Digital Commons Network^™

Identification Of Nurses' Stressors During Electronic Records Implementation, Brooke Brantley

Theses

The problem was a gap in knowledge regarding the stress nurses experience with electronic medical records. The participants were mostly female nurses working in a hospital during and 6-months after implementation of an electronic medical record. The Clinical Index of Stress was used to measure stress levels and two questionnaires were utilized to determine specific stressors and coping mechanisms. The findings represented no significant increase in stress overall at implementation and 6-months after implementation. There was a significant correlation between increased stress levels and increased age of participant with a Pearson coefficient of 0.771. The conclusions drawn indicate that age …

Smoking And Violence: An Exploratory Study Within A Maximum Security Forensic Institution, Yvonne Lapp Cryns

Theses

Nicotine addiction among the mentally ill occurs at a high rate and aggressive behavior frequently occurs in forensic psychiatric facilities. Few studies focused on psychiatric forensic inpatients and their behavioral response to nicotine withdrawal. This study was an analysis of the association between nicotine and aggressive acts, reported in Special Incident Reports, before and after a smoking ban at a forensic hospital. The findings indicate a notable increase in aggressive acts in the week following implementation of a smoking ban with a parallel rise in use of seclusion and restraint. A significant decrease in self harm and a notable increase …

A Measure Of Perceived Fatigue Among Nurses In Western North Carolina, Karen R. Cochran

Theses

We are anticipating a heightened shortage of nurses as our aging population retires. A shortage of workers tends to lead to overtime for those still in the work force. Previous research has demonstrated a link between working long hours, fatigue, and decreased performance among nurses. Fatigue has specifically been linked to on the job injuries and poorer patient outcomes. This research study examined perceived fatigue among nurses in western North Carolina.

Job Satisfaction Of Registered Nurses In Muscat, Sultanate Of Oman, Asma S. Al Yahyaei

Theses

The purpose of this study is to determine the level of job satisfaction of Registered nurses in Muscat and relationships to Herzberg's motivation and hygiene factors. The theoretical underpinning of this study is based on Herzberg's concepts, in which an individual's motivation and hygiene factors are met within an organization, to the extent that the individual employee will express in job satisfaction. A descriptive, nonexperimental research design was used. The Work Quality Index and a demographic survey were given to 202 registered nurses at Sultan Qaboos University Hospital (SQUH) and Royal Hospital (RH) in Muscat. The data was collected over …

Survey Validation: Perception And Knowledge Of Concussions Amongst Ncaa Student-Athletes, Victoria L. Haywood

Theses

Background: Sport related concussion diagnosis can often be challenging as all athletes experience different signs and symptoms and may not have the correct knowledge to be able to identify every possible symptom of a concussion. When a concussion is sustained by an athlete, it is crucial that the injury is handled correctly not only by medical providers, but more importantly by the athlete themselves. Because the most common symptoms being a headache, dizziness, etc., a clinical diagnosis is highly dependent on the patient self-reporting their own symptoms. It is important for an athlete to be able to recognize a concussion …

Effect Of Breathing Exercises On Perceived Stress Level Among The French-Speaking Community In Abu Dhabi, Uae: A Comparative Study Between Online And Mobile Application Delivery Methods, Nathalie El Asmar

Theses

Breathing exercises have many health benefits, especially in terms of stress reduction. Several studies have examined the effect of breathing on stress levels; however, there is a lack of studies comparing delivery methods. This study aimed to compare the difference in perceived stress levels in people who performed breathing exercises face-to-face using an online video conferencing tool versus people who used a mobile breathing application. The sample consisted of sixty-two French-speaking individuals living in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. Before beginning the study, volunteers completed the Perceived Stress Scale-14 items. Those with results that showed a medium to a high …

Exploring The Impact Of Guided Writing Strategies On Fifth-Grade Efl Students' Narrative Writing Skills, Haya Husam Sabbah

Theses

This study is about investigating the effects of guided writing strategies on Arab students' EFL narrative writing skills and their perceptions regarding the use of such a strategy. For the study, a quasi-experimental design was used to obtain data from 30 EFL fifth-grade students in an American-curriculum school in Al Ain, UAE. Participants were divided into two groups: a control group and an experimental group. Data were collected using a questionnaire survey and a writing test containing a set of criteria for narrative writing skills. The results of the study showed that students in the experimental group were positively affected …

Gated Communities In The Uae: From A Social Sustainability Barrier To A Catalyst, Marwa Salem Al Jaberi

