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Although there are 50,000 cases of new HIV diagnoses each year in the U.S., people are living longer with HIV/AIDS (CDC, 2016). Due to the paucity of literature containing current experiences of counseling professionals who have actively or are currently working with people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA), this research explored the counseling professionals’ role and significance in HIV/AIDS mental health care services and prevention for treating PLWHA. The purpose of this phenomenological research study is to examine the life experiences of counseling professionals who are actively working with clients who are living with HIV/AIDS to answer this study’s research question “what are the lived experience of counseling professionals is working with clients with HIV?”

The question of the development and content of personal career goals has received little attention and relatively little is known about the factors influencing career goals and when and how career goal setting occurs. Drawing from Ashforth’s (2001) model of role transitions, I propose that professional identification is an important precursor to the development of career goals. The primary research objectives of this dissertation are to explore how identity motives drawn from experiences in graduate school relate to professional identification and how professional identification relates to both short- and long-term career goals for graduate students. I investigated my conceptual model and research hypotheses using a mixed-methods design. The stage 1 qualitative analysis was used to (1) identify measures corresponding to Ashforth’s (2001) four psychological motives (i.e., identity, control, meaning, and belonging) as antecedents of identification and (2) representative measures of career goals for graduate students. Forty-eight graduate students responded to open-ended questions about graduate school experiences, challenges, and career goals. Content analysis revealed measureable constructs for graduate students that align with Ashforth’s control and belonging motives; graduate students elicited support from advisors (i.e., career and psychosocial mentoring), peers (i.e., peer support), and colleagues (i.e., networking) to provide a framework for identification with their new professional roles. In terms of outcome goal variables, graduate students’ goals reflected two major content themes: extrinsic needs and status attainment. The responses from the Stage 1 qualitative survey along with social identity theory (Tajfel & Turner, 1979) and the goal setting literature served as the basis for the development of the Stage 2 quantitative survey assessing both short-term and long-term career goals. Based on a sample of 312 (short-term career goal model) and 243 (long-term career goal model) graduate students from 28 different universities in fields across both hard and social sciences, results show that one individual characteristic (need for identification) and actions of faculty advisors (psychosocial mentoring) are positively related to professional identification. Professional identification was related to goals in two main ways. First, higher professional identification positively related to short-term career goals which were high quality – that is, the goals were specific, difficult, and graduate students were committed to achieving them. Second, professional identification was positively related to both short-and long-term extrinsic goals, suggesting that graduate students who have internalized the goals and objectives of the profession see that a way to solidify their professional standing is to pursue a position that presents opportunities for high wages and external rewards. Overall, the research findings have implications for theory related to identification motives and identification in role transition processes. The study also contributes to the literature on careers and goal setting, especially as it relates to professional workers. From a practical perspective, faculty advisors should emphasize positive psychosocial mentoring experiences such as counseling and friendship to create a sense of professional identity for students, and professional associations and faculty should consider that identification with a profession is primarily related to career goals associated with high financial success.

ABSTRACT Centered on interviews with 13 hospice care professionals from two large hospice organizations in Southern California, this thesis project examines the challenges that arise in hospice work. Hospice’s delivery of end-of-life care is becoming even more significant as the population lives longer. According to the National Institute on Aging (2014), the face of aging in the United States is changing dramatically. This examination discloses some of the challenges that hospice workers face in a continuously changing health care system, while trying to provide extraordinary service to the terminally ill. Hospice regards dying as a conventional progression, and neither hastens nor defers death. Hospice health care professions are essential in providing care. This thesis uses a qualitative method and examined beliefs about hospice care among hospice professionals using compassion fatigue also known as burnout, job satisfaction and religion and spirituality as a foundation. The findings of this thesis found that compassion fatigue is a real phenomenon and has been experienced by nine or 69% of participants, and of the 69%, six or 67% that experienced compassion fatigue are paid employees who work a forty hour work week. The remaining three participants or 33% who have experienced compassion fatigue are volunteers who commit to volunteering more than two days a week. Frequent contact with individuals who are terminally ill increases the likelihood of compassion fatigue. The iv findings also indicate that 100% of participants experienced job satisfaction while working in patient care, despite the length of time working in the field of hospice. Job satisfaction is contributed to the belief that participants have regarding hospice care, and that belief is the work they do in hospice is a "calling" and they all consider working with the terminally ill as a privilege. Lastly, the findings indicate that religion and spirituality play a major role in how participants deal with the ongoing death of patients. Ninety two percent or 12 out of the 13 participants claim a belief in a higher power, and they use this belief to cope with the suffering and death of patients. They also use religion and spirituality as a way to decrease stress and to have a piece of mind that when a patient dies they are in a much better place and relieved of their suffering. Taken as a whole, this study concentrated on hospice professionals and the correlation of compassion fatigue, job satisfaction and religion and spiritually which can have a pronounced impact on the overall quality of service delivery. The purpose of this study was to bring mindfulness to the hospice social professional. What has been provided in this study is empirical support for advanced research in the field of hospice care. Additional research is necessary in order to understand more about the beliefs of hospice care among helping professionals and the motivations they use in order to deliver optimal service to the terminally ill.

