Nursing Commons^™

Better Together? The Effects Of Shared Medical Appointments On Bmi In Obese Adults, Amanda Larson

Evidence-Based Practice Project Reports

The United States (U.S.) is amidst an obesity epidemic, with Indiana ranking as the 15th worst state (Institute of Medicine, 2012; United Health Foundations, 2020). Despite current management strategies, the obesity rate in both the U.S. and Indiana continues to rise (WHO, 2020). Therefore, obesity management must change. The purpose of this evidence-based practice (EBP) project was to determine if the addition of shared medical appointments (SMAs) consisting of informational group sessions by specialists and brief individualized meetings with the provider will result in greater reduction of weight and body mass index (BMI) compared to standard care alone in those …

Education Combined With Reminder Strategies To Improve Cervical Cancer Screening Rates, Christina E. Mclean

Evidence-Based Practice Project Reports

Cervical cancer is the second most common cancer among women worldwide and a leading cause of death in some countries (Jayasekara, 2020). Approximately 13,800 cases of cervical cancer were diagnosed in the U.S. last year, and about 4,290 women died (American Cancer Society [ACS], 2020). Regular cervical cancer screening (CCS) reduces morbidity and mortality, but screening rates are low in the U.S. and at the project site (ACS. 2020). The purpose of this evidence-based practice (EBP) project was to increase CCS at a Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) with six clinic locations in Northwest Indiana; the primary project site was …

Implementation Of A Cost-Effective Treatment Algorithm For The Management Of Acne Vulgaris In College Students, Cristina Borsilli

Evidence-Based Practice Project Reports

Acne is one of the most common skin disorders in the United States, occuring in over 5.1 million Americans. Of those with acne, 53.8% are adults between the ages of 18 and 44 years old (American Academy of Dermatology [AAD], 2017). Acne can lead to multiple issues such as scarring, poor self-esteem, anxiety, and depression (Zaenglein et al., 2016). Acne can also negatively impact quality of life (Cengiz & Gurel, 2020). The purpose of this evidence-based project was to develop a cost-effective treatment algorithm for the management of acne vulgaris in adult college students. A literature search determined the best …

Using Mindfulness To Decrease Stress In College Students, Saska Pavlovic

Evidence-Based Practice Project Reports

The prevalence of stress is increasing in colleges, where students are experiencing anxiety at an alarming rate, with anxiety being the topic most discussed in university counseling centers. The purpose of this evidence-based practice project was to determine the effect of mindfulness exercises on college students’ perceived stress. The Stetler Model guided the project development and implementation. The literature search revealed that best practice included mindfulness exercises through a combination of face-to-face instruction and remote online audio meditation for a duration of eight weeks. For this project, 56 undergraduate students (health care-leadership, health-science, and nursing majors) enrolled in a health …

The Effect Of Implementing A Generalized Anxiety Disorder Protocol For Anxiety And Depression Symptoms In The Primary Care Setting, Bailey J. Hinman

Evidence-Based Practice Project Reports

Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) is very prevalent in the United States with 5.7% of citizens affected (National Institute of Mental Health [NIMH], 2017). This number is expected to be even higher because individuals avoid care due to stigma of mental illness (Andrews et al., 2018). GAD can have significant implications such as decreased ability to function, decreased quality of life and increased risk of suicide (Fong, 2018; Lizarondo, 2018). The purpose of this project was to improve outcomes for adult patients with GAD in the primary care setting by improving treatment to follow best practice recommendations. The Johns Hopkins Evidence …

Integrating Ethics And The Opioid Crisis Via Simulation: An Ethical Debriefing For Nursing Students, Raigan A. J. Shackelford

Senior Honors Projects, 2020-current

Over the past three decades, opioid medication misuse and abuse has skyrocketed. The increase in improper use has created the need for more frequent exercise of ethical reasoning skills in practice. This study was designed to determine the effect of an ethics-centered debriefing exercise following a standardized simulation scenario concerning opioid misuse/abuse on nursing students’ value of and perceived confidence in ethical reasoning skills. 18 senior level BSN students at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, VA, participated in an ethics- focused debriefing exercise following the simulated scenario. The debriefing was constructed using the ANA Code of Ethics and James Madison …

Don't Be Such A Buzzy®Kill: Reducing Pain During Vaccinations In College-Age Students, Katherine Long

Evidence-Based Practice Project Reports

Immunizations play a fundamental role in reducing the occurrence of preventable diseases in the population. Injections related to immunization are the most frequent pain-producing medical procedure implemented worldwide and account for nearly 12 billion injections annually (CDC, 2019; Taddio et al., 2015). These procedures are often perceived as simple but can have a variety of complications including pain. This evidence-based practice project addressed the following PICOT question: In college-aged students receiving immunizations (P), does the Buzzy® device (I) when compared to non-intervention standard of care (C) effectively reduce injection site pain (O) over a 12-week time period (T)? The Buzzy® …

