Digital Commons Network^™

The Sixty-Six Percent, Natalie Abruzzo

Capstones

The Sixty-Six Percent represent the percentage of women in the U.S. who are overweight. They are regarded as full-figured or “plus” size in the world of women’s apparel. Even though more than half of American women wear a “plus” size - size 14 and up - designs for these women account for a fraction of women’s apparel - Only 37% of women's wear is plus-size.

The Sixty-Six Percent is coming at an important time in a broader conversation about de-stigmatizing what it means to be a plus-size woman in America. Fat shaming has become taboo and mainstream media as well …

Development And Implementation Of A Violence Risk Assessment Tool, Mira Aidasani-Diwata

Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) Projects

The purpose of this quality improvement project was to provide a means to effectively assess patients as they are admitted to the hospitals and to effectively communicate a patient’s violent tendencies within the healthcare setting. Workplace violence is a serious problem that affects all healthcare professionals. Although serious assaults and homicides attract more media attention, the majority of workplace violence consists of non-fatal assaults. Nurses, aides, and patient care technicians suffer the most non-fatal assaults resulting in injury. Due to the growing incidence of assault and injury among healthcare workers, some states are calling for additional study on workplace violence. …

Developing Inter-Professional Oral Health Education: An Evaluation Of Educational Resources, Jordan A. Jew

Master's Projects and Capstones

As healthcare continues to evolve, providers will need to uphold the quality of patient care provided to patients. Traditional healthcare holds many gaps that do not recognize the unmet needs that exist within today’s society. To maximize the abilities of healthcare services, inter-professional education introduces a collaborative approach that develops a network of shared knowledge and clinical skills beyond the primary scope of practice.

In this project, oral health learning modules developed for family practice residents were introduced to first-year dental students at the Dugoni School of Dentistry to improve their knowledge and confidence to both educate and practice with …

A Body-Based Program Development Project To Prevent Burnout Among Mental Healthcare Professionals, Amanda J. Abeling

Creative Arts Therapies Theses

Using the Delphi Method as a guide, a self-care program for staff members was developed out of one dance/movement therapy intern’s experiences at a suburban mental healthcare facility. Designed to increase one’s connection to self, personal observations were gathered, professionals in the field were consulted and the program was created and implemented. Themes of stress, fatigue, and burnout among the mental health care profession are discussed. Previous research on body awareness, dance/movement therapy theories, and self-care are also discussed in order to provide a framework with which to understand the development of the program. 72 pages.

A Multi-Stage Efficiency Analysis Of Oecd Healthcare And The Impact Of Technical Change, Can Bekaroglu

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation aims to measure the impact of technical change on OECD Healthcare in a multi-stage framework and identify the different sources of outcome losses to allow for comprehensive policy implications within a diverse dataset including countries from a large variety of development levels facing different healthcare issues. We adopt an output-oriented DEA (Data Envelopment Analysis) methodology to obtain the technical efficiencies in production and provision. Data used in this study is mainly obtained from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Health Data 2013 and consists of 34 OECD countries and 12 years between 2000 and 2011.

Joint Optimization Of Allocation And Release Policy Decisions For Surgical Block Time Under Uncertainty, Mina Loghavi

Doctoral Dissertations

The research presented in this dissertation contributes to the growing literature on applications of operations research methodology to healthcare problems through the development and analysis of mathematical models and simulation techniques to find practical solutions to fundamental problems facing nearly all hospitals.

In practice, surgical block schedule allocation is usually determined regardless of the stochastic nature of case demand and duration. Once allocated, associated block time release policies, if utilized, are often simple rules that may be far from optimal. Although previous research has examined these decisions individually, our model considers them jointly. A multi-objective model that characterizes financial, temporal, …

Improving Process And Enhancing Parent And Therapist Satisfaction Through A Coordinated Intake Approach, Sharla Piecowye, Devona Gibson, Janis Carscadden, Kayla Ueland, Gregory Wells, Scott Oddie

Patient Experience Journal

Recent research indicates that, in Canada, approximately one in five children entering school are not meeting age appropriate milestones in physical, social, language, or cognitive development. Even where support services are available families often face barriers in accessing these. With the goals of improving access to programs, reducing barriers and increasing consistency and efficiency, a new Coordinated Intake Approach (CIA) was developed for families accessing Children’s Rehabilitation Services. It was expected that the CIA would result in 1) parents finding the intake process more satisfactory and easier to complete, 2) therapists feeling more supported and satisfied and 3) a decrease …

