Informal caregivers to persons with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) commonly experience high levels of perceived burden, stress, and low quality of life— outcomes that negatively affect the quality of care provided. Yet to be explored are the effects of heart-focused breathing, a self-regulation deep breathing technique, on perceived caregiver burden and heart rate variability (HRV), a measure of autonomic nervous system function. Considering the high attrition rates of many previous in-person AD caregiver interventions, it may be necessary to implement an online intervention to address perceived caregiver burden. This study aimed to test the trends in effects of a 2-week online heart-focused breathing intervention using HeartMath’s Heart Lock-In® technique on perceived caregiver burden, perceived stress, quality of life, anxiety, inner haven, self-compassion, and HRV in a population of AD caregivers. Ten informal AD caregivers participated in the study with five participants randomized into the waitlist control group and five into the intervention group. The intervention group practiced a 10-minute heart-focused breathing protocol using their smart device (i.e., phone) every day for a 2-week period. Participants completed pre- and post- self-report questionnaires online via Google Forms and HRV assessments via the Welltory mobile application. The HRV assessments measured rMSSD, high frequency, and low frequency. The intervention group did not experience improvements related to perceived caregiver burden, perceived stress, anxiety, inner haven or high frequency waves. However, the study results suggest positive trends in quality of life, self-compassion, rMSSD, and low frequency waves among the AD caregivers. Additional research within a larger and more diverse population is needed.
Keywords: Informal Alzheimer’s caregivers, perceived caregiver burden, heart-focused breathing, heart rate variability

For my thesis, I made a coloring book that acts as a guide for refugee children and their parents of the city of Phoenix as well as new life in the United States. The book works to tackle the difficulty of transitioning into a new country as well as encourage a dialog between refugee children and their parents surrounding learning and education. I formatted the book into two sections. The front half of the book is targeted towards the children. It is full of coloring pages depicting daily life in Phoenix as well as many fun things that our city has to offer. There are also activity pages scattered in that prompt the children to complete them with their parents and read together. This is aimed to help children succeed in a new learning environment and school system as well as bring the latter half of the book into the parents’ attention. The second half of the book is tailored for the parents as it is a full directory of resources for both refugees and Phoenix residents alike. It includes resources such as free language and literacy classes, employment services, refugee clinics, international food markets, public safety, public transportation, and more. While there are so many different wonderful organizations out there for refugees, it can be overwhelming to navigate our complicated systems rendering these resources difficult to find. With this book, I have compiled these resources into a format that is fun, easily read and translated, and accessible to refugees of all ages.

Link to E-book: https://read.bookcreator.com/B34KYvw00jNsXE7pfoC6lGDtTDC3/p_qX4KXxSte2Ox-DJrFTqg

“Study abroad” is a common term among college students. According to Open Doors annual report as published by the Institute of International Education (2019), one in ten students seeking a bachelor’s or associate’s degree will study abroad before they graduate. Additionally, 16% of students earning a bachelor’s degree in the United States (US) will study abroad in their undergraduate years. Students in major fields of study, such as business and social sciences, are most likely to study abroad. However, only 6.9% of health professions majors studied abroad in the 2017-2018 academic year (Institute of International Education, 2019). This study provides insight into how a study abroad program in Peru impacts nursing students’ perceptions and attitudes of intercultural interactions, which are fundamental in expanding and developing cultural competency. This study also demonstrates how the abroad experience with service learning could affect nursing practice.

The present study investigated the student population at Arizona State University to: (1) assess how electronic cigarette (e-cigarette) use is associated with subsequent smoking (cigarette, hookah, cigarillo, smokeless tobacco, marijuana) use; (2) investigate the relationship of e-cigarette use with non-electronic smoking cessation, and vice versa; and (3) compare how e-cigarette use is associated with cessation of non-electronic smoking. Based on previous related research and tools, the cross-sectional study included an anonymous online screening, followed by a survey that assessed e-cigarette use and non-electronic smoking, e-cigarette withdrawal and cessation, and non-electronic smoking quit attempts. Participants (N=65) were recruited via flyer advertisements, social media advertisements, ASU online advertisements, and email notices. Major findings of this study include: Participants who used non-electronic smoking primarily used cigarettes or marijuana; participants who used both electronic and non-electronic smoking more frequently used e-cigarettes than non-electronic forms; and participants who previously attempted e-cigarette cession believe that they will successfully withdraw from e-cigarette use in the future, by either using marijuana or not using non-electronic smoking in the future. Based on these findings, nurses should assess all youth and young adults for e-cigarette “core constructs”; provide evidence-based interventions; and encourage future, successful e-cigarette cessation.

In India, the number of people with diabetes continues to grow rapidly, and those living in rural areas are directly affected by limited resources and provider accessibility resulting in insufficient self-care knowledge. This creative project focuses on how leaflet handouts were used to implement patient education on self-care management for patients with diabetes living in the rural outskirts of New Delhi, India. Implementation was done in pop up clinics in rural villages of the outskirts of New Delhi as well as through a volunteer-run free clinic in the town of Faridabad. Leaflet components included diet, exercise, medication information, signs of hypoglycemia, and a celebrity segment. The content and layout of the leaflets were based on concepts from Bandura’s Social Cognitive Theory as well as critically appraised literature. Results were comparable to the literature review in that they demonstrated knowledge deficit of foot care, medication adherence, and health status. Overall, the implementation of the leaflets greatly assisted in patient education with complete language barrier, as well as proved to be sustainable after six months.

