Health Communication Commons^™

Implementation Of Implicit Bias Training In A Doctor Of Nurse Practitioner Program, Macdana Selecon

Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) Projects

Background: Implicit bias in healthcare delivery refers to the unconscious mental associations healthcare providers make about patients from various social groups. Numerous studies suggest implicit bias contributes to health disparities primarily amongst marginalized groups. Furthermore, patients report a lower quality of communication from healthcare providers with higher implicit racial bias. In 2021, Assembly Bill 1407 (Nurses: Implicit Bias Courses Act) was passed to address the negative impact of bias on patient outcomes and requires California nursing schools to provide implicit bias training for nursing students.

Problem: All graduate nursing programs do not provide implicit bias (IB) training. As a result, …

Enhancing Recovery With The Use Of Animals, Christina Martinez

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

Avenues is a program designed to help adults lead happier and more productive lives by overcoming mental health and chemical dependency challenges. The problem is, participants are not fully prepared for independent living following these programs. The plan was to provide participants a therapeutic approach to gaining hands-on experience while combating symptoms of mental illness with the use of animals, with hopes that participants would be better prepared for life after leaving the program. If the project met the expected outcome, the agency would see a lower rate of participants returning to the program and a higher success rate of …

Factors Affecting The Healthcare Of Adults With Communication Difficulties Due To Autism Spectrum Disorder And/Or Intellectual And Developmental Disability, Kathryn L. Shady

MUSC Theses and Dissertations

Purpose: This dissertation explores the healthcare barriers and facilitators experienced by autistic adults and adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) who have communication difficulties (CD).

Problem: Approximately 5-10% of Americans have CD, including difficulties such as stuttering, aphasia, apraxia, and other forms of language impairment(1,2). Communication difficulties are present in about 25-30% of autistic individuals and 57.9% of those with IDD, which accounts for a large and poorly studied portion of those with CD(3,4). Individuals with CD report negative healthcare experiences and decreased levels of satisfaction with healthcare providers secondary to practices such as communication solely with a …

Meet Me In The Middle: A Scoping Review On Understanding Adolescent Needs In Climate Communication, Gwendolyn Monica Hoff Anderson

Master's Projects and Capstones

The greatest effects of climate change are likely to be felt by youth. Young people are disproportionately affected by climate change due to their critical developmental stage and lack of power, and they experience both higher severity and prevalence of mental health issues related to climate change. Strong emotions have long been recognized as potential catalysts for action, or they may lead to paralyzing feelings of being overwhelmed. Climate communication is a critical tool to spark climate concern and encourage action. Activism, in turn, may help youth manage their anxiety about climate change. This scoping review examines emerging evidence on …

The Association Of Patient-Provider Language Concordance With Healthcare Comprehension Among Latino/As In Oregon, Grace Parra

University Honors Theses

Background: The purpose of this study is to describe the need and preferences among Mexican-origin Latinos in Oregon for language-concordant healthcare providers. We hypothesize that the presence of a language concordant provider is associated with greater health care comprehension.

Methods: This is a cross sectional study in collaboration with the General Consulate of Mexico. We developed a 20-item survey that includes questions about socio-demographics, a validated language-based acculturation scale, and questions regarding language concordant care experience and preferences used in previous studies. We are recruiting at the Mexican Consulate 500 Latino/as ages 18 or older who had a healthcare visit …

Bridging Empathy, Qianwen Lu

Masters Theses

As a jeweler, ally, and sympathetic witness to the traumatic stories of survivors, my work aims to support the process of reconstruction and reintegration for victims and the greater community. To move beyond isolation, resentment, and debilitating helplessness requires care and support. I want my jewelry to act as catalysts in the healing process by straddling both sides of the trauma-induced situation, to create greater awareness and empathy. National Coalition Against Domestic Violence shows that women are more likely to become victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, or other forms of physical and psychological abuse in unhealthy emotional relationships. These …

Building Up Cal Poly Global Brigades Student Group: Reflections On Designing And Implementing One Undergraduate-Led Community Info Session, Caroline Nicole Smith, Jafra D. Thomas

Kinesiology and Public Health

Intro: Global Brigades, an international non-profit organization, trains college students and other pre-professionals in community-based health promotion by mobilizing community service trips around the world, which are taught and led by local community groups. Cal Poly’s Global Brigades student group was founded in 2018, and thus far, they have carried out three annual, medically-focused brigades to Honduras (two in-person, one virtual).