Guided Imagery And Sentinel Lymph Node Biopsy Pain, Brandy Alicia Kirk

Evidence-Based Practice Project Reports

The standard of care in the treatment for women diagnosed with breast cancer includes identification and biopsy of the sentinel lymph nodes (SLN) of the breast (Chaterjee et al., 2017; Kneece, 2017). The process of identifying the SLNs involves radioisotope injections into or near the areola. Because this area is highly sensitive, women report this procedure to be considerably painful. The purpose of this evidence-based practice (EBP) project was to determine if the provision of a 5-minute session of guided imagery (GI), as a complementary alternative medicine, prior to SLN injections was effective in mitigating reports of procedural pain. A …

A Tailored Multicomponent Intervention In Primary Care For Survivors Of Adverse Childhood Experiences (Aces), Rebecca L. Peterson

Evidence-Based Practice Project Reports

Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) include 10 traumatic events of abuse, neglect, and household dysfunction that occur before 18 years of age. Adverse childhood experiences affect greater than 60% of the population, and approximately one in six individuals affirm that they have experienced four or more types of ACEs. They are associated with negative, long-term health outcomes in adults, including 9 out of the 10 leading causes of death in the United States (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, n.d.; Felitti et al., 1998). The purpose of this evidence-based practice project was to implement a tailored, multicomponent intervention to mitigate the …

Keeping Primary Care Providers Informed About Detecting Skin Cancer In Young Adults, Riley J. Spears

Evidence-Based Practice Project Reports

Skin cancer is a common, life-threatening disease that affects anyone, regardless of age or skin color (American Cancer Society [ACS], 2020). The incidence of melanoma is on the rise for young adults, with an estimated 2,400 new cases for individuals aged 15 to 29 (ACS, 2020). Although skin cancer is highly preventable, clinical guidelines are inconsistent regarding skin cancer screening. The purpose of this evidence-based practice (EBP) project was to determine if the implementation of the INternet curriculum FOR Melanoma Early Detection (INFORMED) program would improve primary care providers’ (PCPs’) confidence about skin cancer and the number of completed and …

Leadership Strategies To Support Resilience, Katee Paine

Nursing Masters Papers

Healthcare institutions have garnered national attention due to high levels of healthcare worker burnout, stress, and turnover rates. As the largest population of healthcare workers, nurses are often confronted with stressors that can lead to burnout in their practice and work environment. The global COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted and magnified these stressors over the past year, such as emotional strain of caring for dying patients, long shifts, rotating schedules, increased workload demands, and high-stress work environments. Resilience, characterized by an ability to bounce back from adverse situations, has been found to play an important role in navigating and adapting to …

Tiny Tusks Internship: Does Breastfeeding Education In An Undergraduate Nursing Program Affect Student Knowledge And Attitudes Concerning Breastfeeding?, Grace Murphy

The Eleanor Mann School of Nursing Undergraduate Honors Theses

Tiny Tusks provides honors nursing students enrolled in the Eleanor Mann School of Nursing at the University of Arkansas an opportunity to support mothers in the community by providing breastfeeding services, education, and assistance at public Razorback sporting events. Interns provide this support by setting up designated lactation spaces at sporting events, such as gymnastics meets, football, and basketball games, for mothers to breastfeed or pump. In this thesis, I reflect on my internship experience and provide a review of literature. Since the aim of Tiny Tusks is to provide breastfeeding education and support to mothers in the community, the …

Tiny Tusks Breastfeeding And Infant Support Internship, Anna Elizabeth Ray

The Eleanor Mann School of Nursing Undergraduate Honors Theses

Tiny Tusks Breastfeeding and Infant Support is a program at the University of Arkansas that provides a clean, private area for mother’s to nurse, pump, and change their infant’s diaper at Razorback home athletic events. The Tiny Tusks area is utilized at multiple athletic events including football games, men’s basketball games, and women’s gymnastics meets. Mothers are supplied comfortable rocking chairs, clean changing tables, heaters or fans depending on the weather, bottled water, and informational handouts about a wide array of breastfeeding topics. Along with supporting mothers, the mission of Tiny Tusks is to normalize breastfeeding in public areas and …

The Essential Characteristics Of An Effective Hospice And Palliative Care Nurse, Alexis Doyle

The Eleanor Mann School of Nursing Undergraduate Honors Theses

No abstract provided.

