Nursing Commons^™

A Comparative Study Of Nursing And Non-Nursing Majors Knowledge And Attitudes Toward Hiv And Aids At The Sophomore And Senior Level, Diana R. Lubandi

Electronic Dissertations and Theses

The primary purpose of this study was to examine the impact of a baccalaureate nursing program on the knowledge and attitudes of United States nursing students towards HIV/AIDS. Mathematics and engineering majors were used as a comparison group and to control the threats to internal validity of history and maturation. Data for this study was obtained using an AIDS Knowledge Scale and an AIDS Attitude Scale in the form of questionnaires. A convenience sample of 103 students comprised of 30 sophomore nursing students, 34 senior nursing students, 16 sophomore Non nursing students and 23 senior non-nursing students was utilized. The …

Patients' Attitudes Toward The Use Of Nurse Practitioners, Laurie Maxwell

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Since the advent of the role of nurse practitioner in the mid 1960s, nurse practitioners have practiced in traditional settings such as health departments, clinics, and physicians' offices. More recently, nurse practitioners have been utilized in non-traditional settings such as the emergency department. Some studies have been done that support the theory that nurse practitioners can function effectively in this setting; however additional studies are needed on this topic. The purpose of this study was to explore patients' attitudes toward the use of nurse practitioners and to determine what patient variables were related to these attitudes. More specifically, this study …

Maternal Age: Influence On Length Of Gestation And Birth Weight, Charlotte Bratcher

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The findings indicated no significant differences among the age groups in relation to infant birth weight nor in relation to the risk factors of smoking, maternal weight gain, trimester of first entry into prenatal care, or marital status They did indicate a significant difference [F(2,85) = 4.1364, p < .05] between the oldest and the youngest group (CD = 3.37, a = .05) in relation to gestational length. These findings are significant for healthcare providers in rural areas, since much of the previous research had been done in highly urbanized or inner city settings.

Characteristics And Resource Utilization Of Patients Of A Proprietary Home Health Agency In Rural South Central Kentucky, Linda Sewell

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The home health industry's introduction to managed care raises the prospect of reduced access to health care and poor outcomes for a vulnerable segment of our population—the rural elderly. Before effective intervention strategies can be accurately evaluated, a clearer picture of the sociodemographic features and home care service consumption is needed for this understudied group. The study was intended to provide a basis for future research into the evaluation of alternative methods of delivering effective care in terms of outcome and decreased cost for this population. A retrospective descriptive analysis was made of the patient record for the first six …

Personality Types Of Registered Nurses Employed In A Rural Community Hospital, Tina Snodgrass

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The purpose of this study was to identify the personality types of registered nurses in a rural community. An extensive literature review revealed that no studies, utilizing the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) to identify personality types, had been conducted with rural nurses. Jung's Psychological Type Theory was the theoretical framework for the study. The MBTI operationalizes Jung's theory and was utilized to determine the most frequently occurring personality types of the nurses. A descriptive study was conducted at a 68 bed acute care hospital. The sample consisted of 40 experienced registered nurses working in staff positions within the hospital. Sensing, …

The Relationship Between Health Locus Of Control And Health Behaviors Of Women Who Have Undergone Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting, Heather Ferrillo

Nursing Master’s Theses and Projects

Due to the increasing number of women who are diagnosed with heart disease and who are undergoing coronary artery bypass grafting, it is important to explore the psychosocial aspects involved in the recovery process of these women. This study examined the relationship between locus of control and health behaviors of women who underwent coronary artery bypass grafting.

Patient Satisfaction With A Nurse Managed Lipid Clinic, Memuna Ali

Master's Projects

The purpose of this study was to determine patient satisfaction with a nurse managed lipid clinic. This study investigated the effect of gender, age, level of education, and physical health on patient satisfaction. Measuring patient satisfaction has been regarded as the method of choice for obtaining patient views about their care. Fifty patients completed a survey rating various aspects of the lipid clinic. The results provided evidence that high level of satisfaction existed with the nurse managed clinic and there was no significant variation with gender, age, level of education or physical health of patients. Nurse Practitioners have been successfully …

