Digital Commons Network^™

Shared Concepts Guiding The Practice Of A Community Occupational Therapy Program Serving Youth With Psychosocial Challenges, Chi-Kwan Shea, Nancy Jackson, Marianna Ayers Sordille

The Open Journal of Occupational Therapy

Background: Occupational therapy services to youth with trauma experiences and mental health challenges may follow unique practice concepts that deserve to be explored and illuminated. The study aimed to explore and identify shared concepts that have been guiding the occupational therapy practice of a community-based program serving the youth population.

Method: The qualitative study analyzed data from transcripts of one-on-one interviews with occupational therapists who serve youth clients in the community-based program. Using a grounded theory qualitative approach, the analysis aimed to highlight unique concepts that the occupational therapists employed in their day-to-day practice with youth who experience …

Initial Validity And User Experience Of A Dynamic Assessment Of Occupational Performance For Transitional Age Youth, Christine Haworth, Genevieve Cyrs, Chi-Kwan Shea

The Open Journal of Occupational Therapy

Background: The Double OT (DOT) assessment is occupation-based and dynamic, designed with a client-centered format requiring skill demonstration. It was developed to support youth transitioning into the workplace. This research intended to analyze initial validity and users’ experience.

Method: This study includes qualitative and quantitative analyses of data collected from surveys from 169 client participants (APs) and 30 recipient participants (ARRs) from eight sites in the USA and Europe. AP were 14­ to 25 years of age and engaged in residential, educational, and vocational settings. The ARRs comprised partners who had received DOT assessment summaries about APs with …

Promoting Equity For Women In Medical Journal Editing, Allison Chamberlain Miller, Diane Powers Dirette

The Open Journal of Occupational Therapy

No abstract provided.

Approachability And Mask-Wearing During The Covid-19 Pandemic: A Systematic Literature Review, Lauren Dehaan

Honors Theses

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic greatly impacted many aspects of life. Due to the airborne transmission of this respiratory disease, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released a statement in early April of 2020 recommending that people wear face masks as part of an effort to reduce the spread of the virus (CDC, 2020). Mask-wearing presented a plethora of adjustments in many areas of life. In this literature review, we focus on the sociological impacts that mask-wearing had on sociability and approachability during the COVID-19 pandemic. Studying the sociological impact of COVID-19 serves to inform both mental …

Approachability And Mask-Wearing During The Covid-19 Pandemic: A Systematic Literature Review, Lindsay Kovach

Honors Theses

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic greatly impacted many aspects of life. Due to the airborne transmission of this respiratory disease, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released a statement in early April of 2020 recommending that people wear face masks as part of an effort to reduce the spread of the virus (CDC, 2020). Mask-wearing presented a plethora of adjustments in many areas of life. In this literature review, we focus on the sociological impacts that mask-wearing had on sociability and approachability during the COVID-19 pandemic. Studying the sociological impact of COVID-19 serves to inform both mental …

Communication Theory Analysis Of Coda Movie, Lindsay Casey

Honors Theses

This undergraduate honors thesis addresses how the hearing community views and treats the d/Deaf community. The contents of this thesis include a literature review, communication theory, and qualitative analysis of the film, CODA (2021). Findings leave the hearing community with three main suggestions to implement when interacting with the d/Deaf community. These suggestions include acknowledging the daily communication struggle amongst members of the d/Deaf community, maintenance in a conversation may lead to exploitation and finally, due to different speech codes we should enact cultural respect towards others.

The literature review consists of an overview of the d/Deaf community’s history including …

Inhibiting Effects Of Methyllycaconitine (Mla) On Pnu-282987 Induced Neurogenesis In Blast-Exposed Mouse Retinas, Nastia Zhiyew Chan

Honors Theses

Irreversible vision loss can be caused by retinal damage, disease, or aging. In recent years, the prevalence of ocular damage due to blast trauma has been increasing due to the modernization of warfare. Adult mammalian retinal neurons were previously thought to lack the capacity for regeneration to reverse vision loss, which deemed the effects of many ocular damages permanent. However, recent studies from this lab have shown that PNU-282987, an agonist to the alpha 7 subtype of neural nicotinic acetylcholine receptors, will result in neural regeneration in adult mammalian cells. For this research project, I will be using Methyllycaconitine (MLA), …

The Laureate Journal, Isabella Loe Proulx

Honors Theses

The 21st Edition of The Laureate Journal details the ways in which humanity struggles in life. Finding peace and joy can be difficult, but the light is always there, if you can just stop to look for it. This year’s edition of The Laureate details this humane struggle through eighteen students and their own works of prose, poetry, photography, and painting. While the journal does delve into sensitive subject matter, it’s well worth delving into as a reader—because the journal itself moves out of this darkness and into the light of hope. Each of these students has something worth saying—going …

