Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Empowering Nurse Practitioners To Make Health Policy Change: A Guide To Successful Passage Of Legislation In Utah, Heather Merrill, Lacey Eden, Karlen Beth Luthy

Student Works

Introduction: There is growing political apathy among nurses. This trend must be reversed to make meaningful change in healthcare. In 2017, the authors championed a bill, House Bill 308 Substitution 2 (HB 308 Sub 2), which passed in the Utah Legislature.

Guide: This health policy paper details the process of enacting HB 308 Substitution 2 to guide Nurse Practitioners in enacting legislation. The steps detailed to enact legislation are based on the acronym CHANGE which stands for collecting data, hinge, associations, negotiate, gather, and expect to be the expert. Basics of the legislature are also explained such as timing, the …

Mental Health Among Nursing Students Amid The Coronavirus Pandemic, Cheydan Crump

Honors College Theses

The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of the current pandemic on the mental health of nursing students at a rural university. This study examined various risk factors and potential indicators for mental health, such as changes in physical activity, sleep behaviors, and differing perceptions of support they have received from the nursing program and the participating university, throughout the spread of COVID-19. This study was a non-experimental, analytical study conducted in a rural university in the southern region of the United States. This convenience sample consisted of 21 students, all of which were enrolled in the …

Promoting Wellness For College Athletes Through Mindfulness Meditation, Lisa R. Braatz

Theses and Graduate Projects

The practice of mindfulness meditation may be beneficial for college athlete’s mental health and wellness. College athletes are in a period of significant personal growth and experience high amounts of stress related to athletic performance, academics, and peer relationships. Integrating mindfulness meditation for college athletes has been linked to improving relaxation, concentration, and performance while decreasing fatigue and negative emotions related to fear or anxiety. This scholarly project explores the implementation of four mindfulness meditation sessions on perceptions of stress, mental focus, athletic performance, and presence in female college track and field athletes. The participants were attending an urban college …

Perceptions Of Infusion Pump Alarms Among Experienced Nurses Versus Novice Nurses, Priyanka Panta

Merge

In nursing, infusion pumps are used daily to provide critical medications, fluids, and nutrition to patients. The alarm signals on these pumps can alert nurses to potential issues with the infusion, but some of these alarms are not clinically significant. In this study, the student researcher determined whether there was a statistically significant difference in the perceptions of infusion pump alarms among experienced and novice nurses. The student researcher hypothesized the novice nurses would have a higher perception of infusion pump alarms. The student researcher had the education department at a rural hospital in the southeastern United States distribute an …

A Descriptive Study Of Health-Related Risks And Outcome Differences By Loneliness Status In A Sample Of Older Veterans, Rachael Beard

Dissertations

There is a need to understand the influences and outcomes related to loneliness in veterans living with complex illness. Patients require self-care to manage complications and exacerbations associated with complex illness. Deficits in self-care result in negative health outcomes and drive resource utilization upward. The identification of potential factors related to self-care is important. Loneliness may be one factor that influences patients’ ability and desire to care for themselves. Descriptive correlational design was used to evaluate loneliness both as a predictor and outcome in veterans admitted to the hospital for three complex respiratory illnesses (heart failure, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, …

A Smartphone Intervention To Reduce Hospital Readmission Rates In Adult Patients Who Have Heart Failure, Jami L. Crisman

Evidence-Based Practice Project Reports

Heart failure (HF) is the leading cause of 30-day hospital readmission, with up to 23.5% of Medicare beneficiaries requiring subsequent admission within 30 days post hospital discharge (CMS, 2020a). Mobile-health applications (MHA), such as smartphone applications, have emerged as cost-effective methods to safely manage chronic disease in the outpatient setting (Inglis et al., 2015). The purpose of this evidence-based practice (EBP) project was to evaluate the impact of a MHA on HF-related 30-day readmission rates. The Iowa Model Revised guided the implementation of the project in a rural, for-profit hospital in Northwest Indiana. An extensive literature search was conducted, and …

Obesity Bias: Bachelor Of Science Nursing Student Perceptions, Ashlyn Nicole Beasley

Honors College Theses

The National Institutes of Health identifies that one in three adults is obese. Obesity is defined as a body mass index (BMI) of 30 and above. Patients with obesity may deny themselves healthcare due to the mistreatment and mistrust they may develop within the healthcare system. If the prejudice against obese patients is addressed, it could prevent future issues for patients and healthcare providers. Not only can bias against obese patients lead to injury, but it can also lead worsening conditions. When a patient perceives the stigma of a weight bias from a caregiver, it can cause them to withdraw …

