Digital Commons Network^™

Describing Nursing Effectiveness Through Standardized Nursing Languages And Computerized Clinical Data, Cindy Ann Scherb

Dissertations

The purpose of this descriptive exploratory study was to analyze patient data from a computerized clinical documentation system using the standardized languages of the North American Nursing Diagnosis Association, the Nursing Interventions Classification, and the Nursing Outcomes Classification. This study investigated the relationships between nursing diagnoses, interventions, and outcomes for the patient populations of Pneumonia, Congestive Heart Failure (CHF), and Total Joint Replacement (TJR).

Distributive Justice And Social Policy: A Case Study, Susan Swider

Dissertations

This research focused on explicating the conceptions of just distribution of resources underlying one example of health policy. The policy used as a case study was federal funding of home health care under Medicare, during the period 1965-1984. The data consisted of the public records of debate on federal policy for home health care during this period.

Europe Rising (Again): A Comparative Study Of The Dynamics And Types Of Modern European Nationalisms, 1989-2018, Timea Varga

Dissertations

Nationalism is nothing new to Europe. While theoretical explanations of the catalysts of post-1989 European nationalist phenomena remain contested along material and non-material lines, this dissertation posits that it is the interaction of economic insecurities, societal fears, and populism over time that have shaped the rise and types of post-1989 European nationalisms. Fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) is combined with a collective case study design to examine: 1) how forces – political, economic, societal, or other – have dominated the formation and latest surge of European nationalisms since the end of European Communism in 1989; and 2) whether different, context-dependent …

Influence Of Career Services On Time To Undergraduate Degree Completion, Courtney Taylor

Dissertations

A national concern exists surrounding the value and quality of American higher education, as well as the extended time required to complete an undergraduate degree. Extending the time-to-degree completion costs students in tuition, room, board, and most importantly, missed career opportunities. More than 60% of students fail to graduate within four years, delaying entry to the labor market and increasing costs associated with a college degree (Bound, Lovenheim, & Turner, 2012; National Center for Education Statistics, 2017).

Numerous studies highlight college student persistence and retention efforts (Goodman, Hurwitz, & Smith, 2017; Hull-Blanks et al., 2005; Tinto, 1987, 2017), a few …

Settling In: The Consequences Of Legal Origins And Institutional Variety For Immigrant Labor Market Integration In Oecd Countries, Jennifer Kuklenski

Dissertations

Drawing upon theories of institutional variety, this research seeks to determine whether or not immigrant labor market outcomes are better in countries with 1) liberal market economies and deregulated labor markets; and 2) countries with supply-driven immigration systems. Non-parametric Kolmogorov-Smirnov and Mann-Whitney U tests are combined with parametric time series, GLS regression analysis of panel data to estimate the impact and significance of legal origins (common versus civil law systems) and merit-based immigration policy on 1) labor market participation; 2) unemployment; and 3) employment by educational attainment in 28 OECD countries between the years 2001-2016. The analysis controls for other …

Students Of Size: An Exploratory Case Study On A Hidden Climate, Braelin Pantel

Dissertations

Colleges and universities often espouse values related to equity and inclusion for diverse students (Harper & antonio, 2008; Torres, Arminio, & Pope, 2012;). Student affairs practitioners are frequently responsible for working towards inclusive environments (American College Personnel Association (ACPA), & National Association of Student Personnel Administrators (NASPA), 2015). An estimated 31% of college and university students are classified as overweight or obese (American College Health Association, 2007), yet body weight or size is rarely a consideration in work related to student equity and inclusion on campus. Limited research exists on the experiences of students of size in college and university …

Specialty Certification In Nursing: The Influence Of Nursing Faculty On Pre-Licensure Students, Christina N. George

