Digital Commons Network^™

Centering Community Voices To Address Healthcare Inequities In Underserved Utah Populations, Karishma Shah, Jazmine Abril, May Shaaban, Silvia Soule, Sonia Sehgal, Rawad Farhat, Jeannette Villalta, Oreta Tupola, Valentine Mukundente, Cathy Wolfsfeld, Ivana Holiday, Walter Watchman, Carrie Olvera, Lauren Gleave, Kamaile Tripp, Alexander Sperber, Rita Osborn

Patient Experience Journal

Persistent disparities in health outcomes across the United States are often driven by systemic inequities and social determinants of health. In Utah, these inequities are particularly pronounced among racially, ethnically, and geographically underserved populations. Community healthcare workers (CHWs) who share lived experiences with these communities are uniquely positioned to bridge the gap between patients and a fragmented healthcare system. This study aimed to explore how underserved communities in Utah perceive and interact with the healthcare system, centering their lived experiences to inform more equitable care models. We conducted eight focus groups with 73 participants from six medically underserved communities: African …

Caring But Still Hurting: Uninsured Patients' Illness And Healthcare Experiences At A U.S. Free Clinic, Danaya Amornnimit, Eda G. Christensen, Adelaida Salmeron, Kian Robison, Sofia Ampudia Arroyo, Jessica Benelli, Brenda Spearman, Akiko Kamimura

Patient Experience Journal

While free clinics provide essential healthcare to socioeconomically disadvantaged populations, patients' lived experiences in these settings remain underexplored. This qualitative study examined how uninsured patients at a U.S.-based free clinic perceive their illness experiences and interactions with healthcare providers. From October to December 2024, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 21 adult patients (ages 18–72; M = 49.14), most of whom were non–U.S.-born and primarily Spanish-speaking. Participants described illness as entangled with emotional distress, social isolation, stigma, and disruptions to identity and family roles—revealing a psychological burden that extends beyond physical symptoms. These findings highlight the need to integrate psychosocial and …

From Drifting To Anchored: How Online Health Communities Can Transform Care For Complex Chronic Illness, Mads Eggerding

Patient Experience Journal

This personal narrative recounts a 25-year diagnostic odyssey with Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, defined by medical fragmentation, dismissed symptoms, and profound isolation. It illustrates how Online Health Communities (OHCs) bridged the chasm between lived experience and a clinical system ill-equipped for complex chronic illness. For patients like me, these digital forums provide the peer validation, practical knowledge, and self-advocacy tools necessary to navigate a disjointed healthcare landscape. For providers, this story underscores a critical opportunity: proactive, non-judgmental engagement with OHCs is not a threat to expertise but a foundational strategy for patient-centered care. By acknowledging and constructively partnering with these patient-led spaces, …

Rebuilding Trust After Bondi Beach: Healing Patients, Protecting Caregivers, And The Sacred Work Of Care, Anne Marie Hadley

Patient Experience Journal

The Bondi Beach tragedy of December 14, 2025 profoundly disrupted Australia's collective sense of safety, belonging, and trust. Beyond the immediate loss of life and injury, such events exert lasting impacts on healthcare systems and the people who work within them. This article explores how trust can be rebuilt not only for patients and communities, but also for caregivers themselves. Drawing on trauma-informed care, psychological safety, and human experience design, it examines the often-overlooked dimensions of staff safety, the essential role of pastoral care and chaplaincy, and the particular vulnerabilities experienced by faith-based caregivers during periods of social fracture and …

Supporting The Human Experience: Why Compassion Outperforms Empathy In Care Delivery, Katelyn Carey

Patient Experience Journal

Healthcare professionals are often taught that empathy, defined as imagining oneself in the emotional experience of another, is essential to providing excellent care. Yet in high-stress, high-stakes clinical environments, the very tool given to increase patient and employee connection can contribute to disengagement, burnout, and diminished resiliency. This research review article examines the longstanding conflation of empathy and compassion in healthcare and argues that the distinction between the two is not merely semantic but critical to provider well-being and patient outcomes. Drawing on research from neuroscience, psychology, and communication studies, the piece outlines how emotional, perspective-taking empathy activates the brain's …

Racial Concordance And The Assumption Of Trust: Why Engagement Is Often Mistaken For Partnership In The Care Of Black Men, Samantha Faith Calhoun, Lacretia Carroll, Y'Esha Williams-Click, Kola Brown

