Digital Commons Network^™

A Program Evaluation Of Job-Embedded Professional Development In An Urban School District, Brian Metcalf

Dissertations

With the achievement gap African American and Latinx and their White peers widening rather than closing in Bullock County Public Schools and the overall proficiency level of students in both English Language Arts and Math at less than 15%, it’s apparent that quality teaching and learning is a concern. This coupled with teachers’ perception that professional development is ineffective made it evident that adopting a research based professional development model was necessary. This plan examines the current professional development model with an emphasis on Cycles of Inquiry. Since this requires a change in not only teachers’ belief systems but also …

To Plant A Garden Is To Believe In The Future: An Autoethnographic Journey Of Doubt And Restoration In A Co-Principalship, Arturo Abrego

Dissertations

This autoethnographic research study explored the circumstances and challenges I encountered as an educational leader during the inception of the 2001 No Child Left Behind Act. Through the use of autoethnographic vignettes, I provided an intimate account of the circumstances and conditions that led my school district to establish a co-principal leadership structure. The use of autoethnographic vignettes was not only a vehicle to tell my story but also served as an avenue for the reader to connect, conceptualize, and contextualize the circumstances and outcomes associated with this personal journey. Specifically, the stories and responses within this research are intended …

Seeking Life Balance: The Perceptions Of Health Of Cambodian Women In Resettlement, Olivia Catolico

Dissertations

This grounded theory study was an inquiry into the perceptions of health of Cambodian women in resettlement and the conditions that influenced their perceptions. Few studies of Cambodian women who escaped political conflict exist. Cambodian women were among the waves of Southeast Asian refugees who have resettled in the United States. The sequelae of significant life trauma upon the health of Cambodian women in resettlement have received little attention in the nursing literature. There is less information about their perceptions of health in resettlement as their beliefs about health and illness causation contrast with those of Western health care providers.

Kids These Days: Increasing Youth Engagement In Community Heritage And Social Justice Through The Implementation Of A Youth Participatory Empowerment Model, Melanie Canaday-Talley, Lindsay Clemens, Amanda J. Dworak Rowland, Mary Gillis, Curlinda Mitchell Blacksheep, Jancarlos Jose Romero

Dissertations

The purpose of this co-authored, qualitative, action research study was to examine how to empower youth to become active participants in their communities. Citizen engagement in community and public life is vital to a healthy democracy and young people have a unique place in community citizenry, but are often dismissed or excluded from decision-making. The research team developed a model, the Youth Participatory Empowerment Model (YPEM), to guide youth through a process of identifying and engaging a community heritage or social justice need in their community. The team assembled a guidebook of activities to engage groups in difficult self, group, …

The Use Of The Re-Engineered Discharge (Red) Toolkit On Patients Undergoing A Hip Or Knee Joint Replacement Or Revision, Kathleen Mitchell

Dissertations

Discharge planning plays a crucial role in the transition of care. Despite the expenditures dedicated towards discharge planning, organizations struggle with reducing 30-day readmission rates, improving patient satisfaction scores, and length of stay. Poorly coordinated care transitions account for nearly one-fifth of Medicare readmissions within 30 days' post discharge. It is estimated that more than 75% of these are preventable at an estimated cost savings of $12 billion per year. The evidence-based practice improvement project instituted a discharge planning process using the Re-Engineered Discharge (RED) Toolkit on patients undergoing a hip or knee joint replacement or revision. The RED Toolkit …

Nurse Family Member Perceptions Of Patient Death And Nursing Care After Withdrawal Of Life-Sustaining Treatment, Deena Drake

Dissertations

Purpose/Aims: This pilot study explored nurse family member perceptions of nursing care and patient quality of death and dying during and after withdrawal of life-sustaining treatment within Intensive Care Units (ICU).

Rationale: Past research that examined physician, nurse, and family member experiences of End-of-Life (EOL) care within the ICU found significant differences between the three groups.

Background: Approximately 500,000 people die within an ICU each year in the United States. End-of-Life and Palliative Care programs focused primarily on physician interventions to improve quality of EOL care have had little impact on family member perceptions of quality of care or patient …

Perinatal Mood And Anxiety Disorders, Stigma, And Social Support Among Postpartum Women, Ellen K. Fleischman

Dissertations

Purpose/Aims: The purpose of this descriptive, correlational, cross-sectional study was to examine the relationships among perinatal mood and anxiety disorder (PMAD) symptomatology, select demographics, stigma of mental illness, and social support, among inpatient postpartum women. Rationale: PMADs affect as many as 21% of childbearing women, yet these disorders are identified and treated less than half the time. There is a gap in the literature regarding the relationships among stigma, social support, and PMADs in postpartum women.

