Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Voice-Activated Virtual Home Assistant Use And Social Isolation And Loneliness Among Older Adults: Mini Review, Cynthia F. Corbett, Pamela J. Wright Phd, Ms, Med, Rn, Cen, Kate Jones, Michael Parmer

Faculty Publications

A lack of social connectedness is common among older adults due to living alone, loss of loved ones, reduced mobility, and, more recently, social distancing created by the global Covid-19 pandemic. Older adults are vulnerable to social isolation and loneliness, which pose significant health risks comparable to those of smoking, obesity, physical inactivity, and high blood pressure. A lack of social connectedness is also correlated with higher mortality rates even when controlling for other factors such as age and comorbid conditions. The purpose of this mini review was to explore the emerging concepts of older adults' use of commercially available …

Advancing Knowledge Of Exercise As A Therapeutic Management Strategy For Women With Polycystic Ovary Syndrome, Pamela J. Wright

Theses and Dissertations

Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is the most common endocrinopathy among premenopausal women with a prevalence that ranges 15-21%. The estimated financial burden in the United States for evaluating and treating premenopausal women with PCOS was over $8 billion in 2020. PCOS etiology is complex and poorly understood, as is the optimal treatment and management. Endocrine Society Clinical Practice Guidelines recommend exercise as first-line treatment. Yet, the optimal exercise type and “dosing” are not defined. As last reported for women with PCOS, less than 60% are regularly physically active and more than 25% are sedentary. Additionally, little to no published data …

Spiritual Care: The Overlooked Need In End-Of-Life Care, Michael Howard Vrmeer

Doctor of Nursing Practice Scholarly Projects

Background: A number of studies have validated the use of the FICA tool to evaluate a patient’s spirituality. FICA has been helpful in many palliative care settings to screen for spiritual problems that influence the patient's overall health. Aim: The project was a quality improvement initiative with the purpose of implementing the FICA tool as part of the admission assessment to increase chaplain referrals for inpatient palliative care services. Methods: The staff received an in-service on using the FICA questions on admission, and a prompt to complete the screen was placed at each work station in the project setting. Results: …

The Impact Of Nurse Leader Learning Labs On Nurse Managers' Perception Of Leadership Competency In The Acute Care Setting, Carolyn Rivers Swinton

Doctor of Nursing Practice Scholarly Projects

Problem Statement: It is critically important that our nurse managers (NMs) have the leadership skills to support the care team in providing safe care to patients. Historically, nurse managers have received minimal training in the leadership role. Failure to address NMs’ coaching needs can compromise the organization's ability to achieve operational goals. Purpose: The project's primary aim was to improve NMs’ perceptions of leadership competency in the acute care setting through experiential nurse leader learning labs. The secondary aim was to demonstrate that the confident and prepared nurse manager can achieve organizational goals in the acute care setting. Method: There …

The Effects Of Debriefing On Nurse Distress After Perinatal Loss, Russin Marie Kelly

Doctor of Nursing Practice Scholarly Projects

Labor and delivery nurses are the first-line caregivers for women suffering a perinatal loss which involves miscarriage, stillbirth, and infant death. This loss of life can cause nurses’ distress. This project proposes using the PEARLS healthcare debriefing tool as an intervention to decrease distress and improve nurse satisfaction. Before and after the debriefing intervention, a survey allowed the nurse to rate their distress from zero to ten using the distress thermometer and answer questions about job satisfaction. The data analyzed shows that the debriefing intervention decreased nurse distress after perinatal loss compared to the prior practice of no debriefing after …

Expanding The Discharge Bundle To Reduce Preventable Readmission Among Adult Patients With Heart Failure, Leah Caccam Ramos

Doctor of Nursing Practice Scholarly Projects

Individuals with a heart failure (HF) diagnosis have a high risk of readmission following hospital discharge, increasing care costs. In an academic medical center (AMC) in Charleston, SC, the all-patient-related DRG of HF had 576 30-day readmissions for FY 2020, equivalent to a 26.3% readmission rate. This project aimed to decrease the readmission rate of adult patients diagnosed with HF admitted to cardiac units in the AMC by expanding the discharge bundle. The current discharge process is not bundled. The discharge bundle elements include HF education, pharmacy medication reconciliation, medication counseling, and appointment to the HF clinic prior to discharge. …