Patient Experience Journal

Race concordance between patients and clinicians is frequently promoted as a strategy to improve trust and engagement for Black men in healthcare. Evidence suggests that encounters with Black male clinicians often increase patient comfort and observable engagement; however, engagement alone does not necessarily reflect trust. Drawing on professional experience as a nurse and researcher working with Black men, and on prior research examining shared decision-making preferences among Black men with hypertension in the U.S. Mid-South, this Personal Narrative examines how race-concordant encounters may rely on presumed trust, leading clinicians to advance diagnosis and treatment planning without adequate co-construction of care. …

Building Or Breaking Trust In Healthcare Through Patient And Family Engagement In Research And Service Design: The Need For Authentic Engagement Practices, Lisa D. Hawke, Hajar Seiyad, Shoshana Hauer, Charlotte Munro, Natasha Y. Sheikhan

Patient Experience Journal

Trust in the healthcare system is an important driver of public health, but is sometimes lacking among individuals and communities. Patient and family engagement in research and service development is one proposed means of influencing trust. Patients and families can be engaged authentically and meaningfully as partners in the conduct of research and the development of healthcare services. When engagement is conducted following best practices, patients and families have the opportunity to build strong mutual relationships with project leads, hold a share of the power in the discipline, and exercise choice to influence the research and service development agenda. These …

Healing The Social Covenant: Rebuilding Trust And Re-Humanizing Healthcare, Cynda Hylton Rushton

Patient Experience Journal

Violence against healthcare workers continues to escalate despite substantial investments in security measures, workplace violence prevention programs, and legislative protections. Although these interventions are necessary, they have not produced sustained improvements in workforce safety or retention, suggesting that workplace violence is more than a behavioral or security problem. This commentary argues that it also reflects a deeper erosion of trust within healthcare. Drawing on evidence linking workplace violence to burnout, moral injury, psychological distress, and turnover intention among nurses, we propose that repairing trust is essential to sustaining the workforce and healthcare.Building on our earlier work, Rebuilding a Foundation of …

How Philip K. Dick Used The Unreliable Narrator To Transport Unwitting Acolytes, Michael Barros, Jordi Smith

Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy

This essay examines the use of the unreliable narrator to transport the reader into narrative worlds, specifically in Philip K. Dick's fiction. By exploring the phenomenon of narrative transportation and the role of emotions in engagement with fiction, we argue that Dick's use of the unreliable narrator significantly engages and transports readers into his narrative worlds. Subsequently, we contend that his belief in the fundamental reality of those worlds is effectively positioning himself as a gatekeeper and mediator between the narrative world and the real world, which sets him, in his mind, as a prophet, using fiction as a tool …

Pluto's Arrival, Salarah Seymour

Digressions: Literary & Art Journal

No abstract provided.

Exploring The Situation Of Health Literacy Promotion To Delay Kidney Disease Progression In Older Adults With Chronic Kidney Disease: A Convergent Parallel Mixed-Method Study, Kritanon Janthasri, Ladawan Panpanit, Khanitta Nuntaboot

Journal of Health Research

Background: Health literacy (HL) is crucial for delaying chronic kidney disease (CKD) progression, yet evidence on HL promotion among older adults with early-stage CKD is limited. This study examines HL level and explores the situation of HL promotion for delaying kidney progression among older adults with CKD.

Methods: A convergent parallel mixed-methods design was employed. The quantitative phase, 297 older adults with CKD complete a questionnaire. The qualitative phase, 50 participants then took part in interviews to explore their experiences. Quantitative data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, and qualitative data through content analysis. Findings were integrated to identify …

Prescription Opioid Misuse Among High School Athletes During The Opioid Prescribing Limit Law Era: Yrbss 2017-2023, Francine R Vega, Andrea J Yatsco, Audrey Sarah Cohen, James R Langabeer, Tiffany Champagne-Langabeer, Rakshitha Vijendra, Christine Bakos-Block

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Background/Objectives: School-age athletes occupy a paradoxical position in the adolescent opioid crisis, combining health-oriented activity with elevated risk of sports-related injury and prescription opioid exposure. In response to the opioid epidemic, states enacted opioid prescribing limit laws (OPLLs) beginning in 2016-2017, yet whether these supply-side policies reached high-risk youth subgroups remains unclear. This study evaluated national temporal trends in prescription opioid misuse among U.S. high school students during the period of OPLL implementation and examined differences across athletic participation, concussion history, sex, grade, race/ethnicity, and substance-use profiles.

