Nursing Commons^™

Every Patient Every Time: Hapi Bundle Implementation On Micu And Nsicu, Kelsey Sawyer, Sara Tucker, Stephan Smith

Covenant Nurses Week 2025

No abstract provided.

Got Rib Fractures? Pic This! Producing Improved Patient Outcomes In Trauma Related Rib Fractures, Pic Scores And Use Of Intercostal Nerve Blocks, Lynn Davis, Evelyn Miller, Lupita Quintanilla, Stephanie Padgett, Brandi Walden, Karen Dean

Covenant Nurses Week 2025

No abstract provided.

Alarm With Care – A Falls Alarm Deimplementation, Honey Coronado, Brenda Kinning, Antonieta Laguna, Marian Mationg, Kimberly Martinez, Mary Pena, Divya Prakash, Mariavianney Seabolt, Norma Torres, Stephanie Wunderlich, Crystal Johnston, Jill Davis Rider, Anish Chacko, Lisa Turnbull, Michael Barrett

Covenant Nurses Week 2025

No abstract provided.

Mobility In Critically Ill Patients, Jacqueline Sanchez, Angela Wolf

Covenant Nurses Week 2025

No abstract provided.

The Potential Of The Eat, Sleep, Console Method In The Neonatal Intensive Care Unit: An Integrative Research Review (Irr), Kelsey Seigman

Covenant Nurses Week 2025

No abstract provided.

Strategic Innovation And Management By Nursing Leaders: Enhancing Icu Staffing For The Implementation Of A Rapid Response Team, Matthew Mitchell, Kelsey Sawyer, Sara Tucker, Stephan Smith, Stephanie Pigg, Jonathan Ortegon, Mitch Young

Covenant Nurses Week 2025

No abstract provided.

Impact The Utilization Of Evidenced Based Practices Has On Post Kidney Transplant Patient Outcomes, Judith Bautista, Vicky Loren Dela Cruz, Ervieneth Martin, Jennifer Mauricio, Alf Bernardino

Covenant Nurses Week 2025

No abstract provided.

Improving Blood Culture Contamination Rates In The Emergency Department: An Evidence-Based Quality Improvement Project, Kerri Maciejko

DNP Projects

Background/Significance

Blood culture (BC) contamination in the Emergency Department (ED) leads to false-positive results, unnecessary antibiotic use, prolonged hospital stays, and increased healthcare costs. Contamination rates at the project site ranged from 2.2% to 6.8%, exceeding the hospital goal of <1%. Addressing this issue is critical for accurate diagnosis, effective treatment, and optimal resource utilization.

Purpose

The purpose of this project was to reduce BC contamination rates in the ED by implementing a modified BC kit, providing staff education, and conducting real-time blind audits with feedback over three months.

Methods

An evidence review, appraisal, and synthesis using Melnyk and Fineout-Overholt’s EBP process confirmed that BC kits and diversion devices are effective interventions to reduce contamination. …

Lateral Violence Awareness In Nursing Students At The University Of Southern Mississippi, Aika Owens

Honors Theses

The purpose of this honors thesis was to obtain descriptive data about how nursing students at the University of Southern Mississippi School of Professional Nursing Practice perceive lateral violence in their clinical rotations and educational environments. This Honors thesis is significant to nursing because although lateral violence is a well-researched topic among scholars of nursing practice, there is little gathered data regarding lateral violence among nursing students, specifically at the University of Southern Mississippi. Nursing students are a vital population to examine because nursing students are often first exposed to lateral violence within a clinical setting, leading to early internalization …

The Impact Of Covid-19 During The First Two Years: Giving Voice To Pediatric Nurses, Karen S. Gralton, Kathryn J. Malin, Eileen Sherburne, Danielle Smith, Stacy Wenner, Julie Averbeck, Amy Newman, Anita Norton, Genesee Hornung, Karen Kavanaugh

College of Nursing Faculty Research and Publications

Purpose

The purpose of this study was to describe the experiences of pediatric nurses providing direct care in a variety of settings during the first two years of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Design and methods

This was a qualitative descriptive study. Donabedian's Quality Framework for the Evaluation of Healthcare was used to guide the design. Purposive sampling was used to recruit 24 direct care nurses from inpatient and outpatient settings within one healthcare system. Semi-structured, audio-recorded interviews were conducted in-person or via a virtual platform from November 2021 through March 2022.

Results

Four major themes were determined across all settings and …

Building Health Policy Advocacy Expertise In Pediatric Nurse Practitioners Through Civic-Based Experiential Learning, Christine A. Schindler, Jill C. Kuester, Jennifer K. Pfister, Katie L. Mcdermott

College of Nursing Faculty Research and Publications

Background:

Many nurses work largely as policy implementers rather than policy developers. The literature posits several multifaceted reasons for this lack of policy acumen including interprofessional power dynamics, marginalization of nurses in policy making, and lack of formal training in public policy advocacy.

Purpose:

To evaluate the impact of a targeted teaching strategy on increasing political astuteness, perceived skill, and comfort in health policy advocacy among a cohort of acute care pediatric nurse practitioner students.

Methods:

Curriculum assessment data were collected using the Political Astuteness Inventory, pre- and postclass discussions, and written reflections.Results: This curriculum evaluation suggests that specific policy …

Improving The Patient Care Experience In Residential Eating Disorder Treatment: A Quality Improvement Project, Paige H. Nguyen

Doctor of Nursing Practice Final Project Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this project was to implement structured biweekly patient check-ins at a residential treatment facility for eating disorders. This project was intended to increase the patient care satisfaction scores on patient discharge surveys from under 80% to over 90%.

