Nursing Commons^™

School Nursing Practice And Experiences During School Closures, Susie E. Birden Brown

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This evidence-based quality improvement project was to evaluate public school nurses’ relationships and reaction to their new work environment during the closure of schools in Northern California resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. This project addressed the change in school nursing, especially the nurses’ working environment. A stress management program was offered to the school nurses as an intervention to give them information on perceived stress. The stress management program included mindfulness and stress-relieving techniques over a 1-month period. The research methodology used in the project was a pre- and postintervention using the Perceived Stress Scale-10 (PSS) to measure if the …

Cardiac Rehabilitation Benchmark Study, Catherine Cottle

MSN Capstone Projects

This benchmark study attempts to evaluate the effectiveness of cardiac rehabilitation in reducing mortality and hospital readmission rates of post-myocardial infarction patients. Several peer-reviewed articles were reviewed assessing the efficacy of cardiac rehabilitation. It was discovered that cardiac rehabilitation reduced several negative effects regarding heart disease, including the reduction of mortality and hospital readmission rates.

New Graduate Nurse Retention Strategies: An Integrative Literature Review, Amy Fiala

Nursing Masters Papers

Decreasing nurse retention rates, particularly of new graduate nurses, is a costly issue for health care organizations across the country. Turnover rates for new nurses average around 20% in the first year following graduation (Kovner, et al., 2014). Low retention rates also create staff burnout, orientation fatigue for preceptors, poor morale, and safety concerns. The purpose of this integrative literature review is to identify best practice strategies and interventions to increase new graduate nurse retention in the acute care setting. Ten articles were selected for this review, including three high-level systematic reviews. Bandura’s Self-Efficacy Theory was chosen as the conceptual …

Improving Patient Flow In The Urgent Care Setting, Stephanie Carpenter

Student Scholarly Projects

Practice Problem: Urgent care clinics provide care to patients with non-life-threatening illnesses or injuries and are found to be less expensive and more convenient than emergency departments. As urgent care clinics are growing in popularity so are the patient wait times and overall length of stay times.

PICOT: The PICOT question that guided this project was in urgent care clinic patients (P), how does utilizing the Emergency Severity Index (ESI) as a patient triage tool (I) compared to using no patient triage tool (C) affect the patient flow and patient wait times (O) within 13 weeks.

Evidence: Evidence search with …

Resuscitation Quality Improvement Mortality Rates, Jordan Priest

Dissertations

This paper explores and answers the question: What is the impact of Resuscitation Quality Improvement on survival at discharge rates after suffering an IHCA when compared to every two-year BLS/ACLS training? Articles are explored that identify positive patients’ outcomes when resuscitation training is repetitively learned. The design consists of a BLS/ACLS and RQI evaluation of quarterly survival to discharge rates prior to the initiation of the new RQI program and after the initiation of the new RQI program. The setting of the study is the east region of a midwestern faith-based health care system, that includes four hospitals in one …

Geriatric Emergency Medicine Fellowship Journal Club: Frailty, Sarah Keene, Rebecca Fisher, Lauren Cameron-Comasco

Journal of Geriatric Emergency Medicine

No abstract provided.

The Impact Of A 12-Hour Shift Compared To An 8-Hour Shift On Nurse Health And Safety, Matthew Kramer, Andrea Howell, Kayla Kloes, Emmy Lam, Brittney Levy

Symposium of Student Scholars

Abstract

Background: An international healthcare concern is extensive shift length among registered nurses and the negative factors associated with nurse burnout. Cognitive impairment, medical errors, sleep deprivation, job dissatisfaction, and overall declined health and safety of nurses have been associated to long shift work hours among registered nurses globally. However, there is limited published evidence about the difference between 8-hour and 12-hour shift work.

Objective: This systematic review summarized evidence on the impact that 12-hour shifts compared to 8-hour shifts has on the health and safety of registered nurses.

Methods: PubMed, SCOPUS, EBSCOHost, NCBI, Google Scholar, and …

Acuity Based Staffing, Halie Lewis, Perri Hogan

Scholars Week

For decades nurses have been fighting for safe nurse to patient ratios. Thousands of studies have been done proving that an increased patient load leads to burnout, job dissatisfaction, occupational injuries, adverse events, and patient mortality. In an effort to keep nurses at the bedside, California passed The Patient Safety and Quality Improvement Act of 2005. This act was the first of its kind as it established legislatively mandated nursing ratios and required staff to take several breaks throughout the day. However, mandated ratios come with a cost that most institutions cannot afford and therefore is not appropriate as a …