Dissertations

The seminal publication To Err is Human focused on designing healthcare processes to ensure safe patient outcomes (IOM, 2000). That report identified board certification of health professionals as one way to improve patient care quality and safety (IOM, 2000). Current discussions within the nursing profession regarding professional development have recognized value in specialty certification post-licensure, but the research on the perceived value of specialty certification has been limited among nurse educators. This study utilized the Perceived Value of Certification Tool (PVCT) to examine whether nursing faculty perceive value in certification and whether that perception is shared in the educational setting. …

Seductive Details In Educational Materials: Exploring Attention Distraction Using Eye-Tracking, Matthew A. Swaffer

Dissertations

Current advances in technology allow for a great deal of learning intervention materials to be designed by teachers. An active body of research is being conducted on how information is processed from these materials which are often created using electronic media. The design of these materials often includes interesting but irrelevant details which may detract from learning. These are termed “seductive details” and the impact of these inclusions in learning materials is not yet fully understood. Developing a better understanding of what factors play a role in the damaging effects of seductive details can help in the design of learning …

Sexual Coercion: The Role Of Communication And Heteronormative Beliefs, Brianna Lindley Forbis

Dissertations

Sexual assault is a pervasive issue on college campuses, with large numbers of students experiencing sexual assault during their college careers (Fisher, Cullen, & Turner, 2000). Sexual assault is often perpetrated by a known offender, which has brought increased attention to forms of sexual assault that do not necessarily include violence or the direct threat of violence. Sexual coercion is one such construct that has received increased attention in the literature, with several studies finding associations between heteronormative beliefs and sexual coercion (Eaton & Matamala 2014; Haworth- Hoeppner, 1998; Vanwesenbeek, 1998). Aims of the current study included further exploring the …

Evaluation Of Data Collection Operations For Real-Time Influenza Surveillance During An Emergency, Yuwen Gu

Dissertations

It is unclear how data collection operations for surveillance alter the disease portrayal that influenza reported trends attempt to provide during an emergency. This study developed a model that simulates the collection and testing of influenza specimens after an outbreak is declared in Michigan. It performed simulation based optimization to understand which operational factors affect the biases between the growth rates of original and observed influenza incidence trends, and to quantify the predictive power of the influenza incidence trends at different points of data collection. The results show that emergency driven high risk perception increases the reporting, which leads to …

Deliberation For Devolution In The Public Sphere: A Case Study From Pakistan, Beenish Kulsoom

Dissertations

Genuine democratic deliberation on design of institutional rules is possible only when the state apparatus and political and civil society are engaged in communicative interexchange, exchanging ideas, and speaking in a language understood and accepted by all others. Moreover, in such an exchange the interlocutors do not hold back their thoughts to achieve strategic control in order to subvert the communicative engagement. The deliberative theory of democracy advocates communicative engagement between state and society actors that results in institutional rules that are accepted by all.

The advocates of the theory of deliberative democracy argue that while the state is the …

Design Of Instructional Modeling Language For Learning Objects And Learning Objects’ Repositories, Altaf Siddiqui

Dissertations

The advancement of technology has provided tools to write instruction in every discipline. However, the concepts of automation in the field of instruction is still not used. Teachers around the globe spend countless hours in editing lengthy texts in creating syllabi and reusable components, which are the Learning Objects (LOs). The software developers also experience time-consuming process to decipher the concepts of instruction before it is written. LOs provide a potential mechanism for the educators and software developers to refine curriculum development that uses common components such as exams or syllabi. While the concept of LOs came from software engineering, …

Sexual Assault Adjudication On Campus: Examining The Underlying Discourses Of Title Ix, Colleen Sonnentag

Dissertations

It is estimated that 20% of college women have been victims of sexual assault (Krebs, Lindquist, Warner, Fisher, & Martin, 2009), an alarming rate that drew the attention of the Obama-Biden Administration. During their time in office (January 20, 2009-January 20, 2017), the Administration bolstered institutional requirements to address sexual assault in higher education under Title IX (U.S. Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights, 2011). Even though addressing campus sexual assault was a stated priority of the (seemingly progressive) Obama-Biden Administration, there was a lack of representation among students with marginalized identities reflected in the national media conversation at …

