Digital Commons Network^™

What Is The Caregivers' (Certified Nursing Assistant) Perception Of Their Role While Caring For A Patient In The Household Model?, Daniyele Feaster

Nursing Theses and Capstone Projects

This was a mixed design study that assessed the caregivers' perception of their role while caring for patients in the household model. A sample of 12 caregivers currently employed in a long-term care facility operating in the household model was asked to complete a survey and answer 11 questions during a one on one interview. This interview tool allowed the caregivers the opportunity to rate their personal experiences, environment and express their feelings associated with their role as a certified nursing assistant working in a household model. The results indicated that the caregivers enjoyed working in the household environment and …

Protocol Adherence During Inter-Facility Transfer Of Acute Ischemic Stroke Patients Treated With Iv Rtpa, Robin Reed Jones

Nursing Theses and Capstone Projects

Stroke is a common and serious health disorder, affecting approximately 795,000 people in the United States every year. Intravenous recombinant tissue plasminogen activator (IV rtPA) is the only FDA approved thrombolytic for treating acute ischemic stroke within 3 hours of symptom onset. Patients treated at rural health centers are often transported within hours to the closest primary stroke center. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the structure, process and outcomes related to the inter-facility transport of ischemic stroke patients treated with intravenous rtPA. The Quality-Caring Model© was the guiding framework.

A quantitative, retrospective, non-experimental analysis of inter-facility transport …

The Impact Of Single-Sex Education On Male And Female Gains In Mathematics And Reading At The Elementary Level In A Selected School In North Carolina, Lisa O'Neill

Education Dissertations and Projects

The gender gap in achievement and the increasing awareness of differences between male and female cognitive development have ignited a growing interest in single-sex education. No Child Left Behind legislation and amendments to Title IX legislation have increased the number of schools in America offering single-sex education.

This 2-year quasi-experimental explanatory mixed methods study explores the impact of single-sex education on an economically disadvantaged school's fifth-grade students' academic gains in mathematics and reading achievement in comparison to their peers in demographically similar coeducational classrooms in the same school.

Quantitative data were collected from standardized state test scores in reading and …

Mirroring The Madness: Caribbean Female Development In The Works Of Elizabeth Nunez, Lauren Delli Santi

MA in English Theses

Elizabeth Nunez is a Trinidadian author, critic, and professor who explores the development of female identity within Trinidadian society through her fictional and critical writings. Nunez's article, "The Paradoxes of Belonging," questions the identity of the white creole woman in the Caribbean as she lives in exile due to rejection from her European heritage as well as Afro-Caribbean society. Nunez questions this shaping and questioning of identity through her own fictional works with the formation of her female characters. She uses her native country of Trinidad as the main setting to develop black and biracial female characters and utilizes the …

Teacher Understanding And Perception Of A Response To Intervention Program In A Rural, Western North Carolina School District, Dwight Dean King

Education Dissertations and Projects

Response to Intervention, aka Response to Instruction (RtI), is a multi-tiered instructional process designed to provide research-based interventions to struggling learners. It has recently gained increased popularity with the perceived failure of the discrepancy formula model of placing children in special education services and with the recent reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. Because RtI is just gaining ground in the field of education, limited research regarding teachers' perceptions of the process is available. This research project utilized a mixed-methods approach, combining survey and interview data, to assess teacher understanding and perception of RtI in a rural North …

Program Evaluation Of Developmental Math Instruction At The Community College Level, John M. Mchugh

Education Dissertations and Projects

This program evaluation case study examined the academic effectiveness of a developmental math program in the southeastern United States. The CIPP Evaluation Model (Fitzpatrick, Sanders, & Worthen, 2004) was used as the framework for this program evaluation. The research questions used to guide the research were (1) what are the conditions leading to the necessity of a developmental mathematics program at the college level; (2) what other attempts have been made to solve the problem; (3) how does the implementation of the developmental math program at this college align with recommendations for appropriate instruction of developmental math students; (4) how …

High School English Teachers' Perceptions Of Rigor In Student Assignments, Cynthia S. Misenheimer

Education Dissertations and Projects

This research was designed to examine the perceptions of high school English teachers as to the amount of rigor present in their student assignments as evidenced by a rubric based upon the revised Bloom's taxonomy.

The researcher developed a rubric to assess the amount of rigor based upon the revised Bloom's taxonomy. Teachers of standards and honors level English classes in high schools from two school systems were asked to assess four of their student assignments that they considered challenging utilizing the rubric. They were also asked to rank the assignment with a level of rigor from one for low …

The Relationship Of Teachers' Perceptions Of Collective Efficacy And Perceptions Of Professional Learning Communities, Danielle Shaw Robertson

Education Dissertations and Projects

The dissertation was designed to describe the relationship of collective teacher efficacy to the phases of professional learning communities (PLC) in a rural school district in the southern piedmont region of North Carolina. Limited research exists in the area of collective teacher efficacy and its relationship to professional learning communities, especially related to the phases of development conceptualized by Huffman and Hipp (2003) in their Professional Learning Community Organizer (PLCO).

