Digital Commons Network^™

Relationship Between Modality And The Degree Of Knowledge Retention In Bioterrorism Training, Gaylon Rashun Crawford

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

A public health workforce must be trained to react quickly, especially in the case of terrorist attack. Political leaders and emergency management experts have often cited inadequate emergency training as a contributing factor in the public health system's failed preparations for a bioterrorist event. As a result of these failures, billions of dollars have been allocated towards correcting infrastructure deficiencies including training for public health nurses (PHNs), who are critical to a communitywide medical response. This quantitative study used Pearson's correlation and a multivariate regression analysis to evaluate the most effective modality of bioterrorism training (BTT) for PHNs working in …

Differences Between For-Profit And Nonprofit Hospitals: Perceived Quality And Access, Michael Ray Eiland

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Despite a large body of literature addressing the issue, questions remain about whether nonprofit hospitals provide more community benefit than do for-profit hospitals. This lack of information impacts governments, hospitals, and the healthcare industry, as stakeholders attempt to generate requirements to which hospitals should adhere to maintain nonprofit status, and thus tax exemption. This study addressed this lack of information by examining U.S. hospitals through the lens of stewardship theory to determine whether nonprofits are better stewards of the public good than for-profits, and thus likely to provide higher quality and access. The study applied logistic regression to Centers for …

Psychosocial Predictors Of Successful Bariatric Surgery, Rodney D. Grim

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Obesity is an epidemic that can lead to a wide range of physical and mental problems. When traditional weight-loss methods are not effective, bariatric surgery is a viable weight-loss option. While previous researchers have investigated the role of psychological factors in relation to obesity, few have investigated psychological factors as predictors of weight loss and complications after bariatric surgery. The purpose of this study was to determine the prevalence of psychological disorders/conditions (e.g., depression and abuse) in the study population, evaluate weight and psychosocial variables before and 6 months after weight-loss surgery, and identify psychosocial factors that are predictors of …

The Critical Success Factors Of Public Private Partnerships In Lagos State, Franca Igboka

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

In recent years, the Lagos State Government has attempted to adopt public private

partnerships (PPP) with little success, largely as a result of implementation barriers. The

purpose of this quantitative, ex-post facto design study was to evaluate which factors are

considered most predictive of success of PPP implementation in the state, whereby the

prescribed quality of products/services is achieved within a specified time frame and at

the agreed cost. Wood and Gray's theory of collaboration and the network and

collaborations theory by Kamensky and Burlin guided this study. A self-constructed and

validated structured questionnaire was utilized in the collection of …

Success Factors Of Small Business Owners Of Independent Financial Planning Firms, Joanne Snider

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Small Business Administration statistics indicate that 20% of small businesses fail within the first 2 years and 50% fail within 5 years. The purpose of this case study was to explore the success factors and strategies of 12 small business owners of independent financial planning firms who achieved profitability beyond 5 years. A gap exists in the literature concerning such business owners, and their experiences provide valuable information to others desiring to start or maintain a financial planning business. The conceptual framework was entrepreneurship theory and Porter's 5 forces model of competitive strategy. The data were gathered via semistructured interviews …

Perceptions Of Middle School Bystanders To Bullying Incidences, Elizabeth Walden Beasley

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Bullying permeates all grade levels in schools. Despite antibullying initiatives implemented in a Midwest school district, bullying continued to occur. One aspect of bullying that is not often examined is the perceptions of bystanders, especially at the middle school level. The purposes of this quantitative survey design study were to examine (a) the frequency and level of bullying by grade level, (b) the relationship between middle school bystanders' willingness to intervene and grade level, and (c) perceptions of bullying interventions and grade level. Latané and Darley's bystander effect theory was the theoretical framework for this study. Descriptive statistics and chi-square …

The Effects Of Nursing Education On Decreasing Catheter Associated Urinary Tract Infection Rates, Pamela R. Gordon

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CAUTIs) account for 40% of all nosocomial infections in the United States, affecting nearly 900,000 patients per year. The indwelling urinary catheter (IUC) is a widely utilized device in modern hospital environments, yet they are not always used appropriately in hospital settings and can result in prolonged use and improper management, increasing risk of infections and length of stay. Nurses are the primary champions to promote preventative measures, provide patient education, and evaluate evidence-based practice (EBP) strategies to decrease CAUTIs. The purpose of this study was to determine if nursing education on EBP guidelines could decrease …

Teacher Perceptions Of Administrative Involvement In Transfer Of Training, Stephanie Michelle Heflin