Purpose: The aim of this report is to present the findings of one experiential senior project to promote Cal Poly’s Global Brigades student group^[1] (conducted January to March 2023).

Methods: The student designed material for …

Fighting The Invisibility Of Domestic Violence, Yesenny Fernandez

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Analyzing the invisibility of domestic violence in New York City as 32% of women in the city experience intimate partner physical violence. In this project, domestic violence refers to all different kinds of violence that occur in a home between all the members who live there regardless of whether they are intimate partners or not. The data focuses on all the daily calls received by the New York Police Department (NYPD) and NYC Mayor’s Office to End Domestic and Gender-Based Violence (ENDGBV) regarding domestic violence related incidents such as physical, psychological, emotional, and sexual violence, or murder. Even though many …

How Exemplary Chief Nurse Executives Utilize The Six Domains Of Conflict Transformational Strategies To Establish Common Ground And Produce Breakthrough Results, Michael Thompson

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this phenomenological method study was to identify and describe strategies that exemplary chief nurse executive leaders use to identify and establish common grounds to produce breakthrough results in healthcare by using the six domains of transformational conflict strategies: collaboration, communication, emotional intelligence, ethical behaviors, problem solving, and shared interest.

Methodology: As a part of the thematic phenomenological study, the research identified and described the lived experiences of eight exemplary chief nurse executive leaders in health care who used conflict transformational strategies to find common ground to produce breakthrough results. The target population for the study included …

The Role Of Social Media Activism In Achieving Good Water And Sanitation In Ghana, Inusah Mohammed

Communication ETDs

This thesis examined the role of social media activism in ensuring good water and sanitation in Ghana. The study conducted a thematic analysis of Facebook posts (403) from March 2020 to December 2022 and found seven themes on how social activists are presenting issues concerning water and sanitation in Ghana. The study also found outcomes of the activism and also found theoretical implications of activism on social media usage in Ghana.

Implementation Of A Nurse-Led Clinical Algorithm For Pressure Injury Prevention Associated With Non-Invasive Ventilation Medical Device Use, Capri Steinkuhler, Kaitlin Rogge

Doctor of Nursing Practice Projects: College of Nursing

Purpose and Aims

Medical device related pressure injuries (PI) account for as much as 61-81% of all hospital reported wound incidents (Gefen et al., 2020) and are frequently caused by respiratory devices such as non-invasive ventilation (NIV). Use of NIV in critically ill patients dramatically increased during the pandemic. PI are one of the leading causes of injury to hospitalized patients and lengthens hospital stays (National Pressure Injury Advisory Panel [NPIAP], 2019). The NPIAP recommends routine skin assessment under devices, proper mask fit, protective barrier, moisture reduction, and interdisciplinary collaboration to prevent PIs from NIV masks. This feasibility study’s purpose …

Talk Box In Music Therapy With Speech And Language Impairments Resulting From Tracheostomy: A Critical Review Of The Literature, Jonathan Kang

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

Tracheostomy patients struggle with one of the most significant and essential components to the human identity, that is, communication. When a person’s communication is obstructed, access to their intangible, inner world is also severed – leaving their thoughts, feelings, and memories, all of which are core to the human experience, unshared. Speech assistance for tracheostomy patients currently includes above cuff vocalization efforts using one-way speaking valves, augmentative and alternative communication methods such as speech generating devices and the electrolarynx. This thesis will introduce and discuss a musical instrument effect called the talk box as an integration of music therapy techniques …

