Medical Humanities Commons^™

Reproductive Genetics: Desired Genes, Gendered Ethics, And Eugenic Echoes, Marykate K. Bodnar

The Hilltop Review

Present knowledge of genetics and assisted reproduction make fertile ground for a new type of eugenics: reproductive genetics. Proponents of reproductive genetics aim to separate these techniques from the problematic and negative connotations associated with historical eugenic policies by claiming them as part of the liberal eugenic movement. In-vitro fertilization (IVF), the market for sperm and eggs, and prenatal genetic testing allow conscious decision-making regarding the potential genetic make-up of children. Decisions are made in a gendered and politicized environment, shaping understandings of genes, eggs, and sperm around stereotypes and ideal social norms. In choosing “desirable” characteristics, whatever they may …

The Medical Response To The Black Death, Joseph A. Legan

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

This paper discusses the medical response to the Black Death in both Europe and the Middle East. The Black Death was caused by a series of bacterial strands collectively known as Yersinia pestis. The Plague originated in the Mongolian Steppes. It was spread westward by the east-west trading system. Once it arrived in the Crimea in 1346, Italian merchants helped spread it throughout the Mediterranean. Medicine in Europe and the Middle East were centered on Galen’s theory of humors. There were many religious explanations for the Plague, but the main medical explanation was the spread of bad air, or …

Internship Impact In Early Intervention, Morgan E. Anderson

Senior Honors Projects

Early childhood intervention programs were introduced in the 1960s, and professionals have recognized the benefits of intensive therapy and education starting when the child is an infant up to the age of three. Working with a child in a comfortable environment, such as their own home, preschool, child care center or even the community has many benefits. Conducting sessions in a more everyday environment encourages family interaction and support. When a family member, caretaker, or even teacher is present to witness the therapy session, they are more likely to be comfortable carrying these techniques over into the everyday routine. Working …

Out Of The Attic: Agency And Narratives Of Mental Illness By David Foster Wallace And Lauren Slater, Erin L. Mcleod

Honors Theses

Studies of Prozac Diary and Lying: A Metaphorical Memoir illustrate how Slater adapts conventions of fiction to the memoir form to create agency for the mentally ill subject. This study will apply this approach of narrative therapy to David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest to determine if the autobiographical conventions of mental illness may be adapted to fiction. An analysis of these primary texts seeks to address issues related to the therapeutic dimensions of autobiography as these are complicated by the narrative conventions that distinguish memoir and fiction.

The Skinny On Eating Attitudes, Body Image, And The Thin-Ideal In College Women, Lyndsay N. Greene

Undergraduate Theses and Capstone Projects

There is evidence of a link between body image and disordered eating among females, and some research that suggests exposure to the media exacerbates both body dissatisfaction and eating pathology. Despite these claims, little research has been done on the effects that exposure to photo-shopped images specifically has on body dissatisfaction and eating pathology. The present study sought to further understand the relationship between cognitive distortions of body image and eating attitudes and to examine the effects that exposure to the thin-ideal found in the media has on body dissatisfaction among college aged women. Eighty female college students answered questions …

Comparing Antibiotic Self-Medication In Two Socio-Economic Groups In Guatemala City: A Descriptive Cross-Sectional Study, Brooke M. Ramay, Paola Lambour, Alejandro Cerón

Anthropology: Faculty Scholarship

Background

Self-medication with antibiotics may result in antimicrobial resistance and its high prevalence is of particular concern in Low to Middle Income Countries (LMIC) like Guatemala. A better understanding of self-medication with antibiotics may represent an opportunity to develop interventions guiding the rational use of antibiotics. We aimed to compare the magnitude of antibiotic self-medication and the characteristics of those who self-medicate in two pharmacies serving disparate socio-economic communities in Guatemala City.

Methods

We conducted a descriptive, cross-sectional study in one Suburban pharmacy and one City Center pharmacy in Guatemala City. We used a questionnaire to gather information about frequency …

The Historical Evolution Of Endoscopy, Sarah Ellison

Honors Theses

INTRODUCTION: Minimally invasive surgery is on the rise and is becoming more common. Its advantage over traditional open surgery is a quicker recovery time and minimized risk of infection along with an aesthetically more pleasing smaller scar. Although many different scopes and instruments perform minimally invasive techniques, all minimally invasive instruments evolved from endoscopy. It wasn’t until the 20^th century that they began to diverge to separate studies. Therefore endoscopy is considered in regards to instrument evolution. History is full of twists and turns as different pieces of the scope progressed so its advancement has been separated into the …

Barriers To Prevention And Treatment Of Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus: A Qualitative Analysis Of Women In East Sikkim, India, Emily Applewhite

