Digital Commons Network^™

School Crisis Response: Perceptions Of Experienced Responders, Travis E. Pinter

Theses and Dissertations

The needs of a school community following the death of a student or staff member are not something every educator and/or school administrator may be prepared to address. Multi-disciplinary crisis response teams, particularly those operating at the district level, are equipped to respond to such situations rapidly and effectively. School psychologists, due to their categorization as “scientist practitioners” in the educational environment and their training in both therapeutic intervention models and tiered service delivery, are especially qualified to coordinate training for, manage, and serve on K-12 crisis response teams. Unfortunately, the definitive manualized program on school crisis response, PREPaRE (Brock …

Student Perceptions Of The Impact Of Kinesthetics In The Choral Rehearsal, Lucas G. Krogmann

Theses and Dissertations

Using movement activities, or kinesthetics, in the choral rehearsal is a studied and established teaching technique that some music educators regularly employ. The movement-based strategies have their roots in the work of Jaques-Dalcroze, Laban, and Kodály, as well as other choral pedagogues of the 20th century that have built on their foundation. However, upon literature review, few studies have been done to establish the student perspective regarding the use of movement in the choral rehearsal. Three research questions guided this qualitative, action research study: 1) Do students have a positive or negative perception of the use of kinesthetics during the …

An Internatural Communication Study Of Identity Within Nonprofit Animal Shelters, Samentha Emily Sepúlveda

Theses and Dissertations

In a two-part study of this dissertation project, I relied on qualitative research methods to examine the stories of animal shelter employees and volunteers—stories about animal shelters, animal sheltering, and shelter animals—to analyze communication processes that shape staff-identity, organizational-identity, and organizational identification. This project was guided by the communicative constitution of organizations (CCO) approach, which frames communication as not simply something that happens within an organization, but rather argues organization happens in communication. Furthermore, contributing to internatural communication research, this project explored identity and identification from a “more-than human” perspective. Relating CCO and internatural communication to research in this dissertation …

Exploring The Effect Of Service Dogs On Ptsd Symptoms In Veterans, Lauren Floore-Guetschow

Theses and Dissertations

Utilizing psychiatric service dogs for PTSD is a relatively new area of research and treatment option for veterans. This qualitative research study aims to look at the effects of the use of psychiatric service dogs on veterans with PTSD for veterans who have or were previously receiving traditional mental health treatment. The researcher was looking to see: how does day-to-day life look for these veterans, have they noticed a change in PTSD symptoms, what are their views on mental health treatment, and how do they view being in public? 7 veterans, from a variety of conflicts and branches were interviewed …

Critical Illness Survivors’ Perceptions Of Their Recovery: An Interpretive Phenomenological Inquiry, Kelly Calkins

Theses and Dissertations

Surviving critical illness with its physical, cognitive, and psychosocial morbidities is a growing clinical and research challenge and an important public health concern. Currently, there are few interventions for survivors of critical illness after hospital discharge. Potential interventions include rehabilitation services, Intensive Care Unit (ICU) diaries and ICU follow-up clinics, however, most survivors do not have access to these post-hospital interventions.

The purpose of this study is to gain a better understanding of how critical illness survivors experience their recovery, interventions they use, and what they perceive as facilitators and barriers to their recovery. A better understanding of these factors, …

Self-Management Experiences Of Community-Dwelling Adults With Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, Wendy Bauer

Theses and Dissertations

Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is an incurable lung illness causing significant individual and public health burden. Individuals with COPD often experience high symptom burden, unpredictable exacerbations, numerous comorbid conditions, and frequent health care utilization. Self-management can improve health outcomes and reduce health care costs; however, many individuals with COPD struggle with effective self-management. Improving the self-management of individuals with COPD and the delivery of self-management support from health care providers is crucial to reducing the individual and societal costs of the illness.

