Digital Commons Network^™

Communication Metaphor Of Patient Prognosis In The Spirit Of Hope, Dory Hanks

Theses and Graduate Projects

Prognosis for terminally ill patients is intended to serve the purpose of educating patients on the expected clinical outcome of their illness. This information is generally communicated to a patient by their primary physician when options for fufiher treattnent or "cure" are limited. Learning a prognosis may be helpful to some patients, while burdensome to others. A review of the literature reveals many barriers to effective communication of prognosis. The purpose of this project is to develop a metaphor for enhanced communication of prognosis to be used by hospice nurses that incorporates a caring perspective on living with hope during …

Support Of The Informal Kinship Care Family, Emily J. Hansen

Theses and Graduate Projects

Most children cannot imagine living without their parents; for some though, because of social instability, substance abuse, or parental neglect, life apart from their parents is the reality. When these children are cared for by a relative or a close family friend without the involvement of a child welfare agency, the family that is created is known as an informal kinship care family. Because of the fluid nature of these families, little is known about them, leaving this group disadvantaged and neglected by the health care community. After a review of the existing literature, observation of informal kinship care families, …

Proposal Of A Caring Companion Program For Emotional And Spiritual Wellness, Lori A. Larson

Theses and Graduate Projects

According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC, 2013), Americans frequently struggle with more than one, if not several, health care conditions impacting their quality of life. Literature review substantiates the need for emotional support for patients impacting hope and emotional wellness. Caregivers may suffer a physical impact from caregiving and also psychological impact from worry and fatigue (Pinquart and Sorenson, 2003). Caregiver strain is common but it often goes unrecognized, which can lead to poor health outcomes for caregivers (Honea et al, 2008). In addition, nurses are at high risk for compassion fatigue, comparing nurses to 'first …

Advocacy For The Perioperative Patient, Patricia R. Ballinger

Theses and Graduate Projects

Thousands of surgeries and procedures happen daily. Patients place their lives and well-being in the hands of the surgical team. The operating room is a high risk environment and unfortunately, errors can occur resulting in harm and even death. Each surgical team member has a role and responsibilities during the surgical case. One main role of the perioperative nurse is patient advocacy and patient safety. However, this role can be impeded due to hierarchy and the operating room culture. Identifying the perioperative nurse's role and responsibility relating to patient advocacy will provide directions in the perioperative nurse's daily practice. An …

Influenza Vaccination: An Educational Module For Health Care Workers, Lisa A. Hogan

Theses and Graduate Projects

The seasonal influenza virus continues to have a significant impact on the health of hundreds of thousands of individuals in the United States each year, despite the availability of a vaccine shown to be effective at reducing both illness and death. All Health Care Workers (HCWs) at a large Midwestern medical center must make a choice whether to receive the yearly influenza vaccine or not, and approximately 5,000 HCWs chose to decline the vaccine in 20l2. Reasons given for these declinations included fears about vaccine safety and effectiveness, as well as misperceptions about vaccine side effects and the intended recipients. …

Integrating Mindfulness Meditation Into Undergraduate Nursing Curricula, Michelle Yankowiak

Theses and Graduate Projects

Stress and anxiety impact the lives of undergraduate nursing students. Learning how to cope with the stressful demands of nursing school is essential for student success. Watson's caring and healing philosophy notes that learning to care for self is foundational in learning to care for others. Literature also reports that nursing programs across the country are lacking instruction on alternative therapies as a self-care method. A need to integrate self-care into curricula was identified by personal knowing as a nursing clinical instructor and through a self-care questionnaire to undergraduate obstetric nursing students. The integration of mindfulness meditation, as a means …

Education And Opportuntty: Creating A Scholarship Program In Ecuador, Holly Hanson

Theses and Graduate Projects

Educating young women offers significant benefits to societies, including economic progress and improved health outcomes. Despite the benefit, many girls around the world lack access and opportunity to education. The Rochester, Minnesota 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, Hands For Humanity, addresses this inequity through offering a college scholarship program for young Ecuadorian women living in Portoviejo, Manabi province, Ecuador. Hands For Humanity collaborates with Ecuadorian teachers and business leaders to select high-achieving students with a financial need. Currently there are six young women completing their college education with the help of the scholarship. Due to rising tuition costs and extended academic program …

Nursing Leadership Team Orientation Program, Sheryl Capelle

Theses and Graduate Projects

Nursing is a dynamic profession. Throughout the history of nursing, leaders have emerged. Some leaders have joined a nursing leadership team to provide care and support to the unit staff and patients. Developing a highly functioning leadership team comes through having a well-developed orientation plan. The nursing leadership team must learn, their roles and expectations from each other. This project explains nursing leadership teams and discusses the development of a new orientation program for the nursing leadership team. A conceptual model of a puzzle is used to describe how nursing leaders bring the ptzzle pieces of leading, caring and relationships …

