ScholarWorks

With the rise of globalization and the growing demand for skilled workers, the number of foreign-born employees in the American workforce has grown significantly over the last 20 years. These numbers continue to grow, as the upward trend of foreign-born employees has been even more significant over the last 5 years. However, despite having a now more diverse workforce, there are still signs of di…

Summary Patient education delivered without a standardized communication protocol for patients with serious mental illness (SMI), especially for those who face disproportionate health literacy deficits, cognitive challenges, and stigma, may increase the risk of medication misunderstanding and non-adherence. An outpatient psychiatric practice lacked a standardized patient education protocol. This…

Suicide risk assessment is a high-priority nursing safety responsibility in outpatient behavioral health. The practice gap was a variation in nurses’ knowledge of validated suicide screening, direct inquiry, risk escalation, referral, and related documentation expectations working in an outpatient behavioral health clinic located on the Eastern Atlantic Coast. To address this problem, I developed…

Rural clinics continue to face several barriers in utilizing advanced electronic health record (EHR) features, including interoperability, data sharing, and care coordination. The purpose of this integrative review was to investigate strategies to overcome barriers to the use of advanced EHRs and enhance data-sharing and reporting capabilities in rural clinics. The review question emphasized viab…

Background STIs or sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) are consequential public health emergencies that affect millions of people globally and have long-term health implications (Garcia et al., 2024). STIs are infections that are passed from one person to another through sexual contact with the most common types of STIs include chlamydia, trichomoniasis, general herpes, and human papillomavirus …

Although rural advocacy is widely recognized as important to community change, the experiences of rural and frontier advocates, particularly in regard to their use of storytelling to support skill acquisition, relational trust, and asset-focused advocacy competencies, have been understudied. The purpose of this constructivist grounded theory qualitative study was to understand how rural and front…

Sexual assault is a heinous crime that remains one of the most underreported crimes. Victims of sexual assault face scrutiny for reporting and may be revictimized by the process. The intent of this study was to examine how cross-examination has the potential to revictimize female sexual assault survivors from the perspective of criminal prosecutors. This study may provide insight on whether defen…

Low-income single mothers often manage financial, caregiving, emotional, and logistical demands with limited resources and rely on informal support networks that may be inconsistent. This problem matters to social workers, community-based practitioners, and researchers because a greater understanding can guide interventions that reduce isolation and role overload and improve resource access. The …

Malaria during pregnancy is a significant public health issue in Cameroon, affecting maternal health and birth outcomes. Despite preventive measures, disparities exist among socioeconomic groups and between urban and rural areas. The study was guided by the social-ecological model and explored how socioeconomic factors and geographic location influence malaria infection in pregnant women. Specifi…

The purpose of the project was to implement and evaluate a structured fall risk assessment process that promoted the early identification of patients at increased risk for falls and supported interventions designed to prevent fall-related events. A pre- and post-implementation evaluation design was used to assess the intervention's effectiveness by comparing fall rates before and after implementa…

The prevalence of remote work environments has created challenges for small and medium enterprise (SME) healthcare leaders who must sustain workforce productivity while increasing employee engagement. Declining employee engagement affects not only productivity but also organizational effectiveness and profitability. The purpose of this qualitative pragmatic inquiry research project was to identif…

Walden University College of Psychology and Community Services This is to certify that the doctoral dissertation by Kathleen Rowe has been found to be complete and satisfactory in all respects, and that any and all revisions required by the review committee have been made. Review Committee Dr. Hedy Dexter, Committee Chairperson, Psychology Faculty Dr. Medha Talpade, Committee Member, Psychology…

Hospital leaders face increasing pressure to improve quality outcomes while controlling costs. The evidence is limited on whether hospital financial performance predicts overall quality star ratings. Grounded in the general contingency theory, this quantitative, correlational project examined the predictive relationship between operating margin, current ratio, and a composite of quality metrics r…

Repetitive trauma exposure predisposes firefighters to a variety of mental health issues. Despite efforts to expand mental health resources and peer support, stigma remains a significant barrier to formal (professional) and informal (peer) support-seeking within the fire service. According to social influence theory, firefighters may avoid using available support services because they perceive su…

Workplace loneliness is a growing organizational challenge as the rise of distributed teams reshapes opportunities for social connection and engagement. Business leaders need to understand this challenge because it is associated with reduced belonging, lower job satisfaction, diminished productivity, and increased turnover intentions. The purpose of this quantitative correlational study was to ex…

This Doctor of Nursing Practice project was a staff education project regarding Candida auris, a multidrug-resistant fungus recognized by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as an urgent global health threat due to its high mortality, environmental persistence, and resistance to common disinfectants. Staff play a crucial role in infection prevention; however, limited awareness an…

This Doctor of Nursing Practice project was a nurse-led, evidence-based staff education initiative designed to improve staff knowledge of agranulocytosis, which is an adverse effect of clozapine, generally prescribed for individuals with treatment-resistant schizophrenia. At a local outpatient hospital, there were opportunities to improve infection symptom recognition and improve clinical assessm…

Within this executive summary, the type of project discussed is an organization change project to address a health issue in chronic disease management, which is hypertension. Nearly 116 million American adults are affected by hypertension, which remains a leading force for preventable hospitalizations, emergency department visits, and cardiovascular-related mortality in the United States. Unexpec…

The problem that was addressed in this study was the low retention rates and consequent low completion rates of students who are low-income, first-generation, and/or disabled who did not participate in a TRIO Student Support Services (SSS) program at Urban University. Grounded in Tinto’s student integration theory, Dweck’s mindset theory, and Duckworth’s grit theory, the purpose of this study was…

Effective policy implementation is crucial for improving educational outcomes and ensuring equitable learning environments. While existing literature has shown that policy implementation is influenced by factors such as leadership capacity, stakeholder engagement, communication, resource availability, organization context, and accountability, there is little known about how K-12 urban principals …