Conceptual Basis/Background: Despite recommendations from professional organizations, screening for PMADs is not consistently completed using a valid, reliable instrument. Stigma contributes to the low …

The Lived Experience Of Discharged And Readmitted African Americans With Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease To A Safety-Net Hospital, Kiiyonna Jones

Dissertations

Background:Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is a debilitating respiratory disease that negatively affects the quality of life of those affected and has been a major contributor to the continuous rise in healthcare cost in the Unites States (Guarascio, Ray, Finch, & Self, 2013; National Heart Lung and Blood Institute, 2009; Shavelle, Paculdo, Kush, Mannino, & Straus, 2009; Scott, Smith, Sullivan, & Mahajan, 2001). In 2014, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) identified COPD as an applicable condition to the Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program, which penalizes healthcare organizations having readmissions higher than the national average. COPD is the second …

Patient Perception Of Fall Risk And High Fall Risk Screening Scores, Nicole D. Pena

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of the study was to describe the relationship between patient

perception of fall risk and high fall risk screening scores.

Background: Despite mandated government regulations and multiple hospital

interventions, falls are the most prevalent adverse event among hospitalized patients and

are the leading driver of health care costs, amounting to over $30 billion each year with

projections to double by 2030. Recently, perception was identified as a major component

in preventing falls. A dearth of research examines the relationship between a patient’s

perceived risk for falls and standardized fall screening scores.

Methods: A descriptive correlational design with …

Adult Postoperative Open-Heart Patients: Anemia And 30-Day Hospital Readmission, Lindsey Ryan

Dissertations

Background. In 2013 alone, more than 4% (3.9 million) of patients discharged from a hospital were readmitted. Anemia following a surgical procedure is associated with early hospital readmission.

Purpose/Aims. The following were specific aims of this dissertation:

• Aim 1. To develop an operational definition of the term condition-based maintenance as applied to health care and discuss the applicability and effectiveness of condition-based maintenance within health care.
• Aim 2. To identify the number of adult patients undergoing elective open-heart surgery with preoperative anemia.
• Aim 3. To examine the relationship between preoperative anemia, sociodemographics, and 30-day hospital readmission rates among postoperative open-heart …

Prenatal Care Education For Women Experiencing Unplanned Pregnancy, Sharon T. Heskitt

Dissertations

This project suggested that the Prenatal Care Education Module (PCEM), a series of three brief videos lasting a total of ten minutes, may be an effective way to educate women experiencing an unplanned pregnancy about the importance of prenatal care for themselves and their babies. To assess the effect of the PCEM, the Brief Pregnancy Perception Questionnaire (B-PPQ), a tool adapted from the Brief Illness Perception Questionnaire (B-IPQ) (Broadbent, Petrie, Main & Weinman, 2006) was employed. The B-PPQ assessed participants' health care needs, their understanding of pregnancy, their emotional response to pregnancy, and current contact with a prenatal health care …

Impact Of Managed Care On Health Care Delivery Practices As Perceived By Health Care Administrators And Practitioners, Mari F. Tietze

Dissertations

Managed care has had a significant impact on many components of the U.S. health care delivery system such as cost effectiveness, access to care, and quality of care. These changes have affected how administrators and practitioners perceive the impact of managed care on health care delivery practices. The problem of this study was to explore whether health care administrators and practitioners perceive the impact of managed care on health care delivery practices differently and to explore which organizational variables explain the difference. A descriptive, cross-sectional survey design was used for the target population of administrator and practitioner health care professionals …

The Relationship Of Leadership Patterns To Usage Patterns And Suitability Of Information Technology For Decision-Making Of Nursing And Non-Nursing Academic Administrators In Higher Education, Martha J. Morrow

Dissertations

This dissertation describes the relationship of leadership patterns to computer usage patterns and the suitability of information technology for decision making among academic administrators in higher education in the Nursing departments and Arts and Science Departments of universities in the United States and its provinces.

Discursive Leadership: Exploring The "Black Box" Challenge In Transcultural Leadership Studies, Christopher Patrick Brown

Dissertations

The increasingly globalized U.S. workforce includes significant numbers of adult immigrants integrating into the North American professional sphere. As such, it is important to have concrete ways to study and interpret different cultures’ thinking about teamwork, and their models of enacting shared leadership and communication in a multicultural context. Since 2006, hundreds of millions in federal grant funding has been invested in university-based language and culture programs focused on training government personnel and heritage populations in the languages and cultures of the Middle East and Central and Southeast Asia. Little is known about the performative strengths and challenges of the …

Truth Or Myth? Millennial Stereotypes, Self-Image, And Engagement In The Workplace, Stephanie Van Dellen

Dissertations

There are approximately 58 million Millennials working for corporations in the United States. Millennials generally born between the years 1980 to 1995 are said to have been shaped by events such as the invention of the Internet and cell phones. Given that Millennials make up a large percentage of the active workforce, it is important to understand the perceived stereotypes of Millennials and how these generalizations may impact their engagement and effectiveness at work.