The purpose of this study was to explore the ways mental health providers continue developing and strengthening their skills to have a great impact and overall beneficial effect on the families they are supporting. An interview questionnaire was created to explore participants’ experiences working with families and their children to generate an understanding of their current experiences in the mental health field. Through this study we have learned that the mental health providers are aware of the traits that they have to possess in order to provide the best care for the clients and their families. The participants in the study stay motivated by seeing the positive client outcomes and receiving feedback from their clients and families. They apply new research, go to workshops, are change agents, seek supervision, and network with other professionals for support. The qualitative design was used in order to collect the data from the participants. The study sample consisted of twelve Mental Health Providers. One‑on‑one interviews were conducted, a consent was obtained per participant, and transcribed for thematic analysis. Based on participant narratives, a key finding in this study found that there are barriers to the mental health professionals, due to cost, time restraints, lack of peer support, and supervision. A key finding was the motivation of the Mental Health Professionals to continue providing services to the families was high due to the feedback and positive client outcomes. Future research is needed to explore additional ways to better support the Mental Health Provider in the mental health field.

Older adults make up a significant and increasing proportion of the U.S. population and are frequent users of healthcare services. Ageism in healthcare, driven by an incomplete and narrowly biomedical perspective on aging, has been linked to various problematic outcomes for older patients, including under- and over-treatment. The purpose of this study was to use the theory of relational ageism to explore the relationship between personal aging anxiety among healthcare professionals and their attitudes to older patients, considering the potentially moderating factors of job role and work setting. Using convenience sampling, clinical healthcare professionals working for a mid-sized, regional healthcare system in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States were invited to participate in an online survey, resulting in a sample of N = 145. Independent variables in this study included the sociodemographic variables of gender, age, race, ethnicity, level of education, formal geriatric or gerontological education, and years of expression, plus job role, work setting, and aging anxiety scores as measured by the Aging Anxiety Scale. The dependent variable was attitudes to older patients as measured by the Geriatric Attitudes Scale. Regression analysis findings suggest that while having formal geriatric or gerontological education was associated with more negative attitudes to older patients, other sociodemographic variables including gender, age, race, ethnicity, level of education, and years of experience were not predictive of attitudes to older patients. While physicians had more negative attitudes toward older patients than did nurses, therapists, and other types of clinicians, work setting was not predictive of attitudes toward older patients. Study findings also indicate that higher levels of personal aging anxiety of healthcare professionals were correlated with more negative attitudes to older patients. This study provides information that can inform diversity training for healthcare professionals in order to improve attitudes toward older patients and reduce age discrimination in healthcare. A key recommendation is the inclusion of an exploration of healthcare professionals’ internalized attitudes to aging in any diversity training in order to increase awareness that these internalized attitudes about aging may influence their attitudes to older patients.

The purpose of the current study was to investigate factors in the work environment that impact job burnout among academic support professionals who work with college student-athletes. Specifically, the factors of job control match, fairness march, rewards match, and workload match were explored. Additionally, the extent to which emotional exhaustion and depersonalization had an effect on turnover intention was explored. Job burnout has been found to have negative impacts on professionals in human services professions. The sample consisted of academic advisors and learning specialists affiliated with National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I programs. Results suggest academic support professionals experience a high level of emotional exhaustion related to a mismatch in perceived job control, rewards, and workload. Additionally, higher levels of emotional exhaustion were found to significantly impact turnover intention. Practical solutions that address job mismatches are discussed along with theoretical implications for the person-environment fit framework applied in the context of the sport industry.

