomenological study described the lived experiences of exemplary community college presidents as they lead their organizations through the use of conversational leadership. The sample population for this study was community college presidents who met the criteria of exemplary from single-college districts in Southern California. Data were gathered and triangulated from semistructured, in-depth interviews, participant observations, …

Exemplary City Managers Leading Through Conversation, Nikki Marie Salas

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this phenomenological research study was to identify and describe the behaviors that exemplary city managers practice to lead their organizations through conversation using Groysberg and Slind’s (2012b) 4 elements of conversation leadership (intimacy, interactivity, inclusion, and intentionality).

Methodology: This qualitative research study was used to describe the behaviors of exemplary Southern California city managers. The counties included in the study were San Luis Obispo, Los Angeles, Riverside, and San Bernardino. The researcher selected 10 exemplary city managers that met 4 of the 6 criterion identified as exemplary. The phenomenological research design was selected to explain how …

Trolling Twitter, Eric Vorst

Dissertations

Political polarization is a defining feature of the contemporary American political landscape. While there is little doubt that elite polarization levels have risen dramatically in recent decades, there is some debate over the existence of a corresponding rise in mass polarization. Recent scholarship on mass polarization has cited evidence related to citizens’ positions on public policy issues, party sorting, and geographic polarization; however, questions remain as to the nature and extent of mass polarization in online spaces. Specifically, more needs to be known regarding how expressions of elite polarization influence the formation of polarized communities within social media.

This dissertation …

Pragmatic Understanding Of Bottlenose Dolphins (Tursiops Truncatus) Use Of A Two-Way Communication System, Pepper Reid Hanna

Dissertations

Pragmatics focuses on how a communication system is used to achieve a communicative goal, the social context of the communication, and the organizational structure of communications (Horn & Ward, 2004; McLaughlin, 1998). There is evidence of pragmatics within animal communication systems. For example, context appears to be an important component in both signal production and a receiver’s response in vervet monkeys (Seyfarth et al. 1980).

MA Thesis: http://aquila.usm.edu/masters_theses/170/

The current study used an underwater keyboard to establish a two-way communication system between humans and dolphins. The purpose of this study was to determine if, under these conditions, dolphins displayed pragmatic …

Transforming Conflict: A Grounded Theory Study Of Six Behavior Domains Of Leaders In Five Different Fields, Scott A. Dick

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this grounded theory research consisting of five collective phenomenological studies was to generate a theory that explains how exemplar leaders from five different fields use six domains of conflict transformation behaviors to establish common ground and produce breakthrough results. The six domains of behavior are communication, collaboration, ethics, emotional intelligence, problem solving, and process. Methodology: The sample was composed of 75 exemplar leaders from five different professional fields and included an analysis of over 1,300 pages of interview transcripts as the main data source for the study. Findings: The results found that exemplar leaders establish, build, …

The Role Of Communication In Strategic Planning At California Community Colleges, Linda M. Carvalho Cooley

Dissertations

Purpose: Community colleges continue to face an ever-changing environment. California Community Colleges are confronted with state initiatives, accountability, and accreditation changes that require integrated planning processes. The purpose of this qualitative study was to describe the role of communication as perceived by community college planning committee members with regard to the strategic planning processes at California Community Colleges. A secondary purpose of this study was to explore the differences between the perceptions of administrators, faculty and classified committee members involved in planning processes at California Community Colleges.

Methodology: For this qualitative study, committee members directly involved in the planning process …

The Voice And Action Of Service: Exploring Nonprofit Volunteerism From A Dual Perspective, Colleen L. Mestayer

Dissertations

Key factors emerged for communicating with volunteers and staff in the nonprofit sector using a mixed methods approach in two phases. Phase I sought to explain volunteer satisfaction through the development of a new model that included motivation, identification with the nonprofit organization, attachment to the nonprofit organization and its mission, and the impact of interpersonal relationships formed between staff members and volunteers. Findings indicated that the model was an accurate predictor of volunteer satisfaction, and all variables were significantly correlated to volunteer satisfaction. Phase II sought to discover the communication patterns used by internal stakeholders of the nonprofit organization …

The Effectiveness Of Digital Leadership At K-12 Schools In Mississippi Regarding Communication And Collaboration During Ccrs Implementation, Lin Zhong

Dissertations

Successful CCRS implementation requires educators to communicate and collaborate at the local, state, and national level. Technology plays an important role in successful CCRS implementation. This study aims to investigate how digital leadership improves communication and collaboration at K-12 schools in Mississippi regarding implementation of CCRS as well as the effectiveness of different ways of supporting communication and collaboration regarding CCRS implementation. Mixed-method was chosen to investigate the research questions. Ten public school principals from two school districts were interviewed and observed at qualitative stage and two hundred fifty-four public schools teachers participated in the survey at quantitative stage. Interviews …