The Effects Of Dexmedetomidine On Preventing/Decreasing Severity Of Delirium When Given To Surgical Intensive Care Unit Patients: A Systematic Review Of Randomized Control Trials, Lindsey Hettish

The Eleanor Mann School of Nursing Undergraduate Honors Theses

The purpose of this systematic review was to integrate research evidence from studies published from 2010 to 2020 on the relationship between administration of dexmedetomidine and severity/prevalence of postprocedural delirium in patients in the surgical intensive care unit. In this review, clinical trial studies were recovered by searching the MEDLINE Complete and PubMed databases and utilizing MeSH terminology search. The MeSH terms utilized to search for applicable articles on PubMed included: “intensive care units” or “critical care” or “critical care nursing”, and “delirium”, “dexmedetomidine”, and “surgical procedures, operative”. On MEDLINE Complete, the search terms utilized were “ICU or intensive care …

Tiny Tusks Internship: Barriers To Breastfeeding, Cameron Watson

The Eleanor Mann School of Nursing Undergraduate Honors Theses

Tiny Tusks Breastfeeding and Infant Support Internship allows students to gain insight on breastfeeding practices through volunteering at University of Arkansas sporting events. Therefore, I chose to review prevalent barriers to breastfeeding that mothers in the United States face. These mothers were at least one of these: Hispanic, Marshallese, African American, disabled, employed, a veteran, living in a rural area, or a woman of the general American population. This topic is relevant because of the many benefits that breastfeeding provides for both the baby and the mother.

Tiny Tusks Internship: The Effect Of Health Care Providers' Education And Attitudes Toward Breastfeeding On The Mother's Decision To Breastfeed, Jocelyn Clark

The Eleanor Mann School of Nursing Undergraduate Honors Theses

There is a stigma surrounding breastfeeding in the public community, places of employment, and health care facilities. This paper focuses on the impact health care workers have on the mother's decision to breastfeed her infant, and her ability to continue breastfeeding as the primary source of infant nutrition. This paper includes experiences from an internship with Tiny Tusks, which provides breastfeeding support to mothers in the Northwest Arkansas area. Tiny Tusks allows for a better understanding of the community's breastfeeding needs and provides support to breastfeeding mothers in order to reduce the stigma associated with breastfeeding. In health care environments, …

Letters Against Loneliness: The Effect Of A Pen Pal Program Uniting Older Adults And College Students On Perceived Loneliness, Allyson Miriani, Caroline Crawford

The Eleanor Mann School of Nursing Undergraduate Honors Theses

Surveys within years and particularly the COVID-19 pandemic have revealed increasing rates of loneliness. More research is also emerging linking loneliness with a myriad of negative health outcomes as well as reduced quality of life. There is little research about effective interventions addressing loneliness. This paper reviews the available literature on the topic and proposes a pen pal program for college students and older adults developed based on available evidence.

Reflections On Labor And Delivery Internship, Olivia Ozier

The Eleanor Mann School of Nursing Undergraduate Honors Theses

This study is a literature review that examines the characteristics of an effective hospice and palliative care nurse. The purpose of this study is to discover what qualities make a satisfactory hospice and palliative care nurse; therefore, characterizing it as a qualitative study. It is concluded that the following attributes are beneficial for a hospice and palliative care nurse: compassion, knowledge, confidence, and support. When delivering end-of-life care, a nurse should use therapeutic communication and be exemplary in handling grief. Compassion can be shown by active listening and acknowledging the patient’s and caregiver’s concerns. Being knowledgeable entails that the nurse …

Undergraduate Nursing Students’ Knowledge Of Endometriosis: A Pilot Study, Stephanie Schlorke

Honors Theses

This descriptive post-test design study was conducted to assess knowledge level of undergraduate nursing students regarding risk factors, clinical manifestations, age of diagnosis, common psychiatric co-morbidities, treatment methods, and pathophysiology of endometriosis. An author-created 8 question multichoice and select all that apply questionnaire was used to collect the data. Twenty-eight students responded to the questionnaire. The results were divided to compare knowledge differences between second-semester and fifth-semester students.

It was determined that the undergraduate nursing students have a working knowledge of endometriosis, but there are knowledge gaps that need to be addressed. Fifth-semester participants scored higher than the second-semester participants …

Implementation Of A Protocol In The Freestanding Emergency Department To Screen For And Identify Possible Victims Of Human Trafficking, Joe Alvarado

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Human trafficking (HT) victims often seek medical care in the emergency room setting. In a recent study among HT survivors, 88% attested to receiving medical care while in captivity, with 63% treated in the emergency care setting. Freestanding emergency departments typically have lower acuity and lower patient volumes than hospital-based emergency departments. This setting creates shorter wait times and minimizes the length of stay at every point during the emergency room experience. For traffickers, this is an ideal situation if their victim needs medical attention, and they want to get in and get out of the emergency room with less …

Increasing Perioperative Outpatient Nurses’ Knowledge Of Pediatric Anxiety Through Use Of A Developed Clinical Guide, Christine Oliver

