College of Saint Benedict and Saint John's University
College of Saint Benedict and Saint John’s University: DigitalCommons@CSB/SJUNot a member yet
8817 research outputs found
Sort by
Grassroots vs. Big Oil: Measure P and the Fight to Ban Fracking in Santa Barbara County, California
Get PDFIn 2014, volunteers in Santa Barbara County, California, collected over 20,000 signatures in three weeks to qualify an anti-fracking initiative for the November election. The initiative, Measure P, met over six million dollars in opposition from oil corporations. Despite mobilizing 1,000 volunteers, the proponents of the measure failed to garner enough votes for success. Drawing on 43 in-depth interviews and participant observation with environmental groups before, during, and after the campaign, this article examines the strengths and weaknesses of grassroots organizing behind Measure P. Organizers, especially during the signature drive, successfully garnered broad-based support in the southern part of the county, an affluent and tourist-dependent area with no onshore oil drilling. Messages based on water, made more salient by California\u27s historic drought, resonated with many residents. Yet, after qualifying for the ballot, proponents of the campaign allied with the local Democratic Party, changing their organizing practices and forestalling bipartisan support. Outreach to Latinos in all areas of the county, and particularly in the northern part, where onshore drilling takes place, was limited. Finally, the overwhelming inequality between the financial power of proponents and the oil industry influenced the outcome. Based on this case, I argue that coalition building and groundwork to develop support within all sectors of communities, especially those most dependent on fossil fuel extraction, is critical to strengthening grassroots efforts that challenge the energy status quo
Dr. Ignác Semmelweis’s 19th-Century Cure for Deadly Childbed Fever Ignored in Vienna’s Maternity Wards: His Sympathy for Women Victims and Their Newborns Costs Professional Standing
No full text
Preserving Dignity in the Long Term Care of Actively Dying Residents
Get PDFAs one goes through the process of aging and approaches death, they experience a series of losses: from the loss of physical or mental ability to the ultimate loss of life. These losses make the individual vulnerable to harms that can come from a variety of sources. One source is found within the everyday interactions of long-term care nurses and aides with their elderly, dying residents. Creating this harm stems from a poor nursing practice where the nurse or aide fails to recognize and promote the resident’s dignity and autonomy. The normal notion of dignity and autonomy does not encompass the humanity of residents. To assist the nurse in recognizing patient autonomy and dignity in the end of life, I expand the notion of dignity and autonomy while turning towards care ethics to create a just long-term care nursing practice. These four aims of long-term nursing care are: addressing the resident’s bodily and security needs, promoting the dignity of identity and recognizing the resident’s shifting sense of autonomy. In order to fulfill these aims, I point out several factors which increases the nurse or aide’s sense of work related stress and detracts from their ability to properly care for their residents. The management of the facility is ethically bound to address these points of stress in order to ensure the proper care of their staff and residents. One small solution I propose involves a three-step process to implement self-care in the workplace. I hypothesize that this solution will help to promote a less stressful, supportive nursing culture while decreasing medical interventions or the number of falls within the facility
Escherichia coli as a Water Quality Indicator Organism: A Case for Responsive, Science-Based Policy
Get PDFWater quality indicator organisms such as E. coli are used in the monitoring of recreational waterbodies to indicate the presence of fecal contamination. In 2009, a 1.5-mile stretch of Plum Creek in Stearns County, MN was classified by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency as impaired due to high levels of E. coli. Citizen science to investigate the source of this contamination began in 2014 and with the addition of student research from CSB/SJU in 2016. This thesis presents results of the 2016 study, supplemented by summary of Minnesota water quality policy and recent research on indicator organisms. The 2016 study confirmed presence of fecal coliform indicator bacteria, but to date no source of contamination has been identified. As a result, a key contention of this thesis is that further research is necessary regarding the influence of sediment E. coli on stream E. coli in order to establish or maintain policies that protect human health and are fiscally and environmentally effective