The State Of Patient Experience, Jason A. Wolf Phd

Patient Experience Journal

As the patient experience movement continues to flourish, there is greater alignment that experience encompasses all we do in healthcare – not simply a customer encounter, but how we engage people in mind, body and spirit, how we integrate the critical aspects of care from quality to safety to service and how we link the very complexities of our healthcare systems globally to provide for easy journeys for those receiving care. In sharing data from the latest study for The Beryl Institute on patient experience, the trends of this growing movement are seen as positive and a set of clear …

History, Governmental Structure, And Politics: Defining The Scope Of Local Board Of Health Power, Pekham Pal

Fordham Law Review

Local boards of health often issue regulations that have broad effects that surpass the borders of the city or county to which they apply. Promulgation of such rules by board of health members appointed by the executive branch implicates separation of powers concerns; because such regulations may so extensively burden a locality’s citizens, it may be more appropriate for elected officials to adopt these regulations. Indeed, local businesses or other interested parties often bring suit challenging local board of health actions. Courts apply different analytical methodologies to review these challenges, which often leads to incongruent local health agency discretion for …

Design And Manufacture Of Mesoscale Robot-Actuated Surgical Instruments, Clayton L. Grames

Theses and Dissertations

Minimally Invasive Surgery (MIS) is a growing field including both laparoscopic androbotic operations. Surgeons and engineers are making continual efforts to reduce the negative effects of procedures on patients. Reducing the size of the surgical instruments is one effective method pursued in this effort. When the instruments approach 3 mm in diameter, they reach a threshold where the entry incisions can be small enough that no scar is left on the patient. Laparoscopic instruments on this scale exist but typically lack wrist articulation and only have 1 degree of freedom (DoF). Alternatively, robotic surgical instruments can achieve high levels of …

Unenumerated Rights And The Limits Of Analogy: A Critque Of The Right To Medical Self-Defense, O. Carter Snead

O. Carter Snead

Volokh’s project stands or falls with the claim that the entitlement he proposes is of constitutional dimension. If there is no fundamental right to medical self-defense, the individual must, for better or worse, yield to the regulation of this domain in the name of the values agreed to by the political branches of government. Indeed, the government routinely restricts the instrumentalities of self-help (including self-defense) in the name of avoiding what it takes to be more significant harms. This same rationale accounts for current governmental limitations on access to unapproved drugs and the current ban on organ sales. The FDA …

Reproductive Rights In Latin America: A Case Study Of Guatemala And Nicaragua, Katherine W. Bogen

Scholarly Undergraduate Research Journal at Clark (SURJ)

A lack of access to contraceptives and legal abortion for women throughout the nations of Nicaragua and Guatemala creates critical health care problems. Moreover, rural and underprivileged women in Guatemala and Nicaragua are facing greater limitations to birth control access, demonstrating a classist aspect in the global struggle for female reproductive rights. Although some efforts have been made over the past half-century to initiate a dialogue on the failure of medical care in these nations to adequately address issues of maternal mortality and reproductive rights, the women's reproductive health movements of Nicaragua and Guatemala have struggled to reach an effective …

Way Forward On Healthcare?, William H. Lane

English Faculty Publications

In the wake of a remarkable visit from Pope Francis, is it time to ask, WWFD? What would Francis do with our half-fixed, highly fragmented healthcare system? [excerpt]

Somali Elder Care: A Guide For Healthcare In The West, Meyran A. Omar

Culminating Projects in Gerontology

A refugee is defined as a person that flees their home due to war. They give up their homes, their lifestyle, and sometimes even family members in order to reach safety and security like the rest of us enjoy. One group of people, the Somali’s, have been refugees for almost 25 years. The Somali’s have been coming to countries around the globe as refugees since 1991 due to the ongoing civil war that has torn their home country apart. The United States started resettling the Somali refugees and brought them through the UNRHC and mostly Christian NGO’s located inside of …

Impact Of Laws Aimed At Healthcare-Associated Infection Reduction: A Qualitative Study, Patrica W. Stone, Monika Pogorzelska-Maziarz, Julie Reagan, Jacqueline A. Merrill, Brad Sperber, Catherine Cairns, Matthew Penn, Tara Ramanathan, Elizabeth Mothershed, Elizabeth Skillen

Health Policy and Management Faculty Publications

Background: Healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) are preventable. Globally, laws aimed at reducing HAIs have been implemented. In the USA, these laws are at the federal and state levels. It is not known whether the state interventions are more effective than the federal incentives alone.

Objective: The aims of this study were to explore the impact federal and state HAI laws have on state departments of health and hospital stakeholders in the USA and to explore similarities and differences in perceptions across states.

