Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Maintaining Nurses' Currency In Informatics, Jennifer Alaine Strawn

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Technology has changed how registered nurses (RNs) provide care at the bedside. As more technologies are utilized to improve quality of care, safety of care, maximize efficiencies, and decrease costs of care, one must question how well the information technologies (IT) are fully integrated and utilized by the front-line bedside nurse in his or her practice. Despite the pervasiveness of IT in healthcare, there is a paucity of literature on how Chief Nursing Officers (CNOs) assure the ongoing education and training for nurses to maintain IT competencies in the practice environment.

From this author’s lived experience as a CNO, it …

Postpartum Depression Educational Intervention, Leslie Feth (Kalyn)

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The overall mission of this project was to ensure mothers are knowledgeable about postpartum depression (PPD) risk factors, strategies to address the risk factors, and that they have the confidence to seek help for risk factors of PPD or symptoms of PPD after childbirth. The goals of the project included: 1) increasing the knowledge of women in the perinatal period about PPD and the risk factors for developing PPD, 2) increasing women’s intention to address/modify their risk factors for developing PPD, and 3) empowering women to seek help if symptoms of PPD occur. The Health Belief Model was the theoretical …

Succession Planning For Nursing Leaders In A College Of Nursing, Cheryl Ann Tucker

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The Institute of Medicine (2011) challenged nursing to ensure the nursing workforce includes a sufficient number of academic nurse leaders, nurse educators, and doctorally prepared nurses for the future healthcare needs of the people of the United States. National data reveals a fragile supply of academic nurse educators and leaders. This tenuous resource is shaped by multifaceted factors including: (1) an aging nursing workforce; (2) impending faculty retirements; (3) lack of qualified faculty; and (4) wage disparity between the academic and clinical settings. As these factors collide, it is imperative that academic nursing plan for the future by retaining, developing, …

The Implementation Gap Between Evidence-Based Guidelines And Primary Care Providers' Provision Of Care For Adult Obese Individuals, Linda Ailene Hagemann

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Adult obesity has become a significant problem in the United States. To reduce health consequences and the rising cost of obesity, evidence-based guidelines to identify and treat obesity are available to primary care providers (PCPs). Despite literature supporting favorable outcomes by PCPs who address obesity at a patient's visit, studies indicate obesity counseling is occurring infrequently, particularly in military primary care settings.

Guided by the Diffusion of Innovations Theory, this research utilization project evaluated whether there is an implementation gap between use of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and Department of Defense (DoD) Clinical Practice Guideline for Screening and …

Psychometric Testing Of The Malaria Critical Thinking Test, Tally Rae Tinjum

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Accrediting bodies of baccalaureate nursing programs require quantified assessment of critical thinking in students. The current literature indicates two types of critical thinking assessments: (a) standardized, psychometrically sound, and non-nursing specific, and (b) nursing specific, but lacking the established psychometric properties. Therefore, a nursing-specific critical thinking test with established psychometric properties would help nurse educators understand the unique critical thinking ability of baccalaureate nursing students. With information from a quantitative critical thinking ability assessment tool, instructional methods could be revised to target student characteristics that correlate with critical thinking ability. Additionally, nurse educators could use the information from a nursing-specific …