Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Experiences Of Western Australian Rural Nursing Graduates: A Mixed Method Analysis, Amanda C. Graf, Barbara Nattabi, Elisabeth Jacob, Diane Twigg

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Aims and objectives:

To determine whether the current rural graduate programmes in Western Australia adequately support new graduate nurses transitioning into practice.

Background:

Graduate nurse's transition to employment is a time of significant change and challenge, often resulting in periods of transition shock. These challenges are magnified in rural areas where graduates have to relocate to commence their career with limited rural nursing experience. Graduate programmes were developed to smooth the transition for university trained bachelor's degree registered nurses into the workforce. Supportive graduate nursing programmes are essential for enabling transition to practice and reduce attrition rates.

Design:

Longitudinal convergent …

It Cannot Happen, Never: A Qualitative Study Exploring Youth Views On Disclosure Of Hiv Diagnosis To Their Sexual Partners In Southern Malawi, Maggie Zgambo, Diana Arabiat, Deborah M. Ireson Dr

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

With the availability of antiretroviral therapy, more children living with HIV live longer than before and grow into young adulthood. This study examined the concerns of youth about disclosure of an HIV diagnosis to their sexual partners and attempted to gain an understanding of their HIV status disclosure experiences, views, and plans. A focused ethnography was undertaken. Using semi-structured interviews, data were collected from 20 youth between the ages of 15 and 24 years who were attending an HIV clinic. The findings highlight that youth generally struggled to disclose their HIV status to their sexual partners. The most frequent reasons …

The Impact Of Critical Incidents On Nurses And Midwives: A Systematic Review, Melanie Buhlmann, Beverley Ewens, Amineh Rashidi

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Aims:

To synthesise the existing literature, which focuses on the impact of critical incidents on nurses and midwives, and to explore their experiences related to the support they received in the current healthcare environment to move on from the event.

Design:

Systematic review and qualitative synthesis.

Data sources:

The electronic databases CINAHL, MEDLINE, PsycINFO, PubMed, Embase and Nursing and Allied Health (ProQuest) were systematically searched from 2013–2018, and core authors and journals identified in the literature were manually investigated.

Review methods:

Qualitative studies of all research design types written in English were included according to the PRISMA reporting guidelines. The …

Reflecting On Experiences Of Care: An Exploratory Qualitative Descriptive Study Of The Perspectives Of Stroke Survivors, Families And Staff, Caroline Bulsara, Rosemary Saunders, Laura Emery, Christopher Etherton-Beer

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Objective:

The aim of this study was to identify barriers and enablers from the perspectives of stroke survivors, carers and staff to understand the experiences of care.

Design:

The study used a qualitative descriptive methodology and employed semistructured interview technique.

Setting:

A metropolitan stroke rehabilitation unit in Western Australia providing rehabilitation services for inpatients and outpatients.

Participants:

Overall, 10 participants (four staff, four stroke survivors and two primary carers) were interviewed. Transcripts were analysed using thematic analysis.

Results:

Experiences of care focused on lack of time, urgency to regain mobility, postshock recovery, uncertainty about the future and the importance of …

Does Digital Literacy Empower Adolescent Girls In Low- And Middle-Income Countries: A Systematic Review, Salima Meherali, Komal Abdul Rahim, Sandra Campbell, Zohra S. Lassi

School of Nursing & Midwifery

Background: The vast majority (90%) of the world's adolescents aged 10-19 live in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs); and in those resource-limited settings, girls face distinct challenges across multiple health, social, and economic domains. Gender equality and girls' empowerment are key goals in their own right and are central to all other development goals. Digital literacy is a great enabler for the empowerment of young girls. This systematic review aims to assess the range and nature of digital literacy interventions implemented to empower adolescent girls in LMICs and identify evidence about adolescent girls' access and use of digital technologies in …

Acculturation Strategies And Pap Screening Uptake Among Sub-Saharan African Immigrants (Sais), Adebola Adegboyega, Jia-Rong Wu, Gia Mudd-Martin

Nursing Faculty Publications

Although regular cervical cancer screening can prevent cervical cancer, screening utilization remains low among immigrant population including sub-Saharan African immigrants (SAIs). Acculturation is a complex process, which can lead to adoption of positive or negative health behaviors from the dominant culture. Acculturation strategies are the varying ways in which individuals seek to go about their acculturation by either maintaining or rejecting their own cultural values ip or accepting or rejecting the host culture's cultural values. Cervical cancer screening behaviors among SAI women may be influenced by their acculturation strategies. We conducted a secondary analysis of data to examine the relationship …

Online Social Networking Among Clinically Depressed Young People: Scoping Review Of Potentially Supportive Or Harmful Behaviors, Carolyn L. Elias, Kevin M. Gorey

