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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 take
A National Study of Undergraduate Nursing Students\u27 Early Consideration of Doctoral Education: What Characteristics Predict Students\u27 Report of Intention and Readiness to Continue Graduate Education toward the Doctorate?
Get PDFStatement of the Problem The looming nursing faculty shortage has already had a direct effect on schools of nursing. With our current understanding about enrollments needed to meet the demands of an adequately prepared healthcare workforce, attention needs to be directed toward the preparation of an adequate educator workforce. A consequence of not having doctorally prepared nursing faculty would result in an inadequate number of professors to accommodate the 70,000 applicants who are desiring to pursue their nursing degrees. One solution to the faculty shortage is to vastly increase the number of doctorally prepared faculty earlier in their careers. This would assist in meeting the need for 1.3 million nurses in the US. The purpose of this mixed-methods research study is to identify characteristics and factors of undergraduate nursing students, which perhaps influence their intent to pursue doctoral degrees. Nursing faculty need to assess the readiness of earlier doctoral education in order to promote the incentive to guide young, new graduate of bachelor’s and associate’s programs to think about a doctoral degree. The average age of a nursing professor in the US is currently 61.3 years old; therefore, it is crucial to inspire the next generation of nursing professors. Description of Research Methods A mixed-methods approach to combine the strengths of quantitative and qualitative into one study was conducted. The first component is a cross-sectional quantitative, correlational and comparative descriptive study to determine a relationship between variables of readiness, support and interest, and how they influence students’ intent to continue graduate/doctoral education. The survey was modified to focus on nursing students with an instrument designed to measure nurses’ “intention to pursue advanced education.” The tool used, with permission, was developed by the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) with published validity and reliability, and a single visual analog scale (VAS) to measure directly asking “intention.” The survey was conducted via SurveyMonkey to a national sample of undergraduate students using the National Student Nurse’s Association (NSNA) membership as the population. Demographics were collected in the survey and consent was waived with information about the study and instructions that by completion and submission of the survey, subjects would have given their consent. Measures have been modified from the AACN survey on nurses’ readiness to continue their education (Dewitty, et al., 2016). The online survey was sent to students near the completion of their undergraduate coursework and to those in their earlier years and sorted by the students’ planned “year of graduation.” It was emailed near the May 2019 graduation date. In addition to the quantitative portion of the study, participants were offered two short open-ended questions to respond to as part of the survey. These open-ended comment responses yielded over 4,000 comments of narrative text, analyzed by content analysis of coding comments into categories and subsequently imported them into N-Vivo to produce a graphic “word cloud” (this would give insight into the respondents’ narratives from the large number of comments posted). Combining both methods enriched the study with quantitative data on a national sample and a deeper exploration of the experiences and perceptions of the student sample. The rich narratives or open-ended analysis of comments provided insights and more information to enhance the quantitative findings while overcoming the limitations of the study. Sample The study recruited nursing students from the National Student Nurse’s Association (NSNA). The NSNA was founded in 1952 and currently has approximately 60,000 nursing students enrolled in associate’s, baccalaureate, diploma, and accelerated graduate nursing programs (NSNA, 2019). Its mission is “to mentor students preparing for initial licensure as registered nurses, and to convey the standards, ethics, and skills that students will need as responsible and accountable leaders and members of the profession” (NSNA, 2019, para. 1). NSNA has surveyed its members since 2008 using SurveyMonkey to examine employment and workforce trends. Every year, the results of the surveys are examined to review trends and to examine a variety of topics pertaining to the student nurse. For example, students are routinely asked, “intent to continue education” in the annual NSNA survey, and this format is added to the tool. For example, the New Grad NSNA Survey conducted in 2017 Q50 asked “What is the highest degree you are planning to achieve?” (Feeg & Mancino, 2018). Of the 3,350 who answered, 141 (4.21%) stated they were interested in a doctorate (research-based degree: PhD, EdD). The sample for this study was the membership of NSNA members who were contacted via email using SurveyMonkey in Spring of 2019 for younger nursing students and those near graduation in the Spring or Summer of 2019. Responses from over 2,000 students provided the sample for the quantitative and qualitative analysis. A modest incentive was offered of $100 to five random participants at the end of the study. Two reminders over the study period were sent out to obtain an adequate sample with sufficient power for analysis. Procedures (1) Enrollment for the Quantitative Component: The NSNA students were emailed under the direction of the NSNA to avoid compromising the integrity of the mailing list. (2) Enrollment for the Qualitative Component: Participants who responded to the quantitative web-based survey were given the opportunity to write in their own words their responses to two open-ended questions