Evidence Based Im Injection Practice, Sarah Simpson, Amanda Bailey

Scholars Week

Abstract

This evidence-based study of literature investigated best IM injection practice. The review was based on evidence from 3 main sources, all found on the CINAHL database. The three studies were reviewed and assessed, and best practice was found to be recommended. The first article found that several healthcare workers use different methods and techniques when administering IM injections, this leads to incorrect administration or injections not evidence based. The second article found that in order administer IM injections effectively, 5mm penetration into the muscle is needed. Therefore, skin bunching is not recommended for the reasoning that it creates a …

Evidence-Based Practice: Nurse-To-Patient Ratios And Length Of Stay In The Emergency Department, Gina Hicks, Christine Landers, Rachel Abukhdeir, Quanta Bailey, Alem Assefa, Modupe Adewuyi

Symposium of Student Scholars

Background: The emergency department plays an essential role in delivering quality patient care. Factors that have contributed to fewer ED registered nurses are aging out of the field, lack of educators to teach nursing students which leads to fewer graduates entering the field, and burnout and exhausting of current registered nurses.

Purpose: The objective of our study was to determine the impact of the ratio of registered nurses to patients on length of stay in the emergency department.

Methods: We performed a systematic review identifying varying staffing levels and how they play a role in patient care. The PRISMA 2020 …

Using Design-Thinking To Investigate And Improve Patient Experience, Jennifer Smiechowski, Megan Mercia, Kyle Kemp, Elizabeth Oddone Paolucci, Maria Santana, Rahim Kachra

Patient Experience Journal

Understanding and enhancing the patient experience can lead to improved healthcare outcomes. The purpose of this study was to capture a comprehensive and nuanced understanding of the patient experience on an inpatient medical teaching unit in order to identify key deficiencies and unmet needs. We then aim to implement a design-thinking methodology to find innovative ways to solve these deficiencies. Here we present the first two phases of this four-phased study. We retrospectively and prospectively collected quantitative data about patient experience with the Canadian Patient Experiences Survey-Inpatient Care. We then used this data to guide patient interviews. We identified several …

Improving Data Collection And Documentation In A Post-Discharge Follow-Up Phone Call Program, Lindsay Horihan, Tasha Flicek

Nursing DNP Projects

Purpose and Rationale: The purpose of this project is to improve a post-discharge follow-up phone call program by creating evidence-based methods of collecting, documenting, and analyzing data that will provide insight of the program’s impact on patient and process outcomes. There was sufficient evidence to support the use of follow-up phone calls as an effective method to limit hospital readmissions within thirty days of being discharged. The literature also revealed patient and process outcomes to be measured as a final step in the program and to provide data for ongoing process improvement. Practice Change and Implementation Strategies: The current phone …

In The Midst Of A Pandemic: Exploring Nursing Students' Attitudes And Beliefs Toward Their Training And Education, Harper C. Lewis

Honors College Theses

During Spring of 2020, didactic and clinical courses for nursing students at Georgia Southern University transformed to virtual platforms due to COVID-19. Student nurses learn their profession with experiences in both classroom and clinical settings. Clinical setting helps students strengthen psychomotor skills learned during simulated laboratory work. While all health profession students expressed stress as a major factor for well-being, student nurses seemed to experience more stress. Stress threatens nursing students’ sense of control over present and future performance. Competently performing skills required of newly graduated nurses greatly determines new graduates’ ability to secure employment as a registered nurse in …

Opioid Use Disorder: A Crisis Of Concern, Evangella Harville

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

According to a statement from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, between 2000 and 2017, approximately 700,000 people died from drug overdoses in the United States. Approximately 128 persons lose their life each day from an opioid overdose. The data for this study were collected by the vice president of operations at the study site from a preexisting database for 2019 and 2020. The participants were inpatient patients, 18 and older, both male and female, and were from all ethnicities. The study facility was located in Western New York and offered a 30-bed inpatient treatment center with 24-hour …

Addressing The Psychosocial State Of High-Risk Individuals Undergoing Hereditary Cancer Screening By Advanced Practice Registered Nurses (Aprns) In The Community Oncology Setting, Aquilina Kerubo Thompson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Abstract

Neoteric advances in genetics make it possible to define genetic risk in cancer, and there should be methods in place to provide comprehensive genomic care with oncology advanced practice registered nurses bridging this gap. The current scope of nursing practice stipulates genetic and genomic literacy; however, there remains a deficit among advanced practice registered nurses in identifying and addressing psychosocial distress during the genetic cancer risk assessment process. Oncology advanced practice registered nurses must be equipped with the knowledge that the genetic cancer risk assessment also involves protecting patients from the psychosocial repercussions of carrying a hereditary cancer gene …

The Impact Of Faith Community Nursing Programs For Chronic Disease Screening And Management In Vulnerable Populations: A Comprehensive Review Of The Literature, Gabri Warren