Hypertension Management: Improving Medication Adherence Through The Use Of Daily Text Messages, Gaelle Bulabula

Evidence-Based Practice Project Reports

Hypertension (HTN) is the leading cause of hospitalization and is responsible for approximately 50% of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular events (Al-Noumani, et al., 2018). Uncontrolled HTN can lead to comorbidities including ischemic heart disease, renal disease, or life-threatening arrythmias (World Health Organization [WHO], 2019). The leading cause of HTN is medication non-compliance (Varleta, et al., 2017). The purpose of this evidence-based practice project was to determine the effectiveness of daily text messages on antihypertensive medication adherence. A comprehensive review of literature generated ten high-level evidence studies demonstrating that daily text messages near each medication dosing time is best practice for improving …

The Effectiveness Of A Nurse Practitioner (Np) Led Clinic For Heart Failure (Hf) Patients Following Hospital Discharge In A Rural Community Setting, Tami Collins, Michelle Renaud

College of Health Sciences Posters

Purpose: To explore if patient participation in the NP led HF clinic may reduce 30-day HF readmissions while providing HF specific education, recognition of symptoms/ management, teaching self-care, while ensuring that continued follow up occurs.

Research Questions: 1) Is there a significant difference between readmission rates in patients followed in the HF clinic compared to general HF follow up? 2) Is there a significant difference in patient knowledge including HF symptoms, self-management for patients followed in the NP led HF clinic for a minimum of 30 days? 3) How satisfied are patients that followed in the NP led HF clinic …

Prone Versus Supine In Mechanically Ventilated Patients, Caroline Nham, Estela Hurd

Spring Showcase for Research and Creative Inquiry

The purpose for this project is to determine whether the prone position is the best position for a patient who is being placed on a mechanical ventilator. Our research question is, in mechanically ventilated patients, does the use of the prone position promote better patient outcomes than the supine position? We are comparing recent studies on the benefits and complications that can arise in placing patients in the prone or supine position. We hypothesize that the prone position has greater benefits towards the patient's quality of care. Utilizing the library as a resource, provided us with relevant information related to …

The Efficacy Of The Z-Track Method For Intramuscular Injections And Analysis Of Z-Track, Seth Seward, Brooke Buchanan, Anna Schmied, Trevor Leonard

Spring Showcase for Research and Creative Inquiry

Z-track method is used in all intramuscular injections with the exception of vaccinations. It is commonly taught that this is to reduce pain and to ensure all the medication is delivered into the muscular tissue. This project analyzes studies and medical articles to determine if this is the truth or if abstaining from using the Z-track method is indicated.

Patients On Non-Icu Floors Accessibility To Complex Monitoring Devices Compared To Standard Monitors On The Ability To Provide Critical Monitoring When Necessary, Ashton Seifert

Spring Showcase for Research and Creative Inquiry

Cardiac arrest that occurs in hospitals carries a mortality rate of 80%, even though there are numerous advances in health care (Yousaf et al., 2018). Typically, these life-threatening cardiac arrests can be preceded by changes in the client's status, specifically in the vital signs (Yousaf et al., 2018). While in the ICU mortality rates are increased and all patients are monitored on a monitor that can read Arterial line pressures, continuous pulses, and monitoring of oxygen saturation. Patients on the non-ICU floor receive monitoring using standard devices. These devices only monitor vital signs periodically and do not provide continuous monitoring …

Evidence Based Research Project: Racial Disparities In Healthcare, Annie Elliott, Bridget Canderelli, Miranda Mozingo, Elizabeth Powers

Spring Showcase for Research and Creative Inquiry

Many studies completed in the United States have proven that there is a national problem surrounding our country regarding racial disparities in health care. The issue of racial disparities directly impact patient care negatively, and statistics prove that people of color actually have a higher mortality rate. There are a variety of reasons that this issue is happening in our country, beginning with our education system, and even unconscious biases among healthcare professionals. Research has shown that many healthcare professionals believe, and are taught, the misbelief that People of Color feel less pain or that they may be drug addicts …

Health Disparities In Low Income Areas, Kerry Williams Williams, Angelika Gomez, Anaya Jennings, Isabella Kohama-Flores

Spring Showcase for Research and Creative Inquiry

The goal of our presentation is to discuss the healthcare disadvantages within lower income areas within the Unites States. It has been found that dependent upon the area in which an individual lives, their access to various forms of healthcare can be scarce and practically non-beneficial to them. Throughout our presentation, we hope to not only bring awareness to this unfortunate issue but also focus and incorporate ways in which healthcare professionals, such as nurses, can take initiative and help to give the community the healthcare needed to survive and maintain.

