Other Nursing Commons^™

Development Of A Clinical Pathway For Acute Pain Management As An Element Of The Prevention Of Delirium In Older Adult Trauma Surgery Patients, Stacey Mermigos

Doctoral Scholarly Projects & Capstones

For hospitalized patients, delirium is prevalent and associated with poor outcomes including increased mortality, morbidity, hospital length of stay, and healthcare costs. Although past studies have identified effective interventions to both prevent and manage delirium in critically ill patients, the most widely used evidence is not easily generalized to non-critically ill patients, specifically trauma patients who experience acute pain, serial surgical procedures, and other notable precipitating and predisposing factors. Clinical pathways are structured plans that are useful for encouraging consistent, evidence-based interventions for various medical conditions and situations. At this time, there is no clinical pathway for the prevention of …

A Four-Year Longitudinal Study Of Effectiveness Of Evidence-Based Bundle Practices For Preventing Catheter-Associated Urinary Tract Infections In An Academic Health Care Center, May Mei-Sheng Riley

Doctoral Projects

Catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CAUTIs) significantly contribute to morbidity, prolonged hospitalization, and elevated healthcare costs, underscoring the crucial need for prevention to ensure patient safety. Despite ongoing mitigation efforts, CAUTI prevalence remained a concern in our facility at the time of this study. Catheter insertion and maintenance bundles, a recognized framework utilizing teamwork, collaboration, and focused interventions, were implemented to reduce CAUTIs and improve patient safety. This study evaluated the effectiveness of these bundles in reducing CAUTIs and catheter utilization to identify best practices for enhanced catheter management and care quality.

Enhancing Hospital Throughput With The Power Of Reminders: Implementing A Discharge Before Noon Strategy At An Urban Teaching Hospital, Jessie Ventura

Doctoral Projects

The doctoral project deploys a "Discharge Before Noon" strategy at an urban teaching hospital to resolve discharge delays and improve patient throughput efficiency. Hospitals experiencing overcrowding must prioritize timely patient discharges to enhance clinical results and operational performance. The project adopted the PARIHS framework to steer implementation through its emphasis on evidence-based practices, contextual factors, and facilitation strategies. The research gathered discharge data and team coordination results before and after the intervention period. The findings revealed elevated discharge numbers before noon and substantial progress in interdisciplinary team collaboration. The initiative indicated an optimizing trend for discharge procedures, even though statistical …

Exploring Metacognitive Interventions To Enhance Pre-Licensure Nursing Student Academic Performance: A Mixed-Methods Perspective, Angela Christian, Kara Delafosse

The Journal of Advancing Education Practice

rigorous demands of nursing school and the high expectations for critical thinking. Situating students for success requires implementing effective study strategies. Metacognition is the ability of students to manage their studying and learning tactics, while recognizing how and when to employ various strategies to master content (Chang et al., 2021). Metacognition directly correlates with enhanced critical thinking, clinical judgment, effective communication skills, and problem-solving capabilities which are critical in the nursing profession (Chang et al., 2021). Incorporating these skills to assist students as they matriculate through their academic journey situates them for success in the nursing profession. Using metacognitive awareness …

Cardiac-Surgical Advanced Life Support (Cals-S), Rachel Hewett, Lois Lenzmeier, Amber Martin

Nursing Posters

Improve resuscitation outcomes of cardiovascular surgery patients through the adoption of the Cardiac Advanced Life Support-Surgical (CALS-S) algorithm for cardiac arrest.

Don't Judge A Book By Its Cover: Generational Diversity At Centracare, Theresa Reichert, Lora Gullette, Britney Winkelman

Nursing Posters

The American Association of Critical Care Nurses (AACN) identifies key elements of a health work environment. Key elements to build belonging within a health work environment (HWE) include:

• Recognizing the value each person brings to the team
• Open, respectful, and effective communication
• Helping teams identify missing "F"s by valuing multiple perspectives
• Avoiding communication breakdowns
• Building departmental cultures where it is safe for employees to speak up with safety concerns
• Advancing collaboration and mutual respect, even during conflict.
• Strengthening employee fulfillment, retention and morale

At CentraCare, many different generations work together to care for patients and one another. Understanding generational strengths …

Developing Education To Improve Confidence And Competence In Handling Physical And Mental Health Emergencies For Ambulatory Care Nurses, Teresa Nathan, Cathrine Robak

Nursing Posters

With over 60 clinics employing over 600 nursing staff, the educational needs for the CentraCare clinic system are vast and diverse. We conducted a learning needs assessment, identifying confidence and competence gaps in the subjects of physical health and mental health emergencies as a theme across the clinic system.

A Tapestry For Sustaining Perioperative Participation, Larry Asplin, Joanne Oliver-Coleman

Nursing Posters

Perioperative nursing shortages are becoming critical. Many baby boomers are retiring. As a result, this team was tasked to create some basic principles that will help sustain the value of perioperative nursing by utilizing a multigenerational approach.

Perioperative Resources Nurses are pivotal in enhancing the quality and efficiency of care within surgical settings. These nurses operationalize evidence-based standards for healthy work environments and promote creativity in implementing these standards. They can be full-time, part-time, virtual, or volunteer.

