Digital Commons Network^™

We Eat, We Live, We Repeat: Reimagining Food Heritage Through Foodways And Sustainable Food Practices, Caitlin L. Crain, Amy L. Roznos, Britt L. Tate Beaugard, Darius L. Williams

Dissertations

The purpose of this co-authored, mixed methods descriptive research study was to examine how the intersection of foodways and sustainable food practices helps define the food heritages of St. Louis area residents. While prior research examines these concepts separately, and even shows connections with other factors such as health and discrimination, none look at all of these concepts together—a gap this research fills. To that end, this dissertation describes the intersection of cultural foodways and connection to sustainability in seeking a definition of food heritage and a path towards sustainable food heritage for St. Louis residents. Purposeful sampling using the …

Parent Distress, Parent-Child Interactions, Child Distress And Child Cooperation During Cancer Treatment-Related Port Starts: A Caring Perspective, Jinbing Bai

Dissertations

Children reported more suffering from cancer treatment-related painful procedures than cancer itself. Appropriate parent interaction behaviors can help children cope with these painful procedures. Swanson's Theory of Caring provides a framework to formulate parent interaction behaviors. This dissertation consisted of three separate papers to investigate parent-child interactions during cancer treatment-related port starts.

Maternal Confidence Of First-Time Mothers During Their Child's Infancy, Kendra Russell

Dissertations

Motherhood is a rewarding, but challenging experience. Mothers are expected to balance parenting with multiple roles including employment. How mothers adjust is influenced by their confidence in their role, their mental health, the social support from their partner, family, and friends, and their perceptions of their infants (Mercer, 1995). Maternal confidence has been identified in the literature as an essential variable in the adaptation to motherhood and to the maternal role (Mercer, 1986; Walker, Crain, & Thompson, 1986). Low maternal confidence delays the transitioning into the maternal role/identity as well as limits the satisfaction in the mothering role (Mercer, 1986). …

Media Narrative Competition Between The U.S. And China During Covid-19, Zhenzhu Zhang

Dissertations

This study examines the narratives that were presented in Chinese and American media by using Dr. Li Wenliang (one of the first people who tried to raise the alarm about the outbreak of COVID-19), and the COVID-19 origin controversy as case studies to understand how these news stories conflicted and which tellings became dominant. The way these two cases have been depicted in the media has changed over time. Understanding how that depiction changed is important because it helps demonstrate how narratives function to frame crises. The current study uses narrative, and framing theories to support thematic analysis of news …

Provider Education And Routine Implementation Of The Scoff Questionnaire On The Detection Of Eating Disorders At The Primary Care Level: A Program Development Project, Emily Archer

Dissertations

The detection of eating disorders has been cited as a challenge at the primary care level. Literature has shown both a lack in provider knowledge on eating disorders, as well as the routine use of a single, all-inclusive tool to identify distorted eating behaviors and habits in the primary care setting. Early detection of eating disorders is vital as they are associated with long-term and potentially fatal ramifications.

The Culture Care Meaning Of Comfort For Ethnically Diverse Pre-Licensure Baccalaureate Nursing Students In The Educational Setting, Lynne K. Zajac

Dissertations

The nursing profession is calling for enhanced diversity within the ranks of registered nurses to meet the health care needs of an increasingly diverse society. Nursing education is faced with the challenge of retaining ethnically diverse nursing students. Students who are ethnically diverse face unique challenges in addition to the universal stressors of nursing school. The experience of comfort as theorized by Kolcaba may provide ease, relief, and transcendence of the discomfort experienced by diverse nursing students. This ethnonursing research study utilizing Leininger's Culture Care Theory is an in-depth examination of the culture care meaning of comfort for ethnically diverse …

An Exploration Of Factors That Impact Role Strain Among Undergraduate Clinical Instructors Teaching In Wisconsin Nursing Programs, Julie A. Astrella

Dissertations

The United States is in the midst of a nursing faculty shortage, particularly those that provide clinical instruction. Clinical instructors play an integral role in undergraduate nursing education by bridging the gap between theoretical knowledge and nursing practice; this position is also the most difficult to recruit for and retain. The factors negatively impacting faculty retention are complex, but research finds that role strain is a prominent reason for job dissatisfaction and a contributor to faculty attrition.

