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There is a long history of limited nutrition education in advanced healthcare curricula. This leaves healthcare providers unprepared to use nutrition to treat diagnoses that have been shown to respond to dietary intervention. This project attempted to determine if the knowledge, attitudes and confidence about nutrition could be improved with a short course.
The sample consisted of seven students in master’s programs in the social work and nursing fields. Students completed an eight module virtual training on the Mediterranean diet and phytochemical specific prescribing strategies. Participants completed a pre- and post-assessment evaluation gauging knowledge, Likert scale questions evaluating confidence, and open-ended questions assessing attitudes toward implementing gained knowledge into practice.
Results showed the mean score for the pre-assessment was 60.39 (S.D.=14.12) and for the post-assessment was 65.58 (S.D.=9.32). The Wilcoxon Ranks Test shows significant improvement (p<0.05) for fifteen of the eighteen questions related to confidence in nutrition information. Open-ended attitude questions revealed that participants were interested in sharing the newly-learned nutrition information with community members and clients. Social work and nursing students may benefit from incorporating added nutrition education into their curricula. Further programming implementations in the area, including possible trial integration into curricula, are needed to further evaluate effectiveness.
Effective discharge teaching for caregivers of newly diagnosed pediatric oncology patients can reduce unplanned medical utilization, health care costs, and incidence of relapse and treatment complications. Challenges to providing effective instruction for this population include reduced initial hospitalization time, caregiver receptiveness, and consistency of content. While there is little evidence-based best practice for related educational methodology, video delivery of patient education is increasingly popular. Two videos, linked to QR codes, were developed to accompany the standard discharge teaching tools for pediatric oncology patients. Intervention effectiveness was evaluated in three areas, each at a different timepoint: caregiver feedback, skill acquisition, and decision-making. Caregiver feedback, evaluated through QDTS scores, rated the quality of discharge teaching favorably (mean 8.46, SD 1.58). Following the education and hospital discharge, all caregivers demonstrated us of the appropriate skills/behaviors to be ready for the first outpatient clinic visit as assessed by the clinic readiness tool. The 30-day post-discharge survey revealed that all caregivers experienced an unexpected medical concern at home. Appropriate medical utilization decision making (emergency department, triage, clinic) was engaged to resolve the concerns. Further, high use of the QR codes outside of the hospital setting (52 times outside the initial teaching, with 37 from unique IP addresses) indicates the videos were referenced or shared with others who needed education to help care for the child. This is particularly noteworthy given post-pandemic visitor restrictions which hinders normal education pathways for extended caregivers. Overall results were positive, and further exploration of this innovative educational strategy is warranted.
Higher education leadership demographics contrast sharply with formulaic narratives of
college campuses filled with gender and racial diversity, especially in intercollegiate athletics.
Black women occupy only 2% of athletic director positions at predominantly White institutions
and are vastly underrepresented in other leadership roles (National Collegiate Athletic
Association, 2022). Often overlooked and underrepresented in current intercollegiate athletic
literature, this qualitative, narrative inquiry aimed to provide an opportunity to both examine the
experiences and magnify the voices of Black women within intercollegiate athletic leadership
and explore how they access leadership opportunities. Ten in-depth, semi-structured narrative
interviews were conducted with Black women representing all levels of administrative leadership
within Division I, II, and III collegiate programs. Findings revealed the work experiences of
these Black women in athletic leadership were impacted by their need to maintain their
uniqueness/individuality as Black women, the devaluing of Black womanhood in college athletic
workplaces, and their motivation for persistence/survival in the industry. Understanding the
experiences of Black women who were successful in navigating the leadership hierarchy is
useful for higher education leaders to examine and revise current hiring, training, and
professional development programs to create a more diverse and inclusive environment in
intercollegiate athletic leadership.
Green stormwater infrastructure (GSI) is a nature-inspired engineering solution to stormwater management that has gained increasing attention over the last two decades. While the technical evidence supporting the efficacy and efficiency of GSI is crucial, it alone does not necessarily translate to a significant increase in GSI adoption. Even with the recent research focus gradually turning toward the social benefits of GSI implementation, the social factors that influence its implementation remain underexplored. Furthermore, successful GSI adoption and implementation requires a collaborative effort in governance transitioning, public engagement, and adequate consideration of demographic constraints. Therefore, it is essential to understand the social barriers that hinder the adoption of GSI. This dissertation draws interdisciplinary linkages between social barriers and the cognitive biases that may affect rational decision-making for GSI adoption.
Mecklenburg County, the most population-dense county in North Carolina, is an ideal case study location to represent future scenarios for other urbanized areas across the United States. The case study, including an online survey and interviews with local officials, reveals patterns that resonate with the literature's findings that negative public opinions hinder long-term support for GSI. This study created a simulation model to streamline decision-making processes based on individual behaviors to explore long-term local GSI adoption patterns. The simulation model developed in this study shows that cognitive biases, such as loss aversion and status quo, could impede broader GSI adoption. The insights of this work could help local stormwater management authorities identify shortcomings in current stakeholder engagement plans to increase financial support for GSI implementation in urbanized areas.