The purpose of this study was to explore the self-management experiences of community-dwelling adults living with COPD …

Trans Masculine Identities: Making Meaning In Gender And Transition, Nickolas Hollis Lambrou

Theses and Dissertations

Perspectives on transgender identity have evolved through time, and various models of transgender identity development are emerging from multiple fields of study. However, little is known about what gender identity means to self-identified trans masculine individuals. Additionally, across existing transgender identity development stage models, the concept of transition is often assumed to include some form of medical intervention, with the acquisition of such interventions playing a key role in one’s developmental trajectory. Furthermore, current literature often implies transition is an end goal in the path toward integrating one’s core identity. However, there is little to no research exploring how trans …

The Utility Of Mobile Phones For Health Among Women Living With Hiv In Urban Malawi, Linda Marie Dietrich

Theses and Dissertations

The use of mobile phones are becoming ubiquitous with growing interest by healthcare providers to utilize mobile phone technology for various health-related applications, called mHealth. This is especially true in low-income countries such as those in sub-Saharan Africa. When implementing mHealth applications, it is important to understand the dynamic social, cultural and environmental factors where mHealth will be implemented to ensure that interventions developed are effective. A qualitative study to explore the sociotechnical factors experienced by women participating in an HIV support group in urban Malawi was conducted to enhance our understanding of women’s experience with mobile phone use and …

Ways In Which Teachers Structure Reading Instruction For Bilingual Students With Disabilities: A Case Study Analysis, Nikki Phyllis Logan

Theses and Dissertations

In partial fulfillment of candidacy for Ph.D. at the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee, this research study uses a single case study design to answer the question, How do teachers structure reading instruction for bilingual students with disabilities in urban elementary settings? Bronfenbrenner’s Bioecological Theory and critical race theory guided the study design and data analysis of interviews, observations, and documents to determine that teachers of bilingual students with disabilities experience unique challenges. Findings of the study include the topics of disability blindfolding; disjointed delivery; improper instruction due to assessment and progress monitoring; spatial implications; definitions impact instruction; and teachers’ …

"I Know I Can't Be The Only Lesbian Out There:" An Inductive Thematic Analysis Of A Virtual Community Of Lesbian Breast Cancer Survivors, Rachael Lynn Wandrey

Theses and Dissertations

Sexual minority women are at a significantly greater risk for developing breast cancer (BC) than heterosexual women. Little is known about the unique BC experiences of lesbian women. The present thesis describes the findings of an inductive thematic analysis of messages posted to a large lesbian-specific discussion forum found on breastcancer.org. Fifteen themes were identified, including privileging sensation over appearance, experiencing heterosexism in medical contexts, believing others perceive a lack of distress over breast loss because of patient’s lesbian sexual orientation, feeling pressure from surgeons to get reconstructive surgery, and viewing the BC journey as a sexual-identity disclosure crisis. In …

What Inez Knows: A Qualitative, Longitudinal Case Study Of One Woman's Journey Through The Maze Of Living With Hiv And A Serious Mental Illness, Linda Austin

Theses and Dissertations

WHAT INEZ KNOWS: A QUALITATIVE, LONGITUDINAL CASE STUDY OF ONE WOMAN'S JOURNEY THROUGH THE MAZE OF LIVING WITH HIV AND A SERIOUS MENTAL ILLNESS

by

Linda Austin

The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, 2014

Under the Supervision of Professor Patricia E. Stevens

Although more than thirty years have passed since AIDS was first diagnosed in the U. S., the HIV/AIDS epidemic continues and the prevalence and incidence statistics remain alarming. Twenty-five percent of the people living with HIV in the United States are women, but only half of these women are in care and even fewer women (42%) have viral suppression. Women …

The Impact Of Cancer Caregiving On Cancer Caregivers: Stories Of Lives In Transition, Cynthia Marie Steinwedel

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of the study was to examine the impact of cancer caregiving on primary caregivers, exploring their personal narratives looking back on the entire experience from diagnosis, through treatment, and beyond. Caregiving is associated with exacerbation of stress-related disorders such as hypertension and heart disease and may also be associated with increased mortality rates. Transitions theory served as the conceptual framework for the study. Eleven adult caregivers, pre-retirement age, each participated in two semi-structured interviews. Caregivers were recruited from a community cancer resource center and were purposively selected to achieve maximum variation in terms of outcome of cancer treatment. …

Searching The Archive Of Our Own: The Usefulness Of The Tagging Structure, Kelly Lynn Dalton

Theses and Dissertations

To explore users' opinions about the search methods available on an online fanfiction repository, The Archive of Our Own, users of the Archive are offered an online survey with both quantitative and qualitative questions about various methods of searching the Archive. While quantitative responses are converted into percentages and cross-tabulated to compare responses from different groups within the survey-takers, qualitative questions are hand-coded for emergent themes. Overall the respondents hold positive opinions about the various Archive search methods and about Archive searching as a whole although they have many suggestions for improvements, including adding other search options, adding a weighting …