Wheels At Camp, Judith A. Medlin

Master's Projects

Students with special needs are being included into regular education classrooms in increasing numbers. Teachers in these classrooms are often reluctant to include students with special needs on overnight field trips. This reluctance stems from the teacher's concern for the associated responsibilities. The purpose of this project is to demonstrate the process developed and used to successfully send a fully included student with disabilities to camp with his non-disabled peers. Dorthea Orem' s theory of nursing provided the conceptual framework for this case example. Overnight field trips (e.g., science camp) that are fun and safe learning experiences for the student …

Critical Thinking Attributes Of Undergraduate Nursing Faculty, Julie A. Coon

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the critical thinking skills of undergraduate nursing faculty to determine how these skills compared with the established critical thinking skill norms for undergraduate nursing students and if the critical thinking skills of nursing faculty were related to the type of program they teach in, their years of experience in nursing education, their level of formal education, their preferred methods of instruction, and their level of formal training in critical thinking. Nursing faculty from 17 Associate Degree Nursing (ADN) programs and 11 Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) programs in the State of …

Basics Of Research (Part 10): The Grant Application Process, Cheryl Thompson

Journal Articles: College of Nursing

No abstract provided.

Nurses Alumni Association Bulletin, Fall 1997, Betty Piersol, Elizabeth K. Prisnock, Marian E. Smith, Margaret Summers, Sue Henrie-Strup, Maureen Mcvail

Nursing Alumni Bulletins

1997-1998 Meeting Dates Calendar

1998 Annual Luncheon-Meeting Notice

Officers and Committee Chairs

Bulletin Publication Committee

1997-1998 Meeting Dates Calendar

The President's Message

Treasurer's Report

Trivia and News About Our Graduates

Highlights of 1997

Keeping Kids Healthy After Hours

Scholarship Funds At Work

Tribute to Tanya

Medical Mission Outreach 1996

History Of The Jefferson Pin

Facts Not Fiction

Rib Ticklers

Mama Will Protect Me

Happy Birthday

Fiftieth Anniversary

Resume of Minutes of Alumni Association Meetings

Alumni Office News

Committee Reports

• Bulletin
• By-Laws
• Development
• Diploma School of Nursing Alumni Association-Mabel C. Prevost Scholarship Fund
• Nominating
• Relief Fund
• Satellite
• Social
• Scholarship

Luncheon Photos …

Menno-Knight, October 1997, Mennonite College Of Nursing

Menno-Knight

Student newsletter of the Mennonite School/College of Nursing.

An Evaluation Of The Efficacy Of Selected Nonpharmacologic Pain Interventions In Infants, Cindy Smith Greenberg Dnsc, Ms, Rn, Cpnp

Dissertations

Infants subjected to painful stimuli respond with deleterious physiologic and metabolic effects, behavioral changes, and potentially long term effects on painful stimuli processing and response. There are few studies that address effective pain interventions for infants, particularly those interventions that staff nurses can implement independently. Interventions must be identified and their effectiveness must be validated for this vulnerable population. Pharmacologic management of pain may cause deleterious side effects and needs to be ordered by physicians or nurse practitioners. Nonpharmacologic methods to manage pain can usually be implemented by staff nurses independently. This study evaluated the efficacy of two nonpharmacologic pain …

From Welfare To What?: The Limitations Of Low-Income Work, Lande Ajose

New England Journal of Public Policy

The premise of the welfare law enacted by Congress is that people living in poverty could vastly improve their economic status if only they were employed. The author argues that economic security for welfare recipients will not be realized simply by increasing the labor-force attachment. Home health aides comprise an occupation that could absorb many of the large pool of workers expected to join the labor market because demand for their services is high and barriers to entry are low. However, as this survey shows, the home health field offers limited promise to welfare recipients because, significantly for women rolling …

Nursing: A New Day, A New Way, Lin Zhan, Jane Cloutterback

New England Journal of Public Policy

The U.S. health care environment is changing rapidly. Its structure, financing, and delivery are being reconfigured toward an integrated system based on managed care. Increasingly, national interest in health promotion and disease prevention is moving care away from a disease-oriented, institutionally based model to a population-focused, wellness-oriented, and community-based system. Health care consumers are diversifying in age, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status. The approach emerging from these changes and others requires nursing to rethink, redesign, and retool its workforce to meet new challenges. This article analyzes nursing education, practice, and operations. The authors discuss the dilemmas and complexity of developing an …

Job Mobility Of Entry-Level Workers: Black And Latina Women In Hospital Corridors, Maria Estella Carrión

