Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Lean And Six Sigma Impact On Operating Room Safety Attitudes And Efficiency, Nancy Marlene Geedey

Nursing Theses and Capstone Projects

Non-healthcare organizations have utilized Lean Six Sigma methodologies for several decades to eliminate waste, decrease expenses, and improve efficiency. This approach to problem-solving can be successfully applied to health care process improvement projects. Health care leaders and front line staff can use a prescribed set of steps to define steps in care processes and identify potential solutions. Health care leaders can use Lean Six Sigma tools such a fishbone diagram or a cause and effect matrix to identify issues. After carefully organizing the problems into groups according to priority, leaders can develop action steps toward resolution.

Improving Attitudes Toward Interdisciplinary Collaboration Between Nursing And Medical Students In Simulation, Kristy H. Williams

Nursing Theses and Capstone Projects

This capstone project assessed whether a curriculum change for senior nursing students could have an impact on improving attitudes toward physician-nurse collaboration. A convenience sample of 60 senior level nursing students and eight residents were enrolled in the study. The nursing students and residents participated in a high-fidelity simulation scenario, and were given a pretest and posttest using the Jefferson Scale of Attitudes Toward Physician-Nurse Collaboration. There was strong evidence (t= -1.971, p=.05) that the attitudes of physician-nurse collaboration improved for nursing students through a simulation based scenario with residents. The confidence interval for the difference was (-0.22, 0.002). Although …

Effects Of Comfort Education On Maternal Comfort And Labor Pain, Abby E. Garlock

Nursing Theses and Capstone Projects

A lack of understanding regarding the relationship between comfort education and maternal comfort experienced during labor exists within current literature. This project examined the effects of providing education regarding comfort and comfort options available in the hospital setting on level of maternal comfort during labor. A quasi-experimental pretest/posttest comparison group design was used for this project, in which a convenience sample of 80 participants was randomly assigned into a standard care control group or an educational intervention group. Providing comfort education during admission to the labor and delivery unit did not increase comfort scores or decrease pain scores in the …

Rural Healthcare Providers' Behavioral Intentions With Hospice Referrals: Attitudes, Knowledge, Beliefs, Benefits And Barriers, Meki Jacobs Graham

Nursing Theses and Capstone Projects

As hospice programs gain recognition, hospice referrals are gaining momentum. Yet for multiple reasons hospice referrals are challenging amongst rural healthcare providers (HCPs). For rural healthcare providers, lack of knowledge about hospice services and care contributes to a decrease in hospice referrals. The purpose of this capstone project was to develop an intervention to improve rural health care providers' behavioral intention to make hospice referral. The study sought to determine if an educational intervention would improve behavioral intentions to make a hospice referral resulting in increased hospice referral rates. Outcome data was based on utilizing a pretest/posttest survey design. An …

Relationship Between Patient Safety Culture And Safety Outcome Measures Among Nurses, Jamie Kay Brown

Nursing Theses and Capstone Projects

Preventable errors in healthcare are a significant problem in today’s society, contributing to numerous adverse patient outcomes and even deaths on a daily basis. Identifying adverse outcomes is an imperative first step in creating a safer healthcare system, which can be followed by cause analyses and action plans to address systematic issues and improve process reliability. Despite the widespread use of voluntary reporting systems to identify adverse events, recent literature has found extreme limitations and severe underreporting with its use in healthcare facilities. A frequent theme in the literature implies that identifying reportable events and discouraging hesitation in reporting begins …

Book Review: Where No Doctor Has Gone Before: Cuba’S Place In The Global Health Landscape, Curt Stilp

Faculty Publications - College of Medical Science

Robert Huish, Assistant Professor at Dalhousie University, Department of International Development Studies, presents an overview of the Cuban health system, the Cuban medical education system, and the government’s effort to provide care beyond its borders. This is a practical book that gives the historical background of how Cuba has survived decades of economic sanctions to become one of the world leaders in universal health care. The author examines the different aspects of Cuban health care using credible evidence and a variety of sources including the author’s own experiences in Cuba learning how health care and medical education is delivered.

