<p> Ethical ED nurse leadership is faced with persisting challenges to delivering culturally competent care, which is crucial in reducing widespread racial healthcare disparities. Implicit biases are continually cited as key sources driving these inequities. However, research is lacking as how to effectively reduce implicit biases and increase health provider cultural competence. This quantitative, pretest-posttest project evaluated the efficacy of a cultural competency education by investigating if and to what extent the intervention decreased implicit biases and increased perceived cultural competence. Survey data were collected from a convenience sample of 36 ED nurse staff employed at a large urban medical center in California. Data included participant scores on the Race Implicit Association Test (IAT) and the Clinical Cultural Competence Questionnaire (CCCQ). Two-tailed paired samples <i>t</i>-test (CI = 95%; <i>p</i> &lt; .05) indicated that the overall CCCQ score change of 5.5 points was statistically significant (<i>p</i> = .001) and linked to Knowledge (<i>p</i> = .000) and Attitudes subscales (<i>p</i> = .012) improvement. Race IAT changes were not statistically significant. No correlation was found between Race IAT and CCCQ scores. One-way repeated ANOVAs were used to investigate demographic variable impacts on scoring with limited value. Overall cultural competence scores were poor and Race IAT scores differed substantially from prior findings. Based on project results, the education was promising, supporting a solid, theory-based platform for strategically optimizing cultural competence and reducing health disparities in the ED care setting.</p><p>

<p> In the advent of the unprecedented occurrence of PTSD among both the young and old population, a group of volunteers and health care professionals have created a treatment and healing program using scientific and holistic approaches for a complete &ldquo;mind, body, &amp; soul&rdquo; detoxification allowing the individuals to reset and resolve all mental injuries caused by traumas they received. To enhance the effectiveness of this program, the Flower of Life Retreat &amp; Healing Center, Inc. (FoL, Inc.) has conceptualized a beautiful lakeside facility with a total of 45 acres of green land with serene natural beauty in the suburbs of San Diego, California. The facility&rsquo;s primary focus is to provide treatment for PTSD in conjunction with other related programs and treatments for anxiety, depression, and addiction.</p><p>

<p> Climate change is a controversial topic and has individuals arguing that the increased magnitude of the more recent natural disasters is significantly due to climate change happening. According to Weixiao Han, there has been an occurrence of over 22,000 natural disasters all around the world from 1900s to current day. Disaster relief preparedness and resources have been crucial in aiding the population at risk. Hurricane Earthquake Loss Prevention &ndash; HELP &ndash; focuses on decreasing the number of fatalities and damages during and after a natural disaster occurs in long-term care facilities and nursing homes. Hurricane Earthquake Loss Prevention aims to support these healthcare facilities by providing them with the right tools to aid and prevent injuries when a natural disaster strikes. This proposal will provide a breakdown of how HELP aims to provide disaster relief across the nation.</p><p>

<p>This dissertation, composed of three manuscripts, provides a foundation for the evaluation of advancing sedation and excessive respiratory depression in terms of managing post-operative patient?s pain with opioids. The first manuscript provides a framework for the concept of sedation in terms of how it is assessed and applied to post-operative pain management. The second manuscript is a qualitative review of the literature regarding the assessment of opioid induced sedation and advancing respiratory depression in regards to managing patient?s pain. The third manuscript provides the dissertation study examining expert nurses? common meanings and shared practices with sedation in the context of postoperative pain management with opioids. Using Heidegger?s interpretive phenomenological methods, interviews with expert post-anesthetic care unit nurses were conducted to capture the missing practical knowledge behind the nursing gestalt approach to managing patient?s pain. The third manuscript is currently being prepared for submission to a journal focusing on pain management nursing. Further research studies are warranted.

<p> Within the healthcare industry, we are always continuously developing new methods to improve efficiency in order to reduce medical errors, administrative costs, and physical waste. To assist those in the therapy sector of healthcare, Behavioral Integration provides healthcare professionals with an innovative and user-friendly therapy practice management software. It allows providers to document, collect, and store therapy notes and graphs electronically, schedule their clients, exchange messages with co-workers, provide billing &amp; payroll, and other administrative functions. Behavioral Integration contains similar features compared to a few of the therapy practice management software companies but differentiates itself from the leading competition by providing a commitment to better provider usability and local customer service.</p><p>

<p> With projected increase in the numbers of senior citizens in the coming decades, it is imperative to develop technological solutions that will address their needs and wants. AideReady is a home care agency that recruits certified nursing assistants and home care aides to provide high quality companion care and basic assistance to senior citizens. What sets AideReady apart from a traditional home care agency is the utilization of a digital platform for employees and clients to access staffing requests and services. AideReady will be available to its employees and patients on mobile devices and a website which is meant to provide convenience and ease for all users. Through its innovative and industry-disruptive concept, AideReady aims to empower all clients and employees by giving flexibility for aides and excellent, patient-centered care for its clients.</p><p>