New England Journal of Public Policy

Based on data from interviews with fifteen black and fifteen Latina women in entry-level jobs, this article discusses job access strategies, patterns of job mobility, and barriers to upward job mobility for low-income minority women in the hospital industry. Concentrated in the lowest wage levels and job tiers, they are quite diverse in subgroup composition, in age, and in training requirements. The research confirms that deficiencies in schooling and skills remain the major obstacles minority women confront when they apply for hospital jobs and restrict their opportunities once they are within the hospital labor market. Efforts to provide training and …

Minimizing Infant Exposure To And Risks From Medications While Breastfeeding, Sandra Banta-Wright

Faculty Publications - College of Nursing

The advantages of breastfeeding to the mother and newborn are many. Lactating mothers frequently ask about the safety of taking medications and the risk to their newborn. It is well established that all drugs are excreted into breast milk. However, most medications appear in only small amounts within the breast milk. With the availability of numerous resources on drug use while breastfeeding, a medication can be identified as contraindicated or compatible with breastfeeding. By understanding the anatomy of the breast, principles of lactation, and drug passage into breast milk, an approach to minimize the transfer of the medications in the …

Autopsy In The Cancer Patient: The Nurse's Role, Patricia Rushton

Faculty Publications

Nurses spend many hours with dying cancer patients, developing close relationships with both the patients and their families. However, nurses are frequently not involved in the process of requesting an autopsy, either by choice or tradition. During this time of great stress, the nurse can be more involved. The nurse who understands the reasons for autopsy and its ramification for the grieving process can be actively involved in supporting the physician who makes the request and the family members who must make the this difficult decision. It is possible that the nurse can be the health team member designated to …

Appreciation, Please, Patricia Rushton

Faculty Publications

The question to be addressed in this study is "Why do actively employed registered nurses work?" The goal of the study is to determine what factor financial reimbursement is in maintaining active employment as a nurse.

The Relationship Of Health-Promoting Behaviors To Hospital Admissions In Adults With Congestive Heart Failure, Debbie Mcfalls

MSN Research Projects

Successful medical treatment for acute health conditions has precipitated an increase in the number of chronic health problems. One such chronic condition is congestive heart failure. Heart failure is the number one discharge diagnosis among Medicare recipients. The financial burden for the management of this chronic condition is astronomical. Health care providers are commissioned to manage this chronic illness prudently. The purpose of this correlational descriptive study was to determine if there was any relationship between health-promoting behaviors and readmission rates of adults with congestive heart failure. A convenience sample of participants was obtained from a hospital facility. Subjects were …

Nurse Practitioners' Spiritual Perspectives And Attitudes Toward Providing Spiritual Care, Dennis R. Long

MSN Research Projects

Spirituality is viewed by many nursing theorists as an integral subset of personhood. However, current literature suggests that spirituality may be overlooked by health care providers when rendering holistic care. The purpose of this study was to assess the spiritual perspectives of nurse practitioners and ascertain attitudes toward providing spiritual care. A descriptive study was conducted to answer the following research questions : What are the spiritual perspectives of nurse practitioners and what are nurse practitioners' attitudes toward providing spiritual care? The theoretical framework was based on Ellison's (1983) Conceptualization of Spiritual Well- Being. The sample (N = 80) of …

Incidence Of Documented Exercise Prescription In Nurse Practitioner Client With A Diagnosis Of Cardiovascular Disease, Shannon Phillips

MSN Research Projects

The purpose of this ex post facto descriptive study was to determine the incidence of documented exercise prescription in nurse practitioner clients with a diagnosis of cardiovascular disease. Pender's Health Promotion Model provided the theoretical framework for this study. Nurse practitioners providing primary care in the State of Mississippi was the target population, with four nurse practitioners providing care in clinics representing the four geographical regions of Mississippi (Northeast, Southwest, Southeast, and Northwest) selected as a nonrandom sample of convenience. At each clinic, from the total population of records in which clients were aged 25 to 65 years with a …

Coping Strategies Of Mothers With Developmentally Delayed Children Who Attend A Support Group And Who Do Not Attend A Support Group, Donna Salvo Foster

MSN Research Projects

The purpose of this investigation was to explore coping strategies of mothers who are rearing a child with developmental delay.