Functional Assessment Of Heart Failure Patients, Leonard A. Kaminsky, Mary T. Imboden

Faculty Publications - Department of Kinesiology

Heart failure (HF) is the condition characterized by the inability of the heart to pump sufficient blood to meet the demands of the body. It has been well established that both the prevalence and incidence of HF is increasing.1 There are 2 primary types of HF, categorized by ejection fraction: Reduced ejection fraction and preserved ejection fraction.2 Additionally, HF is commonly classified into stages from mild to severe using a symptom-based scale related to functional limitations.

One of the hallmark features of HF is exercise intolerance, which is accompanied by symptoms of fatigue and shortness of breath.3 As the disease …

The Effect Of Art Therapy On Hospice And Palliative Caregivers, Carol E. Gress

Nursing Theses and Capstone Projects

A quazi-experimental, one-group, pretest/posttest study was conducted with a group of 25 hospice workers employed by a medium sized county hospice organization in the southeastern United States that was experiencing rapid personnel turn-over. Participants in the study included a doctor, a physician’s assistant, a nurse practitioner, a massage therapist, a grief counselor, a licensed practical nurse, a certified nursing assistant, two clergy, three administrative staff, three social workers, seven volunteers, eight registered nurses and one other. The purpose was to investigate whether attending four 1-hour art therapy sessions could help reduce stress and thereby Burnout. Stamm’s (2010) Professional Quality of …

Nurse Rounding: An Evidenced Based Practice Report, Todd E. Tussing

Doctor of Nursing Practice Program Projects

Today’s healthcare environment is becoming increasingly competitive for patient volume and revenue dollars. The introduction of Value Based Purchasing by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) links patient satisfaction and healthcare quality to government reimbursement. Patient satisfaction has been linked to increased market share, thereby, positively impacting revenue for healthcare organization and increasing the competitiveness between healthcare organizations. In addition, patient satisfaction has been linked to increased compliance with prescribed healthcare regimens leading to improved health outcomes.

Nursing leaders of today’s healthcare systems must develop strategies to increase patient satisfaction and improve the revenue streams for their organizations. …

Association Between Respiratory Syncytial Virus Activity And Pneumococcal Disease In Infants: A Time Series Analysis Of Us Hospitalization Data., Daniel M. Weinberger, Keith P. Klugman, Claudia A. Steiner, Lone Simonsen, Cécile Viboud

Epidemiology Faculty Publications

BACKGROUND:

The importance of bacterial infections following respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) remains unclear. We evaluated whether variations in RSV epidemic timing and magnitude are associated with variations in pneumococcal disease epidemics and whether changes in pneumococcal disease following the introduction of seven-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV7) were associated with changes in the rate of hospitalizations coded as RSV.

METHODS AND FINDINGS:

We used data from the State Inpatient Databases (Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality), including >700,000 RSV hospitalizations and >16,000 pneumococcal pneumonia hospitalizations in 36 states (1992/1993-2008/2009). Harmonic regression was used to estimate the timing of the average seasonal …

Can We Increase The Intensity Of Pro-Active Balance Exercises?, Joshua Lilly, Elizabeth Antonik

Undergraduate Research Posters 2015

Balance training has been shown to be effective in preventing or lessening the severity of falls among older adults. This training can be proactive or reactive; however, the relative effectiveness of each and the necessary dosages are not known. The purpose of this research was to adapt an existing protocol for slip testing (reactive training) and video-game balance training (proactive) to better accommodate the abilities of older adults. We tested iteratively the initial protocols, set-ups, and equipment with a group of adults age 55 years and older and devised new protocols and equipment for each. After observing the subjects’ participation …

Invasive Species Facilitation In Bioswales And Rain Gardens In Greater Cleveland, Brittany Dalton

Undergraduate Research Posters 2015

Stormwater management features such as bioretention systems and rain gardens provide valuable ecosystem services. They are ecologically engineered to counteract surrounding urban land use practices. However, new stormwater management features may also create an environment for invasive plant species. Invasive plants can affect ecosystem services, and have devastating economic impacts. This study was conducted to determine connections between surrounding land use and maintenance practices in stormwater management features throughout Greater Cleveland and the presence of invasive plant species. Initial site visits were conducted for 164 bioretention systems and rain gardens in Greater Cleveland. They were analyzed for physical characteristics, surrounding …

