Medical Humanities Commons^™

Art For Healing: Fostering Creativity And Compassion In Medical Education, Salma Emara

Rowan-Virtua Research Day

A physician's career is shaped by a need for constant learning and adapting to the world around them. Similarly, the medical school curriculum is ever evolving in order to train and shape medical students into the best physicians they can become. In recent years, the search has shifted to a need for the well-rounded physician: one not only with medical competency, but also skills of effective communication, interpersonal skills, problem solving skills, critical thinking skills, emotional intelligence, and empathy. Although the visual arts has been used as a teaching tool throughout centuries, it still has not officially become part of …

Language Barrier Contributions To Food Insecurity In Spanish-Speaking Populations, Amin Khan, Leeza Kumar, Edanur Kilic, Stephen Acheampong

Rowan-Virtua Research Day

Food insecurity refers to a household or individual’s inability to access adequate food to obtain a healthy lifestyle. This contributes to health concerns such as birth defects, low nutritional intake, anemia, cognitive problems, mental health disorders, diabetes, obesity, and heart disease. Low-income rural community members lack access to full grocery stores and often turn to convenience stores with unhealthy, expensive, and fewer food options. The aim of this study was to determine how language barriers affect Spanish-speaking populations with limited English proficiency. The research for this project was obtained from Google, Google Scholar, and PubMed. Keywords included “health disparities,” “Spanish-speaking,” …

The Blurred Lines Between Medicine And Wellness: A Historical Approach Comparing Osteopathic Physicians, Chiropractors, And Physical Therapists, Heather Soled, Dylan Trawinski, Sonya Priven, Sheam Jahan

Rowan-Virtua Research Day

In modern society, there stands a large number of medical titles with nuances that complicate the layperson’s ability to differentiate standard of care and capabilities. As the world evolves, new job opportunities in the medical and related fields are being constructed to provide positions with various levels of certifications that qualify many caregivers to provide similar and often coexisting levels of care. Some disciplines may agree or disagree on principle; this is just one point of confusion for the mass. Furthermore, disciplines that disagree on principle may still apply analogous treatment models. Such confusion has yielded several challenges for less …

Evaluation Of Available Medical Interpretation Resources Available To Spanish-Speaking Patients In Nj Ahec Counties, Magdalene Lederer, Cindy Nativi, Madhav Patel, Joseph Mendoza, Nhi Tran, Yesha Patel, Melissa Vincent, Rebecca Moore

Rowan-Virtua Research Day

According to the US Census Bureau Spanish is the most common non-English language spoken in the US. Despite the growing population of Spanish-speaking individuals, most healthcare providers can only communicate in English. Linguistic differences between patients and providers have been identified to impact the quality of care received, therefore, it is not surprising that Spanish-speaking patients have been found to be less satisfied with healthcare. Language barriers in healthcare lead to poor compliance and underuse of services which eventually negatively impact health outcomes. Several studies found that the most effective communication tools are often underutilized, with healthcare providers relying on …

Food Insecurity And Dietary Restrictions, Courtney Williams, Savana Rodriguez, Tiffany Guerrero, Stephen Acheampong, Vanesa Pizutelli

Rowan-Virtua Research Day

According to the USDA Food Insecurity affects around 10.2 percent of the US population as of 2021. For families that have members with certain dietary restriction such as, but not limited to diabetes, hypertension, gluten intolerance, lactose intolerance, and food allergies, the challenge of securing food becomes an even greater burden with having to navigate food banks or discount stores that may not offer food items that meet their dietary requirements. Families with dietary restrictions often face greater food insecurity and less access to food. More research is needed to understand the challenges families with dietary restrictions face regarding food …

Perinatal Experiences Of People With Autism Spectrum Disorders: A Preliminary Scoping Review, Tanvi Shah, Andrea Iannuzzelli, Venkateswar Venkataman