Methods: A qualitative study was conducted. In 2012, we conducted semistructured interviews with key stakeholders from states with and …

Exposure Monitoring In Developing Countries, Luis Collado

Graduate Theses & Non-Theses

Formaldehyde is widely used in the healthcare industry. Formaldehyde is used as a disinfectant and sterilant. In addition, formaldehyde/formalin is used as fixative/ preservative of anatomical specimens in pathology departments. Individuals may experience adverse effects following short term exposure above 0.1ppm. Following a laboratory study in the early 1980s, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) classified formaldehyde as a human carcinogen in 1987.

Although the healthcare industry in the United States made major advancement in the safe use of formaldehyde/formalin since the implementation of the Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) Formaldehyde standard, other developing countries are still struggling with …

Goddesses Versus Gynecologists: An Analysis Of The History Of Women’S Healthcare, Marion A. Mckenzie

Student Publications

Starting from the downfall of Goddess cultures in Europe, women's health care has been negatively impacted for generations. The rise of the white, male Indo-European "dominator model" along with the witch craze, caused the end of widespread wise women traditions and pharmacopeia methods. After women's traditional voice was silenced, medical colleges were established to pronounce new, "professional" knowledge. Only those who attended these universities were allowed to legally practice medicine; however, during this time, medical research and treatments for women primarily included mutilation and painful, nonsensical regimens. The horrifying state of women's healthcare has since improved, but was originally a …

Treatment Of Drug Addiction Within Brazil’S Penitentiary System A Qualitative Investigation, Samantha Jain

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Illicit drug use remains a significant public health issue within in Brazil, and is only magnified in the state penitentiary system, where there is excessive over-crowding and a lack of resources to address this issue. The purpose of this investigation is to understand the context of drug use within the prison system as well as how is drug abuse treated by the professionals that work in Penitenciaria Lemos Brito and Cadeia Publica. Treating drug addiction is an important aspect of the inmate’s well-being as well as it’s impact on his re-integration back into society after his punishment is served. Therefore, …

Farm-To-Hospital Research Findings Point To Opportunities For Extension, Brian Raison

The Journal of Extension

Extension has a history of local foods programming around farm to institution. But connections with hospitals, an industry sector with significant potential for increased local food purchasing, appear limited. Hospital outreach could provide inroads for patient and employee education around healthy eating. But does Extension know how to engage healthcare foodservice? Do hospital foodservice directors have knowledge of Extension? This article focuses on intersections at which Extension can approach hospitals to help improve health and the economy through local foods. It is based on findings excerpted from a comprehensive Ohio hospital foodservice director study (n=155) conducted in late 2014.

A Socio-Ecological Model Of Affordable Care Act Acceptance, Pratiksha Vaghela

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Background: Since 1965, there have not been any major revisions of the healthcare laws in the United States, until the recent implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). However, ACA is not well understood and is often controversial. The purpose of this study is to: (1) evaluate the relationship between the employers’ and the employees’ perceptions regarding the ACA mandates for small businesses, (2) evaluate the relationship between the self-reported and the tested knowledge of individuals regarding the ACA mandates for small businesses, and (3) determine if socio-demographic factors influence individual’s perception of the law. Based on the gathered information, …

Collaboration And Health Care Diagnostics: An Agent Based Model Simulation, Sebastian Linde, George K. Thiruvathukal

George K. Thiruvathukal

This paper presents a simple ABM simulation that seeks to provide insight into the public health benefits that derive from greater collaboration among health care professionals. In particular, the paper compares the efficiency, delivery and timeliness of health care diagnostics under two contrasting paradigms–one in which collaboration is encouraged, and an- other where it is not. The preliminary results of this study suggest that while the effect of cooperation on aggregate public health depends on the patient search algorithm employed, its effect on overall efficiency and timeliness of health care diagnostics and treatment is significant and pos- itive. Since the …

Patient Satisfaction & Knowledge Of Services: An Evaluation Of A Street Medicine Program, Aleta Christensen

Public Health Theses

INTRODUCTION: Healthcare needs among homeless populations are difficult to meet within the scope of a standard healthcare model. A street medicine model addresses the specific needs of those experiencing homelessness; healthcare professionals seek to build trust and rapport with people who are living unsheltered by taking their clinical practice to the streets. The street medicine program evaluated in this study provides primary and behavioral care in a metropolitan area in the Southeastern United States. AIM: This program evaluation aimed to answer the following questions: how has the street medicine program affected the perceptions of ill-health and access to healthcare among …