Who Do You Think You Are? And Who Would You Like To Become?, Sandra Koeller

Theses and Graduate Projects

Ultimately -y goal would be to enhance staff satisfaction to the point of better retention of nursing assistants on my floor. I thought this would also assist in improving RN satisfaction, as there would be solid, reliable assistive staff on the floor. Research of the literature shows staff retention has a direct impact on patient satisfaction as well. The constant cycle of replacing staff is costly to the organization and diminishes satisfaction to all staff as they become trapped in the endless cycle of training new staff in. Patient quality of care suffers, as newly trained staff needs time to …

Community Engagement In The Prevention Of Teenage Suicide, Janet M. Benz

Theses and Graduate Projects

Adolescent suicide is a serious problem. Worldwide suicide is the tenth leading cause of death for all people (World Health Organization, 2002) and in the United States suicide is the third leading cause of death for teenagers (Centers for Disease Control, 2010). Minnesota, however, fares worse than the rest of the country, where suicide is the second leading cause of death for those 15 to 34 years of age (Minnesota Department of Health,2009). Suicide does not discriminate as it happens to people of wealth, those who live in poverty, people of all ethnic backgrounds, people from all walks of life …

A Standardized Wound Care Nursing Education Program, Craig Cardel

Theses and Graduate Projects

Patients with vascular wounds are medically complex and require registered nurses (RNs) with specialized education in vascular disease and vascular wound care to assess and freat their wounds. A standardized vascular wound nursing education program was developed for RNs at affiliate regional clinics to provide specialized education on types of vascular wounds, co-morbid diseases associated with vascular wounds, diagnostic procedr:res used to diagnose vascular diseases, treatments to improve vasculature to the wound, debridement of wounds, and wound care products used to treat the wound and promote healing. An interactive nursing education progrirm containing three nursing education modules was created for …

Shift To Shift Report: Improving Handoffs In Care In The Nicu, Karen Martin

Theses and Graduate Projects

Shift to shift report in the Newborn Intensive Care Unit (NICU) is an interaction between nurses to share patient information and prepare the next caregiver to provide safe, high quality care to their vulnerable patients. An examination of the research identifies that there are multiple factors that can have a negative effect on the shift to shift report or handoff, creating the potential to not only harm the patient, but create dissatisfaction for both nurses and families as well. The purpose of this project is to create a new shift report process based on the work of theorist Jean Watson …

Picc Education For The Discharging Patient, Angela S. Lowrie

Theses and Graduate Projects

Individualized education, regarding peripherally inserted central catheter (PICC) care, should be provided by nurses to patients who are being discharged with PICCs in order to help patients achieve optimal outcomes. Without proper PICC care, patients are at risk for acquiring a catheter-related bloodstream infection or multiple attempts at venous access which can lead to venous depletion. At a large Midwestern medical center, all maintenance care for PICCs was being transitioned from the unit nurse to the PICC nurse, which created an opportunity to expand the part of the nurse educator role to the PICC nurse. The purpose of this project …

Floattng Through Uncharted Waters, Amanda Moscatelli

Theses and Graduate Projects

The act of floating or flexible staffing is a cost effective way to maintain nursing staffing levels through times of shortages and surplus. While the financial and patient care benefits are abundant, the culture of floating tends to be negative. Nurses cite difficulty adapting to a changed environment, caring for different patient populations, and working with different staff members as the most difficult and anxiety provoking aspects of floating. Although nurses at a large Midwest medical center frequently float across a number of nursing units, they receive no formal education on the practice of floating. Introduction of an online floating …

Creating A Culture Change Through A Unit-Based Coaching Model For Improved Effectiveness Of A Safe Patient Handling Program, Nancy Kirchner

Theses and Graduate Projects

Nurses have one of the highest work-related musculoskeletal injury rates of any profession. Much research has been done to define the high-risk nature of patient handling and further to describe the necessary components of a Safe Patient Handling (SPH) program. Despite the evidence and the purchase of equipment, overall musculoskeletal injury rates remain high among nurses and nursing assistants in the United States. New strategies are needed to incorporate safe patient handling into everyday practices of healthcare providers to create a culture of safety. The purpose of this project is to develop and implement a SPH unit-based coaching metaphor and …

Culturally Appropriate Nursing Care For International Patients, Kate Larson

Theses and Graduate Projects

Cultural competence is a necessary skill for nurses. It requires ongoing learning for continuous improvement in the healthcare setting. Nurses who are knowledgeable in providing culturally appropriate nursing care are able to meet patients' needs by building trust and minimizing cultural pain. Providing nursing care with nurses who have advanced nursing degrees and knowledge of culture and international patient care is an effective model for the ambulatory setting. Trans-global travel for healthcare is increasing therefore a nursing model designed to meet the culture care needs of international patient care is required. This nursing model describes culturally appropriate nursing care in …