The researcher gathered baseline data regarding the teachers' perceptions of their schools functioning as professional learning communities from the North Carolina Teacher's Working Conditions Survey given in the spring of …

Program Fidelity And Teacher Decisions: A Case Study Of The Renaissance Learning Program, Jennifer D. Putnam

Education Dissertations and Projects

This dissertation was designed to examine the degree to which the fidelity of implementation of the Renaissance Learning program impacts teacher instruction, as well as teacher perception of student reading motivation and achievement. The teachers at a western North Carolina elementary school used the Renaissance Learning program for over 15 years, with little training. The school's end-of-grade test scores in reading were below the state and district averages, indicating that many of the students were struggling readers. At the start of the 2010-2011 school year, the teachers attended a professional development seminar and were trained on the best uses of …

A Case Study: The Effects Of Stakeholder Perceptions And Perceived Student Self-Efficacy On The Transition From Middle School To High School, Frank E. Wilson Jr.

Education Dissertations and Projects

High dropout rates and low on-time graduation rates across the United States suggest that for many students proper transitioning is not taking place from middle schools to high schools. This study was designed to examine what measure perceptions and expectations held by students, faculty, and parents dealing with transition from middle school to high school had on the ability of students to successfully make this transition. In addition, the researcher sought to determine the extent student self-efficacy had on individual students successfully making the transition from middle school to high school in regards to core academic performance, behaviors, and attendance. …

A Case Study Of Attitudes And Perceptions Of Leadership Characteristics As Perceived By Middle School Teachers And The Principals, Theodore Benjamin Bowen

Education Dissertations and Projects

This dissertation determined the congruence with the order of importance concerning what middle school teachers and middle school principals value regarding the behavioral characteristics of effective middle school principals and if a relationship exists between those characteristics and the 2006/2008 North Carolina Teacher Working Conditions Surveys.

The indications and suggestions of this research were based on the data collected from many different middle schools representing different geographical areas within a large school system located within the piedmont-triad central region of North Carolina. Information was obtained from different multi-question surveys from middle school teachers and principals, open-ended questions, and focus group …

"Atlas Shrugged" And Third-Wave Feminism: An Unlikely Alliance, Paul Mcmahan

MA in English Theses

Ayn Rand and her work are often ignored by feminist critics because of Rand's personal life, her views on sex, and her vehement rejections of collectivism. Feminism has moved through overlapping waves known as first, second, and third-wave feminism. Throughout its life feminism has been marked by two strands: relational and individual. The strand of individual feminism has been more prevalent in Anglo-American feminism while relational feminism has been more predominant in European feminism. Atlas Shrugged was published six years prior to Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique , a text generally agreed upon as the starting point for second-wave feminism. …

Holistic Comfort And Bereavement Of Families Receiving Prenatal Hospice Support During The Loss Of An Unborn Child With Lethal Anomalies, Sally S. Smith

Nursing Theses and Capstone Projects

The purpose of this descriptive study was to explore the grieving process and coping mechanism of families that was faced with the impeding loss of their unborn child. Grief is a very lonely process.

The aim of this research is to examine how parents cope with the lost of an unborn child with the aid of perinatal hospices. Giving families a broader range of options in regards to continuing their pregnancy. Each family has a right to choice what option is right for them. Choices should be in the hands of the family in regards to continuing with their pregnancy …

Technology-Assisted Formative Assessment And Its Impact On Instructional Decision Making: A Mixed Methods Collective Case Study Of Study Island In The Middle Grades, Kelly Cameron Taylor

Education Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this mixed methods collective case study was to determine the use of formative assessment data generated by the web-based program Study Island in the planning and implementation of instruction. The study utilized quantitative data collected through teacher surveys then triangulated qualitative teacher focus group and individual teacher interview data in order to establish statistical themes for narrative analysis. The research focused on data generated by the Study Island program at three rural middle schools, Grades 6 through 8, located in the western region of North Carolina.

The need for data to help teachers determine the next steps …

The Impact Of Bilingual Treatment On The Math Skills Of Hispanic High School Algebra Students, Robert Kirk

Education Dissertations and Projects

This dissertation was designed to measure the impact of instructional techniques in the Foundations of Algebra classroom to bridge linguistic barriers between Hispanic students and the language of teaching. Two consecutive years of failing to meet anticipated yearly growth among Hispanic students in Algebra I, as determined by the North Carolina End of Course exams, indicated a cognitive gap among these students when it comes to learning mathematics.

