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The Effect Of Heart Failure Education On Intermediate Care Unit Nursing Staff's Knowledge Of Heart Failure, Self-Care, And Best Practice Guidelines, Carol Budgin

Evidence-Based Practice Project Reports

Heart failure (HF) is a chronic disease affecting nearly six million people in the United States with an annual cost of nearly 33 billion dollars. If nurses are inadequately prepared to care for and/or educate patients with HF, evidence-based (EB) nursing care will be suboptimal and hospital readmission rates with the subsequent increased costs for care will continue to soar. To address their higher-than-national average HF readmission rates, an EB nursing project was implemented at a local, urban community hospital to assess intermediate care unit (IMCU) nursing staff’s knowledge of HF, selfcare, and best practice guidelines. The Rossworm & Larrabee …

Pain Management In Triage And Reducing Percentage Of Left Without Being Seen In An Overcrowded Ed, Christina Ballejos-Campos Phd

Dissertations

Although in most emergency rooms, the patient is seen first by a highly trained triage nurse, the ED physician is trained to determine if the patient can safely leave the ED prior to in-depth exam, treatment and diagnosis. The goal is to keep the left without being seen by a physician percentage low, since a high number would indicate poor quality, additionally patients who present with pain, and then leave the ED prior to being seen can pose a greater risk. This study examined the association of nurse-initiated triage pain protocol on the LWOBS percentage rate of patients who present …

Relationship Between Delirium And Night-Time Interruptions In Icu, Amy R. Stuck Phd, Rn

Dissertations

Background: This dissertation examined the phenomenon of delirium in the intensive care unit (ICU) setting. Delirium is a form of cognitive disturbance with a physiologic etiology and complex, multifactorial mechanisms of causation and risk. Delirium in the ICU patient presents a significant risk for adverse outcomes including increased mortality, length of stay, falls, and restraint use. ICU delirium can lead to persistent cognitive impairment beyond discharge and frequent skilled nursing placement. Identifying delirium requires accurate diagnosis that is optimized when validated instruments are used. Sleep deprivation has been linked to adverse health consequences including delirium. Previous studies investigating the relationship …

Needs Assessment Of Emergency Department Social Workers In Southwestern Minnesota In Relation To Emergency Department Expansion, Gina Marie Njugunah

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

Expansion of a hospital emergency department will affect the role of the emergency department social worker. This research project was conducted to assess the needs, concerns, and strengths of the social workers working in the emergency department of a regional medical center. The study included 13 participants who completed an on-line survey. Results showed that participants were concerned with the increase in patient volume as well as the possible increase in wait time for patients. Participants also expressed how concerns could be addressed. The most common solution was to track information about the cases, including wait times for patients, in …

Stroke Rehabilitation, Length-Of-Stay, And Re-Admission Rates: A Literature Review, Morgen Hagedorn

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

Stroke is shown to be a significant U.S. health problem with a profound impact on the nation’s rising healthcare costs (Hall, Levant, & DeFrances, 2012). Longer patient length-of-stay [LOS] and higher re-admission rates have brought consequences to healthcare systems as institutional budgets are unable to reconcile the additional services and the influx of healthcare demands. Through a comprehensive literature review, the author illustrates the general knowledge available on the stroke experience, on stroke care and rehabilitation, and on patient LOS and re-admission rates. The literature review is based on general medical research with a focus on the stroke population. The …

Survey Of Emergency Department Patients' Perceived Barriers To Accessing Services And Community Resource Utilization, Kelsey Ann Wilke

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

The purpose of this project is to describe the patients being served by Avera McKennan’s emergency department (ED) and to explore perceived barriers to accessing services and current community resource utilization in order to prevent further non-emergent visits.

Research Questions: 1) What are the demographic characteristics of emergency department patients that are referred to the emergency department social worker? 2) What are the perceived barriers that emergency department patient’s encounter when trying to access services and community resources?

Bridging Tactics: Parental Support Systems: A Proposal For A Psycho-Educational Parent Group, Emily F. Thompson

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

The purpose of this Capstone project is to design and present a new intervention program for increasing supportive services to the parents of clients being served through the infant/early childhood mental health program at CSSM. The goal of this project is to provide CSSM with a culturally-­responsive, theoretically grounded, evidence-­based proposal for the development of a psycho-educational group that includes a clear rationale for why this intervention is needed and how it will help the agency achieve the outcomes of infant/early childhood mental health program.

Constraint Induced Aphasia Therapy In The Very Early Phase Of Recovery Following Stroke, Sarah D'Souza

Theses : Honours

Background and purpose: Research suggests communication outcomes following stroke may be greater when treatment is administered in the acute phase of recovery. In addition, treatment outcomes are improved when therapy is provided at a greater intensity. Constraint Induced Aphasia Therapy (CIAT) has addressed the issue of treatment intensity by delivering therapy for three hours per weekday for two weeks, but its effectiveness has largely been investigated in the chronic phase of recovery. Treatment outcomes have typically been assessed on standardised tests and few studies have used connected speech and discourse measures to assess change. This research investigated daily intervention in …