Case Transition Format And Lexical Decision Performance: Does Spacing Reduce The Benefit Of Orthographic Regularity?, Kristyn Oravec, Maryam Assar, Hannah Princic

Undergraduate Research Posters 2015

Some models of visual word identification propose that identification is analytic— mediated exclusively by letter identification. However, some studies have shown that there are phenomena that suggest a route to word identification involves holistic stimulus properties. In previous research, using a lexical decision task, in which participants are asked to determine whether letter strings are words or nonwords, we have found that response times to orthographically regular words (i.e., lowercase, uppercase, and initial uppercase formats) are faster than those to orthographically irregular words (i.e., words that include a case transition other than initial uppercase to lowercase). In this experiment, we …

Regulation Of Sister Chromatid Cohesion By Eco-1 And Wapl-1 During Meiosis And Mitosis, Kyle T. Schroeder

Undergraduate Research Posters 2015

Cohesin is a widely conserved, tetrameric protein complex that tethers replicated sister chromatids during meiosis and mitosis. Two cohesin subunits, SMC-1 and SMC-3, and a third subunit, the α-kleisin, form a ring proposed to encircle sister chromatids. Different kleisins associate with cohesin during mitosis and meiosis. SCC-1 is the mitotic kleisin. Meiotic cohesin can associate with either REC-8 or COH-3/4. REC-8 and COH-3/4 cohesins differ greatly in their functional properties, indicating that the kleisin determines meiotic cohesin function. Early in meiosis, REC-8 and COH-3/4 cohesins are triggered to become cohesive at different times and by different mechanisms. Later in meiosis, …

Preliminary Investigation Of The Role Of Open Bigrams In Word Perception: Is There A Benefit To Having Flankers That Consist Of Letters In The Word?, Maryam Assar, Kristyn Oravec, Hannah Princic, Amy Palinski

Undergraduate Research Posters 2015

Most investigators of word identification agree that information is processed through a hierarchical system in which units at progressively higher levels respond to features, letters, letter combinations (e.g., pairs, or bigrams), and possibly words. Grainger et al. (2014) found support for the role of adjacent-letter bigrams in an experiment in which participants saw target strings flanked by bigrams, such as BI BIRD RD and CE BIVS NT, and judged whether the targets were words. They found, for words, that flanking bigrams facilitated performance when the flanking bigrams contained letters from the target, and that the order of bigrams relative to …

Tmco1 Mediates Cancer Cell Migration Through Regulating Microtubule Assembling, Pau Romaguera Llacer, Qiaoxia Zheng, Qiaoyun Zheng

Undergraduate Research Posters 2015

Transmembrane and coiled-coil domains 1 (TMCO1) is highly conserved in amino acid sequence among species and ubiquitously expressed in all human tissues. Homozygous frameshift mutation in TMCO1 causes distinctive craniofacial dysmorphism, skeletal anomalies, and mental retardation. However, its physiological functions, particularly in cancer biology, are largely unknown. In this study, we have found that knock down of TMCO1 in HeLa cells, a human cervical cancer cell line, and U2OS cells, an osteosarcoma cell line, remarkably inhibited their migratory capability; TMCO1 was highly expressed in the cells of the invasive front of high grade lung cancer and metastatic cancer cells in …

Synthesis Of Optimal Polymeric Microgels And Their Characterization With Light Scattering, Christan Gunder, Daria Kulyk

Undergraduate Research Posters 2015

Polymeric microgels were synthesized in by chemically crosslinking hydroxypropylcellulose (HPC) chains with each other in aqueous solutions of sodium hydroxide at temperatures above the low solution critical temperature (LCST) of HPC. In order to create a narrower size distribution of HPC microgels, surfactant (dodecyltrimethylammonium bromide, DTAB) was added. It was found that, LCST of the solution moved from ~40C up to 80C with an increase in DTAB concentration from 0 to 12 g/l. Formed microgels were be characterized by dynamic light scattering (DLS). Microgel solutions synthesized so far resulted in reasonably monodispersed nanoparticles between the sizes of 150-90 nm below …

Doctorate Of Osteopathic Medicine Overview, Nova Southeastern University

Health Professions Divisions Course Catalogs and Course Descriptions

No abstract provided.