International Journal of Faith Community Nursing

Faith Community Nursing (FCN) programs in the United States (U.S.) emerged in the 1980's; however, the intertwining of health promotion in religious institutions has been present for millennia. Today, challenges facing healthcare are prompting health care providers to find creative and cost-effective methods of providing care. Determining whether FCN positively impacts the health of individuals with limited access to healthcare services would encourage healthcare providers to collaborate with the specialty, reinforcing the benefit of their service. An integrative literature review was conducted to identify studies measuring the impact of FCN on the health outcomes of individuals with hypertension (Baig, Mangione, …

Spiritually Influenced Health: Results Of A Health Promotion Initiative In Houses Of Worship, Crystal C. Shannon

International Journal of Faith Community Nursing

Promoting health within communities is a primary responsibility for nurses and other healthcare professionals. This involves the active incorporation of spiritual and faith-based approaches to health. Challenges remain in the delivery of effective health delivery that incorporates faith for at-risk communities. This is a retrospective descriptive study designed to explore the effects of faith-based health promotion sessions on existing health habits within local faith organizations from 2015-2018. The protocol utilized nursing students as project developers in collaboration with faith leaders and subject matter experts in the delivery of health education on nutrition, cardiac health, and physical activity. Findings suggest positive …

Faith Community Nurses: Caring For Individuals, Congregations, And Communities During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Mary Lynne Knighten Dnp, Rn, Nea-Bc, Lorie Hacker, Phyllis Ann Solari-Twadell, Lanet Owen Bsn, Rn-Bc, Bob Kentner Dnp, Rn, Chpq, Cen, Tcrn, Linda F. Garner

International Journal of Faith Community Nursing

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues for nearly two years, communities of faith are struggling to meet the spiritual needs of individuals, congregants, and communities during a particularly trying time in history. They have experienced closures, phased re-openings, and reinstated restrictions as the pandemic sees the fourth surge and a deadly more transmissible form of COVID in the Delta Variant. Faith Community Nurses, who are specially educated to provide intentional care of the spirit, play a pivotal role in providing care, support, and education to maintain and improve whole person health when people are isolated, physically distant, and at times critically …

Evaluation Of Telemedicine As An Option For Providing Safe, Accessible, Care To Young Adults In A University Setting, Diane Lynch

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

Previously underutilized, telemedicine has been implemented within a wide variety of health settings as a safe and efficient way of delivering healthcare during the COVID-19 pandemic. Maintaining operations during the pandemic made implementation of telemedicine an important aspect of college and university health center reopening plans. The purpose of this project was to evaluate the acceptance and quality of a telemedicine program implemented at the health center of a medium sized private university.

Data were collected via patient and staff surveys to measure satisfaction with the program and a retrospective review of electronic medical records was conducted to obtain data …

Promotion Of Heart Failure Self-Care In The Outpatient Setting, Meredith C. Lubas

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

Medical management of chronic heart failure consists of a closely managed medication regimen, cardiovascular testing, interventions, and lifestyle modification, including self-care practices. While medication management, testing, and interventions have concrete guidelines, heart failure self-care education lacks solid guidelines and thus is often poorly defined and variable in practice. Outpatient heart failure treatment typically focuses on medication management more than self-care practices. This project addresses the current lack of heart failure self-care education in the outpatient setting.

For this project, a total of seven patients with heart failure with a reduced ejection fraction received a patient survey in order to assess …

Debriefing With Pearls & Watson’S Caritas, Heather A. Uccello

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

Debriefing, an important aspect of students’ clinical experience, is a reflective, critical thinking analysis and communication strategy that provides rapid feedback after either a simulated or genuine clinical event. To teach this higher-level critical thinking skill throughout the learning process, nursing programs require specific methodology and faculty expertise. The National League for Nursing supports nurse educators having a theory-based strategy, formal training, and ongoing competency evaluation. Informed by Jean Watson’s Theory and the Promoting Excellence and Reflective Learning in Simulation standardized debriefing tool methodology, this project outlines a framework that nursing schools can use to potentially improve the debriefing process …

Implementing The Richmond Agitation-Sedation Scale To Assess Delirium In A Pediatric Icu, Leigh Paridy

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this quality improvement project was to establish early identification of delirium in the intensive care setting to reduce the impact of long-term patient outcomes. Description of project: A retrospective-prospective medical chart review was completed. The retrospective chart review looked at fifty-two patients admitted to the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) between October 1, 2020 and December 1, 2020 for patient demographics and State Behavior Scale (SBS) and the Cornell Assessment for Pediatric Delirium (CAPD) charting compliance especially with children with developmental delay and those with a high susceptibility to delirium. The prospective chart review looked at …

Burnout In The Nursing Profession: Extant Knowledge And Future Directions For Research And Practice, Sara Labelle