Inner Portraits, Bethany Salisbury

Graduate Theses

This paper investigates the many interconnected layers of women’s mental health through portraiture and how animal and plant symbolism can represent the way women's hormones and bodily health affect their mental health. I reveal how the artwork created presents these connections and inner mental health narratives to the viewer, creating a space of empathy, destigmatization, and self-reflection. This body of portraiture art connects five women through a series of both two-and three-dimensional portraits based on interviews using my own adaptation of Sara Lawrence-Lightfoots’ (1983) portrait methodology.

Women and non-binary individuals have always dealt with difficult interactions of bodily and mental …

Circumventing Ableism: A Grounded Theory Study Exploring Caregiver Strategies To Promote A Positive Identity, June Furr

All Dissertations

This qualitative research study explores how caregivers and persons with disabilities navigate the rhetoric of disability and caregiving through the interviews of fifteen caregivers and fifteen persons with disabilities using the lens of grounded theory and Burke’s (1952) dramatistic pentad. Significant findings describe how focused disability description can circumvent ableism when rhetorical resources that assist caregivers and persons with disabilities to navigate the rhetoric in disability descriptions are provided. Disability description theory includes the three stages that define, collaborate and revise, and practice and apply a disability description. This qualitative research offers an introduction into the phenomenon of …

Program Evaluation: Utilizing Health Department’S Community Health Needs Assessment Data To Improve Emergency Preparedness Plans, Kathleen Gottschalk

Capstone Experience

Public health officials conducting emergency response plans must know how to easily identify the vulnerable populations in their community or jurisdiction. It is beneficial for access and functional needs appendices to include information and resources directed at the identified vulnerable groups before an emergency event to improve health outcomes. Community Health Needs Assessments (CHNA) can provide population-level statistics and information needed to easily identify vulnerable or at-risk groups. This report aims to evaluate the use of the CHNA data to guide the development of inclusive emergency response plans that account for vulnerable populations in local health department jurisdictions. The 2021 …

Developing The Food Navigator Role At Everyone's Harvest, Chase Rodriguez

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

Everyone’s Harvest (EH) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit that operates farmers’ markets. In order to reduce hunger in Monterey County, Everyone's Harvest offers several food assistance programs for low-income people including the Market Match (MM) incentive program which matches CalFresh money, modern day food stamps, dollar for dollar. The problem is that in Monterey County 1 in 4 adults and 1 in 3 children are food insecure. The purpose of the Food Navigator (FN) at EH is to engage with the local community and connect low-income people with food assistance resources, primarily the MM program. This project was a role development …

A Comparison Of The Expressive Language Characteristics In Schizophrenia And Wernicke’S Aphasia, Taylor Thomas

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Mental illness and language disorders are rarely linked together as a way of making a comparison. In this study, a comprehensive scoping review was initiated to discuss the differential diagnostic characteristics of expressive language in Schizophrenia and Wernicke’s Aphasia (WA). This study will examine the domains of language where there are overlaps between the characteristics of expressive language. Semantics, pragmatics, and discourse will be further examined while comparing what aspects of expressive language are key in each domain. Schizophrenia being classified as a mental illness and WA being classified as an acquired language disorder, there are fundamental properties of language …

Message Framing For Covid-19 Vaccine Uptake: A Content Analysis Of Cdc Facebook Communication, Victoria Amoako

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The study examined the frequent frames adopted by the CDC in the communication of the Covid-19 vaccine and how it impacts vaccine uptake through quantitative content analysis. The study builds on the framing theory and elaboration likelihood model. This study’s content collected 327 posts by the CDC on covid-19 vaccinations from December 2020- December 2022. A research randomizer was used to choose 200 posts as the final sample from the data that had been gathered. 122 posts out of the 200 total posts that the randomizer tallied were pertinent to the research questions for the study. It was found that …