that provided narrative data for a qualitative analysis. The qualitative component was designed to describe students’ understanding and goal of continuing master’s or doctoral education via two open-ended questions: 1. What does graduate education mean to you? 2. Tell me about your plans for advanced education in your future. Results The results yielded 2,755 returned SurveyMonkey surveys from the nursing students. The data were cleaned, reviewed, and excluded Hospital Based Diploma Program which yielded 2,170 respondents. The two open-ended questions that were asked on the survey resulted in over 400 pages of comments: (Question 1 [2,107 answered, 666 skipped after cleaning, 2,088 resulted] and Question 2 [2,139 answered, 634 skipped after cleaning, 1,905 final comments resulted]). The comments were triangulated and reviewed by the dissertation committee chair. The quantitative results that included factors readiness and interest were significantly related to undergraduate students’ planned intention to pursue the master’s and the doctoral degrees. The factor support was not related to the undergraduate students’ planned intention to pursue the master’s and the doctorate. The data revealed that men appeared slightly higher than females in factor readiness, interest, support and higher with intention for master’s degree and doctoral degree. Readiness was significantly related to gender with males more ready than females. Support and interest were not significantly related to gender. Intention to continue to master’s education is not significantly related to gender. However, intention to continue to doctoral education indicated that males have a higher intention to pursue doctoral education than females. There was a difference for the variables age and the factor readiness of undergraduate nursing students: older students were more ready than younger students to pursue graduate/doctoral education. The factor support is not related to age. Younger students were more interested in continuing their education to the graduate/doctoral graduate level compared to older students, and younger students had more intention to obtain a master’s degree and doctoral degree than older students. In addition, the data revealed that there were differences between demographic race/ethnicity and factors including support, interest, and the undergraduate nursing students’ intention to continue their education to the master’s and doctoral levels. There is no difference in readiness based on race/ethnicity. There was a significant difference between race/ethnicity and the factor interest: the mean interest scores for Black/African-American were significantly higher than the mean interest scores for Caucasian/White. For support, Asian/Pacific Islander and Black/African-Americans had lower mean scores for support than Caucasian/White or Hispanic/Latino. For intention to obtain a master’s degree and doctoral degrees, the mean intention score for Hispanic/Latino were significantly higher than the mean intention score for Caucasian/White for the master’s degree; and the mean intention score for Hispanic/Latino were significantly higher than the mean intention score for Caucasian/White for the doctoral degree. Associate’s students had a significantly higher mean scores for readiness to continue their education. Baccalaureate students had higher mean scores for intention to pursue doctoral degrees. The students with a friend or family member with a doctorate had significantly higher mean scores for readiness to continue their education than students without. The students with a friend or family member with a doctorate had significantly higher mean scores for intention to pursue the doctorate than students without. The students without a friend or family member with a doctorate had significantly higher mean scores for support than students with a friend or family member. There is a difference of loan debt and factor readiness between no debt and low debt of undergraduate nursing students to continue their education. Mean loan debt scores of the factor readiness were significantly higher for no debt than for low debt and or high debt. There is no difference of loan debt and factor support between no debt and low debt of undergraduate nursing students to continue their education. There is no difference for the demographic variable interest between no debt and low debt of undergraduate nursing students to continue their education. There is no difference for the demographic variable of loan debt and undergraduate nursing students’ intention to continue their master’s education. There is no difference for the demographic variable of loan debt and undergraduate nursing students’ intention to continue their doctoral education. Intention in the quantitative results mean scores are high, suggesting that these students need to be encouraged beyond their current degree and pursue a higher level of education. Implications The data suggest encouraging students early on is beneficial to their pursuing higher education
Measuring Brand Equity in the Digital Environment
Get PDFThe internet has had a major impact on the balance of information that for so long worked in favor of brand managers. Consumers are now empowered to interact with brands, and are often willing to “co-create” by sharing their experiences, product knowledge and ideas with brand communities and stakeholders. Although brand equity is an important source of competitive advantage, previous conceptualizations do not reflect the unique characteristics of the internet, and the new participatory approach to branding. Christodoulides, De Chernatony, Furrer, Shiu, & Abimbola, T. (2006) addressed this gap by developing a series of constructs and scale items that aligns with the interactions between consumers and online brands. The construct contains five correlated yet distinct dimensions: emotional connection, online experience, responsive service nature, trust, and fulfilment; consisting of 12-item scale with strong psychometric properties.