Improving Hand Hygiene In A Rural Critical Access Hospital, Katherine H. Miller

Doctor of Nursing Practice Scholarly Projects

Hand hygiene adherence is the single most important infection control practice among healthcare workers in United States hospitals. Hand hygiene is cost effective and adherence to protocols can reduce hospital acquired infections and employee illness. While hand hygiene adherence has been shown through research to improve patient safety and reduce hospital acquired infections, adherence to hand hygiene protocols among healthcare workers is poor and improvement efforts lack sustainability. A potential barrier to performing hand hygiene includes failure of healthcare workers to realize they are carrying microbes on their hands and what proper hand hygiene is, whether using soap and water …

Modern Representations Of Childbirth In American Comedy Television Shows, Emily Smith

Senior Theses

This is a concurrent, mixed methods pilot study that combines quantitative analysis and qualitative observations with the aim of examining the portrayal of childbirth in modern American comedy shows. 38 episodes airing from 2010 to 2020 (n=38) were analyzed according to objective elements of representation (e.g., location of birth, interventions employed, etc.), as well as coded for common themes. Quantitative data revealed that the most represented births in comedy shows on American television from the 2010s were vaginal (82.1%), in the hospital (69.2%), uncomplicated (66%), and represented technological interventions (66%). Qualitative analysis found six main themes: chaos surrounding childbirth; disgust …

Post-Discharge Phone Calls In The Emergency Department: Do Follow-Up Calls Increase Patient Satisfaction And Reduce Post-Discharge Complications?, Saraann K. Fagan

Doctor of Nursing Practice Scholarly Projects

Improvements in discharge instructions are necessary in emergency departments (EDs) across the United States (US). Multiple factors, such as the fast-paced environment and varying levels of acuity in the ED, contribute to inadequate discharge instructions and change is necessary to further prevent negative outcomes. The purpose of the evidence-based practice project was to implement post-discharge follow-up phone calls to ED patients to improve patient satisfaction scores regarding discharge instructions for at-home care and to reduce post-discharge complications. The project was implemented over a three-month period in early 2021 in the ED of a local hospital in Charleston, South Carolina (SC). …

Nurses’ And Patients’ Perceptions Of The Availability Of Post-Hospital Instrumental Support As A Predictor Of 30- And 60-Day Acute Care Utilization, Beth E. Schultz

Theses and Dissertations

Social support is now part of the social determinants of health objective in Healthy People 2030. Positive social support improves health and well-being. Social support is concerned with people having the support they need within the community, including interacting and communicating with others on a regular basis. Instrumental support is a type of social support that is action oriented, involving one person directly assisting another person. A concept analysis of instrumental support was completed and revealed that the concept is well defined, but the terms used to describe it vary. Other terms in the research literature, most commonly “tangible support”, …

Race Is Not A Risk Factor: Examining The Influence Of Models Of Care, Race, And Discrimination On Racial Disparities In Maternal Outcomes, Curisa Mae Tucker

Theses and Dissertations

Maternal health outcomes are worst for racial and ethnic minority patients in the United States. There are disparities in pregnancy-related death and severe maternal morbidities where Black women suffer the most disparate outcomes. However, much of the previous scholarly work in this arena has charged that race is a risk factor for adverse maternal outcomes in which this dissertation refutes.

To better understand this phenomenon, we first conducted a scoping review of literature. Our aim was to examine the current state of literature on group prenatal care and its impact on maternal outcomes and racial disparities in adverse maternal outcomes. …

Perceptions Of Endocrine Therapy In African-American Breast Cancer Survivors: Mixed Methods Study, Sara Donevant, Sue P. Heiney, Cassandra Wineglass, Benjamin Schooley, Akanksha Singh, Jingxi Sheng

Faculty Publications

Background: Although the incidence of breast cancer is lower in African-American women than in White women, African-American women have a decreased survival rate. The difference in survival rate may stem from poor endocrine therapy adherence, which increases breast cancer recurrence. Therefore, accessible and culturally sensitive interventions to increase endocrine therapy adherence are necessary. Objective: The purpose of this concurrent convergent mixed methods study was to provide further data to guide the development of the proposed culturally sensitive mHealth app, STORY+ for African-American women with breast cancer. Methods: We recruited 20 African-American women diagnosed with estrogen-positive breast cancer and currently prescribed …

Barriers To Healthy Births At Nigerian Hospitals, Caroline Johnston

Senior Theses

Maternal mortality is a problem everywhere, but it is especially dangerous in Nigeria where the average woman experiences pregnancy six times during her lifetime (Population Reference Bureau, 2001). Many researchers focus on the medical complications associated with labor, such as hemorrhage, eclampsia, or infection. Although these birth complications are the direct sources of maternal death, it is also important to recognize how maternal mortality is a multifaceted issue influenced by local cultural groups, religions, politics, poverty level and the absence of basic infrastructures. Although maternal mortality is interconnected with social and geographical elements, my paper concentrates on Nigerian hospitals and …