Use Of Mindfulness To Treat Mental Health Symptoms Of Individuals Subjected To Human Sex Trafficking And Prostitution, Amanda Mccaw

Dissertations

Human sex trafficking and prostitution is a global phenomenon that has been occurring for centuries. Millions of people are subjected to the cruelties that occur within sex trafficking and prostitution. The distinction between sex trafficking and prostitution is minute. Large economic profits serve as an incentive to sustain the sex work industry, despite the harm it causes to the people that are employed as sex workers. Numerous mental health problems can arise for individuals subjected to sex trafficking and prostitution including posttraumatic stress disorder, depression, dissociation, terror, anxiety, guilt, anger, and substance abuse (Dalla, 2002; Farley, Baral, Kiremire, & Sezgin, …

Examining The Effects Of Cell Phone Use On Caregiver Supervision And Child Injury Risk, Mckenna Corlis

Dissertations

Unintentional injuries are the leading killer of children in the United States. Research indicates caregiver supervision decreases child injury risk, but has not examined how different distractions may affect this relation. Specifically, research has not considered if and how caregiver cell phone use affects child injury risk. Given the prevalence and distracting effects of cell phones noted in previous studies, it is imperative to examine how caregiver cell phone use and child injury risk relate.

The present study examined how distractions influenced caregivers’ ability to tend to their child and their child’s engagement in risky behavior. Using a within-subjects design, …

“We’Re Going To Be Figuring It Out Forever”: Testimonios Of Brown Women And Their Experiences Self-Authoring Their Brownness In Graduate School, Reyna Monique Anaya

Dissertations

Race, a socially constructed idea designed to maintain the power and privilege of Whiteness and the colonial and economic exploitation of Black/Brown-identified people in the United States (Quiros & Araujo Dawson, 2013), has a direct impact on the ethnic identity development and self-authorship of Brown people (i.e., Latina/os, Chicana/os, Hispanics, etc.). This inquiry uncovers the testimonios of five Brown women participants and their continued ethnic identity and self-authorship development as first-generation students in graduate school. From a critical, cultural, constructivist lens and blend of testimonio (Reyes & Curry Rodriguez, 2012) and collage inquiry (Butler-Kisber, 2007), this research applied a borderlands/Mestiza …

The Effects Of Pitch Singing Training On Recognizing And Enunciating Chinese Tones, Danqing Zhou

Dissertations

It is a challenge for non-tonal language speakers to enunciate the four Chinese tones accurately. In the present study, I examined whether musical training benefits tonal language learning, evaluated whether the pitch singing training influence recognizing and enunciating the four Chinese tones, and compared the effects of a pitch singing training method with the traditional audio-lingual method. The participants, 60 American college students who had not taken a Chinese course and who did not speak and write Chinese, were recruited in this study. The participants were divided evenly and randomly into two groups: the pitch singing training group and the …

An Inquiry Into The Internationally Minded Curriculum, Matthew Justin Thompson

Dissertations

This qualitative curriculum study was an inquiry into the development, application, and assessment of a curriculum for international mindedness in an International Baccalaureate Primary Years Programme school. The participants included one teacher and 11 students. The influence of teacher beliefs, intentions, and actions regarding international mindedness; student perceptions of the curricular activities; and possible implications for international mindedness in U.S. schools in general were of particular interest to this study. I used Eisner’s (1994b) educational connoisseurship and criticism methodology and two additional frameworks: Eisner’s (1988) ecology of schooling and Uhrmacher, McConnell Moroye, and Flinders’ (2017) instructional arc to explore planning …

Experiences Of Secondary Social Studies Educators: The Redheaded Stepchildren Of Education, Rebecca N. Reed

