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Stories Give Form to a Complex Reality: A Narrative Inquiry of DNP Prepared APRNs during the COVID-19 Crisis. Educational Implications
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Background: The COVID-19 pandemic changed the landscape of healthcare and nursing education as we know it. Faculty in the DNP program at Molloy College were concerned regarding the newest DNP graduates who were thrust into both a new role and a pandemic, and little information was published in the literature concerning this group of professionals. Objective: To gather an authentic understanding of DNP prepared APRN experiences (stories) caring for patients during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: This was a qualitative narrative inquiry study. A purposive sample of DNP prepared APRNs (N=8) were recruited to participate. All interviews were audio recorded, recordings were transcribed, and then the authors crafted each participant’s narrative story. Results: Four overarching themes were identified: Do the Right Thing, Stepping Up, From Here to Reality, and Complex COVID Coping. Twelve subthemes were also identified. Participant stories were profound and indicated that their DNP education prepared them well for the healthcare crisis, but that the emotional toll was difficult. Conclusions/Implications for Practice and Education: This research provides insight into the experiences of DNPs working during the height of the pandemic and elucidates the duty of nursing leaders and educators to appropriately plan, safeguard, and guide DNPs, students, and nurses at all levels. Preparation in epidemiology, public health, disaster planning, tele practice, and wellness is paramount
Great South Bay, Long Island, New York Summer Phytoplankton Identification & Monitoring Program
Get PDFPhytoplankton Collection Methodologies: 80 micron Plankton Tow Net with sample bottle attachment
Phytoplankton Protocol: 1.Gather Samples 2.Make one slide per sample 3.View slides using microscope connected with computer 4. Record findings using “ Row # “ and “ Colum letter “ 5. Record using “ Tally’s “ per species found within sample 6. Capture anything interesting “ Take Picture “ 7.Duplicate pictures taken 8.Make sure measurement of species found is taken 9. Email Jennifer Maucher at [email protected] , include pictures, questions and names of the species you “guess” you found
Digital Commons Annual Summary 2020
Get PDFThe DigitalCommons@Molloy Annual summary typically includes: readership totals, usage metrics such as downloads and metadata hits, and top performing items and profiles. Other areas that can be included are any new series or features, refresh or updates to the site design, and any future project plans. Due to COVID 19, there was a shift of focus away from adding new works as time and resources were needed elsewhere in order to support the college going remote. Usage and full text downloads continue to increase each year. Total full text downloads doubled from 2019 to 2020
Looking towards the future with joy art exhibit
No full texthttps://digitalcommons.molloy.edu/jet_disp/1021/thumbnail.jp
A Descriptive Correlational Study of Factors Reported to Negatively Impact Memory in Women Who Have Received Treatment For Breast Cancer in Relation to COVID-19
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Cognitive impairments associated with cancer and cancer treatment are side effects that have and continue to elude the oncology world. Cognitive impairments related to chemotherapy are also known as “chemo-brain” or “chemo-fog” and encompasses deficits in cognitive domains that include memory, verbal fluency, attention, and concentration, and one’s ability to recall information. Patients who experience cognitive impairments during and after cancer treatments, chemotherapy in particular, are often afflicted with impaired executive functioning, problems with memory and recall, loss of control and decreased sense of self, increased stress and depression, role conflicts when returning to work, and impaired quality of life. While the treatment may impact patients’ cognitive function, other factors, including personal characteristics and other stressors, may also influence their memory.
Objectives
The purpose of this descriptive correlational study is to determine relationships between women with breast cancer who are currently receiving or who have received at least one type of treatment and the negative impact that these treatments and other factors have or have had on their memory as reported by these participants.
Methods
A descriptive correlational approach was used for this study. A one-time questionnaire was sent via email to participants, including two instruments to assess memory; one measure of stress and questions obtaining demographics; information related to treatments received; stress and the negative impact of these factors on memory. Tools used to assess memory included the Everyday Memory Questionnaire (EMQ) and the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Cog(FACT-Cog). The tool used to assess stress was the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS). Of the 171 participants of this study, they were predominately White/Caucasian (89.5%), college educated (49.7%), and married or partnered (76%). Ages of participants in this study ranged from 24 to 80 years old (mean age was 53.8 years). For eligibility requirements, all participants in this sample were female.
