Digital Commons Network^™

The King Hygiene Project: Addressing Hygiene Poverty In College Students, Krislynn King

Honors Projects

For my Honors Project, I seek to shine a light on the topic of hygiene insecurity and investigate how it impacts the modern-day college student. In addition, I have taken physical action through a hygiene drive, marketing, and volunteering to better the lives of those who struggle with this issue regardless of whether they are a student at Bowling Green State University.

Human Trafficking And Nutrition: Assessing The Effects Of U.S. Public Policy On Food Security And The Malnourishment Of Refugees, Moxie R. Mccandless

Honors Projects

This research paper aims to assess the challenges associated with human trafficking within the lived experience of refugees, specifically focusing on food security, and the resulting system shaped by existing United States policies and programs. By examining this complex relationship, the study seeks to shed light on the influence of power dynamics on fulfilling basic human needs and to propose more effective strategies for improving food security among marginalized populations.

A comprehensive literature review is conducted, and a community nutrition needs assessment is performed in King County, Washington. Qualitative interviews are conducted with human trafficked organizations, government officials, and experts …

Analyzing The Patient-Provider Relationship And Assessing Shortages In Oral Healthcare In Arenac County, Michigan, Aaron Norfleet

Honors Projects

The purpose of this prospective study will be to assess the patient-provider relationship in Arenac County, Michigan, analyze barriers to treatment for rural patients, and develop a meaningful plan to improve upon these categories. The intended outcomes of this study will be the development of a resource for rural oral healthcare providers to better understand and treat the needs of their patients based on knowledge from beyond the chairside, as well as the development of an easily repeatable model for patient-provider analysis. Furthermore, the questionnaires and data collected from this could assist in informing governmental or non-governmental organizations in identifying …

Autopsy V. Virtopsy: A New Approach For Postmortem Forensic Examination, Nicole Elaine Lawson

Honors Projects

Virtopsy as a potential new standard in forensic science investigation in the place of a conventional autopsy. In recent years there have been new advancements across the forensic field and in the scientific world as a whole. These advancements have changed many approaches bringing new capabilities and new challenges and pushback. This report takes a specific interest in the evolution of forensic autopsy. With improvements such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), computed tomography scan (CT), X-Rays, and other approaches a new term and technique have been coined Virtopsy. As this new potential approach has come to light the resistance against …

Analysis Of A Future Dentist, Monica J. Nagy

Honors Projects

My Senior Honors Project at GVSU is centered around the options I will have in front of me once I graduate from dental school. First I researched what the future of dentistry will look like 10 years from now. The COVID-19 pandemic has greatly impacted the dental field, creating better sanitation and procedural changes that will likely last forever. The second part of my project entailed the creation of a Business Model Canvas for owning a private dental practice. The final aspect of my project is a presentation of my potential plans of action. The powerpoint provides the steps for …

Oral Healthcare Education, Equity And Policy Implementation In Rural Honduran Communities, Alexander J.R. Dyke

Honors Projects

Rural Honduras encompasses many individuals with limited access to a dental professional. Many public health studies demonstrate that dental shortage areas have more dental cavities, missing teeth, and more complex restorations that need periodic treatment. Dental hygiene is undermined at home with limited access to oral health advocates, and dental education becomes more essential. Here, we report an educational consensus and perspectives of rural Honduras through a questionnaire distributed at 13 mobile dental clinics in remote villages. To assess the effectiveness of education, the World Health Organization (WHO) has deemed two important indices in assessing trends: Community Periodontal Index of …

The Interactions Between Oral Biofilms, Antibiotic Resistance, And Dentistry, Maxine Taylor

Honors Projects

Antibiotic resistance is a pressing concern that demands further action to reduce and develop new countermeasures. Antibiotic resistance impacts all fields of health and medicine, including dentistry. Many of the preventive and restorative dental procedures are due to a bacterial cause. Knowledge of oral biofilm development mechanisms and the interactions and relationships between oral microbiota is necessary to combat the spread of antibiotic resistance and develop more effective dental treatments. Exploring how the oral microbiomes and their treatments impact the health of the rest of the body is another important consideration since dentistry is part of the general healthcare system. …

Improving Health Care Accessibility Among Geriatric Patients In Rural Communities, Capriana Calvachi

Honors Projects

The following literature review and analysis compiles information regarding ways to improve rural geriatric healthcare accessibility through the use of interprofessional care and outreach. I also wish to bring to light the various deficiencies often seen in this realm of care, and the reasons behind the inadequate rural physician retention rates. Using this background information, I compiled various collaborative approaches which seek to ease the strain faced by the healthcare system and its elderly patients.

