<p> Today, obesity has become the number one concern of kids and teens. About one in three Americans are overweight or obese. This in part is due to the consumption of highly commercialized and processed foods that lack the essential nutrients in maintaining a healthy weight in addition to normal cholesterol and blood pressure levels. Studies have shown that eating habits are learned early in life and are carried on throughout the rest of their lives. As children grow older into their adolescent years, they are more aware of their eating habits and have gained more autonomy in regards to food choices. </p><p> Plant-based foods have shown to drastically improve the overall health of individuals with high cholesterol, high blood pressure, and excess weight. </p><p> Power Plant is a facility that intends offer plant-based nutritional services in the form of informative lectures, interactive workshops, one-on-one nutritional guidance by appointment, with access to peer-mentors for additional support and guidance. Power Plant will dedicate their services to the Whittier Union high school district, surrounding community colleges, and universities in the Los Angeles County area. </p><p> Power Plant&rsquo;s unique program design, physician referrals and the critical need of our generations to come, are all factors that will contribute to its success in the Los Angeles County community and for years to come.</p><p>

<p> In the United States, many hospitalized patients with indwelling urinary catheters acquire catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CAUTI) during their hospital stay. CAUTI negatively affects peoples&rsquo; health and quality of life and causes a financial burden to individuals and the nation. The purpose of this quantitative cross-sectional study was to explore the relationship between gender, age, and hospital types and CAUTI incidence in New York and North Carolina over a 3-year period. The theoretical framework of choice was the Donabedian model. Simple logistic regression and hierarchical multivariable logistic regression analysis were performed on archival data that was requested from Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP) agency. According to the findings, males (<i>n</i> = 61,040) were at a higher risk of developing CAUTI compared to female (<i>n</i> = 66,792) (<i>p</i> &lt; .001) in New York and North Carolina between 2012 and 2014. The odds of getting CAUTI were much higher among age &ge; 45 compared to the &lt; 17 years. These findings fit in with previous literature identifying age and gender as having a significant relationship with CAUTI occurrence. The outcomes in this study may guide the formulation of policies that are age-appropriate, gender-specific, and facility-tailored to reduce the incidence of CAUTI.</p><p>

<p> This research examines the physical operations of a health care sector called long term care facilities. Long term care refers to organizations that provide onsite nursing care for people with long-term illnesses, elderly people who need continuous medical supervision, or for those in long-term rehabilitation programs. Most specifically, this research looks at the performance of the physical buildings (i.e. facilities) and how this performance impacts the external environment. Using secondary data from the organization Practice Greenhealth, this study addresses the following two research questions. </p><p> 1. What is the combined current state of environmental performance at the long term care facilities that have applied for a Practice Greenhealth award? </p><p> 2. What are the proposed environmental key performance indicators for the long term care sector? </p><p> Based on this research, a model is suggested for future researchers interested in the environmental performance of long term care facilities. The model suggests six drivers for improving environmental performance in long term care; (1) maintain compliance with environmental regulations, (2) reduce costs, (3) meet expectations of parent organization, (4) increase market competitiveness, (5) engage stakeholders, and (6) improve patient outcomes. Four environmental improvement categories are then established; (1) waste, (2) energy, (3) water, and (4) engagement initiatives, along with each categories&rsquo; associated indicators. Finally, this study develops a concise environmental performance survey that could be used by any long term care facility looking to make improvements to its environmental performance over time.</p><p>

<p> This dissertation empirically examines the associations between depression and HIV-related outcomes, simulates both care and outcomes under different depression care strategies, and compares the cost effectiveness of various depression care strategies to the current care strategy. </p><p> The empirical investigations reveal the negative associations between depression and HIV-related outcomes using two longitudinal patient-level databases. Furthermore, the patterns and outcomes of depression care are identified and simulated using agent-based modeling. Finally, simulated costs and effectiveness are used to evaluate different depression care strategies for reducing new HIV infections and improving quality of life. </p><p> The current standard of care for depression among patients living with HIV can be characterized as low intensity in terms of screening and treatment; enhanced depression care strategies are proposed and evaluated to be cost-saving. Recommendations are offered to enhance depression care in HIV care settings.</p><p>

