Nursing Commons^™

Decreasing Cost In The Gi Endoscopy Suite By Utilizing Best Sedation Practices, Casey Brianne Mancini

Doctoral Projects

Colorectal cancer is a leading cause of cancer death in the United States (Mandel, Tanner, Lichtenstein, Metz, Katzka, Ginsberg, & Kochman, 2008; Siegel, DeSantis, & Jemal, 2014). Because this lethal disease claims lives of many people every year, more patients are undergoing screening colonoscopies, which have greatly aided in decreasing the number of colorectal cancer deaths (Siegel et al., 2014). The most common form of sedation for colonoscopies is moderate sedation with a benzodiazepine and an opioid (Cohen, Hightower, Wood, Miller, & Aisenberg, 2004; Lera dos Santos, et. al., 2013). However, sedation by anesthesia providers using propofol is becoming more …

Perceptions Of Male Nursing Students About Working In Women’S Health, Jose Mari Lawrence Mitra

Undergraduate Honors Theses

This study explores the opinions and experiences of East Tennessee State University (ETSU) male nursing students after they have completed their clinical rotations in obstetrics (OB). Participants are interviewed about their preconceptions and post-experience perspectives regarding the clinical rotation. After analyzing the interviews, the students’ perceptions appeared to be grounded in their perceived level of comfort with women’s health nursing. Themes include (1) preconceptions, (2) welcoming, (3) rejecting, and (4) culture.

Use Of Music To Reduce Anxiety In Short Wait Periods For Patients Receiving Care In An Urgent Care Clinic, Rebecca Anne Parker

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Abstract

The concept of waiting has received limited attention in the world of research. In modern society, waiting has become a commonplace event, especially in healthcare. Although the waiting experience can produce anxiety, healthcare environments can be easily manipulated in order to increase human comfort and reduce situational anxiety. One such way of accomplishing this is to introduce music to an environment. This paper will discuss the findings related to short wait periods, anxiety, and music within the literature, and the findings within this research study. This study found listener-selected music to be statistically effective in reducing anxiety for patients …

The Experience Of Illness In The Daily Lives Of Persons Living With Being Chronically Homeless, William Henderson

Nursing Dissertations - Archive

Individuals from all segments of society are affected by homelessness – the old and young, men and women, single individuals and families. The majority of individuals will experience homelessness only on a short-termed basis. However, about 10-20% will experience homelessness for years. Although, the chronically homeless represent only a fraction of the total homeless population, they utilize the majority of resources available. Current literature has focused primarily on other groups within the homeless community, leaving little to be known about the chronic homeless. Without a better understanding of this unique group, interventions can only be based upon assumptions. The purpose …

New Graduate Nurses And Transition To Practice, Regina Wilder Urban

Nursing Dissertations - Archive

A widely acknowledged transition to practice gap exists for nursing students who have recently graduated and are starting their first job as a registered nurse (RN). In an attempt to bridge this gap, new graduate nurses (NGNs) working in acute care hospitals are usually offered additional training in unit-specific knowledge and skills, along with time working with a unit-based preceptor. Hospital-based training programs are typically between two and six months in length, but the transition to becoming a competent RN with experience is estimated to take between 12 to 18 months (Duchscher, 2008). NGNs have much to learn and they …

Psychosocial Predictors Of Healthy Infant Birth Outcomes In Childbearing Women, Deana J. Furr

Nursing Dissertations - Archive

Low infant birth weight is a persistent problem in the United States. Psychosocial protective factors may confer benefits to vulnerable women, resulting in increased likelihood of healthy infant birth weight (HIBW). Few studies have examined predictors or correlates of healthy birth outcomes. The purpose of this study was to increase knowledge of protective factors and predictors of HIBW among childbearing women. A secondary analysis of the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study public use baseline maternal surveys (1998 – 2000) was conducted (N = 4,759). Main predictors of HIBW were being married (adjusted odds ratio (OR) 2.38, 90% CI 1.12, …

Serious Infectious Events Following Cesarean Section, Janet Burton Glowicz

Nursing Dissertations - Archive

The purpose of this study was to evaluate trends in the incidence of serious infectious events (SIE), defined as organ space infection, sepsis, and Cesarean Section (CS) wound disruption, during the birth admission or resulting in between January 1, 2009 and December 31, 2014 in the State of Texas. A retrospective analysis of the Public Use Data File, maintained by the Texas Health Care Information Collection was conducted. Records of 627,555 women who had CS and 1,023 women readmitted for CS wound disruption, were included. During the study period, there was a large decrease in the rate at which SIE …

Formation Of Professional Identity And Everyday Ethical Comportment In Pre-Licensure Baccalaureate Nursing Students: A Grounded Theory Approach, Kristen D. Priddy