<p> Duties performed by staff Registered Nurses (RNs), and Nurse Managers (NMs) require a different skill set to be effective. Nursing leadership is responsible for guiding staff RNs in providing quality, effective, and cost-efficient care. Incompetent leadership may lead to decreased retention and negative patient outcomes. Quality nursing leadership positively influences professional development of staff RNs and patient care. A literature review exposed a gap in leadership training that assists new NMs to function independently and efficiently. The purpose of this original basic qualitative study, which employed Husserl and Heidegger&rsquo;s approach of phenomenology, was to explore the experiences of staff RNs who transitioned into the NM role within the last five years and practice in either a small rural hospital or large urban medical center in southeastern North Carolina. Semi-structured interviews using open-ended questions were utilized to collect rich, contextual data until data saturation occurred. Open and axial coding of the data, documented in a code/theme frequency table, facilitated the discovery of central themes within the data including: the benefit of having performed managerial duties while in a staff RN role; leadership training to introduced a broader view of NM responsibilities and techniques needed to accomplish these duties; and a dedicated mentor who provided intimate guidance during the transition. The evidence from this study aligns with the published literature regarding the transition from a staff RN role into a NM role and supports making a proposal to the hospital&rsquo;s administration for a systems-oriented NM training opportunity such as a 90-day nursing leadership orientation that included formal classes on budgeting, common human resource management issues, and how to evaluate staff. This formalized training, in concert with one-on-one mentoring with experienced NM, would ensure a smoother transition from the staff RN role into the NM role and would produce more efficient, more satisfied nursing leadership professionals who are more inclined to stay with the organization that helped their career growth.</p><p>

<p> Through community assessment and health needs analysis of the Central Orange County region, specifically the City of Garden Grove and its 92843 ZIP code neighborhoods, the Health Students Garden Grove (HSGG) seeks to identify and address the physical, mental, and emotional health needs of students and provide a comprehensive, collaborative approach to providing quality health care services. HSGG aims to reduce barriers to care by providing mobile medical clinics at school site throughout Garden Grove Unified School District (GGUSD). This business plan evaluates the feasibility of mobile school-based health clinics within these neighborhoods, with the goal of increasing the health of the student population and the quality of life for all residents of the community.</p><p>

<p> A nurse&rsquo;s job is to tend to the need of those who are unwell and need assistance. With how overwhelming and demanding the job is, it becomes more difficult for a nurse to manage his or her own health. </p><p> As more and more health issues surface and with the increase of population, nurse burnout is on the rise. Never Undervalue Recuperating, Sleeping, and Exercising (N.U.R.S.E.) has been created to assist nurses manage their overall health. N.U.R.S.E. is not only offering distinctive services, but also competitive pricing as the company believes in helping improve the health of caregiver is more important than raising capital gain. N.U.R.S.E. conducted a small sample size survey asking five nurses, with various years of experience, if they believe they would benefit from a program such as N.U.R.S.E., and each one of them said they would benefit this program. </p><p> With the combination of continuous career growth of nurses, low start-up and overhead costs, and being the only organization with these services, the success of the company appears to be positive.</p><p>

abstract: This study aims to unearth monological and monocultural discourses buried under the power of the dominant biomedical model governing the HIV/AIDS debate. The study responds to an apparent consensus, rooted in Western biomedicine and its "standardizations of knowledge," in the production of the current HIV/AIDS discourse, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa. As a result, biomedicine has become the dominant actor (in) writing and rewriting discourse for the masses while marginalizing other forms of medical knowledge. Specifically, in its development, the Western biomedical model has arguably isolated the disease from its human host and the social experiences that facilitate the disease's transmission, placing it in the realm of laboratories and scientific experts and giving full ownership to Western medical discourse. Coupled with Western assumptions about African culture that reproduce a one-sided discourse informing the social construction of HIV/AIDS in Africa, this Western monopoly thus constrained the extent and efficacy of international prevention efforts. In this context, the goal for this study is not to demonize the West and biomedicine in general. Rather, this study seeks an alternative and less monolithic understanding currently absent in scientific discourses of HIV/AIDS that frequently elevates Western biomedicine over indigenous medicine; the Western expert over the local. The study takes into account the local voices of Sub-Saharan Africa and how the system has affected them, this study utilizes a Foucauldian approach to analyze discourse as a way to explore how certain ways of knowledge are formed in relation to power. This study also examines how certain knowlege is maintaned and reinforced within specific discourses. / Dissertation/Thesis / M.S. Biology 2014