Barrett, The Honors College Thesis/Creative Project Collection
Barrett, The Honors College at Arizona State University proudly showcases the work of undergraduate honors students by sharing this collection exclusively with the ASU community.
Barrett accepts high performing, academically engaged undergraduate students and works with them in collaboration with all of the other academic units at Arizona State University. All Barrett students complete a thesis or creative project which is an opportunity to explore an intellectual interest and produce an original piece of scholarly research. The thesis or creative project is supervised and defended in front of a faculty committee. Students are able to engage with professors who are nationally recognized in their fields and committed to working with honors students. Completing a Barrett thesis or creative project is an opportunity for undergraduate honors students to contribute to the ASU academic community in a meaningful way.
Filtering by
- All Subjects: Quality of life
- Creators: Edson College of Nursing and Health Innovation
In a healthcare system already struggling with burnout among its professionals, the COVID-19 pandemic presented a barrage of personal and occupational strife to US healthcare workers. Structural and everyday discrimination contributed to the health inequities of people of color in the US, exacerbated by COVID-19-related racism and xenophobia. There is little research regarding the effects of COVID-19 and related and/or concurring discrimination upon minority nursing staff, despite their importance in supporting the diverse American patient population with culturally competent, tireless care amid the pandemic. This cross-sectional survey study aimed to examine 1) the relationships between discrimination, social support, resilience, and quality of life among minority nursing staff in the US during COVID-19, and 2) the differences of discrimination, social support resilience, and quality of life among minority nursing staff between different racial/ethnic groups during COVID-19. The sample (n = 514) included Black/African American (n = 161, 31.4%), Latinx/Hispanic (n = 131, 25.5%), Asian (n = 87, 17%), Native American/Alaskan Native (n = 69, 13.5%), and Pacific Islander (n = 65, 12.7%) nursing staff from 47 US states. The multiple regression results showed that witnessing discrimination was associated with a lower quality of life score, while higher social support and resilience scores were associated with higher quality of life scores across all racial groups. Furthermore, while participants from all racial groups witnessed and experienced discrimination, Hispanic/Latinx nursing staff experienced discrimination most commonly, alongside having lowest quality of life and highest resilience scores. Native American/Alaskan Native nursing staff had similarly high discrimination and low quality of life, although low resilience scores. Our findings suggest that minority nursing staff who have higher COVID-19 morbidity and mortality rates (Hispanic/Latinx, Native American/Alaskan Native) were left more vulnerable to negative effects from discrimination. Hispanic/Latinx nursing staff reported a relatively higher resilience score than all other groups, potentially attributed to the positive effects of biculturality in the workplace, however, the low average quality of life score suggests a simultaneous erosion of well-being. Compared to all other groups, Native American and Alaskan Native nursing staff’s low resilience and quality of life scores suggest a potential compounding effect of historical trauma affecting their well-being, especially in contrast to Hispanic/Latinx nursing staff. This study has broader implications for research on the lasting effects of COVID-19 on minority healthcare workers’ and communities’ well-being, especially regarding Hispanic/Latinx and Native American/Alaskan Native nursing staff.
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.