Digital Commons Network^™

Retrospective Study Of Trauma Programming And, Domonique La'toya Rice

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

In state psychiatric hospitals in the United States, many patients are admitted with a history of trauma. Although trauma-focused interventions are offered within these psychiatric facilities, there remain issues with the higher-than-average length of treatment and rehospitalization rates for patients with a diagnosis of posttraumatic stress disorder or for those who are suffering with a history of trauma. This study investigated between group differences for measured levels of attendance and type of group intervention (which included the men's trauma recovery empowerment model, dialectical behavior therapy, and art and healing) on the risk for violence as measured by scores on the …

A Pilot Study To Develop A Projective Method To Understand And Measure Resilience, Tina Chen

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Many factors affect resilience, such as personality traits and environmental support. A projective assessment has many advantages to understand a person as a whole. Up to present, there is no projective assessment for resilience. This dissertation was a pilot study to develop a projective method. Sixty-five college students participated in this study. Participants used words to describe their feelings after hearing an open-ended story with a traumatic event; they also completed the story. In this study, the resilience ratio, defined as the ratio of the number of positive responses divided by the number of total responses, reflected the resilience level …

Varying Levels Of Morality Awareness In Corrections Officers, William L. Hanna

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Morality has been a focus in criminal justice with recent events involving officers. This quantitative study offered research in the criminal justice field regarding the moral awareness of corrections officers. The main research question investigated the relationship between the security level of the prison unit in which a corrections officer works and his or her level of morality awareness. The study surveyed corrections officers of prison units in the Ohio Department of Rehabilitations and Corrections and focused on morality awareness of corrections officers. The independent variable was the security level of the prison unit worked in. The dependent variables were …

An Examination Of Teachers' Reading Instructional Challenges In An Alternative School Setting, Leslie Bowen Retchko

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

In a suburban alternative school, educators of at-risk students reading below grade level often struggled to provide effective reading instruction. As a result, these students were likely to continue to experience academic difficulties, which could limit their career options and their opportunities to contribute to the betterment of society. This study addressed the gap between reading strategies teachers actually used in the classroom and the reading strategies they learned during professional development. The research questions focused on the instructional challenges teachers experienced while working with struggling readers in an alternative school setting. Mastery learning theory and the adult adragogical theory …

Effects Of Common Core Curriculum Standards On High School Students With Disabilities, Nancy Beth Thompson Loedding

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

This case study examined the effect of implementing the Common Core Curriculum Standards (CCCS) on students with disabilities (SWD) in a county in northeast Georgia. The study investigated teachers' perceptions regarding the effect of implementing the CCCS in high school English language arts and mathematics classes on the academic success of SWD and their ability to graduate from high school with a regular diploma. Information was also gathered to determine if teachers offered additional supports to SWD as part of the increased academic expectations of the CCCS. In addition, teachers were asked about the preparation they received prior to teaching …

The Lived Experiences Of Limited English Proficiency, Spanish-Speaking Male Ex-Offenders, Paula Nery Sanchez

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore the lived experiences of Spanish-speaking men in the United States with limited English proficiency following their release from prison. The study specifically examined the experiences of these men in their efforts to access health care treatment, housing, education, and employment in Central Pennsylvania. An empirical, phenomenological research design was employed that used self-stigma, critical race, and self-determination theories for in-depth interviews with 8 men who spent 5 to 24 years in prison. A tiered coding method was used to generate 6 interconnected themes that tell the story of these men's lives: …

A Case Study Of Mastery Learning Activities In Kindergarten Literacy Centers, Crystal Bateman Cowen

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

This case study examined the problem of below-grade-level reading scores among kindergarten students despite the use of literacy centers in a large Title 1 public elementary school in a suburb of Atlanta, Georgia. The purpose of the study was to investigate whether application of the literacy center model might be connected to student performance. Specifically, the research question concerned whether implementation of literacy centers was consistent with principles of mastery learning based on differentiation by ability. This study was guided by Bloom's theory of mastery learning, which suggests that higher levels of learning may be achieved if each child is …

High School Graduates' Perspectives On The Creation Of Online Identities, Lisa Koh-Herlong

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Technological advancements continue to increase online accessibility and the virtual population. As students engage with these advancements, their lives and identities will be on a worldwide platform. The realities of online identities present a challenge for educators to teach students how to manage those online identities. Researchers have studied the after-effects of online identities, but there is a gap in understanding the individual's thought process during the creation of online identities. The purpose of this interpretative phenomenological analysis was to understand the perspectives of working high school graduates regarding the creation of online identities. The research questions were designed to …