Results
The results of this study indicate that age had an impact on memory/cognition on this sample, with EMQ, p = .01; Perceived Cognitive Impairments Subscale, p = .01; and Chi-square (yes/no self-reported stress), p = .02. A statistically significant difference was shown in Perceived Cognitive Abilities in those who had surgery versus those who did not, p = .05. Those who received chemotherapy demonstrated a statistical difference than those who did not receive chemotherapy using Chi-square (yes/no self-reports of stress), p = .01. There was a statistical difference in those who received radiation and those who did not receive radiation on the EMQ, p = .03; and Perceived Cognitive Impairments, p = .05. There was a statistical significance between those who received hormonal therapy versus those who did not using Chi-square (yes/no self-reports of stress), p = .02. Adriamycin was shown to be statistically significant using Chi-square (yes/no self-reports of stress), p = .02. Those receiving Cytoxan were statistically significant than those not receiving this medication on the EMQ, p = .01. Tamoxifen shown statistically significant results in Perceived Cognitive Impairments, p = .05; and in Chi-square self-reports of stress (yes/no), p = .05. PSS meanings, indicating low, moderate, and high levels of stress demonstrated significance on EMQ scores with p \u3c .01. PSS raw scores (total non-categorical scores) were statistically significant using both parametric correlations (Pearson product-moment correlationcoefficient), p = \u3c .01 and non-parametric correlations (Spearman’s rho), p \u3c .01. Statistically significant results were also found in the PSS meaning (low, moderate, high stress level) and FACT-Cog scores, p = \u3c .01.
Conclusions
In this study, age was shown to have an effect on both memory and cognition among the sample utilizing the EMQ and the Perceived Cognitive Impairments Subscale of the FACT-Cog. Participants who received chemotherapy and hormonal therapy had more self-reported memory impairments than those who did not receive these treatment modalities. Those receiving radiation had lower scores on the PCI subscale and thus more perceived cognitive impairments. On the contrary, those who did not receive radiation were shown to have higher EMQ scores indicating more memory problems than participants who did receive radiation. Participants in this study experiencing moderate and high levels of stress had higher EMQ scores, indicating more memory problems than those with low stress. The results from this study indicate that many factors, including age, certain treatment modalities, particular medications, and stress can have a negative impact on an individual’s memory or cognition. This signifies an importance for future research to be conducted in relation to cognitive impairments to distinguish and identify probable causes, increase awareness and education among healthcare providers to directly benefit patients through knowledge, and the development of potentially beneficial therapeutic treatments
Visual-Saliency-Based Abnormality Detection for MRI Brain Images—Alzheimer’s Disease Analysis
Get PDFIn recent years, medical image analysis has played a vital role in detecting diseases in their early stages. Medical images are rapidly becoming available for various applications to solve human problems. Therefore, complex medical features are needed to develop a diagnostic system for physicians to provide better treatment. Traditional methods of abnormality detection suffer from misidentification of abnormal regions in the given data. Visual-saliency detection methods are used to locate abnormalities to improve the accuracy of the proposed work. This study explores the role of a visual saliency map in the classification of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Bottom-up saliency corresponds to image features, whereas top-down saliency uses domain knowledge in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) brain images. The novelty of the proposed method lies in the use of an elliptical local binary pattern descriptor for low-level MRI characterization. Ellipse-like topologies help to obtain feature information from different orientations. Extensively directional features at different orientations cover the micro patterns. The brain regions of the Alzheimer’s disease stages were classified from the saliency maps. Multiple-kernel learning (MKL) and simple and efficient MKL (SEMKL) were used to classify Alzheimer’s disease from normal controls. The proposed method used the OASIS dataset and experimental results were compared with eight state-of-the-art methods. The proposed visual saliency-based abnormality detection produces reliable results in terms of accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, and f-measure
The Music Therapist’s Experience of Flow During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Phenomenological Inquiry
Get PDFThis study explored the music therapist’s lived experience of flow during a worldwide pandemic, within an improvisational music therapy approach. There is little to no literature about the concept of flow and how it relates to the music therapist’s lived experience, and none of which includes a worldwide traumatic event. Through a phenomenological investigation, the lived experiences of two music therapists who align with the improvisational music therapy approach were studied. A thematic analysis was conducted on data sources such as qualitative interview transcriptions and audio/video recordings of the interview. The following individual themes emerged from participant one: (a) flow as health, (b) Walker’s lived experience & role in flow, (c) unfulfilled needs, (d) appreciation, and (e) flow as healing. Themes for participant two included: (a)“music is about flow,”(b) Nolan’s lived experience in Flow, (c) interrupted, (d)“living in the musical vessel”, and (e) creating a sense of flow. Collective themes included: (a) mutuality, (b) unfulfilled needs, and (c) appreciation for flow. Flow was found to be prevalent in both lived experiences before and during the pandemic while portraying as a source of health and healing through intermusical connection, support, comfort, and clarity
