Digital Commons Network^™

Childhood Obesity Long-Term Effects Into Adulthood, Alexis Behl

Honors Capstones

Childhood obesity has reached an epidemic level in the United States and is close to becoming a pandemic. Approximately eighteen percent of US children are obese; this is more than double the percentage from three decades ago. Obesity is commonly associated with other chronic health conditions which makes it not only a concern for adolescents but adults. Chronic conditions often seen in combination with obesity are hypertension, hyperlipidemia, diabetes, sleep apnea, poor self-esteem, and depression. In addition, studies done on adolescents to adulthood showed increase likelihood to suffer from cardiovascular disorders and digestive disease. The combination of childhood obesity and …

Impact Of Technological Communication Devices, Joshua George

MSN Capstone Projects

Nurses, family members, and other medical professionals have always found it difficult when communicating with patients who have impaired communication. Those who fall under the category of impaired communication include those who are mechanically ventilated and those who have a tracheostomy. Ineffective communication skills on both ends of the spectrum have led to negative patient outcomes. According to Aslani, Niknejad, Maghaddasi, & Akbari (2017), ineffective communication in patients with impaired communication have led to numerous physical and mental complications. Discovering an effective communication method to implement has been of great importance in the nursing field.

The current practice of communicating …

Diabetes Education In The Emergency Department: Decreasing Repeat Visits And Admissions, Keith Hatfield

MSN Capstone Projects

Parkland Memorial Hospital (PMH) has many patients with diabetes under its care (Parkland Health & Hospital System, 2019a). Lewis et al. (2015) found that most patients with diabetes seeking care in a large urban ED lacked the basic diabetes survival knowledge needed to stay healthy. Poor diabetes control leads to complications and illness, which leads to repeat ED visits and inpatient admissions. A further literature review supported providing patients with additional diabetes education to reduce admissions.

This project will train the ED Registered Nurses (RN) to provide additional diabetes education at discharge and provide the patient with educational materials to …

Impact Of Hourly Rounding On Fall Rates: A Benchmark Paper, Monica D. Smith

MSN Capstone Projects

Falls and fall-related injuries create a significant financial burden on patients and healthcare organizations, particularly in adult inpatient hospital units such as rehabilitation and medical-surgical units. Costs associated with additional hospital days, diagnostic testing, and potentially fall-related surgeries can average about $14,000 per fall (The Joint Commission, 2015). Moreover, falls can be devastating in older adults, impacting their overall quality of life. According to Abou et al., 20% of yearly individual costs associated with falls are among patients with Parkinson's disease (2020). This is a proposal to implement a pre-and post-implementation change project. This paper addresses the use of evidence-based …

Mindfulness-Based Intervention Program For Nurses, Monica Savage

MSN Capstone Projects

Currently, in most health care facilities across the country, they are experiencing a shortage of nurses. Nurses are taking on heavy loads of patients that are only getting sicker. Many nurses are experiencing symptoms of burnout such as depression and anxiety. Many are also contemplating leaving the bedside because they are unable to cope with the stress they are experiencing.

Although most organizations have employee assistance programs for support, they are not being utilized. Implementing a mindfulness-based program will give nurses the tools they need at a moment’s notice when they need it. Giving nurses the tool to properly take …

Home Blood Pressure Monitoring, Bethany N. Hughes

MSN Capstone Projects

Hypertension is prevalent worldwide and is responsible for nine million deaths annually. Despite its prevalence, a majority of patients go unmanaged or undiagnosed (Kitt et al., 2019). Health complications of hypertension can be life-altering and life-threatening; therefore, if changes are not made to improve community hypertension control rates, worsened population health and financial burden on health systems may persist. Would you believe that an effective tool exists and has been endorsed worldwide to combat hypertension, yet it is not used consistently in practice? Furthermore, can you imagine this specific tool is easy to operate, cheap, and recruits patient involvement in …

Utilizing Simulation To Enhance The Medical Emergency Response Team In Schools, Jennifer Gaskill

MSN Capstone Projects

Modern technology and health care advancements have significantly affected the patient populations encountered across numerous health care and public settings. One such setting is the school systems within the United States where students and staff with complex cardiovascular conditions, who were once restricted due to medical concerns and associated risks, are now actively learning and working among their peers. Though these conditions are typically managed well in this population, their risk of sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) remains, and schools must be equipped and prepared to respond to such emergencies. Many buildings have developed Medical Emergency Response Teams (MERTs) intended to …

Burnout And Fatigue: A Potential Downside Of The Critical Care Nursing Profession, Samantha L. Ford

MSN Capstone Projects

Studies show that burnout and fatigue increase healthcare cost and decreases organizational profit due to increased rates of employee turnover, decreased employee satisfaction, a decrease in the quality of care provided to patients, and the development of a toxic work environment. The three principal factors of job-related burnout and fatigue will be addressed within the context of this paper including emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and personal accomplishment.

