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The Impact of Rhode Island\u27s Mandatory Health Care Worker Influenza Vaccination Regulation on Influenza Incidence in Long-Term Care Facility Residents
Get PDFSeasonal influenza is a serious public health problem that contributes to significant morbidity and mortality locally, nationally, and globally. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that influenza has caused between 9.2 million and 60.8 million illnesses, between 140,000 and 710,000 hospitalizations, and between 12,000 and 56,000 deaths annually since 2010, and approximately 80- 90 percent of influenza related deaths occurred in people 65 years and older. In 2012, prompted by the mounting\ evidence of the risk of nosocomial influenza infection for patients and low influenza vaccination rates of health care workers, the Rhode Island Department of Health (RIDOH) amended its Rules and Regulations for Immunization and Testing for Healthcare Workers. This amendment included mandatory influenza vaccinations for all health care workers, students, volunteers, and trainees who have direct patient contact within a health care facility. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the impact of the regulation of mandating influenza vaccination for health care workers in Rhode Island on influenza incidence, hospitalizations, and deaths of residents of long-term care facilities (LTCF). Surveillance data for influenza incidence, hospitalizations, and deaths among residents of LTCF pre and post the policy implementation are analyzed and results presented. Policy and practice implications for public health nursing are discussed
Blood Lead Levels of Refugee Children in Rhode Island
Get PDFLead and its harmful effects on children have been known for over one hundred years. Yet exposure continues to be a public health concern within the U.S., specifically in the urban areas (Lidsky & Schneider, 2003). Blood lead levels (BLL) were found to be elevated in 11.3% of recent refugees children within the U.S. (Hebbar, Vanderslice, Simon, & Vallejo, 2010). Currently, the Center for Disease Control (CDC) estimates that approximately half a million children between the ages of one to five years have a blood lead level above 5μ/deciliter (CDC, 2017). Lead is neurotoxic and young children are at a particularly high risk of exposure. Many studies indicate that adverse outcomes in intellectual functioning and social-behavioral conduct. It is not clear if long-term effects develop at concentrations below 10 μg per deciliter (Canfield et al., 2003).
Minimal research done to evaluate the implementation of the CDC guidelines on blood level screening of refugee children that are newly arrived into the U.S. (Raymond et al., 2012). This project analyzed the health records of refugee children who settled in Rhode Island and were receiving care in the refugee clinic within a large academic medical center. Records were reviewed for adherence to Center for Disease Control (CDC) guidelines regarding BLL in refugee children
There Will Be Oil: The Celebration and Inevitability of Petroleum through Upton Sinclair and Paul Thomas Anderson
Get PDFAn analysis of the novel Oil! by Upton Sinclair and the film There Will Be Blood, directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, with a focus on the presence of oil in these texts
Troponin Elevation in Chronic Kidney Disease: An Educational Project
Get PDFMany patients may present to Emergency Departments (ED) daily for a multitude of medical issues that may include chest pain, shortness of breath, nausea, vomiting, elevated troponin levels in the presence of CKD, abnormal serum BUN and creatinine levels, or an abnormal renal ultra sound. Troponin levels that are elevated within the presence of CKD with no other signs and symptoms is not concerning for ACS or MI, but for cardiovascular death and mortality. The purpose of this project was to develop, create and deliver an educational program designed to increase nursing knowledge of elevated troponin levels in the presence of Chronic Kidney Disease. A pre-&post-test design was developed and implemented to measure the nursing staff’s knowledge of elevated troponin levels in the presence of CKD. The educational program was designed as a pamphlet that provided information from the literature and relevant clinical experience about signs, symptoms and the diagnosis of CKD, signs & symptoms of Acute Coronary Syndrome, (ACS). Twenty-three nurses (25%) completed both the pretest with a mean score of 74.7% with total scores ranging from 40%-90%. Twenty-three nurses also (25%) also completed the post-test with a mean score of 76.5% with total scores that ranged from 50%-100% which helped to prove there was an overall increase in learning, therefore suggesting that nurses’ knowledge on the topic was improved. Recommendations and implications for APRNs are also discussed
Open Educational Resources: Supporting Student Success in the Classroom through High Quality Free & Reusable Content
No full textRhode Island State House (North Entry)
No full textThe North Entry view of the Rhode Island State House and the patterned marble and brick terrace that extends out towards Smith Street. This view, photographed in 1980, shows the State House before restoration at the end of the century.https://digitalcommons.ric.edu/ri_architecture/1009/thumbnail.jp
The Humanizer: A Much Needed Tool for Genetic Engineering
Get PDFThe Humanizer is a program developed to solve a problem genetic researchers encounter when humanizing genes. To humanize a gene means to make modications to a model organisms gene so it may perform in a way that is more like how it would perform in humans. This is done by making changes to a model organisms gene only when a discrepancy exists between the model organisms gene and the human gene. Today, researchers in this eld spend long hours humanizing genes manually because there is no other way to do it. In addition, the length of genes can range from hundreds to thousands of nucleotide base pairs which can make the process even more dreadful. If done manually, it is inevitable that researchers have to humanize each nucleotide, one by one. Such a process is time consuming, error-prone, and requires the coordination of many tools. Therefore, the purpose of The Humanizer is to change the manual process into an automatic process, cutting the wait time from several days to several minutes. This application performs as any researcher would: determining genes in test organisms by querying through databases, comparing and retrieving related sequences, and humanizing the gene one base at a time, among other things
Writing Voice and Character for the Page and Stage
Get PDFA collection of three stories consisting of a 10 minute Play, a One-Act Play, and an Expository Character piece in prose. All three pieces take advantage of voice in the particular medium to convey the characters and push the story
Apocalyptic Rhetoric and Subversive Framing in The Uninhabitable Earth
Get PDFCapturing the public\u27s attention with messages of climate change is immediately important in the face of the threat of global warming. As science communicators and climate scientists struggle to effectively communicate the risks of climate change to the general public, a cross-disciplinary understanding of exemplary communication events is essential to furthering the field of climate change communication. By applying theories of rhetorical criticism to the arguments in the viral, and controversial, New York Magazine cover piece The Uninhabitable Earth by David Wallace-Wells, this study evaluated the dominant frames, appeals and persuasive narratives utilized in the article. The analysis drew conclusion to the research question: is The Uninhabitable Earth a persuasive apocalyptic climate change narrative? The rhetorical evaluation of this prominent article added another dimension of understanding of climate rhetoric in the emerging field of science communication. The apocalyptic narrative, metaphor and appeals of the article were effective, and have been used in similar climate change communication to the same end
Rhode Island Postcard Collection: The Social Media of Its Time
No full textStudents in the course presented strategies for using social media to publicize a recently digitized collection of postcards. To prepare, the class visited the Digital Initiatives Lab and spoke with Andrew Davis, Digital Initiatives Coordinator in the Adams Library. Then students conducted original research on a group of postcards focused around a theme. Final presentations included: choice of social media platform, sample posts, and hashtags. In Spring 2019, the Adams Library published a series of #tbt guest posts featuring work completed by seven students in the class