Vascular Access Teams And Their Success In The Acute Care Setting, Amanda King

Spring Showcase for Research and Creative Inquiry

Peripheral intravenous catheters (PIV) are frequently used in acute care settings for short-term delivery of intravenous (IV) medications and fluids (Marsh et al., 2018). While this is a common practice in the hospital, the insertion of these PIVs can be quite difficult. According to Marsh et al. (2018), multiple insertion attempts are common, and post-insertion failures from complications such as occlusion are as high as 69%, triggering the insertion of subsequent catheters. This research analyzed the use of a vascular access team, commonly known as an IV team, to improve PIV outcomes in the acute care setting. These vascular access …

Faces Of Aces For Nursing Education, Kelsey Bredeweg, Angela Raterink

Honors Projects

Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are traumatic events that occur in childhood. They include children experiencing violence, abuse, neglect, or witnessing violence in the home. ACEs also incorporate environmental factors that threaten a child's stability and safety, such as having family members struggle with substance abuse, mental health, or instability due to parental separation or absent family members. There is significant evidence that ACEs are related to negative health outcomes in adulthood including chronic health problems, mental illness, and substance misuse. ACEs are common and experienced by many. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1 in 6 adults …

Registered Nurses’ Images Of Nursing During A Pandemic, Abigail Slaktowski

Honors Projects

The purpose of this research study was to discover any new or transformed images of nursing during the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States. The research question was “What are Registered Nurses’ images of nursing while working during a pandemic?” Registered nurses submitted an image and a brief narrative of the image through REDCap ©, a secure database, describing how the image and culture of nursing is impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Using Leininger’s Four Phases of Data Analysis (1991), the five submitted photos and narratives were analyzed. Data analysis revealed fourteen categories, then five patterns, then two final themes: …

Compassion Fatigue In Nursing: How Can It Be Prevented?, Megan J. Vlahos

Honors Projects

A literature review paper that discusses the prevalence of compassion fatigue among acute care nurses and interventions that can be implemented to prevent it from occurring.

Quality Improvement Initiative: Implementing A Nurse Peer Mentorship Program, Vepuka E. Kauari

Doctor of Nursing Practice Projects

Introduction: Formal mentoring programs are valuable experiences for the mentor and the mentee. They provide nurses with the ability to develop professional networks while refining their competency. Nurses should be properly mentored in focusing skills in addition to addressing their emotional needs. The purpose of this quality improvement project was to promote and evaluate the effectiveness of an existing mentoring program on intent to stay, perceived competency, and job satisfaction.

Methods: Institutional Review Board approval was obtained. A convenience sample of new nurses with less than 2 years’ experience in an academic medical center was recruited to assess their intent …

Diverse Students Collaborating To Address Social Determinants Of Health Using Listening Sessions, Juanita T. Garcia, Leona Vandevusse, Gladys Simandl, Amber N. Johnson, Qiyan Mu, Jennifer Jean Dahlman

College of Nursing Faculty Research and Publications

In this article, a Nursing Workforce Diversity grant-funded project examined the social determinants of health (SDH) including diverse high school and baccalaureate nursing students. All involved students were from educationally and/or economically disadvantaged backgrounds and/or underrepresented minority groups. The purpose of this article is to report the project outcome data and analysis gathered from students' experiences of SDH, using the collaborative method, listening sessions. The project staff and student nurses discussed SDH with high school students, who then identified and prioritized key SDH in their neighborhoods during a series of facilitated listening sessions in their schools. Initial analysis included reviewing, …

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 Presence Of Spirituality And Its Effect On Attitudes Towards Death, Isabel F. Cortez

Honors College Theses

ABSTRACT

Rationale Implementing spirituality practices in healthcare is not heavily emphasized yet has the potential to increase positive patient outcomes.

Hypothesis If an individual identifies with having a strong sense of spirituality, then they will have decreased negative reactions towards dying.

Methods Data was collected via distribution and processing of surveys on the Statesboro campus of Georgia Southern University. The survey included a series of questions regarding general demographics, strength of spirituality, feelings associated with death, and coping ability. The information collected was processed through SPSS in order to evaluate correlations present.

Results It was found that individuals who indicated …

Mentoring Program For New Graduate Nurses, Kathryn Palermo

Student Scholarly Projects

Practice Problem: The high turnover rate among newly licensed nurses has a negative impact on organizational costs, healthcare spending and patient outcomes. The turnover rate among newly licensed nurses, within their first year of practice, at the designated facility was 50%.