Historically, male students have been known to score lower than their female counterparts in reading and writing on standardized measures of academic success. While scholars, teachers, and even policy makers have attempted to explain and mitigate this gender gap in reading and writing scores, the male students themselves have had little opportunity to offer their insight into the research. Moreover, there is limited research about the causes of the perceived gap in reading and writing scores, or the potential ways in which the high school English classroom could be reimagined in order to provide a solution. This qualitative multiple case study explores how the experiences outside of the classroom in the lives of high school male students enrolled in an alternative education program mediate their reading and writing in the high school English classroom. Furthermore, this study explores how high school male students enrolled in an alternative education program perceive pedagogical elements in the high school English classroom. In particular, this study focused on the experiences outside of school of three high school male students enrolled in an alternative education program. These stories were told through individual, narrative portraits composed by the researcher which were composed based on the analysis of data from two focus group sessions and two semi-structured one-on-one interviews. Findings from the study indicate that there is a need to expand the understanding of literacy skills, as well as how they are recognized, practiced, and assessed, in the high school English classroom.
Historically, male students have been known to score lower than their female counterparts in reading and writing on standardized measures of academic success. While scholars, teachers, and even policy makers have attempted to explain and mitigate this gender gap in reading and writing scores, the male students themselves have had little opportunity to offer their insight into the research. Moreover, there is limited research about the causes of the perceived gap in reading and writing scores, or the potential ways in which the high school English classroom could be reimagined in order to provide a solution. This qualitative multiple case study explores how the experiences outside of the classroom in the lives of high school male students enrolled in an alternative education program mediate their reading and writing in the high school English classroom. Furthermore, this study explores how high school male students enrolled in an alternative education program perceive pedagogical elements in the high school English classroom. In particular, this study focused on the experiences outside of school of three high school male students enrolled in an alternative education program. These stories were told through individual, narrative portraits composed by the researcher which were composed based on the analysis of data from two focus group sessions and two semi-structured one-on-one interviews. Findings from the study indicate that there is a need to expand the understanding of literacy skills, as well as how they are recognized, practiced, and assessed, in the high school English classroom.
Traditional methods of staff development do not meet the needs of current healthcare organizations. It is difficult to find training that is effective and flexible to meet staff needs with variable scheduling (Chen at al., 2022; Haggerty et al., 2012). Preceptor development was identified as a course that is important for the success of staff, but hard to attend the training with traditional methods. This study sought to gain insight to the experiences of nurses who attended a blended learning preceptor development course. The course trains preceptors to develop the confidence, identify tools, and know the resources needed to onboard new nurses so they are in turn confident and safe in their practice. The following research questions will guide this study: 1) What are the experiences of nurse preceptors who attended the blended learning preceptor development course?; 2) How do nurse preceptors perceive their level of preparedness in being able to successfully train and onboard new nursing staff after attendance in the blended learning preceptor development course?; 3): How do nurses who attended the blended learning course describe their ability to be able to precept a new hire?
The combination of singular optics and partially coherent fields has become increasingly important in the applications of optical communication and optical imaging. Within this, we focus on the phenomena of optical vortices. We use and study the properties of these partially coherent vortex beams such as the total angular momentum, as well as investigate the effects of partial coherence on vortex created phenomena, namely superoscillations. In this dissertation we use the optical vortices as observed through the cross-spectral density in a partially coherent field to create superoscillations and investigate the superoscillatory behavior as the field is randomized. It is shown that a decrease in spatial coherence can in some cases strengthen the superoscillatory behavior, and in others decrease it. We then look at superoscillations that appear in the phase of the correlation function in partially coherent Talbot carpets. Utilizing the Talbot effect, it is shown that superoscillations can be propagated significant distances, even under a decrease in spatial coherence. It is also shown that this decrease in spatial coherence can strengthen the superoscillatory behavior at the primary and secondary Talbot images. We also introduce a modification to the class of partially coherent vortex beams known as Twisted Vortex Gaussian-Schell Model Beams through the addition of polarization. These beams have angular momentum from three different sources: the underlying vortex order of the beam, the "twist" given to the ensemble of beams, and the polarization of the beam. The combination of these angular momentum properties allows for unprecedented control over the total angular momentum of the field and its transverse distribution.
The purpose of this exploratory descriptive case study was to understand the experiences of faculty learning community members practicing active learning strategies in virtual learning environments (VLEs) to discover how teaching in virtual spaces for an extended period of time impacted the use of active learning strategies in physical classrooms. Ten faculty interviewed in this study experienced an abrupt and forced transition from active learning classrooms (ALCs) to VLEs in March 2020 and continued teaching virtually until August 2021. Through interviews conducted at the case study institution, three overarching themes emerged about practicing active learning strategies in VLEs and subsequent changes when participants returned to physical classrooms: (1) Working the Room highlighted how participants adapted existing active learning models designed for physical spaces to fit the VLE and replicate physical elements from ALCs. (2) It’s Not in the Syllabus reframed Lewin’s (1947) change model and included a “pivot” that provided faculty the flexibility needed to address unpredictable challenges. Finally, the emergence of (3) Virtual In-Person Classrooms (VIPCs) that included tools that transferred from VLEs allowed participants to imagine new ways of practicing active learning strategies in physical classrooms and helped to overcome learning space barriers and ALC shortages.
