Texas A&M University – Corpus Christi
Texas A&M University - Corpus Christi: DSpace RepositoryNot a member yet
36255 research outputs found
Sort by
Creating safe spaces: Latino counselor educators advocating for social justice in counselor education
No full textA dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in COUNSELOR EDUCATION from Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi in Corpus Christi, Texas.The field of modern counseling is conceptualized through a lens of social justice advocacy with professionals tasked with actively engaging in advocacy efforts. However, counselor education has been slower to make systemic changes needed to decolonize and dismantle the field to prepare future counselors with the skills needed to adequately address advocacy. Additionally, those faculty personally and professionally motivated to keep the programs to task or lead advocacy efforts are often of marginalized statuses themselves, and thus, the oppressed are working within oppressive systems. Literature centered on the experiences of Black and Asian American Pacific Islander faculty recount systemic challenges and burdens they experience in counselor education advocacy. As another marginalized group within counselor education faculty, the Latino experience has not been explored unless contained within a cumulative experience. This hermeneutic phenomenological qualitative study explored the lived experiences of four Latino counselor educators as they advocate for social justice within counselor education. The themes identified are (a) Creating Safe Spaces, (b) Continuously Reflecting on Cultural Identity, (c) Creating Chains of Advocacy, (d) Embracing Responsibilities, and (e) Confronting Systemic Challenges. Implications for future research include repeating and expanding this study to include the larger diaspora of Latino culture, include more studies with other largely diverse cultural groups, and to address the shortcomings and successes of the decolonization and dismantling of counselor education.Counseling & Educational PsychologyCollege of Education and Human Developmen
The impacts of meditation vs mindfulness on stress levels of nurses in the hospitals post-COVID-19
No full textDue to the concerns regarding mental health awareness and increasing burnout from COVID-19 within the nursing field, the question was raised: how does a group activity like practicing mindfulness for 15min/day or meditation for 15min/day affect fatigue and ultimately, patient outcomes
Indicators to monitor the status of the tree of life
Get PDFFollowing the failure to fully achieve any of the 20 Aichi biodiversity targets, the future of biodiversity rests in the balance. The Convention on Biological Diversity’s Kunming–Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) presents the opportunity to preserve nature’s contributions to people (NCPs) for current and future generations by conserving biodiversity and averting extinctions. There is a need to safeguard the tree of life—the unique and shared evolutionary history of life on Earth—to maintain the benefits it bestows into the future. Two indicators have been adopted within the GBF to monitor progress toward safeguarding the tree of life: the phylogenetic diversity (PD) indicator and the evolutionarily distinct and globally endangered (EDGE) index. We applied both to the world’s mammals, birds, and cycads to show their utility at the global and national scale. The PD indicator can be used to monitor the overall conservation status of large parts of the evolutionary tree of life, a measure of biodiversity’s capacity to maintain NCPs for future generations. The EDGE index is used to monitor the performance of efforts to conserve the most distinctive species. The risk to PD of birds, cycads, and mammals increased, and mammals exhibited the greatest relative increase in threatened PD over time. These trends appeared robust to the choice of extinction risk weighting. EDGE species had predominantly worsening extinction risk. A greater proportion of EDGE mammals(12%) had increased extinction risk compared with threatened mammals in general (7%).B.H.D. was supported by the US National Science Foundation(awards 2031928 and 2113424). W.S.L. was supported by the KEI research grant (GP2021-15). R.G. was supported by the Natural Environment Research Council Science and Solutions for a Changing Planet Doctoral Training Programme (grant number NE/L002515/1), the CASE component of which is funded by the Zoological Society of London. This paper is part of the work of the IUCN Species Survival Commission’s Phylogenetic Diversity Task Force (www.pdtf.org), a global and diverse group of experts providing guidance on the inclusion of phylogenetic diversity in conservation strategies to promote wider adoption and greater understanding of this approach by conservation practitioners, decision-makers, and the public. We thank On the EDGE Conservation for hosting and supporting our work. The views expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect those of IUCN
Shifting linguistic patterns in oyster restoration news articles surrounding the Deepwater Horizon disaster