Theses

Gated communities are commonly defined as residential areas with restricted access, where commonly public spaces are privatized. The main characteristic of gated communities, based on the physical aspect of the development, involves gates, walls, guards, and closed-circuit surveillance. Scholarly studies have focused on the phenomenon of gated communities through covering its implications on the society and the city, where the benefits of this type of development have been frequently questioned. Gated communities have been linked with their negative impacts on the communities as socially segregated areas form the surrounding urban context. Nonetheless, several other studies advocated paradoxical theories related to …

Exploring A New Dimension Of Learning And Work In Kosovo: An Analysis Of The Relationship Between Non-Formal Learning, Employability, And The Job Performance Of Young People, Clirim Sheremeti

Theses

The mismatch between what is taught in schools and what is required in the labor market is one of the foremost problems that the labor market and young people in Kosovo face today. In 2019, 49.4% of working-age young people in Kosovo were unemployed and 32.5% of youth in Kosovo were not in education, employment, or training (NEET), the highest percentage in the region ("Punësimi dhe analiza e tregut të punës në Kosovë", 2020). Out of those who were employed, 56% of them work in occupations that do not match their educational qualifications ("What are the challenges of being young …

Analyzing Temporal Patterns In Phishing Email Topics, Erika Bliss

Theses

In 2020, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) found phishing to be the most common cybercrime, with a record number of complaints from Americans reporting losses exceeding $4.1 billion. Various phishing prevention methods exist; however, these methods are usually reactionary in nature as they activate only after a phishing campaign has been launched. Priming people ahead of time with the knowledge of which phishing topic is more likely to occur could be an effective proactive phishing prevention strategy. It has been noted that the volume of phishing emails tended to increase around key calendar dates and during times of uncertainty. …

Letting Go: How Newly-Graduated Registered Nurses In Western Canada Decide To Exit The Nursing Profession, Kathryn M. Chachula

Theses

The Canadian Nurses Association predicts the nursing shortage will rise to an estimated 60,000 Registered Nurses (RNs) by the year 2022. Further compounding this issue is the approximate 14-61% of nursing graduates who will change nursing roles or exit the profession within two years of practice. Using the Glaserian grounded theory method, the purpose of this study was to examine the basic psychosocial process labelled Letting Go involved in how newly-graduated RNs in western Canada arrive at the decision to exit the nursing profession within five years of entry into the workforce through semi-structured interviews.

An Examination Of The Relationship Between Eating Competence And Biopsychosocial Factors In Adults With Metabolic Syndrome, Jenna Hickey

Theses

Background: An association between eating competence and bioclinical factors for healthy adults has been identified. However, no research has been conducted into the association of ecSI 2.0TM scores and biopsychosocial measures for adults with metabolic syndrome. Purpose: To examine the congruence between eating competence and biopsychosocial measures at baseline and post-intervention in individuals with metabolic syndrome. Methods: Self report surveys administered to participants: Satter Eating Competence Inventory (ecSI 2.0TM), Short Form Health Survey Mental Health and Vitality scales(SF-36 MH and VT), Perceived Stress Scale (PSS), Patient Health Questionnaire – 8 (PHQ-8). Bioclinical measures: HDL cholesterol, triglycerides, blood glucose, BMI, and …

Can Providing Positive Interactions With Snakes Change A Person’S Perception Of Dangerous Wildlife Interactions?, Bethany Walker

Theses

Due to a long co-evolutionary history between placental mammals and reptiles, primates demonstrate aversive responses to snakes. In humans, this can result in ophidiophobia, or the fear of snakes which can arise due to cultural backgrounds, traumatic experiences, or fear instilled by others. However, these reptiles fill essential roles in ecosystems. Conservation and outreach efforts are important to help our population understand snakes’ role in our lives and the state’s broader biodiversity. Negative experiences or preconceptions about snakes can make this message hard to share with the public. Educators can help prevent intentional harm to some of these organisms through …

South To South: Connections In The Ordinary, Fostering Empathy By Encouraging Travel Through Design, Bethany Wetzel

Theses

South 2 South: Connections in the Ordinary, explores similarities between South Korea and Alabama through a designed sensory experience that allows users to engage in cross-cultural information in an inviting and familiar way with the use of recognizable motifs in order to reduce fear, foster empathy, and encourage travel. The creation of South 2 South was informed by research on travel fears, empathy, and transnational relations between the two regions. South 2 South helps facilitate the beginnings of these interactions by presenting new cultural information directly to the more insular communities of northeast Alabama. My hope is that South …

Social Media Practices For Churches, Jordyn Helgen

Theses

This project focuses on providing a resource for churches and similar nonprofit organizations to utilize in order to maximize their social media strategy and generate ideas for content. Furthermore, it will help these organizations to better understand social media and how they can use social media tools to accentuate their religious values and accomplish their mission.