COVID Stimulus Fails to Benefit Hardest-Hit Sectors
Get PDFThis paper demonstrates the ineffectiveness of the COVID-19 stimulus checks distributed in 2020 under the CARES Act to increase consumer spending and provide economic relief where it was most needed. This is consistent with prior stimulus packages issued during severe economic downturns (1968, 1975, 2001 and 2008), where tax cuts and rebatesresulted in increased consumer savings and reduced levels of debt rather than increases in consumer spending. The intensity of the economic impact of the COVID pandemic, and the uneven recovery, was largely due to the need for ‘social distancing’ and the reduction of inperson interactions to help manage the spread of the virus. Social distancing policies resulted in business shutdowns and the voluntary curtailing of face-to-face activities by consumers. Industries hit hardest by the pandemic restrictions were those where work could not be performed remotely or required a high degree of physical proximity (high-touch industries). Based on consumer expenditure data from Q4 2019 to Q4 2020 and supported by the life-cycle and permanent income hypotheses, the analysis presented in this paper suggests that temporary fiscal policies administered during the economic downturn were not effective in stimulating personal consumption expenditures. More income in consumers’ hands could not generate more spending in high-touch industries when social distancing was mandated, so the extra money was mostly saved. Moreover, too much stimulus went to low-touch industries that did not need a boost. As a result, the stimulus checks were an incredibly expensive policy for the limited benefit they provided. Moving forward, we suggest that fiscal stimulus policies should be more specifically targeted and may need to be offered on a more permanent basis
Parents Raising Children with Intellectual/Developmental Disabilities in Jamaica: A Grounded Theory Approach
Get PDFPurpose The purpose of this study was to explore the experiences and/or challenges of parents or guardians of school-aged children who have intellectual and/or developmental disabilities (IDD) and are living in Jamaica. Background Raising a child with IDD can be overwhelming for parents and families, as it may drain them financially, emotionally, psychologically, and socially. Due to the relative poverty and scarcity of adequate resources in Jamaica, the burden of caring for a child with special needs may be challenging. Attitudes toward persons with disabilities are negative in Jamaica. Although several laws are designed to protect children with disabilities, there are still legal exclusions negatively impacting children and adults with developmental disabilities. Culture influences how parents raise their children and how they may be affected by raising a child with IDD. Method A qualitative method of grounded theory to uncover an in-depth analysis of caregiver challenges of parents with children who have IDD.A diverse purposive sample was obtained of 21 parents and guardians raising school-aged children with IDD. Children in the study ranged from 3 to 18 years old. The interviews were recorded, transcribed, and analyzed into concepts and constructs to develop a grounded theory. Results Lack of support and services was identified as the basic social problem and the core concept as the challenges they face. The lack of support and services was a sense of disappointment for parents and guardians, without which they felt no hope or normalcy for their children. They found a lack of health care professional support, empathy, and understanding. Five supportive theoretical constructs surround the core concept of the challenges they face: Burden, It’s Challenging, Emotional and Mental Well-Being, Professional Awareness, and Social Stigma. Conclusion Despite differences, there were shared elements in their experiences and challenges. Children with a disability bring multiple challenges to parents such as additional financial burdens, dealing with the child’s problematic behavior, social stigma, and societal issues
Higher Education Underperformance, PreCovid19!
Get PDFHigher Education is facing severe market challenges and threats to its survival. The challenges that higher education leaders and stakeholders are facing are being both masked and exasperated by the 2020 Pandemic. Understanding the reasons for underperformance before the 2020 Pandemic, is essential. Recognition of the pre-pandemic challenges may prevent college and university leaders from pretending that these challenges did not previously exist. The challenge in facing reality is that much of the influences emerge from public doubt in the value of higher education. This paper and presentation focuses on the influences that both feed public doubt and the negative outcomes that have resulted. This paper and presentation will also suggest where our leaders may need to place their focus, with the intentional goal of changing public doubt into public confidence. We must restore the belief that a college education is essential to the success of the individual as well as to the fabric of a democracy.