Social Work Publications

Online social networking sites are ubiquitous and prevalently used by young people. The COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated the potential for such sites to bring isolated people together to support their mental health. Virtual communications, however, are not without risks. Substantial knowledge exists on attendant risks and protections among the general population, but much less seems known about their effects among clinical populations. This scoping review mapped the novel knowledge and knowledge gaps related to online social networking experiences and perceptions of depressed young people, adolescents to emergent adults. It also explored moderators of their social networking supports versus harms. A broad …

Diabetes Prevention Program, Ashley L. Stine

MSN Capstone Projects

The prevalence of diabetes in Texas has increased 40 percent over the last decade and will continue to rise as of 2019. New onset diabetes, chronic, and children with diabetes has significant rise in hospitalization rates. COVID and its restraints of limiting physical activity, restrictions of gyms and sedentary lifestyles. Chronic diabetics who were frequent flyer hospitalizations rates increase due to poor social support, mental health and stressors increased during COVID also. This diabetes prevention program that consists of 16wks for new and current diabetics would decrease complications of diabetes such as DKA, retinopathy, nerve pain, chronic pain, AMS, amputations, …

Healthcare Associated Infections: A Benchmark Study, Neal Ziedan

MSN Capstone Projects

When it comes to hospital-acquired infections, whether the hospital has implemented best-practice infection control measures, whether it has introduced best practice infection control measures, or whether it will be held vicariously liable for negligent or intentional failures by staff to follow the infection control measures in place, is the determining factor. If a hospital and its administrators fail to develop or implement best practice infection control methods, resulting in patient harm, they may be held directly liable. Patients may be held vicariously liable if hospital employees fail to comply with infection control measures implemented by the hospital during the course …

Stroke Depression And Rehabilitation Willingness: Benchmark Study, India J. Lewis

MSN Capstone Projects

The purpose of this paper is to examine, identify, and treat patients with post-stroke depression. Post-stroke depression can affect a patient's willingness to perform activities of daily living, this may result in poor functional outcomes on discharge. Depression is not regularly screened during the acute stroke phase, therefore not regularly treated with the intent to improve functional outcomes. The Patient Health screening questionnaire (PHQ-9) is an available tool that can assist in recognizing and treating depression. This project will determine that the current literature supports implementation of a protocol needed to improve rehabilitation participation.

Advance Care Planning Evidence Based Practice Benchmark, Natalie K. Waggoner

MSN Capstone Projects

America is aging, with the estimated number of patients over the age of 65 to reach 72 million by 2030, approximately 20% of the population (Sade, 2012). This demographic shift characterized by an increasing elderly population has elevated the subject of death and dying to a crucial component of health care delivery. A study done by Silveira et al. (2010) demonstrated that 70% of individuals aged 60 and older were unable to participate in treatment decisions during their final days. However, most individuals in the United States have no advance directive.

The goal of this evidence-based practice intervention is to …

Mentoring New Nurses To Increase Retention: A Benchmark Study, Maria J.V Hartnauer

MSN Capstone Projects

New nurse retention and nurse satisfaction are two significant areas of concern for healthcare organizations. The financial burden that results from decreased retention and increased turnover rates can create severe distress for the hiring facility. Organizations struggle to retain new graduate nurses beyond the first year of practice. The transition to practice for many new nurses is often complex, challenging, and stressful. New nurses need multiple interventions to provide physical, spiritual, and moral support to adapt to their new role. Many hospitals have implemented new nurse orientation, educational opportunities, and preceptor programs. However, there is still room for improvement. This …

Customized Alarm Settings Benchmark, Leigh A. Barksdale

MSN Capstone Projects

The purpose of this project is to highlight the need for alarm management to combat alarm fatigue and improve patient safety. The target audience for this presentation includes, but is not limited to, the University of Texas at Tyler students and professors. Technology is always changing and healthcare must stay to stay up-to-date with the most recent technology for quality and safe patient care. Technology helps to improve efficiency, patient safety, reduce cost, and reduce errors. Although technology intends to improve patient outcomes, unintended situations also occur for patients and care providers as a result of technology (Karapas & Bobay, …

Adverse Childhood Experiences: Effects Of Covid-19, Evan Guo

Honors Projects

The evaluation of an adult's health status consists of several entities. These factors can include physical, mental, and emotional health in an individual's history contributing to their overall health. When studying such factors, some researchers emphasize the importance of recognizing events experienced during a person's childhood that affect their development, and therefore, their adult health status. Today, as people continue adapting to the COVID-19 pandemic and changes in regulation of standards for socialization, it is becoming apparent to healthcare researchers how these new modifications are highly impactful to the development of children and adolescents. When studying the various factors that …