Neuroimaging And Neuromodulation Approaches To Study Eating Behavior And Prevent And Treat Eating Disorders And Obesity, D. Val-Laillet, E. Aarts, B. Weber, M. Ferrari, V. Quaresima, L. E. Stoeckel, M. Alonso-Alonso, M. Audette, C. H. Malbert, E. Stice

Computational Modeling & Simulation Engineering Faculty Publications

Functional, molecular and genetic neuroimaging has highlighted the existence of brain anomalies and neural vulnerability factors related to obesity and eating disorders such as binge eating or anorexia nervosa. In particular, decreased basal metabolism in the prefrontal cortex and striatum as well as dopaminergic alterations have been described in obese subjects, in parallel with increased activation of reward brain areas in response to palatable food cues. Elevated reward region responsivity may trigger food craving and predict future weight gain. This opens the way to prevention studies using functional and molecular neuroimaging to perform early diagnostics and to phenotype subjects at …

Antiarrhythmic Properties Of Ranolazine: A Review Of The Current Evidence, Tanush Gupta, Sahil Khera, Dhaval Kolte, Wilbert S. Aronow, Sei Iwai

NYMC Faculty Publications

Ranolazine was developed as an antianginal agent and was approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 2006 for use in chronic stable angina pectoris. Experimental and clinical studies have shown that it also has antiarrhythmic properties based on the frequency-dependent blockade of peak sodium channel current (peak INa) and rapidly activating delayed rectifier potassium current (IKr) in the atria and blockade of late phase of the inward sodium current (late INa) in the ventricles. Recent clinical studies have revealed the efficacy of ranolazine in prevention of atrial fibrillation in patients with acute coronary syndromes, prevention as well as conversion …

C-Fos: A Neural Activity Marker For Craniofacial Pain Research, Weera Supronsinchai, Robin James Storer

Chulalongkorn University Dental Journal

It is well known that pain in animal models is difficult to measure. c-Fos, the protein product of the cellular immediate-early proto-oncogene gene, c-fos, can be activated in neuronal cells by noxious sensory stimuli including chemical irritation, mechanical, thermal, and electrical stimulation. The expression of c-Fos provides researchers with a tool by which the processing of somatosensory information, particularly nociception, from the craniofacial regions can be better understood. c-Fos is widely used as an indirect marker of neuronal activation after noxious stimulation in dental pain research, including in the trigeminal nervous system as activated by craniofacial or orofacial stimulation. Anatomical …

Agonists Of Epoxyeicosatrienoic Acids Reduce Infarct Size And Ameliorate Cardiac Dysfunction Via Activation Of Ho-1 And Wnt1 Canonical Pathway, Jian Cao, Peter L. Tsenovoy, Ellen A. Thompson, John R. Falck, Robert Touchon, Komal Sodhi, Rita Rezzani, Joseph I. Shapiro, Nader G. Abraham

NYMC Faculty Publications

Myocardial infarction (MI) is complicated by ventricular fibrosis and associated diastolic and systolic failure. Emerging studies implicate Wnt1 signaling in the formation of new blood vessels. Epoxyeicosatrienoic acids (EETs)-mediated up-regulation of heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1) protects against the detrimental consequences of MI in several animal models, however, the mechanism(s) by which this occurs remains unclear. The aim of this study was to examine these mechanisms in the LAD ligation animal model of post infarcted heart failure. Specifically, we sought to clarify the mechanistic basis of the interactions of the Wnt1 canonical pathway, HO-1 and associated angiogenesis. Human microvascular endothelial cells (HMECs) …

Heme Oxygenase-2 Deletion Impairs Macrophage Function: Implication In Wound Healing, Lars Bellner, Giuseppina Marrazzo, Nico Van Rooijen, Michael W. Dunn, Nader G. Abraham, Michal L. Schwartzman

NYMC Faculty Publications

Heme oxygenase (HO)-2 deficiency impairs wound healing and exacerbates inflammation following injury. We examine the impact of HO-2 deficiency on macrophage function and the contribution of macrophage HO-2 to inflammatory and repair responses to injury. Corneal epithelial debridement was performed in control and macrophage-depleted HO-2(-/-) and wild-type (WT) mice and in bone marrow chimeras. Peritoneal macrophages were collected for determination of phagocytic activity and classically activated macrophage (M1)-alternatively activated macrophage (M2) polarization. Depletion of macrophages delayed corneal healing (13.2%) and increased neutrophil infiltration (54.1%) by day 4 in WT mice, whereas in HO-2(-/-) mice, it did not worsen the already …

Cancer Care Annual Report 2014-2015, Children's Mercy Hospital

Cancer Center Annual Reports

Annual report of cancer care and oncology services at the Children's Mercy Hospital, Kansas City MO, a pediatric medical center. This report has a focus on germ cell tumors.