Dissertations

The purpose of this multi-case phenomenological study is to understand the unique experiences of secondary social studies teachers. The number of participants was bound to six secondary social studies teachers from a public school district in a mid-Atlantic state and the experience of the researcher. Data was gathered through in-depth interviews using Seidman’s (2006) Three Step Interview Series and individual profiles were written. The phenomenological data analysis was guided by several methods including Hycner (1985), Moustakas (1994), and Seidman (2006). From the participants’ experiences several themes emerged: similarities in personal learning habits, a dislike for mandatory assessments and curriculum, and …

Providing Orientation And Mobility Support Via In-Person And Teleintervention Home Visits For Children With Visual Impairment In Early Intervention, Hong Bich Phangia Dewald

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to show that teleintervention can be used to provide early intervention (EI) services, specifically orientation and mobility (O&M) support services, to very young children and their families in the sensory impairment field of blindness and visual impairment (BVI). Teleintervention has been shown to be an effective method of providing EI services to very young children and their families in the sensory impairment field of deaf and hard of hearing (DHH). However, there are no previous empirical studies that address the use of teleintervention in providing any specialized instruction/services to young children with BVI and …

Social Justice And Inclusion As Competency: A Content Analysis Of Syllabi In Student Affairs Master’S Programs, Karla Iveliz Perez-Velez

Dissertations

This dissertation seeks to explore and discovers how the social justice and inclusion competency set forth by American College Personnel Association (ACPA) and National Association of Student Personnel Administrators (NASPA) in 2015 is achieved in student affairs master’s programs. The idea of an individual being able to achieve competency in social justice and inclusion is problematized. A competency-based approach sets up social justice and inclusion as an attainable skill set instead of an ongoing and lifelong approach of challenge injustice with and for minoritized communities. The literature review provides an overview of the development of student affairs. The overview of …

A Comparison Of The Effects Of Sustained Silent Reading And Reciprocal Reading On Reading Motivation For Middle School Students With Reading Delays, Margaret Uwayo

Dissertations

Research suggests that secondary students with reading delays may lack reading motivation, which can be defined as the temporal reinforcement value of texts for an individual. However, reading motivation may be a critical component of their acquisition of reading proficiency. The purpose of the current study was to compare the effects of two research-based reading interventions - sustained silent reading and modified reciprocal reading - on the reading motivation of middle school students with reading delays. Participants were four 6th-grade students who were grouped into dyads in a reading intervention classroom. The primary dependent variable was book engagement under pairing …

Effect Of Mindfulness On Gratitude And Psychological Wellbeing, David Schultz

Dissertations

Gratitude is a unique emotion characterized by the propensity to be thankful and appreciative for the positive aspects of one’s life as it stands in the present moment. It has been associated with higher levels of perceived belongingness and perceived social support, as well as psychological wellbeing. Similarly, mindfulness refers to nonjudgmental awareness and acceptance of the reality of the present moment. Mindfulness has also been shown to increase one’s connectivity and sense of cohesion with others. The present study examined whether increasing mindfulness in individuals yielded increased gratitude as well as the mediating effect of gratitude on the relation …

Overparenting And Young Adult Narcissism: Psychological Control And Interpersonal Dependency As Mediators, Nathan Alexander Winner

Dissertations

Overparenting, or “helicopter parenting,” is a unique style of parenting characterized by parents’ well-intentioned but age-inappropriate over-involvement and intrusiveness in their children’s lives. Recent research has linked overparenting to the development of narcissistic traits in young adults, although the mechanisms of this relationship remain unclear. Two plausible mechanisms include the parenting behavior of psychological control and the increased interpersonal dependency of the child. Psychological control is a construct that overlaps with overparenting and has been linked to both dependent and narcissistic traits. Similarly, interpersonal dependency is a key predictor of narcissistic traits. Therefore, the present study sought to examine psychological …

The Relationship Between Frequency Of Yoga And Meditation On Ptsd Symptoms In Individuals Who Have Experienced Intimate Partner Violence, Kimberly Polignani

