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Nursing Staff Approaches To Providing Oral Hygiene In Stroke Survivors With Dysphagia: A Grounded Theory Study, Willard Brewer

Dissertations

The purpose of this qualitative grounded theory study was to explore how the nursing staff approaches oral hygiene in stroke survivors with dysphagia during the rehabilitation phase of recovery and what guides their decisions. Oral hygiene is a proven effective task known to prevent systemic health disparities (i.e. aspiration pneumonia, diabetes, gastrointestinal disparities, and even stroke). However, there are no current evidenced-based guidelines that provide instruction on how to execute oral hygiene to stroke survivors with dysphagia. Little is known about how nurses make decisions to implement oral hygiene in stroke survivors with dysphagia.

Evaluating Loneliness In An Older Adult Population, Kelli Rowland

Dissertations

Problem: Loneliness and social isolation are severe burdens on global public health and can impair overall health outcomes. Unfortunately, both loneliness and social isolation are prevalent in the older adult population. The purpose of this quality improvement project was to evaluate loneliness in older adults enrolled in a weekly socialization program and its impact on loneliness.

Methods: A descriptive cohort design was utilized to analyze surveys completed three months apart. A convenience sample was used with older adults already enrolled in a weekly socialization program. The Iowa Model of Evidence-Based Practice was applied to evaluate and promote quality …

The Experiences Of Internationally Educated Nurses While Preparing For The Nclex-Rn, Jhordin James C. Montegrico

Dissertations

About 5.6% of the U.S. nursing workforce is composed of internationally educated nurses (IEN). Nurses from the Philippines comprise the majority of IEN applying for the National Council Licensure Examination Registered Nurses (NCLEX-RN) but more than half of them fail the NCLEX-RN the first time. There is paucity of research on IEN and the NCLEX-RN, in general, and there are no published studies on IEN experiences while preparing for the NCLEX-RN.

This research described the experiences of IEN while preparing for the NCLEX-RN. It explored the facilitating and hindering factors of IEN NCLEX-RN preparatory experiences. Strategies were identified to overcome …

Healthcare Providers' And Community Leaders' Knowledge And Perceptions Of Neurocysticercosis In Rural Bolivia, Amy J. Alberts

Dissertations

Neurocysticercosis (NCC) is a preventable infectious disease that is considered a major cause of epilepsy in developing nations. Bolivia is one of the least developed nations in Latin America and in rural Bolivia persons with epilepsy (PWE) go largely without treatment. Epilepsy is a devastating disease that has the capacity to significantly decrease the quality of life, not only for PWE, but for their families as well. The development and implementation of a self-sustainable program for the prevention and treatment of NCC and the consistent treatment of epilepsy is essential. However, research on epilepsy and NCC in Bolivia, whether in …

Young Adult Nurse Work-Related Well-Being, Contemporary Practice Worldview, Resilience, And Co-Worker Support During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Chloe Olivia Rose Littzen-Brown

Dissertations

The purpose of this mixed-methods study was to describe and examine the type and significance of factors significantly related to young adult nurse work-related well-being.

Measurement And Regulation Of Workplace Violence In Healthcare Setting, Rachel Odes

Dissertations

Workplace violence in healthcare settings has been recognized globally as a major barrier to the provision of safe and effective health care services. In California, the Workplace Violence Prevention in Health Care standard (Title 8, Section 3342) requires hospitals to develop violence prevention plans and report incidents where force was used against workers to the California Occupational Safety and Health Administration (CalOSHA) through the web-based Workplace Violent Incident Reporting System for Hospitals (WVIRS).

Simultaneous Experiences Of Type 2 Diabetes And Symptoms Of Depression And/Or Anxiety Among Latina Women 60 And Older, Adrienne S. Martinez-Hollingsworth

Dissertations

Latina older adult women disproportionately suffer from type 2 diabetes (diabetes) and symptoms of depression and/or anxiety. These disease states are associated with serious declines in health outcomes and a three-fold reduction in treatment compliance. Few studies have examined this phenomenon exclusively among Latina older adult women or have captured the impact of intersectional identity on their experiences, values or problem-solving methods related to self-management.

The purpose of this study was to examine how Latina women, 60 and over, emotionally experience both diabetes and interactions with care providers during help-seeking and care engagement.