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Diabetes Mellitus is a metabolic disorder that affects more people in India than anywhere else in the world (Ramachandran et. al., 2010). A recent national study concluded that Sikkim, a small northeastern state in the Himalayas, has the highest prevalence of Diabetes Mellitus compared to any other state in India. In order to determine why this is so, this study looks at the barriers women face when attempting to prevent and treat Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM) in East Sikkim. Fieldwork for this study was facilitated by The Volunteer Health Association of Sikkim, and took place in Gangtok and a …

Effect Of Technology Use On Behavior, Janae Marion

Nebraska College Preparatory Academy: Senior Capstone Projects

Technology has evolved over the years, and as time goes by it seems to have enhanced into something beger. Now the problem that is starting to occur is that people are starting to use it excessively. Technology is becoming a distraction and is problematic for young children, teenagers, and also adults. Technology is becoming a bigger issue than people can imagine and not only is it starting to create behavioral problems for people, it’s also controlling their lives.

Does American Society Blame Fast Food Too Much For Obesity?, Gabriella Barrios

Nebraska College Preparatory Academy: Senior Capstone Projects

Obesity is a growing epidemic that could become the leading cause of death in American society. Society sees it and does nothing about it. I found that American society blames fast food too much for obesity, that we are doing nothing about it, and the restaurants are reacting by making changes.

Transylvania University And Its Hemp Connection, Charles T. Ambrose

Microbiology, Immunology, and Molecular Genetics Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Confronting Cultural Challenges For Migrant Healthcare In Switzerland, Rebecca Weiss

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Switzerland is home to many migrants, and migration exacerbates health risks. In addition to physical health problems, migrants are more likely than Swiss nationals to face mental health challenges and cultural barriers, which complicate their experiences seeking healthcare. Similarly, clinicians encounter numerous challenges related to the special circumstances of migrant patients. As a response to the specific health needs of migrants, hospital networks and migrant support organizations promote the migrant health situation. However, these services are not ubiquitous in Switzerland, partly due to the partial freedoms of each canton to create its own health policy. This paper explores the barriers …

Promoting Faculty Scholarship - An Evaluation Of A Program For Busy Clinician-Educators, S. Reader, A. Fornari, S. Simon, J. Townsend

Journal Articles

BACKGROUND: Clinician educators face barriers to scholarship including lack of time, insufficient skills, and access to mentoring. An urban department of family medicine implemented a federally funded Scholars Program to increase the participants' perceived confidence, knowledge and skills to conduct educational research. METHOD: A part-time faculty development model provided modest protected time for one year to busy clinician educators. Scholars focused on designing, implementing, and writing about a scholarly project. Scholars participated in skill seminars, cohort and individual meetings, an educational poster fair and an annual writing retreat with consultation from a visiting professor. We assessed the increases in the …

Generational Conflicts Among Vietnamese Americans In The Health Care Decision Making Process, Georgie D. Nguyen

Journal of Health Ethics

In the U.S. there are approximately 1.3 million Vietnamese Americans. This group faced multiple problems after their immigration to the U.S. after the Fall of Saigon. While some easily acculturated within this group, others such as the older generation suffered difficulty doing so. The purpose of this article is to address concerns regarding the health care decision making process among the Vietnamese community and its importance to helping health care providers understand why there is a high mortality rate within this group.

From Bibles To Biomarkers: The Future Of The Dsm And Forensic Psychiatric Diagnosis, Teneille R. Brown

Utah Law Faculty Scholarship

Given its importance to the law, it is regrettable that judges and lawyers do not fully understand how the DSM is constructed, and the bedrock of values on which it rests. As evidence of this, lawyers and judges often refer to the DSM as the “psychiatric bible.” This language is both fascinating and perplexing. This Article will attempt to correct the notion that the DSM is a legal “psychiatric bible” by explaining how it is created and used by the medical field. It will also provide a few reasons why the law may have come to view it as a …

A Public Duty: Medicine And Commerce In Nineteenth-Century American Literature And Culture, Heather E. Chacon

Theses and Dissertations--English

Using recent criticism on speculation and disability in addition to archival materials, “A Public Duty: Medicine and Commerce in Nineteenth-Century American Literature and Culture” demonstrates that reform-minded nineteenth-century authors drew upon the representational power of public health to express excitement and anxiety about the United States’ emerging economic and political prominence. Breaking with a critical tradition holding that the professionalization of medicine and authorship served primarily to support and define an ascending middle class, I argue that the authors such as Robert Montgomery Bird, Fanny Fern, George Washington Cable, and Pauline Hopkins fuse the rhetoric of economic policy and public …

The Effect Of Joining A Health System On Financial Performance, Kenneth Joseph Cochran