Rowan-Virtua Research Day

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a developmental disorder that is diagnosed in early childhood, typically in people who are assigned male at birth. However, this diagnosis and the sensory and behavioral divergence that comes with ASD stay with people throughout their lives. Based on the DSM-V diagnostic criteria and the history of how Autism and Autism Spectrum Disorders were first identified, many people who do not identify as male and/or present atypically do not receive a formal diagnosis until later in life or self-diagnose. This in turn has led to a lack of research in both populations that do not …

Cultural Food Accomodations In South New Jersey, Anahit Stepanyan, Resty Mercado, David Jiang

Rowan-Virtua Research Day

NJ is a melting pot of different cultures and ethnicities, each bringing their own unique customs and traditions. Of these traditions, diet and food are one of the most renowned distinctions and some of the most celebrated.

In response, several Public School districts have made halal and kosher food reforms to accommodate the rise in the Muslim and Jewish student body.

These menu accommodations were made in response to concerns about a lack of halal food options, which negatively impacted Muslim and Jewish students' health and mental well-being and can be recognized as a health disparity disadvantaging Muslim American student …

Awareness & Prevention Of Health Hazards For Americans Embarking In Space Tourism, Krzysztof Zembrzuski

Rowan-Virtua Research Day

Since the beginning of spaceflight, keeping humans healthy has been a serious concern. Prior to 2021, astronauts had to undergo an elite selection process to embark in space travel. Now that commercial spaceflight is a reality, the criteria to experience space has been significantly loosened, raising health concerns to a larger and unhealthier pool of travelers. Most commercial spaceflight clients are anticipated to be middle-aged adults, which implies many will suffer from high blood pressure and heart disease, both of which are frequent ailments in this age group. Because of the massive compression the body undergoes during takeoff and return, …

The Correlation Between Traumatic Brain Injury And Incarceration Among Adult Males In The United States, Shadi Shams

Rowan-Virtua Research Day

The United States has one of the largest growing prison populations in the world. A large amount of social and economic resources go towards the cost and maintenance of correctional facilities each year. Additionally, the current correctional programs are insufficient in assisting inmates with getting back to society; especially those with traumatic brain injury (TBI) who often remain undiagnosed and are usually treated unfairly in the prison system instead of receiving the appropriate help. Prior scholarly work has shown that patients in the post-TBI stage are more likely to enter the judicial system. In the recent population-based cohort study, the …

Redefining Anger For Sexual And Gender Minorities Using Art As A Visual Voice, Kirsten Ranheim

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

Art therapy is an increasingly popular approach for addressing trauma and anger in clinical settings. This literature review explores the connections between art therapy, trauma, gender, and anger, drawing on a range of studies and theoretical perspectives. Background is provided on the history of anger within the context of societal institutions, interpersonal power dynamics, psychiatric nosology, and social justice movements. The review concludes that art therapy is ideally suited as a trauma-informed approach to addressing anger in the therapeutic setting. This is due to the unique opportunities that art making provides for helping individuals express and process their emotions nonverbally, …

Veterinary Access Barriers Experienced By Urban Versus Rural Clients: A Case Study In Middle America, Molly Andreasen

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

The comparison of urban versus rural clientele as to their access to veterinary care and preferences regarding veterinary services has received little research attention. A better understanding of client perspectives is critical for ongoing efforts to provide more equitable availability of veterinary services across varying demographic areas. In this study, I directly assess differences in access to veterinary services based on client perspectives from both rural and urban locales across Nebraska, USA, a state almost directly in the middle of America. It was expected that rural clients would experience more barriers to veterinary access in general and with respect to …

How Does Birth Control Impact Overall User Wellness: A Mixed-Methodology Approach Surveying How Physical, Mental, And Social Wellness Is Impacted By Use Of Birth Control, Ashley Beamon