Hiv Transmission Risk Behaviors Of Hiv-Positive Adolescents In Mississippi, Kristi A. Henderson

MSN Research Projects

Risk behaviors for transmission of the human immunodeficiency virus are prevalent among adolescents. One outcome of continued participation in risk behaviors is increased prevalence of HIV. Based on Fishbein and Ajzen's Theory of Reasoned Action (1975), a descriptive design was utilized to examine, the following research question: What are the HIV transmission risk behaviors of HIV-positive adolescents? The Henderson Risk Behavior Participation Survey was utilized to examine HIV transmission risk behaviors among adolescents already infected with HIV. The sample for this study was comprised of 24 adolescents age 11 to 21 years who were drawn from two infectious disease clinics …

Relationship Between Selected Demographic Variables And Self-Esteem In Female Adolescents In The Rural South, Denise Tennison

MSN Research Projects

Self-esteem is recognized as a basic personality- characteristic of positive and productive behavior. The view the adolescent female has of herself is of utmost importance and may have an impact on behavior, achievement, social functioning, and physical and emotional health. The purpose of this study was to determine whether there was a relationship between sociodemographic variables and self-esteem in adolescent females. Roy's Adaptation Model was used to guide this descriptive correlation investigation. Data were collected from a sample of 3 0 adolescent females from a small rural high school in East Central Mississippi. Participants were surveyed using the Rosenberg Self-Esteem …

Comparisons Of Outcomes In A Pediatric Primary Care Clinic In Patients Treated By A Physician Or A Nurse Practitioner, Ken Burnette

MSN Research Projects

Physician availability during the 2 0th century has waxed and waned. During periods of physician shortage and surplus, there have always been underserved segments of our society. Nurse practitioners (NPs) have provided care for these underserved populations. Unfortunately, 30 years after the first NPs began to practice there remain underserved populations and underutilized practitioners. The purpose of this study was to compare outcomes between physicians and practitioners. The research questions are the following: Is there a difference in patient's satisfaction between care provided by a physician and a nurse practitioner? Does care differ when initiated by a physician or a …

The Effect Of An Osteoporosis Health Promotion Education Program For Perimenopausal And Postmenopausal Women, Donna G. Cobb

MSN Research Projects

Development of osteoporosis has been a major concern for women who are menopausal since this bone disorder is a major cause of fractures in the spine, hip, wrist, and other bones. A relationship has been suggested between osteoporosis prevention and health-promoting behaviors, yet little is known about the attitudinal variables that may predict osteoporosis preventive behaviors among menopausal women. The purpose of this research was to evaluate the effect of an educational program on behaviors related to osteoporosis prevention. A pre-experimental design was used to test the null hypothesis; There will be no difference in health promotion behaviors of women …

Effects Of An Otitis Media Prevention Program On Healthy Infants, Rena D. Matthews

MSN Research Projects

Otitis media (OM) is the leading illness among infants and children. Risk factors have been identified which increase occurrence of OM in infants. The purpose of the quasi- experimental study was to determine if teaching OM prevention to parents of healthy infants would reduce the occurrence rate of OM. The theoretical framework for the research was based on the Health Promotion Model (Pender, 1996) which focuses on the integration of health-promoting behavior into lifestyles. The research hypothesis was that there would be no statistically significant difference in the effects of an OM prevention program on healthy infants and a control …

Self-Esteem Levels Of Pregnant Adolescents From Different Races, Stephanie M. Gale

MSN Research Projects

Effective pregnancy prevention in adolescence remains elusive to researchers and health care providers. Several studies have been conducted on the relationship between self-esteem and race and between self-esteem and pregnancy in adolescent populations. The purpose of this study was to determine if a difference exists between self-esteem levels and race in pregnant adolescents. Leininger's Cultural Care Theory was the theoretical framework used in this study. The null hypothesis was there is no difference between self-esteem levels and race in pregnant adolescents. The setting for this descriptive comparison study was a prenatal clinic for underserved populations in the Southeastern United States. …

Nurse Practitioners' Attitudes Toward Substance Abuse, Anabel P. Pereda

MSN Research Projects

Substance abuse is a major health problem in the United States today. The prevalence of the problem in primary health care settings mandates examination of the nurse practitioner's attitudes toward substance abuse. Research has demonstrated that the attitude of the health care provider toward the substance abuser can affect the level and quality of care rendered. This descriptive study was designed to examine the attitudes of nurse practitioners certified and practicing in Mississippi. Pender's revised Health Promotion Model was utilized as the theoretical framework for the study. The research question asked in this study was : What are the attitudes …