The writer developed an experiment to be delivered among 9 sections of Algebra in a North Carolina high school. The control group used Microsoft PowerPoint slides created for every lesson plan determined …

A Study Of Middle School Principal Behaviors And Their Impact On Teacher Retention, Todd Martin

Education Dissertations and Projects

This dissertation was designed to investigate the causes behind teacher turnover and the connection between principal behavior, teacher working conditions, and rates of teacher turnover. In particular, this study examined behaviors that teachers in three North Carolina middle schools felt their principals displayed that helped encourage them to continue teaching in their current schools. Teachers in three middle schools, one from each geographical region of the state, completed an online survey. Also, the researcher visited each middle school and interviewed the three principals and their supervisors to collect additional data concerning positive teacher working conditions and reduced rates of turnover. …

A Study Of Teachers Using 21st Century Tools In A Rural South Carolina School District, Amanda Elmore Moss

Education Dissertations and Projects

Students currently live surrounded by technology and the tools of the 21st Century, but as Prensky (2008) asserted, students feel like they "have to power down" when they go to school by working without many of the technology tools with which they are comfortable and by changing, even slowing, their ways of thinking (p. 42). One purpose of this study was to evaluate the technology tools used by students and the quality or types of usage by teachers and students as defined by the recommendations of the Partnership for 21st Century Skills in a rural school district. The study also …

The Impact Of Single-Gender Scheduling On Students In A Title I School, Janet L. Moss

Education Dissertations and Projects

This dissertation was designed to examine the impact that single-gender scheduling would have on students who attend a struggling Title I middle school. The importance of the middle level cannot be denied. Strong research points to this time in a student's life as the pivotal crux on which success and failure are balanced. Middle level educators are charged with the responsibility of tipping the scales in the favor of student success by arming them with the skills they will need to survive and succeed.

A middle school in the northeastern part of Mecklenburg County had the majority of its students …

An Analysis Of Individual Teachers' Development Of Instruction Based On Classscape Program Data, Jason L. Parker

Education Dissertations and Projects

This dissertation was designed to examine and assess the effectiveness of the ClassScape formative assessment tool on the planning, implementation, and evaluation of instruction at a rural middle school in western North Carolina. The teachers had the ClassScape program for 3 years, but were not using the program to plan future instruction. The tools used for data collection revealed the strengths and weaknesses of the implementation of the program. It is essential that schools have ongoing formative assessment practices in order for students to be successful in the 21st Century.

This case study utilized the mixed methods approach in order …

Analysis Of The North Carolina High School To Community College Articulation Agreement's Impact On Student Motivation In A North Carolina High School, Shaun Christian Poole

Education Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this sequential explanatory case study was to explore the impact of the North Carolina High School to Community College Articulation Agreement on student motivation to (a) perform well in the course as defined by the State of North Carolina award of college credit, (b) graduate high school, (c) pursue college or postsecondary training in course content, and (d) select a career in the course field. The study utilized quantitative data collected through student surveys then triangulated qualitative student focus group and teacher focus group interview data in order to establish statistical themes for narrative analysis. The research …

The Impact Of A Freshman Academy On High School Transition, Sherry Grier Veasey

Education Dissertations and Projects

This dissertation was designed to identify and describe the impact a freshman academy has on high school transition for ninth-grade students at a rural high school in western North Carolina. This case study investigated the problems ninth graders encounter as they transition from middle school to high school. The study examined student achievement, student attendance, and the graduation rate in an effort to determine whether a freshman academy at the high school helped students transition successfully.

The transition to high school may be difficult for some students because of the countless changes they are experiencing as adolescents. The high school …

Perceptions Of Pre-Service Teacher Training Concerning Curriculum Alignment For Students With Developmental Disabilities, Kim Watkins

Education Dissertations and Projects

Legislative mandates require teachers to provide access to the general curriculum for all students in the least restrictive environment. Though policies are in place to ensure high quality instruction for all students, many students with developmental disabilities are still being served in self-contained settings with a life-skills instructional approach only, without the necessary supports for accessing the general curriculum. The purpose of this study was to reveal the extent of pre-service teacher perceptions of teacher training on curriculum alignment in order to improve pre-service teacher training in special education for access to the general curriculum for students with developmental disabilities. …

Evaluating The Effectiveness Of Outreach And Retention Methods Of Six Congregations Of The Brunswick Baptist Association, Jeffrey Gibby

Doctor of Ministry Projects

I chose two hypotheses to form a survey. The first hypothesis is that persons are reached by the style of building, existing relationships, or advertising. The second hypothesis is that persons maintain their membership based on the content of preaching, the quality of teaching programs, or fellowship.

I employed the Mann-Whitney Statistical Test to analyze the data.

The data revealed that good preaching, good worship, and good fellowship make a growing church. The data results also show the significance of the Pastor and revealed that age-graded Bible study groups are still valid in reaching and retaining members.