Background

The project was implemented at a 12-bed residential treatment facility for adolescents and adults diagnosed with eating disorders located in Cypress, Texas.

Methodology

The Baird 2007 concept of scripting during rounds was utilized as well as the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAPS) patient care experience survey questions when creating the script used during …

Qi Charter: A Risk Assessment Protocol To Improve The Management Of Aggression And Violence In A Psychiatric Setting, Juliette N. Bateki

Doctor of Nursing Practice Final Project Abstract

Background: Patient care and staff safety are considered when determining aggressiveness and violence in psychiatric settings. However, structured violence risk assessment tools like the Broset Violence Checklist (BVC) are difficult to integrate into clinical practice when utilizing the prediction of violent behavior that allows healthcare professionals to intervene proactively. The BVC has been promising at predicting violence, but implementation needs to be done correctly, with proper training and integration into the routine workflow.

Purpose: This project aims to implement the BVC as a violence and aggression predictive tool within a psychiatric intensive care unit. It aims to increase violence prediction …

The Lived Experience Of Women Who Have Experienced Intimate Partner Violence In Trinidad And Tobago, Lyris Antoinette Greenidge

Theses & Dissertations

Background: Intimate partner violence (IPV) is an increasing public health issue worldwide and is predominantly committed by males against females. One in every three women worldwide has experienced IPV (World Health Organization [WHO], 2024). The Pan American Health Organization studied IPV in 12 Latin American and Caribbean countries (Bott et al., 2019), and the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago was included. At the inception of this study in 2018, the prevalence and effect of IPV, though captured in the media by Fraser (2014) and others, were recognized as a widespread monumental problem in Trinidad and Tobago. However, it appeared to …

Reducing Falls In The Emergency Department By Implementing A Virtual Tele Sitter, Danette Riherd

Doctor of Nursing Practice Final Project Abstract

Purpose: This Quality Improvement project focused on evaluating the effectiveness of a portable tele-sitter device in reducing fall rates in the emergency department from February 10, 2025 to May 1, 2025. Background: This project was implemented in a 20-bed emergency department within a hospital system located within the suburbs of a major United States city. Methodology: Baseline data was collected prior to project implementation. Data collected during the implementation period was then collected and compared to baseline data to evaluate whether the intervention effectively reduced falls in the emergency department. Results: Post implementation descriptive statistics indicated a 43% reduction in …

Development And Validation Of An Adolescent Sleep Algorithm For Pediatric Primary Care, Holly Hink

Doctoral Scholarly Projects & Capstones

Poor sleep quality is a common challenge for many adolescents due to various developmental, environmental, and social factors. Nearly half of all adolescents reported regularly experiencing sleep disruptions. Poor sleep quality among adolescents might have severe mental, emotional, and cognitive consequences including an increased risk for several psychiatric conditions, obesity, and poor academic performance. However, sleep disorders among this population frequently go unreported and are rarely screened during annual well-child exams with primary care providers. The purpose of this project was to develop an evidence-based sleep algorithm for pediatric primary care providers designed to improve screening and treatment of adolescent …

What Do Safety And Risk Mean To Women Who Choose To Birth At Home? A Systematic Review, Candice Chauncy, Kate Dawson, Sara Bayes

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Introduction: Despite clear evidence to support the safety and efficacy of homebirth, the concept challenges the almost universal belief that hospital is the safest place to give birth. Homebirth remains largely unsupported around the world due to prevailing beliefs and constructs surrounding risk and safety. Despite barriers to access, women continue to choose home as a place to birth. Methods: A systematic review of qualitative research was conducted to explore and understand women's views on what constitutes risk and safety in labour and birth for those who choose to birth at home. All studies were evaluated for quality and relevance. …

Transformative Learning In Homebirth Settings: A Reflexive Thematic Analysis Of Midwifery Students' Experiences, Kate Buchanan, Sara Morris, Sara Bayes, Clare Davison

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Background: The homebirth setting provides opportunities for midwifery students to witness autonomous midwifery practice, but these experiences are limited. Factors that limit practicum placement in the home birth setting are either logistical, with less than one percent of women having a homebirth in Australia or related to university governance, whereby approval is not granted for midwifery students attending homebirth. Objectives: To explore midwifery students' experiences in the homebirth setting and to determine how this has influenced understandings of the role and scope of practice the midwife. Methods: Qualitative methods were chosen to inform this study. Setting: A University that offers …

To Heal A Mind: A Comparison Of Functional And Conventional Treatments In Major Depressive Disorder, Gillian Chambers

Senior Honors Theses

Incidence of major depressive disorder is increasing year over year, with little able to be done to halt the spread of the condition. However, there are many treatment possibilities considered unconventional by the healthcare system. This thesis examines the respective benefits and risks, in comparison to one another, between conventional pharmacological treatment and functional, holistic treatment of depression. This was done via integrative review of available clinical literature, synthesizing evidence on both conventional and functional treatments for depression, as dictated by Whittemore and Knafl (2005). Exploratory search methods revealed 758 records fulfilling inclusion criteria, which were screened and narrowed down …

Healthy Sendoffs: The Long-Term Mental Health Effects On Nicu Parents And How Nurses Can Improve Outcomes, Christine Lyford

Senior Honors Theses

Parents who enter the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) undergo numerous stressors on their psychological wellbeing that can leave them with impacts long after discharge. This review was conducted to analyze the severity of long-term mental health deficits in parents and compare various nursing interventions that could decrease the incidence of these deficits. Seven databases were searched within the past seven years and documented in the PRISMA flow chart with twelve articles being identified as meeting the inclusion requirements. These articles found a higher prevalence of adverse mental health outcomes in NICU parents, with a focus on family centered care …