Get PDFPopulations of the eastern oyster Crassostrea virginica are declining globally. With the loss of oysters, sustainable provision of natural resources and ecosystem services are also threatened. In 2010, the Deepwater Horizon (DWH) oil spill became the largest marine oil spill in history, imperiling coastal and marine habitats in the Gulf of Mexico. Whereas ecological restoration serves as an important tool in natural resource management, its success depends on achieving ecological objectives and meeting public expectations. However, little is known about how the public perceives ecological restoration—even less in the context of disasters. It has long been understood that mass media messaging helps shape public understanding. Documenting patterned representation of oyster restoration in mass media texts can help set goals, improve stakeholder communication, and ensure required support for restoration activities. To address this goal, this study asks, does newspaper language on the topic of oyster reef restoration change in relation to an environmental disaster? If so, how? A 1.1 million-word Deepwater Horizon Oyster Restoration (DHORN) Corpus—a comprehensive body of newspaper articles about oyster restoration from 3 national and 18 gulf-state newspapers—was developed for the period April 2008–April 2014. The distribution and deployment of collocates of OYSTER* across three DHORN subcorpora delimited by time (pre-, during, and postDeepwater Horizon oil spill) were compared through iterative quantitative and qualitative analysis. Examination of salient collocates in use over time indicated an increase in the representation of oysters as quantifiable entities during/postDWH; at the same time, there was a decrease in the representation of the roles of OYSTER* in the Gulf ecosystem. Furthermore, multiple propositions associating oysters and oyster restoration activity with DWH and oil spills were introduced into language use by the disaster and persisted for years afterwards. This association was not present pre-DWH. Understanding shifts in linguistic patterns of oyster restoration in news articles before, during, and after Deepwater Horizon can be used to deliberately refine communication between the conservation community and both journalists and policymakers to promote conservation initiatives.This project was made possible with funding from the Harte Research Institute Fellows Program. Partial support for this publication was made possible by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Office of Education Educational Partnership Program with Minority Serving Institutions award (NA21SEC4810004). The contents of this publication are solely the responsibility of the award recipient and do not necessarily represent the official views of the US Department of Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
Breeding distribution and nonbreeding fidelity of coastal little blue herons (egretta caerulea) wintering in the eastern Gulf of Mexico
No full text1Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico Studies, Texas A&M University Corpus Christi, 6300 Ocean Drive, Corpus Christi, Texas 78412; Department of Biological Sciences, Florida Atlantic University, 777 Glades Rd, Boca Raton, Florida 33431; Wetland and Aquatic Research Center, U.S. Geological Survey, 3321 College Ave, Fort Lauderdale, Florida 33314Project Background, Migratory Connectivity, Population connectivity informs where and when birds experience limiting resources factors, Localized conditions may drive range-wide population trends when connectivity is high, Winter Habitat Use, Research on wading bird ecology typically biased towards the breeding season, Performance during a stage of the annual cycle can impact performance in other stages, A species’ winter habitat use is necessary for a complete understanding of the annual cycle, Site Fidelity, The tendency for an individual to repeatedly return to the same location, Populations with strong fidelity are more sensitive to habitat loss and localized disturbanc
Six Men Smiling
No full textSix Men Smiling for a group picture next to three parked cars in the backgroun
Note by a family member on the contents of an enclosed letter.
No full textA niece, Sallie, bundled letters and labeled envelopes with a summary of the letter's contents. The summaries were not always accurate, or the order was lost. When possible, the hand-lettered envelopes are kept with at least one of the original letters referred to in her description.
This is an example of one of her notes on an envelope
Implementing a standardized process to improve insurance pre-authorization time and subsequent delays in care
No full textA dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Nursing Practice.Background: Lack of standardization in pre-authorization processes by insurance companies has resulted in inefficiencies and delays, causing fiscal consequences and adverse impacts on patient care in various healthcare settings related to delays in care. Purpose: This quality improvement (QI) project aimed to establish, educate, and implement a standardized process for pre-authorization claims to improve knowledge of a standardized process and reduce claims decision turnaround times (TATs). Design & Methods: A standardized process was developed and implemented over a 12-week period. Nine participants received education on the required procedures for processing insurance claims. Knowledge was evaluated using a pretest-posttest design. TAT was evaluated with an existing measurement application. Results: Knowledge test scores showed a significant improvement from pre-test to post-test. A steady rise in TAT was observed. Conclusion: Future QI projects should focus on enhancing insurance pre-authorization time and reducing patient delays in care through implementing standardized processes, education, standardized process protocols, and policy changes. By considering the sustainability of these projects and incorporating continuous evaluation, stakeholder engagement, education, policy advocacy, and long-term planning, organizations can achieve lasting improvements in turnaround times and ultimately provide patients with more timely and efficient care. Keywords: utilization management, prior authorization, insurance claims, systemic review of insurance authorization.Nursing PracticeCollege of Nursing and Health Scienc