Compassion Satisfaction And Compassion Fatigue Among Pediatric Nurses And The Impact On Patient Satisfaction, Maribeth Thornton

Dissertations

Compassion fatigue and compassion satisfaction are two inter-related concepts. Individuals in helping professions may occasionally face compassion fatigue from giving so much of themselves to others. Compassion fatigue has been studied in a variety of settings: medical, social work, nursing, law enforcement, and fire departments, to name a few. While some researchers have studied nurses, little published work has focused exclusively on nurses who care for specialty pediatric populations. Additionally, there is scant research on whether compassion satisfaction and compassion fatigue are associated with patient satisfaction. The purpose of this study was to determine the level of compassion satisfaction and …

Masculinity, Health Beliefs And Implications For Health Policy Among Men In Trinidad And Tobago, Oscar N. Ocho

Dissertations

Over the last three decades, men's health has emerged as an area of research interest. The relationship between male socialization, the performance of masculinity and health behaviour has been well established. Within the Caribbean, however, there is a gap in the literature on how masculinity affects health beliefs and behaviour.

This study explored men's accounts of "doing" masculinity and the implications for health beliefs and behaviours in order to make recommendations for developing male sensitive health services.

Resilience And Health Of Older Women Who Have Experience Intimate Partner Violence Earlier In Life, Tenna R. Schumacher

Dissertations

When a traumatic event such as intimate partner violence occurs, resilience can help define recovery from that event. Women who experience the adverse event of intimate partner violence suffer injury, loss of physical and mental health, and possible death. Specifically, numerous women suffer injury and adverse health as a result of experiencing intimate partner violence (Krug, Mercy, Dahlberg, & Zwi, 2002). The internal quality of resilience is what allows a person to mend or heal from trauma (Wagnild, 2009). Resilience is demonstrated by hardiness of spirit and a person's ability to return to their lifestyle (Atkinson, Martin, & Rankin, 2009; …

Use Of Early Specialty Hesi Exams As Predictors Of Hesi Exit Examination Performance In Baccalaureate Degree Nursing Program, Cathy E. Hansen

Dissertations

This study explored standardized testing outcomes used early in a baccalaureate nursing (BSN) education program in traditional and second-degree students in order to identify predictors of outcome on the program exit examination (HESI E²). Defining early predictors of student outcomes may more accurately identify student need for early intervention, offer timely remediation, optimize success, and minimize attrition in nursing education programs. The purpose of this correlational quantitative study was to determine if a relationship exists between student outcomes on four HESI specialty exams (fundamentals, health assessment, pathophysiology, and pharmacology) and the performance outcomes on the HESI E^{2 …}

Programming Maintenance For The Mystery Student Intervention, Sarah Litten

Dissertations

The current study evaluated the effects of the Mystery Student Intervention (MSI) in university and community-based preschool settings on the appropriate and disruptive behaviors in the classroom utilizing a randomized independent group contingency. This study extended the literature base of the MSI, which was previously conducted in Head Start classrooms by Pasqua (2019), and Pasqua and colleagues (2021) which determined the MSI to be effective at reducing disruptive behaviors in the classroom setting. A nonconcurrent multiple baseline design across three classrooms was used. This study also sought to further extend the literature by evaluating programmed maintenance using a partial sequential …

Exploring Educational Issues: International Nursing Students Enrolled In Professional Nursing Programs In South Texas And Their Perceptions Of Educational Barriers, Wanda R. Sparks

Dissertations

This qualitative study explores educational challenges as manifested in the experiences of the English language learner (ELL) nursing students enrolled in a professional nursing program in San Antonio, Texas. Eleven participants were interviewed for this study using 7 open-ended questions. The research methodology applied in this study was interpretive, guided by phenomenology with the lived experiences of the ELL nursing students being the focus of the analysis.

Discourse analysis and thematic analysis revealed the following themes: (a) student study habits, (b) student distress, (c) student support system, and (d) student learning tasks. Each theme is discussed in depth and supported …

Personal Digital Assistants: Their Influence On Clinical Decision-Making And The Utilization Of Evidence-Based Practice In A Baccalaureate Nursing Students, Carol S. Gorelick

Dissertations

During the last decade, the advent of the personal digital assistant (PDA) and the development of clinical software specific to nursing practice have changed the way that many nurses manage information and workload. More recently, PDAs have become a standard tool in undergraduate nursing education. Though there is substantial discussion in the literature on PDA technology, the emphasis there has been descriptive and anecdotal. Since 2002, nurse authors have reported that PDA use has reduced medication errors and streamlined data gathering. This has lead to speculation that use of the PDA is a clinical tool that supports evidence-based practice and …

Clinical Nurse Faculty And The Lived Experience Of Clinical Grading, Bernadette Amicucci

Dissertations

Clinical grading is one approach to assure that future nurses have the knowledge and skills to provide safe patient care. The phenomenon being explored for this study was the experience of clinical grading for clinical nurse faculty. Through the use of a qualitative phenomenological method, the lived experience of grading nursing student clinical performance for experienced clinical nurse faculty in pre-licensure programs is described. Eleven full-time nursing faculty were recruited using a purposive technique to obtain a convenience sample. Each participant first underwent an initial in-depth personal interview followed by a brief follow-up interview a few weeks later. The van …