This research aims to better understand how managers perceive Millennial employees, how Millennials self-identify with their generational stereotypes, and how they differ from other generations. The …

Exploring, Examining, And Explaining How Participatory Governance Adds Value To Saudi Foundations’ Philanthropic Strategy, Afnan E. Koshak

Dissertations

Foundations’ flexibility, given their independence from fundraising imperatives, competition forces, and accountability pressures, enables them to invest in long-term, high-risk, multi-level experiments to deal with the increasingly complex societal problems. This flexibility, coupled with the growing role philanthropy plays in promoting social welfare across the world, is arguably what makes studies that focus on foundations’ philanthropic approaches of utmost importance.

There is a mounting interest among scholars in the governance of foundations, the systems and processes concerned with ensuring the overall strategic direction of organizations. Influenced by agency and stewardship theories, an increasing number of studies address such topics as …

Food, Body Weight, And Health Among Adolescents In The Digital Age: An Explorative Study From A Health Promotion Perspectives, Christopher Bjorn Holmberg

Dissertations

The overall aim of this thesis was to explore adolescents' relationship with food, body weight, and health communication in online digital media, as well as how adolescents experience participating in a health promotion intervention regarding food and physical activity habits. Health promotion as a research area served three purposes: to inform the research questions, to direct the data collection, and to identify implications from the research findings. The four included studies explored how adolescents portray food in a widely used image-sharing application, why and how adolescents in treatment for obesity engaged with online health-related information, and how these adolescents experienced …

Early Outcomes From Mild Traumatic Brain Injury From Child And Proxy Perspectives, Pamela Pieper

Dissertations

Approximately 70-90% of traumatic brain injuries are mild, with a worldwide incidence greater than 600 per 100,000 people. Previous studies of health-related quality of life (HRQoL) after a mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) have not included child perspectives or children discharged from the Emergency Department.

This study evaluates, from perspectives of children and their proxies, whether children who have sustained an mTBI return to pre-injury levels of HRQoL by 1-month post-injury and whether their HRQoL is different from that of mild non-brain injured or uninjured children at either time point. It also compares child/proxy dyad ratings of the child's HRQoL.

Effectiveness Of Experiential Learning Strategies, Debra L. Fowler

Dissertations

The aim of this experimental study was to determine if Baccalaureate of Science in Nursing (BSN) students who complete a service learning (SL) assignment within a nursing course score significantly higher on the Nursing Professional Values Scale—Revised (NPVS-R) compared to an attention control group of BSN students in the same nursing course.

The Impact Of Instructional Technology On Lesson Effectiveness And Obstacles To Incorporating Technology Into Lesson Design As Perceived By Elementary School Teachers, Sarah Loring

Dissertations

Purpose. The purpose of this qualitative study was to identify and describe the impact of instructional technology on lesson effectiveness and obstacles to incorporating instructional technology into lesson design as perceived by elementary school teachers.

Methodology. A qualitative ethnographic method was used in this study. Triangulation was accomplished through the collection and analysis of direct interviews, and artifacts shared by educators and strengthened by information-rich data provided in direct observations.

Findings: Major finding of the study showed high student engagement with the use of technology, and unavailability of the internet/Chromebooks as a big obstacle to technology integration.

Conclusions: Based on …

Experienced Engagement In Appreciative Advising Of Adjunct Professors In Community College Education, Margaret Kenrick

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this explanatory sequential mixed-methods study was to identify what Appreciative Advising strategies were used by adjunct professors to engage community-college students when participating in Appreciative Advising. The study was also designed to describe the experiences of the adjunct professors as they implemented the strategies of Appreciative Advising with students. In addition, it was the purpose of this study to describe the benefits and challenges adjunct professors experienced when participating in Appreciative Advising. Finally, this study sought to describe the impact to teaching practices experienced by adjunct professors who participated in Appreciative Advising.