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

The purpose of this study is to understand the ways in which birth control may impact wellness. By looking at physical activity, social wellness, experienced side effects, and a range of demographics, the goal is to better understand how the use of birth control may impact its user’s overall wellness. After gathering data in a two-week survey, I discovered that mood swings, weight gain, and depression were the top three reported side effects and Latina women reported irregular bleeding at a higher frequency than white women. Loneliness is impacted by birth control use; users were 30% more likely to report …

Diversity, Equity, And Inclusion Efforts Among Healthcare Providers And Systems In The United States, Peyton Jobe

Health, Human Performance and Recreation Undergraduate Honors Theses

The purpose of this study was to compare patient experiences measured by the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) survey to healthcare provider’s diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts. The Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) is a patient survey given upon patient discharge. The results cumulate to score hospitals on patient experiences. In the sample, there were 392 hospital websites that were evaluated for the existence of policies, procedures, or statements related to diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts or stances. Of those, 121 of the hospitals received the lowest possible rating for patient experience …

Art And Rehabilitation: An Analysis Of Art In The Treatment Of Individuals Recovering From Substance Use Disorders, Cheyenne Weis

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

Substance use has been a huge problem in the United States for a long time. Typically, techniques such as behavioral therapies or 12-Step Programs are used regarding treatment for those trying to recover from substance use disorders. While these treatment options are useful for many people, it is also important to look at nonnormative options for treatment to help the greatest number of people. One of these treatment options is the use of art, either as art therapy or as therapeutic art-making. Previous research on art therapy and people with substance use disorders demonstrates that there are many benefits of …

The Influences Of The Public Health Care System And Education System On The Economic Growth Of Swaziland, Grace Greer

International and Global Studies Undergraduate Honors Theses

The Kingdom of Eswatini, also known as Swaziland, has one of the youngest populations in the world with over 70% of citizens being under the age of 18 years old. This creates a substantial opportunity for economic, social, and educational growth in a country previously plagued with diseases such as HIV/AIDS, poor health care infrastructure cutting off thousands from basic care, and an educational system with a very low attendance rate and an even lower graduation rate. By evaluating the root causes of such issues dating back to the colonial era there is an opportunity to reprioritize health care and …

Anti-Vaccination: Addressing Vaccine Hesitancy And Its Consequences For Modern Public Health Policy, Joshua Bird

Senior Honors Theses

Modern vaccination is arguably the most significant medical achievement in human history. Through widespread vaccination, populations are no longer susceptible to diseases that plagued humanity for most of its existence (measles, rubella, smallpox). While vaccinations have largely shown themselves as safe and efficacious under most circumstances, small but considerable portions of the worldwide population reject vaccination for various social, religious, and political reasons. Research indicates that vaccine hesitancy spans all socioeconomic boundaries, affecting patients and their physicians. To explore the underlying themes of vaccine hesitancy and their relationship to loss aversion and omission bias, a study of various factors underlying …

Pandemic Review: South Los Angeles, Madeline Carmella Acosta

Whittier Scholars Program

IMPORTANCE The COVID-19 pandemic has deepened the discussion on social inequality and vulnerabilities of the Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) community. The understanding is that inequality is a multifaceted issue that stems from the historical mistreatment of BIPOC individuals—their sociodemographic and economic backgrounds are at the most risk in population studies. Many predictors of contracting COVID-19 included employment status (ability to work from home), education level, income (wealth), and housing conditions (environment) (Rozenfeld et al., 2020). Contracting COVID-19 in South Los Angeles was more likely to happen among those from racial and ethnic minorities and those living in …

Impact Of Personal, Familial, And Socioeconomic Factors On The Return Of Remotely Collected Samples For Genetic Testing, Jordan Zeiger

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

There are a multitude of barriers known to impact access to medical care in the United States. COVID-19 has changed and compounded these barriers and led to a shift in the setting of the genetic counseling (GC) appointment, and in sample types used for genetic testing, specifically with use of telemedicine and remotely collected saliva kits. Previous studies have described lack of patient follow-through in returning these kits. Though the understanding of barriers to medical care, including access to genetics services, is well described, there is little in the literature for how these barriers impact the return of remotely collected …