Reimportation Of Prescription Drugs As Contributing Component To Patient Drug Adherence: A Qualitative-Grounded Theory Study, Jeffrey Tubbs

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Pharmaceutical drugs are one of the most socially important heath care products. They are part of many individuals' everyday lives, from the eradicating of diseases at birth to treating patients at the end of life. However, for many patients access is prevented due to expensive cost. This study explored cost-related non-adherence (CRN) and researched if reimportation of pharmaceutical drugs from other countries could increase patient drug adherence. The perceptions of 10 patients and 10 providers in Maine were assessed. Maine is the only state that allowed its citizens to purchase prescription drugs from abroad. The research questions addressed (a) how …

Performance Enhancement And Precompetitive Anxiety Management Among Usag Junior Olympic Gymnasts, Christian Lee Way

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Precompetitive anxiety (PCA) is problematic for young gymnasts and may have an influence on a multitude of factors like self-confidence, perceived level of self-efficacy, and athlete's performance in a competition. The objective of this 2-part study was to discover how earlier competitive experience influences the young gymnasts' level of anxiety, perception of control, and self-efficacy. An additional goal was to explore the potential impact of Guided imagery (GI) and Autogenic training (AGT) in reducing precompetitive anxiety. In the first study, 80 USAG Junior Olympic female gymnasts between the ages of 7 and 16 (40 compulsory level and 40 optional level) …

The Effect Of A Culture Of Safety On Patient Throughput, Laurie Lee Dawn Dillon

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

There is a national movement to create improvements in patient safety and outcomes due to evolutionary changes in the healthcare. Many health care organizations are using the framework of a culture of safety in order to create a reliable and stable work environment that emphasizes safety and improves patient outcomes. Patient throughput, defined as the active management of the supply of patient beds (rooms for occupation) to the demand of patients to beds and the length of time it takes for this action to occur, has been identified as one of the areas in need of improvement. This study considered …

Health Care Seeking Behavior And Provider Responses For Hcv-Positive African Americans, Kathleen Susanna Bailey

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Of the 3.5 million persons infected with chronic HCV in the United States, the African American population is the largest racial group with chronic HCV. Disparities in access to care and treatment involve a complex set of individual, interpersonal, socioeconomic, and environmental factors that influence the course of HCV infection in the African American population, resulting in poorer outcomes and survival. Drawing upon both the theory of reasoned action and the theory of planned behavior, this study was conducted to determine whether the seeking of health care by HCV-positive African Americans and the responses of health care providers to HCV-positive …

Factors Influencing The Adoption Of Learning Management Systems By Medical Faculty, Kristy Burrough

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Despite recommendations by the Association of American Medical Colleges regarding

the adoption of technology in medical universities, faculty are still reluctant to adopt new

learning technologies. The purpose of this qualitative interview study was to determine

the factors existing in the adoption of learning management technology among late

adopters within the faculty of colleges labeled as comprehensive academic medical

centers. Using the Everett Rogers diffusion of innovations theory as its framework, this

study sought to ascertain the factors late adopters identify as preventing them from

adopting technology and to determine what measures they suggest to increase technology

adoption among their …

Financing School-Based Health Centers: Sustaining Business Operational Services, Ingrid Monique Hayes-Burrell

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

School-based health centers (SBHCs) have faced challenges in securing adequate funding for operations and developing sound business systems for billing and reimbursement. Specifically, administrators often lack strategies to develop and sustain funding levels to support appropriate resources for business operations. The focus of this descriptive study was to explore best practice strategies to develop and sustain funding through the experiences of SBHC administrators. The conceptual framework included Elkington's sustainability theory, which posits that corporate social responsibility, stakeholder involvement, and citizenship improve manager's effect on the business system. Twenty full-time SBHC administrators working in separate locations throughout the state of Maryland …

The Effects Of The Night Shift On Nursing Staff Of An Inpatient Hospice Facility, Carolyn Dopson Horton

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The night shift environment in an inpatient hospice facility is unique in care and relegates challenging situations for the nursing staff. Using the Parse methodology, the purpose of this project was to explore the challenges faced by inpatient hospice facility night shift nursing staff in providing a continuum of care for dying patients and their families. Nine night shift hospice nurses participated in 45-60 minute interviews. The interviews were conducted in a hospice quiet room or a designated place of comfort for the participant, which allowed for dialogical engagement. The interviews were unstructured with open-ended questions about lived experiences. The …

Raising Texas State Biology Exam Achievement Scores For Students With Disabilities, Nancy Kay Larkin