Dissertations

Intimate partner violence (IPV) has become a growing phenomenon in the United States,

affecting nearly 13% of the population. The adverse mental health outcomes from people who experience IPV are prevalent and more than half have a diagnosis of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Therefore, therapeutic techniques for PTSD appear to be feasible for IPV survivors and their mental health issues. Complementary and alternative medicine has become a widely accepted approach for PTSD. Being two complementary and alternative medicine techniques, yoga and meditation are effective forms of therapy in many diagnoses, including PTSD. This study utilized a not-for-profit organization called the …

Using Novel Spectroscopy Tool To Study Organized Self-Assemblies, Mohammad Rafe M Bin Hatshan

Dissertations

Organized self-assemblies are the cornerstones for countless biological processes and are integral parts of lipids, proteins, carbohydrates, nucleic acids, and cell membranes. Several man-made organized assemblies also play a vital role in interdisciplinary sciences that include micelles, reverse micelles, polymers, polyelectrolytes etc. Weak chemical interactions such as hydrogen bonding, p-p stacking, hydrophilic-hydrophobic and electrostatics often result in interesting organized self-assemblies. Understanding organized self-assemblies provides a huge opportunity to mimic naturally occurring biological macromolecules, design materials and develop strategies for specific applications. Several techniques are routinely used to understand the organized self-assemblies, and optical techniques play an important role in most …

Psychoeducational Group Counseling For Division I Student Athletes, Katherine Joanne Evans Tepper

Dissertations

Student athletes experience many stressors due to the intensity of their training schedules, team travel, and the added pressure of playing at the top of their sport while meeting the rigorous academic demands of the university. This mixed methods study evaluated the effectiveness of psychoeducational group counseling for student athletes (SAs) at a Western university. Ratings of overall wellness (at pre- and post-intervention) were assessed using the Journey to Wellness scale and semi-structured interviews; bimonthly check-ins were used to measure social connection. Sixteen SAs participated in this study. The results of this study indicated the overall wellness of SAs who …

Individuals Perception Of The Double Value Coupon Program And It's Administrative Scope In Southern Illinois: A Qualitative Study, Dominique M. Rose

Dissertations

This dissertation examined the dimensions of food access and its effects on food selection for individuals enrolled in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP); low-income senior citizens; and recipients of the Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) benefit. This study investigated the use of the Link Up Illinois Double Value SNAP Nutrition Incentives Program (DVCP), a coupon with which recipients can receive twice as much fresh produce when redeemed at a farmers market. In addition, this study measured the organizational scope of administering the Double Value Coupon Program in the 12th Congressional District of Illinois. This information allows for the development …

Gender And The Enactment Of Suicide Bombings By Boko Haram, Jordan N. Galehan

Dissertations

The Boko Haram terror group has utilized more women as suicide bombers than any other group in history. While prior research has examined why this phenomenon is occurring, and what makes Boko Haram a unique terror group, the present study examines how these attacks are being perpetrated, or enacted, by the female bombers. Utilizing the Global Terrorism Database (GTD), which is the largest terrorism incident database available, the study examined the incidents of female suicide bombings perpetrated by Boko Haram. The open-sourced citations provided by the GTD were compiled and turned into a complementary qualitative dataset. Overall, there were 151 …

Exploring The Characteristic Triad Of Resilience: Personal Disposition, Family Support And The Environment Within The Cultural Context Of Quality Mariachi Academies In The Impoverished Central Valley Of California, Lucia Vazquez

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this qualitative multiple case study, was to explore through the lens of the Characteristic Triad of Resilience: personal disposition, family support and environment, how participation in community-based Quality Mariachi Academies (QMA) in impoverished counties contribute to educational resilience.

Methodology: This qualitative multi-case study explored the lived experience of ten resilient students in the impoverished San Joaquin Valley of Central California, utilizing the Characteristic Triad of Resilience as the framework in the context of Quality Mariachi Academies. Data collected from resilient students was triangulated with data from parents, grandparents and site staff.

Findings: Community-based Quality Mariachi Academies …