Perceived Outcomes And Barriers Of Advance Care Planning From Healthcare Professionals, Faith Parsons

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Advance care planning (ACP) is the process of aligning patients’ values and preferences to their future medical care. ACP is important in promoting patient autonomy and helping patients and their families prepare for end-of-life conversations. Healthcare teams, made up of physicians, nurses, or social workers, carry the responsibility to engage patients into such conversations. The purpose of this study was to explore the perceptions and experiences of healthcare professionals regarding ACP outcomes and barriers. This cross- sectional study used survey responses of a convivence sample of 18 allied healthcare professionals and 4 physicians in a not-for-profit, faith-based hospital system in …

Get The Jab Or Else: Examining The Role Of Fear Appeals In The Herman Cain Award Subreddit Using Protection Motivation Theory, Julia May

Student Research Submissions

In 2021, I conducted participant observation research on the Herman Cain Award subreddit, examining the effectiveness of fear appeals on social media. In that research, I determined that fear appeals on social media platforms are just as effective as when used on mass media platforms. The research also showed that the fear appeals in the subreddit worked to appeal to the unvaccinated users’ fear of online ridicule rather than a fear of bodily harm. I found this finding interesting and worked to expand my research, now two years later, by further investigating the platform using Protection Motivation Theory, a health …

The Social Support Experiences Of Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (Adhd) Adults, Lindsay A. Duede, Colter Ray

LSU Master's Theses

Social support researchers commonly recognize that support is most useful when it matches the needs and desires of those receiving it. Yet, the majority of research regarding attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and social support frames questions of communication competence by placing neurodiverse communities at odds with neurotypical ones. This practice reinforces a hierarchy in which neurotypical individuals are viewed as correct and deviations from that norm as failures. Individuals with ADHD experience emotions differently than those without it; thus, it stands to reason that people with ADHD could have different needs and desires for support. Therefore, this study has two key …

“Tweeting During Emergencies”: The Egyptian Ministry Of Health Twitter Communication Strategy Under The Umbrella Of The Crisis And Emergency Risk Communication Model (Cerc) Case Study: Covid-19 Pandemic, Pakinam Elgohary

Theses and Dissertations

This research investigates using the Crisis and Emergency Risk Communication Model (CERC) for COVID- 19 communication by analyzing the content of Twitter messages posted by the Government of Egypt through the Egyptian Ministry of Health (MOHP). It further examines how official communicators and institutions utilize social media to contact the public during emergencies like the COVID-19 pandemic, highlighting critical strategies of recommendations. Crisis and Emergency Risk Communication (CERC), a five-staged theory, recommends a set of messaging and pertained communication characteristics to implement at each stage of the identified following stages: (1) “Pre-crisis, (2) Initial event, (3) Maintenance, (4) Resolution, and …

Impact Of Social Media  On Public Perception Of Government Covid-19 Response Efforts, Taher Taher

Theses and Dissertations

This research aims to understand this phenomenon to provide insights into how governments can perform better in times of crisis regarding social media and its impact on public opinion. This research aims to understand how social media impacts public perception of government COVID-19 response efforts by studying Facebook comments, likes, and reactions (emoticons).

The study was based on data gathered from Facebook comments on the daily infographic COVID-19 statistics from the official site of the Ministry of Health and Population. The sampling frame is the 52 weeks of 2020, January to December, through random sampling resulting in 546 comments. The …

What Is Your Why? A Qualitative Study About Motivational Differences Of Latinos/Hispanics And African American/Black In A Computerized Cognitive Training Program To Prevent Alzheimer’S Disease, Lizbeth C. Vera Murillo