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

This study district provides ongoing professional development for teachers; however, there was little evidence that transfer of training was occurring and it was unclear whether the administrator role could improve the implementation of learning from professional development. The purpose of the study was to examine teachers' perceptions of administrative involvement in professional development in order to identify indicators that could strengthen nonevaluative, collaborative relationships leading to higher rates of transfer. The central research question focused on teachers' perceptions of the roles of administrator-as-evaluator and administrator-as-collaborator and whether collaboration might influence transfer of training for teachers as they strive to improve …

The Relationship Between Information Technology And Organizational Effectiveness As Perceived By Health Care Providers, Christian Chikwem Ukaga

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The U.S. Congress has made health information technology a central component of the national quest to improve health care delivery. The problem addressed in this study was the uncertainty among healthcare providers regarding the benefits of health care information technology adoption relative to healthcare delivery processes and outcomes. The purpose of the study was to understand the effectiveness of information technology as perceived by healthcare providers. The research questions were designed to investigate the relationship between health information technology and organizational effectiveness, exchange of information, organizational process, organizational productivity, and direct personal care. Sociotechnical systems theory and Donabedian's framework for …

Challenges Of Child Trauma On Adoptive Families' Social And Emotional System, Jacqueline Yvonne Ford

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Adoption-focused psychoeducation is deemed essential in maintaining the permanency of traumatized children within a new family unit. However, adoptive parents of traumatized children struggle to find training to address their unique concerns. Guided by the lens of psychodynamic theory, the purpose of this study was to investigate the challenges faced by adoptive families of traumatized children. Special focus was placed on the social and emotional relationships of the adoptive parents of traumatized children, to identify the realistic expectations towards attachment from the families' perspectives. Fifteen families were randomly selected to participate in this study from a group of 30 parents …

A Phenomenological Examination: African American Women And Low Cervical Cancer Screening Attendance, Leslie G. Matthews

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

African American women tend to have lower attendance rates at cervical cancer screenings compared to the attendance rates of women from other ethnic groups. The purpose of this research project was to understand how perceptions of African American women affects attendance of future cervical cancer screenings. The goal was to understand what contributes to low attendance. Previous research did not focus on factors contributing or interfering with appointment attendance among African American women, aged 30-65. The conceptual framework was based on individual health behavior. The research questions examined lived experiences affecting attendance of cervical cancer screenings, attendance of future screenings, …

Care Transition Gaps: Risk Identification And Intervention, Michael Howard Jongsma

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Hospital readmissions related to chronic heart failure (CHF) are costly, widespread, and often avoidable. Patient education that includes diagnosis, causes, medications, diet, exercise, and exacerbation warning signs has been shown to reduce the number of CHF readmissions. The purpose of this study was to use risk stratification to identify CHF patients at high risk for 30-day readmission. Once a high-risk CHF patient was identified, nursing interventions would be triggered to reduce readmissions and close the gaps in the continuum of care following acute care admission. Transitions of care theory was used as the framework for this project. The methodology had …

An Offender's Perspective Of Correctional Education Programs In A Southeastern State, Boderick Bennett

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Many offenders are incarcerated in U.S prisons with the intent of rehabilitation; however, a majority of these offenders will be released with limited options for employment. Recidivism has been linked to unemployment. The purpose of this multiple case study was to examine the lived experiences of 20 offenders involved in correctional education programs while incarcerated to explore their correctional education experience within the context of postincarceration employment. The theoretical foundation of this study was based on Bandura's self-efficacy theory. Narrative data were elicited pertaining to offenders' perceptions of past education experience, correctional education experience, and their perceived impact of the …

Factors Influencing Employee Participation And Nonparticipation In A Rural Hospital's Employer-Sponsored Wellness Program, Nicole Marie Kolacz

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Employer-sponsored wellness programs are important tools for keeping employees healthy, reducing an organization's healthcare expenses, mitigating risk factors, and promoting health and well-being. Little research is available on the factors associated with employees' participation in wellness programs in rural hospitals. Pender's health promotion model was used to determine how employees who participated in a rural hospital's wellness program differed from those who did not participate in terms of demographics, perceptions of personal health, general health behaviors, health locus of control, self-motivation, and situational barriers. A descriptive, correlational replication with the Hallion and Haignere questionnaire was used to survey employees. Of …

Knowledge Of Overdiagnosis And The Decision To Participate In Breast Cancer Screening, Kimberly T. Nembhard

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

In 2014, breast cancer was the second leading cause of death among Canadian women, with women over age 50 years making up 82% of the identified cases. To address this issue, the Ontario Breast Screening Program developed a media campaign that promoted the benefits of mammogram screening, but not the associated risks (i.e., false-positive, false-negative, radiation exposure, and overdiagnosis). This study was designed to determine whether there was a statistically significant relationship between knowledge of overdiagnosis and participation in mammogram screening. This cross-sectional, correlational study used schema theory supported by the effective health communication model. Forty-one women were invited to …