The purpose of the current research presented here, is to apply the ORS (online retail/service) brand equity scale using a set of predominantly online brands, and to identify any new dimensions and scale items that should be added to reflect recent changes in consumer attitudes and behaviors. In this way we continue to update and build knowledge for the effective evaluation of online brands
The Relationahips between Health Behaviors of Women and Health Locus of Control among Black Caribbean Women and Black American Women with Hypertension
Get PDFBackground
Millions of Caribbean women have migrated to the United States, and a sizeable number of these women and Black American women suffer from hypertension and other cardiovascular health problems. This research showed the comparison of health behaviors of both groups of women and the difference in their health outcomes. Today, there are more migrants in the world than ever before; an estimated 272 million international migrants in 2019, which is an increase in 51 million since 2010 (United Nations, 2019) and Caribbean migrants are a substantial portion of this pool. Approximately 4.4 million Caribbean immigrants reside in the U.S. and this represents 10 percent of the 44.5 million immigrants who live here (Zong & Batalova, 2016). Hypertension has been recognized as a major health burden both nationally and globally and is a leading cause of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. According to the National Health and Nutrition Survey, 85.7 million adults have hypertension and more than half of these are women. Cardiovascular disease is attributed to one in three deaths of women in the U.S. (Abramson, Srivaratharajah, Davis & Parapiuid, 2018). Purpose
The purpose of this study is to explore and compare health beliefs, health-promotion activities, and reported health quality among women with hypertension from different cultures, focusing on Black Caribbean immigrant women and Black American women living in the New York Tri-State area. Pender’s (1987) Health Promotion Model (HPM) serves as the comprehensive theoretical framework to understand the full range of health perceptions and health behaviors of the women in this study. Method
The sample was recruited from the offices of two internal medicine doctors who were located in the New York Tri-State area. A six-page survey was delivered to all female subjects who met the criteria in these two offices. All questionnaires and surveys were coded and distributed in packets with sealable envelopes for confidentiality. The Quality of Life Instruments for Chronic Diseases – Hypertension Scale (QLICD – HY) for self-reported health quality and the health locus of control scales were used. QLICD- HY scale is a five-level Likert- type scoring system, consisting of 47 questions, which measures the physical, psychological, social and specific self-reported symptoms related to hypertension of the subjects.
The Multidimensional Health Locus of Control (MHLC), including the God Locus of Health Control (GLHC) scales, were used to determine the individual’s belief in what determines health outcomes. These beliefs were combined with questions that focus on the cultural lifestyles of these women from the other scales, which involved diet, exercise and their spiritual beliefs.
Other measures of health promotion behaviors were included with the demographic
questions, and self-reported health quality related to hypertension was measured via a questionnaire. This research helped to provide culturally appropriate and equitable care that has been a challenge for nurses, as social and cultural boundaries become complex, and as nurses see more patients from backgrounds that are different from their own. Analysis
Quantitative analysis was used for this research study. A non-experimental, comparative and correlational design was used to examine the association among the variables of interest.
Descriptive statistics was used to describe the entire sample. Demographic data described that the sample was using frequencies and appropriate descriptive statistical techniques (percentage, mean, standard deviation and variance).
Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to test differences among the cultural groups (as defined) and for four selected subscales of the MHLC Scale, four subscales of the self- reported health quality, and eight questions related to health-promotion behaviors. Pearson Product Moment correlations were computed to explore possible relationships between health locus of control and health behaviors. Results
The findings from this study showed that there is a difference between groups within select demographic variables, the self-reported health locus of control, self-reported health quality, and self-reported health-promoting behaviors. The findings did show there is a difference between Black Non-Caribbean and Black Caribbean women’s self-reported health quality and that there is not a statistically mean significant difference between Black Caribbean women and Black Non-Caribbean women’s health locus of control, with the exception of the “Powerful Other” measure
The Role of Personal Therapy for Chinese-Speaking Music Therapy Students: A Survey
Get PDFThe purpose of this study is to understand the perceptions of Chinese-speaking music therapy students on cultural transition and personal therapy and to determine what impact these have on their learning process. An online questionnaire surveyed 13 Chinese-speaking music therapy students. Nine completed responses were analyzed by using both quantitative and qualitative methods. The questions focused on their demographic information, their attitudes toward personal therapy, and their attitudes toward the cultural transition process. The study found that 78% of participants sought any type of therapy and 55% of participants believe that personal therapy is extremely important for music therapy students. No one stated feeling stigmatized for receiving personal therapy. In addition, 89% of participants reported they had talked about their cultural transition process with others and believe personal therapy can help them adjust culturally in the United States. This study may provide valuable insights for school instructors, clinical supervisors, and personal therapists to improve their understanding and awareness about the struggles of Chinese-speaking music therapy students and the cultural transition process. This may also have positive effects on personal and professional growth for Chinese-speaking music therapy students
From Student to Practitioner: Formal Music Education’s Influence on The Practitioner’s Informed Music Therapy Practice
Get PDFThis study sought to understand further the relationship between the music therapist’s personal experience in formal music education and their music therapy practice. Key questions asked by the researcher included how music therapists describe, view, and conceptualize their own experiences of formal music education through the lens of music therapy practice. Data collection included semi-structured interviews from three practicing music therapists. The themes revealed within the data were organized into areas of intrapersonal and interpersonal experiences. Results of this study included themes of self-realization during music learning, identifying musical identities during early formal music education, personal uses of music, gratefulness for early formal music education, personal relationships with music educators, educators’ recognition of potential in research participants, and modeling of student-teacher relationships in clinical work. Discussion of future research areas emerged after the completion of this study, including examining the professional relationships and boundaries between music therapists and music educators working cooperatively within education settings
Dual-Earner Family Policies at Work for Single-Parent Families
Get PDFFamily dynamics are changing and single-parent families are becoming more common across countries. In their flagship report “Progress of the World’s Women, 2019–2020,” UN Women (2019) demonstrated that, contrary to popular belief, couples with children do not constitute a majority of all families, but rather there are many different types of families. Single parenthood is considered a “new social risk” in poverty and inequality (Bonoli, 2013). Therefore, policy makers and legislators have designed targeted policy specifically for single parents, such as targeted child benefits to single parents. In addition, legislation and social policy have been designed and implemented specifically for single parents, such as child support and family law such as child custody and shared residence. This study takes a different approach, based on the universalist argument that without adequate social protection that benefits all families, those families that are more vulnerable are often hit the hardest. We focus on family policies, and specifically we examine whether and to what extent single parents benefit from the same family policies that are available to all families with children
The Legal and Ethical Considerations of Using Social Media in the Recruiting and Hiring Stages of Employment
Get PDFThe use of social media in the recruiting and hiring process raises both legal and ethical considerations for employers. According to a 2018 survey, 70% of employers use social media to screen candidates during the employment process and 48% use social media to check on current employees (CareerBuilder, 2018). The obvious potential for abuse has generated legislative action, ethical debate, and an extensive search for best practices. This paper will examine the current legal parameters of the use of social media at the recruitment and selection process stages of employment. The ethics and appropriate ethical considerations of social media as a component of the hiring process will be examined using a new model that evaluates the Total Utilitarian Ethical Analysis Impact Value. Finally, recommendations for best practices will be analyzed and suggested for the use of social media at the recruiting and selection stages of employment
Investing in Socially-Minded Young Adults: Because Nice Matters
Get PDFThe research herein is part of a fourteen-week research project involving Molloy College students located in Rockville Centre, NY. This project comes from students learning professional skills and much more during the capstone experience. The students worked with a ‘live’ non-profit located on Long Island and their efforts were to serve for the greater good of society while moving the assigned non-profit forward with its mission. This senior project also promotes civic engagement within their local community with this all-inclusive real-world project. Hence the students put together turnkey recommendations that would assist the non-profit to implement their findings leading toward social good
Long Island Horseshoe Crab Network Annual Inventory Report
Get PDFCERCOM monitors 115 beach locations from Brooklyn – Montauk during optimal Limulus Polyphemus breeding season. These beach surveys take place for approximately 15 weeks, ranging from May- August. These beach locations are marked specifically using GPS coordinates, to assure the same location is visited each year. Students and volunteers are required to attend a HSC Survey training orientation lead by CERCOM’s research assistant, Mr. Kyle Maurelli. Surveying is done around tide and moon cycles (New/Full Moon). Each site takes about 1-2 hours and data is recorded along an approximate 1 mile distance. Walking along the water’s edge the number of male and female HSCs are counted as well as the dead and or molted HSCs. This data is recorded and submitted to Molloy College’s online HSC inventory form on the Molloy College website. CERCOM provides data for total observed HSC populations per site as well as whether or not HSC breeding has or is occurring at each beach location. Trends in breeding beach existence and overall Long Island populations is recorded annually