Methods: Using four biennial waves of the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System with …

Media Emotion Regulation And Executive Function In Childhood: Associations With Respiratory Sinus Arrhythmia, Lara M. Almeida

Theses and Dissertations

Media emotion regulation (MER), or the use of media to help children manage emotions, may influence children's development by shaping opportunities for practicing self-regulatory skills. Guided by the Dynamic, Relational, Ecological Approach to Media Effects Research (DREAMER) model, this study examined longitudinal associations between MER and executive functioning (EF) in early childhood and explored whether respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA), a physiological index of regulation, predicted developmental changes. Participants included 175 parent-child dyads assessed across two annual waves when children were approximately 4 and 5 years old. Structural equation modeling was used to test bidirectional associations between MER and EF while …

Interventions To Improve Nurse Outcomes In South African Private And Public Hospitals: A Case Study, Babalwa Tau, Siedine Knobloch Coetzee, Nicholin Scheepers

International Nursing Research Congress (INRC)

Background: South African nurses face ongoing challenges, including escalating healthcare needs of a growing population, staff and resource shortages, and deteriorating infrastructure, all of which negatively affect their health and wellbeing, relationship with work, productivity and effectiveness and satisfaction with work (South Africa, 2024). Although numerous studies explore interventions to improve these nurse outcomes (Niskala et al., 2020; Ramachandran et al., 2023; Xu et al., 2020), few address the realities of developing countries such as South Africa.

Methods: An exploratory multiple-case study design was employed (Yin, 2014). Secondary data from a national hospital database (n = 143) were analysed to …

Decent Work In Nursing: A Walker And Avant Concept Analysis, Mu-Hsi Deborah Young, Chiu-Yueh Yang

International Nursing Research Congress (INRC)

Background: Although the WHO and the International Labour Organization have repeatedly emphasized the importance of promoting decent work to ensure a sustainable nursing workforce, the concept of decent work within nursing remains insufficiently defined, creating challenges for implementation.

Objective: The purpose of this article is to analyze the concept of decent work in nursing.

Method: A literature review was conducted following Walker and Avant’s concept analysis method. Searches were performed in PubMed, EBSCOhost (including CINAHL Complete, CINAHL Ultimate, MEDLINE, APA PsycArticles, and APA PsycINFO), ProQuest, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, and Airiti Library through April 2025.

Result: Twenty studies were …

Exam Wrappers, Test Anxiety, Demographics, And Exam Grades In First-Semester Nursing Students, Patricia L. Pence, Myoungjin Kim, Robin Rochelle Trost

International Nursing Research Congress (INRC)

Problem- The first semester is a critical time when students decide whether to persist or leave a nursing program.

Purpose- To evaluate a) students’ responses on exam wrappers during the first semester, b) the relationship between demographic characteristics and exam grades, and c) if there was a change in students’ level of test anxiety as measured by the Westside Test Anxiety Scale (Driscoll, 2007) at three points in time during the first semester and if there was any change in relation to demographic characteristics.

Research Questions: 1) What are nursing students’ exam wrapper responses during the first-semester? 2) What is …

Psychoneuroimmunological Predictors Of Ptsd In Icu Patients, Yu-Ju Chen, Pei-Yu Hou, Ching-I Li

International Nursing Research Congress (INRC)

Background: Patients in Intensive Care Units (ICUs) face significant distress, elevating their risk for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) (Abdelbaky & Eldelpshany, 2024; Righy et al., 2019). PTSD arises from complex psychoneuroimmunological interactions (Katrinli, Oliveira, Felger, Michopoulos, & Smith, 2022). Autonomic dysregulation, indexed by reduced heart rate variability (HRV), is a known correlate of PTSD (Schneider & Schwerdtfeger, 2020). Evidence also links PTSD to chronic inflammation, with markers like C-reactive protein (CRP) implicated (Kim et al., 2025; Peruzzolo et al., 2022). However, integrated psychoneuroimmunological research in ICU-related PTSD is limited.

Purpose: To examine the relationships between psychological (anxiety, pain, sleep quality), …

Exploring Presenteeism Experiences Among Nurses In Taiwan: A Qualitative Study, Hsiao-Wei Cheng, Ai-Fu Chiou

International Nursing Research Congress (INRC)

Background: Nurses often work despite illness due to heavy workloads, professional expectations, and limited staffing. Such presenteeism may affect performance, well-being, and long-term occupational health. In Taiwan, little is known about how nurses perceive and experience working while unwell. Therefore, this study aimed to explore Taiwanese nurses’ awareness and lived experiences of presenteeism using a qualitative approach.