A Study Of The Presence Of Relational Aggression In The Adult Population, Kathy C. Williams

Nursing Theses and Capstone Projects

Aggression can result in a challenge of the basic human need for safety and security (Plotnik, 1999). Historically there has been extensive research regarding physical aggression. However, only in the past two decades has relational aggression received attention. Most research studies regarding relational aggression have focused upon children, adolescents and young adults. The purpose of this study was to explore the presence of relational aggression in the adult population. The Self-Report of Aggression and Social Behavior Measure tool was used to survey a convenience sample of 67 nursing students. The participants were students enrolled in the school of nursing (associate, …

The Effect Of Emergency Department Length Of Stay On Clinical Outcomes For Critically Ill Or Injured Patients, Sheila Radcliff

Nursing Theses and Capstone Projects

The purpose of the study was to identify the effects of the emergency department length of stay on clinical outcomes for critically ill or injured patients in the regional referral community hospital. Delays in transfer have been associated with increased mortality rates, prolonged length of stays, and poor outcomes. Emergency departments are designed to respond to immediate life or limb threatening emergencies.

A quantitative, descriptive, retrospective design was used in this study. Data was collected from APACHE II, trauma databases, and ED logs. The study was conducted in a 752 bed hospital in the western North Carolina. Data was analyzed …

Helping The Parents Of Middle School Students Communicate Biblical Truths Of Sexuality At The First Baptist Church Of Lenoir, North Carolina, Thomas Russell Hinton

Doctor of Ministry Projects

An educational program was developed to discover the role of the church in promoting healthy parent/child communication about sexuality. Believing scripture affirms sexuality as a blessing from God, parents and middle school youth were recruited and led through the study. Surveys measured attitudes, opinions, and understanding of biblical knowledge, anatomy, and communication levels. After the program the families were given two months to observe parent/child communication. Final surveys indicated that the church can play an active role in promoting parent child communication about sexuality, and participants reflected a positive outcome by recommending the continuation of this program as a part …

Discovering The Inventory Of Spiritual Gifts Of Bethel Baptist Church Of Rock Hill, Inc., Rock Hill, South Carolina, Robert Joseph Crawford

Doctor of Ministry Projects

The hypothesis of this ministry project is that Bethel Baptist Church does not lack any spiritual gifts that are needed for contemporary Christian ministry. The challenge is which church members possess which spiritual endowments. To discover the church's spiritual gifts inventory, we used Bugbee's spiritual gifts assessments and gave opportunities for the expression of the gifts that were uncovered. The ministry experiment revealed clusters of spiritual gifts in the Bethel faith community. They were the gifts of faith, helps, mercy, and teaching. Ministries formed were prayer team ministries, praise and worship leaders, and a teacher's preparedness team.

Yahweh As Father: The Image In Ancient Israelite Context And Modern Appropriation, Joshua Wayne Lovelace

MA in Religion Theses

The goal of this thesis was to appropriate the image of Yahweh as father for modern Christendom in light of feminist critiques of the image. The methods in accomplishing this task were as follows: defining feminism and feminist biblical interpretation, conveying the critiques of Rosemary Radford Ruether and Julia M. O'Brien who were scholarly dialogue partners, studying the social milieu of ancient Israel, using historical, literary, textual, and social criticism to exegete texts that mention Yahweh as father, comparing findings of exegesis with social milieu of ancient Israel, responding to critiques of Ruether and O'Brien, and lastly taking the findings …

Parental Perception Of Childhood Obesity And The School's Role On Prevention And Interventions In Childhood Obesity, Monique Jones

Nursing Theses and Capstone Projects

Childhood obesity is a major health crisis that is becoming an epidemic among children and adolescents. Interventions must begin early and focus on prevention strategies to achieve the goal of increasing quality years of life for today's children and families. Parents with children in a local after school Boys & Girls club were surveyed regarding their perception of childhood obesity, the causes of childhood obesity, and the school's role in the prevention and treatment of childhood obesity. More than 90% of the participants identified inactivity, poor eating behavior, eating too much, and lack of money to buy nutritious foods as …

The Effect Of High-Fidelity Human Patient Simulation On Stress Levels Of Associate Degree Novice Nursing Students, Sallie Beth Todd

Nursing Theses and Capstone Projects

The clinical learning environment is an important component in the educational development of a student nurse. Nursing students have identified the clinical experience as one of the most stress producing components of their nursing education. Past research has shown high levels of stress can lead to decreased learning, affect clinical performance, increase clinical errors, and threaten physical or psychiatric wellbeing. Nurse educators' primary responsibilities are to help students effectively cope with their initial stress and facilitate student learning by applying the knowledge they gain in the classroom to the clinical environment. To allow students the opportunity to integrate theory into …