Early Premature Infant Physiologic And Behavioral Indicators Of Ans Instability, Karen Popp Becker

Theses and Dissertations

The advanced survival of the early premature infant (EPI) since the post-surfactant era has not improved many comorbidities. EPI comorbidities influence their lifelong health, social, and cognitive outcomes. EPIs often have immature and disorganized responses to stimuli during the neonatal period. EPIs respond to stressors from the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit’s (NICU) environment, stimulation, or disease states based on physiologic system changes, often resulting in observable behavioral changes. Both physiologic and behavioral changes reflect autonomic nervous system (ANS) disruption, thus instability. Instability of the ANS due to chronic stressors, can lead to chronic physiologic dysregulation and lead to lifelong health …

Examining The Relationship Of Blood Transfusions And Acute Morbidity In Preterm Infants, Kayla Chavis Everhart

Theses and Dissertations

Preterm infants, those that are born less than 37 weeks gestational age, often suffer major morbidity and mortality during hospitalization in the neonatal intensive care unit due to their prematurity; one of the major morbidities is Necrotizing Enterocolitis, a devastating gastrointestinal disease. The exact aspects that cause preterm infants to develop Necrotizing Enterocolitis are unknown; however, our hypothesis is preterm infant thermal stability and/or preterm infant stress around packed red blood cell transfusions are etiological factors in the relationship between these necessary transfusions and morbid outcomes such as Necrotizing Enterocolitis.This dissertation includes an in-depth background and introduction of various morbid …

The Effect Of Covid-19 On The Mental Health Of College Athletes, Molly Mcardle

Senior Theses

This research aimed to explore how the mental status of student athletes at the University of South Carolina has been affected by the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic. A total of 61 student athletes between the ages of 17 and 24 participated in the study and completed a series of questions including the Depression-Anxiety-Stress Scale 21 (DASS-21) and the Group Environment Questionnaire (GEQ). Independent samples t-tests and descriptive analyses were used for comparisons between gender and age. The results showed that female athletes reported statistically significantly higher levels of anxiety and stress than male athletes (p = 0.049 and p = …

How Providing Care For Individuals With Dementia Affects How A Caregiver Changes Their Lifestyle: A Focus On The Positives, Veronica Joy Vodola

Senior Theses

Background/significance Caregivers of individuals with dementia (e.g. Alzheimer’s Disease) may change their day-to-day life, especially self-care, to meet the needs of the person with dementia, which can be detrimental to their health. Caregivers for individuals with dementia experience both primarily negative and primarily positive effects on physical and mental health through exposure to the effects of dementia. Caregivers often report substandard self-care practices and unpleasant impacts on mental health. Others report notable beneficial influences within different aspects of their life. The positive effects have not been widely researched in literature.

Purpose The objective of this research study is to understand …

The Effect Of Barometric Pressure, Temperature, And Precipitation On Preterm Labor In Expecting Women In South Carolina, Allison K. Fletcher

Journal of the South Carolina Academy of Science

Each year, approximately 9.9% of infants in the United States are born prematurely at less than 37 weeks of gestation with unidentified causes. From 2014 to 2016, the total preterm birth rate rose 3%, and late preterm birth rates rose almost 4%. One source of preterm labor that has been examined in recent years is its potential correlation with meteorological phenomena, including barometric pressure, temperature, and precipitation. In September of 2019, birth data recording 322 deliveries from two South Carolina hospitals was collected along with weather data on the given dates. The changes in temperature, barometric pressure, and precipitation for …

Community Social Determinants And Health Outcomes Drive Availability Of Patient-Centered Medical Homes, Nathaniel Bell, Rebecca Wilkerson, Kathy Mayfield-Smith, Ana Lòpez-De Fede

Faculty Publications

The collaborative design of America's patient-centered medical homes places these practices at the forefront of emerging efforts to address longstanding inequities in the quality of primary care experienced among socially and economically marginalized populations. We assessed the geographic distribution of the country's medical homes and assessed whether they are appearing within communities that face greater burdens of disease and social vulnerability. We assessed overlapping spatial clusters of mental and physical health surveys; health behaviors, including alcohol-impaired driving deaths and drug overdose deaths; as well as premature mortality with clusters of medical home saturation and community socioeconomic characteristics. Overlapping spatial clusters …