Development And Evaluation Of A Sepsis Simulation With Undergraduate Nursing Students, Kelly Martinez

Dissertations

This study evaluated if undergraduate nursing students in their final academic year can appropriately recognize and respond to a patient displaying signs of deterioration in a response to rescue simulation. Participants were senior level baccalaureate nursing students in a Northeast university. The student nurses' ability to recognize and respond to patient deterioration due to sepsis according to the Surviving Sepsis Campaign (SSC) definitions were examined. Participating students reviewed preparation materials and resource components followed by a simulation-based learning experience which followed the International Nursing Association for Clinical Simulation and Learning (INACSL) Standards of Best Practice: SimulationSM. The simulation experience was …

Examining Nursing Faculty Credentials And Nclex-Rn Pass Rates In Pre-Licensure Nursing Programs, Tiffany N. Cole

Dissertations

The healthcare industry has registered nurses from various academic and clinical backgrounds. With nurses accounting for a significant number of healthcare professionals, there is a continued need for nursing students to be successful on the National Council Licensure Examination (NCLEX). One role of nursing faculty members is to promote student success on the NCLEX. Nursing faculty members may have varied educational backgrounds, with the most common being master's and doctoral degrees. There is a gap in nursing education literature regarding if specific faculty credentials are predictive of NCLEX-RN® pass rates in pre-licensure nursing programs. A cross-sectional correlational retrospective quantitative study …

Undergraduate Nurse Educator Perceptions Of Preparation To Teach Interprofessional Collaboration, Tamara Berghout

Dissertations

If nurse educators do not teach students to function in interprofessional teams, students may lack communication and teamwork skills, which can result in patient harm; however, nurse educators do not always understand the concept of interprofessional collaboration (IPC) and may, therefore, fail to teach it to students. The purpose of this multiple case study was to understand how undergraduate nurse educators prepared to teach IPC and how their preparation informed their teaching. The theory of transformative learning and the Interprofessional Education Collaborative core competencies of IPC framed this study. Data included semistructured interviews and associated documents from 9 nurse educators …

Preparation Of Clinical Nurse Educators Using Simulation: Developing Competencies In Providing Feedback, Julie S. Fitzwater

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of simulation learning in the development of clinical teaching competencies in clinical nurse educators transitioning from the role of nurse clinician to nurse educator. The study intervention was a simulation learning experience for clinical nurse educators to learn effective formative feedback techniques.

Reducing Acute Care Hospital Setting Inpatient Falls With Implementation Of Hourly Rounding: A Quality Improvement Project, Courtney Delaparte

Dissertations

Falls in the acute care setting can lead to serious patient injuries. Despite continued efforts to reduce falls, falls are still a common occurrence. One strategy that has been identified as promoting patient safety, including the prevention of falls, is that of hourly rounding. This quality improvement project implemented hourly rounding utilizing the AHRQ's 3B: Scheduled Rounding Protocol on a 48-bed telemetry unit to study the effects on fall reduction. Comparison of fall rates prior to the implementation of hourly rounding to that after hourly rounding was incorporated into practice, showed a reduction; however, the reduction of fall rates was …

Body Image Distress And Post Mastectomy Women, Ashley Ceithaml

Dissertations

Body image and breast cancer are closely associated in women who undergo unilateral or bilateral mastectomies. The literature has shown that even if women undergo reconstruction, they still experience adverse side effects with surgery or body image disturbances that may persist for years, affecting their quality of life. It is important for providers to recognize patients experiencing issues with body image distress and be able to provide appropriate care.

The purpose of this quality improvement project is to evaluate body image scores in women who have undergone breast cancer mastectomy within the past five years and educate those who admit …

An Evaluation Of Virtual School's Preparation Of Second Grade Students For Third Grade Reading Proficiency, Lisa R. Hassler

Dissertations

Third-grade reading proficiency is an indicator of future student success in middle school and ninth grade, on-time graduation rates, and career success; however, 44% of third-grade students in one state were not meeting this goal. The purpose of this study was to investigate the extent to which virtual school in second grade prepared students for third- grade reading achievement. I used a mixed methodology to compare extant data from a state database on third-grade state achievement tests in the area of English Language Arts. Sixty-one second and third-grade teachers completed surveys, and three teachers participated in follow-up interviews. The data …

Tasting Tea, Tasting China: Tearooms And The Everyday Culture In Dalian, Yingkun Hou

Dissertations

Tea is a beverage that has long been taken to symbolize a key aspect of Chinese tradition and history. However, it is one of many beverages drunk in contemporary China, where in recent times knowledge of wine has come to stand for the West and as a much-desired cultural capital. This dissertation examines everyday tea drinking and tea tasting in Dalian—a northeastern city in Liaoning Province, China. Through ethnography of practices, processes, and interactions taking place in daily events of tea drinking and tasting, this dissertation provides a window into social conflicts, ideas and desires, historical consciousness, and national identity, …

A Grounded Theory Analysis Of Black African International Students’ Racial Identity Development, Maame Coleman