Caregiver Decision-Making Concerning Involuntary Treatment In Dementia Care At Home, Vincent Ra Moermans, Angela Mhj Mengelers, Michel Hc Bleijlevens, Hilde Verbeek, Bernadette Dierckx De Casterle, Koen Milisen, Elizabeth Capezuti, Jan Ph Hamers

Publications and Research

Background: Dementia care at home often involves decisions in which the caregiver must weigh safety concerns with respect for autonomy. These dilemmas can lead to situations where caregivers provide care against the will of persons living with dementia, referred to as involuntary treatment. To prevent this, insight is needed into how family caregivers of persons living with dementia deal with care situations that can lead to involuntary treatment.

Objective: To identify and describe family caregivers’ experiences regarding care decisions for situations that can lead to involuntary treatment use in persons living with dementia at home.

Research design: A qualitative …

Are Current Pain Assessments Adequate?, Allison Caspersen

MSN Capstone Projects

“Pain is what the patient says it is” has been a big proponent to improve interventions for pain management. But how are we assessing patients’ pain? They have been asked to provide us with a number to rate their pain but what do these numbers mean to the patient? Do they rate according to pain they have experienced in the past or is it based off what they imagine the pain could be? Have we ever distinguished patient preference between unidimensional and multidimensional pain assessment? The use of unidimensional pain assessment the Numerical rating scale (NRS) has been used primarily …

Standardizing Surgical Skin Antisepsis, Crystal Vackar

MSN Capstone Projects

Skin antisepsis is one of the most critical factors for preventing postoperative surgical site infections, but with the lack of high-quality research, the choice of which preoperative skin antiseptic is best remains a puzzling problem for clinicians (Chen, Chen, Guo, & Xu, 2020). Minimizing the patient’s risk of a surgical site infection by removing skin contaminants at the surgical site is the goal of surgical skin antisepsis. Therefore, the hospital or organization must choose the right product that is cutting costs, is the most effective, saving surgical time, and has the safest results for the patient. Before prepping the skin, …

Stroke Education Program To Reduce Readmission, Karnesha Dominguez

MSN Capstone Projects

Stroke is a major cause of long-term disability and mortality in the United States, exemplifying a complex chronic disease with high co-morbidity, associated healthcare costs, and readmission rates. Unfortunately, patients diagnosed with strokes often present to acute care settings with stroke events after they have had been previously diagnosed. Readmission rates among stroke patients are as high as 13% with most readmissions being unplanned and many avoidable (Brom et al., 2021). An estimated 6.6 million Americans aged 20 years and older have had a stroke, and each year approximately 795,000 people experience a new or recurrent stroke (Duncan et al., …

Antiseptic Barrier Caps Benchmark Study, Meredith Gardner

MSN Capstone Projects

The purpose of this benchmark study is to determine the effectiveness of antiseptic barrier cap use compared to the previously excepted standard of scrubbing the hub for disinfection. The target audience for this presentation includes, but is not limited to, the University of Texas at Tyler students and professors. The readers of this study will be able to implement an evidence-based research project of antiseptic barrier caps to a hospital unit.

There has been significant effort toward the reduction of hospital acquired infections across the United States. Up to half of the postinsertion central-line associated blood stream infections are related …

Bridging Mental Healthcare, Kristin L. White

MSN Capstone Projects

Nurses have an important role in the care given to mental health patients presenting to the emergency department (ED). Without expectations or encouragement toward growth or continued education, the quality of care and the therapeutic ability for care are crippled, as evidenced by nurses' knowledge/competency deficits and negative attitudes. Through ongoing/continued education, the cultivation of a therapeutic culture toward patients that present to the ED for mental health complaints could result. Additionally, these improvements in care, in turn, could promote not only the closure of gaps that exist for quality mental healthcare but may also lead to an increase in …

Overcoming Barriers To Uncontrolled Hypertension, Cassie Thacker

MSN Capstone Projects

Overcoming Barriers to Uncontrolled Hypertension using individualized educational interventions.

The Use Of Tele-Health Rehabilitation In Chronic Disease: A Benchmark Project, Emily C. Powers

MSN Capstone Projects

Chronic health issues such as heart disease or COPD are very common in the demographic of patients of an older age. Management often requires multiple medications and specific diets. However, an aspect of care that can often be neglected is that of exercise rehabilitation. Either due to distance, time-constraints, or simply just not wanting to do it, patients can easily neglect an aspect of their care that can have physical and mental benefits. One potential solution is that of tele-health rehabilitation which uses personalized exercise plans, a health watch, and communication through phone or video chat in order to bring …

Benchmark Study On The Impact Of Nurse Managers’ Leadership Style On Job Satisfaction And Retention Of Nurses, Khatrina Swarup

MSN Capstone Projects

Nurse managers play a crucial role in the healthcare system as they ensure that quality care is maintained and provide the necessary support for the nursing staff to perform their responsibilities well, amongst other duties. Nurses want patients to receive quality, cost-effective care, and these patients want the same. If nurses are happy with their jobs, they provide quality patient care, improving overall patient outcomes. Also, job dissatisfaction predicts how individuals perform at work and whether they intend to leave their position or not.

