The Wonderbox research project was the product of a creative health collaboration between the Edson College of Nursing and Health Innovation and the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts at Arizona State University, as well as the Childsplay AZ theater in Tempe, Arizona. This ongoing project began in the summer of 2021. It was funded by the National Endowment for the Arts, and IRB approval was obtained for the project. Each participant signed informed consent documents prior to the start of the survey and the intervention. This research project aimed to explore ways in which stress can be alleviated in parents and caregivers who have medically complex children using creative play and interactive theater interventions. This study used surveys to determine how the Wonderbox activities impacted the perceived stress, well-being, overall family functioning, and quality of life of parents who have medically complex children. This study consisted of parents or caregivers of children between the ages of 6 and 17 with any type of medical complexity who spoke English. There were 31 families who participated in this study. The family APGAR (family functioning), perceived stress scale, quality of life evaluation, and the WHO-5 well-being index were measured before and following the intervention. The quality of life evaluation post-test measure was shown to be statistically significant, and the perceived stress increased but was not statistically significant. The Family APGAR had no change. In qualitative results, only five families reported their results in ClassDojo, and there was no communication between the researchers and the parents of these children. Overall, the study was successful in significantly improving quality of life and caused no harm to the participants in other areas of evaluation. Future studies should consider broadening the size of the population of the next cohort, as well as promoting better communication among these families to obtain more qualitative results.

The Wonderbox research project was the product of a creative health collaboration between the Edson College of Nursing and Health Innovation and the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts at Arizona State University, as well as the Childsplay AZ theater in Tempe, Arizona. This ongoing project began in the summer of 2021. It was funded by the National Endowment for the Arts, and IRB approval was obtained for the project. Each participant signed informed consent documents prior to the start of the survey and the intervention. This research project aimed to explore ways in which stress can be alleviated in parents and caregivers who have medically complex children using creative play and interactive theater interventions. This study used surveys to determine how the Wonderbox activities impacted the perceived stress, well-being, overall family functioning, and quality of life of parents who have medically complex children. This study consisted of parents or caregivers of children between the ages of 6 and 17 with any type of medical complexity who spoke English. There were 31 families who participated in this study. The family APGAR (family functioning), perceived stress scale, quality of life evaluation, and the WHO-5 well-being index were measured before and following the intervention. The quality of life evaluation post-test measure was shown to be statistically significant, and the perceived stress increased but was not statistically significant. The Family APGAR had no change. In qualitative results, only five families reported their results in ClassDojo, and there was no communication between the researchers and the parents of these children. Overall, the study was successful in significantly improving quality of life and caused no harm to the participants in other areas of evaluation. Future studies should consider broadening the size of the population of the next cohort, as well as promoting better communication among these families to obtain more qualitative results.

Despite differences in schooling and clinical experience prior to practice, advanced practice providers often have similar scopes of practice, which raises concerns about the quality of care being provided. In this paper, we explore if prescribing patterns are comparable between provider types by comparing differences in time spent on pharmacological interventions utilizing a simulated healthcare environment. Physicians (MDs and DOs), Nurse Practitioners (NPs), and Physician Assistants (PAs) actively practicing in Family Practice/Medicine or Internal Medicine in the U.S. state license/recognition were recruited at healthcare conferences and simulation centers. Participants were provided 20 minutes to complete the patient consultation on a Standardized Patient (SP) presenting with a chief complaint of a post-hospitalization follow-up for heart failure, fatigue, and some edema. All encounters were recorded and uploaded to be reviewed by undergraduate evaluators, who were responsible for quantifying the amount of time the participants spent on each of the task categories, including pharmacologic interventions. With a total of 46 participants in this study, the average amount of time spent discussing this activity per visit across each provider type was 14.8 seconds for MDs/DOs, 29.2 seconds for NPs, and 38.8 seconds for PAs. The results of this study suggest that PAs (p= 0.0028) spent significantly more time discussing pharmacological interventions and were significantly more likely to discuss pharmacological interventions (p=0.0243) when compared with physicians (MD/DOs). It is important to note that the sample size of PAs was very small (N=9), which could potentially skew the results and not be representative of the population. With limited literature that examines whether time spent discussing pharmacological interventions is comparable across provider types, it is important for more simulated healthcare research to be conducted on this topic.

Despite differences in schooling and clinical experience prior to practice, advanced practice providers often have similar scopes of practice, which raises concerns about the quality of care being provided. In this paper, we explore if prescribing patterns are comparable between provider types by comparing differences in time spent on pharmacological interventions utilizing a simulated healthcare environment. Physicians (MDs and DOs), Nurse Practitioners (NPs), and Physician Assistants (PAs) actively practicing in Family Practice/Medicine or Internal Medicine in the U.S. state license/recognition were recruited at healthcare conferences and simulation centers. Participants were provided 20 minutes to complete the patient consultation on a Standardized Patient (SP) presenting with a chief complaint of a post-hospitalization follow-up for heart failure, fatigue, and some edema. All encounters were recorded and uploaded to be reviewed by undergraduate evaluators, who were responsible for quantifying the amount of time the participants spent on each of the task categories, including pharmacologic interventions. With a total of 46 participants in this study, the average amount of time spent discussing this activity per visit across each provider type was 14.8 seconds for MDs/DOs, 29.2 seconds for NPs, and 38.8 seconds for PAs. The results of this study suggest that PAs (p= 0.0028) spent significantly more time discussing pharmacological interventions and were significantly more likely to discuss pharmacological interventions (p=0.0243) when compared with physicians (MD/DOs). It is important to note that the sample size of PAs was very small (N=9), which could potentially skew the results and not be representative of the population. With limited literature that examines whether time spent discussing pharmacological interventions is comparable across provider types, it is important for more simulated healthcare research to be conducted on this topic.