Nursing Dissertations - Archive

Formation of professional identity in nursing students is a necessary prerequisite to skilled, ethical, expert nursing practice. Nurses who have not formed an ethical professional identity have a negative impact on the workplace environment and the quality of patient care. These consequences have led educators in medicine and nursing to reconsider the importance of teaching for formation of professional identity and of helping students learn the skills of everyday ethical comportment. Nursing educators lay the foundation for professional nursing identity formation that continues when new graduate nurses enter practice. However, contemporary nursing curricula lack deliberate attention to the formation of …

Provider Based Interventions To Mitigate Risk For Opioid Pain Medication Abuse Among Adult Patients In A Primary Care Setting, Sheree Lamara Conley-Donaldson

Doctoral Projects

Mental and substance use disorders are predicted to exceed all physical disease processes causing major disability by 2020. Misuse and overdose of opioid pain medications is a significant public health concern in the United States. Approximately 1 in 4 patients receiving prescription opioids in primary care settings struggle with misuse. Half of all opioid prescriptions are written by primary care providers, including nurse practitioners. The purpose of this DNP project was to determine if nurse practitioner providers are implementing evidence-based practice guidelines including screening, brief intervention, and referral to treatment (SBIRT) to mitigate risk of prescription opioid pain medication misuse …

Factors Influencing Attendance, Postpartum Follow-Up, And Contraceptive Usage Among Teenage Centeringpregnancy® Participants, Latia Hickerson

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

Background: Teenage mothers are less likely to obtain postpartum examinations and contraception, increasing risks for negative social and health outcomes. The CenteringPregnancy® prenatal care model has been found to improve outcomes. However, little is known about factors influencing CenteringPregnancy® attendance or how this attendance impacts future pregnancy rates among teenagers.

Aim: The purpose of this study was to explore the association between CenteringPregnancy® attendance, postpartum return, contraception initiation and method selection. Additionally, the Group Care and Perinatal Behaviors Framework was used to assess the association between food insecurity, housing insecurity, intimate partner violence relationship status, partner group attendance and total …

Hypertension Now And Then: Hypertensive Adolescents Who Consume Sugar Sweetened Beverages Are Associated With Hypertension In Adulthood, Jenna Thompson

Nursing Capstones

No abstract provided.

Consequences Of Urinary Tract Infections In Older Adults, Kayla M. Kappel

Nursing Capstones

No abstract provided.

Peripheral Arterial Disease: Factors Effecting Utilization Of Ankle-Brachial Index, Justin Jaspers

Nursing Capstones

No abstract provided.

Nurses' Views On Incorporating Mindfulness In The Acute Care Setting, Davi Prak

Senior Honors Projects

The use of mindfulness as a complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) has greatly increased during the last few years due to growing evidence of its impact on brain functioning and symptomatology of certain diseases. Preliminary research has demonstrated its benefits not only for patients but healthcare providers as well. Mindfulness-based stress reduction courses have become more and more accessible for employees yielding positive results in terms of health and wellness. In particular, nurses have benefited from mindfulness exercises due to the high stress level of their jobs. With the growing popularity of mindfulness and its positive outcomes, it is important …

Exploring The Effects Of Caring For Congestive Heart Failure Patients On Caregiver Well-Being: A Descriptive Study, Hanna S. Curtis

The Eleanor Mann School of Nursing Undergraduate Honors Theses

Background: As the incidence of heart failure (HF) quickly becomes the leading cause of disability among older adults, the need for non-professional, in-home caregivers increases as well. Many caregivers are family members who receive no compensation for their efforts, but all are an invaluable tool in the fight against a debilitating disease. Patients with caregivers experience an improved quality of life and lower mortality rates than patients with little social support. The caregiver of a patient with HF may be responsible for everyday activities such as housekeeping and shopping, as well as more complex disease-related necessities as managing medication …

Nurses’ Perspectives On Hope In Outpatient Oncology Patients: A Concept Analysis, Natalie-Jo Sidman

Senior Honors Projects

In contemporary times, everyone you meet has either been directly or indirectly affected by cancer. Cancer often creates a whirlwind of emotions as the individual wonders how and why this has happened to them. In health care, oncology is a field that is in constant evolution with the development of new chemotherapeutic agents and clinical trials that bring a sense of hope to oncology patients. Outpatient infusion nurses quickly become a part of a person’s life when they begin their chemotherapy. These nurses are with patients through every scan, procedure, and eight-hour infusion day. Nursing is essential in fostering hope …

Associations Among Meaning Of Illness, Quality Of Life, Symptom Burden And Depression In Patients With Leptomeningeal Metastasis, Julie Walker

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

Background Patients with leptomeningeal metastasis (LM) have symptoms related to disease within the neuroaxis, cancer sites outside the neuroaxis and treatment toxicities. Furthermore, the meaning ascribed to advanced cancer, such as LM, may impact the perceived severity, frequency and distress of symptoms as well as quality of life (QoL) and depression. Our aim was to explore and describe relationships among meaning of illness (MoI), depression, QoL and symptom burden in LM patients and to explore whether adding spine-related items from the MD Anderson Symptom Inventory-Spine (MDASI-SP) to the MDASI-Brain Tumor (BT) enhanced understanding of symptom burden in this population.