All ETDs from UAB

The rate of hospitals merging has increased significantly over the last few years. The number of hospital mergers between 2003 and 2009 averaged 55 per year, while mergers for 2010 and 2011 were 72 and 90, respectfully. This research moved beyond anecdotal reports and by using publicly reported data to not only evaluate the financial success of mergers, but also to look at other factors such as size, ownership, geography, environment (urban vs. rural), and market competitiveness to assess impacts on financial outcomes of mergers. This study examined the effect of joining a hospital system based on financial performance. Further, …

Weed Women, All Night Vigils, And The Secret Life Of Plants: Negotiated Epistemologies Of Ethnogynecological Plant Knowledge In American History, Claudia Jeanne Ford

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

This dissertation critiques the discourse of traditional ecological knowledge described as embedded in indigenous peoples' longevity in location, for the purpose of understanding the embodiment of ecological knowledge in culture. The aim of this research is to examine the historical and epistemic complexity of traditional ecological knowledge that may be both established from the length of time people reside in a specific ecosystem and constitutive of negotiations between and among different cultures. I choose the specific case of the negotiation of plant knowledge for women's reproductive health among Native, African, and European groups as those negotiations unfolded on the American …

The Influence Of Positive And Negative Death Attitudes On Medical Students' Empathy And Attitudes Toward End-Of-Life Care, Elizabeth Palumbo

PCOM Psychology Dissertations

This quantitative study employed a cross-sectional survey research design in order to examine the relationships between medical students’ death attitudes, empathy, and attitudes toward end-of-life care. The participants were 206 medical students currently enrolled in the Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine program at the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine, Philadelphia campus. Results indicated that there were no significant differences in the level of empathy between medical students who held strong positive death attitudes and medical students with strong negative death attitudes. However, results indicated that significant differences existed in attitudes toward end-of-life care between medical students who held strong positive death …

The Germ Theory Of Dystopias: Fears Of Human Nature In 1984 And Brave New World, Clea D. Harris

Scripps Senior Theses

This project is an exploration of 20^th century dystopian literature through the lens of germ theory. This scientific principle, which emerged in the late 19^th century, asserts that microorganisms pervade the world; these invisible and omnipresent germs cause specific diseases which are often life threatening. Additionally, germ theory states that vaccines and antiseptics can prevent some of these afflictions and that antibiotics can treat others. This concept of a pervasive, invisible, infection-causing other is not just a biological principle, though; in this paper, I argue that one can interpret it as an ideological framework for understanding human existence …

‘‘We Can Wipe An Entire Culture’’: Fears And Promises Of Dna Biobanking Among Native Americans, Roberto Abadie, Kathleen Heaney

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

This paper explores Native American perceptions on DNA biobanking. A qualitative study was conducted among self-declared Native Americans living off reservation in two Midwest cities. Findings demonstrate a paradox: Informants maintain strong hopes for the transformative power of gene-based research while voicing very particular social anxieties. Emerging genomic technologies elicit concerns over the potential for genetic stigmatization or discrimination based on race, preventing access to health insurance or employment. Frequently, social anxieties adopt the narrative form of conspiracy theories which portray powerful agents exploiting or abusing a disenfranchised population. We argue that while Native Americans do not have a monopoly …

The Interrelationships Among Obesity, Insulin Sensitivity, And Bone Phenotype In Pre-Pubertal Girls, Anna L. Newton

All ETDs from UAB

Impaired insulin sensitivity as a consequence of childhood obesity has been implicated as a contributor to skeletal fragility. There is a need to understand the interrelationships among insulin sensitivity and skeletal parameters (i.e. cortical, trabecular, marrow) in obesity during the pubertal transition. Further, calorie restricted weight loss to stabilize these relationships warrants investigation as well. The goal of this project was to examine the relationships among body composition, skeletal parameters, and insulin sensitivity. The first aim was to evaluate the relationships among total body fat, bone mineral content (BMC) and femoral bone marrow adipose tissue (BMAT) during childhood and underlying …

Effectiveness Of Functional Electrical Stimulation Assisted Rowing To Improve Shoulder Pain And Aerobic Fitness In Manual Wheelchair Users With Spinal Cord Injury, Susan Wilbanks

All ETDs from UAB

Exercise is beneficial to adults with spinal cord injury (SCI) because of its ability to improve function and increase life expectancy. The goal of this dissertation was to determine an effective intervention for increasing aerobic fitness and decreasing shoulder pain in manual wheelchair users with SCI by identifying underlying mechanisms for shoulder pain, optimizing training and utilizing appropriate outcome measures. Three studies were conducted. The first study indicated that exercise interventions for adults with SCI are of low to moderate methodological quality, frequently using outcome measures associated with changes in body structures and functions, and not frequently examining effects on …