Little is known about health care professionals' perceptions of eating disorder etiology among African American (AA) women. The purpose of this quantitative research study was to examine the associations among health care professionals' race, cultural awareness, and perceptions of media influence on eating disorder-related factors in AA women. Festigner's social comparison theory; Bandura's social learning theory; and Garcia, Cartwright, Winston, and Borzuchowska's transcultural integrative model served as the theoretical frameworks for this study. Specifically, this study examined whether race and cultural awareness of health care professionals relate to their perceptions of the extent to which media influences AA women's eating disorders, and whether cultural awareness moderates the association between their race and media influences. Data were obtained through a researcher-created demographic questionnaire, the Multicultural Counseling Inventory, and a modified Sociocultural Attitudes Toward Appearance Scale-3 with a purposive sample of 49 participants. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, Spearman's Rho correlation, Pearson correlation, and a hierarchical multiple linear regression. Compared to their Caucasian American counterparts, AA health care professionals perceived greater media pressure on AA women's body image concerns. Additionally, participants' cultural awareness was positively correlated with their ratings of AA women's desire to have more athletic bodies. The implications for positive social change stemming from this study are directed at health care professionals as additional training may increase their awareness, early detection, diagnosis, and treatment of eating disorders among AA women.

Despite increased awareness about patient safety and quality of care, errors and adverse outcomes occur frequently in clinical practice. An estimated 10% of the 35.1 million U.S. hospital patients suffered injuries caused by medical errors; the most common were medication errors, which accounted for more than 50% of all medical errors. Work-related stress is associated with medication errors for health care professionals (HCP) in Saudi Arabia (SA) hospitals; however, the specific types of stressors and their effect on the level of medication errors have not been studied in SA. The purpose of this quantitative correlational study was to examine the relationship between the overall level and sources of work-related stress using the job stress scale on the level of medication errors for a group of 269 HCPs working at King Abdul-Aziz Hospital (KAH) in SA. The theoretical framework for this research was the Donabedian patient safety model, which relates healthcare quality to personal, environmental, and organizational factors. Binary logistic regression analyses indicated there was no relationship between overall levels of stress and medication errors. However, specific sources of work related stress such as disruption to home life, excessive workload, and night/weekend call duties were associated with a significant increase in the medication error rate, while pressure to meet deadlines and difficulties with colleagues was associated with a significant decrease in the medication error rate. Positive social change implications include how understanding the impact of work-related stress on medication errors by SA HCPs may lead to specific interventions to reduce medication errors and improve patient care.

Difficulties experienced at work can cause feelings of burnout that become prolonged and intensified without acts of self-care. The intense nature of mental health workers' jobs may make them, more vulnerable to burnout than other professionals. Because mental health professionals' mental and emotional wellness can significantly affect their work, adequate self-care is critical to both their well-being and that of their clients. Previous researchers have investigated the self-care behaviors of mental health professionals, but little was known about how gender affected the use of these behaviors in burnout prevention among mental health professionals. The purpose of this quantitative study was to examine the relationship between self-care behaviors and burnout among a sample of 325 mental health professionals working in New York. Differences in the ways male and female mental health professionals practiced self-care behaviors were also investigated. Burnout and gender role theories were used as the theoretical framework. Study instruments included the MBI-HSS and the Brief COPE. Multiple regression analysis and independent sample t tests were employed to analyze survey data. Analysis revealed levels of self-care behaviors were significantly predictive of depersonalization, emotional exhaustion, and reduced personal accomplishment. Gender differences in self-care behaviors were indicated for substance use, self-blame, depersonalization, emotional exhaustion, and reduced personal accomplishment. Since burnout is a significant problem for many mental health professionals, understanding how self-care affects burnout is critical to promoting behavioral changes among these professionals. Self-care among mental health professionals may improve their professional and personal lives.