High-Risk Tcm Program & Decreasing Hospital Readmissions, Elise Hedman, Christine Erickson

Nursing Posters

Prevent hospital readmissions in high-risk TCM patients utilizing the Community Paramedic program as a resource to visit patients in the home.

Ialways Perform Bedside Report, Lindsay Kephart

Nursing Posters

The aim was to create a standard tool for handoff that aids nurses and providers to consistently communicate patient information in the inpatient acute care setting.

Key Driver:

• Staff reported confusion surrounding several different acronyms or tools used to discuss patient information across the care team.

Creating Standard Work To Improve Length Of Stay, Jennifer Burris, Patricia Dumonceaux, Lindsay Kephart

Nursing Posters

Plan:

Improve the geometric mean length of stay (GMLOW) from 1.071 to 1.024 by creating and implementing patient flow and throughput standard work.

Do:

Implement standard work for interdisciplinary team members.

• Create a culture of accountability with consistent use of the expected discharge date (EDD) and patient milestones in Epic, during hand offs, and use of My Care Boards.
• Ensure provider to nurse communication occurs daily using ALWAYS, a standardized tool
• Create and ensure beside nurse-to-nurse hand off occurs using a standardized method known as iALWAYS.
• Create and implement patient education tools.
• Enhance discharge readiness tools to improve real-time communication …

Consistent Inventory Of Sterilized Instruments Ensures A Safe And Uncompromised Supply Of Instruments For Procedural Use, Tiffany Tammen, Amber Eckstein, Ellen Simonson

Nursing Posters

CentraCare Rice Memorial Hospital received a regulatory citation related to sterile instrument integrity and storage. Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) created a systematic approach to assess instrument inventory and integrity to ensure an uncompromised supply of instruments for procedural use.

Improving Workflows For Filling Provider Contractor Needs - Sw Region, Erika Lamb, Kristi Patterson

Nursing Posters

An interdisciplinary team was brought together to solve for the following problems:

• The process for filling contractor needs in Willmar was unclear. Willmar has high contractor utilization which is expected to continue into the foreseeable future.
• Turnaround Times: "Regular" provider hires: 90 days. Contractor hires: 120 days. At times, contractor needs at RMH were asked to be filled within 60 days.
• There were gaps in communication across roles regarding the progress, contractor onboarding, perceived challenges, and potential red flags.

Improving Patient Outcomes & Decreasing Cost Of Care, Kate Fischer, Christine Wiles

Nursing Posters

Increase patient's self-management of their chronic conditions while decreasing hospitalizations, avoidable ED visits and cost of care.

Identification Of Subarachnoid Hemorrhage: The Impact Of A Nurse Led Screening Tool Utilizing The Ottawa Rule, Chandra Brower, Shannon Krumvieda, Shalana Bolton

Nursing Posters

The ETC lacked a formal tirage process for identification of Subarachnoid Hemorrhage (SAH), which can lead to delayed treatment and suboptimal patient outcomes. Data showed SAH patients who presented to the Emergency Trauma Center (ETC) with headache (HA) and hypertension frequently had long wait times before evaluation by a provider.

Improving Monticello Emergency Department Stroke Door To Drug Time, Andrew Winter Eppa, Alea Stanger, Jessica Miller, Naomi Schneider, Kristi Patterson

Nursing Posters

The aim of this project is to decrease the Monticello ED Stroke Door to Drug measure performance from the baseline of 67 minutes in CY2024 to < 60 minutes by September 30, 2025.

Innovating Clinical Documentation: The Role Of Speech Recognition In Nursing, Caylee L. Hagen, Heather Thyen

Nursing Posters

As nurses, documentation is a critical part of our daily workflow, and it is time consuming.  Speech-to-Text offers a hands-free, efficient solution that allows nursing to dictate notes.

Iv Infusion Pump Integration Journey, Holly Kockler, Heather Thyen

Nursing Posters

Implement Infusion Pump Integration systemwide across CentraCare (excluding Surgery, Endo, EP Lab, Cath Lab, NICU, and Special Care Nursery).

The aim for this project was to enhance patient safety by reducing infusion pump programming errors and increase nurse efficiency by reducing pump programming steps and decrease burden of documentation.

Leveling Up Epic Tools To Streamline Care, Lindsay Kephart, Holly Kockler, Emily Eggert

Nursing Posters

The aim for this project was to improve discharge planning collaboration amongst the entire care team in 4 inpatient pilot depts at St. Cloud Hospital

Key Drivers:

• Improve communication across the care team
• Help to efficiently review a patient's discharge plan
• Track patient progress toward discharge in real-time
• Increase the visibility of outstanding care team tasks and discharge delays
• Improve data collection to enhance the discharge process

Commencement Program 2025, Loma Linda University

Commencement Programs

CONTENTS

2 | Message from the President

3 | 2025 Events of Commencement

5 | The Academic Procession

6 | Institutional Administration

7 | Board of Trustees

8 | Significance of Academic Regalia

9 | University History Highlights

11 | Criteria for Institutional Awards

13 | Loma Linda University Health and Loma Linda University Honorees

The Programs, The School Honorees, and The Speakers

29 | School of Medicine

50 | School of Pharmacy

63 | School of Dentistry

81 | School of Public Health

94 | San Manuel Gateway College

101 | School of Allied Health Professions - Allied Health …