The current standard of practice does not specify what leadership styles nurse managers or leaders should …

Bedside Handoff In The Emergency Department, Sheila Pochron

MSN Capstone Projects

Background

A standardized approach to bedside handoff improves nurse and patient satisfaction as well as quality outcomes.

Objectives

To compare the preference for bedside handoff in the emergency department post implementation by analyzing nursing surveys and Press Ganey data.

Design

A mixed method pilot study.

Settings

A not-for-profit community-based safety net hospital which is Magnet designated. ED is a level 3 trauma center with 60,000 visits annually.

Participants

ED nurses (n=52) and adult patients (n=86)

Methods

A pre and post implementation survey that utilized the 5-point Likert scale was given to nursing staff in the emergency department. Questions were asked …

Implementing A Shared Governance Program, Mayra Elizondo

MSN Capstone Projects

Aim: To see the relationship between nursing satisfaction and patient safety outcomes through the implementation of a shared governance program.

Background: The adoption of shared governance in hospitals across the country would enable more nurses to have more resources, more autonomy in their practice, and thus higher satisfaction in their work environments which would improve patient outcomes.

Implications for future research, clinical practice and policy development: The following paper summarizes that shared governance programs increase the amount of satisfied nurses and improve patient outcomes. Further research is needed to develop effective guides for implementation of shared governance in healthcare facilities …

Deterring Delirium In The Intensive Care Unit, Kimberly Allen

MSN Capstone Projects

There is growing concern about the increase in cases of delirium associated with a critical care hospitalization encounter. Discovery of different types of research that can eliminate or at least minimize occurrences of delirium including early recognition, eye masks and earplug usage, and environmental changes have show promise in reducing the risk of ICU delirium.

A Formal Antibiotic Stewardship Protocol To Reduce Antibiotic Use, Shalese Ladawne Collins

MSN Capstone Projects

Background: Antimicrobial resistance is a nationwide public health crisis which is a result of indiscriminate antibiotic use. Inappropriate antibiotic prescribing for infections have been overlooked for several years in long-term care facilities. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have been compelled to require long-term care facilities to start an antibiotic stewardship program that is a key measure to combat antimicrobial resistance and seeks to accomplish this by improving antibiotic use. Many healthcare workers report presumed urinary tract infections to the provider without the accurate understanding of what criteria is required for the need of antibiotics.

Objective: Create a protocol …

Ventilator-Associated Pneumonia Bundle Care, Jeemole Kattezham Binnichan

MSN Capstone Projects

Ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) is one of the most significant nosocomial infections in intensive care units (ICU) worldwide. Patients who have this infection due to lengthy hospital stays face excessive hospital expenditures and are forced to spend more time away from their families than is necessary. VAP is a prominent cause of morbidity and mortality in ICUs, prompting plenty of studies. The most crucial target is its prevention. Understanding how to reduce VAP would help patients live longer, have a better quality of life, and reduce hospital liability. Ventilator-associated pneumonia bundle (VAPB) has been shown in numerous studies to be an …

Yoga As An Intervention For Nurse Burnout, Taylor Baugh

MSN Capstone Projects

Nursing is a demanding career, both mentally and physically, so finding ways to decompress and cope with such a job is essential. The main objective of this review is to discover the best evidence available to determine the effect of yoga on burnout in nurses. Outcomes from all keeper studies conclude that implementing yoga into practice increases nurses’ mindfulness, self-care, and coping ability while decreasing emotional exhaustion, burnout, and stress, consequently, increasing the quality of patient care provided. It is imperative that hospitals and healthcare administrators prioritize nurses’ physical and mental health, for nurse retention, cost savings related to decreased …

Bedside Shift Reporting: A Benchmark Project, Clydea C. Hale

MSN Capstone Projects

Patient care is forever changing to improve satisfaction, safety, and overall treatment. Over the past few years, patients and their families are more invested in their overall care in the hospital and expect to be informed every step of the way. A common complaint from patients or their families is that one nurse or staff did not know the individuals care or treatment plan, there were no shift goals to work toward discharge, and the nurse did not update the patient/family with changes in care. All of these complaints along with the patient satisfaction scores and communication between the treatment …