12230 research outputs found
Sort by
Immigration, Moral Panics, and Punishment: The Impact of Media Coverage and Public Interest on Jail Incarceration
Get PDFDespite extensive empirical evidence showing that immigration does not lead to increases in crime, the purported immigration and crime link has been used to buttress increasingly punitive immigration policies over the past few decades. While previous studies have explored the role of enforcement practices for punishment, this dissertation delves into the mechanisms through which immigrants are transformed into “criminal subjects” and the consequences for punishment at the local level. By integrating moral panic theory with research on immigration, crime, and punishment, I propose that the inflammatory language surrounding immigration in media and public discourse has punitive consequences for immigrants. Moreover, although the mass media has traditionally had a monopoly on the ability to shape collective sentiment, the rise of digital platforms and communications have transformed the public into “digitally empowered claim–makers” with significant capabilities to sculpt public sentiment and define social problems. To understand whether increased concern over immigrant criminality impacts punishment, data on newspaper coverage and Google search volumes for the term “illegal immigration” are collected, alongside county–level jail data from the entire United States. Using a series of statistical models, this study finds that Google search volumes is positively associated with the total jailed population and jailed citizens. The findings of this study suggest that the symbolic power of moral panics linking immigration to crime has far reaching implications. Moreover, the nonsignificant association between the newspaper coverage rate and jail incarceration coupled with the significant association of Google searches provide an initial indication of the significant role that “digitally empowered claim–makers” play in constructing social problems and mobilizing consensus and underscore the necessity of reconsidering the ways in which technological changes have transformed the production of public knowledge
Developing Expertise and Multiculturally Informed Supervision Practices
Get PDFThe American Counseling Association (Media Kit, 2023) records state that 62% of their membership is made up of master’s level clinicians, with 18.92% holding a doctorate and another 5.07% enrolled in a doctoral program. Membership is largely skewed toward master’s level professionals and only 7.44% of ACA members report working in a counselor education setting (Media Kit, 2023). However, most research regarding supervision is based on supervisors practicing in an academic setting (Cook et al., 2018; Jones et al., 2019; Kemer et al., 2014; Kemer et al., 2017; Kemer, 2020). The objective of these studies is to understand how master’s level supervisors develop their expertise as supervisors and how they broach and address multicultural issues and intersectionality in the supervision relationship. These studies highlight how supervision skills are developed when finding quality training in supervision is often challenging. These studies give insight to the lived experiences of supervision skill development. Changes need to happen to teaching and training expectations for supervisors to be better equipped to support new counselors and create more consistency across states
Implementation of the Process Improvement Toolkit for Hospital Acquired Pressure Injuries
Get PDFProblem: Approximately 2.5 million people within the United States receiving inpatient medical care will develop a pressure injury each year (Padula & Demarmente, 2018). Pressure injuries (PI) are a multifactorial complication that can often be avoided with general prophylactic measures. Despite this, inpatient settings around the United States continue to see a rise in PIs.
Method: The quality improvement initiative utilized a descriptive, observational design. The turn team toolkit was implemented and monitored over a two-month period. Patient descriptors and quantitative data were collected through a retrospective chart review. The primary data collected was on pressure injury rates and staff compliance to turning frequency.
Results: Following implementation of this quality improvement effort, a total of 122 patients were included in the study. The pre-implementation phase had a total of three PIs and the post-implementation had zero acquired PIs. A Fishers exact test was utilized and found a p-value of 0.066 indicating no statistical significance. Staff compliance with patient turning increased from 37.20% to 50.7%. A two-tailed Mann-Whitney test was run proving statistical significance between the compliance and implementation phase.
Implications: Further research should be conducted to expand the sample size and occurrence of pressure injury to determine if the toolkit provides a statistical significance between variables. Pressure injury prophylaxis continues to be crucial to patient comfort and avoidance of unnecessary hospital complications
Neonatal Hyperbilirubinemia and Phototherapy: The Implementation of Seminal Clinical Practice Guidelines
Get PDFProblem: On a postpartum care and pediatric unit from February 2022 to December 2023, the average monthly percentage of neonatal patients greater than 35 weeks gestation with hyperbilirubinemia who were treated with phototherapy before it was medically supported by the current guidelines was 42.855% (N=668). The department’s goal was to decrease this number to 10%. Initiation of phototherapy with a subthreshold bilirubin level exposes many infants to an unnecessary treatment modality which can prolong the infant’s length of stay in the hospital and can be associated with adverse effects, such as maternal-infant bonding and breastfeeding rates.
Methods: The study utilized a quasi-experimental before-after design and was guided by the Plan-Do-Study-Act framework. A retrospective chart review was used to assess the rate of subthreshold phototherapy initiation before and after the implementation of the Clinical Practice Guideline (CPG) quick-reference cards from November 2023 to April 2024.
Results: The study included 77 neonates (n = 77); 39 infants were in the pre-implementation group, and 38 were in the post-implementation group. Before the implementation of the quick-reference cards, the rate of subthreshold phototherapy was 30.77% (n = 12). After the implementation, the rate of subthreshold phototherapy was 42.11% (n = 16). A Chi-Square Test found that the number of infants who underwent subthreshold phototherapy did not significantly differ based on the implementation of the quick-reference cards (p =.30). A Two-Tailed Mann-Whitney test revealed that there were insignificant differences in the length of stay in hours between the groups of pre- and post-implementation of the reference cards, (p = .476). Of the infants who received subthreshold phototherapy initiation (n = 28, 36.36%), the most common reason documented by the provider for the initiation of phototherapy below the recommended TSB level was due to the rate of rise (n = 11, 39.39%). However, most providers did not document a reason for initiating subthreshold phototherapy (n = 17, 60.71%).