Traveling With A Purpose: Sustainable Tourism, Nina Rossman

Honors Theses

The act of traveling is often seen as exciting for many travelers looking for adventure or to experience something different than their everyday routines. However, many current tourism trends force negative burdens onto local communities and environments. For instance, when development increases consumption in an area where natural resources are scarce to begin with, it can put pressure on those resources. There is a certain level of visitor use that an environment can manage; negative impacts occur when the changes in visitor use exceed this limit.[1]

While tourist destinations experience negative impacts from the tourism industry, tourism also supports …

Cannabidiol (Cbd) & The Confused Consumer: How A Lack Of Leadership And Education Is Stunting Cbd Growth, Katelyn Wandel

Honors Theses

This paper expands upon previous research conducted to observe and determine the impact and relationships of factors like knowledge, trust, and intent to purchase for controversial products among consumers. Cannabidiol (CBD) is the primary controversial product further explored in this paper. The objective of this paper is to analyze the results in this research and how they relate to the question would clearer regulations, more standardization, legal guidelines, and general knowledge enhancement impact overall product trust and purchase intent of products? In addition to this primary research objective, analysis of sources and factors that impact and threaten the level of …

Assessment Of An Interdisciplinary Climate Change Facultylearning Community: From Course Redesign To Implementation, Elise Decamp

Assessment Grants

This project is an IRB approved secondary data analysis that serves as a program assessment of the Climate Change Across the Curriculum learning community facilitated in Spring 2022. The primary objectives are to evaluate the learning community’s (1) success in supporting the integration of the complex topic of climate change across the curriculum through interdisciplinary faculty collaboration and (2) the role of this programming in promoting climate literacy among WMU students. Data include pre-/post-survey data on the learning community’s faculty participants, session notes, faculty module and course revision plans, faculty reflections on implementation of their plans, and pre-/post-climate literacy quizzes.

Wills And Testaments In Medieval England From The Thirteenth To The Sixteenth Century, Robert A. Wood

TEAMS Documents of Practice

This volume explores the will-making process in late medieval England for all levels of society. Wills are some of the most studied records of the late Middle Ages and capture the evidence of what people owned and the patterns of family relationships. These documents, compiled from several archives and city records, cast a light on many aspects of medieval life, including gender distinctions and the heavy influence of the church. Included are wills from widows, tradespeople and artisans, clergy, and high-ranking wealthy people, and through these sources he shows how wills, inventories, and testaments prepared people and their souls for …

Supporting Preservice Teacher Development Of Culturally Responsive Reading Instruction Through A Cross-Course Assignment, Brittany Adams, Annemarie Bazzo Kaczmarczyk

Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy and Language Arts

This article describes design-based research undertaken by two teacher educators to support elementary preservice teachers (PSTs) in integrating culturally responsive teaching practices with reading methods. The study described was motivated by calls for teacher preparation programs to be more intentional about supporting PSTs in synthesizing their learning across courses, especially when it comes to culturally responsive reading pedagogies. This article focuses on an activity that tasked PSTs to select culturally authentic children’s texts and design interactive read-alouds that engage elementary students in conversations around social justice topics while simultaneously meeting English language arts standards. Analysis of the lesson plans revealed …

Assessing Inspera Assessment, Matthew Ross

Assessment Grants

This mini grant will allow for preliminary assessment of Inspera Assessment software at WMU. The Norwegian company Inspera AS presents a more versatile digital assessment platform than the Respondus lockdown browser which is the current WMU platform. Specifically, Inspera offers MS Excel enabled examinations which is not possible with Respondus or similar platforms such as Proctorio or TopHat. However, assessing the capabilities of Inspera is expected to be a challenging, multidisciplinary, and time-consuming endeavor. This grant application requests funding for faculty time to document the capacity of Inspera Assessment to support WMU finance courses.

Editorial Review Board

Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy and Language Arts

No abstract provided.