Critical care nurses suffer from feeling emotionally depleted to the point they feel as though they can no longer give anymore of themselves to the patients they care for, which is a result of …

Comparison Of Education Styles For Nursing Students: Team-Based Learning Versus Traditional Lecture, Hannah Gean

MSN Capstone Projects

Nursing graduates are coming into the workforce still lacking in important areas. Nurses need to have cultivated leadership, communication, and satisfaction skills before they start their first job. For this to occur, nursing students need to be prepared with these qualities while they are still in school. It is important for students to not only learn healthcare knowledge but to have practical skills in a variety of areas. When students learn through the traditional lecture method, it is not always possible to assess and support their learning in leadership, communication, and satisfaction. To ensure that students are receiving these values …

Opioid Education Program, Cynthia De Atley

MSN Capstone Projects

Pain management has become a challenging field both for the patients, their families, and providers. The rise of the opioid crisis has made the availability of opioids limited, even for those patients who truly need the life changing medications. Nurses, physicians, and administrators play a vital role in patient education and the education regarding the importance of using opioids safely. Lack of patient education regarding the use, misuse, and side effects of opioids can lead to potential injuries, overdose, and even death.

Providing patients with an educational program would greatly decrease their risk of misuse and abuse of opioids. During …

Pain And Sedation Scales In The Pediatric Intensive Care Unit, Marsha K. Triana

MSN Capstone Projects

In the pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) there is a need for analgesia and sedation to reduce pain and discomfort, allow for interventions, optimize ventilation, decrease the amount of time in the PICU, and improve outcomes including the time after discharge. Adequate management of sedation and pain is the key to healing, duration of hospitalization, as well as a decrease in mortality rates. It is essential to have adequate pain control to maintain healing and stress reduction. Over sedation with mechanically ventilated children in the PICU can have significant complications. Complications include withdrawal, risk for infection and increased the amount …

The Relationship Between Early Discharge Planning And Length Of Stay, Kandiss Hearn

MSN Capstone Projects

Discharge planning (DCP) and early discharge intervention has proven to have a direct effect on reducing hospital length of stay (LOS), reducing readmissions, reducing patient morbidity, improving patient satisfaction and possibly reducing patient healthcare cost. This proposal specifically addresses hospital length of stay but with research it was found that early DCP also has the potential to improve outcomes in several areas adjacent to both the patient aspect and business aspect of health care. The proposed question is as follows: In adult hospitalized patients (P), how does discharge planning within the first 24 hours of admission (I) compared to late …

Medication Error Prevention Strategies, Shana L. Brown

MSN Capstone Projects

The fundamental purpose of every healthcare organization is to enhance patient quality of life through the provision of superior healthcare to produce the best patient outcomes. In the pre-hospital practice setting of helicopter emergency medical service (HEMS) the desire of system leaders and medical staff is to be primarily patient-centered, focused on the safety and wellbeing of patients while at the same time managing the business finances and budget of the organization. Maintaining a healthy environment with safe patient practices is the responsibility of organization administrators, physicians, nurses, paramedics, and all healthcare providers.

One of the primary duties that healthcare …

New Graduate Nurse Satisfaction After Completion Of Nurse Residency Program, Jessica Andrews

MSN Capstone Projects

Transitioning from novice nurse to competent nurse can come with a great amount of stress, anxiety, and apprehension. Many new nurses feel inadequate and leave their first nursing job within one year for various reasons. Research has indicated that new nurse graduates who complete a nurse residency program (NRP) have a better sense of knowledge, critical thinking skills, and sense of belonging. Whereas nurses who do not complete a residency program often feel insufficient and are less prepared.

