Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Improving Spiritual Care Competency Among Intensive Care Unit Nurses: Promoting Holistic Patient Care Towards End-Of-Life, Joanne Nguyen, Dana Bagis

Nursing | Senior Theses

Intensive care unit (ICU) nurses play a crucial role in providing physiological stabilizing care in a dynamic and fast-paced environment, often marked by constant changes and variability in complex patients. Despite their specialization, the aspect of spiritual care tends to be overlooked, particularly in the context of end-of-life care. This is significant because previous studies have shown that a lack of spiritual care leads to poorer health outcomes, decreased coping, increased depression, and diminished quality of life for patients. This research proposal aims to investigate the spiritual care competency among ICU nurses who partake in spiritual care-based training, with the …

A Pulse For Progress – Examining The Efficacy Of Best Nursing Developmental Care Practices For Children With Congenital Heart Disease At Risk For Developmental Delay In The Pcicu: A Prospective Quasi-Experimental Cohort Study, Jasmyn Jansen

Nursing | Senior Theses

Emerging advances in pediatric cardiovascular surgery have significantly decreased the mortality rates in infants born with critical congenital heart disease (CHD), in turn, leading to increasing prevalence in adolescence and adulthood. At the same time, developmental delays (DD) are on the rise among children with CHD. Recent research suggests that prolonged exposure to the pediatric cardiac intensive care unit (PCICU), with its environmental stressors, negatively implicates neurodevelopment raising the question, and risk, of DD. In January 2023, the American Heart Association (AHA) issued a scientific advisory calling hospitals to implement developmental care practices for hospitalized infants and young children with …

The Impact Of Nursing Education On The Implementation Of Kangaroo Care: Neurodevelopment Outcomes In Preterm Infants, Giana Usac

Nursing | Senior Theses

Preterm birth poses a significant risk to the normal trajectory of brain development, particularly in the cortex, which is responsible for higher cognitive functions, motor control, and socio-emotional processing. However, Kangaroo Mother Care (KMC) has emerged as an important early intervention capable of improving neurodevelopmental outcomes in preterm newborns. This quantitative research proposal aims to assess the influence of nurse education on KMC practices, identifying pivotal periods in infancy when KMC has the most significant impact on neurodevelopment outcomes in preterm infants. The literature critique focuses on the efficacy of nursing education, the optimization of KMC regarding duration and frequency, …

Nurse Suicide: Examining Depression And Anxiety In Critical Care Settings, Arianna Bernardine Barata

Nursing | Senior Theses

Nurses play a critical role in healthcare, yet the demanding work environment often exposes them to stressors, leading to the development of depression and anxiety. According to the National Library of Medicine (NLM) (2021), 50.8% of nurses have stress, 74% have anxiety, 70.8% have depression, and 79.1% have at least one of them. Burnout, understaffing, COVID fatigue, alarm fatigue, patient ratios, and disrupted sleep patterns are some of the stressors nurses contend with in every shift. While some nurses may cope and overcome these challenges, many face more severe issues, such as suicide. Nurse suicide is an issue that has …

Racial And Geographic Disparities In The Management And Care Of Sepsis, Luke Dommaschk Burwell

Nursing | Senior Theses

Sepsis, a severe condition triggered by the body's response to infection, requires prompt treatment to prevent tissue damage and organ failure. The SEP-1 Sepsis bundle, developed by Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), aims to standardize care, particularly in rural hospitals with limited resources. However, disparities in bundle adherence and mortality rates persist, with rural areas facing more significant challenges. Studies show racial differences in care quality, emphasizing the need for interventions to address systemic biases. While sepsis bundle adherence and simulation training are strong indicators of care improvement, the literature review underscores the need for targeted interventions in …

Examining The Effects Of Music Therapy On Physical And Psychological Symptoms Among Cancer Patients Undergoing Chemotherapy, Guadalupe Saldana

Nursing | Senior Theses

Background: Patients undergoing chemotherapy experience undesirable physical and psychological effects in which medications are the preferred method of management. However, standard medications are often insufficient for patients. Failure to attend to the adverse effects can lead to worsening of the patient’s cancer diagnosis and quality of life. The importance of managing chemotherapy symptoms creates an urgent need to implement an approach that is noninvasive, non-pharmacological, and one that still meets the physical and psychological needs of patients receiving chemotherapy.