PICOT: The PICOT question that guided this project was “In new graduate nurses, how does a formal mentorship program, compared to no formal mentorship, affect the intent to leave within six weeks?”

Evidence: The scientific evidence supported both one-on-one and group mentoring. Retention and/or turnover was shown to be a positive outcome of formal mentor programs.

Intervention: The …

Joining Forces: A Response To Limited Clinical Sites During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Katherine Dixon, Leah Hawsey, Jan Shows, Candace Gandy

Journal of Interprofessional Practice and Collaboration

Students who are unable to attend Pediatric clinical during the COVID-19 Pandemic needed an alternative method to meet the clinical objectives of the nursing curriculum. Utilizing semester-five management students to implement a simulation activity with the semester three pediatric students allowed the opportunity to simulate clinical experiences and develop interpersonal, clinical, and professional skills. Allowing the semester five students to pre-brief, implement, debrief, educate and mentor the semester-three pediatric students allowed the students to meet their course objectives and develop skills in patient-centered care, safety, informatics, documentation, delegation, education, and mentoring.

Dnp Final Report: Practice Change Compliance, Laura Duran

DNP Final Reports

Healthcare professionals in acute care hospital settings at the frontline of patient care affect many aspects of the patient's hospital stay, including infection prevention. The wearing of artificial nails by healthcare professionals in direct patient care is against best practice, although it is often seen. Therefore, the following PICOT question arises: In direct patient care providers who fail to adhere to policy (e.g., artificial nail use per hand hygiene policy) (P), how does a multimodal approach (I) compared to a single approach (education) (C) affect compliance with policy (0) within six months (T)? A systematic review was conducted using CINAHL, …

Advocating For Palliative Care In The Intensive Care Unit: A Nursing Approach, Andrea Kirk, Erin Leach

Nursing DNP Projects

Purpose and Rational

Intensive Care Unit (ICU) patients often receive aggressive medical treatment with advanced illness or injury, and frequently have unmet palliative care (PC) needs. ICU nurses bear witness to the suffering of their patients and in turn, suffer a disproportionate amount of moral distress. The purpose of this clinical scholarship project is to empower nurses with knowledge and skills to advocate for PC for critically ill patients within the ICU setting at a Midwestern, urban, academic medical center. This will be achieved by providing education to nurses about PC and its utilization in the ICU setting and implementing …

Implementation And Preliminary Testing Of A Theory-Guided Nursing Discharge Teaching Intervention For Adult Inpatients Aged 50 And Over With Multimorbidity: A Pragmatic Feasibility Study Protocol, Joanie Pellet, Marianne E. Weiss, Franziska Zúñiga, Cédric Mabire

College of Nursing Faculty Research and Publications

Background

Discharge teaching by nurses during hospitalization is essential to provide multimorbid inpatients with the knowledge and skills to self-manage their health conditions. However, available disease-specific teaching guidelines do not address the cumulative complexity of multiple chronic diseases that occur with greater frequency in older adults. Therefore, there is a need for a discharge teaching intervention which uses concepts that specifically address the needs of these patients, such as considering their level of activation (i.e. knowledge, skills and confidence to self-manage their health) and the burden of multimorbid disease. The objectives of this pragmatic study will be to (1) test …

The Relationship Between New Graduate Registered Nurse Knowledge, Experiences, Attitudes, And Age Bias Toward The Older Adult, Michelle Fox

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

There had been a lack of research on the relationship between a new graduate Registered Nurses’ knowledge, experiences, attitudes, and age bias toward older adults. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether there was a relationship between new graduate Registered Nurses’ knowledge, experiences, attitudes, and age bias toward older adults.

The researcher used correlational, non-experimental, quantitative design for this study. The instruments used in this study were the Facts on Aging Quiz, the Kogan Attitude Toward Old People scale, and a demographic questionnaire. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the demographic data and correlation coefficients were used to …

Professional Image Of Nursing And Midwifery In East Africa: An Exploratory Analysis, Eunice Ndirangu, Ahmed Sarki, Columba Mbekenga, Grace Edwards

School of Nursing & Midwifery, East Africa

Background: Evidence suggests that there is a negative image of nursing and midwifery that does not promote these professions as attractive career options. Furthermore, there is a paucity of studies documenting how nursing and midwifery is perceived in East Africa and where such studies exist they are country-specific. The aim of this study was to explore views regarding the image of nursing and midwifery among nurses and midwives in three East African countries, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda.

Methods: An exploratory descriptive cross-sectional study administered online using Survey Monkey Questionnaires assessed the views and perceptions of nurses and midwives regarding the …

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