Implications for Practice: Implementing the quick-reference card did not significantly change the rate of subthreshold phototherapy initiation nor the infants’ length of stay in hours. Findings support the need for future interventions to decrease the number of infants who undergo subthreshold phototherapy. A common reason for initiating subthreshold phototherapy was the rate of rise of the total serum bilirubin (TSB), which future studies should include in their investigations of phototherapy use. Additionally, the study revealed an opportunity to investigate the mother’s Rh(D) immunoglobulin (RhIG) status during pregnancy to ensure the correct phototherapy threshold is utilized
Implementation of Chlorhexidine Gluconate Dressings and the Effect on Bloodstream Infections in Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation Patients at a Pediatric Hospital
Get PDFExtracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) is an advanced lifesaving therapy used for patients with significant cardiorespiratory failure not responding to conventional therapies. The most common and life-threatening complications associated with ECMO are blood stream infections (BSIs). In addition to increased mortality, BSI\u27s increase patient length of stay and cost. Chlorhexidine Gluconate (CHG) is known to be a significant factor in BSI reduction. The purpose of this quality improvement project is to assess the utilization of CHG-impregnated dressings on the incidence of BSI rates in pediatric ECMO patients. The setting was a 40-bed pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) and a 30-bed cardiac intensive care unit (CICU) at an urban hospital within a Midwest metropolitan area of the United States. A purposeful convenience sample of all pediatric ECMO patients was performed within the two ICUs for 90 days post project implementation. The data was reviewed and collected from the pre- and post-intervention timeframe obtained via retrospective medical record. Primary outcome measures evaluated included CHG-dressing utilization by bedside staff and BSI rates. There is potential for CHG-impregnated dressings to provide a clinically significant reduction in BSIs in pediatric ECMO patients, which improves patient outcomes, decreases length of stay and cost
Ethical Leadership and Moral Foundations Congruence
Get PDFResearch has examined follower perceptions of ethical leadership, but rarely accounts for the (mis)alignment between a follower’s sense of ethics and morality and that of a leader. This research examined the effects of a leader’s expression of each of the five Moral Foundations dimensions on ethical leadership perceptions, moderated by the respondent’s preferences for each of these foundations. To address this question, a policy capturing design was used to manipulate leaders’ high and low levels of each of the five foundations. The results of multilevel analyses indicate that at least for some dimensions of Moral Foundations, a follower’s evaluation of ethical leadership will be higher when their own emphasis on a dimension expressed by that leader is higher. We found no significant difference in evaluations of ethical leadership for followers with low v. high levels of moral identity, and interestingly found that female leaders were generally perceived as more caring than male leaders. This study offers an initial experimental look at the interaction between a follower’s and leader’s moral baseline and perceptions of ethical leadership; it opens the door for a rich collection of future research
UMSL Bulletin 2024-2025
Get PDFThis is the pdf version of the 2024-2025 University Bulletin and Course Cataloghttps://irl.umsl.edu/bulletin/1089/thumbnail.jp
The Revolutionary St. Louis Insane Asylum
Get PDFEven with its grand structure on Arsenal Street towering over the city below, few residents of St. Louis and surrounding areas are aware of the grand history or even existence of the St. Louis Insane Asylum. The building is over 150 years old and was a place of hope, failure, strife, and empathy. The asylum had a large impact on St. Louis and provided revolutionary outlooks, unique perspectives, and curious therapies
The Fight for Fluoridation in STL
No full textFluoridation is the addition of fluoride to a source of drinking water. In St. Louis’s public water supply, the amount of fluoride remains the same since 1953 at 5ppm. Dr. Ralph Rosen and his team of dentists and researchers advocated for the fluoridation of the water because it reduced the frequency of dental caries occurring in children and adults alike, but the public had opinions on the sudden addition of chemicals to their water. This includes how the public’s health will be affected, how consumer products would change, and also how effective this addition of fluoride would be. This debate was the beginning of the modern day debate and struggle to regulate the amount of certain chemicals in the U.S. drinking water, including lead, PFAS, and trihalomethane
The Postsecondary Success of Historically Marginalized Black and Latino Male Students: Examining Factors that Impact College Readiness Preparation and Persistence
Get PDFThis qualitative research study investigates the multifaceted factors influencing the postsecondary success of historically marginalized Black and Latino male students, with a particular emphasis on understanding the impact of college readiness preparation and persistence. Employing a comprehensive research design, the study integrates semi-structured interviews with high school teachers and counselors, and Black and Latino male freshmen and sophomores to provide a holistic exploration of the challenges and opportunities within the educational journey. Situated within an interpretive phenomenological paradigm, this study elucidates the experiential realities and viewpoints of the subjects, thereby illuminating the socio-cultural, institutional, and individual factors shaping their trajectories in higher education. Through thematic analysis, the research aims to uncover the unique insights shared by both educators and students, highlighting the interconnectedness of their experiences. The primary objective of this doctoral thesis is to ameliorate the gap between theoretical inquiry and practical application by providing actionable guidance tailored for educators, counselors, and policymakers. The aim is to augment college readiness initiatives and bolster persistence rates specifically among historically marginalized Black and Latino male students. By integrating the voices of both students and educators, this research seeks to foster a more inclusive and informed approach to addressing the educational inequities encountered by this demographic