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.
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- All Subjects: Coping Mechanisms
- Creators: Edson College of Nursing and Health Innovation
- Creators: Masterson, Kaitlin
Description
The purpose of this pilot study is to explore the coping mechanisms utilized by school nurses in response to stress encountered working in the high school setting. One aim of this research is to identify both positive and negative coping strategies by school nurses. A secondary objective is to determine some of the stressors these nurses experience in the workplace. This paper also seeks to find missing information in school nursing literature in order to identify areas of research that could be further explored as a result of this pilot study. This study consisted of five singular, phone interviews to a total of five high school nurses working in a singular school district in the state of Arizona. These interviews consisted of qualitative questions focused on stressful experiences and actions taken by the nurse as a response. Demographic data was also collected in an additional survey after the interviews. Additional literature was reviewed and patterns between literature and interview data were analyzed, as it was determined the data collected from interviews was not enough to reach data saturation. Thematic analysis was performed on the collected data to determine key concepts relating to coping by school nurses. The results of this analysis indicated number of factors relating to stress levels in the school healthcare setting and different coping methods. Themes often used in coping mechanisms included learning from experience, preventative teaching, communication, faith & self- reflection, sense of purpose, positivity, self-care versus neglect, and depersonalization. Due to the limited setting and results of this pilot study, additional research is indicated in the area of coping and stress in school nursing literature.
ContributorsPorritt, Mariah K (Author) / Jaurigue, Lisa (Thesis director) / Edson College of Nursing and Health Innovation (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-12
Description
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).
ContributorsJacobs, Abigail (Author) / Sullivan-Detheridge, Julie (Thesis director) / Uriri-Glover, Johannah (Committee member) / Edson College of Nursing and Health Innovation (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2019-12
Description
The purpose of this thesis project is to analyze the impact that patient death has on long-term care providers. This study draws upon my own experience working as a licensed nursing assistant in a long-term care facility and also uses a qualitative analysis of six semi-structured interviews with other nursing assistants and hospice volunteers. With patient death being an unavoidable part of working in this area of healthcare, I explore how these care providers cope with losing their patients and the effectiveness of these coping mechanisms. Some strategies found that aided in coping with grief included staying detached from patients, being distracted by other aspects of the job, receiving support from co-workers, family members and/or supervisors, and having a religious outlook on what happens following death. In addition to these, I argue that care providers also utilize the unconscious defense mechanism of repression to avoid their feelings of grief and guilt. Repressing the grief and emotions that come along with patient death can protect the individual from additional pain in order for them to continue to do their difficult jobs. Being distracted by other patients also aids in the repression process by avoiding personal feelings temporarily. I also look into factors that have been found to affect the level of grief including the caregiver’s closeness to the patient, level of preparedness for the death, and first experience of losing a patient. Ultimately, I show that the common feelings accompanied by patient death (sadness, anger and stress) and the occurrence of burnout are harmful symptoms of the repression taking place.
ContributorsMasterson, Kaitlin (Author) / Loebenberg, Abby (Thesis director) / Mack, Robert (Committee member) / School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences (Contributor) / School of Molecular Sciences (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-05