Although there are various types of general orientation programs available, it is important to educate new graduates on the advantages and significance …

Early Screening Of Postpartum Depression, Mary Ramirez

MSN Capstone Projects

Postpartum depression (PPD) is the most common pregnancy-related complication affecting over half-million mothers each year in the United States and only 50% of these women seek treatment or even receive a mental health evaluation (American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology, 2015; Horowitz & Goodman, 2004). Failure to detect or diagnose PPD can have serious consequences for both mom and baby. Nurses play a key role in discharge teaching and education, which puts them in the perfect position to ensure that adequate referrals are coordinated and to stress the importance of follow-up care to new mothers (Logsdon et al., 2018). Current …

The Clinically Aligned Pain Assessment Tool (Capa) Evidenced-Based Change Project- Benchmark Study, Mary Vitullo

MSN Capstone Projects

Pain is one of the main reasons people seek medical treatment in the United States (National Institutes of Health, 2017). Frequently, pain is inappropriately managed leading to negative patient outcomes that lead to prolonged discharge time that increases hospital costs (Trzeciak et al., 2018). This is due to improper assessment of pain which leads to challenges in pain management interventions, ultimately decreasing patient safety and satisfaction. By nature, pain reporting by patients is subjective. Various scales are utilized in the hospital setting, but these assessment scales only reflect pain intensity and are unidimensional, as opposed to pain experience and multidimensional …

Differences In Parent-Child Interaction Using Physical Toys Versus Technology, M. Appleberry

Honors Capstones

Parent-child interactions are vital to children’s growth and development. The quality of parent-child interactions shape the child’s cognitive and language development. As society becomes increasingly technologically advanced, it is important to consider how technology might impact the quality of parent-child interactions, particularly with young children. The purpose of this literature review was to analyze and evaluate research concerning how parent-child interactions differ when using a physical toy vs technology. Nine studies focusing on parent-child interactions with children between the ages of 16-36 months were reviewed. Results of the review indicate that parents typically engage in higher quality interactions with their …

A Case Study: School Professionals’ Perspectives On Students Exiting Middle School Entering An Achievement High School, Joy Davis Lee

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Each year approximately 1.3 million students dropout of high school and an estimated 40% of minority students do not graduate on time (Roybal, Thornton, & Usinger, 2014). In high school, 22% of students repeat 9th-grade classes because students fail to make a smooth transition. This gives the 9th-grade the highest enrollment rate and the highest dropout rate (McCallumore & Sparapani, 2010). In an effort to increase high school graduation rates, the Peabody County Public School District created Achievement schools, an initiative to recruit highly effective administrators, teachers and staff members to support students with the highest academic and nonacademic needs. …

Mixed Messages: Reading Contemporary U.S. Literature Of Biracial Girlhood, Candice Nicole Hale

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The tragic mulatta character is no longer an accurate representation of biracial female characters in literature. This dissertation considers the vast history of the tragic mulatto genre and its tragic and mired representations of biracial women and how they are often portrayed in literature. Within a historical, legal, and political analysis, I highlight the ways perceptions, attitudes, and representations about biracial individuals have changed, so those same shifts should change in the literature. Because of the bourgeoning field of Critical Mixed Race Studies (CMRS), both scholars and authors are recasting and rewriting the narratives and discourses of mixed-race in the …

Clinical Prediction Of Coronavirus Disease-2019: How Accurate Can One Be?, Gabriel Aisenberg, Kevin O Hwang

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Background Some models based on clinical information have been reported to predict which patients have Coronavirus Disease-2019 (COVID-19) pneumonia but have failed so far to yield reliable results. We aimed to determine if physicians were able to accurately predict which patients, as described in clinical vignettes, had, or did not have this infection using their clinical acumen and epidemiological data. Methods Of 1177 patients under investigation for COVID-19 admitted, we selected 20 and presented them in a vignette form. We surveyed physicians from different levels of training (

Tolkien And The Age Of Forgery: Improving Antiquarian Practices In Arda, Will Sherwood

Journal of Tolkien Research

This article situates J.R.R. Tolkien's legendarium as a literary descendent of the antiquarian projects from the 'Age of Forgery' in the 1760s. It argues that Tolkien's motivation to create a national mythology echoed those of James Macpherson and Thomas Chatterton. Drawing on previously unpublished folios from Tolkien's undergraduate notebooks, it showcases his familiarity with the two forgers, their feigned literary heritages, and British antiquarian practices in the eighteenth century. It further argues that Tolkien improved on Macpherson's and Chatterton's antiquarian methodologies by marrying the oral tradition with the written word in The Book of Lost Tales, The Hobbit, and The …

There And Back Again: An Educator's Journey, Chrysta Wilson

Master of Arts in English Plan II Graduate Projects

This portfolio includes two research projects, one seminar paper, and one pedagogical project that demonstrate the author's diverse course experiences and growth as a writer and as an educator in the Professional Writing and Rhetoric specialization.