Improving healthcare accessibility through the use of interprofessional care and outreach is an essential facet in geriatric medicine. By exploring the deficiencies of geriactric healthcare …

Manual Dexterity: New Perspectives On Dentistry, Andrew Hibinger

Honors Projects

Having good hand-dexterity and hand-eye coordination are essential skills found in dentistry. Through the exploration of jewelry and metal making processes, a vast number of similarities can be tied to the metal casting process and dental practices used daily in nearly all offices. With a focus on effort and time devoted to the repeated processes of creation and finishing tooth shaped metal rings, an understanding of this relationship can be further understood. First shaped from wax, then casted with silver metal, realistic tooth shaped rings can be created with a correlation to improved manual dexterity. Psychomotor skills are associated to …

Typical Diet Quality In New Zealand Compared To Other Westernized Countries With An Emphasis On Chronic Disease, Emily Kollar

Honors Projects

The diet quality was analyzed for people living in New Zealand and people living in other Westernized Countries (United States, Canada, Western Europe) based on the dietary guidelines. Diet quality was analyzed by looking at consumption of food groups such as fruits, vegetables, meat, and seafood as well as nutrients such as saturated/trans/unsaturated fat, sodium, and added sugars. These nutrients have been linked to certain health outcomes and chronic disease; therefore, the prevalence of chronic disease was researched to determine if there was a correlation between New Zealand's diet and their chronic disease rates in comparison to other Westernized countries.

"Am I Going To Glow In The Dark?' An Analysis Of The Overutilization Of Diagnostic Medical Imaging, Alysha Cummings

Honors Projects

It is the goal of this paper to raise awareness of the danger of overutilization of diagnostic medical imaging and present possible solutions to reduce the current number of imaging exams performed.

Creating And Conducting Intergenerational Learning In Higher Education, Andrea Lauren Holt

Honors Projects

The creation, conduction and revision of a one of a kind intergenerational course taught in the Grand Valley State University Fredrick Meijer Honors College. Elders and Traditional Honors College Freshman came together in a mixed classroom in order to bridge the gaps of communication and misunderstanding between generations.

Trans, Gender Non-Conforming, And Non-Binary Experiences With The Us Health Care System, Brenna Wyffels

Honors Projects

This research aims to identify health care obstacles faced by members of the trans, gender non-conforming, and non-binary community. Through a literature review and a Qualtrics survey distributed to university students in the target community via email, obstacles to health care access and solutions to the obstacles were identified. Data collected from survey participants included demographic information, anecdotes about inclusive and exclusive health care experiences, and proposed solutions to health care obstacles. Obstacles to health care access stemmed from many sources, including from biases of health care providers. Solutions ranged from changes that individual providers could make to nation-wide education …

Volunteer Resource Guide For Older Adults In The Bowling Green Area, Mallory Farabaugh

Honors Projects

The purpose of this volunteer resource guide is to provide older adults a booklet with a variety of volunteer programs available in the Bowling Green/Wood County area. There are several benefits to volunteering including gaining an increased sense of purpose, giving back to the community, and fulfilling new roles in later life. It is made more convenient for the older adults in the community to access information about each program by listing it in one spot. Each program listed includes general information, how to sign up, any training that is involved, and how to contact the facility. The resource guide …

Bachelor Of Liberal Studies Degree Option For Pre-Dental Undergraduates At Bowling Green State University, David Westmeyer

Honors Projects

Admission to professional school programs has become more competitive than ever. There are a lot of applicants with competitive GPAs and test scores. These “numbers” are no longer adequate for professional school matriculation. Admissions teams are now also looking for well-rounded students who have shown a commitment to service, leadership positions, commitment to their field of interest, and more. Students who are aware of these expectations become extremely busy attempting to fulfill all of these requirements.