Transformation Of Preservice Teacher Identities: The Effects Of Authentic Reading Experiences, Macie Kerbs, Heather Pule

Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy and Language Arts

Preservice teachers (PSTs) come to teacher education programs after many years as students in the K–12 school system—a system that is focused on standardized testing and inauthentic literacy practices. These experiences have shaped PSTs’ personal literacy identities and their view of reading pedagogy, many times for the negative. In an effort to address this systemic issue, two university professors at different institutions conducted an action research study (N = 40) by redesigning their individual literacy methods courses around authentic literacy experiences with the intention of reshaping PSTs’ personal views of literacy and in turn their preconceived pedagogical ideas of literacy …

What Does Written Reflection Reveal About Novice Teachers’ Knowledge, Beliefs, And Skills Related To Literacy Assessment?, Erin K. Washburn, Abby Pierce, Chyllis E. Scott, Carly Waters

Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy and Language Arts

Assessment of literacy learning has been a long-standing focus for future teachers in elementary education. Teacher educators use ongoing written reflection to promote learning before, during, and after coursework and field experiences. In this study, the researchers examined the effects of ongoing written reflection on two groups of novice teachers’ knowledge, beliefs, and skills about literacy assessment in a semester-long graduate-level literacy assessment course with embedded fieldwork. First, the researchers conducted qualitative and descriptive analyses to examine what novice teachers reflected about in their ongoing written reflections. Second, they conducted comparative analyses to examine the extent to which the two …

“How Come There’S No Spelling?”: What Spontaneous Comments Teach Us About Student Thinking During Vocabulary Learning Tasks, Susan J. Chambrè

Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy and Language Arts

Vocabulary development remains an active and robust research area, yet little is known about what students, particularly young students, think during vocabulary learning. A commonly held assumption is that young learners employ few, if any, cognitive and metacognitive strategies when engaged in literacy tasks. Conversely, decades of research confirms that older learners with active metacognitive tools are better equipped to make meaning from text, of which vocabulary is a crucial component. To better understand the strategies and metacognitive actions young students make when learning vocabulary, student comments (N = 35) spontaneously produced during two experimental vocabulary learning tasks were reviewed …

Therashield, Llc A Company Designing Products To Increase Comfort And Maintain Skin Integrity, Alissa Remijan

Capstone Projects

TheraShield, LLC is a company producing products designed to increase comfort and maintain skin integrity while utilizing an unweighted harness system. TheraShield, LLC developed the product Harness Mates, which increase the surface area of contact points between the harness and skin reducing friction and shear, resulting in decreased risk of wounds and increased comfort for the client, as well as improved tolerance to time spent in the harness, allowing for an improved therapeutic response. Harness Mates come in 4 different sizes (long, wide, thick, narrow) to increase the versatility of usage. Harness Mates are designed to be impermeable, allowing to …

Creating Opportunity For The Homeless Population To Engage In Meaningful Occupations, Jada S. Toliver

Capstone Projects

Creating an opportunity for the homeless population to learn life skills, and improve their engagement in meaningful occupations is critical in helping people reintegrate back into the community. Through the development of Life Skills workshops the homeless population could learn appropriate life skills, receive education and advocate for their basic needs to be met. The needs addressed were increasing participation in occupations such as work, socialization, leisure activities, and promoting the importance of maintaining their health. The objectives were: (1) developing professional reasoning skills through scholarly exploration, (2) achieving greater resiliency by implementing goal attainment scaling, (3) utilizing evidence based …

Patient Centered, Kiara Bartlett

Capstone Projects

It is inevitable to adapt uneasy feelings leading up to and during a doctor's appointment. The question is why do humans feel this? Research indicates that many medical offices and appointment spaces are designed for employee efficiency, rather that patient experience. This sheds light on the fact that there is a disconnect between provider needs and patient needs in this important, shared space.

Regardless of the type of offices, from general practice to dermatology, every physician office and appointment space have common spatial and operation needs. All healthcare offices need the same type of circulation that creates ease while moving …

Interdisciplinary Collaboration Between Occupational Therapy And Dentistry For Autistic Patients And Sensory Processing Differences, Mallory Fox

Capstone Projects

Dental care is the most frequently cited unmet healthcare need for children with special needs (Cermak et al., 2015). Given the increased research linking oral health to overall health, it is important to ensure that dental care is accessible to all individuals. Oral hygiene and health management are both occupations included in the Occupational Therapy Practice Framework (4th ed). Combined with the unique training of an occupational therapist in sensory processing and environmental adaptations, the profession of occupational therapy has an important role in addressing the availability of dental care for those with disabilities.