Retail Distribution Within The New York City Organic Cacao Market, Omari Nekoro Williams

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The purpose of this multiple case study was to explore strategies small physical commodities firm owners need to establish a distribution channel within the commodities market to enhance profits. The general business problem was that importing physical commodities from emerging markets was not profitable. The specific business problem was some small physical wholesale commodities firm managers lacked strategies to establish distribution channels for imported commodities. The information presented in this study is important to suppliers, manufacturers, distributors, and retailers of organic cacao products to identify strategies to enhance their distribution channels. Disruptive innovation and the theory of constraints grounded the …

Knowledge Of Diabetes Mellitus And Health-Preventive Behaviors Among African American Adults, Wanka Ndifor

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The purpose of this study was to gain insight into the risk within the African American population of developing diabetes, its complications, and the benefits associated with timely management and treatment of diabetes. The study also looked at how such knowledge may be related to preventive health behaviors. The Risk Perception Survey-Developing Diabetes and the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System questionnaires were employed in this study. The theoretical basis of this study was the health belief model. This was a cross sectional, quantitative study with 126 participants. Descriptive analysis was employed to calculate the mean scores and frequencies across each …

Mental Health Worker Retention At African American And Caucasian-Owned Mental Health Agencies, Natikca Oliver

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The purpose of this study was to determine which factor(s), including job satisfaction, employee-employer relationship, organizational climate, and ethnicity predict retention of mental health professionals employed by African American and Caucasian privately owned mental health agencies. Due to high turnover in the private sector in mental health in central Virginia, many agencies are closing after 5 years of business. The importance of this study was to determine which factor(s) can assist in reducing turnover in the mental health field and to determine which factor(s) assist in maintaining mental health professionals in order for the agency to remain operable. The variables …

Evaluating Retention Strategies For At-Risk Undergraduate Nursing Students, Joanna L. Ramsden-Meier

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

As there continues to be a nursing shortage and a lack of diversity in the nursing profession, it is important to retain at-risk students who have been admitted to nursing programs. The purpose of this program evaluation was to compare at-risk students who had not received retention services to at-risk students who had received retention services at a Midwestern college. A formative evaluation was conducted using information from three sources: the college, the students, and the community. Guided by a constructivist theory defined by Ponticell, this study examined the effectiveness of the retention program in terms of its impact on …

Borderline Personality Disorder: The Frequency Of Disclosure And The Choice To Disclose, Laci Marie Rumpza

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The goals of this study were threefold: (1) to identify what percentage of psychologists and clinical social workers disclose the diagnostic label BPD to their patients, (2) to identify factors that influence disclosure, and (3) to gather data about the choice to disclose or not to disclose. The MUM effect was used as the theoretical framework. A sequential explanatory mixed methods design including an online survey was used during the first phase. A total of 125 psychologists and 45 social workers participated in the Phase 1 of the study. The majority of participants stated that they either always or usually …

The Effect Of Evaluating A Quality Improvement Initiative On Reducing Hospital Transfers Of Nursing Home Residents, Denise Eileen Jarboe

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The Effect of a Quality Improvement Initiative on Reducing Hospital Transfers of Nursing Home Residents

by

Denise Eileen Jarboe

MSN, Walden University, 2010

BS, University of Maryland, 1981

Project Study Submitted in Partial Fulfillment

of the Requirements for the Degree of

Doctor of Nursing Practice

Walden University

February 2015

Nursing homes (NH) in the 21st century provide skilled healthcare services for resident populations who are older, frailer, and often suffering from multiple incurable chronic medical conditions. Nurses practicing in this setting must be keen observers and effective communicators with the ability to recognize and report subtle changes in health status …

How Discourse In Public Community College Documents Supports The Learning College Philosophy, Terri Ackland

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Since the late 1990s, community colleges have changed strategies to enhance student success, moving from a traditional faculty-focused teaching model to a student-focused learning paradigm using O'Banion's 6 college learning principles to define and guide the learning college model. However, it is unclear how much the model is being used by community colleges or shared with stakeholders. The learning college model, supported by transformational language research on decision making and innovative thinking, provided a conceptual framework for this discourse analysis study. The purpose of this study was to discover the extent to which the language of the learning college model …

Impact Of Inclusion Teachers' Mathematics Anxiety And Mathematics Self-Efficacy On The Mathematics Achievement Of Learning Disabled Students, Vladimir Sylne