Data Augmentation For Automatic Speech Recognition For Low Resource Languages, Ronit Damania

Theses

In this thesis, we explore several novel data augmentation methods for improving the performance of automatic speech recognition (ASR) on low-resource languages. Using a 100-hour subset of English LibriSpeech to simulate a low-resource setting, we compare the well-known SpecAugment augmentation approach to these new methods, along with several other competitive baselines. We then apply the most promising combinations of models and augmentation methods to three genuinely under-resourced languages using the 40-hour Gujarati, Tamil, Telugu datasets from the 2021 Interspeech Low Resource Automatic Speech Recognition Challenge for Indian Languages. Our data augmentation approaches, coupled with state-of-the-art acoustic model architectures and language …

The Public Poster: An Exploration Of Storytelling In Poster Design, Elizabeth Hiler

Theses

Research suggests that it is incredibly difficult for a person to change their mind. Confirmation bias and echo chambers are just a few of the reasons people do not give themselves the opportunity to explore new stories, ideas, beliefs. It is now our challenge to connect with people in unconventional ways and explore storytelling in new spaces to give difficult topics more accessibility to public discourse. The Public Protest Poster can be found at the start of most movements for social and political change by creating a simplified statement with a strong graphic for instant impact. Yet, protest posters rely …

Paid Time Off And Work-Life Balance In An Ambulatory Surgical Center, Elizabeth S. Harmon

Theses

To investigate what was considered important to the staff regarding the current paid time off method used in an ambulatory surgical center with the purpose of discovering what works well for an acceptable work-life balance. Considerable research has shown that an adequate work-life balance in the nursing profession is necessary for job satisfaction and retention. The method to request paid time off is often cumbersome and unreliable, resulting in frustration of the nursing staff. Alternatives for granting paid time off requests in an outpatient facility have not been investigated. A non-experimental, two-step study was conducted using qualitative and quantitative methods.

The Importance Of Shifting From Massive To Sustainable Tourism Model: The Case Study Of The City Of Dubrovnik, Niko Katusic

Theses

Tourism is currently one of the largest economical income generators for Croatia and especially for the city of Dubrovnik. Desired worldwide for its economic benefits tourism is going to double during the next 20 years. Considering mass tourism as the main definition for tourism in 21 century that cannot be neglected by current efforts to implement sustainable tourism, this paper draws attention to improved satisfaction that sustainable tourism can provide to locals and tourists operating in the city of Dubrovnik. The question of satisfaction level for stakeholders in tourism destinations is connected to the psychological characteristics and motivation of tourists …

Tuberculosis Screening And Education In The Urban Public School District, Nikolaos S. Moraros

Theses

Tuberculosis (TB) is the world's deadliest curable communicable infectious disease. The eradication of TB is a significantly important intractable global public health challenge for health agencies at all levels. Global migration, cultural-socioeconomic factors and increase of multidrug-resistance tuberculosis (MDR-TB) affect the epidemiology of TB in the United States and other countries worldwide. Studies have shown that increase in TB knowledge and understanding contributes to early TB screenings/diagnosis, interventions and treatments, result in reducing MDR-TB, rates of TB transmissions, relapse, morbidity and mortality. The purpose of this project is: (1) to develop a TB screening risk assessment protocol for the Urban …

منھج الرؤى السلوكیة في السیاسات العامة ومدى إمكانية تطبيقه في المؤسسات الحكومية في دولة الامارات العربیة المتحدة, خلیفة عبد لله علي الربیعي

Theses

انطلقت ھذه الدراسة من إشكالیة ندرة الدراسات المحلیة عن منھجیة الرؤى السلوكیة كإحدى الأدوات الجديدة للسياسات العامة، والتي تكمل الأدوات والمنھجیة التقلیدیة للسياسات العامة والتي تتميز بإمكانية اختبار السیاسات العامة قبل تطبیقھا، ومدى إمكانية استخدامها في المؤسسات الحكومية في دولة الامارات العربیة المتحدة.

فقامت الدراسة بدایة بتناول نشأة الإدارة العامة ونشأة السیاسات العامة والارتباط الوثيق والمتكامل بین المفهومين. بعد ذلك ناقشت الرسالة نشأة الإدارة العامة وتطورها في دولة الامارات ثم تطرقت بعد ذلك الى مناقشة أنواع مؤسسات الإدارة العامة المعنية بصنع السیاسات العامة في دولة الامارات العربیة المتحدة، ثم تناولت نشأة مفھوم الرؤى السلوكیة وتطوره خلال عقد من الزمن، وكذلك …

The Impact Of Readmission On Family Caregivers Of Children Following Ventricular Peritoneal Shunt Surgery, Mary Uwhuba

Theses

Family caregivers work tirelessly to ensure their loved ones don't need to return to the hospital after discharge. This study will examine the impact of readmission on family caregivers of children who have had ventricular peritoneal shunt (VPS) surgery and been readmitted by looking at the economic, social, familial, and personal strains of caregiving. This study is a descriptive study. The Impact on Family Scale survey (Stein & Jessop, 1985) was used to judge if family caregivers were affected by child's readmission.