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Recruitment of diverse populations is a major barrier in advancing clinical research (Areán & Gallagher-Thompson, 1993; Areán & Alvidrez, 2003). The need to increase racial diversity is imperative due to the substantial growth of historically marginalized racial communities in the United States (Weinstein et al., 2017). Despite researchers’ efforts to increase racial/ethnic representation in clinical trials, there is still a lack of understanding of the best practices to recruit racial/ethnic minorities in clinical trials. The current study explores the qualitative motivations of why research participants (aged 65+ years old) volunteered for an Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) prevention clinical trial. Racial/ethnic differences …

Making Scientific Information Usable: Development And Assessment Of A Novel Intervention To Boost Healthy Lifestyle Decision-Making, Brittany Nelson

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Context—Improving diet can reduce the risk of chronic health conditions such as cancer and heart disease. However, people continue to make poor dietary health decisions. A novel intervention based on the science of behavior change and incorporating Human-Centered Design (HCD) methodology is needed to boost informed dietary decision-making.

Objective—This research presents a Behavior Change Wheel (BCW), Human-Centered Design (HCD) approach to develop a novel high-usability video intervention that will increase informed decision-making for whole-grain dietary decisions. The intervention will target college students, improving habits that can carry on throughout later adulthood.

Design—Study 1 consisted of preliminary data …

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 …

Examining Patient-Physician Communication As A Form Of Mutual Persuasion Using The Conversational Argument Coding Scheme, Pritam Kanthala

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Communication between the patient and the physician in clinical encounters has traditionally been considered a passive interaction on the side of the patient, whereby the healthcare provider examines the patient's condition and circumstances, evaluates the situation, and prescribes a certain treatment plan or procedural solution that will heal the patient's ailment. However, recent research and fundamental communications understanding strongly emphasizes that effective communication is a two-way endeavor that ideally should involve input and insight from both sides of the conversation. Treating all clinical interactions as a one-way didactic experience where a provider usually goes through a checklist of commonalities would …

And The Survey Says ... A Qualitative Exploration Of Structurational Divergence From The Perspectives Of Nurse Managers Who Are Accountable For Patient Experience Measures, Lisa Carpenter Huddleston

Theses and Dissertations--Communication

For more than a decade, hospital leaders have focused on boosting patient experience scores as part of the federal government’s value-based purchasing (VBP) program. Hospitals that receive federal financial assistance (such as Medicare) are mandated to participate in the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS), a standardized survey that measures patients’ perceptions of their care. Results are publicly reported, and hospitals may be penalized on their reimbursements if they do not reach established benchmarks for patient experience. However, much debate has occurred about whether VBP has increased the quality of healthcare and whether the HCAHPS is an …

Healthcare Provider Uncertainty And Communicative Management Strategies, Katie Benson

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Uncertainty exists ubiquitously within provider-patient interactions. Healthcare providers (HCPs) often face uncertainty during patient-provider interactions, for reasons including inconclusive test results, ambiguous communication, and lacking the resources to make diagnoses. When healthcare providers experience uncertainty, their behavior and communication can be negatively impacted. For example, prior research suggests when HCPs experience uncertainty, they may engage in authoritative, prejudiced and assumption-ridden behavior towards patients (Dietta & Rand, 2007; Drewniak et al., 2017: Portnoy et al., 2013; Poteat et al., 2013). To date, research on HCP uncertainty has been limited to specific health conditions and contexts such as cancer, vascular anomalies, and …

Comedy, Camaraderie, And Conflict: Using Humor To Defuse Disputes Among Friends, Sheena A. Bringa

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This study sought to examine the role humor plays in defusing conflict between friends from an evolutionary perspective. Although a vast amount of research exists on humor, friendship, and conflict, no single study connects all three of these concepts together. This study attempted to fill this gap by examining how different humor styles used between friends in times of conflict relate to friendship satisfaction and life satisfaction. Specifically, the hypotheses predicted that friends who use affiliative humor to deescalate conflict are more inclined to report higher relational satisfaction and improved individual well-being than friends who use maladaptive humor to deescalate …