The purpose of this research project is to explore the healthy sibling’s response to the diagnosis and treatment of cancer. A cancer diagnosis is a life altering event that effects the ill child, the family, and more specifically sibling(s) if applicable. Over the past decade research on siblings of children with cancer has steadily increased and called for implementing the population into the pediatric oncology plan of care. A systematic literature review containing both qualitative and quantitative data was conducted in order to uncover common themes presented in existing sibling research that influence the sibling experience. A literature search was conducted utilizing EBSCOhost, SAGE journals, and CINAHL. Inclusion criteria used included English, full text, scholarly, peer reviewed, research articles, and systematic reviews, and the search was limited to publications between January 2014 to August 2019. Search results found 196 articles originally. The researcher removed duplicates and scanned the titles narrowing the literature to a total of thirteen articles. The articles included comprised literature reviews, interviews, group intervention studies, a cross-sectional study, and case-controlled design. From this systematic review, common themes that emerged included sibling demographics and characteristics, emotional/behavioral difficulties, a lost sense of self, altered family functioning, the effect of peer, family, and professional support systems, and lack of knowledge and communication. These themes can be interpreted as factors that may influence a sibling’s cancer experience. The results of this research project showed that the sibling’s experience to cancer is complex, multifaceted, and unique. These findings emphasize the need to provide siblings with adequate resources and support in an effort to mitigate the negative effects a diagnosis and treatment of cancer can bring. It is important that the entire healthcare team is competent in this care perspective so that appropriate referrals and interventions can be made, and siblings have the smoothest transition possible.

Surgical site infections do not need to be a common complication in the healthcare field. They can be avoided through the use of surgical site infection prevention bundles. More specifically, the bundles can be personalized to each patient to offer further infection prevention when the patient presents with a higher comorbidity risk. Hospitals could reduce their surgical site infection rates through the use of artificial intelligence combing electronic health records and calculating the Charlson Comorbidity Index (CCI) and American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) scores to ultimately form an automatic operating room checklist. Low-risk patients will have a standard primary checklist of interventions. Higher risk patients have additional secondary and tertiary interventions added to their primary checklists.
Through a combination of literature, expert opinion, and various seminars at the APIC (Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology), I determined an evidence based primary list of SSI prevention strategies that should be standard amongst all patients. I also gained information on interventions that should be included when patients have higher CCI and ASA scores. My presentation will demonstrate the need for standardization of surgical site infection prevention strategies, the ease that would come from using an artificial intelligence robot to derive the exact intervention checklist best suited for the patient and a cost analysis to demonstrate the current spending and potential savings from using such technology.

The minority population of African American women (AAW) have been found to be most at risk when it comes to certain negative health outcomes (Hales, Carroll, Fryar, & Ogden, 2017). The purpose of this literature review is to discuss the negative effects of perceived discrimination on stress levels for obese AAW. Analysis of several studies have found that perceived discrimination increases the stress levels of AAW and can lead to an increase in physical health problems such as poor eating behaviors, which can lead to weight gain and chronic health issues such as hypertension, Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus, cardiovascular disease, osteoarthritis, sleep apnea, fatty liver disease, and pregnancy complications (Cooper, Thayer, & Waldstein, 2013; Hales, Carroll, Fryar, & Ogden, 2017; Hayman, McIntyre, & Abbey, 2015; U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, 2015). Through research, increased stress due to perceived discrimination was also found to have negative impacts on mental health such as depression, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anxiety, rumination, negative racial regard, and psychological distress (Carter, Walker, Cutrona, Simons, & Beach, 2016; Hill, & Hoggard, 2018; Knox-Kazimierczuk, Geller, Sellers, Baszile, & Smith-Shockley, 2018; Pascoe, & Richman, 2009). Article analysis found that many AAW use negative coping mechanisms such as rumination, negative racial regard, poor eating behaviors, and repressing feels of race-related events to combat stress when dealing with race-based events (Carter, Walker, Cutrona, Simons, & Beach, 2016; Hayman, McIntyre, & Abbey, 2015; Hill, & Hoggard, 2018). Positive coping mechanisms discussed to reduce stress and chronic disease included prayer and active coping to counteract the effects of rumination (Cooper, Thayer, & Waldstein, 2013; Hill, & Hoggard, 2018).

This qualitative research paper explores Chinese college students’ awareness, knowledge, attitudes, beliefs of Human Papillomavirus (HPV) and factors contributing to their vaccination intent. The researchers conducted four focus groups to gain a deeper understanding of Chinese college students and their awareness, knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs of HPV. Focus groups data were analyzed based on the Health Belief Model. Participants discoursed perceived susceptibility, perceived seriousness, perceived barriers, perceived benefits, self-efficacy, cues to action, and strategies to promote HPV vaccination in a discussion format. This paper analyzes potential interventions that address individual, societal, political, and cultural conditions which can be used to promote vaccination behaviors among the young Chinese adult population. Participants exhibited limited knowledge about HPV and HPV vaccination, but simultaneously expressed willingness to become vaccinated and encouraged others to become vaccinated as well. Healthcare providers, especially nurses, play a key role in promoting HPV knowledge and vaccination in China. Widespread efforts from varying facets of the healthcare system must be implemented to continue to promote awareness and knowledge of HPV and its vaccinations.