<p> Psychotropic medications rank among the most widely prescribed, largest-selling, and fastest-growing classes of drugs in the U.S. today. Largely attributed to the role of primary care providers in mental health care and the use of psychotropic medications for non-psychiatric conditions, the prevalence of psychotropic medication prescribing is a problem due to side effects, drug-to-drug interactions, and withdrawal effects. Previous research has not reliably explained why practitioners vary in prescribing behavior. This non-experimental cross-sectional quantitative research investigation compared the psychotropic medication prescribing behavior of primary care prescribers from the perspective of the theoretical domains framework (TDF), a validated theoretical framework for identifying factors influencing clinical behavior. The inquiry was guided by four research questions that explored prescribing behavior between primary care physicians (MDs, DOs), physician assistants (PAs), and nurse practitioners (NPs), between high and low prescribers, among high prescribers, and among low prescribers. The Determinants of Implementation Behavior Questionnaire: Psychotropic Medication Prescribing Behavior (DIBQ: PMPB), a unique psychotropic medication prescribing behavior version of the TDF-based Determinants of Implementation Behavior Questionnaire (DIBQ) template was administered to 49 Pennsylvania primary care MDs, DOs, PAs, and NPs. Due to low sample size, the groups were aggregated and compared between MDs/DOs and PAs/NPs. Data were analyzed with the non-parametric Kruskal-Wallis H test. Results revealed that mean ranks were significantly different only among low prescribers in which MDs/DOs were significantly higher than PAs/NPs in Socio-political context and Innovation strategy. However, PAs/NPs were higher than MDs/DOs in Social/professional role and identity and Intentions. Findings suggest that differences may be related to division of labor, primary care setting, and age and gender of provider. MDs/DOs may focus more on protocol, organization, and practice-based aspects of running a business, whereas PAs/NPs may have a holistic mindset that is more flexible, accommodating, and sensitive to the patient. These factors should be thoroughly investigated in randomized controlled trials to more fully understand a provider&rsquo;s motivation and pattern for prescribing psychotropic medications, particularly in situations where safer evidence-based treatments exist.</p><p>

<p> The purpose for this qualitative research was to provide comparative data to determine if there was areas in need of improvement when it pertained to medical errors. Researchers have validated that initiating measures for continuous improvement would minimize error rates and benefit the clinicians and their patients. Patient safety was important and cause major concerns, therefore this research explored categories that influenced decision-making processes or conditions that causes deficit in reasoning, which could have an impact on cognitive abilities. Therefore, medical errors are a research worthy problem; since they cause phenomenon, conflict within managerial processes, and was a contributing factor for malpractice payouts, per a report from 2015 Institute of Medicine. As a result, researchers validated that initiating measures for continuous improvement would benefit the clinicians and their patients by minimizing errors or keeping them at a minimum. Utilizing the qualitative approach provided the best framework to narrow down cause and effects to validate the importance of support that relates to memory and relational network through retrieval-mediated learning. This research provides evidence that medical errors occurred during decision-making processes with (90%) cognitive errors, anchoring (75.7%), and (78.6%) premature closure. As a result, this qualitative research concentrated on constructs, such as, data collection from observation of prior research from scholarly, empirical, peered reviewed articles; <i>Medical Journals</i>, and education materials to provide pertinent information on diagnostic medical errors for the material within this investigation. The results from this study indicated, although, there was suggestions to improve patient-safety no significant decrease in medical harm occurred, therefore additional investigations will provide a valuable contribution to the body of knowledge and conditions for continuous improvement.</p><p>

<p> Home care nurses (HCNs) have reported a high rate of exposure to work-related injuries (WRIs). Nurses are challenged by the multidimensional problems associated with home care safety. These contextual risk factors increase the physical and social health problems of health care workers and of community suffering as a whole. This quantitative, cross-sectional study was designed to examine the relationship between the organization-related factors (ORFs) and the environment-related factors (ERFs) and their influences on safety behaviors (SBs) and the WRIs of HCNs. The PRECEDE framework was used to guide the study. Self-reported data were obtained from 74 home health care (HHC) nurses using the Safety Home Care Nursing questionnaire. A linear regression model was applied to determine the nature of the association between the independent variables and dependents variables. Findings showed the ORFs demonstrate a stronger effect on the SBs than the impact of the ERFs. The management commitment and the home-based care significantly affected the SBs. The supervisory support and safety access to a client's home were decreasing the WRIs. Therefore, the integration of efforts: The management and leadership of the health organization, the health care providers, and the clients&rsquo; family would improve safety of HHC. This study is expected to help develop safety strategies for home care and thus attempt to minimize WRIs among HCNs. Nurses free of injuries are able to provide a quality of care and improve patients&rsquo; health outcomes that in turn have an effect on reducing community suffering and financial costs.</p><p>