Anion-Responsive Metallopolymer Hydrogels For Healthcare Applications, Jiuyang Zhang, Jing Yan, Parasmani Pageni, Yi Yan, Adam Wirth, Yun-Ping Chen, Yali Qiao, Qian Wang, Alan W. Decho, Chuanbing Tang

Faculty Publications

Metallopolymers combine a processable, versatile organic polymeric skeleton with functional metals, providing multiple functions and methodologies in materials science. Taking advantage of cationic cobaltocenium as the key building block, organogels could be simply switched to hydrogels via a highly efficient ion exchange. With the unique ionic complexion ability, cobaltocenium moieties provide a robust soft substrate for recycling antibiotics from water. The essential polyelectrolyte nature offers the metallopolymer hydrogels to kill multidrug resistant bacteria. The multifunctional characteristics of these hydrogels highlight the potential for metallopolymers in the field of healthcare and environmental treatment.

Medicare At Fifty Needs To Grow, William H. Lane

English Faculty Publications

In America everybody has a healthcare story. A bill impossible to read, an inscrutable "additional" charge, trouble getting insurance, trouble keeping it, a friend or family member who's fallen between the coverage "cracks." [excerpt]

Improving Patient Flow With Data-Driven Patient Prioritization Method In The Emergency Department, Kar Way Tan, Sean Shao Wei Lam

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

We aim to improve the length-of-stay (LOS) of patients in the Emergency Department (ED) ambulatory care area. We propose the use of real-time computerized physician order entry data and ED patient flow management system to estimate the consultation time of patients re-entering the queue to consult a doctor again after receiving treatment or results of tests. The estimation allows decision-makers to apply dynamic prioritization strategies that help the ED to identify patients who can complete their ED treatment process quickly, freeing up resources in the ED and lowering overall LOS.

Engaging Healthcare Users Through Gamification In Knowledge Sharing Of Continuous Improvement In Healthcare, Elizabeth A. Cudney, Susan L. Murray, Connor M. Sprague, Lalaine M. Byrd, Frances M. Morris, Nathaniel Merwin, Debra L. Warner

Engineering Management and Systems Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Knowledge management systems are key for capturing, retaining, and communicating results from projects and presenting information to staff. The purpose of a knowledge management system is to tap into the vast wisdom from projects and experts across an organization. This research focuses on the knowledge management system within the Veterans Health Administration that was developed as a repository of information on continuous improvement tools such as flowcharts, value stream mapping, 5S, and the application of these in healthcare projects. The use of social network analysis and gamification improves website organization, user participation, and dissemination of shared knowledge related to continuous …

The Aca’S 2017 State Innovation Waiver: Is Erisa A Roadblock To Meaningful Healthcare Reform?, Marea B. Tumber

University of Massachusetts Law Review

In 2017, the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) State Innovation Waiver (§1332) will enable states to waive many of the ACA’s provisions and to develop their own creative solutions to reign in healthcare spending. The Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) was enacted to encourage employers to sponsor benefit plans and minimize potential conflicts with existing state laws. Because of ERISA, the regulation of employee benefit plans, including health plans, falls primarily under federal jurisdiction for about 131 million people. This Note explores the ways in which ERISA presents significant roadblocks to meaningful state level healthcare reform under §1332. …

Scotus Summary: The Supreme Court's Decision In King V. Burwell On Healthcare, Wilson Huhn

Con Law Center Articles and Publications

This report analyzes the Supreme Court’s decision in King v. Burwell, which was handed down on June 25, 2015. In this case the Supreme Court revisited the Affordable Care Act, the statute whose constitutionality was upheld in the 2012 case of NFIB v. Sebelius. In NFIB the Court ruled that it was constitutional for Congress to impose a tax on persons who fail to purchase health insurance.

An Online Survey Of The Healthcare Needs Of Undergraduate Students At An Urban University, Linda Graf

College of Science and Health Theses and Dissertations

There is a growing body of evidence that reveals mounting need for radical modification of college health services for young adults in the United States. The health issues for this population, which are exacerbated by inadequate access to healthcare include alcoholism, depression, unintended pregnancy, disordered eating, sexual assault and sexually transmitted infections. Utilizing the College Student Health Survey developed by University of Minnesota’s Boynton Health Service, this study specifically focused on analyzing the health care needs of undergraduate students at a large, urban, university. Access and utilization of healthcare services for this population were also examined. An online survey was …

College Of Public Health News, Georgia Southern University

Jiann-Ping Hsu College of Public Health News (2011-2023)

• Georgia Southern Models the Effect of School Closures
• Georgia Southern Researcher Examines Racial Differences in the Utilization of Bone Marrow Transplantation and Participation in Survey and Biospecimen Research