Dissertations

This study was designed to explore how Black African international students develop an understanding of their racial identity within the U.S. context. Although there has been considerable previous theoretical and empirical work examining the process of racial identity development (e.g. Cross, 1971; Sellers et al.1998), which has provided foundation for how we continue to understand how U.S. racial minorities develop their racial identities. However, there is a paucity of research on the racial identity development process of non-U.S. born Black people (Hocoy, 1999; Asante, 2012). Even less is known about the role that intersectionality of other identities plays in the …

Building Support Systems For High School English Language Learners: A Developmental Program Evaluation, Manuel Ferreras

Dissertations

The graduation rate of English Language Learners (ELL) is lagging behind the general school population graduation rate. The purpose of this study is to address the needs of ELL students for improving the graduation rate of ELL students. The context of this inquiry is a high school with a large ELL population located in one of the state’s largest school districts. My study demonstrates outcomes of a lack of a shared vision and attention by the school administrators on addressing the needs of ELL students, ineffective remediation strategies and tools used to guide ELL students, and the potential impact high-stakes …

An Evaluation Of Equity And Access For All Students In A School District's Career And Technical Education Programs, Cynthia M. Jaime

Dissertations

There is a great deal of research regarding the need for equity and access in Career and Technical Education (CTE); however, very little research exists acknowledging strategies to achieve it. The purpose of this study was to evaluate equity and access in CTE programs, as well as to determine any barriers to CTE program enrollment, participation, and completion faced by students identified as economically challenged, students with disabilities, or English language learners. The context of this inquiry was high school CTE programs in one school district in the United States of America. My study demonstrates both qualitative and quantitative data …

The Necessity And Possibility Of Decolonizing The Understanding Of Chinese-Ness, Tao Zhang

Dissertations

In this dissertation, I explore how crossing national borders has made me aware of the many identity borders that I have crossed as a transnational Chinese, and how I am caught up in identity politics between the “Chinese,” who do not necessarily always identify as “Chinese” in the transnational context. However, as a racialized group in the U.S., transnational Chinese are perceived as a homogeneous population, usually through racially (“Yellow Peril” or “Chinese Virus”) and politically (“Red Scare”) charged lenses measured by Western/U.S. binaristic and hierarchical standards. Therefore, in this research project, I problematize dominant U.S. race logic, i.e., the …

Los Graduados; Factors Affecting First-Generation Hispanic Males Attainment Of A Terminal Degree, Frank Figueroa

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this phenomenological study was to understand and explore factors that led to the attainment of a terminal degree as perceived by first generation Hispanic males in Southern California. A secondary purpose of the study was to determine, of the factors identified, which were perceived to have the greatest impact on attainment of a terminal degree by first generation Hispanic males in Southern California.

Methodology: This phenomenological study collected data via semi-structured interviews and review of artifacts. The study sample involved 13 First-Generation Hispanic Males in Southern California who have attained a terminal degree. Bandura’s Self-Efficacy Theory …

Designing Collaborative Lifelogging To Facilitate Learning In Collaborative Physical-Recreation Communities, Sayed Mousa Ahmadi Olounabadi

Dissertations

Since the 1940s, researchers have envisioned lifelogging as the systematic capture and utilization of lived experiences for augmenting learning, performance, and community Unfortunately, this vision was never actualized since few, if any, systems support lifelogging in the term's original sense. Technologies that emerged through the Quantified-Self (QS) movement allowed users to monitor and track almost every life aspect. However, the decontextualized self-tracking data QS systems produced are unsuitable for supporting learning and community engagement, and therefore have not made lifelogging a reality yet. Central to this dissertation is understanding how to augment learning and community through lifelogging. This is particularly …

Essays On Health Care Quality: Timeliness, Equity, And Efficiency, Abubakar-Sadiq Bouda Abdulai

Dissertations

According to the National Academy of Medicine (NAM) (formerly called the Institute of Medicine), a quality health care system embodies six attributes: timeliness, equity, safety, efficiency, effectiveness, and patient-centeredness. Timeliness is to avoid unnecessary delays in care delivery for patients and caregivers; equity is to ensure that the quality of care that patients receive does not vary based on their personal characteristics; safety is to ensure that the care that is intended to help patients does not harm them; efficiency is to avoid waste and optimize resource allocation to improve care delivery; effective care is one that relies on sound …

From Roundabout To Roundabout: Tahrir Square (1869- 2021), Mariam Abdelazim

Dissertations

Tahrir Square not only represents a symbol of liberation but also reflects the modern history of Egypt. Its several physical changes signify the rise and fall of the monarchy, colonialism, modernism, nationalism, capitalism, echoing a constantly changing definition of the Egyptian public space. And while the surrounding façades physically define the square, either the authorities or the public control its activities.