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The No Child Left Behind Act changed the way educators taught students with disabilities (SWD), as this population has now become part of all districts' annual yearly progress. The problem this qualitative study addressed was that many biology teachers in a Texas suburban district were not effectively implementing evidence-based strategies for SWD. The study's conceptual foundation was based on Vygotsky's cognitive development theory that students achieve at higher levels when working in their zone of proximal development with support from peers or adults. The guiding question was intended to determine what strategies biology teachers were using to provide this support …

Middle School Teachers' Experiences With Cross-Curricular Connections At The Incident Level, Melita M. Penchalk

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Many curricular innovations, including cross-curricular teaching, are started in schools without adequate teacher preparation and support, reducing the effectiveness of the interventions in supporting student learning. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to describe the implementation of the cross-curricular connections teaching technique in middle schools. Research questions focused on how middle school teachers experienced implementation of cross-curricular teaching at the incident level and how teachers perceived cross-curricular teaching and its long-term value. Myers-Briggs personality type theory informed the study, supporting the postulation that teachers are more comfortable teaching from their personality types. Data from 10 middle school teachers …

Exemplary Teachers' Perspectives On Effective Teaching Elements In Danielson's Framework For Teaching, Derek Jon Olson

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Reforms in teacher evaluation are enacted to increase student achievement. Although there is research on teacher evaluation and teacher quality, there is little that addresses effective teaching as conceptualized in Danielson's Framework for Teaching, a commonly used evaluation tool. The purpose of this quantitative study was to determine which of the 4 domains and 76 elements of Danielson's framework are viewed by award-winning teachers as having the greatest impact on effective teaching and learning. Constructivism formed the theoretical basis for this study. The research questions examined to what extent state and national teachers of the year perceive differences in the …

Differences In Financial Performance And Risk Tolerance At Faith-Based Credit Unions, Bruce J. Toews

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

In the United States, faith-based and other small credit unions are vanishing at the rate of nearly a credit union each workday. The purpose of this causal-comparative study was to provide managers of faith-based credit unions with information about differences in financial performance and risk tolerance between faith-based and non-faith-based credit unions in order to improve their investment strategy and long-term sustainability. The study included a comparison of ratios measuring the financial performance and risk tolerance of randomly selected faith-based credit unions in the United States with the corresponding ratios of non-faith-based credit unions of similar size and location from …

Adelphia: An Exploratory Case Study Of Corporate Culture And Ethical Judgment, Susan Bishop

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

White collar corporate corruption continues to be prevalent in the United States, costing shareholders billions of dollars annually. This study of the collapse of Coudersport, PA firm, Adelphia Communications, explored how and why leadership of this prominent and successful company made unethical decisions, created an atmosphere of moral disengagement, and led to the downfall of the company. Taped interviews with 10 executives who were employed at the company during the years of its rise and demise (1996-2006) were transcribed, hand coded, and analyzed to explore the ethical culture and leadership practices at Adelphia. These insights offer a possible explanation for …

Exploring Recruiting Challenges Of The Insurance Industry, Hema Chaurasia

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Insurance companies provide financial protection to the general population, but their workforce challenges may destabilize the companies to the point of financial distress. Senior insurance company leaders lack effective strategies to recruit skilled professionals. With contingency theory and resource-based view theory as the framework, the focus in this multicase study was the exploration of the recruiting strategies of human resources (HR) managers in New York City area insurance companies. Four insurance company HR managers were recruited via a purposeful and snowball sampling method for semistructured interviews. These interviews were analyzed through a reflective interpretation process, which was guided by the …

Program Evaluation: A Federal Agency's Air Traffic Control Train-The-Trainer Program, Lisa Marie Mercer

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

In 2014, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) highlighted to the U.S. Senate the need to focus on air traffic control (ATC) training to meet job qualification and attrition rates within the career field. One U.S. Department of Defense military service assists the FAA in providing worldwide ATC services. This service is referred to as the agency throughout this paper to ensure confidentiality. The agency's ATC career field manager echoed the FAA's call for action in his 2014 Strategic/Action Plan. In August 2013, the agency's ATC trainer program was published. As of December 2015, the program had not been evaluated. The …

An Evaluation Of Military Education Assistance Programs From Participants Perspectives, Ella Bolling-Harris