Reviving The Dream: Giving Form To A Faith-Based Holistic Clinic At An Urban Lutheran Church, Kathy Leu

Theses and Graduate Projects

To be able to live full, productive lives, all people can benefit from having a consistent, unified team of health care providers who offer emotional, physical, mental, and spiritual support at one health care center. Historically, churches have been involved in health care, and the Christian faith has been integral in holistic healing. Today, the spiritual component of health is often missing in clinic settings. This project will lay the foundation for the establishment of a faith-based holistic clinic in a large charismatic urban Lutheran church. Utilizing Leininger's Culture Care Theory, the transcultural nurse, a key member of the holistic …

Feeding The Homeless Through Collaboration: A Proposal For Consideration, Valetta M. Johnson Massaquoi

Theses and Graduate Projects

The homeless are faced with many challenges of adverse nutritional deficiencies that predispose them to several illnesses commonly associated with the lack of adequate nutrition and the frequent utilizations of health care resources. Provision of nutritious food for the homeless can help decrease the prevalence of these identifiable markers and can be accomplished by u collaborative effort. The purpose of this project is to describe a collaboration between Regions Hospital and the Dorothy Day Center to provide supplemental nutrition for the homeless. Leininger's culture care diversity and universality theory along with culture care accommodation/negotiation are used as a theoretical framework …

Creating A Healing Environment In The Operating Room By Reducing Noise, Emily Grimshaw

Theses and Graduate Projects

The operating room can be a very noisy environment. Noise in this setting can affect patient's physiologically as well as psychologically and it can also affect operating room staff. The review of the literafure shows the effects noise in the operating room has on patients and staff. Patients can become tachycardic and hypertensive due to the exposure to increased noise in the operating room while staff concentration can be impeded as well. The creation of a noise reduction program for the operating room will create a healing environment. The healing environment will help both patients and operating room staff, Patients …

Prevalence And Factors Associated With Maternal Postpartum Haemorrhage In Khyber Agency, Pakistan, N Gani, Tazeen S. Ali

School of Nursing & Midwifery

Background: Postpartum haemorrhage (PPH) is one of the main causes of maternal mortality globally. The objective of this study was to estimate the prevalence of PPH and identify factors associated with PPH in Khyber Agency, Pakistan.
Methodology: A quantitative, cross-sectional study design was selected to estimate the prevalence and associated factors for PPH among married women aged 15–49 years, residing in the Khyber Agency, FATA, Pakistan. A pre-tested structured questionnaire was adapted with some modifications to interview 1,000 women.
Results: Prevalence of PPH was 21.3% in the study population. Factors associated with PPH were age, number of pregnancies, …

Sleep Experiences Of Hospitalized Antepartum Patients, Andrea M. Erwin

Nursing Dissertations - Archive

For many women, pregnancy can be a time of sleep disturbance. Physiological, hormonal, and emotional changes associated with pregnancy often lead to sleep disturbance. Women who develop antepartum complications frequently are prescribed bed rest and hospitalization. Both pregnancy and hospitalization can influence sleep. This study examined the sleep experience of hospitalized antepartum women. The purposes of this descriptive correlational study were to determine whether being in the hospital affects sleep in pregnant women, gestational age influences sleep while hospitalized, and patient's usual sleep patterns influence sleep during hospitalization. A conceptual model of impaired sleep for the childbearing family provided theoretical …

The Relationships Between Nursing Staff Knowledge Of Personhood And Resident Cognitive Status, Leeanne Compere Yopp

Inquiry: The University of Arkansas Undergraduate Research Journal

The purpose of this pilot study was to explore the relationships between nursing staff knowledge of extended care resident personhood and resident cognitive status. Eighty nursing staff from two similar extended care facilities in Arkansas completed a self-administered questionnaire to assess their knowledge of 21 residents, including information related to residents’ past jobs/careers; likes/dislikes/ interests; family members; other non-specific knowledge; and total knowledge. The Brief Interview for Mental Status (BIMS) was used to evaluate resident cognitive impairment. Results of a Pearson correlation demonstrate a positive correlation between (1) staff knowledge of residents’ families, and (2) total knowledge of residents with …

Caregivers Of Older Adults: Burden, Perception Of Strain, And Health, Juana Ferrerosa Phd, Msn, Rn, Phn

Dissertations

Background: By the year 2030, the older population in the United States is projected to double from 35 to 70 million. Consequently, increasing the number of informal caregivers required to care for an aging population. Research suggests that levels of caregiver strain and their ability to cope can impact the health of caregivers. Tsai's (2003) Middle-Range Theory of Caregiver Stress guided this study and was modified to present an innovative approach which used perceived caregiver strain as a specific stressor in the Control Process of the model; it provided a basis for examining caregiver strain and its effect on the …