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Elevated perioperative anxiety levels in the pediatric population is a main concern when providing nursing care in a specialty area. In the United States, over five million pediatric patients will have some type of surgery each year and greater than 65 percent of those pediatric patients will exhibit preoperative anxiety. The care of pediatric patients in the outpatient surgical setting has grown significantly, and pediatric care is no longer restricted to specialized facilities or hospitals. This increased number of pediatric patients in day surgery centers has created a shift in nursing care for perioperative nurses. Anxiety has been directly related …

Overcoming Obesity: Provider Reminders And Education In Pediatrics, Michelle Warren

Evidence-Based Practice Project Reports

The prevalence of pediatric overweight and obesity is rising globally (Di Cesare et al., 2019) and results in lifelong chronic health problems and an estimated annual healthcare cost of $14.1 billion (Trasande & Chatterjee, 2009). The purpose of this evidence-based practice project was to address overweight and obesity in patients between the ages of five and 12 years through the provision of provider reminders, education, and guidelines. Primary outcomes included frequency of diagnosis, frequency of patient referrals, return to see times, and frequency of patient nutrition and activity education while secondary outcomes included patient weight, body mass index (BMI), and …

Efficacy Of Diabetes Self-Management Education Administered Via Telehealth For Adults With Uncontrolled Diabetes, Tanner Free

Evidence-Based Practice Project Reports

Patient’s with a diagnosis of diabetes require significant lifestyle modification and education. The need for patient education has led to the development of diabetes self-management education (DSME) classes. Unfortunately, utilization of DSME classes is only 5% among Medicare beneficiaries and 6.8% among privately insured patients (Centers for Disease Control [CDC], 2018). The purpose of this evidence-based practice (EBP) project was to implement DSME via telehealth and assist with goal formation to help patients with uncontrolled diabetes achieve glycemic control by increasing access to crucial education. The intervention consisted of bi-weekly calls for a period of 3 months. Participant data were …

The Use Of Automated Text Messaging As An Intervention For Smoking Cessation, Oluwasayo Sinkaiye

Evidence-Based Practice Project Reports

Tobacco smoking is a widespread problem that affects the adult population in the United States (U.S.). In 2018, about 14 of every 100 adults in the USA aged 18 years or older were cigarette smokers (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2020). Tobacco smoking is associated with chronic disease conditions that have serious health implications including cancer, heart disease, diabetes, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) (CDC, 2020). The purpose of this evidence-based practice project (EBP) was to determine the effectiveness of an automated text messaging application (SmokefreeTXT) for smoking cessation in a primary care setting for adult cigarette …

Cultural Awareness In The Health Care Team, Josna Kurian Bsn, Rn, Ocn

Education Week Poster Showcase 2021

Outpatient, Medical Oncology - Sugarland

Diabetes In The Oncology Setting Webinar Series, Jennifer Williams, Denise A. Palma, Michael Rizk Msn, Aprn, Fnp-C, Bc-Adm

Education Week Poster Showcase 2021

Department of Endocrine Neoplasia and Hormonal Disorders

Empowering Nurse Practitioners To Make Health Policy Change: A Guide To Successful Passage Of Legislation In Utah, Heather Merrill, Lacey Eden, Karlen Beth Luthy

Student Works

Introduction: There is growing political apathy among nurses. This trend must be reversed to make meaningful change in healthcare. In 2017, the authors championed a bill, House Bill 308 Substitution 2 (HB 308 Sub 2), which passed in the Utah Legislature.

Guide: This health policy paper details the process of enacting HB 308 Substitution 2 to guide Nurse Practitioners in enacting legislation. The steps detailed to enact legislation are based on the acronym CHANGE which stands for collecting data, hinge, associations, negotiate, gather, and expect to be the expert. Basics of the legislature are also explained such as timing, the …

Mental Health Among Nursing Students Amid The Coronavirus Pandemic, Cheydan Crump

Honors College Theses

The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of the current pandemic on the mental health of nursing students at a rural university. This study examined various risk factors and potential indicators for mental health, such as changes in physical activity, sleep behaviors, and differing perceptions of support they have received from the nursing program and the participating university, throughout the spread of COVID-19. This study was a non-experimental, analytical study conducted in a rural university in the southern region of the United States. This convenience sample consisted of 21 students, all of which were enrolled in the …

Promoting Wellness For College Athletes Through Mindfulness Meditation, Lisa R. Braatz

Theses and Graduate Projects

The practice of mindfulness meditation may be beneficial for college athlete’s mental health and wellness. College athletes are in a period of significant personal growth and experience high amounts of stress related to athletic performance, academics, and peer relationships. Integrating mindfulness meditation for college athletes has been linked to improving relaxation, concentration, and performance while decreasing fatigue and negative emotions related to fear or anxiety. This scholarly project explores the implementation of four mindfulness meditation sessions on perceptions of stress, mental focus, athletic performance, and presence in female college track and field athletes. The participants were attending an urban college …