Creating Statistical Testing Tools In Digital Testing Environments: Eliminating Confirmation Bias And Improving Pedagogy In The Humanities Testing Lab At Byu, Robert Hatch

Undergraduate Honors Theses

The Humanities Testing Lab at BYU is a computer testing environment for humanities students and professors. Statistics are useful in a pedagogical sense because they present unbiased information about the progress of the class. The Humanities Testing Lab did not previously have a statistical tool, making it the perfect place to monitor the change in teacher perspective when a statistical tool was introduced. In an effort to better the BYU Humanities Testing Lab, an ideal statistical tool was researched, created, and delivered to participating professors. Their interactions with the tool were measured through a set of before and after surveys. …

Missionary Miracle, Andrew Murphy

Individual Item Submissions

A story about how a mysterious stranger is fed by a woman and later appears to her husband who is serving a mission afar to save him from starvation.

My Name Is..., Mikayla Stevens

Final Projects

Stories of how people got their first and middle names.

Brunettes, Redheads, And Blondes Meet Careers, Construction, And Cars: An Analysis Of 17 Blonde Jokes, Natalya Nielsen

Final Projects

This project focuses on blonde jokes and the analysis of recently collected ones.

Survey On Deep Neural Networks In Speech And Vision Systems, M. Alam, Manar D. Samad, Lasitha Vidyaratne, ‪Alexander Glandon, Khan M. Iftekharuddin

Computer Science Faculty Research

This survey presents a review of state-of-the-art deep neural network architectures, algorithms, and systems in speech and vision applications. Recent advances in deep artificial neural network algorithms and architectures have spurred rapid innovation and development of intelligent speech and vision systems. With availability of vast amounts of sensor data and cloud computing for processing and training of deep neural networks, and with increased sophistication in mobile and embedded technology, the next-generation intelligent systems are poised to revolutionize personal and commercial computing. This survey begins by providing background and evolution of some of the most successful deep learning models for intelligent …

Huddle And Safety, Jaelynn Hall Bsn, Rn

MSN Capstone Projects

The purposed evidence-based practice (EBP) project focuses on a nursing intervention (team huddles) to increase safety and reduce inpatient fall rates. Negative outcomes to consider from an inpatient fall are harm and injury to the patient along with increased health care cost for the patient as well as hospital facility. Accrued cost associated with an in-patient injury resulting from a fall is not reimbursed according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The additional cost for hospital-acquired falls is estimated to be $6,694 (95% CI: -$1,277 to $14,665) (Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, 2017). This was only related …

Exercise To Improve Cancer-Related Fatigue, Jennifer Watson

MSN Capstone Projects

For the average patient, medical professionals typically recommend exercise to enhance the health of their patients in multiple ways. Oncology patients, however, often have different issues that the treating physicians are more concerned about, so physical activity gets placed on the back burner. The need for exercise in oncology patients is certainly a decision that should be part of an individualized treatment plan, but it is reasonable to believe that most of these patients will benefit from participating in an exercise program. With the high demanding need to decrease chemotherapy side effects and improve lives of those undergoing it, this …

Citation Analysis Of Pearl: Journal Of Library & Information Science -A Study Based On Indian Citation Index, Shanmugam Ap Palanigounder, Ulaganathan G

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

Indian Citation Index database is a authoritative tool to search, track, and measure and collaborate in the sciences, social sciences, arts, and humanities. This paper is discussed the published research articles, citations and self-citations in PEARL : Journal of Library & Information Science which are available in Indian Citation Index. During the period of study 2007 to 2019 totally 516 articles were published which are indexed in Indian Citation Index. Among the 516 articles, maximum of 55(10.66 %)articles published in 2017 and minimum of 19 (3.68%)articles published in 2007.