Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Factors Impacting Organ Transplant Outcomes, Katelyn Grubich

Nursing | Senior Theses

Organ transplants are crucial to the survival of those on the receiving end. With medicine advancing, so has transplantation. Health care providers are becoming more aware of the strategies necessary to prolong the transplanted organ and how to obtain better outcomes. Heart, lungs, kidney, liver, pancreas, and some where more than one organ are involved, are the types of organ transplants performed.

Providing patients information will allow them to be a part of their treatment and can help to ease their anxiety knowing what is being performed and what can be expected. Health care providers must ensure that patients and …

Psychosocial Effects Of Providing Nursing Care To Patients From A Multi-Casualty, School-Associated Shooting Event, William Travis Mccall

Doctoral Dissertations

Secondary traumatic stress describes symptoms consistent with post-traumatic stress disorder but that result from witnessing or experiencing the trauma of another individual through a helping relationship. The associated symptoms include intrusions, avoidance, and hyperarousal. Secondary traumatic stress is also associated with the development of compassion fatigue and burnout. The current state of the science identifies that secondary traumatic stress may affect those nurses who provide care to critically ill or injured patients. Research has most commonly examined the prevalence of secondary traumatic stress, compassion fatigue, and burnout among nurses in emergency department settings. While attention is frequently given to the …

The Impact Of A Digital Intervention On Perceived Stress, Resiliency, Social Support, And Intention To Leave Among Newly Licensed Nurses: A Randomized Controlled Trial, Lisa Concilio

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The nursing shortage has been deemed a public health crisis with the turnover rate of newly licensed nurses (NLNs) growing (Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, 2014). One out of five NLNs are leaving the profession due to work dissatisfaction and feelings of inadequacy (National Academy of Medicine, 2017). NLN attrition during the first year of hire has been associated with feelings of overwhelming stress and decreased sense of support which negatively impact patient safety (Spence Laschinger et al., 2016). As seasoned nurses are attempting to retire amidst a nursing shortage (American Association of Colleges of Nursing, 2018), NLNs require more support …

Effect Of A Self-Care And Self-Awareness Education Program On Resilience To Burnout And Depression In Clinically Experienced Nursing Students, Andrew Taylor

Undergraduate Honors Theses

The purpose was to examine the effect of a self-care educational intervention on nursing student resilience and thus the potential for compassion fatigue, depersonalization, burnout, depression, and inadequate self-care. A one-group pretest-posttest research design was applied to a convenience sample of 104 nursing students near the end of their last semester in a baccalaureate nursing program. The measurements were demographics, a psychometric resilience scale, program evaluation, and reflection question. The intervention was a standardized, intensive 30 min training program on the high degree of stress and burnout nurses face and the core self-care methods that can promote resilience to these …

Gratitude Journaling As Intervention To Combat Nurse Burnout In Cardiac Surgery Intensive Care Nurses, Melinda Simpson

Master of Science in Nursing Theses and Projects

As a practicing registered nurse in the intensive care setting, this researcher witnessed an episode of burnout characterized by a public meltdown, crying, and yelling. This sparked an interest in an intervention to combat nurse burnout. Literature was found on gratitude which has been found to increase resiliency. An increase in resiliency, in various populations, has been found to decrease perceived stress and feelings of burnout. This researcher investigated the use of gratitude journaling for 21 days as means to decrease perceived stress and feelings of burnout while increasing gratitude and resiliency. The PSS, GQ, BRS, & BBI tools were …

Reported Interventions For Reducing Anxiety And Distress In Adult Oncology Patients Throughout Their Cancer Experience: A Review Of The Literature And An Analysis Of Adults In Remission, Katie Gomez

Honors Theses

Background: The purpose of this paper is to identify present methods at relieving anxiety and distress in adult oncology patients. According to the American Cancer Association (2016), 1.7 million American will be diagnosed with cancer in 2016, and therefore, it is important for nurses to be competent caregivers to this growing patient population.

Literature Review: A comprehensive review of current literature showed that consistent, competent caregivers, honest communication from the medical team, back massage, and music therapy were effective at cutting mean anxiety and distress scores by as much as 50 percent. Sixteen peer-reviewed articles from around the world …

A Biobehavioral Approach To Examining Moral Distress In Critical Care Nurses, Marian Altman

Theses and Dissertations

Moral distress is a complex and challenging problem that may cause negative biopsycohosical and professional outcomes for critical care nurses. The purpose of this work was to explore the relationship between the ethical climate of the work environment and moral distress as experienced by critical care nurses; and to explore relationships among mediators of stress (nurse characteristics e.g. education (BSN, nonBSN), years certified as a critical care nurse, and tolerance of ambiguity) and their relationship with perceived stress, moral distress, health status and salivary alpha amylase. A descriptive correlational cross-sectional design was used for this pilot study of 100 critical …

Music Therapy As An Intervention To Reduce Anxiety In Mechanically-Ventilated Patients, Stephanie L. Levine

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Patients receiving mechanical ventilation endure high levels of stress and anxiety due to the invasiveness of the procedure. These critically ill patients are often uncomfortable as a result of their serious conditions and the high-intensity environments in which they are placed. Health care workers heavily sedate these patients to minimize pain and induce a state of relaxation. However, sedatives are known for their wide-ranging, and often deleterious, side effects. Music therapy is an intervention that has been studied in a variety of hospital settings to determine any potential beneficial effects on patients. Many studies have demonstrated a relationship between music …

Humor As A Buffer For Stress In Nurse Anesthesia Students, Kayla C. Forbis

Honors Theses

This simple, quantitative study was carried out on 18, first-year, CRNA students to determine if humor could act as a buffer for some of his or her perceived stress. Before an impending final exam, when stress levels would most likely be at their highest, the students were broken into three groups: a control group, a non-humorous group, and a humorous group. The students in the control group ranked their level of stress on a 0-10 scale without any other intervention. The other two groups watched a video clip, either humorous or non-humorous, while ranking their perceived stress on a scale …

An Explanatory Study Of Maternal Stress And Coping With A Cystic Fibrosis Child, Leslie G. Potter

Nursing Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to explore the concept of coping with a cystic fibrosis (CF) child and to define coping strategies from the perspective of the mother. The research design was based upon a phenomenological approach with analysis of transcribed, semi-structured interviews with mothers of CF children. A purposive sample of eight mothers with CF children were interviewed to explore the maternal CF experience. Each interview was tape recorded and followed up with a phone call to allow the mothers to add additional information, if so desired. Data analysis consisted of reviewing each typed, verbatim transcript to categorize …

Development And Testing Of The Stress Adaptation Scale For Parents With Chronically Ill Children (Sasp), Carolyn M. Rutledge

Nursing Theses & Dissertations

This research study consisted of four phases used to develop and test the Stress Adaptation Scale for Parents with Chronically Ill Children (ASP). The first phase dealt with developing the items on the SASP from a review of the literature and the researcher's professional experience. The SASP was then divided into the six categories of health care, social, personal, familial, financial, and spiritual. In phase II, content validity was evaluated by a panel of experts. In phase III, stability over time and face validity was demonstrated using 26 parents of chronically ill children. The SASP achieved a Pearson's r=.85 with …