The Need For Racial And Ethnic Health Disparity Curriculum In Genetic Counseling Programs, Yusra Aziz

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

Racial and ethnic health disparities (REHD) exist across all organized medicine, including the spectrum of genetic counseling, particularly in genomic testing and access to care. While cultural competency and health disparities have been included as a part of the Standards of Accreditation for Genetic Counseling, there have not been previous efforts to define what topics related to REHD are most important to include in graduate program curriculum. Therefore, this study aimed to determine what topics related to REHD should be taught in genetic counseling program curriculum by assessing what topics genetic counselors (GCs) learned about and in what settings, …

“Back To The Jungle”: Investigating Rats, Grass, Scrub Typhus, And Plantations In Malaya, 1924–1974, Jack Greatrex

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

In this article, I examine epidemiological research into scrub typhus in British Malaya between 1924 and 1974. Interwar research, I show, explained the incidence of the disease through conjunctions of rats, mites, plantations, lalang grass, and “jungle.” In the process, interwar researchers bridged a novel scientific vocabulary centering on disease “reservoirs” with older suspicions of plantations enabling “pests,” as well as with a later, explicitly ecological understanding of infectious disease. In exploring this history I thereby help to re-historicize the emergence of ecological notions of disease reservoirs, whilst also pushing at the limit-points of influential notions of “tropicality.”

Self-Perceived Well-Being Among Doctor Of Physical Therapy Students In The United States, David Kietrys, Ellen Anderson, Suchismita Ray

Journal of Wellness

Introduction: The purpose of this study was to describe self-perceived well-being among Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT) students in the United States during the COVID-19 pandemic and explore factors associated with well-being.

Methods: This observational study was cross-sectional, using an anonymous, self-administered, nationwide survey. The survey included questions about an array of factors theoretically related to well-being, and incorporated the WHO-5 Well-being Index, the Perceived Stress Scale-10, and the Brief Resiliency Scale.

Results: A total of 1,542 responded to the survey. Data from 1,537 DPT students in the U.S. were included in the analysis. Well-being was positively correlated with resilience …

Part Of The Team: Effecting Change And Sharing Power In Healthcare Settings, Jessica Stanier, Rachel Purtell, Dave Thomas, William Murray

Patient Experience Journal

In 2019, we, as a group of patients and researchers, were invited to rethink how the executive board received and responded to patient stories at a specific NHS hospital trust in the UK. Through an iterative series of meetings, we were able to co-identify common concerns and together develop a distinctive narrative framework for effecting change by sharing patient experiences. This narrative framework is designed to help patients position themselves as ‘part of their healthcare team,’ emphasising roles and responsibilities between patients and health practitioners to compare ideals with reality in patient experiences. While the project was promising, several factors …

Listening As Medicine: A Thematic Analysis, Rachel Kishton M.D., Heta Patel, Divya Saini, Jeffrey Millstein M.D., Aaron Levy Ph.D.

Patient Experience Journal

Realizations of the importance of “the art of medicine” in trust-building and patient satisfaction have resulted in the incorporation of narrative medicine programs into training curricula. By learning how to respond to patient stories as well as communicate their own, healthcare providers can ensure that their patients feel heard and respected. This study seeks to define what constitutes empathetic listening through a qualitative analysis of personal narratives collected from patients, caregivers, and providers across an urban academic healthcare system. Stories (n=41) underwent thematic analysis to note common experiences related to listening during a health system encounter. Eighteen grounded codes were …

Focusing Our Attention On Socially Responsive Professional Education To Serve Ethnogeriatric Populations With Neurogenic Communication Disorders In The United States, José G. Centeno, Loraine K. Obler, Linda Collins, Gloriajean Wallace, Valarie B. Fleming, Jacqueline Guendouzi

Communication Sciences and Disorders Faculty Articles and Research

Purpose:

This viewpoint discusses a plausible framework to educate future speech-language pathologists (SLPs) as socially responsive practitioners who serve and advocate for the burgeoning vulnerable ethnogeriatric populations with neurogenic communication disorders.