Learning Transfer Evidence In Baccalaureate Senior Nursing Students Using A Disaster Emergency Preparedness Tabletop Exercise, Cathleen A. Evans

Dissertations

Little is known about learning transfer in senior baccalaureate nursing students, therefore, the primary purpose of this research was to describe senior nursing students' learning transfer evidence for basic disaster and medical-surgical nursing concepts during a tabletop exercise, an academic strategy used in disaster preparedness education. A second purpose was to document participants' attitudes regarding the tabletop exercise. The organizing framework for this descriptive quantitative research was Perkins and Salomon's Learning Transfer. Learning transfer is content, context, and time bound from the original learning circumstance.

The research questions were 1. What is the relationship between Disaster Knowledge and Tabletop-Matrix scores …

Patient Portal Use And Patient Education Materials Access Among Mississippi Adult Residents, Anna K. Swann

Dissertations

Patient education plays a vital role in improving the health outcomes of patients with chronic diseases and helps prevent illness in otherwise healthy individuals. Patient portals allow patients to access their EHRs, communicate with their healthcare providers, and access patient education materials. Despite the potential for patient portals and education materials to improve health outcomes, many barriers prevent patients from utilizing them. Uneducated patients are more likely to participate in risky health behaviors, which leads to poor health outcomes. Poor health outcomes lead to higher medical costs. Mississippi has a high rate of chronic diseases. Suppose the barriers to patient …

Examining Digital Proficiency Perceptions And Differences In Achievement During The Covid-19 Pandemic In A Rural Mid-Western High School, Tiffany Rae James Young

Dissertations

In response to the Covid-19 Pandemic, schools worldwide were forced to react quickly to meet the needs of all students in an unprecedented time of change for all facets of society. Through a mixed-method approach, this study aimed to explore the effect of hybrid learning on student achievement, as well as the effect, if any, of teachers’ perceptions of their own digital abilities on student achievement. The research also examined the thoughts of students and teachers as it pertained to teaching and learning during the global pandemic. To analyze the effect of hybrid learning on student achievement, the researcher compared …

Impact Of School-Based Mentorship Programs For Students With Disabilities, Ranita Brown

Dissertations

Mentorship in secondary schools can affect the course of students’ academic and personal life trajectories. Human association based on trust is the paste that connects students’ academic and individual lives and helps them sort out their fates. The purpose of my study was to determine how strong mentoring relationships between adults and children at risk for social and academic failure have been associated with improvements in academic performance, school attendance, and self-image. My study explored the efficacy of the development and implementation of one specific school-based mentoring program for students with disabilities. Through this study, I endeavored to demonstrate the …

Using A Design Thinking Approach In Human Resource Practices In North America, Corinne Diane Eswar

Dissertations

Global forces have changed the landscape of the today’s global economy, with such disruptive forces reshaping the workplace, the workforce, and the work itself. Human Resource (HR) functions are no exception to these changes. HR departments must simplify their processes, build a culture of collaboration, help employees manage the flood of information at work, manage complexity, and encourage innovation and creativity. The concept of design thinking has been adopted widely across multiple disciplines and industries as a tool for innovation, however it has yet to be a major influence in the Human Resources field.

This research explored the use of …

Stressors And Coping Of Mexican American College Undergraduates, Jeanette Calvario Perales

Dissertations

Empirical literature indicates that current mental health practices with Mexican American college students are lacking. Mexican American undergraduates have unique challenges that need to be addressed by counselors within the university context and in community settings. This study addressed the dearth of empirical literature on stressors and coping strategies by exploring the experiences of Mexican American students at a predominately White institution (PWI) in the Midwest region of the United States. Through grounded theory, a theory was generated from multiple in-depth interviews using a comparative analysis process to enhance understanding of how Mexican American college undergraduates at PWIs cope with …

Oncolytic Tanapoxvirus Variants Expressing Mil-2 And Mccl-2 Regress Human Pancreatic Cancer Xenografts In Immunocompromised And Immunocompetent Cann.Cg-Foxn1Nu/Crl Nude Mice, Scott David Haller

Dissertations

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is the fifth leading cause of cancer-related death in Western countries. The incidence of PDAC has increased over the last 40 years and is projected to be the second leading cause of cancer death by 2030. Despite aggressive treatment regimens, prognosis for patients diagnosed with PDAC is very poor; PDAC has the lowest 5-year survival rate for any form of cancer in the United States (US). PDAC cases are rarely detected in early stage when surgical resection can be performed and few, approximately 20%, are suitable for surgical resection which remains the only curative treatment when …

From Young To Old: The Effects Of Sedentary-Aging And Exercise Interventions On Structural Plasticity Of Lumbar Motor Neurons, Nmj, And Glial Cell Line-Derived Neurotrophic Factor Expression, Alberto Felipe Cintron-Colon

Dissertations

Neuromuscular weakness has been associated with age progression. A possible reason is a disconnection between muscle and neuron, causing components from both the central and peripheral nervous systems to deteriorate. Exercise, however, has beneficial effects for both muscle and nervous tissue, inducing neuroprotection. Neurotrophic factors are powerful regulators of neuronal maintenance and synaptic strength. Glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF) is a neurotrophic factor that has been shown to be a potent survival factor for somatic motor neurons that innervate skeletal muscle.