Methods: A qualitative descriptive design was used. Six nurses from intensive care units and general wards in a medical center in northern Taiwan were recruited through purposive sampling. Data were collected through face-to-face, semi-structured interviews that focused on decision-making regarding attendance, perceived pressures, …

Assess The Effectiveness Of Sleep Hygiene Education Programe On Sleep Quality Among Students, Narinder Kaur Walia

International Nursing Research Congress (INRC)

Introduction: Sleep is essential for physical, cognitive, and emotional well-being. According to WHO, good sleep involves 7–9 hours of rest, minimal sleep latency, and the absence of disturbances like insomnia. However, many students lack awareness of proper sleep hygiene. Poor sleep quality is common among nursing students due to academic pressure, clinical rotations, irregular schedules, and lifestyle habits like caffeine use and social media. These issues can affect mental and physical health, academic performance, and patient care. Sleep disturbances are a growing concern among the general population, with global prevalence ranging from 3.9% to 45%. In India, studies show 36.3% …

Supportive Technology Promotes Research Engagement Among Nurses And Allied Health Professionals, Rachael Haskell, Zoe Samson, Justin Peterson, Kristiina Hyrkas

International Nursing Research Congress (INRC)

Nursing research can support improved clinical outcomes for patients and nursing workforce outcomes, such as workplace engagement and job retention. However, nurses report significant barriers to research engagement, such as limited time, lack of mentorship, and insufficient access to resources.1 In 2024 our Magnet-designated organization implemented Ovid® Synthesis, a structured virtual platform designed to help clinical staff complete research projects.

The aim of this project is to examine how Ovid® Synthesis addresses known barriers to research participation and influences staff perception and engagement in scholarly work.

A survey was distributed via REDCap to clinical staff registered with Ovid® Synthesis (N=591) …

Emotion-Attention Relationships In Anxiety: A Multimodal Psychophysiological Network Analysis, Kyle O'Brien

Clinical Psychology Dissertations

Anxiety has long been associated with changes in attention processing, emotional salience detection, and emotional affect. Traditional methods of measuring anxiety frequently utilize self-report symptom measures, behavioral performance measures, and psychophysiological indicators. The current study integrates behavioral accuracy, self-report measures of psychological distress and well-being, and event-related potential markers of attention processing into an exploratory multimodal psychological network analyses to identify meaningful patterns across these indicators. The final sample of nonpatients included 36 anxious (low depression) and 24 control (low anxiety and depression) participants who completed an Emotion Attention Blink task while EEG data were collected to assess early, more …

Integrating Matrescence Into Birth Worker Practice: A Practice Improvement Project, Kelsey B. Green

Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) Projects

Background: Perinatal mood and anxiety disorders (PMADs) affect 20–25% of mothers worldwide and are a leading cause of maternal complications. Stigma, fragmented care, and limited provider training leave families vulnerable, while birth workers offer trusted, continuous support.

Problem: Birth workers' maternal mental health (MMH) training is minimal and often excludes matrescence, the developmental transition to motherhood, limiting their ability to distinguish normal adjustment from clinical PMADs and delaying intervention.

Methods: A single-group, pre-/post-test design evaluated a matrescence-informed workshop at Roots Community Health's 2nd Annual Symposium. Anonymous surveys measured knowledge, attitudes, and confidence, analyzed with Mann–Whitney U, Wilcoxon signed-rank tests, and …

All The Pretty Ponies, David Rose

Theses

Adopting a nonconventional, narrative approach, this thesis explores a world of ponies where memories become distorted and rewritten through the author’s self-insert of a 'little pink pony' persona to illustrate the psychological states investigated in the exhibit. This paper serves as an artistic companion piece to the thesis exhibition by David Rose that featured these concepts through visual media. David utilizes painting, screenprinting, and animation as mediums for this body of work. This thesis is written like a story because David’s work is founded on the principle of creating and displaying an experience rather than simply stating the facts. Through …

Preparing Inclusive Educators: The Impact Of Fieldwork Experience On Preservice Teachers’ Knowledge, Skills, And Confidence In Working With Students With Disabilities, Adrian Jung

Northwest Journal of Teacher Education

This study examined preservice teachers’ confidence in working with students with disabilities across Elementary (n = 44), Secondary (n = 43), and Special Education (n = 52) programs. Using a quantitative pretest–posttest survey design, participants completed an adapted version of the Special Needs Confidence Scale before and after student teaching. Descriptive statistics and Tukey post hoc analyses were conducted. Results indicated overall increases in confidence following fieldwork, with Special Education preservice teachers reporting consistently higher confidence than Elementary and Secondary peers. Findings highlight the role of targeted preparation and field-based experiences in supporting inclusive teaching readiness.

Chronic Hiv And The Emerging Threat Of Neurodegeneration In The Aging Population, Delilah Frey, Isabella Lagunzad, Andrew Meltzer

URGENT Matters

No abstract provided.