Method:

We provide an overview of the demographic, epidemiological, and biopsychosocial context that supports the implementation of equity-based, population-grounded educational approaches for speech-language pathology services in ethnogeriatric neurorehabilitation caseloads and discuss a plausible perspective based on the educational social determinants of health (SDOH) framework by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

Results:

The NASEM's three-domain SDOH educational perspective integrates education, community, and organization to create a self-reinforcing …

Wellness Review 2022, Part 2, Martin Huecker, Brian A. Ferguson, Jacob Shreffler

Journal of Wellness

Introduction: Similar to prior reviews, the Journal of Wellness editors searched the literature from the second half of 2022 for an interesting and impactful selection of publications on wellness in healthcare professionals.

Methods: Editors conducted a standard keyword search in Pubmed, focusing chiefly on large journals, interventional trials, and other prospective research. We included papers published between July 1, 2022 and December 31, 2022.

Literature in Review: Finding several hundred publications, we excluded editorials, reviews, and some smaller, less generalizable papers. A final 25 significant studies focusing on wellness in medical professionals were sorted into the following categories: logistics, creativity …

The Hero’S Journey As A Novel, Narrative, And Improvisational Group Intervention On Quality Of Life For People With Parkinson’S Disease, Robert D. Cochrane, James W. Navalta, Anne E. Weisman

Heroism Science

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is one of the fastest-growing neurological diseases in the world. Pharmaceutical and surgical interventions continue to advance to better address motor symptoms. However, disability from non-motor symptoms, such as depression, anxiety, and stress persist. Expressive therapies, including art, music, and dance are being explored and implemented more frequently to address this growing need. We developed this study to examine the feasibility of a novel program using online narrative therapy, with constructs from Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey, and improvisation for people with PD (PWPD). Participants from across the U.S. and U.K. met online via Zoom once a week …

Precision Medicine, Ancestry, Genetics And Race, Lucio Miele

School of Medicine Faculty Publications

DiscoverBMB, March 25 - 28, 2023, Seattle, WA

Overview: Bias In-Bias Out In Data Science, Allison C. Augustus-Wallace

School of Medicine Faculty Publications

DiscoverBMB, March 25 - 28, 2023, Seattle, WA

Peer-Supervision Of Nursing Professionals: A Shield Against Burnout, Kyle Gamache, Sarah Gamache, Joseph Robillard

Journal of Wellness

Introduction: Burnout is a major risk in healthcare professions and is a significant contributor to the current nursing shortage. Strategies to combat burnout of healthcare professionals are in desperate need. The purpose of this project is to introduce the clinical peer supervision model as a method to alleviate burnout in nursing professionals.

Approach: Eight nurses from in-patient settings participated in a peer-supervision support group, modeled after existing European nursing and mental health provider-support protocols. To assess the effect of this intervention, qualitative data analysis was conducted on the transcripts of session and the results described. All participants reported statistically high …

Maternal Mortality In The United States: An Outlying Social Phenomenon In The Industrialized World, Whitney Buckendorf

Undergraduate Theses, Capstones, and Recitals

Maternal mortality rates claim the lives of over 300,000 individuals per year, with most of these deaths taking place in low to middle-income nations. Since 1990, maternal mortality rates have declined significantly with a global reduction from 385 to 216 maternal deaths per 100,000 births; an average decline of 2.9% per year. While this is an honorable reduction, there are outlying nations that experience higher than normal maternal mortality rates given their region and circumstance. While many studies focus on lower to middle-income nations for maternal mortality associated with lack of medical access and evolved care, there is also the …