This study aims to evaluate changes in structural plasticity of motor neurons in the lumbar spinal cord and …

Development Of Flexible Hybrid Electronics For Sterilization And Structural Health Monitoring Applications, Arnesh Kumar Bose

Dissertations

No abstract provided.

The Influence Of Demographic, Social, And Economic Factors On Referral For Heart Failure Services, Catherine Elaine Kelty

Dissertations

Patients with end-stage advanced heart failure must go through an extensive evaluation process before being selected for either heart transplantation or left ventricular assist device (LVAD). This evaluation not only assesses a patient’s medical need for advanced heart failure treatments but also includes an assessment of psychosocial and economic factors that may affect a patient’s success post-treatment. While it is important to allocate scarce resources, such as donated organs, to the patients who will benefit the most, there is also a need for equity in the allocation of and access to healthcare services. This raises the question of whether patients …

The Experiences Of Undergraduate Saudi Students In The Stem Trajectory: A Closer Look At Major Choice And Persistence Intentions, Manal Almalki

Dissertations

STEM fields (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) are a key source of economic progress in many countries. As the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia works toward an innovative and knowledgeable economy, more qualified national professionals in STEM are needed. Nevertheless, the problem of STEM attrition is still insufficiently explored in Saudi Arabia, which may indicate a gap between skills of the Saudi workforce and the country’s need for economic development. Therefore, this study attempts to provide more information about the STEM trajectory in Saudi Arabia, underline possible attrition points that require more attention, deliver a better understanding of the factors that …

Exploring The Development Process Of Innovative Graduate Programs For Adult Learners At A U.S. Midwestern Public University, Ibrahim Rustamov

Dissertations

This case study explores the development process of two innovative graduate programs designed to serve the needs of adult learners for programs at a U.S. Midwestern public university. This case study also explores how leaders addressed issues of allocating funding and other resources, contributed to improved processes, and addressed the problem of resistance to change during and after the development and implementation of such programs. Additionally, it also examines how they plan to support further development of graduate programs that integrate specific innovative and alternative approaches such as prior learning assessments and/or competency-based education.

For this study, I used a …

Utility Of The Motivation To Change Lifestyle And Health Behaviors For Dementia Risk Reduction Scale (Mclhb-Drr) Based On A North American Sample, Angelina E. Witbeck

Dissertations

As the population ages, the prevalence rates of dementia continue to increase. Without a cure or promising treatment for dementia, the best course of lowering the prevalence rates of dementia is through preventative measures. Through an electronic survey, the study utilized the MCLHB-DRR scale to determine whether (1) gender, age, educational background, and socioeconomic status will impact the motivational factors to change lifestyle and health behaviors to reduce the risk of developing dementia and (2) direct experiences with individuals that have a dementia diagnosis are likely to impact one's motivational factors to change lifestyle and health behaviors to reduce the …

Preexisting Sexual Trauma And The Impacts On Psychological Well-Being Of College Students, Victoria Johnson

Dissertations

Childhood sexual abuse appears to be a taboo topic with a long history of being left out of the discussion regarding mental health in adulthood despite the varied and devastating consequences. The overall lack of research on this topic, especially regarding the college student population, can be considered a barrier to treatment for those individuals. The current literature review attempts to fill the research gap by discussing the epidemiology, prevalence, and description of preexisting sexual trauma in college students. The potential negative effects of preexisting sexual trauma and how they occur with college students were explored to highlight how pervasive …

Teacher Perceptions Of Gender Differences In An Elementary Pbis System, Meggan Buchanan

Dissertations

This research project examined teacher perceptions of gender differences in an elementary Positive Behavior Intervention and Supports (PBIS) System. The purpose of the project was to understand why male students were referred to the office at a higher rate than female students. The research was conducted through a staff survey and disaggregating seven years of Office Discipline Referral (ODR) data through School-wide Information System (SWIS). The critical issues explored are the number of referrals, the types of referrals received, and teachers' perception of gender differences in the PBIS system. It is my hope that this research will help provide the …