Methodology: This study used …

Mixed-Method Study Exploring International Students’ Career Readiness At A Four-Year Private University In The Midwest, Chloe Bonnand

Dissertations

This study explored international students’ career readiness in a four-year, private university in the Midwest. In order to measure career readiness, the researcher reviewed three factors: financial support, academic major, and country of origin. International students graduating in May 2018 received a survey from the researcher on career readiness. A total of 38 students completed the survey. The final question of the survey was an invitation to participate in an individual interview and/or a focus group. The qualitative data from the survey showed that financial support impacted international students’ career readiness. International students with financial support were more prepared to …

Increasing Patient Engagement In The Pre-Operative Patient Population, Toni Morris

Dissertations

The United States (U.S.) spends more revenue than any other industrialized nation on healthcare yet research indicates this does not equate to delivering the safest or most efficient quality patient care (Riehle & Hyrkas, 2012). Patients within the U.S. healthcare system have been the beneficiaries of cumbersome processes riddled with redundancy, waste, and discordant care (Institute of Medicine [IOM], 2001). Because of this data, healthcare reform to improve the quality and efficiency of patient care delivery has been the topic of debate over the past several decades, on both a national and global scale. Several organizations, coalitions, and groups have …

Early Identification And Intervention In Patients With Atrial Fibrillation Using An Implantable Cardiac Monitor To Significantly Improve Guideline-Based Anticoagulation Therapy In An Outpatient Cardiology Clinic, Lisa Alvarez

Dissertations

The purpose of this research was to (a) examine the demographics of patients receiving care in an outpatient cardiology clinic, (b) describe the relationship between the atrial fibrillation (AF) and other variables (e.g., BMI), (c) examine the frequency and the length of time to AF diagnosis in patients implanted with an implantable cardiac monitoring (ICM) device, (d) observe provider patterns of treatment with oral anticoagulants (OACs), and (e) investigate documented considerations to either diagnose or rule out OSA in a group of outpatient AF patients in a cardiology clinic.

Background: AF is largely undiagnosed but can cause major morbidity and …

Interprofessional Healthcare Provider Education On Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome, Mary Puchalski

Dissertations

The rapidly increasing incidence of Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome (NAS) in the U.S. has been identified as a national healthcare crisis. An evidence-based practice change project, ";Interprofessional Healthcare Provider Education on NAS"; (IHPEN) was designed to implement a protocol to increase consistency in treatment for infants with NAS and provision of healthcare provider education to increase knowledge regarding NAS, as well as sensitivity to the signs and symptoms of withdrawal. The target population included all healthcare providers in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit and Mother/Baby Unit of a large, urban, not-for-profit perinatal center. The project was developed in response to a …

Influences Of Nutritional Food Label Understanding On African American Women With Obesity, Cynthia Jean Hickman

Dissertations

Nutritional food label understanding (NFLU) in African American Women (AAW) is a philosophy that addresses obesity. Public health efforts have implemented nutritional and caloric information to packaged and restaurant foods to improve nutrient and calorie literacy. Research suggest NFLU might have a minimal effect on reducing obesity. However, it is not known how obese AAW born during the baby-boom era (51 to 64 years of age) perceive NFLU in relation to their dietary behaviors. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to understand the lived experience of obese AAW regarding NFLU from a cognitive and behavioral perspective.

Utilization Of Care Coordination Among Children With Special Needs In The 1994 National Health Interview Survey On Disability Phase Ii, Barbara J. Kruger

Dissertations

Care coordination helps families of children with special needs obtain a variety of services and manage communication among providers. Some families coordinate care themselves, while others receive assistance from professionals. Health care system changes are making these children less visible, and therefore at-risk for not receiving care coordination. A key question is how to identify families who need care coordination. Research about use of care coordination is sparse, and no generalizable method exists to identify which families require coordination. One aim of our study was to explore the differences among child and family factors and the use and need for …

Experiences Of Homeless Vietnam Veterans In Deciding To Access Or Not Access Health Care, Susan K. Lee

Dissertations

Homeless Vietnam Veterans (HVV) report their health status as poor, indicating a multitude of health concerns, including physical and psychological problems, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and alcohol or drug dependencies. Prompt attention to health care may improve the prognosis; however, HVV tend to delay seeking medical attention. The purpose of this study was to explore the process utilized by HVV to make the decision to access or to not access health care services. According to inclusion criteria of the study, all participants served in the US military during the Vietnam War.

The Meaning Of Health Among Midlife Russian-Speaking Women In The United States, Lenore K. Resick

Dissertations

This study sought to explore the meaning of health among midlife Russian-speaking women from the Former Soviet Union. A hermeneutic, phenomenologic, descriptive and interpretive design following the Utrecht School was used.

The Effects Of The Mother's Appraisal Of Her Employment Status On The Preterm Infant's Development At 3 Months, Joanne M. Youngblut

Dissertations

The issue of whether maternal employment has negative consequences for the child has been frequently studied, although with conflicting results. Only one study has been reported that examined the effects of maternal employment on preterm infants. With more mothers of children under 1 year of age in the labor force and with improvements in preterm infant care, it is important to examine the effects of maternal employment for this group. In addition, with the mixed results obtained in previous studies, it is important to explicate the process by which these effects might occur.