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

An Evaluation of Military Education Assistance Programs From ParticipantsF Perspectives

by

Ella Bolling-Harris

MS, Capella University, 2008

MS, Capella University, 2004

BS, Park University, 2000

Doctoral Study Submitted in Partial Fulfillment

of the Requirements for the Degree of

Doctor of Education

Walden University

August 2015

Military education programs exist to assist military members in completing their college education prior to exiting the military. At a southwestern United States Army Installation, members have expressed dissatisfaction with the education programs. The purpose of this case study was to examine the education programs from the participants' perspectives. Mezirow's transformative learning theory was used …

Critical Factors In Police Use-Of-Force Decisions, Orville Nickel

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

This study investigated law enforcement officers' perceptions of the legal, normative, and practical considerations that are implicit in their decisions when faced with using physical force. Law enforcement officers observe and protect fundamental human rights. A significant problem, however, is that physical force is sometimes misused, impacting public confidence in police services. The study was framed by Durkheim's conflict theory and Beirie's concepts of police corporate culture and social control. It used a grounded theory method and predeveloped case scenarios presented to 2 male focus groups of 7 and 6 participants respectively, and 2 female focus groups of 5 and …

Beginning Teachers' Experiences And Use Of Time, Laura Marie Ahles

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

New teachers in a southeast Texas school district are having difficulty using their time effectively for instruction while balancing a multitude of tasks. New work responsibilities for teachers are contributing to teacher burnout and early attrition. The purpose of this study was to examine new teachers and administrators perceptions of novice teacher practices and their daily use of time. Apple s theory of intensification was used as the conceptual framework for this study. A case study design was employed to answer research questions regarding how procedures and policies affect teachers time, teacher perceptions about prior experiences with managing multiple responsibilities, …

Use Of Traditional 3-Hour Lectures In Preparing Students For The Childbearing Clinical Setting, Teresa Pohle

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Following completion of a 4-year nursing program, some graduates have difficulty applying theories learned in the classroom to the clinical environment. This difficulty results in healthcare employers providing additional in-house training to ensure graduates' ability to safely care for their patients. The purpose of this research was to explore how traditional lecture methods have prepared students for the clinical environment. Based on a constructivist theoretical framework, a case study design was used to examine students' learning of theories delivered by traditional lecture methods. The research questions focused on student activities in the classroom and clinical setting, teaching strategies, critical thinking …

Community College Instructors' Perceptions And Use Of Feedback, Janeth Martin Walker Franklin

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Many community college students, especially those who are required to take developmental education courses, do not complete course and degree goals. Research shows that constructive feedback practices used by instructors improve academic achievement while destructive feedback practices diminish student learning. Using a constructivist framework, the purpose of this qualitative, instrumental case study was to understand how faculty who teach developmental education and entry level college courses perceive and use feedback in a large urban community college in the Southwestern United States. Data were collected through 17 in-depth, face-to-face interviews and written feedback examples submitted by the faculty members. Interview transcripts …

Distinguishing Leadership Of Information Assurance Teams, Bamidele Adetokunbo Bankole

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Information assurance (IA) projects are essential components of the information technology industry and often fail due to budget overruns, missed deadlines, and lack of performance by the project teams. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore the strategies necessary to improve IA project team performance. Lewin's situational leadership theory was used as the conceptual framework for this study. Interviews were conducted with 20 IA professionals located in the Washington, DC Metropolitan area. The data were transcribed, coded, and clustered for the identification of common patterns based on the Moustakas' modified van Kaam analysis. The major themes that emerged …

Racial Identity, Religious/Spiritual Support, Self-Efficacy, And Academic Support In Predicting Black College Students' Academic Performance, Jonathan M. Hudson

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Black students in the United States continue to struggle academically as they matriculate into postsecondary education, placing them at risk for missing opportunities for work and social success. Research has identified the dimensions of Black racial identity, as well as other social factors, that may contribute to academic success. What is missing, however, is research grounded in a theory of Black identity that examines how identity and other factors combine to influence academic success. This quantitative online survey research tested 5 hypotheses to ascertain their relative strength in predicting academic success among Black college students: (a) demographics (age, gender, socioeconomic …

Psychosocial Determinants Of Elective Cesarean Section Deliveries In Selected Obstetric Facilities In Nairobi, Kenya, Tom Joseph Oguta

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Cesarean section (CS) rates have generally increased across the world in the past decade. Reducing elective cesarean section (ECS) rates is imperative as many countries aim to maintain threshold CS rates at or below 15%, the level recommended by the United States' National Institutes of Health. Women are believed to consider ECS for various interconnected psychosocial reasons, but few quantitative studies have investigated these factors. This prospective cohort study was based on the social ecological model (SEM) and the theory of planned behavior (TPB) models, and identified the psychosocial predictors of ECS among 1,268 expectant women in 2 hospitals in …