The aim of my doctoral capstone …

Outdoor Community Based Rehabilitation Program Development, Dylan Pritel

Capstone Projects

The purpose of this capstone paper is to promote Outdoor Community Based Rehabilitation (CBR) as an adjunctive therapeutic approach to traditional treatment for rehabilitation professionals working in outpatient settings. The primary objective of this project was to create a comprehensive program proposal for an Outdoor CBR program for patients receiving outpatient services at Oroville Hospital. It included creating program activities, a patient referral process, identifying possible community partners, locating applicable grants, determining program staffing, as well as creating a workable budget, which included overall activity costs, staffing costs, equipment costs and reimbursement procedures. (See appendix A and B) The program …

Advocating For Occupational Therapy At The Systemic Level, Alyssa Schwartz

Capstone Projects

The future of occupational therapy, a commonly misunderstood and underutilized profession, is largely influenced by advocacy at the systemic level. The following capstone project was completed at the American Occupational Therapy Association with the federal advocacy department. The capstone site mentor, Abe Saffer, is a lobbyist who mainly works on workforce, mental health, and school-based occupational therapy issues. Throughout this project, the capstone student advocated for occupational therapy and those that occupational therapy serves through legislation, networking, and by facilitating the development of OTP advocates. Additionally, the student acquired skills to continue to advocate for herself, the clients she works …

Occupational Therapy In A Daytime Homeless Shelter Setting, Ruth Erin Garcia

Capstone Projects

Occupational therapy (OT) is an allied health profession that works with individuals on improving their engagement and performance in meaningful occupations. This doctoral capstone project (DCE) was completed at Ministry with Community (MwC), a daytime shelter and resource center. There is emerging but limited literature regarding the role of OT working within a homeless shelter setting. Additionally, individuals experiencing homelessness are at risk for occupational injustice, or restriction to engagement in meaningful life activities.

The primary goal of this DCE was to improve engagement in meaningful occupations. The focus was program development with a secondary focus on advocacy. The objectives …

The Typology Of Survival, Briana Alvarado

Capstone Projects

Climate change is affecting the whole world and a need for housing is emerging for climate migrants. Taking into account the current geopolitical landscape there is an indication of a need for an architectural response that must be applied to a variety of evolving sociopolitical contexts throughout the world. This also means that there are several possible solutions. Research indicates that viable design solutions fall into the following categories:

1. An immediate response that would answer the question of large slums due to inland migration. A long term response that would look at global migration from one country to another.
2. Many …

Efficacy Of Using Virtual Reality To Reduce Perceived Exertion During Therapy When Compared To Traditional Ot Intervention, Luke Lee

Capstone Projects

This project looked at the differences in perceived and actual exertion in virtual reality therapy interventions and upper extremity ergometer. The goal of this project was to quantify the efficacy of virtual reality interventions as an alternative to more traditional upper extremity interventions. This project wanted to address the lack of research focused on perceived exertion in virtual reality interventions. The student objectives focused on conducting research, familiarizing oneself with the use of virtual reality in the in-patient setting, and dissemination of the results. This study found that there was no significant difference in perceived exertion scores, changes in heart …

Disability Advocates Of Kent County (Dakc) Consumer Follow-Up For Aging In Place, Bianca Cordova

Capstone Projects

Disability Advocates of Kent County (DAKC) is a non-profit organization with an occupational therapy (OT) department that aims to keep primarily community-dwelling, low-income, older adults safe and independent in their home. The organization provides home assessments which identifies the barriers and supports for daily activities within the home. After the home assessment evaluation, adaptive equipment and/or home modification recommendations are provided. Literature supports the restorative approach DAKC uses to facilitate aging in place. There was a lack of quantitative and qualitative evidence on how consumers were aging in place post-intervention. This capstone project focused on creating a pilot follow-up program …

Addressing Sensory Processing And Mental Health Needs In The Middle School Setting, Kate Bergsma

Capstone Projects

Rooted in policy and program development, this occupational therapy doctoral capstone experience focused on addressing sensory processing and mental health needs at Grand Rapids Christian Middle School (GRCMS). With a significant proportion of students suffering from sensory processing difficulties and mental health concerns, the field of occupational therapy is distinctly equipped to address both needs within the context of school (Nielsen at al., 2021, Mental health for adolescents, n.d.). Occupational therapy’s background and expert training in both sensory processing as well as mental health needs proved vital the completion of this capstone. An intensive literature review was conducted to guide …

Therapeutic Gardening For Older Adults At A Community-Based Day Center: A Doctoral Capstone Experience, Anna Serbantez

Capstone Projects

As we age, it is common for individuals to participate in less meaningful and purposeful occupations due to cognitive and physical declines. Research has shown that gardening is a popular leisure activity that offers many therapeutic benefits. This capstone project involved creating an evidence-based therapeutic gardening program for older adults at Care Resources. This community-based day center offers many activities and opportunities for participants to get involved with; however, after completing a needs assessment, it was clear that participants could benefit from more hands on and productive activities that help encourage regular attendance to the day center. The objectives of …