Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

The Distribution Of Opioid Settlement Funds In Northeast Tennessee, Amani Patel

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Opioid Use Disorder is defined by the NIH as “the chronic use of opioids that causes

clinically significant distress or impairment.”1 Due to a number of factors, the overuse of opioids has become an epidemic in the United States. In recent years there have been a number of lawsuits against pharmaceutical companies and other parties who have benefitted from the proliferation of this issue. In most cases, it is up to the states or local governments who receive these funds to determine their best use. The purpose of this Thesis is to analyze the resources recommended by Ballad Health’s Community …

Covid-19 In Tennessee: Lessons Learned And A Tool For The Future, Allen Archer, Randy Wykoff, Megan Quinn

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Background: In late 2019, the SARS-CoV-2 virus was identified in Wuhan, China. Within a matter of weeks, the virus spread to the United States and many other countries around the world. By March 5, 2020, the first case of COVID-19 (the disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus) was identified in the state of Tennessee, and the first known COVID-19 associated death in the state followed on March 20, 2020. In 2020 alone, there were 514,922 confirmed cases and 6,760 COVID-19 attributed deaths in the state of Tennessee. It is important to understand, however, that confirmed COVID-19 deaths do not accurately …

Dna Transfer In The Soil Bacterium Rhodococcus, Jaimin Maheshbhai Kapadia

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Gene transfer plays an important role in bacterial evolution. Especially in an under explored species like Rhodococcus, a type of bacteria found in the soil. Rhodococcus has several applications in the pharmaceutical industry and in the production of antibiotics. Rhodococcus possess several unique sets of properties which makes it beneficial to have a reliable method of producing mutants of Rhodococcus. The goal of the experiment was to find an efficient way of forming Rhodococcus colonies with kanamycin resistant genes. The project began from an unexpected observation from an earlier experiment with Rhodococcus strain MTM3W5.2. where I attempted to transform this …

A Rural Mother's Guide To Breastfeeding, Haley Tillett

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Breastfeeding is considered as the gold standard of infant health (CDC, n.d.). The benefits provided to both the baby and mother by breastfeeding are unmatched when compared to formula feeding. Recent studies have shown a disparity in rates of breastfeeding, primarily in rural areas. This may be due, in part, to the fact that mothers in rural areas may not have equal access to resources and support they need to successfully breastfeed due to geographic isolation. This guide will provide an overview of breastfeeding resources in rural communities with a focus on Kittitas Valley, Washington. Resources include but are not …

The Use Of Mobile Healthcare Clinics To Expand Access To Underserved Populations: A Rapid Review, Alejandro Jimenez

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Access and utilization of health care is essential for the maintenance of overall health and prevention of chronic diseases. Several factors contribute to healthcare access disparities, including race, ethnicity, poverty, and rurality. Mobile healthcare clinics can be used to travel to medically underserved areas and reduce healthcare disparities. This rapid review examined the scope and impact of mobile healthcare units, and their use in reducing healthcare disparities. The exploration was done in 4 stages (1) identification of existing and relevant research studies, (2) selection of studies using prespecified eligibility criteria, (3) extraction of data from collected studies, and (4) summarization …

Long-Term Sustainment Of Rapid Improvement Events: A Case Study In “Room Readiness”, Gabriela V. Coronel

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Shifting payment models from fee for service (FFS) to pay for performance (P4P) have fundamentally changed the environment of healthcare administration in the United States (Center for Medicaid and Medicare Services (CMS), 2011). Due to this shift, there has been an increase in demand for tracking and improving quality measures to ensure not only patient safety, but optimization of utilization. Constraints on resources and capacity, coupled with increasing safety measures has developed a new study of patient flow (Miró, Sánchez, Espinosa, et al., 2003). Decreasing patient room turnover times has the potential to maximize utilization while ensuring patient safety and …

Improving Patient Adherence: A Look At Causal Knowledge, Treatment Credibility, And Treatment Expectancy, Kyra L. Mackenzie

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Lack of patient adherence to Cardiac Rehabilitation programs is a commonly reported problem (Bryne, Walsh, & Murphy, 2005) and is associated with increased morbidity and re-hospitalization rates (Platt, Green, Jayasinghe, & Morrissey, 2014). Factors that can increase the perceived credibility and expectancy of a treatment program predict better adherence (Nock, Ferriter, & Holmberg, 2007). A better understanding of a treatment rationale may improve treatment credibility and expectancy. For this study, causal knowledge is examined as a way to increase understanding because it has been shown to increase acquisition and retention of novel medical information (Goldszmidt, Minda, Devantier, Skye, & Woods, …

Perceived Barriers To Obtaining Psychiatric Treatment At Johnson City Community Health Center, Mychal Bolton

Undergraduate Honors Theses

The purpose of this study was to describe the perceived barriers to obtaining psychiatric treatment at the Johnson City Community Health Center. The context of the study was a rural area in Eastern Tennessee. Five patients with confirmed DSM-IV mental health diagnoses were recruited during treatment and interviewed at the Johnson City Community Health Center after their scheduled appointments with a Mental Health Nurse Practitioner (MHNP). The semi-structured interview focused on perceived barriers to obtaining treatment, perceptions of treatment received, and perceived availability of treatment. From those interviews, two themes were identified and each of which had two sub-themes identified: …