Methods …

Emergency Preparedness Competencies Among Nurses In Northwest Arkansas, Taylor A. Matlock

The Eleanor Mann School of Nursing Undergraduate Honors Theses

Despite years of training and experience, evidence suggests nurses report wide gaps in emergency competencies and disaster preparedness. Further, nurses report low levels of familiarity in competencies related to planning for disasters, implementing disaster guidelines, and assessing patients exposed to biological and chemical agents. This research sought to establish the self-reported level of emergency preparedness competencies of nurses in Northwest Arkansas, an area that faces a diverse set of potential disasters ranging from nuclear accidents to pandemic disease. Additionally, differences between of the level of preparedness by education level or work specialty were studied. The results are alarming in that …

Emergency Preparedness Competencies Among Nurses In Northwest Arkansas, Katie M. Waller

The Eleanor Mann School of Nursing Undergraduate Honors Theses

Existing literature suggests that nurses lack basic knowledge and skills related to emergency and disaster preparedness. Nurses nationwide have reported low levels of understanding related to numerous facets of emergency and disaster knowledge and planning. The purpose of this research was to determine the self-reported level of emergency preparedness competencies of nurses in the Northwest Arkansas area and whether those competencies varied by level of nursing education. The Emergency Preparedness Information Questionnaire (EPIQ) was utilized to measure knowledge. The results suggest that nurses across the board are unprepared in the event of an emergency or disaster situation. No statistically significant …

Triggers And Their Influence On Health Behaviors, Christine S. Gipson

Nursing Faculty Publications and Presentations

This article provides a conceptual definition of the concept trigger within the context of health behaviors and applies it to the highly significant health issue of obesity. Healthy behaviors are essential to life and happiness, but they do not just happen. They are triggered, and an inner drive keeps them alive. To help patients gain and retain optimal health, nurses must understand the triggers of healthy behaviors. Walker and Avant’s (2011) method of concept analysis is used as the basis for defining the concept of trigger. The antecedents, defining attributes, and consequences of trigger are identified. Findings suggest that nurses …

Importance Of And Satisfaction With Characteristics Of Mentoring Among Nursing Faculty, Jacklyn Gentry

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The nursing faculty shortage and its contributing factors have been well documented in the literature. Contributory factors include lack of graduate prepared faculty, difficulty recruiting and retaining faculty, and a decrease in job satisfaction within the faculty role. The use of mentoring programs has the potential to impact the nursing faculty shortage by increasing job satisfaction while providing novice faculty with additional support during the transition from clinical nurse to nursing faculty.

The purpose of the study was to examine the relationship between the importance of and satisfaction with characteristics of mentoring in full time nursing faculty teaching in baccalaureate …

The Relationship Between Promoting Self-Efficacy And Informed Decision-Making In Pregnant Nulliparous Women And Method Of Delivery, Crystal Hunter

Senior Theses

This presentation will cover the relationship between the concepts of decreased self-efficacy in pregnant women’s abilities to deliver their babies vaginally, fear of the pain and duration of labor process, and the acceptance of medical intervention without sufficient intrapartum education surrounding delivery methods. These interrelated variables impede the concept of informed choice. The current state of the problem surrounds women with low self-efficacy who are predicted to have negative childbirth experiences such as, consenting to an astronomically high rate of cesarean sections. The focus for nursing is that low-risk, healthy women who elect cesarean sections without the knowledge that permanent …

Sexually Transmitted Infection Prevention In 18 To 24-Year-Old Heterosexual Men: Pilot Study, Susan P. Mckeefrey

Doctoral Projects

The CDC reported that there were over 20 million cases in the United States and half affected young adults, 15 to 25-year olds. Strategies STD prevention have been developed by the CDC but does not include avoiding alcohol or other similar agents in the context of a sexual encounter. The purpose of this study was to assess the effectiveness of STD prevention education intervention by improving Condom Use Self-Efficacy in heterosexually 18 to 24-year old men. It was hypothesized self-efficacy would improve with a face-to-face brief educational intervention. A quasi-experimental, pre-/post-test design with simple randomization of subjects into control and …

Curriculum Development Of California Correctional Institution (Cci) Nursing Staff Performance During Simulation Training Related To Cardiac Emergency Response, Dina Wang

Doctoral Projects

The Cycle 4 OIG medical reports published in January 2016 for California Correctional Institution (CCI) noted emergency medical response (EMR) inadequacies. Nursing was specifically called out for EMR care deficits. Chest pain and respiratory distress were amongst the top signs and symptoms identified as having substandard nursing care issues within the report. The cycle 4 OIG medical inspection report gives specific incidences of patient care inadequacies.