Communication Faculty Articles and Research

Burnout is a psychological state resulting from prolonged psychological or emotional job stress, and is a culmination of three factors: emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and reduced personal accomplishment. Due to the nature of the “people-work” they must constantly perform, along with a highly stressful and unpredictable work environment, nurses have alarmingly high rates of burnout among members of their profession. Given the importance of research on burnout to understanding the context-specific stressors and challenges of nursing, this review offers a synthesis of research published in the last decade in both nursing and communication journals, with an emphasis on discussing opportunities for …

Detection Of Breast Cancer In African American Women Using Walk-In Mammography, Munachi Nwosu

Dissertations

Abstract

Problem: Breast cancer is a life-threatening condition, in which the prognosis could potentially worsen with a delay in the detection and commencement of treatment. Scheduling patients for mammograms continues to allow for long wait times that exist in screening mammography. Lower rates of participation in scheduled screening mammograms contributes to the increased rate of advanced breast cancer diagnosis that exit in African American women and threatens their health outcomes. The purpose of this project was to implement walk-in mammography to increase participation for early breast cancer detection.

Methods: An observational descriptive design with a retrospective chart review. A PDSA …

Loma Linda Nurse - Vol. 29, Loma Linda University School Of Nursing

Loma Linda Nurse

FEATURES

4  | ‘Be His Light’ sculpture

8  |  A Tribute to Dr. Helen King

12 | Sevanna Baghramyan— Coming Home

14 |  A New Era Begins

LLUSN HIGHLIGHTS

16-23 |  ALUMNI NEWS

24-25 |  HOMECOMING

26-31 |  GRADUATION

32-39 |  FACULTY UPDATES

Food Addiction And Obesity, Lisa Ling

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The obesity rate in the U.S. adult population has increased to epidemic levels despite attempts to decrease obesity through evidence-based knowledge, clinical practice guidelines, medical interventions, and individual efforts. For certain individuals, food addiction behaviors such as food cravings, loss of control, and binge eating contribute to obesity and require a different approach to care. Little work has been done on adding the possibility of food addiction to obesity screening and treatment. This study utilized a quasi-experimental quantitative pre- and postsurvey research design based on Lewin’s change theory. Nurse practitioners were surveyed regarding the provider’s perceptions, attitudes, and beliefs about …

A Mixed-Methods Approach To Investigating The Influence Of Education On Nurses’ Attitudes Toward Sex Trafficking Victims, Tabitha Mcdaniel

Nursing Theses and Dissertations

Significance of problem: Sex trafficking (ST) impacts victims of all ages, genders, races, and ethnicities. It is a significant public health issue which is shrouded in secrecy. Although victims are typically isolated by their trafficker, they will still seek out health care services. Nurses are frontline staff with rare access to victims in a setting where help can be given.

Purpose: The primary purpose of this mixed-methods study is to explore targeted education about sex trafficking and its influence on nursing attitudes and knowledge about sex trafficking and its victims. This study also analyzes demographic information and how those variables …

Patient Experience As A Metric For Performance In Outpatient Bone Marrow Transplant Patient Populations, Olivia S. Marlinski

Master's Projects and Capstones

Problem: Patient satisfaction and perception of care provided have been linked to the overall quality of healthcare delivery. The Acute Infection Management clinical support department lacks a standardized method to collect information from patients regarding their satisfaction with care provided therefore impeding the units’ ability to capture performance results related to satisfaction, and improve care delivery processes accordingly.

Context: The Acute Infection Management unit is an outpatient clinical support department located within a large university-affiliated hospital that has been recently designated as the unit to operate the facility’s new outpatient bone marrow transplant program.

Intervention: The proposed project seeks to …

The Impact Of Nurse-Led Initiative Interventions On Cauti, Dalveer Kaur

Master's Projects and Capstones

Problem: National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN) has reported U.S. hospitals having 0.2 to 4.8 per 1000 catheter-days for adult inpatient units. The insertion of a catheter and delay in removal have a significant impact on morbidity, mortality, length of stay, and reimbursement.

Context: Post-Acute Care Unit (PACU) is a microsystem that provides rehabilitation services for a patient with various post-surgical procedures. The staff of this unit was well aware of policies of catheterizations that led to prolonged use of urinary catheters and an increased rate of CAUTIs in the last quarter of this year. This project aims to increase staff …

Communication Strategies To Promote Infection Control Compliance: My Health Is In Your Hands, Ezra Macabio

Master's Projects and Capstones

Abstract

Problem: The facility has less than 70% adherence to handwashing hygiene every week. Moreover, staff does not comply with the required PPE, affecting their infection-control performance and compliance to circumvent COVID-19. Furthermore, the microsystem lacks information flow and communication systems focusing on hand hygiene, and PPE usage significantly affects the healthcare staff's ability to perform such vital practices.

Context: Herman Health Care Center provides multiple services to its residents depending on medical needs after patient hospitalizations, such as short-term rehabilitation and long-term skilled nursing services. The COVID-19 pandemic had a remarkably negative impact on the skilled nursing facility. The …