Quality Of Minority Health Communication: An Analysis Of Hispanic-Targeted Health Websites., Emma K. Wertz, Sora Kim

Faculty Articles

The Internet has become one of the most used forms of health communication media. Using the Health on the Net code of conduct, this study examined the quality of health information available on the Internet for one of the United State's fastest growing minorities, Hispanics. When comparing Hispanic-targeted websites with those that target the majority population, this study found significant differences with respect to quality. Specifically, sites targeting Hispanics had a lower level of quality than those that targeted the majority population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Com Outlook Fall 2014/Winter 2015, College Of Osteopathic Medicine

COM Outlook

No abstract provided.

Using Interpersonal Process Recall (Ipr) To Examine The Effects Of Equine Assisted Activities On The Personal And Professional Development Of Student Therapists, Dianna Isabel Giraldez

Department of Family Therapy Dissertations and Applied Clinical Projects

The Introduction to Equine Assisted Family Therapy course offered at Nova Southeastern University (NSU) provides Master’s and Doctoral level student therapists the opportunity to learn how to conduct an equine session and how to utilize horses as part of the therapeutic process. Students learn about the underlying theories and framework behind the equine activities and methodology, as well as participate in the equine activities themselves. For the purpose of this study, classroom discussions centered around processing the students’ experiences and were further enriched by viewing photographs and videos that had been taken of the students conducting the equine activities. The …

Hope-Focused Solutions: A Relational Hope Focus Of The Solution-Building Stages In Solution-Focused Brief Therapy, Jenna A. Wilson

Department of Family Therapy Dissertations and Applied Clinical Projects

The positive psychotherapy focused on for this study is Solution-Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT). Insoo Kim Berg and Yvonne Dolan (2001) once described the essence of Solution-Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT) as the “pragmatics of hope and respect” (p. 1) and despite Berg and Dolan’s declaration of hope’s importance in SFBT, little process research has been published looking at the “pragmatics” of hope in SFBT practice. Hope is seen as a common factor in psychotherapy since the human relationship, also known as the therapeutic alliance, is a foundation of psychotherapy. Hope plays a significant role in every human interaction and it is …

Attachment, Anxiety, And Depression: A Study Of Women In Residential Treatment With Their Children At The Susan B. Anthony Recovery Center (Sbarc) (1995-2010), Gary Miles Forrest

Department of Family Therapy Dissertations and Applied Clinical Projects

The Susan B. Anthony Recovery Center (SBARC) in Pembroke Pines, Florida is a residential center where women live with their children while receiving treatment for a variety of co-occurring substance abuse and mental health issues and while participating in mandatory parenting classes. Unlike most women's residential treatment centers, which address only the woman and her problems, SBARC treats the mother-infant/child dyad. I designed and created a database to examine the data previously available only in the paper client records of over 800 women who received treatment at SBARC from 1995 through 2010 in a previous project. This nonexperimental, retrospective explanatory …

Respiratory Particle Deposition Probability Due To Sedimentation With Variable Gravity And Electrostatic Forces, Ioannis Haranas, Ioannis Gkigkitzis, George D. Zouganelis, Maria K. Haranas, Samantha Kirk

Physics and Computer Science Faculty Publications

In this paper, we study the effects of the acceleration gravity on the sedimentation deposition probability, as well as the aerosol deposition rate on the surface of the Earth and Mars, but also aboard a spacecraft in orbit around Earth and Mars as well for particles with density ρ_p = 1300 kg/m³, diameters d_p = 1, 3, 5 µm and residence times t = 0.0272, 0.2 s respectively. For particles of diameter 1 µm we find that, on the surface of Earth and Mars the deposition probabilities are higher at the poles when compared to the …