As a result of the EMR portion results of the cycle 4 OIG reports, there was a need for improvement planned interventions. The Doctor in Nurse Practice (DNP) project is a quantitative quasi-experimental study …

End Of Life Care Practices For Patients Who Die In Intensive Care Units (Icu), Jila Ghabeljoo

Doctoral Projects

Today, one in five hospital deaths happens in the intensive care unit with the expectation of twice as many by 2030. Increasing, mortality has triggered a growing attention to end-of-life (EOL) care in the ICU. However, the lack of coveted EOL and palliative care skills creates a challenge for ICU nurses. The aim of this study was to assess the current practices of EOL care in the ICU. In this quantitative research, a retrospective chart review method was employed to analyze the collected data from a population 60 EOL patients who died in the ICU of a Southern California hospital. …

Factors That Affect Turnover Intention Of Registered Nurses In The Acute Hospital: A Meta-Analysis From 2006-2016, Helen Pagilagan

Doctoral Projects

Multiple complex variables influence nurse turnover. This meta-analysis examines the strength of the relationships between factors that affect turnover intent among staff registered nurses employed in the acute hospital setting in the United States. The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) was used to guide the reporting of essential components of this study. Included studies were published in English between 2006-2016, reported study sample sizes, a Cronbach coefficient for the study instruments, conducted quantitative analysis and reported Pearson correlation r values. Two factors affecting turnover intention were found in the four included studies. Statistical analyses show that …

Implementing Evidence Based Practices For Preventing Cardiac Implantable Electronic Device (Cied) Infection And The Role Of Post-Operative Oral Antibiotics, Ingrid Mitchell

Doctoral Projects

Cardiac pacemakers and implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICD) are standard therapy for patients with a bradyarrhythmia, tachyarrhythmia or heart failure (HF) with a left bundle branch block (LBBB) (Wilkoff, et al., 2008). Millions of cardiac implantable electronic devices (CIED) have been implanted worldwide and this clinical practice has improved the quality of life for millions (Epstein, DiMarco, & Ellenbogen, 2008). With the increase of implants there has been an increase in the infection rates (Klug et al., 2007). Research studies have evaluated pre-procedure, during procedure and after procedure risk and protocols. Studies have also evaluated operative factors, procedural related factors, intravenous …

The Perceptions Of Registered Nurse To Bachelor Of Science In Nursing Students Of Motivational Interviewing, Christie M. Smart

Doctoral Projects

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to collect information on the perceptions of motivational interviewing (MI) among Registered Nurse (RN) to Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) students and whether or not the students felt it could increase holistic practice. Methodology: A qualitative descriptive study was used to collect data through semi-structured one on one interviews from six RN-BSN students post a module taught on MI. Qualitative content analysis was utilized to process the data. Findings: The students felt that MI was a useful tool for practice in improving patient communication and would contribute to holistic practice.

Antimicrobial Stewardship: Incentives And Barriers To Implementation In Skilled Nursing Facilities, Gloria M. Escalona

Doctoral Projects

This study was part of a quality improvement effort of a Skilled Nursing Facility (SNF) to develop and establish an antimicrobial stewardship program to comply with recently enacted California State Senate Bill 361 (SB 361), which went into effect January l, 2017 (Skilled nursing facilities, 2015). The division of the facility into two sections, one staffed largely by Licensed Vocational Nurses (L VNs) and another staffed largely by Registered Nurses (RNs) provided an study opportunity that easily differentiated the licensed nurses. This study used three methods: 1) an educational intervention to licensed nurses, 2) a post-educational intervention survey of licensed …

Professional Nursing Values: Accounts Of The Witnessed, Ashley N. Costello

Honors Theses

In this research, the lived experience of nursing students in the clinical setting, specifically experiences relating to professional nursing values, were explored. This project aimed to answer the following questions: 1) How do student nurses describe observations of professional nursing values exhibited or violated by licensed nurses during the students’ clinical rotations? (2) What meaning do student nurses’ assign to and extract from their observations, particularly as it relates to how students believe it will influence their own future nursing practice? This research was qualitative with a phenomenological approach. Eight participants enrolled in senior level nursing clinical courses at The …