One of the most difficult aspects of my dental school journey was to select an appropriate major. If I were able to redo my …

Bilateral Ovarian Dermoid Cysts’ Treatment, Hilary Skalski

Honors Projects

Ovarian dermoid cysts are the most common neoplasm found in the ovary. They are also the most commonly removed ovarian neoplasm. Still, most reported cases of ovarian dermoid cysts are unilateral, so there is little research on bilateral ovarian dermoids. Nevertheless, bilateral treatment options should be explored, due to an increased likelihood of obtaining complications from a treatment or lack thereof. A meta-analysis on ovarian dermoid literature from 1991 to 2015 was performed to compile a treatment and prognosis for bilateral dermoids. The results found that a bilateral laparoscopic cystectomy was the optimal treatment method when treatment was desired. There …

An Overview Of Acute Myeloid Leukemia, Ryan Durkee

Honors Projects

Acute Myeloid Leukemia is a rare disease with an estimated 20,830 new cases in the U.S. in 2015.4 Although it is a rare disease it is crucial to understand the history, pathophysiology, and epidemiology of AML. Comprehending the steps behind treating AML is another crucial aspect in appreciating the care that must be put into AML and the patients that suffer from it. A comprehensive look into these two aspects of AML will give a better understanding for what causes AML, how it is treated, and what these patients experience. Through this comprehensive study the future of this field will …

New Youth For Health Care: The Affordable Care Act Story, Thomas Nieboer

Honors Projects

No abstract provided.

Levels Of Empathy In Undergraduate Healthcare Professions Students, Ashley M. Tegge

Honors Projects

Empathy is a central component in effective healthcare provider-patient relationships, yet evidence exists that healthcare professions students lack empathy. A cross-sectional survey was completed to identify whether a relationship exists between empathy levels in baccalaureate nursing, psychology, pre-medical, pre-dental, pre-physical therapy, and pre-occupational therapy majors who have or have not identified a projected specialty within their profession upon entry into practice, and compare these findings. A 28-item questionnaire was completed by a convenience sample of 202 students with declared majors in the healthcare professions of interest. There was no significant difference in empathy levels between students of all majors who …

School Nurse Job Satisfaction, Provision Of Health Education, And Student Attendence, Molly G. Guenette

Honors Projects

School nurses have a large scope of practice (American Nurses Association [ANA] & National Association of School Nurses [NASN], 2011). However, school administrators often misunderstand, and therefore under appreciate, the school nurses' role (Junious et al., 2004). In addition, few schools meet the 1 :750 nurse to student ratio recommended by the NASN and the ANA (2011); high nurse to student ratios negatively affect school nurses' job satisfaction (Maughn & Adams, 2011). Several studies found that interventions by the school nurse positively impacted students (Bonauito, 2007; Denny et al., 2012), while others have linked the presence of a school nurse …

Trends Of Emergency Department Use By Uninsured Individuals For Non-Urgent Health Care Conditions, Kelly A. Cantlin

Honors Projects

Abstract

Roughly one-third of all emergency department (ED) visits by both insured and uninsured individuals in the United States (US) are for non-urgent health conditions that can be effectively treated at a reduced cost by a primary care provider (Hossain, 2011). The purpose of this study is to identify trends of ED visits by uninsured individuals. This study is a secondary data analysis of patient visits to a midwest community ED. This study examined the services provided in the ED for non-urgent visits that could be provided at a less costly and non-urgent care facility, such as a Community Health …

Identification Of Inner-City, African-American Caregivers' Informational Needs In Providing Care For Their Children, Stacie De Lair

Honors Projects

The purpose of this study was to identify the information inner-city, African-American caregivers wanted in order to provide better care for their children. Thirty-five African-American caregivers of children, aged three to seven years, were interviewed. The gender, relationship to child, number of children cared for regularly, and the desired informational needs were identified. Frequencies and descriptive statistics were used for data analysis. Results showed that parenting-discipline and safety were each identified by approximately 25% of the respondents as desired informational needs. Almost 20% of the responses indicated no need for information. Other categories where a need for information was identified …

The Nurse-Midwife In The Midwest: A Study Of Factors That Affect Her Utilization, Gwen Marie Ohlendorf

Honors Projects

It is almost trite to refer to the stunning growth of our population and the related expansion of our economy. Not only are there many more Americans for whom health services are to be provided, but many of these fall into the category of the very young and old who require the greatest amount of medical services. The increasing rise in the levels of education and personal income have not only made people aware of what health services are available but also have resulted in their making effective demands for these services. Improved transportation, urbanization, private and governmental health insurance …

Aerospace Nursing: Implications For Baccalaureate Nursing Education, Diane Wentworth

Honors Projects

Through the efforts of pers ons representing a wide variety of scientific disciplines, achievements have been made and are planned in space exploration. Medical personnel represent one scientific discipline which has contributed to the space program since its inception. As early as 1918, the United States army, recognizing a need for more information about flight conditions, established the Medical Research Laboratory of Air Service.