Subgroups Of Patients Undergoing Chemotherapy With Distinct Cognitive Fatigue And Evening Physical Fatigue Profiles, Lisa Morse

Theses

Purpose was to model cognitive fatigue and evening physical fatigue together to determine subgroups of patients with distinct cognitive fatigue AND evening physical fatigue profiles. Once these profiles were identified, differences among the subgroups in demographic and clinical characteristics, co-occurring symptoms, and quality of life outcomes were evaluated.

The Use Of Machine Learning In Assessing Suicide Risk: A Meta-Analysis, Rachael Kang

Theses

Suicide is a devastating act in which a person takes their own life. Decades of research into suicide have identified a myriad of risk factors that have been used to create assessments of suicide risk and suicidality. However, more recent research has suggested that these identified risk factors may have no better predictive ability than chance, perhaps because suicide is actually a multi-dimensional, multi-faceted construct that has been viewed too simplistically for prediction’s sake. To try and better appreciate the complex nature of suicide while also increasing prediction accuracy, researchers have turned to machine learning. This study sought to meta-analyze …

Examining Own-Race Bias: A Cooperation And Memory Study Using Diverse Emojis, Jillian Franks

Theses

Other-race-effect or own-race bias is a well-documented phenomenon in memory. Findings suggest that humans are better at recognizing and remembering faces of their own race than other races. Previous research suggests that these results are due to a lack of interracial contact or exposure to other racial groups. Evidence from previous studies has demonstrated that individuals process own-race faces differently than other-race faces, paying more attention to more salient features that become better encoded. While there is empirical support for both hypotheses, it has yet to be studied if the other-race effect for memory extends to representational human faces, for …

Postpartum Depression Screening: Educating The Bedside Nurse, Nadia M. Carrasco

Theses

The purpose of this applied project is to develop a learning module based on best practices to educate nurses about postpartum depression and postpartum depression screening in inpatient postpartum maternity units. The goal of the project is to improve the assessment and timely referral for postpartum women who are experiencing postpartum depression.

How Nurse-Led Clinics Improve Health Care Access, Rose Marie Alessandra C. Conos

Theses

The project will seek to address how nurse-led clinics enhance access to health care services, lead to patient satisfaction, and offer inexpensive and quality health care services. To evaluate these variables, the project will research nurse-led clinics in different geographical locations, some urban areas, and some are rural areas. When one lives in an urban area, it does not necessarily mean that there are readily available resources for the individual. Rural areas are addressed because there are few hospitals, and some of the areas are not accessible to transportation. These patients may have chronic diseases, behavioral or psychiatric conditions, comorbidities, …

Alzheimer's Disease, Media Representation, And Audience Reception, Taylor Dakota Thum

Theses

The purpose of this study is to see how Alzheimer's disease and dementia are misperceived in the media, how this affects audience viewpoints, and how accurate depictions that challenge those stereotypes may or may not change audience perception. Common stereotypes depicted in the media include Alzheimer’s and dementia being one disease, only individuals older than 60 years old having this disease, and it being a slow and painful progression towards the end of life. Using Stuart Hall’s audience reception theory, I will see if viewers accept, negotiate, or oppose the media that challenges those stereotypes presented to them in contrast …

1:38, Yuhao Sheng

Theses

This thesis support paper demonstrated the entire process of creating this thesis film "1:38," describing how this film completed from a simple inspiration to a finished film project. Besides, this paper also describes how the author's ideas formed from the beginning and his inner struggle during the quarantine period, which inspired the author to create this film. Thirdly, this paper clarifies how the whole film team worked and our considerations about different problems during the film shooting. I believe this paper would be a good reference for the students to shoot their films with a low budget.

Understanding Psychological Behaviors Of Binge Eating Behavior, Siyu Zhu

Theses

The number of patients who suffer from Binge Eating Disorder has been increased for the last 2 years. By understanding the causes and effects of Binge Eating Behavior, it is more accurate to find solutions since BED is a complexed clinic illness affecting both mental and physical. Majority of the patients are not seeking help. I want to design an application utilizing Augmented Reality and Artificial Intelligence to help them gaining back control of their actions and emotions; also, to rebuild their normal healthy eating habits.