Khedive Ismail founded the square around 1869 as a roundabout on his “Paris along the Nile” modern city. Between 1882 and 1947, the site became the barracks’ location for the British troops who colonized Egypt. In 1952, an Egyptian …

The Effect Of Choice Programs On Student Achievement, David Whitham

Dissertations

Educational choices provide unique learning opportunities for all children to have access to and allow parents to be the decision-makers for their child’s education (Valant & Lincove, 2018). Brown v. Board of Education (1954) of Topeka sparked the creation of choice programs in the United States to end the segregation of students and empower families to be direct stakeholders in their child’s education (Brown v. Board of Education, 1954). This study focused on a school district in the Midwest region of the United States, which investigated the expansion of learning options available to the community. The purpose of this study …

Stress, Anxiety, And Depression: Role Of Campus Connectedness, Social Support, And Coping Among Nepalese Nursing Students, Priscilla Samson

Dissertations

High levels of stress, anxiety, and depression (SAD) can adversely influence physical health, psychological well-being, and academic and clinical performance of nursing students. Numerous studies have identified the factors associated with SAD; however, a paucity of empirical research addresses the relationship of SAD with campus connectedness (CC), perceived social support (PSS), and coping. The purpose of this quantitative cross-sectional study, guided by Lazarus and Folkman's theory of stress, coping, and adaptation, was to determine the prevalence of SAD and examine its relationship with CC, PSS, and coping among undergraduate nursing students of Nepal. Survey research was conducted using depression anxiety …

Nursing Faculty Perceptions About Peers With Physical And Sensory Disabilities, Tammy C. Killough

Dissertations

Nursing faculty perceptions of peer faculty with sensory and physical disabilities is an important topic for research, as the review of literature indicates that this topic has not been adequately investigated. Current research related to nursing faculty with disabilities has been primarily focused on nursing students with disabilities. This study explored nursing faculty's perceptions about nursing peers with disabilities. A descriptive qualitative research design was selected to best reflect the viewpoints of the participants and to allow for a more holistic open view of participants' perceptions about the research questions. The participants participated in an online survey using Survey Monkeyâ„¢. …

Simulated Clinical Experience: An Investigation Of Emotion Understanding And Management, Neena W. Jones

Dissertations

Many investigators have documented that lack of emotional intelligence (EI) in professional nursing correlates with patient dissatisfaction, negative patient outcomes, and litigation. However, much less information is available to nurse educators for an effective instructional strategy to increase EI skills, specifically emotion understanding and management (the most influential branches of EI) in nursing students. Grounded in the theory of EI and the theory of simulation, the purpose of this quantitative quasi experimental study was to introduce educational technology as a useful strategy for influencing EI in a convenience sample of 88 second semester students in a baccalaureate program. Research questions …

Exploration Of Gratitude In Cardiovascular Health: Mediators, Medication Adherence And Psychometrics, Lakeshia A. Cousin

Dissertations

The purpose of this dissertation was to explore the effect of gratitude on cardiovascular health outcomes using mediators, medication adherence, and psychometrics. The specific aims were to (1) establish the state of the science for gratitude and cardiovascular health outcomes via a state-of-the-science literature review, (2) explore mediators affecting gratitude and medication adherence using a structural equation model in patients with cardiovascular disease, and (3) analyze the psychometric properties of the Gratitude Questionnaire-6, a self-report questionnaire designed to assess individual differences to express dispositional gratitude, to provide evidence for the validity and reliability of the instrument in African Americans at …

International Students’ Perceived Support And Barriers Adapting To The New Cultural Experience In A Southern California University, Jeanette Ayala

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this phenomenology study was to explore the lived experiences of international students’ perceptions regarding the types of support they received to adapt to a new culture experience and barriers to their successful adaptation to a new cultural experience while enrolled in a southern California university.

Methodology:

Qualitative research was the methodology used for this study because it was the approach best suited to gain a better understanding of the phenomena of international students’ lived experiences. The present study involved a qualitative design with a phenomenological inquiry approach. The technique of using semi-structured interviews is a method …

The Impact Of Technology Centered Instruction And Implementation Measures On Student Performance, Daniel Kania

Dissertations

This study was conducted to compare the impact of technology-centered instructional methods on student performance in literacy to the impact of non-digital instructional practices. Additionally, this research was designed to identify specific program implementation measures used during the implementation of the prevailing instructional method and identify what link existed between these measures and the performance of students. The researcher examined quantitative and qualitative data obtained from both public data sources and from a survey administered to teachers in eight school districts in Missouri. The participants responded to questions that provided the researcher with quantitative and qualitative data to be used …