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Learning disabled (LD) students are put in inclusion classrooms in order to experience the mainstream environment and to receive the same level of education as their regular education counterparts. Unfortunately, LD students do not always get the mathematics education that they deserve because inclusion mathematics teachers are not required to be highly qualified in mathematics. The focus of this study was on the relationship between mathematics anxiety and self-efficacy of inclusion teachers and the academic achievement of the LD students they serve. The theoretical framework of this study involved the concepts of student achievement, teacher efficacy, mathematics anxiety, and best …

Autonomy In The California Disability Services System, Lisa Ann S. Carbone

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Legislation concerning California residents with intellectual and developmental disabilities (ID/DD) requires recipients of services to be treated as independent individuals while emphasizing self-determination. At the same time, under regulatory procedures, recipients are considered dependent on the delivered services and not self-determinant. Neither the California Department of Developmental Services nor the trade associations representing community service providers have established a unified, systematic practice to support self-determination. This phenomenological study explored the experience of adults with ID/DD working toward self-determination.

Specifically, it explored how medical and social models contribute to shaping and actualizing the independence of this population. Interviews with eight adults …

Improving Nurses' Knowledge To Reduce Catheter-Related Bloodstream Infection In Hemodialysis Unit, Mohammed Jawad Kadium

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Central venous catheters (CVCs) are commonly used as vascular access for patients who require hemodialysis. Infectious complications are a serious clinical problem, and they are associated with high rates of morbidity and mortality, prolonged hospital stay, and increased medical treatment costs. The purpose of theproject was to evaluate the effectiveness of educating registered dialysis nurses regarding CVC maintenance care to reduce catheter-related bloodstream infection (CRBSI) in a hemodialysis unit. The project question focused on the educational program derived from the evidence-based guidelines recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to improve registered dialysis nurses' knowledge regarding CVC …

Student Visa Control And Information Exchange, Lisa Bellamy

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Expired student visas can contribute to illegal residence in the U.S. and may also be a valuable source of information for Homeland Security. Although the reason for remaining in the U.S. might be for nonthreatening purposes, threatening actions could occur as an individual gets lost in the country. The purpose of this study was to determine how visas were issued, the reasons an individual may remain beyond the approved visa date, and the mechanisms intelligence and law enforcement agencies use to exchange information with each other. This research was based on the new war theory and the Lockwood Analytical Method …

Utilizing The Rorschach In Analyzing Characteristics Of Women Who Have Experienced Domestic Violence, Mary Aleksandra Iwanski

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Intimate partner violence (IPV) affects millions of women, men, and families throughout the world each year, with more than a million incidents of domestic partner abuse reported to law enforcement officials each year in the United States. Being able to accurately assess and help a woman who is experiencing this type of violence can be difficult for even a seasoned mental health or medical professional. The purpose of this study was to determine whether clinicians can gain insight into the personality structure of women who have experienced IPV by clinical interview and administration of the Rorschach alone. This study analyzed …

Maternal Depression: The Impact Of Perceived Social Support And Behavioral Health Rehabilitation Provider 50 Services, Tammy Lynn Gregorowicz

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The purpose of this study was to identify if the rate of behavioral health rehabilitation services (BHRS) impacts depressive symptoms of mothers with children receiving these services and if the perception of social support moderates the severity of depression. The stress-buffering hypothesis and Bowen's family systems theory were used for the theoretical framework. A quantitative, cross-sectional survey design was used to collect data from mothers of children receiving BHRS Provider 50 services in northeast Pennsylvania. The Beck Depression Inventory, Second Edition and Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support were used to assess depression and perceived social support. A self-made demographic …

Predicting The Probability For Adopting An Audience Response System In Higher Education, Tan Fung Ivan Chan

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Instructional technologies can be effective tools to foster student engagement, but university faculty may be reluctant to integrate innovative and evidence-based modern learning technologies into instruction. It is important to identify the factors that influence faculty adoption of instructional technologies in the teaching and learning process. Based on Rogers' diffusion of innovation theory, this quantitative, nonexperimental, one-shot cross-sectional survey determined what attributes of innovation (relative advantage, compatibility, complexity, trialability, and observability) predict the probability of faculty adopting the audience response system (ARS) into instruction. The sample for the study consisted of 201 faculty who have current teaching appointments at a …

Development Of An Evidence-Based New Graduate Nursing Orientation Program For The Emergency Department, Mary Ellen Zaleski

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The traditional new graduate nurse (NGN) orientation process places NGN with an experienced preceptor for 24 weeks and requires clinical skills checklists to be completed by the preceptor, a practice which is not an evidence-based practice for orienting NGNs. The purpose of this quality improvement project was to develop an evidence-based orientation to decrease time requirements and standardize the processes and evaluation of the NGN in the emergency department. The project was informed by Benner's novice to expert theory and focused on acquisition of clinical skills. The project team included 6 stakeholders: the Doctor of Nursing Practice student-leader, the unit …