Objective: The purpose of this thesis is to examine the effects of music therapy (MT) on physical and psychological …

Understanding Language Barriers And Its Implications On Patient Outcomes In The Urgent Care Situation, Nicolo Co

Nursing | Senior Theses

Background

A common goal for healthcare is healthcare for all, through which can be achieved when communication between the client and healthcare team is established. There are millions of immigrants worldwide who are not granted the healthcare that they deserve simply because of a lack of understanding in a country’s dominant language.

Patients with a limited language proficiency in a new country can have difficulty in understanding the care that they receive, which leads them to toil with understanding their healthcare options, let alone establishing expectations. This issue also stretches onto the risks of patient safety, in which urgent needs …

Factors Impacting Organ Transplant Outcomes, Katelyn Grubich

Nursing | Senior Theses

Organ transplants are crucial to the survival of those on the receiving end. With medicine advancing, so has transplantation. Health care providers are becoming more aware of the strategies necessary to prolong the transplanted organ and how to obtain better outcomes. Heart, lungs, kidney, liver, pancreas, and some where more than one organ are involved, are the types of organ transplants performed.

Providing patients information will allow them to be a part of their treatment and can help to ease their anxiety knowing what is being performed and what can be expected. Health care providers must ensure that patients and …

The Impact Of Psychological Interventions Given To Icu Patients To Help With Pain Management, Kelly Liu

Nursing | Senior Theses

Pain management among the critically ill population is a significant issue in the intensive care setting. Whether the pain is acute or chronic, nurses tend to be the first-hand responders to help with pain management in the intensive care unit (ICU). With barriers ranging from patients’ inability to verbalize pain to nurses’ experience with obstacles to assessment such as sedation, confusion, or other concerns, pain management is a serious issue. Although pharmacological interventions such as opioids and analgesics help with pain control, in this thesis, we will focus on the impact of nonpharmacological and psychological nursing interventions and how it …

An Exploration Of Covid-19 Impact On Healthcare Workers’ Mental Health In China, Jenny Yang

Nursing | Senior Theses

Background

In December 2019, the first confirmed human case of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) or COVID-19 occurred in Wuhan, China. By March 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) had classified the COVID-19 outbreak as a pandemic due to the rapid spread of the virus to other countries. Many people have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic in various aspects, especially front-line healthcare workers. Hospital working conditions are constantly changing to cope with the problems that arise from the pandemic. These problems can result in an unsafe patient-to-nurse ratio, understaffed healthcare workers in hospitals, equipment shortage, and increased …

Effective Therapies And Nursing Approaches: Improving Cognition In Older Adult Stroke Patients, Selyna Baltazar

Nursing | Senior Theses

Background

Ischemic stroke occurs in thousands of older adults throughout the year. Due to the lack of oxygen entering the brain, many patients experience a decline in cognitive function due to ischemic stroke. Cognition is the ability to understand, learn, and remember information which is needed for completing daily tasks. Modern technology has allowed for patients to survive ischemic strokes but has yet to provide proper screening tools and methods for stroke-related cognitive impairment.

Objective

To investigate the best practices for identifying, treating, and caring for patients with a cognitive injury related to a stroke. A review of the research …

The Effects Of Sleep Disturbances On Patients In The Intensive Care Setting, Bronwyn Schmidt

Nursing | Senior Theses

The objective of this research proposal is to identify short-term and long-term health consequences due to sleep disturbances in patients admitted to intensive care units. When reviewing published literature regarding sleep loss in the intensive care unit (ICU), it was discovered that adult patients admitted to a variety of ICU settings both in the United States and abroad reported disruptions in sleep to be a common complaint and barrier to their recovery. This is due to noises made by bedside alarms such as IV pumps, lights in the unit, and interruptions made by medical staff members to provide time-sensitive care. …

The Effects Of Covid-19 On Healthcare Workers: An Exploration Of Burnout, Cherise Fernandez

Nursing | Senior Theses

The healthcare workplace has been challenged with the SARS-CoV-2 corona virus (COVID-19) for majority of the year 2020 and it has posed a number of challenges for healthcare workers (HCWs). Due to the increased workload and demanding work hours, the prevalence of physician burnout has increased amongst this population. The escalation of burnout may lead to negative effects on physical and mental health. This poses a health concern amongst patients because the increase of burnout affects patient care, safety, and quality of care. Various surveys have been sent out to HCWs in order to determine if burnout has increased within …