<p> The healthcare industry is going through many changes. As we progress with technology, medicine, strategies, the current healthcare facilities will also need to be updated. In 1946, the first year of the baby boomer generation, it was noted that the time would come when they would retire and look for ways to have their healthcare needs met. With the recent recession, it made building new nursing homes very difficult. Aurora aims to provide services for the renovation and development of healthcare facilities that need to create or acquire space to meet the industry demand.</p><p>

<p> As millennials and young adults under the age of 40 become the growing majority, it is critical to understand their leadership profile, the workplace challenges they face, and their strategies for overcoming obstacles as young leaders. Specifically, in healthcare, the rapidly changing industry presents internal and external environmental challenges that must be handled in the most professional and proficient manner to be an effective leader. As such, the purpose of this study is to gather best strategies and practices that healthcare leaders under the age of 40 can adopt for their respective organizations. There are 4 research questions that address the research study&rsquo;s purpose: (a) strategies and practices employed by healthcare leaders under 40, (b) challenges faced by healthcare leaders under 40, (c) definition and measurement of leadership success and organizational performance, and (d) recommendations for young aspiring leaders. 15 healthcare leaders under the age of 40 participated in the research study and responded to 12 questions in a semi-structured interview format. The results of the phenomenological qualitative study yielded 62 themes. In particular, the following emerged as top themes with regard to strategies and practices: servant leadership, authentic leadership, transformational leadership, emotional intelligence. Challenges faced by healthcare leaders included regulatory changes, healthcare reform, competing priorities, managing financial and human capital, and managing change. In terms of managing resistance to change, a four-part framework was developed through the following themes: educate people on the change, engage people in the process, listen and empathize, build a guiding coalition. As for obstacles experienced by young leaders, themes included proving credibility, perceptions of youth, lack of experience or knowledge. 60% stated that their definition of leadership success would be based on team development and success, followed by organizational success, personal achievement, and reduced staff turnover. A high performing organization focused on quality, engaging the workforce, patient experience, cost savings, financial growth and stability, and community outreach. To measure and track organizational performance, key performance indicators, dashboards, and balance scorecards were mentioned. The research study wrapped up with advice for young aspiring leaders with emotional intelligence emerging as a top theme. </p><p>

<p> An unavoidable feature of humanitarian fieldwork is the day-to-day witnessing of injustice, and the suffering of vulnerable people and communities. The existing psychological and sociological research on aid workers largely focuses on the personal impact of their exposure to suffering and injustice, rather than the actual witnessing experience. The focus of this research is to understand the lived experience of field-workers, how they construct witnessing, and the factors that shape and mediate this experience, in particular the role of the M&eacute;decins Sans Fronti&egrave;res (MSF) principle of <i> t&eacute;moignage</i> [speaking out]. The process of meaning making, and the impact of challenging experiences on field-workers, is also considered. The research method predominantly employed narrative inquiry. Twelve experienced MSF staff were interviewed to elicit personal stories about their role as witnesses. The research findings suggest that for those that daily witness suffering, it is an immediate, direct, and intimate experience. There is a reciprocal relationship with the patient or communities, and an entangled empathy mediates this relationship, and its expression. A strong ethic of care is central to the human encounter. The principle of <i>t&eacute;moignage, </i> and its call to speak out, or engage in social action, is significant in giving direction to witnessing. Research participants often experienced extreme conditions. Impacts such as fatigue, aspects of burnout, a lack of effective coping strategies, and self-care skills were observed. The quality of MSF as a holding environment for witnessing and meaning making is explored. Practice recommendations are made in terms of organizational implications, leadership, and psychosocial support.</p><p>