Breast Health Teaching In Predominantly African American Rural Mississippi Delta, Kaye Wilson-Anderson, Renee P. Williams, Tracilia Beacham, Naekhia Mcdonald

Faculty Publications - College of Nursing

This study's primary focus was breast health education to rural African American women in Mississippi and training of community members. Through practice in this area, women were found to lack knowledge of breast health which is the third leading cause of death in Mississippi Black women. They were open to education: N = 130, t = -16.6, df = 126, p < .001; 1 year, N = 35; 2-3 year N = 16 and 3 trained. Data suggest knowledge increased, a small percentage continued practices and community members would become trainers. One participant was diagnosed with breast cancer, received treatment and remained cancer-free after two years.

Hope At The End Of Life Among U.S. Military Veterans, Jaime L. Huffman

Wayne State University Dissertations

The purpose of this research study was to examine the meaning of hope at the end of life among Veterans. As people enter the terminal phase of life hope becomes especially important. Recent research has been conducted examining hope among various cultural groups and their experiences of the phenomenon. These studies showed that although hope is a universal phenomenon, different cultural groups ascribe different meanings to it. These cultural variations are important for nurses to consider when caring for patients.

Research conducted among Veterans has shown that as a cultural group, Veterans have different experiences and needs throughout their lives …

The Impact Of Nursing Students’ Use Of An Electronic Health Record In The Home Setting, Carmen Jones, Elizabeth Richards

School of Nursing Faculty Publications

The purpose of this study was to explore the perceptions of senior undergraduate nursing students and perceptions of home care clients regarding the use of a new electronic health record and its impact on client care and communication. Findings indicate that providing students with the opportunity and time to become familiar with the use of computers during client care in the educational environment allows them to move more comfortably from a computer focused visit to client focused nursing care.

Psychosocial And Environmental Factors Associated With Dog, Elizabeth Richards, Megan H. Mcdonough, Nancy E. Edwards, Rm Lyle, Philip J. Troped

School of Nursing Faculty Publications

Dog walking is associated with higher levels of physical activity (PA). However, not all dog owners walk their dog(s) at a level sufficient for health benefits. Therefore, identifying correlates of dog walking may help to inform the design of more effective interventions to promote this specific form of PA. The purpose of this study was to examine psychosocial and environmental correlates of dog walking and relationships of dog walking with overall PA. In 2010, 391 dog owners (M_age= 43.6±12.3 years) completed a survey. Multiple logistic regression and structural equation modeling were used to examine psychosocial and environmental …

Improving Chronic Kidney Disease Care With Group Visits, Vicki Montoya

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

First year death rates remain unacceptable high for the end-stage renal disease (ESRD) population. New effective methods are vital to improve first year morbidity and mortality outcomes for the population transitioning from Stage 4 chronic kidney disease (CKD) to ESRD)/Stage 5 CKD. Based on current methods, evidence-based recommendations made by nephrology providers are frequently not heeded by patients in Stage 4 CKD. Low levels of patient knowledge, self-efficacy, and a poor ability to self-manage CKD negatively influence a patient’s ability to follow provider recommendations. The group visit (GV) intervention has demonstrated improvements in disease-related outcomes through increased levels of patient …

The Early Postpartum Experience Of Previously Infertile Mothers, Sigrid Ladores

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The lived experiences of previously infertile mothers in the early postpartum period have not been previously studied. The purpose of the research was to explore the experiences of previously infertile mothers during their early postpartum period. Colaizzi’s (1978) approach to descriptive phenomenological inquiry was used to analyze the interview data obtained from twelve first-time, previously infertile mothers. These new mothers, aged 27 to 43 years, were interviewed twice. The first interview focused on eliciting descriptions of new motherhood in the early postpartum period after overcoming infertility. The second interview validated the interpretations from the first interview and provided additional information …

Nutrition Literacy And Demographic Variables As Predictors Of Adolescent Weight Status In A Florida County, Leslee D'Amato-Kubiet

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In recent years, childhood obesity has increased to epidemic proportions across the United States (U.S.) in parallel with adult obesity, which often reflects poor dietary choices and bad nutritional habits. Nutrition literacy, which encompasses the constructs of nutrition knowledge and skills, is considered a basic tool for good dietary habits and health promotion undertakings; however, its more definitive relationship to adolescent children’s weight status is unknown. Most childrens’ weight status studies have focused solely on behavioral aspects of adolescent food intake, taking into consideration parental influence, peer pressure, and societal expectations. Studies evaluating the measurement of nutrition literacy with regard …