Bioavailability Of Dietary Oxalate, Mary Catherine Robertson

All ETDs from UAB

Urolithiasis, or kidney stone disease, is a costly and painful health problem affecting about 8.8% of Americans with prevalence on the rise. Calcium oxalate stones account for about 80% of all stones. Increased urinary excretion of calcium and oxalate is a risk factor and central feature of such stones; dietary oxalate contributes up to 50% of urinary oxalate. The purpose of our research is to determine if physical manipulation such as chewing or blending prior to ingestion may render some oxalate more accessible for absorption in spinach, a high-oxalate food. In this crossover, controlled trial we enrolled six healthy, non-stone …

Associations Of Gestational Weight Gain And Breastfeeding With Postpartum Weight Change Among African American Women, Camille Schneider

All ETDs from UAB

Objective: To examine the associations of gestational weight gain (GWG) and breastfeeding (BF) with postpartum (PP) weight change among African American women. Methods: Healthy, low-income African American women (n=32) were enrolled in a prospective observational cohort study of early life origins of obesity. GWG was calculated using data retrieved from medical records. Women were stratified according to the 2009 Institute of Medicine (IOM) GWG guidelines. Investigators measured maternal body weight at 2-weeks and 3-months PP, with the difference reflecting PP weight change. BF status at 2-weeks PP was self-reported. Analysis of covariance with Bonferroni post hoc testing was used to …

Intensivists And Organizational Performance, Glenn Barthwick Liddle

All ETDs from UAB

Because of the high intensity of care and the extremely complex medical conditions being treated, intensive care units (ICUs) represent one of the most significant units within a hospital. Despite the significance of the ICU, the majority of the care provided in the ICU has historically been managed and coordinated by referring or attending physicians, who often do not have the specialized training needed to effectively care for the exceedingly acute patients in the ICU. More recently, however, a growing number of hospitals have begun staffing the ICU with intensivists. Intensivists are uniquely trained physicians that specialize in providing care …

Evaluation Of The Productive Efficiency Of Nurse Practitioners In A Nurse Managed Center In A Highly Restrictive Scope-Of-Practice State, Faraz Ahmed

All ETDs from UAB

The purpose of this study is to determine the productive efficiency of Nurse Practitioners (NP) in a Nurse Managed Center (NMC) in a highly restrictive Scope-of-Practice (SOP) state. NPs are skilled, cost effective and quality health care providers and are considered a highly competitive option for increasing access while reducing health care costs. However, it is not clearly known if NPs are the most productively efficient at delivering this reduced cost of health care. The theories of Complex Adaptive Systems (CAS) and Resource Based View (RBV) were used as a framework to develop the hypotheses that examined the productive efficiency …

Chief Executive Officer Characteristics In Relationship With Patient Experience Scores Of Hospital Value Based Purchasing, Christina Galstian

All ETDs from UAB

ABSTRACT Patient experience scores have become important indicators of value in healthcare. This study was the first of its kind to examine CEO gender, tenure, and education in relationship with patient experience scores and all other value based purchasing scores, such as outcome, efficiency, clinical process of care, and total performance scores. This study suggested that hospitals with certain types of CEOs may perform better with respect to patient experiences and other value based purchasing scores. The primary analysis of this study was to examine the impact of hospital CEO characteristics (tenure, education, gender) on patient experience scores. A supplementary …

Safety Culture And Patient Harm, Alfonso Gatmaitan

All ETDs from UAB

SAFETY CULTURE AND PATIENT HARM EVENTS: A CONTINGENCY THEORY PERSPECTIVE IN THE CONTEXT OF COMPLEX ADAPTIVE SYSTEMS ALFONSO GATMAITAN ADMINISTRATION-HEALTH SERVICES ABSTRACT This study examines the correlation between a Culture of Patient Safety as measured by hospital staff surveys and actual patient harm attributed to hospital performance. It is generally accepted by health care management leaders that the presence of a strong culture of patient safety has become a critical component in reducing patient harm. However, little empirical evidence within multiple hospitals over time exists to support this belief. Healthcare managers can utilize this evidence in formulating patient safety improvement …

Difference In Recommended-To-Actual Nurse Staffing And Patient Falls, Shawn Ulreich

All ETDs from UAB

Patient falls are a serious safety concern in hospitals. Injuries from falls can be devastating to patients and are now subject to reimbursement penalties from the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Patient falls have been identified by the American Nurses Association as a nursing sensitive indictor suggesting that improvements in the quality or quantity of nurses may impact this outcome. Moreover, the literature suggests that nurse staffing levels have an impact on various patient outcomes such as patient falls. Therefore, identifying appropriate nurse staffing levels to minimize patient falls is critically important to hospitals. A variety of staffing metrics …