From Curriculum To Career: A Grounded Theory Of Ai-Driven Employability In Higher Education, Sandra Baroudi, Christina Davison, Maryam Juma

All Works

This study examines how undergraduate students navigate employability within an AI-driven labor market, highlighting the role of digital social capital, personal branding, and multicultural identity management in a rapidly modernizing, culturally diverse setting. Employing a constructivist grounded theory approach, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 12 undergraduates across STEM and humanities disciplines. Data were coded iteratively using constant comparative methods until theoretical saturation. Five major categories emerged: experiential learning, professional networking, digital self-promotion, cultural identity tensions, and technological adaptability. The study proposes an ‘AI-Driven Employability Framework’ that integrates Human, Social, and Cultural Capital theories and develops two context-specific extensions: digital social …

The Screening Tool Of Behavioral Self-Regulation “Head-Toes-Knees-Shoulders” Task: A Preliminary Adaptation To Greek Older Adults, Eleni Rachanioti, Dimitra Magkavila, Olga Fragkomichelaki, Magda Dinou, Effie Katsadima, Theodora Foti, Anastasia Tzalla, Anna Dougali, Christina Bourmpou, Maria Staikopoulou, Aphrodite Papantoniou, Fotini Varlami, Irene Dinaki, Maria Tsiountala, Konstantinos Staikopoulos, Tryfon Mavropalias, Efthymia Efthymiou, Demetra Tomprou, Maria Georgiadi, Dimitra Katsarou, Georgios Kougioumtzis, Ioanna Giannoula Katsouri, Harilaos Zaragas, Despina Moraitou, Maria Sofologi, Georgia Papantoniou

All Works

The aim of the present study was to examine the psychometric properties of the Head-Toes-Knees-Shoulders (HTKS) behavioral self-regulation (executive function) measure in a sample of Greek older population. Specifically, 88 cognitively healthy Greek older adults over the age of 65 participated in the study. The Greek version of HTKS was administered along with the Greek versions of the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), the Raven's Educational CPM, the Number Series (NS) test, the Positive and Negative Affect Scale (PANAS), the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale (BIS-11) and the Impulsive Behavior Scale (UPPS-P). Exploratory factor analysis supported the unidimensional structure of the HTKS. The …

The Inner Motherhood Penalty: The Impact Of Maternal Self-Stereotyping On Decisions To Apply For High-Status Roles, Jaycelin Eyre

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Stereotype-based discrimination creates obstacles for women's representation in high-status roles, and even more for mothers, who experience a motherhood penalty in hiring, evaluation, and promotion. While literature identifies how maternal stereotypes lead to external discrimination, little is known about how maternal self-stereotyping creates barriers to women's representation in high-status roles. Applying self-categorization theory (SCT) and expectancy theory, this paper examines whether maternal self-stereotyping influences women's willingness to apply for high-status roles through work-family conflict (WFC), which reduces the perceived value (valence) of these roles. In a survey, participants (N = 392) rated their willingness to apply for five jobs varying …

A Novel Role For The Infralimbic Cortex In Conditioned Fear Responding, Julia R. Mitchell, Samantha Tuberman, Rylin Lubash, Leticia C. N. Takasumi, Emmett Bergeron, Roberto Calitri, Mikaela A. Laine, Maryclare Pikus, Victoria Vance, Leena Ziane, Rebecca M. Shansky

Neuroscience: Faculty Publications

Freezing during Pavlovian fear conditioning is the most commonly used indicator of learned fear in rodents. Although freezing and its neural underpinnings have been widely studied, the field has largely ignored other potential indicators of learned fear. Darting, an escape-like conditioned fear response, occurs more frequently in females and is reliably predicted by a distinct behavioral phenotype: heightened shock response and decreased freezing compared to rodents that do not engage in darting. The experiments in this study sought to expand the field’s understanding of conditioned fear by investigating the neural correlates of conditioned darting, focusing on the infralimbic cortex (IL) …

How A Lack Of Curriculum Framework Impacts The Effectiveness Of The K-12 Visual Arts Curriculum, Ashley Breiler

Masters Projects

Visual arts education provides meaningful opportunities for students to develop creativity, self-expression, cultural understandings, and social-emotional competencies. However, the K-12 visual arts curricula do not intentionally integrate student choice, cultural responsiveness, and social-emotional learning (SEL) into a cohesive instructional framework, resulting in inconsistent implementation of these components across classrooms. As a result, students may receive varying opportunities to engage in meaningful art-making experiences that help to foster these skills. The purpose of this project was to address this gap by developing a research-based curriculum framework that intentionally integrates student choice, cultural responsiveness, and SEL into K-12 visual arts instruction. The …